All the Way Home (1957 film): Difference between revisions

All the Way Home | When A Black Family Moves Next Door is a 1957 documentary short film directed by well-known documentary film director Lee R. Bobker and produced by Nathan Zucker. The film was written by the famous writer and poet Muriel Rukeyser. Critical essayist Kenneth Rexroth considered Rukeyser the greatest poet of her "exact generation."

The film depicts an elderly white family in the 1950s who has just put their house on the market. As soon as the family's patriarch show the home to an interested [American-American]] black family, neighbors within the all-white community begin to gossip. The elderly white family became the target of harassment and threats by bigoted residents in the community, who do not want any African-American families in the neighborhood.

The film was produced by Dynamic Films, Inc., a New York-based film production company founded in 1948 to produce educational, documentary, industrial, and theatrical films, as well as TV production series and commercials.

This film is notable among a genre of documentary films aimed at curbing white American anxiety and violence against racial desegregation and integration in the 1950s and 1960s. It serves as a pro-housing anti-discrimation narrative and racial sounding post in the spirit of the noted documentary Building the American Dream: Levittown, NY which discusses Levittown, New York, the prototypical suburb comprised of tract houses built in the late 1940s and early 1950s that excluded blacks from buying the homes. UC Berkeley Library. "Documentaries on the 1950's: Building the American Dream: Levittown, NY.</ref>

Plot

The film begins with a male narrator's depiction of a quiet suburban American neighborhood in the 1950s. Ed, an elderly white gentleman, nailing a "For Sale" sign in the front yard of his single family home. Suddenly, a well-dressed African-American gentlemen drives up to Ed's property in a high quality late-model automobile, and greets Ed. The African-American man is soon joined by his well-dressed wife and daughter who enters Ed's home for a grand tour.

Two white neighborhood women standing nearby begin to frantically gossip, hoping that Ed won't sell the property to the African-American family. One of the women runs to her home to call her husband Dick. Soon after, neighbors begin incessant existentially fearful telephone calls among each other to gossip about the possibility of an African-American family moving into their community.

After the American-American family had departed their home, Ed and his wife reminisces on life in their home. The telephone rings; Ed's wife answers the phone to what appears to be a disgusting language from one of her neighbors complaining about the presence of African-Americans at the home.

The next day, Ed waits for a bus with his neighbor Tom, a fellow lodge member. Tom expresses racial animosity against Ed for entertaining a sale of Ed's home to an African-American family. Startled, Ed rushes down to visit the local real estate broker, Ted. Ted, who appears to have a racial bias against African-Americans, tells Ed to take down his "For Sale" sign so that he can sell the house to the "right buyer".

Later that day, Ed shares his frustration with his wife, his daughter and son-in-law Bob. Suddenly, a car pull up in Ed's front yard and throws a can of black paint onto "For Sale" sign. Some of the paint lands onto lovely dress of Ed's young granddaughter Laurie. Ed's grandson Bobby chases the car down the street.

The next day, Ed stands in a school yard watching children play as he overhears two neighbors express discontent and racial animosity against African-American homeownership in their predominately white community.

Disgruntled, Ted, the realtor, visits a local banker, Ralph. Ted complains to his banker colleague that Ed will set off a chain reaction that will lower housing values if an African-American family moves into the community. Ralph, who considers himself a "practical man", cited studies showing that land values tend to go up when African-American family integrate communities. Undeterred by Ralph's pronouncements, Ted demands that Ralph convince the bank to modify real estate loan policy to curb African-Americans from obtaining loans to move into the community, reassuring "homeowners of this community, and the merchants and the service companies."

Ed's wife visits her local church minister to discuss her biased upbringing and her impulse to do the right thing by the African-American family. Her minister shares that the church's position is against ignorance and hate.

Undeterred, Ted reconvenes a follow-up meeting with Ralph. Ralph reads his bank's bank policy: "This bank is in the business of making sound loans properly secured." Ted balks at Ralph's pronouncement, telling him that his white neighbors will flee the community, turning it into a slum. Ralph reminds Ted that a man's ability to pay his debts should never have anything to do with the color of his skin or where he came from. Disgruntled, Ted alludes to Ralph that he will not allow bank policy to keep him from selling real estate to white people.

Numerous members all meet to debate how to protect land values and keep undesirables from their community. Ralph attempts to educate the community that homeownership should be focused on a person's worth and ability to afford that property, not the color of the skin, their religion, or where his parents come from.

Cast

• Lee R. Bobker - Director
• Muriel Rukeyser - Writer
• Nathan Zucker - Producer
• Ray E. Long - Director of Photography
• Yoshio Kishi - Film Editor
• Jack Fitzstephens (credited as John J. Fitzstephens) - Production Manager. Nominated for a "Best Sound" British Film Award for "Dog Day Afternoon"
• James Townsend - Sound Recording
• William Schwartz - Sound Recording

Credited

• Charles Abrams ... gratefully acknowledged assistance: New York State Commission Against Discrimination
• Algernon D. Black ... gratefully acknowledged assistance: National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing
• Oscar Cohen ... gratefully acknowledged assistance: Anti-Defamation League of B'Nai Brith
• Lillian Hatcher ... gratefully acknowledged assistance: Fair Practices and Anti-Discrimination Department, United Auto Workers
• Frank S. Horne ... gratefully acknowledged assistance: New York Commission on Intergroup Relations
• Reginald Johnson ... gratefully acknowledged assistance: National Urban League, Inc.
• Madison S. Jones ... gratefully acknowledged assistance: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
• Alfred S. Kramer ... gratefully acknowledged assistance: National Council of Churces of Christ in the U.S.A. (as Rev. Alfred S. Kramer)
• Harold A. Lett ... gratefully acknowledged assistance: Division Against Discrimination, State of New Jersey
• Edward Rutledge ... gratefully acknowledged assistance: New York State Commission Against Discrimination
• James H. Scheuer ... gratefully acknowledged assistance: Housing Advisory Council, New York State Commission Against Discrimination
• George Sehermer ... gratefully acknowledged assistance: Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations
• Galen Weaver ... gratefully acknowledged assistance: Congregational Christian Churches (as Rev. Galen Weaver)