Movies - Imitation of Life

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	Movies - Imitation of Life

Imitation of Life is a popular 1933 novel by Fannie Hurst, which was adapted into two successful films for Universal Pictures: a black-and-white film in 1934, and a color remake in 1959.

Synopsis of novel

The story is look at early 20th century American race relations. In Hurst's novel, Bea Chipley is a quiet, mousey, Atlantic City teenage girl whose mother passes away, leaving her to keep house for her father (Mr. Chipley) and Bill Pullman, a boarder who peddles ketchup and relish on the boardwalk and sells maple syrup door-to-door on the side. Within a year, her father and Pullman decide that she should marry Pullman, and shortly thereafter Bea becomes pregnant. Her father suffers an incapacitating stroke, confining him to a wheelchair, and Pullman is killed in a train accident. Bea is left to fend for herself, her father, and her infant daughter Jessie.

Bea takes in boarders to defray expenses and assumes Bill's trade of door-to-door maple syrup sales, using his "B. Pullman" business cards to avoid the ubiquitous sexism of 1920's America. To care for her infant daughter and disabled father, Bea Pullman hires Delilah, a black mammy figure, who brings with her a light-skinned infant daughter named Peola. Delilah is a master waffle-maker, and Bea capitalizes on Delilah's skills to open first a single "B. Pullman" waffle restaurant, from which she eventually builds a nation-wide and then international chain of highly successful restaurants. Frank Flake, a striking young man intent on entering medical school, becomes Bea's business manager.

In the meantime, Jessie and Peola have grown up side by side, and Peola is painfully aware of the tension between her white appearance and black racial identity. She continually attempts to pass as white, and Delilah, equally pained by the tension, continually attempts to develop in her a sense of pride about her blackness. Eventually Peola severs all ties, marries a white man, and moves to South America, causing such pain in Delilah that Delilah passes away not too long after.

As Delilah is slowly dying, Bea is falling in love with Flake, who is eight years her younger. Jessie, by now in her late teens, comes home for a visit just as Bea is planning on selling the "B. Pullman" chain to marry Flake. The three are mired in a love triangle in the last dozen or so pages, resulting in a tragic ending.

Controversy surrounding novel

Hurst, a white woman, was deeply involved in the Harlem Renaissance, and for a time lived with Zora Neale Hurston. Both Hurston and Langston Hughes claimed to like Imitation of Life, though both revoked their opinion after Sterling Allen Brown lambasted both the book and the first film in a review titled Imitation of Life: Once a Pancake, a reference to a line in the first film. The novel Imitation of Life continues to be highly controversial, as some read it as heavy-handed stereotyping, while others see it as a more subtle and subversive satire of and commentary on race, sex, and class in early 20th century America. Both text and films have remained deeply embedded in American consciousness, for better or worse, as evidenced by Toni Morrison's use of a character named "Pecola" in her 1970 novel The Bluest Eye.

1934 film

The 1934 film version of Imitation of Life starred Claudette Colbert as Bea, Rochelle Hudson as Jessie, Louise Beavers as Delilah, Fredi Washington as Peola, and Warren William as Steven Archer. Directed by John M. Stahl and adapted from Hurst's novel by William Hurlbut, it was released by Universal Pictures on November 26, 1934, and later re-issued in 1936.

This Imitation of Life film is a more direct adaptation of Hurst's novel than the 1959 version (below). It marked the first time in cinema history that a black woman's problems were given significant emotional weight in a major Hollywood motion picture. The film was nominated for the 1935 Academy Award for Best Picture and assistant director Scott Beal was nominated for Best Assistant Director.

Plot

Bea Pullman and her daughter Jessie take in housekeeper Delilah Johnson and her daughter Peola, in exchange for room and board. In a short amount of time, Delilah and Peola become family to Jessie and Bea. They particularly enjoy Delilah's pancakes, made from a special family recipe. Bea decides to start a pancake restaurant and later a pancake flour corporation, marketing Delilah as an Aunt Jemima-like figure.

As a result, Bea becomes a wealthy business woman, but all is not well. Jessie falls in love with her mother's boyfriend, Steven Archer, who is unaware at first of her affections. Peola, ashamed of her Black heritage, attempts to pass as white, breaking her mother Delilah's heart. Peola eventually runs away from home, and Delilah falls ill and eventually dies. Delilah's only wish was for a large, grand funeral, which Bea provides for her, complete with a marching band and a horse-drawn hearse. Just before the processional begins, however, a remorseful, crying, and apologetic Peola appears, begging her mother to forgive her for her shame and finally acknowledging in public that she is in fact black. The film ends with Bea breaking her engagement with Steven because of the situation with Jessie.

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Movies - Imitation of Life

Synopsis of novel

Controversy surrounding novel

1934 film

Plot

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