I have been enjoying David Cairns' film criticism for at least a decade, but I was catching up on his latest installment on Chaplin's A King in New York (1957) and the record scratch of his sign-off stopped me cold:
Also, it never occurred to me before, but looking at Sid's frizzy hair, I wonder if he was mixed race. Though his broad nose is probably the result of his failed boxing career rather than genetics.
My dude, Sid James was born Solomon Joel Cohen. Have you never seen a Jewfro in your life? I'm not saying there's not precedent for confusion—Mezz Mezzrow in Really the Blues (1946) credited his own "nappy" Ashkenazi hair for getting him successfully transferred to the Black side of Riker's after his arrest for possession of a stupendous number of joints at the 1940 New York World's Fair—I am most definitely not saying that Black and mixed-race Jews don't exist, but I am saying that in this case no passing narrative is needed to explain the frizz unless you count the name change, which I doubt anybody does. (Please hold for my household's inevitable quotation of Sesame Street: "I am the Count. They call me the Count because I love to count things!" – "Wonderful! I'm Guy Smiley. They call me Guy Smiley because I changed my name from Bernie Liederkrantz!") It's just such a weird thing to speculate on when the information is out there. I don't have that hair, but I sure know people who do.
Also, it never occurred to me before, but looking at Sid's frizzy hair, I wonder if he was mixed race. Though his broad nose is probably the result of his failed boxing career rather than genetics.
My dude, Sid James was born Solomon Joel Cohen. Have you never seen a Jewfro in your life? I'm not saying there's not precedent for confusion—Mezz Mezzrow in Really the Blues (1946) credited his own "nappy" Ashkenazi hair for getting him successfully transferred to the Black side of Riker's after his arrest for possession of a stupendous number of joints at the 1940 New York World's Fair—I am most definitely not saying that Black and mixed-race Jews don't exist, but I am saying that in this case no passing narrative is needed to explain the frizz unless you count the name change, which I doubt anybody does. (Please hold for my household's inevitable quotation of Sesame Street: "I am the Count. They call me the Count because I love to count things!" – "Wonderful! I'm Guy Smiley. They call me Guy Smiley because I changed my name from Bernie Liederkrantz!") It's just such a weird thing to speculate on when the information is out there. I don't have that hair, but I sure know people who do.
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