Imitation of Life (2nd Version) 1959
Your Children are Watching You
1959’s Imitation of Life is an incredibly tragic movie. The characters Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore) a single mother and her interracial daughter Sarah Jane are homeless and living on a beach when a widow Laura Merideth (Lana Turner) and her daughter Susie are at the beach and Susie gets lost. She is playing with Sarah Jane. When Laura finds her Annie asks if she has any room for them to stay.
Laura says no but finally acquiesces and let’s the two strangers stay in a supply closet in her kitchen and Annie agrees to be cook and clean to pay her rent. Long story short, Annie’s daughter grows up to resent her mother and she is ashamed of her for being so desperate and needy, she misses the point that it was all for her.
What makes this movie great for entrepreneurs is Annie makes great pancakes and waffles and Laura decides to open a restaurant featuring Annie’s pancakes. She offers Annie 20% of the business as it explodes but Annie turns it down offering to continue to be a servant to the nice white lady (this is the only part that pissed me off because even the DUMBEST person would have not only taken the 20% but asked for MORE).
It has been rumored for decades that this is the actual story of Aunt Jemima pancakes and the black woman who created them and how she got ripped off. Annie’s character didn’t know anything about business so she allowed herself to be ripped off because she was so gracious to have a place to stay and a LOT of black women, unfortunately, have been through this especially during those days and when you add in racism and the lack opportunities for black people which was much more prevalent back then she would have probably had no choice but to give her business to the white lady but the exchange o how it happened is not believable.
The lesson from this movie is balanced and knowing your value. Believe it or not, working in the music industry I STILL see black people give away their ideas to people outside the culture allowing them to profit from black culture and ideas. We are the ONLY race that does that. Here is a belief that we like to save everybody but ourselves which is often true.
