:15:03
- They can't make the movie of Cats.
- Of course they can.
:15:06
They're going to try.
My father'll be here, auditioning.
:15:09
Cats?
:15:12
- He's going to use people.
- What a courageous stand.
:15:16
- They thought of animation...
- Animation would be nice.
:15:20
But he found a better way. As a matter
of fact, he turned it down at first.
:15:24
He went to tell the producers the reasons
why you couldn't make a movie of Cats.
:15:29
And in going through the reasons why you
couldn't, he suddenly saw how you could.
:15:34
Eureka in the bathtub. How wonderful!
:15:39
May we ask who?
:15:42
And it was then we pulled up -
ever so slightly - pulled up closer.
:15:47
And he told us.
:15:48
He named the greatest
black star in movies. Sidney...
:15:52
No names! No names! We're trying
to keep this abstract. Plus, libel laws.
:15:57
Sidney Poitier. There. I don't care!
You have to have truth!
:16:00
He started out as a lawyer
and is terrified of libel. I'm not.
:16:06
Sidney Poitier.
:16:08
The future Jackie Robinson of films was
born 24th of February 1927 in Miami
:16:15
during a visit his parents made to Florida.
:16:17
(man) Legally?
:16:19
To sell tomatoes
they had grown in the Bahamas.
:16:22
He grew up on Cat lsland so poor they
didn't even own dirt, he has said.
:16:27
Neglected by his family, my father would
sit on the shore, and, as he's told me:
:16:32
"conjure up the worlds that were on
the other side, and what I'd do in them."
:16:37
He arrived in New York City from
the Bahamas in the winter of 1943
:16:41
at the age of 15 and a half, and lived
in the pay toilet of the bus station
:16:45
across from the old Madison
Square Garden at 50th and 8th Avenue.
:16:49
He moved to the roof of the Brill Building,
commonly known as Tin Pan Alley,
:16:53
washed dishes at the Turf Restaurant
for $4 and 11 cents a night.
:16:58
He taught himself to read
by reading the newspaper.