I was flipping channels earlier and came across "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," the 1967 film that is probably considered a classic if for no other reason than it was the last of the Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn flicks, and, in fact, Tracy's last film. It was a bit touchy in its day, all about inter-racial marriage, or the prospect thereof, between Katharine Houghton -- Hepburn's niece, who never did much else in the movies -- and Sidney Poitier, who did. Good movie, though, with a great cast, including Cecil Kellaway as a lovable teddy bear. Beah Richards as Poitier's mother is especially wonderful, but she always is.
I remember when my parents came home from having gone to see the movie, which I had already seen. We talked about it -- the Tracy- Hepburn end-of-an-era thing, how old and near-death Spencer Tracy looked. But with regard to the social and familial implications of the story, I said to my mother, "So, how would you feel about it if I brought home a young man I wanted to marry who was black?"
She ruminated on that for about three seconds and then said, "Well, if he looks like Sidney Poitier, that'll be all right."
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