I wanted to add a little p.s. – and a photo – to Jay Quan’s account of the making of Harry Belafonte’s Beat Street movie.

Belafonte worked as a janitor in the South Bronx before his acting career took off in the late forties. In a TV interview recorded after the Beat Street release in 1984, he explained why he got involved with it.  “My roots run deep in this community,” he said.  “I think most people in America think of the South Bronx as ‘Fort Apache,’ a place of violence and hopelessness. But the ability of the people here to survive, to endure, to reach out and force the universe to focus on it, is an awesome tale.” 

As a working photographer, I happened to be at Manhattan’s Roxy nightclub in December of 1983 when Belafonte was auditioning young people for the movie.  At one point, he was talking to the Magnificent Force breakdancers and I jumped in to ask if he would care to learn with them how to dance the Electric Boogie so that I could photograph him in the moment. 

A few months later, in that ’84 TV interview, Belafonte claimed that he himself had never attempted to breakdance, “knowing fully well that by the time you’re 20 in breakdancing, you’re a senior citizen.”

It's possible he forgot what actually happened. I only wish I could show him the photo below.  I think he’d be happy to see it.