- we re gonna turn the questioning over to the soul train gang, marvin, okay? - what else do you like to do besides singing at your spare time? - well, i enjoy, i like fooling around. (audience laughing) - one reason soul train succeeded 15 years after the nat king cole show is because they found a sponsor to take it national. - that was for us, by us and we loved it. - let s welcome them warmly, gladys & the pips, mr. barry white, sly and the family stone, curtis mayfield, aretha franklin. - don cornelius was an icon. this man changed the game. when i was growing up, you did not miss soul train. i mean, that was a part of my youth. - it was the regularly scheduled national platform for black culture. someone does popping on soul train in 1971 and people are tryin popping in the schoolyard two hours later. it was a kind of universal black experience. - back in the 80s, which i ll never forget,
- white audiences have been afraid of black comics, black comedy, because those comedians are truth tellers and sometimes you don t wanna hear the truth. - so what it meant was if you saw black characters on television, they were always gonna be subservient to allay white fears and to protect kind of white comfort. ethel waters was really the first black to have her own variety show. it was 1939, and later was hazel scott in 1950. but they did not last long on the tube. - so in 1956, we had the debut of the nat king cole show. you had a smooth, suave, black man leading a variety show. oh, boy, i m lucky i ll say i m lucky now this is my lucky day - so he was singing and acting in sketches. the problem with the show was you can t show this kind of black representation in southern cities. - advertisers were afraid that if they sponsored nat king cole that white audiences would boycott their products.
(audience laughing) - one reason soul train succeeded 15 years after the nat king cole show is because they found a sponsor to take it national. - that was for us, by us and we loved it. - let s welcome them warmly, gladys & the pips, mr. barry white, sly and the family stone, curtis mayfield, aretha franklin. - don cornelius was an icon. this man changed the game. when i was growing up, you did not miss soul train. i mean, that was a part of my youth. - it was the regularly scheduled national platform for black culture. someone does popping on soul train in 1971 and people are tryin popping in the schoolyard two hours later. it was a kind of universal black experience. - back in the 80s, which i ll never forget, i was a soul train dancer. oh, my god, that was such a huge deal. to go to the set was just mind blowing. and then here walks out don cornelius with his afro.
that s one thing you couldn t take. - white audiences have been afraid of black comics, black comedy, because those comedians are truth tellers and sometimes you don t wanna hear the truth. - so what it meant was if you saw black characters on television, they were always gonna be subservient to allay white fears and to protect kind of white comfort. ethel waters was really the first black to have her own variety show. it was 1939, and later was hazel scott in 1950. but they did not last long on the tube. - so in 1956, we had the debut of the nat king cole show. you had a smooth, suave, black man leading a variety show. oh, boy, i m lucky i ll say i m lucky now this is my lucky day - so he was singing and acting in sketches. the problem with the show was you can t show this kind of black representation in southern cities. - advertisers were afraid that if they sponsored nat king cole
if you saw black characters on television, they were always gonna be subservient to allay white fears and to protect kind of white comfort. ethel waters was really the first black to have her own variety show. it was 1939, and later was hazel scott in 1950. but they did not last long on the tube. - so in 1956, we had the debut of the nat king cole show. you had a smooth, suave, black man leading a variety show. oh, boy, i m lucky i ll say i m lucky now this is my lucky day - so he was singing and acting in sketches. the problem with the show was you can t show this kind of black representation in southern cities. - advertisers were afraid that if they sponsored nat king cole that white audiences would boycott their products. - and if you can t get sponsorship, you can t exist. and when the show was canceled, what he said was, madison avenue is afraid of the dark. and they were.