The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 436 - Sessue Hayakawa

Episode Date: July 1, 2020

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine actor Sessue HayakawaSourcesTour DatesRedbubble Merch

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racial American History podcast where each week I, Dave Anthony, a white guy reach a story from American history to my friend. Gareth Reynolds who's also whites and doesn't understand how this that makes it by racial and has no idea what the topic is going to be about. Well Gareth my ancestors are mostly Irish. Still not seeing the path. And your ancestors could it couldn't be more translucently Irish mostly mostly English pale yeah okay by racial okay all right I should add I don't know what races are yeah okay that's good this and I'm

trying to be more inclusive. Maybe the way to do it is to just talk like a human and not like a out-of-work horse race announcer. Gareth this is a by racial podcast. No no sir no. We're two different. Stop digging. We are unique flowers. We're unique flowers Gareth. I guess Matt okay yeah okay yeah you're right can we start. And called it quote is jam-packed. Jam-packed. I'm the fucking hippo guy. Dave okay. My name's Gareth. My name's Gareth. Wait. Is it far fine. And this is not going to come to Tiggly podcast. Okay. Now hit him with the puppy. You both present sick arguments. Actually. I thought that was one of our best intros. And should be cut out. We got into the topical stuff of the

day. What intro were you a part of that is showing our support for Black Lives Matter. You did not do that. I just want to put out there that if you use the term all lives matter you're listening to the wrong podcast. This is the only podcast that's been calling for the removal of statues. It's all time. Black Lives Matter is essentially everything the dollop talks about. So if you don't see that maybe you should listen to more episodes. There's a number of them. You can see the resistance within obviously the Republican Party but also the Democratic Party. It's everywhere. This is a massive massive movement. And it's

not going to stop. And change is going to happen. Well it's regardless. It's just like everything else that were the politics. Both political parties right now are like we hear you. We're going to debate chokeholds. The hilarious thing is that now you're talking to a generation that has grown up for 30 years listening to we hear you. And they're like yeah. So what comes after that. So what comes after the we hear you part. Yeah. Well then we put together a task force and then you go back to your lives and then we inundate you with things to do. So then there's no option for you to actually fight back and the momentum is dead and

then we move on. I would say if you're into history the the greatest comparison between the American police force and another police force in history would be apartheid South Africa. Oh my god. That is from what my research is showing the greatest parallel. And that's where we are. We know the name apartheid because of how smooth everything was. That's right. That's right. But you know I know there's a lot of people out there who want to support the police. That's what you're supporting. That is the historical comparison that works the best. Do a little research. Read up on it. It's pretty great. Makes you feel good about

your country. June 10th 1886. Felt like a vamp to the date. Okay. 1886. 1886. You're Lord Jesus Christ. It's off. Why? I feel well because wasn't is an aid is an AD when it's I mean Jesus was around. It's all it all starts from the second he was born or died whatever. Well that's why 1886 AD seems strange for the year of the you know what I mean. Hey. Hey we restarted the clock with the J man. All right. I know I started the clock. You're making my you're making my point. So everything after him is the year of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh I guess that that was lost on me. Sorry. Okay. So every year is every year is his year. Do you not

go to church? Nice. Well it seems like a bad time to be going to you're not going to church right now. Right. I'm in church right now. I'm in a fucking church. Not be going to these places. This is Hayakawa Kintaro was born in the township of Nehru on the island of Honshu in Japan. Wow. Somebody worked at the first part. He had five siblings. The family lived in a shellfish diving community. His father was from a long line of aristocrats and rose from the head of the Fishman's Union to be the governor of the Chiba Prefecture. Okay. He's killing it. His family expected him to join the Japanese Imperial Navy who

was expected because they just came from a long line of samurai and army guys in forever. So Hay was also raised in the strict warrior code of Bushudo. Same as you. Okay. Oh right. That I mean that's very yeah that's a strict isn't that that's very crazy strict martial arts. It's a samurai code of conduct. Okay. It emphasized loyalty and duty but Hayakawa also had some dreams of going overseas and so on the side he studied. We're gonna need to stop that right away. Yeah. So when he reached the appropriate age he entered the Navy Academy. Okay. Right. When he was 17 he was at the Academy and a fellow student

dared him to swim to the bottom of a nearby lagoon. Sure. Sure. Yeah. That's just a classic laser school dare. Yeah. I mean near a lagoon. What a great yeah and also a very my guess is he's gonna have some sort of honor but a very easy thing to win. You just go under for 20 seconds. You're like yep got it. That's right. You come back up and you're like I touched all the bottoms. Whoa. I barely got it this time but I got it for sure. So he made it to the bottom but ruptured an eardrum in the process. This is why my now again way better. Yeah. Way better. So the entrance exam for the Imperial Navy included a very very tough physical

and his eardrum rupture resulted in Hayakawa failing. So he was not going to be a part of the Imperial Navy. Not great. His father took it very hard. His father told him what he went in the bed. Do we know what he went in the bed because if he wins like a mansion or maybe a luxury sports yacht. It was probably a beer or a room filled with gold room. Sorry. What was it. Yeah. Well or or just a broom. Yeah. Well yeah. Instead of a room that's not a you know that it's you know what I mean. Not as good. I do know what a broom is. Is that what you mean. Yeah. So now he has a broom. Great. Huge. So his father tells him

that he has dishonored the family. And then the father place has never been cleaner. I'll say that. Oh let me turn sideways. What. There we go. So his father then fell into a deep depression because this was just his father fell into a deep depression over that. Yeah. Well he was humiliated by his son. His son had humiliated him. I mean. And I. And so yeah. And so hi. I became very ashamed. By the way the best part. The best part is probably when his father was just like hi a cow. You have dishonored this family greatly. The things you've done the choices you've made were selfish. I can't even show my face around my usual hang spots. Your

mother's beside herself. She's in the bedroom. And you don't seem to care. And then he's just like what. Would you say that stand on my left side if you're going to. Why are you crying. You're crying over. The dishonor happened on the right. Wow. So. So the father's the relationship is broken. Everything at 18 years old. Everything he'd been working toward his whole life. All those 18 years. It's gone. Everything expected of him is gone. So he decided to commit a sabooka. Oh dear. Which is ritual suicide by disembowelment. Isn't that. The least recommended way to commit suicide. And then what is what is a harry

carry then. Isn't that the same. Same thing. It is. Right. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Again this is a samurai thing. This is an old school samurai way to go. That's a great that's a great thing to rename. It's not called that. It's called this. When you cut out your guts you sound stupid if you say harry carry. So it took a weapon that had been handed down in his family. It was an old samurai weapon from ancestors in his family. And he went to the garden. Yeah. I agree. The bristle end right. Yeah. Not a lot of people have figured out that one. Yeah. The bristles. I'm just dust free and alive. So he goes down to the garden shed. But

it's a white sheet down. Takes his dog and locks it outside the shed and then gets in position. But the dog starts barking. God damn it. Can't I just. And Haya Kawa starts stabbing. He stabbed himself over 30 times in the gut. Okay. The dog keeps barking. That brings his parents out. His father must have looked through a window or something because he sees him in a pool of blood. So his dad runs and grabs an axe and breaks down the door. And then they take. That's when he's like oh my god we had an axe. Takes him to a doctor and they save his life. Wow. Wow. He spends. Yeah. It's been some time. Even even with even with

suicide or taking your own life like the idea of doing it that and that violent and painful and. Yeah. The length of that death. It's just very crazy. It's all awful. Yeah. So he was over a bit of time. He received spiritual sustenance at a Zen temple. Okay. I need some of that dirt during this time. He mended his relationship with his father also. Yeah. Well it's easy for his dad to be like so that little shed incidents or surely put some perspective on this. Sorry I lost my cool about your ear. So now what to do right. What is it. Where did they go from here. So his father decided Hayakawa would become a banker. The next best thing to a military career

was being a successful businessman or a politician. Right. Okay. Sure. Sure. So Hayakawa was shipped off to the University of Chicago in America where he would study political science and economics. Now I'm going to I'm going to mention here that Hayakawa was smoking hot with a great body. Dude had all the dude had all the makings. Hayakawa was hot. He's hot. He's some hot business. And then to top it off at the University he joined the football team and after a while became the school's quarterback. And I mean that he brought. Oh. Oh. Oh. Hold on. Sorry. Jose's eating. Jose's eating. Food. Food time. So with no real knowledge of the

sport. That's right. He ascends to the top. And it seems suspicious. Right. It doesn't. I mean it seems crazy. It seems like I agree. I felt the same way when I read it. He also brought his own skills to the sport. He would avoid tackles by doing judo flips over players trying to tackle them. Another time the team was penalized because Hayakawa took down a guy rushing him by using Jiu Jitsu. OK. So this is a movie made by Disney in 86. And it's called Samurai High. That's right. You nailed it. OK. I'm very OK. All right. So his father dies in 1913. And Hayakawa went back to the funeral and his brother tried to talk him into staying

but he didn't think he had a future in Japan anymore and he returned to school. He said bro I'm running the West Coast offense at the U of C. Now I couldn't figure out exactly when this happened but at some point he ended up in Los Angeles on a vacation. And he was in a little Tokyo and he saw a show at the Japanese Playhouse and he was bitten by the acting book. He took a stage name. Sesshu Hayakawa. He was just going to go the stage name. I know right. It rose up the ranks of acting. Sesshu means like snowy hill or something like it's not like I don't know. So he rises up quickly in acting and he began to star in

plays. One was called the typhoon. And producer Thomas Ince came to see it. Now it's he's a pretty big deal at the time. He started making movies in 1911 and by 1913 he had made 166 movies. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Just because I'm a numbers can I Dave. Can you give me the year time frame one more time and then the amount of films? It starts making movies sometime in the middle of 1911 and then by the end of 1913 he had made 116. That's two years and he made how many films? A little over two years. 166 films. Pretty typical output for a filmmaker. Adam McKay does that many. Adam McKay in this year did all the

presidents and all the vice presidents. It just feels features. Yeah. Feature. I mean like I don't think porn directors make that many a year. I do and you are basically I mean he's basically making a movie every two days. Yeah. I mean it's yeah. It's well yeah. Two and a half days. That's a little less than that three. I'd say three days. Yeah. He's making a lot of movies. So every three days every three days a new feature. Yeah. So Thomas Ince basically pioneered what was like an assembly line type film making process. So over 14 years his career is 14 years he made over 800 films. Sure. Sure. So he made right. So he

sure. Okay. Yeah. You get it. Okay. Yeah. That's just that's standard. Normal amount. Yeah. Normal. I'm sure. And by the way I said I'm sure that the scripts were good. I'm sure that the everything was not rushed. Yep. No not at all. He died when he was 44 and William Randolph Hearst yacht. So he could have made a lot more anyway. He died at 44. I mean this could have made a billion movies. Oh fuck yeah. He could literally could have made like over 2000 easily. So anyway Ince saw Seshu in the tycoon and he wanted to turn the play into a film. But how about we do 300 movies together this year man. My friend. But Seshu planned

to return to the university and he was just really acting for fun. He said it wasn't something he wanted his family to learn about. So he said no. But Ince kept coming back. He was like I want to do this. Let's make your typhoon movie. And Seshu then made up a crazy amount thinking it would make Ince go away. So I'll take I'll do it for 500 bucks a week. Which is about 11 K now a week. So for an unknown that's like a right. And it's just like yeah totally. Let's right. Okay. Now let's make it. Now that's Seshu's version of the story. That's a story he told to the press. But Amy Monahan of the University of Chicago

magazine looked into Seshu's story and she checked the school records and there are no records of Seshu attending the University of Chicago. There are no records of him playing on the football team. But but but Dave he but Dave he was doing judo moves. Yeah. The story seems so plausible. But Dave. Yeah. Just seems like we all felt David we all fell in love. Yeah. With the quarterback story. So it seems that what happened was is he came to the U.S. to meet up with his brother who was at this point diving for abalone in California. He took two correspondence courses in political economy from the University of Chicago's

home study program. So he was doing you know just through the mail courses. His passport says he was in America to study but he was never actually on a campus. Author and professor hard to be. Also it makes it very hard to be the starting quarterback when you're not allowed on campus. Yeah. That's right. It makes it much more difficult. Author and professor Daisuke Mayo wrote that Seshu actually worked odd jobs as a dishwasher waiter ice cream vendor and factory worker while he was trying acting on the side. Now Seshu. So he was he was definitely like into acting. OK. But when this guy approached I mean how much of

this is all right you're going to tell me how much of this. I think I think he's into acting but it's a shameful thing he thinks for him to do. That is legit. OK. OK. So he wants to do it but he doesn't want to do it. By the way I mean that that's I wouldn't we'd be in a better world if all actors felt that way. Wouldn't that just be a better place. I think. Yeah. Yeah. I think there needs to be a lot more shame based acting. Yeah. Yeah. Like you should like act like how about this. Can we just say for like 10 years like actors get paid nothing. Yeah. To remove that part of it. Just see what happens. You know. I what was I reading before

earlier that Christopher Nolan doesn't allow chairs on sets. I saw that. What an asshole. So I'm looking for that. Let's let's get back to that sort of crazy attitude. All right. Well go sit in your water until we need you. Why can't I be on land because you're a stupid actor. So he has it. He has a presence on screen and and he was a quick success. The tycoon was a huge hit and an overnight sensation. So she had the looks and he also had a very low key acting style that made him stand out compared to other silent film actors who are incredibly over the top in America. So she's style was called Zen like but he

called it a muga or the absence of doing. Now not to defend the silent not to defend SAG the silent actors Guild. But I've as someone who's watched a good amount of silent film I found that the subtlety is not the friend of the silent film actor. It's not a subtle medium. No it's your it's why Buster Keaton's eyes are so famous because they pop because he's so confused about what's before him. But it's almost like there's something different about this Japanese guy from all the other American actors that would make him stand out and people would put put their feelings upon it. It's just a different it's a

minimalist take and silent film is something I've not heard a lot of. Yeah the audience understood what he was feeling by the subtle faces he made. He also acted to the camera instead of to the balcony like most Hollywood actors did. Okay so after the typhoon Inns put a seshu in the wrath of the gods. The two films together made seshu famous in 1914. He was the first Asian star of the silver screen. The New York Times would later write that for many in the US seshu was the first Japanese person they had ever seen. You know what it just very quickly is fairly disgusting is that okay it feels like here we've made

the transition to having other races on screen comfortably in this country and then after 1914 we have a run of horrendous like white people playing Asian people. Oh yeah. So we found a time where we were like hey this is a really cool interesting thing this is different this man's subtle. Later on we're like all right Mickey put the teeth in. You might be you might be jumping the gun a little bit there. It's not good to hear. So he was in 16 movies in 1914 and he and he then signed a deal with Jesse L Lasky feature play company which would later become Paramount Pictures. Better name. So yeah in 1915 he was in Cecil B

DeMills The Cheat. He played a Japanese ivory merchant who loaned money to a rich stockbroker's wife. She was blowing through all all the money on the side all her husband's money and so he's given her money with the idea that he was getting gonna get to fuck her at some point like that's the sort of game plan. That's great. Okay so it's like a decent proposal but old. It's just a classic wholesome story. Yeah it's a classic tale of rights. But then instead of fucking him she decided she was gonna pay back the money and with cash instead of sex as promised and so she then forced her down on his desk rips off a

sleeve from her dress and brands her with a hot iron to mark her as his possession. Well that's a twist. I haven't heard it. I haven't heard it. So women in the audience screamed in ecstasy. Some fainted but there was this. So he's this super sexy guy taking what he wants. You know obviously today this reaction is weird but. Oh yes. It's a time. Oh yeah. But at the time you're talking about so here's an exotic type of person that most most of these people haven't seen. They're they're fucking turned on by it. It's you know there's there's a lot of crazy shit going on here. So well yeah and also there's like it's such like a

it's like like men made things so boring for everybody. So it's like you see something like this you're like oh my god wild something crazy. I mean look taking women and abusing women is you know there's still it's still much more subtle than it was but it was pretty fucking over the top for a long time. I'm not going to speak to it because I don't know what it's like to be a woman or what the fuck was going on then and I felt you know what I mean. I mean I'll feel that it's not great and yet women women are as big as fans. So newspapers wrote he should have been the star of the film not a supporting actor. So he's a

sexy villain. Right. That's who he is. Sure. Sure. And now he's making $5,000 a week. Okay. But what his original deal is we're gonna make $11,000 a week. But that's all. It was making $500 a week. It was $11K at our money. Oh right. Right. Right. So he builds what it looks exactly like a French castle. It's in Hollywood on the corner of Franklin and Argyle. Oh my god. No. Shut the fuck up. I know what that becomes. No it's gone. Oh. I know. So did I. At first I thought it was too but there's nothing there. It's just where the freeway overpasses now. Okay. Okay. Because what we should say what we thought it was for the Scientology

Center. Yeah. Yeah. That's the first thing I looked up. I was like holy shit. It's not. Oh. So Lasky puts his PR machine in overdrive and a lot of such his success is because of Lasky's PR strategy. So to Americans Japan was a middle ground as far as races and cultures. Yeah. According to author I'll quote him a lot but I brought him up before but Daisuke Myo he said quote between the white and the non-white between uniformity and difference Japanese was seen as culturally racially different from other non-white cultures. The Japanese were closer to Caucasian but there was also the yellow

peril which people have been writing about since the 1900s. So he was in he was a villain who embodied the yellow peril but he was also sold as partially Americanized. Right. So the Japanese are like it's a noble savage thing right. It's the it's the oh these are slightly good. Like it's just crazy. Could we be more the some all yeas of racism. I mean absolutely. I mean it's like we have that we they just have found ways. It's just it's amazing. It's just it's mine. It is mind bending hearing over the years the palette of like just the gymnastics. Yeah. They go through. No no it's incredible. So Lasky's PR focused on

Americanizing Sushi even more and turning him into a sex symbol. He was to be seen as assimilating to America and not a threat. His lifestyle was shown as Japanese but Americanized. The cheat also became big in Europe and so their famous French poet Colette wrote quote the movie theater has become an art school. We cry miracle. The Asiatic artist whose powerful immobility is eloquence itself. So the French fucking love this guy. Everybody loves this guy. Yeah. Okay. To the French Sashu in his Zen style had created a new form of acting. Hey shut up buddy. What do you do. Stop me Owen. What's going on. Shut up. We're

recording a podcast. You're not like this normally stop. God damn. He's just walking around here just like meow. Stop. So the French enjoyed his subtlety. You love it. And this this this still the explanation of Jerry Lewis's success there continues to baffle. It still does not make sense. So in Japan it was a huge deal there also because he's a Japanese man starring in films but at the same time does not go over well with Japanese audiences. Japanese Americans in the U.S. protested. They said it was an anti-Japanese film that distorted the truth of the Japanese race. Because right because he's grabbing and tearing up her dress and branding her.

Sure. I can see that. Sashu was called Hyakokamin which meant he was a national traitor. Well to what you're also saying I mean that you know if you're if they're dealing with racism as well then something like this doesn't help. I mean it just doesn't it doesn't help. Right. It does not help. Absolutely it does not help. But at the same time he's not going no Japanese person is going to be put into films. Right. It's a complicated sort of shitty American. So newspapers wrote that he was enhancing anti-Japanese sentiments in the U.S. and he had insulted the entire nation of Japan. L.A. based newspaper Rafu Shimpo reported attacks on Japanese people by quote white bad boys bad boys who were crowded in front of the tally theater and crying

out anti-Japanese words lynched a Japanese noodle shop owner who came out of the theater as Hayakawa was lynched in the courtroom scene. What. So apparently a Japanese guy got lynched by a fired up crowd after the movie which is what happens to he at the end of the film he's lynched in the courtroom. Oh my god. So yeah. Jesus Christ. So Sashu then wrote a public apology in Rafu Shimpo. But people still kept protesting. Now the movie married real life. There were real incidents between white women and Japanese men who were often working as domestic guys. Right. For white women and white families. After three year affair Mabel Smith shot and killed her Japanese lover who had been working for her. Like in the movie the jury let her walk for self-defense

and this is not an isolated case. So Sashu appeared in other films playing other ethnicities. He was a Native American in a few westerns. In some movies while Sashu was playing a Native American sue actors were playing Japanese villagers. Just when I mean what is our what is our fundamental issue. How I mean that's just that's just like guys guys guys we shoot tomorrow it's not racist enough. I've got a wild idea. They all switch a rule. The old race switch a rule. The Hollywood whoopsie doozy. It's just amazing. I mean what were they talking about on breaks. Like hey boy aren't the white people who run this shit just the fucking worst. Last he put Sashu in heroic roles but couldn't stray too far from the villain. It was very tight

rope. They were walking to keep him a star. Sashu would say quote Sashu Hayakawa double character very very complicated. Okay yes right. Last he put Sashu in movies in which he was not completely evil. The parts were transformed the parts would always transform twice during the story. He would become villainous to get revenge on a racist white American man and then he'd feel bad about it after he fell in love with a white woman and then he would sacrifice himself in some way to help the white people. That was how the movies this this this sounds like southern porn. I mean it's a little right on the racist nose. It's crazy. It's like it's like we need like a racist hub along with porn hub where it's like my scenario is pretty wackadoodle.

Sashu explained in an interview the plot of one film quote in my coming picture the honor of his house. I take the part of a Japanese nobleman who marries an American girl who brings disgrace upon him and I decide to kill myself. Geez and white audiences are like perfect another perfect story. They all end with a dead Japanese guy. As long as we get our ending that we're used to. So in 1917 the U.S. entered World War I. In Japan was our ally. Sashu's films were advertised emphasizing the U.S.-Japanese alliance. The LA Times published a photo of Sashu acting as a quote mediator in a possible war between a dog and a cat at Lasky's studio. Oh my god. Okay so there's a lot of infractions here. So they put him on the cover of the LA Times

or in the LA Times as a two prop. He's mediating between the dog and a cat. So there's a dog and a cat in the picture and he's between mediating. Okay so right there the parties are crazy but their point of putting him in that situation is to sort of say hey look the Japanese people are really cool. These dogs and cats should be fighting. We've been through this. But because he's because Japanese people big news are pretty cool. FYI okay. And this is what we call news here. And by the way it's only going to get worse. That's what happened. Yeah good. That's what happened. Okay. In the movie the white man's law says she played a guy from the Sudan. Dave slow down. What. Yeah he plays a guy. In white man's

law the title of this great movie. That's right. Sad you. So really as far as actor breakdowns go there used to be two kinds. There were white parts and then every other part. There's white and then non-white. And then if you were non-white you can play anything. That's right. We're looking for a non-white guy. What's the what's the thing. It's just not white. Yeah but what is his where's he from. What's his. He's not white. Well here's what we have. We have a man from Senegal here who we think could be great as your Chinese emperor. So let me know if any of you feel nauseous. You should. So he was recommended. So in these movies in which he we're now allied with Japan and he's playing all these different characters. So for the Sudanese part it was recommended they quote

show the Japanese flag decorate the lobby with lanterns and paper flowers to lend an oriental atmosphere to the film. What for what reason. What. What is going on. So he's playing. What. Any sense. Okay. And then just to take them out of it we'll make the lobby Japan again. That's right. And so this is supposed to be a classic Sudanese house. So what we need are lanterns. Very minimalist. We just want a mat on the floor. Paper door. Let's just go with it. Perfect. We'll lean in just like they do in the Sudan. That's right. So he played roles in which he was a Japanese spy sent to the US to help. He in one movie he killed himself to help the US and a white woman. So does he how what is his like living percentage in some of these. I don't know.

I didn't. I mean it was low. It sounds like he's dying a lot. It sounds like if you go to see one of his films you're like well and you know what happened he'll die at the end and it'll be make us feel good for being white. That's the goal. So the cheat is re-release in Japan because the first time they were all offended he was a national trader. So they re-release in Japan and this time he is not a Japanese guy in the movie but a Burmese dude. So the racial whittling continues. This is getting honestly hard to keep track of. So now to skirt the anger the racial tension in Japan over him taking this part in the cheat the big Hollywood movie magic is that they'll just

change like a line and make him Burmese. That's right. And that is going to assuage the angers of the Japanese people over what he's done which is very low. Yeah this and this was to not offend the Japanese. Right and did it work. Yeah it did. So the Japanese were finally just like I mean somewhat but I'm sure there's a lot of propaganda happening in Japan also. Well what were his numbers like in Burma. They probably dropped. Well here's what one guy said about Richard Robert Bechard a writer at the time wrote there weren't quote enough Burmese in the U.S. to raise a credible protest. Oh well then that's good as long as we racially had done the numbers and the math. That's cool. That I enjoy. I like it when

they do it like that. That's right. So movie stars private lives were publicized to help their images you know as they still are the main reason was to show what great moral people they were as opposed to what as opposed to what they played on film so they didn't want people to think who they were on film was who they were as a person. That's especially true with Sesshu who is right of a Japanese villain. Right. Yes. So when I talk to him he's a Burmese pussycat. So he's often shown with his family looking very American in photo play which was the most popular fan magazine at the time. They published an article that splash of saffron Sesshu Hayakawa a cosmopolitan actor who for reasons of nativity happens to peer from our white screens with tilted

eyes. No. I mean the number of times I had to cut out I cut out that chick because it just got nauseating but but they so they're pointing out two things. They're pointing out that he's cosmopolitan and and right. But at the same time the noble savage they're doing they're playing both ends of it reminding you that he is he's a bad guy because he's not white and then also oh but he's refined. Yes. So it's this weird. Yes it's it's it's like we put it's like we've put him through white finishing school. He's getting warmer. I mean that's what we did to the Native Americans. You can see Sesshu draped in an American flag tossing a hamburger to his son who's a football. The article pointed out that he did not live in quote a paper mache house amid tea cup scenery

but lived in a regular bungalow. How about this. Just say he lives in a bungalow. That'll do. That's a good fact. That's good information. That is good information. Despite what you think he doesn't spend his whole day trying to catch tuna to eat. No he's actually here as a regular person. So in the article they took pictures. He's wearing Western clothes while his wife wearing a kimono serves him tea. Here you can see the main argument between the couple is that he insists on being a Western cowboy and she still holds on to her national roots. So this article may have been the origin story of the University of Chicago footballing stuff. OK. Oh OK. Yeah. Yeah. It's very possible. So OK. Interesting.

So Sesshu was now making over a quarter of a million dollars a year which is about five million bucks a day. He bought a gold plated luxury car. A Pierce arrow and hired a uniform driver. Dave. I mean white people need to start respecting the. I mean this is the capitalism that they would we finally done it. He actually had the car until Fatty Arbuckle bought the same car and then he gave it away. Wow. That offended by Fatty Arbuckle. Yeah. Screenings of his films were full of young women who screamed when he came on screen. And this is when interracial marriage is illegal and most places sex between a white person and someone who's not white was illegal. So kind of a big deal. Yeah. It really after. After the first day of filming the Jaguars

claws which was shot out in the Mojave Desert 500 cowboy extras got drunk and stayed drunk until the next day. Well it sounds like they weren't extras. So at that point extras. So at that point they're just having a party and don't care about the movie. Yes. Right. So Sesshu is trying to get them to film again and he ends up challenging all 500 to a fight at the same time. Okay. He told them he told them if they won they could keep drinking but if they lost they had to get to work immediately. Okay. So three cowboys immediately rushed him and Sesshu quote the first one struck out of me I seized his arm and sent him flying on his face along the rough road. The second attempted to grapple and I was forced to flip him over my head

and let him fall on his neck. The fall knocked him unconscious. Then the third pulled a gun but Sesshu quickly disarmed him and at that point all the extras agreed to go back to work. What the fuck. What Dave. Okay. Hold on. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So he he just he takes there's 500 drunk cowboys. Yeah. And he decides that he's going to matrix them. That's right. And challenge them all to a Mr. Anderson fight. That's right. He does that. He possibly paralyzes one of the men and then one of them an extra an actor pulls out a real gun. Well that's America. He disarms him. Yeah. And then he gets them to go back to work. Well the guy I'm going to tell you that the guy carrying the real gun is really he's the real hero. Of course he is. Yeah.

So that's just the day at the office. And now you know the press eats up these stories. They build up his mystique you know. Sure. So and this all made and women loved him more when they're at these things. And you want to know the best party's not white. So his contract is up with Lasky slash Paramount in 1918. And he leaves. One reason was because he wanted to control the his roles that he was playing. I wonder why we're not quote. We're not true to Japanese nature. I wish to make a characterization which shall reveal us as we really are. Some of his movies not just the cheap but other movies have been banned in Japan at this point. And he was affected by all the Japanese American criticism. So he started his own company Hayworth

Studio to have more control. He planned to introduce real Japanese characters in realistic environments make them more positive and less stereotypical. And he wanted to make eight movies a year all with Japanese themes. So he did and audiences were into it. He was one of the highest earning actors in Hollywood make around 25 million a year in today's. This is not the turn I expected. OK. Yeah. So she was his wife often through giant expensive extravagant Hollywood parties that they'd invite 150 people to the castle. He said he was living a West Coast lifestyle and was showing that Japanese people could live as lavishly as Americans. That's the best one. The Japanese people could be just as fucking stupid as Americans. We can be awful affluent pompous pricks to

you. We're like you. He visited the White House. His castle was very popular after prohibition because she bought a crazy amount of alcohol before prohibition and it lasted for years. Man. That is that's the move. That's that. If I heard prohibition like the second. I mean like it's like when the pandemic was starting they were talking about lockdown. Like the dude at my local liquor store is like how much vodka are you drinking. Like I was like I don't know where this train is headed but it's off the tracks and I'm going to need vodka. I know what I was one of the early buyers and people are like what are you doing. Oh what are you not doing motherfucker. When you were. Yes. When for sure we were both out there like there's nothing I remember this

isn't even based on this but I remember one time when I went to the store and just bought a ton of water just like you know just like in case you need water. So I just bought a ton of the people were like sorry what did you what did you hear. Like Cedric the entertainer has that bit where he just starts running and everyone runs after him. Like it's just like if you were like oh my god everyone's like oh my god. So oh so he's fucking live in large right. Yeah he was he was very universally respected in in Hollywood. He was considered honorable kind and had a strong and no nonsense work ethic. So everyone liked to work with him. He throws great parties. But even though he had his own production company now he did not control distribution of the films.

So this gave distributors of films power over studios. They can make requests such as making films that would appeal to the most audiences in the distributor's eyes. So over the next couple of years says she's distribution distribution company got more and more control of the content of his films. Okay makes me think that he'll be frustrated. Before before long Hayworth Studio was out of the control of the distributor who pushed Oriental stereotypes as opposed to the Japanese movies he wanted to make. So he's got it's gone from being right true Japanese characters and lives and stuff to more how do I say this. It's Oriental which is a not not a thing right. That's not a that's not a Japanese that Chinese is that like it's just

this homogenized Asian thing that doesn't actually say anything about who the Japanese people are or the Chinese people are or whatever. It's just this weird American sort of idea of what Asians are. Right and that and by the way I think again it just shows you how cool you know the whites have been as far as that goes for so long like we just have this track record of getting it early and understanding early. That's right. Yeah no it's a good point. Yeah. This didn't go over well with one fan magazine who wrote quote the great Seshiyu Hayakawa has not been so successful since he left Lasky. So his whole idea to go out and push positive Japanese stereotypes is now being undermined with this guy who has actually made more generic stereotypes right

and actually hurts him more than when he was playing just the shitty villainous Japanese guy or whatever. So he went out on a path to sort of break the mold a little bit and tread a new path and he got into business with a guy who was just like yeah but you're not white so you're all the same. Exactly. Exactly. That feels like a little sand on the fire. Hollywood journals started to write that Seshiyu's declining popularity was due to his nationality and he started. That's what I said. That's what I just that's what that is. We still do that. Our media still does that. Our media pays no attention to the rationale or the chronology just at the end of it. Well it looks like socialism doesn't work. It's like no you're lying. Looks like everybody did want Joe Biden.

No. So he starts playing other non-white roles again. He was in movies twice as a Native American, twice as a Hawaiian, as a Mexican, as an Arab, as a Chinese guy. It's funny. Arab is another one, right? So that's just like well what kind of Arab was he? Which part of how much can you guarantee that in that Hollywood they were patting each other on the back for giving parts to Middle Eastern people finally? I'm sure. I'm sure. The Chinese role was in the movie The Tong Man. Chinese people in San Francisco tried, they were so upset by the movie they tried to have it banned saying it misrepresented Chinese people and they took it to court where the white judge watched it and then said quote this is a picture that shows action of real life. There is nothing misleading

about it. It is entertaining, gripping and instructive. Of course it wasn't real Chinese American life at all but the white judge was like well that's what they're like. Well as someone who knows the Chinese culture better than anyone in this room I think it's kind of funny. I eat Chinese food. I know what's happening. Look who knows more about what's okay with China. You people who are Chinese or me, a white guy who doesn't know anything. Court adjourned. By this point it was coming obvious that Sashu was never going to kiss a white woman on screen. Rafu Shrempo wrote of the movie A Heart in Pawn quote this can be called a kissless picture and there is no kiss scene between a man and a woman. It is a rare case in contemporary cinema.

So now the Japanese American newspaper is like hey we're on to the idea that Japanese actor doesn't get to kiss women in movies or a kissless film because in every movie the couple kisses except when there's a Japanese guy on the screen. Yeah well I mean who knows what that is attributed to. His popularity began to seriously decline in the 1920s. Each year a motion picture story magazine did a poll of the most popular actors. In 1918 he was number 44 but by 1920 he had dropped to number 124 because post-World War I was a period of American nationalism and Americans were also becoming concerned about Japan as Japan strengthened and the propaganda machine propaganda machine against Japan was just getting going. So anti-Japanese sentiment very

very strong in California. The groups like the California Oriental Exclusion League and the LA County Anti-Aziatic Society were formed. Oh but here's the great thing then those two merged into one larger group called the Japanese Exclusion League of California. Oh what a horrible I mean it really is just unfucking believable. Anti-Japanese propaganda from Hollywood influenced the entire country. Here we go. One very one very popular East Coast writer warned people about the Japan menace quote there is a very immediate danger that white stocks may be swamped by Asiatic blood. That's no different than what Tucker Carlson says. It's not at all. It's not any different

than what's being said on Fox. It's not even slightly different. It's just it is truly amazing since you're same shit different day constantly. Always and we still are like I know but why would they lie to us. In 1924 the Immigration Act was passed by Congress which denied Japanese immigrant citizenship and a Japanese man who had his request for citizenship denied sued even though he had spent most of his life in the United States and had no connection with Japan the court ruled the Supreme Court ruled he could not be a citizen because he was quote clearly not Caucasian. Well I mean so fucked up but so similar to the Dreamers stuff too where it's like yes you know where you're like you got to go back to your country and it's like yeah I'm in my country.

This is where I'm from. Yeah like the stories of people being deported who have never lived anywhere and then killing themselves and by the way in dire situations. Yeah and you also like if you not only are you going to be culturally lost like the culture that you're going back to potentially you know shuns you to some extent because at that point you've we we the Americans have now created this culture thing and like you're just you're making no oh no in situation for people. Yeah totally films about anything that was anti-Japanese that was Japanese fell out of favor except anti-Japanese films so anything positive anything you know just medium about Japanese stuff out of fiber. Many Japanese actors who had been making a living for years returned to

Japan others started taking Chinese parts suddenly the Chinese were seen as racially above the Japanese. So whereas the Japanese a few years ago five years ago are are the noble savage now the Chinese move above them in American society. So since you started making fewer films he only had one role as a Japanese man in 1921 in theaters theaters all over the US said audiences did not want to see him specifically. He was too connected to Japanese culture and when he played other ethnicities audience still saw him as Japanese. Dave that's amazing that really is that is unbelievable. So the Hollywood that he rose in would put him in literally any other non-white role indiscriminately without any issue and it's Native American Arab did not matter. Now

he can't he is now after not playing he is now not allowed to play Japanese and that's all they'll give him. That's right. I mean holy fuck give us the racism Oscar now. For his next movie the distributor gave him a choice of three scripts and he hated every single one. They were all anti-Japanese. Yeah I mean imagine that. Imagine like hey we got a part for you. Shit on your country again. The reviews for his past couple of films have been bad and this one was no different. The distributor his own business partner then referred to Sashu in public as a chink. An angry Sashu confronted him saying quote I am not a chink I am a Japanese gentleman and the word chink is not fit to be spoke. In January 1922 the distributor

who was now completely in control of Sashu's company fired Sashu. Sashu sued and the distributor had he so he sued and he said the distributor had taken out a life insurance policy before his last film and then while the movies being shot rigged a stone wall to fall on him during the movie. Oh my god. Sashu announced he was leaving Hollywood on March 17th 1922 at a dinner to celebrate that film being finished. Now Japan had come around a bit since the days Sashu was seen as a trader. This started when he created his own company to make his own films. They saw him as a hero because he was trying to buck this system to create Japanese positive Japanese films. So Papers said he was fighting the anti-Japanese. Totally. You know California. So he was but he

was not fully seen as Japanese in Japan and at one point he won an award in Japan for best foreign actor. But I but I'm but I I am Sashu is very aware. I can't believe that. Yeah. Like you're sitting in that award ceremony like who'd they nominate for this. Why is my name. Oh wait. It's been an honor to learn about the culture through playing you people who are once again totally me. So she was very aware. And at one point he told an interviewer quote some Japanese people talk about me as if I were not Japanese but white people regard me as Japanese. Wow. I mean it's acting. Sort of. Yeah. Right. It's acting style in the U. S. was considered foreign but in Japan it was seen as American. Poor bastard. It's just a nightmare.

Yeah. You can't win. So some nationalists dislike him still in Japan an anti-Sashu group formed as his ship was departing San Francisco. It was called the Hayakawa assassination group. Very specific. Excuse me. It was also called the unwelcoming Sashu group. Oh good. So they got both my names. So that's good. Just in case I was like is that a different guy. Wow. They insisted he was a national disgrace and said he had to apologize at two shrines before he entered the country. He went to one of the shrines anyway because that's what he's planning on doing before he came to the country. I don't know why it must be a custom. So he was he was in Japan for a while. Why was there Japanese filmmakers really got behind him because they hoped he would help improve

Japanese film and the name right. Yeah. He's a name. But when they realized he couldn't do that and he wasn't able to live up to their expectations they turned on at a group meeting of the supporters. They condemned Sashu for not doing anything to help Japanese film in the country. There were so many against him that Sashu decided to leave because he was again being called the national traitor. And I'm going to go to America where they're not as racist. I don't know what's happening anymore. I'm very tired. So it goes back to the U.S. When he arrives in San Francisco Sashu said he quote would never go back to Japan because it was very uncomfortable. Sure. Sure. Sounds like it. So so he has the support group of the filmmakers but then he finds out that some of them were

actually anti Hiakawa group members and they threatened him for money. So he was just like I can't be in either place. Yeah. I can't win. Yeah. So he came back to America. He started to play. It wasn't like it was canceled pretty quickly. Jesus Christ in canceled plays. Yeah. Well the ratings are not going to do a second season. It's a play. I mean he went. He went for making 25 million a week. Yeah. So in a play that's canceled. And he did nothing. It's not like he was robbed. If anything he he tried very hard to use things. He said he's not Rob Lowe slapping the ass on film of some 16 year old girl in a hotel room in Atlanta. He didn't do anything. Right. Rob Lowe is fine. But wait. She was 16 with the Rob Lowe thing. I don't remember that.

Yeah. Yeah. Somehow Rob Lowe got a pass and all this. There's a few passes that have been handed out. So he he gets an offer from France. Oh here we go. Excuse me. We understand you are at your wit's end down the Japan down with United States America. Let me tell you something we don't do here as they do in the United States. We're going to do something different. We're going to type cast you as a turtle. That's right. You're a human turtle man. It's off the beaten path. It's different. It's a racially feels pretty equal to me. So so he's still popular in Europe. He was said to have been more popular than Chaplin in France or all of Europe actually. And even actors in England studied his movies to learn how to act.

Well because also true to what you were saying before I mean and what we're talking about like the subtlety and silent film acting is nil. So if you are actually looking for some sort of subtlety and you see him you go wow there's like an ocean between these two versions and styles. And then remember a lot of a lot of film actors from the silent film era couldn't transfer over to talk. Dude I don't know if you've ever heard Buster Keaton talk and talkies. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. You're like oh this guy but he sounds like a saw and then he finally is on screen. He's just like well I don't know what to tell you. I was wondering if we could make it happen for you. You're like what sweet Buster. He sounds like a pack of cigarettes with a voice box. But a subtle guy

a subtle acting style might work better. Right. So whatever. So he does his French film. It's a hit. He stays and makes more films in France acts and plays. After this after a little while he comes back to America in 1926. He's like all right I gave it some time. Maybe they're not back anymore. They are. He does a vaudeville tour. It was two years before he got into a film which was just a short. And then he tried Japan again. I don't know what his thinking was but he went to Japan and was in a few films but still it's the same problem. So he goes back to Hollywood in 1931 and he gets a couple of small parts. In August on August 26th 1931 Sashu and his wife adopted a two year old boy. His name was Alexander Hayes and they renamed him Yukio Hayakawa.

After the LA Times reported the story an actress came forward a white actress and said she was the mother and says she was the father. Okay. So he he potentially adopted his son. Yeah. It's a nice move. I wish my dad would do that. The mother the mother filed for full custody and then newspapers went crazy with the story. So to walk through how this happened he they fucked. She got pregnant. She had the baby. She gave it up for adoption and then he was like two years after two years and then he's like hey this one looks pretty good and then brought it home and then he's like Alan's a weird name. And then he was like it's all over until she was like wait just one second there. That's

basically it. Well but she made a deal with him. So newspapers made sure everyone knew what the deal was. One LA Times story started with quote she is of the Caucasian race. Finally. Finally. That's the actress right. Yeah. It's just nice to hear them be racially categorized every now and then too. Start practicing. A white. But now they're they were pointing out that a white lady had fucked an Asian guy. Yes which is shock. So it turns out they had met on the Volvo tour and they started making the sex and she got pregnant. But she was there banging. So now it's the depression. She doesn't have any money. So she gives up the kid for adoption. Sashu or you know trades him off to the dad because he can give the kid a better life.

So she basically gave him away. But now she says she's changed her mind. In the end Sashu paid her seven grand to go away. And that was the top on top of the 150 a month he had already promised in the original adoption agreement. So he's basically leasing his son. And he put a good payment up front to lower the monthly. That's right. Right. OK. That's right. OK. Sure. It's a low APR rate I guess. So the hysteria around how the scandal was covered in the papers convinced Sashu he had to leave the U.S. again. So he went back to Japan for his passport back to Japan. Everyone in Japan is just kind of ambivalent. They're like whatever. He was in films and plays but he's criticized for his acting American acting.

He started doing nationalist propaganda films to help out because again Japanese is obviously swinging the way they're going and linking and they link up with Nazi Germany and then he is in a movie to introduce Japanese culture to the Nazis. OK. But then soon after that the Japanese government took over filmmaking and the type of acting that Sashu did which was too American was not going to fly. So he leaves Japan in 1939. Where's really trance. Really the best time to leave Japan. He goes to France. Hey. Hello. Welcome back. Are you ready for another round. This time we've got something interesting for you. All right. We want you to play your wife. Look at that. You get inside that box jump out of it. It's outside of it. It is.

It is. OK. You want to use a different attack. This time you no longer play your wife or a turtle. You play water. What. Yes. You be a big lick. And everybody it's about people who go to a summer camp and swim inside of your lake body. And you have two lines. I'm a guy. Yes. But don't you understand you can't play men anymore or not. A white guy and we're not as overtly racist but we're super avant garde. So he leaves his wife and kid in Japan when he goes to France. OK. Tough time. I would assume having a kid that's it's hard to upward a kid when they're of that age where they have friends and they're you know by the way if there's anybody who's sensitive to travel abroad

at this point it's him. I mean he's like why would he send his kids like he'd be like you know where you should go. America. They'll beat all the liberty out of you. So he makes a movie in France. They see in Japan. They fucking hate it. Once again he is called an insult to the nation. So he's like well I'm not I think you plan on shooting the film and going back to his family in Japan but he's like well I'm not fucking leaving France now and he keeps making movies even those even those wife and son are waiting for him in Japan and then he's there when the Nazis invade. So he's stuck. He's stuck there for the rest of the war. Jesus. Can't make movies has to do something to make a living. So he starts painting watercolors and selling them to survive.

He helped the French resistance but it's not known exactly what he did. And then when the war ended he's pretty much unemployable. Japanese don't like him and the rest of the world does not like the Japanese. Then after a little bit Humphrey Bogart starts looking for him and they find out he's France they send people to France and they offer him a role in a film. And the way to get the role is the U.S. has to investigate his activities during the war to make sure he was on the right side. After the investigation he was allowed to return to the U.S. I mean look you thought casting was hard now. All right. Well you're on a veil. We just want to make sure which side of the war you were on. And show me both of your hands both sides. Great. I knew you wanted

to shave. Great. And talk about your thoughts on World War One where we were. I don't like my country. They did bad things. That's perfect. Cut. Send that to the producer. That's the one. That's the one. Do I need to read any of the lines from the actual film? There won't be any lines for you. Oh. Yeah. Your did not nobody tell you this is a French adaptation. You'll be playing O'Lake. Okay. So we're just going to lay really flat. And are you able to make yourself liquid? I guess. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Great. Okay. And again you do not like the Japanese? No. I don't. No. I don't like me. I don't like me. I'm bad. Oh that's good. Say the more you said we love that here. So he goes to Hollywood. He makes Tokyo Joe with Humphrey Bogart. And then

he makes three came home. Hollywood critics are giving him great reviews. He's Travolta. Although some are questioning why he never became a U.S. citizen and was still Japanese. Here we here. You've got to love us. Yes. I know. Right. Well that's because you made it illegal. I don't know. It's there. It's pretty pretty hard to figure out if we did or didn't potato potato really. But what do you have against this that you don't want to be a citizen of this great nation that shit all over you for 10 years. So but overall the reception of the movies is like whatever. So he still every actor. He still wants the same thing as always wanted in an interview. He says quote my one ambition is to play a hero in a Hollywood movie.

And of course no offers came. Then the president of a Japanese film company persuaded him to come back and in 1949 after 12 years he returned to Japan because the U.S. was trying to use films as propaganda. It did not want the previous nationalist style. So she was suddenly in demand with filmmakers and studios publicized him as an international star. But for audiences he was still to westernized. And then the great film or Russia mom was made and audiences wanted stuff about Zen Buddhism Samurais and Gashas. And so he eventually left Japan and came back to the U.S. He went back into roles as the honorable bad guy. He was in the bridge on the River Kwai as Colonel Saito a Japanese POW commander. The fucking amazing performance. It's considered his greatest

performance of all time. The character was similar to the one he played in the movie that made him the cheat. The Japanese. This is the author. My oh again Japanese man quote between civilized civilized but primitive refined but brutal authoritative but vulnerable westernized and Japanese. So he's still after all these years he's still doing the exact same part. But at least this one he can act in. There's a little more like this little more. He's nominated for an Oscar. The bridge on the River Kwai won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture. The only nomination it did not win was Best Supporting Actor. Who was nominated for them? Sesh. Oh interesting. Seshu Hayakawa. Interesting. So it's just like the Oscars of today.

That's right. He was then offered similar parts and once again PR articles were written to show how American he was. Boy look at this guy. He's knocking on the door of being white isn't he? The New York Post December 1957 quote Seshu Hayakawa takes tea at cocktail time at the Aster. But in his streamlined air conditioned American home with traditional Japanese furnishings in Tokyo he said I have hotcakes and coffee every morning for breakfast. I still keep too many of the nice customs I picked during my years in the United States. The New Yorker wrote quote in person he looks more like an off-duty samurai than a villain. Is there a bit of country? Which doesn't have any meaning. That doesn't mean anything. Has there ever been a country

who needed its dick constantly sucked more than the United States? Has there ever been like a bigger kiss the ring constantly nation? And by the way, now we're not allowed to go to Europe. So I can say there were countries. One example is Germany in the late 30s. There's also Japan in the late 30s. Those are the countries. Germany actually does ring a bell now that you bring it up. But that worked out normal. Yeah, that was fine. So his wife died in 1961. The bridge on the required made him a celebrity again in Japan. So he returned. He started films there. Then he made a switch and studied Zen Buddhism. So he leaves film or he didn't complete a leave but he became an ordained Buddhist priest. Okay. He would sometimes act in films but

he finally retired in 1967 after 53 years of acting. And then he was just a priest for his last few years. He died on November 23, 1973 in Tokyo from a blood clot. A Japanese magazine wrote a story titled, quote, the ex-Hollywood actor Seshio Hayakawa died with a big question. Was he really an international star? Japanese intellectuals in the article were ambivalent about him. I mean, what a crazy, to constantly sandbag somebody in every way and then ask if they played it right. It's like... Well, the bullshit nationalists, it's two countries fired up about themselves and some poor guy just lost on the fucking mix. It was like, who's like, I just want to act. Can I just act? Yeah. And then because he was painted in the

corners when other had to find his own ways and then they would just say that, well, you went to America and you're too American now. It's like, yeah, well, you wouldn't have me. Yeah, but now you're too. It's like leaving a bird's eggs in its nest. The second you touch it, I mean, it's just like both countries are just like, no, it's got the stink of the other country on it. No, thank you. There's also this other thing that you always think of like, if every kid doesn't get an opportunity, how many Beethoven's do you lose? How many Einstein's do you lose? You know what I mean? But then you get an example like this. We don't know how good of an actor he was. He was nominated for Academy Award, but was he doing rom-coms? Or was he doing

just traditional family parts? Was he given all the opportunities to say a Brad Pitt? No, absolutely not. So we don't know. He could have been the greatest. He could have been the greatest actor. He could have been an Olivier type actor, but we don't know. We have no idea. Truly, truly, how many great minds and talents have been completely squandered because we either just killed them, fully depressed them, or iced them out. And it's an incalculable number, but based on race, gender, sexual orientation, we've just... And then, by the way, this is the country that after World War II brought over all the Nazi scientists and we're like, oh, don't worry about that. It's like... America is far worse off because of racism. It is far worse

off because we don't give everyone an opportunity. And if Black Lives Matter, who knows who could have come up with a solution to climate change or anything else that was actually killed on the streets or never given an opportunity? You're killing minds and people that are important every day. And you're also just killing some guy who just wants to go to work. All right. We sigh cars. Yeah, that's right. The main source for this episode is Sesshu Hayakawa, Silent Cinema, and the transitional stardom by Daisaku Mayu.