Newsfront – September 29, 1967 – National Educational Television Network – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
The news as seen through different eyes by way of this program produced by the National Educational Television Network, precursor to PBS. Newsfront was a nightly program that took both National, International and local news and presented it in a way that explored, in the truest journalistic sense of the word, the who, what, when and where of a story. Newsfront was hosted by veteran broadcast journalist Mitchell Krauss.
On this edition of Newsfront, the main stories center around the continuing debate at the UN Security Council (10th day) and the subject being the Vietnam War and America’s ever-deepening involvement and the growing resistance to it by way of the other member nations.
A renaissance for legitimate theatre in Harlem with the re-opening of The Lafayette Theatre in Harlem, slated to begin in October of 1967. The Lafayette, which had been a prominent stage for African-American performers and playrites fell into neglect and disuse. Actor – director Robert Macbeth founded the New Lafayette Theatre (NLT) in Harlem in 1967. He took the name from the original Harlem Lafayette Theatre (1912-1951), often remembered for Orson Welles’s WPA production of Voodoo Macbeth (1936), which featured an all-black cast. Robert Macbeth initially located his NLT on the former site of the original Lafayette Theatre.
The NLT’s objective was to produce theatre by black people, for black people, to reflect the black experience and vernacular of Harlem’s community. The theatre became a significant part the Black Arts Movement, a central element of Black Power. Ed Bullins, the theatre’s playwright-in-residence, had been the Minister of Culture for the Black Panthers and the plays produced by the company were considered politically and artistically radical.
After securing funding from the Ford Foundation, the NLT trained, employed, and supported a host of talented black artists and musicians in New York City. It also inspired black theater companies across the country through publishing a Black Theater periodical that connected it with companies in Southern states and on the West Coast. Members of the NLT would occasionally work for seasons at other theatre companies such as the Free Southern Theater, a traveling theatre company that performed in Southern states over the summer. NLT actor Gary Bolling recalls the dangers faced by black actors performing in the South at this time.
In this segment, Founder Robert Macbeth, along with Loften Mitchell, author of Black Drama and Clifford Mason, drama critic for WBAI discuss the state of Black Theatre, not only on Broadway but in America in general.
Rounding out the program is a piece on Con-Ed, New York’s Power company and the trials and tribulations of keep the city lit at night and functioning during the day.
A fascinatingly interesting and informative program and part of a memorable if not largely erased part of broadcast history.
Sadly, The NLT’s theatre, housed on the site of the original Lafayette Theatre, burned to the ground early in 1968, many suspected as the result of an arson attack. The NLT was rebuilt on another site and reopened in the winter of 1968.
And that’s the way it was; September 29, 1967.
