In Black America; Glynn Turman

From the University of Texas at Austin, KUT Radio, this is In Black America. Well my initial thought was, especially because this was such an iconic important story and these people actually exist and family of these people are still alive. That I was honored that they came to me to portray this role, this very important role in this extremely important piece, well written, beautifully casted, and the producers and directors are all top-notch, and that they came to me to portray this man was a gravity that I did not take lightly as portraying, and wanted to make sure that I got it right, you know, and so the Wheeler family, which was one of the nephews, saw the piece,

and we were all on a Zoom and it meant the world to me to have the family led by Mr Wheeler to say that I got his uncle right, you know, and I got the part that he did him justice. Glenn Turmin, Emmy Award winning actor, writer, director, and producer. Turmin is coming off an incredible year with both worthy performances in Netflix, Malraimi's Black Bottom, and a critic choice nominated role in Effect is Fargo, and he stars in ABC's Jay-Z and Will Smith produced Women of the Movement as Mose Wright, a real-life civil rights movement leader, and great uncle to Emmett Till. The New York City-born actor enjoyed his first real taste of acting success as a young teenager, originally named the role of Travis Younger on Broadway, and the landmark play, Arraising in the Sun, opposite Sidney Porje and Ruby Dee. Upon graduation from the renowned high school of performing arts in the city,

he apprenticed in regional and repertory companies throughout the country until he landed in Los Angeles in the mid-1970s. Turmin has also appeared in some of the most iconic films and television series, including Cooley High, A Different World, The Wire, and Queen Sugar. I'm Johnny Ohanson Jr. and welcome to another edition of In Black America. On this week's program, noted Emmy award-winning actor Glenn Turmin in Black America. Well, what's to say, you know, one of my favorite characters, you know, in some of the pieces that I played. Again, another, you know, blessing to be a part of a piece like that, you know, with a cast that's so great, you know. And I had played to Lido at the Mark Taper Forum here in Los Angeles in a stage production where Denzel came back and said, hey, Glenn, you know, we're going to do this as a movie.

So I want you to stand by. And a year and a half later, he came back and fulfilled his promise there. And we went into production in Pittsburgh using Pittsburgh as Chicago. And for, uh, my ready's black bottom. The talented Glenn Turmin, who's 60-year career including Peering on Payton Place, The Mod Squad, Hawaii 5.0, Palmerstown, USA, The Twilight Zone, and Murder She Rope, just to name a few. His film critic, just as impressive, they include Thomas St. and Bush Rod. JD's Revenge, Grimlins, How Still They Got A Groove Back, and The Obama Effect. He's determined it also an award-winning stage and television director, directing episodes of hanging with Mr. Cooper and the William Brothers. He also directed during his seasons of acting work in a different world. He's also the newest face of Beyoncé's Ivy Park denim line. In his latest performer, he plays the role of Moe's right,

the great uncle of Emmett Till, who invited him to spend the summer in Money Mississippi. Him and other movement is the story of Mamie Till Moe, who sought justice for his son, Emmett, filing his brutal murder in 1955. Till's story continues to be verbal rape. Six years later, as the nation continues to grapple with senseless, race-based murders. Recently, in Black America, spoke of Glenn Turmin. Mama decided to move down the Greenwich Village in the late 50s. Early 60s, we were in the Greenwich Village. She was a free thinker. And the Greenwich Village was known for its progressive attitude. And she moved down there into a non-clave of like-minded people who were artists, and poets, writers, and jazz musicians, and so on and so forth. And that's where I grew up. I heard that I understand that you wanted to be a baseball player. I did. It was Jackie Robinson, man.

And my everyone wanted to be Jackie Robinson. So yeah, that's right. And I understand that you used to kind of skip school every day, and really wasn't into education? Well, you know, I was skip school when I couldn't. If that's how that couldn't get caught, wouldn't get caught. Today's day of chewing off is out of looking for you. I didn't back in those days. But I was a chronic chewer, and yeah, absolutely. And I understand they say, is not what you know is who you know. But your entry into entertainment was with the Lorraine Hansberry play raised in the sun. You play Travis with the late Sydney Portia? That's right. That's right. That was my entree into this show business world. How did you get through? Well, it's not who you know. It's not who you know. It's who knows you. Okay. And who knew me was Lorraine Hansberry, also of the play. She knew me because she used to see me run around the street stand in the West Village. And she was a friend of my mother's.

And she used to see me playing up and down the street playing baseball. Stickball. We used to play a lot of stickball, pecking me out. And she said, you know, do you think Glen would be interested in trying out for the play? I tried out cut the part, and here I am. Glen, understand you were married at a young age? Yes, it was. My mother challenged sweetheart. My school, well, my high school sweetheart is what you say. Yeah. Okay. And when did you decided to really take acting serious? When I got to the high school performing arts, I took it serious. I had already been on Broadway. But performing arts high school was a very challenging place for me. It was a difficult place to get into back in those days. And I was accepted. And once accepted, I accelerated and did well. And I never played hooky again. And because they were teaching me how to act. And they had acting classes and dance classic and music classes.

And all these kinds of artsy kinds of things that were a lot of fun. So, you know, half of the day was spent in what we called shop. The other half was spent in the academia world. But to stay in the shop world, you had to pass you. At least some of your academics. So, I did enough to pass and stand, get knocked, get kicked out of school. Because I didn't want to miss my shop classes. I understand you were a truck driver for a furniture company? Yeah. And you heard about an audition that was happening that day. And you took the truck with the furniture. And you get all this info from it. And you read my biography. Well, we try to do our homework around here. Tell our audience about that story. Well, it's a story. Because I don't know for it to get out. I had many jobs that I hadn't gotten fired from.

I got fired from most of my jobs that I had that were nine to fives. And, you know, from Macy's to Gimbals to the Diamond District, to United Artists in the Mailroom. And finally, I landed a job as a truck driver for a furniture mover. And what was cool about it was, you know, I could take off sometimes and go for auditions and they wouldn't fire me. Of course, wouldn't fire me. But this time, I had a truckload of furniture. It was a crew. And I was reading the backstage one of the casting ads. And I turned the whole truck around with the furniture and everything in it. And the crew just headed for the audition. The audition was for Mr. Lloyd Richards, who had been my first director in the playwright and in the son. I auditioned for him with that truckload of furniture sitting on the sidewalk. Downstairs and I got the part.

And so, it was a milestone in my career there, to say the least. Talk to us about your experience with the inner city theater. The inner city culture center was a company that brought me to California to be in a play called Slow Dance on the Killing Ground, which was a William Hanley play. Now, I had been in plays in New York at the American Play Theater with Win Hanman, the great Win Hanman. And I was about to do another play for him at the American Play Theater when I got a call from the wonderful Vanette Carroll to come to New York. They'll come to California and be her Randall and Slow Dance on the Killing Ground. So, I went and was supposed to be here just for a few months that the play was going to run. And that was 50-something years ago. I'm still here. When did you decide to move the Los Angeles? Right then. When I left New York, it was three degrees below zero. It was January 17th.

And when I got off the plane later that same day, it was 76 degrees, just like it is today. I made up my mind right then. I wasn't going back to New York. How did you go about landing the job with Gregory Peck on Peyton Place? Well, Gregory Peck came and saw that play that I was there. And when he saw me in the play in that role, he suggested that... Well, actually, he brought producers from the TV series down. Had them come down and see the play and see me in it. And they said, yeah, we've got to have a tournament in this role. We united me with a wonderful Ruby Dee and a great, beautiful Judy Peck. And Percy Rodriguez and we became the black family of Peyton Place, which was the big, big nighttime series for TV back in those days. You are an iconic actor and notable with your portrayal of Peckin

and Cooley Hyde that they play kind of regularly down here. How did you go about getting that role? Well, I got the role of Preach because I had done a play with Michael Schultz and he was directing... He was going to direct Cooley Hyde. And I also knew Eric Monty had the one to take place. And so those all that just kind of lined up and they went on pretty strong with me in mind for the character when they went to the studios and said, this is who we want. And the studios didn't fight back. So I ended up with that role. Are you surprised with the longevity of Cooley Hyde? I am. I am surprised. And we just got into the National Film Registry. And boy, you know, we were doing that movie. We never thought that it would take on and become the iconic film

that it has become, you know. But certainly glad that it did because it was a life-changer for many of us. You currently playing Mo right in the miniseries, the life of Emmett Till. How did you go about it? The miniseries is the women of the movement. Right. The women of the movement. It's the life story of Emmett Till told from the mother's point of view, which made me tell mowbly. And she is played by the wonderful beautiful Adrian Warren, who just won the Tony Award for her portrayal of Tina on Broadway. And so I play Mo's right, who was the boy's uncle, who was Emmett Till's uncle, whose farmhouse Emmett Till was snatched out of on that fateful night. What was your initial impression once they came to you and I assumed that you had a chance to read the script? Well, my initial thought was, especially because this was such an iconic and important story,

and these people who actually existed and family of these people are still alive, that I was honored that they came to me to portray this role, this very important role in this extremely important piece, well-written, beautifully casted, and the producers and directors are all top-notch, and that they came to me to portray this man was a gravity that I did not take lightly as portraying, and wanted to make sure that I got it right, you know. And so the Wheeler family, which was one of the nephews, saw the piece, and we were all on a Zoom, and it meant the world to me to have the family led by Mr. Wheeler and we would say that I got his uncle right, you know, that I got the part that I did him justice, and that meant the world to me, absolutely.

Well, when I saw that, because there's also a first and second person series that after the dramatization, the likeness of Moe's right is five being slender, and it was just uncanny. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I was able to, you know, feel him, fill him out, you know, fill him out for all to see and hear, and his spirit spoke very strongly to me, and still does. I heard that. To ask everyone and our generation have heard about it and saw the pictures of Emmett Till. Did it make you feel a little bit more special, or a little bit more off to your performance, knowing that you've obtained something, that you've read about, grew up knowing about,

and this was a reenactment of history. Well, I tell you, in watching it, it really had. I'm so proud of this piece, and I've been watching it, it's so well done, you know, the performance, all the actors in it, are so, so wonderful, you know, and the story is so strong. And I was watching it just like you said last night, you know, and I was really moved, you know, and honored that I was a part of the telling of this story, you know, and especially, like you said, with the piece that comes after it, and tells, speaks about it, you know, from a documentary point of view, you know, and was able to see where this fit in our history, this story, and how, this is, well, 65 years ago, but how current it is today. Right. So this is a wonderful piece to point out and to use as a storytelling point,

a historic landmark, so that we know where the progress has been, and where there has been no progress, you know, so that in our struggles, that we're able to continue to keep our eyes on the prize, and I'll show it to the wheel, because we see it's so clear from this production, how much the more things change, the more things stay the same, you know, and so I'm just really honored to be used as a tool to make these points clear to this nation about us. For a younger generation, you known as Colonel Bradford Taylor from a different world. What was like working on that project? Oh, that was fun. We had the greatest, you know, different world in another piece that I've been involved in. That's become an iconic piece, you know, a Vienna honor, you know,

Debbie Allen, who is our fearless leader, you know, she put together a team and stories and directed along with Susan Fales, some wonderful scripts and stories and ideas, and as a result of that piece, you know, so many black young people decided to go to college, you know? And so to be a part of that and life-changing experience for so many was, you know, I still, people stop me still. Colonel Taylor, Colonel Taylor, you know, so it's, it's, I've been lucky, you know, I've been really lucky and blessed. Speaking of lucky and blessed, season four of Fargo. Yeah. Did you get a chance to keep any of those hats? Yeah. That's a mean little, but... Yes it was. It was a mean little. Dr. Syrit was too cool in that ear. Yeah. Well, see, that's where it comes from being a Harlem boy. You got to know how to wear that. You know, you cover Harlem.

You know how to wear that. What was it like we were working with Chris Rock? It was great, just great. You know, we just finished another piece together. And we did, we were coming out shortly from Netflix, but he's growing so much as an actor, serious actor. You know, he's taking his roles very seriously and he's doing a fine job. And at the same time, he's, you know, he's laughing a minute, you know. He's just crazy and his mind is brilliant. So he keeps you cracking up and keeps you thinking about, you know, the things and the two points, the way he looks at life, you know. So yeah, we've become good friends and I'm happy for that. I forgot to ask when we were talking about women of the movement. Were the sets designed or were you able to find the house? I was particularly enamored with the push button light switch. I hadn't seen those in, I don't know how long. And the other thing was when you all had the meal, did you all get a chance to finish it

or you all just gave the rest of it to the crew? When we had to what? When the series opened in the first episode, you are sitting down at dinner. And then we tore that chicken up. Somebody took some hot sauce out their bag. And we tore the greens up. So were you able to find that, a particular house in Chicago was that set built for the series? No, we found that house. Okay, because I'm kind of a set kind of person. I look at that also. Talk to you about playing Toledo in Mauremi's Black Bottom. Well, what's to say? Toledo is one of my favorite characters, you know, in some of the pieces that I played. Again, another blessing to be a part of a piece like that.

You know, with a cast that's so great, you know. And I had played Toledo at the Mark Taper Forum here in Los Angeles and a stage production where then Zell came back and said, hey, Glenn, you know, we're going to do this as a movie. So I want you to stand by. And a year and a half later he came back and fulfilled his promise there. And we went into production in Pittsburgh using Pittsburgh as Chicago for Mauremi's Black Bottom. And, you know, I can say, you know, you work with, I had the pleasure of working with Viola Davis prior to Mauremi's Black Bottom when I did a long-running series, you know, how to get away with Murder. And so I was aware of that work ethic. And, you know, I said, oh, shoot, we're going in and going in with Viola.

You got to call on the A-game because, you know, joke around. And so, you know, but it was the first time that I had worked with Chadwick. And it was the first time I had worked with Michael Potts, who I really, you know, just crazy about Michael Potts and his workers. We were on the wire together, but we never worked together, you know, but he was one of my favorite characters on the wire, you know. And then I worked with, you know, with Coleman Domingo, who just turns into fine performance. And of course, Denzel, who was, you know, heading the whole thing up. But then the great George C. Wolf is our director, you know. And so we were able to do some wonderful things that I'm very proud of in that production, one prestige awards, you know, the NAACP, the image awards and critics awards and so on and so forth.

You know, all of that is like icing on the cake, you know. And so it was just a wonderful experience all around. But one of the better things about it was also with the new piece that I've just wrapped, I just got back home from Pittsburgh again, with George C. Wolf again, and production called Biod, which was the Biodreston story. Right. Oh, and Biodreston, you know, as you know, is a man who was responsible for putting together the march on Washington, but he never got the credit for it, you know, who was kind of pushed off into the background, you know, because of his sexual persuasion. You know, he was a homosexual and they didn't want that known, that element and that phase of his life known, so that it was associated with his monumental movement that they were orchestrating, you know. So this is a beautiful piece, you know,

and George Wolf has once again put, we said, hey, you put the band back together, you know, you put the band back together myself, and many of the crew and DPs and so on and so forth, and Coleman, the Mingo, and again, Michael Pats, and you know, and we did it again, you know. So, you know, I played Philip Randolph, you know, a union leader, and so this is a piece that's for, for Obama's higher ground production company. Now, the Mr. and Mrs. Obama have gone into show business with a production company that's, and they're using this as their flagship production, and so I'm just again blessed and honored to be a part of their, their first swing at bat with the drama, you know, out of higher ground productions.

Couple of more questions. Once upon a time, you were a Hollywood hit couple with Rita Franklin. That's right. How did you all meet? We met at a concert that she was in, and that she was performing in, and I met her backstage as introduced by her son, and she was a big fan. Kuiha had just been out, and she was a big Kuiha fan, and Glenn Termin fan, and of course, I was raised with a Rita Franklin fan, and we went backstage, and she became my student. I was teaching at that place that we talked about earlier, at the inner city cultural center, and she came and studied with me for a short time, and we began studying dating, and not too long after that. We tied the knot. How does a young man from Greenwich Village, Harlem, become an experienced horseman? Just out of desire, is the short answer, but the long answer,

which we all go too far into, I don't think we have enough time, is that my grand daddy, my father's side, was a farmer rancher, and had horses and mules, and all that, and I ended up with that gene. You know? Much to my daddy's surprise, but daddy had no idea I was going through that, and so it became a shock to him as well, but I ended up with that gene, and I've always been attracted to horses and the land and the earth. So I'm a city slicker, but I'm a country boy at heart. Understand, you got a working ranch? Yes, I have. And talk to us about the promise that you made to Coretta King. Well, that derides in 92 here in Los Angeles. Mrs. King called a group of tillers of the community, I guess, is what she called us, to come to a meeting in order to try and quell some of the unrest here in the city

and try and get back to some sort of normalcy. And my contribution, I promised her, would be that I would start, my wife and I would start a summer camp at our ranch. Then, term an Emmy Award-winning actor, writer, and producer. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions asked in future in Black America programs, email us at inBlackAmerica at kut.org. Also, let us know what radio station you heard us over. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. You can get previous programs online at kut.org. Also, you can listen to a special collection of in Black America programs at American Archive of Public Broadcasting. Yes, AmericanArchives.org. The views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station or of the University of Texas at Austin. Until we have the opportunity again for

a technical producer, David Alvarez, I'm Johnny Ohanson Jr. Thank you for joining us today. Please join us again next week. CD copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing in Black America CDs. KUT radio, 300 West Dean Keaton Boulevard, Austin, Texas, 78712. That's in Black America CDs, KUT radio, 300 West Dean Keaton Boulevard, Austin, Texas, 78712. This has been a production of KUT radio.