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Pioneering black athlete and film actor Woodrow Wilson Strode recalls his friendship with Jackie Robinson, his stint as professional wrestling's first black star, and his movie career.
262 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 29, 2017
As many of my members of my group and my many friends know, I am a mad film buff.
I was very pleased to get hold of this rare find of an autobiography.
So was a three star read. The above I am a film buff, but as a British film buff I did not enjoy that much the 50% of the book about his American Football career and his college football.
When it comes to the film part it became much better, but again I do enjoy stories of working with some of the great, how he got on with the legends, Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda. Sadly he may have given sometimes a paragraph on some of the films he made, and very little about the great legends he worked with, he was involved in many great films like Spartacus, The Professionals, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Once Upon The Time In The West, Shalako.
I think because of being a black athlete and black actor in the 30's, 40's and 50's he was happy being in films and excepted anything and everything, as you read the book, the money he made was the most important thing to him and of course his family. His Hawaiian way of life also was very important.
An average autobiography, no witty stories, well no humour in the book, no great stories, mainly his close relationship with John Ford.
Just okay... On to the next autobiography
I was very pleased to get hold of this rare find of an autobiography.
So was a three star read. The above I am a film buff, but as a British film buff I did not enjoy that much the 50% of the book about his American Football career and his college football.
When it comes to the film part it became much better, but again I do enjoy stories of working with some of the great, how he got on with the legends, Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda. Sadly he may have given sometimes a paragraph on some of the films he made, and very little about the great legends he worked with, he was involved in many great films like Spartacus, The Professionals, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Once Upon The Time In The West, Shalako.
I think because of being a black athlete and black actor in the 30's, 40's and 50's he was happy being in films and excepted anything and everything, as you read the book, the money he made was the most important thing to him and of course his family. His Hawaiian way of life also was very important.
An average autobiography, no witty stories, well no humour in the book, no great stories, mainly his close relationship with John Ford.
Just okay... On to the next autobiography
September 14, 2017
Good old Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode...Aka Woody, quite understandably, has written a book that is as questionable as it is engaging. I still haven't made up my mind if I want to trash the book or keep it forever.
Woody had a memorable and diverse career, and I have no doubt his book could have been much thicker. Most of us will remember him as the gladiator who fought (and beat) Kirk Douglas as Spartacus. I'll never forget him for his portrayal of one of the gunslingers sent to gun down Charlie Bronson in Once Upon a Time in the West. Most of us are not old enough to remember his days as a professional athlete, one of the few black men to break the color barrier way back in the day. It was Woody and Kenny Washington who were the first to sign with the LA Rams. The Rams wanted Kenny, but not so much our friend Woody, who was hired basically as company for Washington. I don't think Woody ever caught a pass for LA, and he was soon dropped by the team. Subsequent peregrinations found him playing professional football in Canada, delivering summonses and professional wrestling. Through it all, he fought racism in his own country. Don't forget, this was an era in which some players would walk off a team rather than play with a black man.
Ironically, some of the worst condemnation came from black people. Woody was about half Native American, but identified as black when he thought about it at all. He married a Hawaiian and was criticized for marrying outside his race!! Woody claims to have felt more comfortable and welcome in white society after his marriage.
I got drawn into the book right from the start. Woody was buddies with a lot of famous people: Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson, Gorgeous George...and he knows how to tell the story. I found this first part of the book fascinating and I think any sports fan will eat it right up. How ironic that Woody was never received in his own country the way he was welcomed elsewhere: a hero in Canada, and paid probably ten times the salary in Italy for doing the same thing he was doing in the USA.
I started having problems with the book about page 161. Woody played football in the CFL for the Calgary Stampeders, and he was a great addition to the team. The year he played, 1948, was the year Calgary went unbeaten in all regular season and post-season games...the last year any Canadian team has managed to have a perfect season. He was a pivotal figure in the Grey Cup game;
this from Page 161:
On the fourth lateral, they dropped the ball. I was at that spot, and I reached down and grabbed the ball. I could see the whites of the referee's eyes; he didn't blow his whistle, so I ran the ball 45 yards for the winning touchdown.
I was the hero. I left the field on my teammates' shoulders, a bottle of rye whiskey in my hand. No black athlete in the world had ever done that. I was their prized bull.
Well, there was some prized bull going around, but it was on the page, not on the field. It's true Woody recovered a fumbled lateral in what is probably the biggest game in Canadian football history, and he did run it down a ways, but he was dropped at the 10 or 11 yard line (accounts vary). Pete Thodos ran the ball in for a touchdown on a subsequent play! I was dumbfounded! What could he have been thinking? Did he think that no one would know he claimed another man's goal for his own? Woody's own contribution was significant; it was his quick action that set the ball within scoring distance...why did he have to claim to be the goal scorer? It's not like you could forget a momentous occasion like that! I started making allowances, like maybe Woody's memory was going, but I read the book with a very critical eye thereafter.
That brought me to Page 236, where Woody explains the opening scene of the very excellent Once Upon a Time in the West, where he and Jack Elam and Charles Bronson all pull their guns and... but wait a damn minute...I read it again...there were three gunmen meeting Bronson...Woody has neglected to mention Al Mulock, the Canadian actor who was the third member of Frank's gang. It wasn't possible to forget, because Mulock literally died...committed suicide right afterward, still dressed in his costume!! Doesn't matter how many times I read it, Strode mentions only that he and Elam meet the train, Mulock is denied any mention. Poor Al...killed by Eli Wallach and Charles Bronson in his two most memorable moments on film! But back to the book...
I have to say, even with the omissions, lies, lapses of memory...however you describe them, Woody was a fascinating individual who did not get a fair shake in the USA, except from John Ford. His relationship with Ford is a study in fraternal, or possibly filial, loyalty. I loved his movies, loved his stories, but I have to warn you, the man likes the glory and some of the book might be open to interpretation. In spite of that, I still recommend the book, even if only as an insight into race relations in the thirties and forties.
Woody had a memorable and diverse career, and I have no doubt his book could have been much thicker. Most of us will remember him as the gladiator who fought (and beat) Kirk Douglas as Spartacus. I'll never forget him for his portrayal of one of the gunslingers sent to gun down Charlie Bronson in Once Upon a Time in the West. Most of us are not old enough to remember his days as a professional athlete, one of the few black men to break the color barrier way back in the day. It was Woody and Kenny Washington who were the first to sign with the LA Rams. The Rams wanted Kenny, but not so much our friend Woody, who was hired basically as company for Washington. I don't think Woody ever caught a pass for LA, and he was soon dropped by the team. Subsequent peregrinations found him playing professional football in Canada, delivering summonses and professional wrestling. Through it all, he fought racism in his own country. Don't forget, this was an era in which some players would walk off a team rather than play with a black man.
Ironically, some of the worst condemnation came from black people. Woody was about half Native American, but identified as black when he thought about it at all. He married a Hawaiian and was criticized for marrying outside his race!! Woody claims to have felt more comfortable and welcome in white society after his marriage.
I got drawn into the book right from the start. Woody was buddies with a lot of famous people: Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson, Gorgeous George...and he knows how to tell the story. I found this first part of the book fascinating and I think any sports fan will eat it right up. How ironic that Woody was never received in his own country the way he was welcomed elsewhere: a hero in Canada, and paid probably ten times the salary in Italy for doing the same thing he was doing in the USA.
I started having problems with the book about page 161. Woody played football in the CFL for the Calgary Stampeders, and he was a great addition to the team. The year he played, 1948, was the year Calgary went unbeaten in all regular season and post-season games...the last year any Canadian team has managed to have a perfect season. He was a pivotal figure in the Grey Cup game;
this from Page 161:
On the fourth lateral, they dropped the ball. I was at that spot, and I reached down and grabbed the ball. I could see the whites of the referee's eyes; he didn't blow his whistle, so I ran the ball 45 yards for the winning touchdown.
I was the hero. I left the field on my teammates' shoulders, a bottle of rye whiskey in my hand. No black athlete in the world had ever done that. I was their prized bull.
Well, there was some prized bull going around, but it was on the page, not on the field. It's true Woody recovered a fumbled lateral in what is probably the biggest game in Canadian football history, and he did run it down a ways, but he was dropped at the 10 or 11 yard line (accounts vary). Pete Thodos ran the ball in for a touchdown on a subsequent play! I was dumbfounded! What could he have been thinking? Did he think that no one would know he claimed another man's goal for his own? Woody's own contribution was significant; it was his quick action that set the ball within scoring distance...why did he have to claim to be the goal scorer? It's not like you could forget a momentous occasion like that! I started making allowances, like maybe Woody's memory was going, but I read the book with a very critical eye thereafter.
That brought me to Page 236, where Woody explains the opening scene of the very excellent Once Upon a Time in the West, where he and Jack Elam and Charles Bronson all pull their guns and... but wait a damn minute...I read it again...there were three gunmen meeting Bronson...Woody has neglected to mention Al Mulock, the Canadian actor who was the third member of Frank's gang. It wasn't possible to forget, because Mulock literally died...committed suicide right afterward, still dressed in his costume!! Doesn't matter how many times I read it, Strode mentions only that he and Elam meet the train, Mulock is denied any mention. Poor Al...killed by Eli Wallach and Charles Bronson in his two most memorable moments on film! But back to the book...
I have to say, even with the omissions, lies, lapses of memory...however you describe them, Woody was a fascinating individual who did not get a fair shake in the USA, except from John Ford. His relationship with Ford is a study in fraternal, or possibly filial, loyalty. I loved his movies, loved his stories, but I have to warn you, the man likes the glory and some of the book might be open to interpretation. In spite of that, I still recommend the book, even if only as an insight into race relations in the thirties and forties.
July 31, 2024
I was familiar with Woody Strode from his acting career, but hadn't known about his athletic career. What an amazing life he lead.
June 11, 2017
Interesting. The man had many careers, working to put food on the table and live a comfortable life. Started out as a talented athlete at UCLA, playing on the football team with Kenny Washington and Jackie Robinson in the 1930's; wanted to compete in the Olympics but WWII started up, so he joined the Army and played football all during WWII for exhibition games, and over in the Pacific Theatre did the same ... he played Pro Football with the LA Rams for a few years until they owners decided they didn't like his being married to a Hawaiian (considering that to be a mixed-marriage), and so he went to Canada to play Pro Football up there ... after sustaining a few injuries he decided to make a career move into wrestling, where they paid good money and he didn't get hurt, so he traveled around the West, learning how to work the crowd and making friends with other wrestlers, like Gorgeous George. He was spotted by a talent scout on the television (wrestling was a big item on early TeeVee), and was soon contacted, telling him that he could make some money doing parts in movies. So he would show up at the studios, put on the costumes, say the lines, and he became good at that as well, graduating into better parts and movies (he played 2 roles in 'The Ten Commandments', and Cecil B. DeMille didn't want that fact known), including 'Spartacus', 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance', 'The Professionals', and 'Once Upon a Time in the West'. He became close friends to John Ford, and was there when the old man died. Quite an interesting read to follow all his different career moves ... !
May 16, 2013
This was a book written in a very conversational style. It was as if the author was just chatting to you. Unfortunately, from my point of view, Woody Strode, as the author, rattled off for almost three quarters of the book, numerous anecdotes and pieces of information about his American football and wrestling career. As I had known him as an actor, I was more interested in that part. When he finally got around to that, it was almost as if acting was a part of his career that just filled in the gap after his former careers, even though he had 2 excellent roles in the films Sergeant Rutledge and The Professionals. As a conversational piece, he seemed to gloss over many parts without any depth or explanation of some of the relationships he had with various actors. There was some insight into his life but it seemed more like trying to remember the various excerpts from his 3 careers.
October 25, 2016
Mr. Woody Strode was a gifted collegiate athlete at UCLA, a Olympian Decathlete, professional football player, professional wrestler and actor. He was a pioneer in the Olympic Games, the NFL and the Wrestling Federation. From his days in the South to Central LA to Hollywood, Mr. syriode lived a full life. He was a star a UCLA and was one of two of the first African Americans to integate the NFL and was professional wrestling's first African American stars. He was married to a member of the royal house of Hawaii's last queen and was a rvered actor in his days. This is a wonderful book with many private moments and much history.
October 27, 2016
Good book, I grew up watching movies on tv back in the day and Woodie Strode was in quite a few of them. Nice to have learned more about his athleticism.
Sounds like a really good guy. Had a lot of input on his background and up bringing. He could have been a bitter man but seems like he wasn't.
Sounds like a really good guy. Had a lot of input on his background and up bringing. He could have been a bitter man but seems like he wasn't.
March 1, 2012
Being a movie buff I knew about Woody Strode, but I had no idea that he was one if the first black player in the NFL and was a friend and Teammate of Jackie Robinson,who according to Woody was a better football player than baseball player during their days at UCLA.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews