Tony-nominated writer Melvin Van Peebles died Sep. 21 at his home in Manhattan. Born Aug. 21, 1932 in Chicago, Peebles earned a B.A. in literature from Ohio Wesleyan (1954). While in the Air Force, he married German actress Maria Marx. After his discharge, they moved to Mexico City, where Peebles painted portraits. The couple then moved to San Francisco, where Peebles drove cable cars. He also made three film shorts, which he took to Hollywood. Unable to find film work, Peebles moved his family to the Netherlands and studied astronomy at University of Amsterdam.
After his wife returned to the US, Peebles hitchhiked to Paris and busked for a time, until he established himself as a writer. In France, he wrote several novels, short stories, and plays. In 1968, he made his debut album, Brer Soul, and his first feature film, The Story of a Three-Day Pass, based on his novel La Permission. Now, Peebles found work in Hollywood with Watermelon Man (1970). Below is the film’s “Love, That’s America,” a theme song for the 2011 Occupy Wall Street. He went independent for his next feature, the landmark Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971).
Peebles made his Broadway debut with the book, lyrics, and music for Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death (1971), which built on his experimental spoken word albums of the 1960s. The show brought Peebles two Tony nominations and a Drama Desk Award. Below is the original Broadway cast, featuring Garrett Morris, in a selection from the show at the 1972 Tony Awards.
Peebles returned to Broadway the following year with the musical Don’t Play Us Cheap, an adaptation of his play La Fête à Harlem, which he also directed and produced. Below is original star Joshie Jo Armstead singing “You Cut Up the Clothes” in the 1973 film version. In the 1980s, Peebles premiered two more Broadway musicals: the short-lived Reggae (1980) and Waltz of the Stork (1982), which he also directed, produced, and performed in.
His next musical was Champeen (1983), which had an Off-Broadway run at Woody King Jr.’s New Federal Theatre with Ruth Brown as Bessie Smith. Peebles then became an options trader on the American Stock Exchange, while continuing to work as a performer and writer, winning a Daytime Emmy and a Humanitas Prize for the 1987 CBS Schoolbreak Special episode “The Day They Came to Arrest the Book.” Below is “A Brief History of Melvin Van Peebles,” a faux newsreel clip from the award-winning 2005 documentary How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It).