by Rick Palley
May 7, 2002

It all started innocently enough, with Mona Z. Smith sifting through some books, looking for a personal story to add some punch to the play she was writing about post-WWII America.

What she found was less like a punch and more like a roundhouse right to the chin.

There, nearly hidden in a footnote at the bottom of a page in Stefan Kanfers' “Journal of the Plague years,” were a few lines that would change the course of her life for the next six years.

They described how the blacklist ruined the career of Canada Lee, considered by many to be one of great black actors of his time. According to Kanfer, Lee didn't merely suffer as a result of blacklist accusations, but was “at once, it's most ignored and afflicted victim.”

The footnote was only a few lines long, but Smith was immediately drawn to the tale of Lee's rags-to-riches journey from musician to jockey to prizefighter to prominent stage and screen actor, and his equally dramatic downfall.

“I just thought, this is an incredible story,” said Smith.

Yet something was obviously missing: if he was such a great actor, why hadn't anyone heard of him?

Her search for more information led to one dead end after another. But Smith, who now lives in Windsor Terrace, had worked years before as an investigative reporter at the Miami Herald, and wasn't so easily deterred.

Her big break came when she found out that Lees' widow, Frances Lee Pearson, was still alive and living in Atlanta.

On Pearson's invitation, Smith caught a red-eye down to Atlanta, arriving at 4AM to find Pearson waiting up for her with all the lights on and a bottle of scotch at hand.

They talked “for something like 19 hours straight,” said Smith, with Lee's widow sharing her memories and also her archives of his letters, speeches, and other personal effects.

Smith used that treasure-trove of information, along with other research, to write her play, “Becoming Something: Canada Lee,” which will premier at the Kraine Theater in the East Village on May 9. The date marks the 50th anniversary of Lee's death.

The play's title echoes Lee's sentiment that he was always on the “verge of being something”—first a violin prodigy, which he gave up to become a jockey, then a prize fighter, which he gave up after suffering a detached retina, and finally an actor.

It was at this last profession that Lee truly excelled. His grace, presence, and natural ability promised great things for his career; that is, until he came up against the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), who were investigating communist influence in Hollywood.

By that time, Lee was already in the public spotlight after many acclaimed stage appearances and movie roles in “Lifeboat” and “Body and Soul.” Lee used his prominence as a platform to talk about Jim Crow, speaking frequently and passionately at civil rights rallies.

Unfortunately, he was none too careful about checking the background of people and groups he appeared for, according to Smith. It wasn't long before the FBI took notice of his activities.

Soon after the HUAC became aware of him when, during the 1949 spy trial of Justice Department employee Judith Coplon, FBI documents mentioning his name surfaced.

No direct evidence linking him to any communist groups was ever actually found, says Smith. It was all based on murmured rumors and hearsay. But the effect was the same anyway.

Lee's long-time friend and supporter Ed Sullivan (later of TV fame), picked up on the blacklist story and put it in his nationally syndicated newspaper column. Lee suddenly found himself an outcast, unable to find work in Hollywood.

It was the beginning of the end for Lee.

He completed one more film abroad, “Cry the Beloved Country,” and returned to the States, only to have his passport revoked. His career in ruins, Lee continued to speak out against racism, but his health, possibly as a result of the stress of being blacklisted, t0ok a turn for the worse, and on May 9, 1952, he died of a heart attack.

Fifty years later, Smith is commemorating the anniversary of Lee's death by telling his story to a public that has all but forgotten him.

“I just don't think it should go on a minute longer,” said Smith, referring to Lee's obscurity.

Both she and the 83-year-oldPearson agreed that trailblazers like Lee helped open the door for other black actors like Sydney Poitier, Denzil Washington, and Halle Berry, all of whom received Oscars at this year's Academy Awards.

“He (Lee) did make a very great contribution to society, and there are many black actors today who would not be in their position had it not been for the fight that he fought,” said Pearson, reached by phone at her home in Atlanta.

“Becoming Something: Canada Lee,” will be at the Kraine Theater, 85 East 4th Street in Manhattan, from May 9-26. For tickets, call (212) 206-1515, or visit www.SmartTix.com.

Reprinted with permission from the author.