Green Book: History vs. Hollywood

in this episode we're going to separate the facts from the fiction film green book starring Viggo Mortensen and mahalo Ali to do that with the travel back to 1962 during the civil rights era it's a climb on board this is Green Book history vs. Hollywood [Music] in the movie green book Viggo Mortensen portrays italian-american nightclub bouncer Tony lip-lip worked at the famous Copacabana nightclub in New York City 1862 the club was gonna close for a short time to go under renovations during that time lip was out of work he accepted a job driving a black pianist through the deep south that pianist was Don Shurley portrayed by Muhammad Ali in the film the two couldn't have been more opposite Shirley was a refined classical pianist and lip was a gruff bouncer from the Bronx with an attitude they certainly wouldn't have been natural friends but Shirley needed protection and a driver and lip seemed like the right man for the job and so they embarked on the journey together a journey that in the film takes up about two months time in real life the journey lasted about a year and a half off and on they did go home at a Christmas break but after that break that scene in the movie they actually went back on the road together again one of the screenwriters on the film was Nick Vella longa who was actually Toni lips real-life son and he says that this condensing of time in the film is the only major creative license that the filmmakers took and for that reason some events in the film don't happen in the same cities they did in real life or the dates that they did in real life another point to mention early on is that most articles state that Don Charlie was born in Kingston Jamaica this isn't true and its temps in the fact that his promoters falsely advertised him as having been born in Jamaica the true story reveals that Don Shurley was born in Pensacola Florida on January 29 1927 his parents were Jamaican immigrants his father Edwin was an Episcopal priest and his mother Stella worked as a teacher tragically Stella died when Shirley was only nine years old son Charlie first started playing around age two or three playing the organ in his father's church he first started playing professionally around age 18 playing with the Boston Pops performing Tchaikovsky's piano concert - the number one in b-flat it's true that as a young man shrilly did have dreams of becoming a classical concert pianist however those around him including theater producer Saul Herick told Shirley that no one would want to see a black pianist on the concert stage Shirley wasn't the only black artist to be denied the opportunity to become a concert pianist Nina Simone for example had similar aspirations a classical concert pianist she was denied the opportunity despite really not being able to fulfill his dream this by no means held him back he was able to create his own sound like blending classical music with jazz and other types of pop music so instead of playing works were mostly composed by others he was able to play works though were all his own this is a point that Viggo Mortensen's character stresses in the movie and it's an important point to note you can hear his unique sound and songs like I can't get started Blue Moon or lullaby of Birdland some of which are featured in the film now we turn our attention to Tony lip whose real name was Frank Anthony Vela langa he got the nickname lip because by the age of eight he had become a skillful bee Esther had the ability to talk his way into or out of anything it was a skill that he would utilize his entire life before his days working as a nightclub bouncer lip had been in the United States Army he had been stationed in post-war Germany in the early 1950s in an early scene in the film lips brother-in-law portrayed by comedian Sebastian Maniscalco takes him to a diner to compete in a hot dog eating contest lip wins the contest by eating 26 huh dogs in one sitting lips realize son Nick the longest said that this indeed happened in real life it was impressive feat but certainly not a way for lip to make a living in another scene we see lip throw away two drinking glasses that have been used by black repairmen in his home there's no evidence that this scene happened in real life but according to his son Nick Bella longa he was indeed a racist prior to his trip with Don Shurley this is further emphasized in the film as we seal it make stereotypical assumptions about what types of food charlie likes to eat and what type of music he likes to listen to the movie Tony lip goes for an interview and meets Don trolley for the first time in an apartment above Carnegie Hall this might seem strange but it's actually true there are apartments or were apartments above Carnegie Hall and Don Shurley lived in one of these apartments for more than 50 years but as you can imagine at times this must have been difficult for surely living above the very stage that the color of his skin had kept him from performing on he did play on Carnegie Hall stage once a year with his trio and in 1955 he played piano on the stage for the debut of Duke Ellington's new world a common as seen in the image Dontrelle his apartment was certainly lavish and extravagant and with gaudy decor more of his Carnegie Hall apartment can be seen in the documentary lost Bohemia before we talk about the Torah we should probably talk about the film's title Green Book the title comes from the Negro motorist green book it was a segregation era guidebook which alerted African American motorists to the hotels restaurants and garages that offered service to blacks the green book also pointed out what were known as sundown towns these were towns which prohibited blacks and being outside after nightfall in the film we see tawny lip and Don Charlie driving through on such town and they get pulled over it's an important inclusion in the movies I think most people today are unaware that such places existed the green books themselves were named after their publisher a man by the name of Victor each green they were available at gas stations selling as many as fifteen thousand copies per year they were first published in 1936 and they continued to be published annually for the next thirty years in the movie we see Tony lip and Don chelli used the green books they travel to it through the south which is true to real life early on Don Shurley tells Tony lip to make sure there's always a Steinway piano available at each venue for him to play on later in the movie lip is checking out a venue and he discovers a brokedown piano with garbage inside of it when he confronts the man at the venue about where the Steinway is the man basically responds does it really matter what kind of piano a black man plays on lip doesn't back down and it's cysts that the man have Steinway delivered the man complains that it's over fifty miles away lip responds that the Steinway is not there by the time the concert then they'll be no concert the man begrudgingly gives in and the Steinway arrives in time for Shirley's performance the scene was indeed inspired by a real-life incident the real Tony lip said that when he arrived the venue he opened up the piano and sought chicken bones inside he told the person at the venue that if a Steinway wasn't there by 8 o'clock then they weren't doing the concert lip said that he felt like he was being insulted himself the closest time we was 40 to 50 miles away but his insistence paid off and the piano arrived in time difference from the movie is that in real life lip never mentions a man at the venue making a racial remark he recalled the venue being at a high school which likely didn't have a better piano on hand still the high school had to have known about Don trollese request a Steinway piano and leaving him at piano with garbage inside can certainly lead us to make the same conclusions the movie does one of the lighter scenes in the movies when Tony lip is writing letter home to his wife's Delores he's at a picnic table eating lunch with Don Shirley Shirley notices in writing the letter and asked if he can read it Shirley then offers his assistance Flores receives the letter and she's visibly moved by its poetic sentiments deep down she knows her husband likely had some help but she doesn't care it means a lot to her it's what she needed to hear while being separated from her husband according to Tony lips son Nick Bella longa the letters are based on actual letters that Tony approached to Dolores it's true that the times the letters were co-authored by Don Charlie Kentucky Fried Chicken in Kentucky [Music] another lighter scene in the movie is when Don Shirley and Tony lip are driving along the highway and lip off her Shirley a piece of fried chicken Shirley is disgusted by the notion of eating food with his hands especially greasy fried chicken and lip is astonished that truly has never had fried chicken before well this scene is most likely fiction and played for comedy it's supposedly true that Shirley refused to pick up food with his hands yet we found no evidence that Shirley had never actually tried fried chicken or that the scene happened at all we find virtuoso Don Shelley spoke with an upper-class enunciation which he tried to encourage Tony lip to do this seems pretty in line with the true story from what we know Tony lips lack of refinement is on display in the movie again after he punches a police officer when the officer calls him a derogatory name for Italians the incident leads to both lip and Shirley being arrested and put in jail Shirley uses one phone called to get a message to then Attorney General Robert Kennedy who helps get them out of jail in real life the arrest didn't happen when it does in the movie it happened a year later in the fall of 1963 so this is after the Christmas break at the end of the movie when Shirley went back on tour again Shirley really did get a message to Robert Kennedy who helped get them out of jail and that's not shown in the film Shirley took time out from his tour to attend president john f kennedy's funeral Don Charlie was a private man not a whole lot is known about his personal life in relationships we do know that Don Shirley was married and divorced he was to a woman named Jean the reason for the divorce she said had nothing to do with lust it had to do with the fact that here I had the opportunity to have a career and God knows that's just something I always wanted trained for it all my life I didn't have the Constitution to do a husband act as well as a concert pianist act because I was dead set on being what I had been trained all my life to be from what we know was sometime after his divorce that Shirley discovered he was gay and he never officially came out of the closet in fact the only evidence that's known about his sexuality is the story of the Tony lip told about the incident at the YMCA Tony lips real life account was fairly in line with the movie as the 'trooper called him and told him to come to the YMCA however unlike the movie he didn't arrive and find Don Shurley naked and chained to a shower bar with another man beside him he never mentioned Shirley being undressed upon his arrival he simply said that Shirley told him that he had hit on three guys Shirley offered no more details the two state troopers wanted to arrest Shirley but like in the movie Tony lip was able to bribe them with $200 telling them to go buy themselves a couple of suits so while the scene is mostly true it's clearly been over dramatized for the film throughout the phone we see Don Charlie as a sort of tortured soul who's isolated himself from others to deal with his loneliness he downs an entire bottle of scotch on each day of the tour this was reportedly true and it's also what makes his friendship with Tony lips so unique he had let someone else into his life even if it wasn't exactly voluntary there is audio of Don Shurley stating that his relationship with Tony lip was more than just a business one at the end of the movie Don chelli comes the lips house and meets his family on Christmas Day in real life Tony lip and Don chili would travel for another year together to Canada - Tony lips son Nick Bella longa recalled Shirley being a very special human being he said that he was meticulous well-dressed well-spoken and a well-educated man he recalled a time when Shirley gave him a gift of a pair of ice skates as a child at the end of the movie tummy lip is a changed man he'd witnessed on Charlie being discriminated and humiliated he witnessed him not being able to eat in the restaurants where he performed or to use the restrooms he witnessed physical acts of violence against Shirley according to Tony lips son his father's time with Don Shirley had significantly changed him as a man it also changed the way lip raised his children in the vows he instilled in them we got a glimpse of this impact at the end of the movie and it's nice to know that it continued after the credits roll so what became of the tough guy Tony lip well after his time driving Don Charlie he did go back to work at the Copacabana nightclub in New York City it was there that he met director Francis Ford Coppola who gave him a small part in his 1972 movie The Godfather lip would go on to star and approximately 21 other films including Dog Day Afternoon Raging Bull Goodfellas and Donnie Brasco but he is perhaps most recognizable from his role as carmine lupertazzi and the HBO TV series The Sopranos as for Don Shurley he continued to compose and perform music in 2010 at age 83 he was kicked out of his Carnegie Hall apartment he had been living there for more than 50 years surrounded by fellow artists but Kannagi Hall decided to demolish the commercial and residential studios which in their heyday numbered as many as a hundred and seventy this was done in order to create educational and rehearsal space for the hall below fittingly Don Shurley made the most dramatic exit his grand piano had to be lifted by crane out of his 12th fuller apartment here we passed away from heart disease three years later on April 6 2013 [Music] you [Music]

Channel: History vs. Hollywood

Views: 734,072

Rating: 4.7953625 out of 5

Keywords: Green Book real story, Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Green Book biopic, true story, Green Book facts, Green Book history, real Don Shirley, Green Book controversy, Don Shirly, history vs Hollywood, is Green Book true, real Green Book, Green Book true story, Green Book fact check, Green Book movie, Don Shirley, The Green Book, Tony Lip, fact checking Green Book, Green Book, Green Book fiction, real Tony Lip, Green Book truth

Id: b7lG21cIr9s

Length: 13min 11sec (791 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 27 2019