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As a matter of fact, a few months ago I was talking on the phone with Paul Robeson, Jr., about the 1199 situation. He had done one thing already, and I said I wanted him to be updated on what was happening. He said, “Why don't you just call Gil? Gil's very active and very involved now in making a film on Malcolm X.”

I said, “He's making a film on Malcolm X? You know that we have the only footage of Malcolm X with a union.”

He said, “You do? Tell you what. Call Gil tomorrow.”

I called Gil Noble, and he immediately called back, because he'd already spoken to Paul Jr. I had called him. “How do I get the film?”

I said, “Look I don't want anything for it. I'll give you a copy of the print. I don't have the original. You can take it off and do what you want with it. Just credit that you got it from us.” And he was delighted to do that. But then there was a long, excellent review in the American Teacher. Now, that's the AFT. They are not exactly buddies of ours. A really great review of it. Then William Wolf, and Helen Yglesias, who was then the literary editor of The Nation, who did this very, very fine- -that's when I got to know her for the first time. She's Louis Cole's mother. She remarried Jose Yglesias, the writer. She even attacks Jimmy Wechsler because Jimmy is talking critically about the SDS. See, Wechsler's thing I excerpted. But I left out certain things in it. He calls me, “The poor man's 20th Century Fox.” Riley describes it. Anyway, this is a very fine review. This is a really a great story. Of course, the National Review did a job on the film of Johnny Randolph, going after Johnny Randolph -- you know, the red-baiting thing.

Oh, I didn't realize that.

Yes. After praising it, he uses the film -- he's talking about Wechsler -- to beat the new left and the new politics convention exhorting them to learn the lesson of black and white coalition. You know, this film. “In addition, the National Review started its predicted bull of yapping about John Randolph's political past. These are interesting signs of the film's power to send forth ripples from its unassuming center.” It's a very interesting kind of review. Of course, it refers to Malcolm X. You know, she's got everything in there.

It's very striking to me that a film made by a union could have such a tremendous response. It's hard to imagine that happening today.

As a matter of fact, our film on the Charleston strike is still being shown all over the place. I just saw it. Someone came in from