On ‘The Butler,’ and the legendary life of Eugene Allen
ESSAY - In my mind Eugene Allen’s story is nothing less than a hero’s tale, forming its own distinctly American folklore in the imagination – an odyssey that took one man from the sprawling plantation homes of Virginia to the heart of America’s capital...
When I finally met Allen, I was under the impression he’d “only” worked for three different presidents.
When I learned he’d in fact been a butler at the White House for eight administrations, only then did I grasp the full gravity of his story and this true American fable really began to take shape. In that fable, a humble and hardworking man pulls himself up by the bootstraps from the degradation of the Jim Crow South to the cool halls of the White House, asserting his rights as an American not by marching through streets but by striding those halls with quiet dignity.
There he worked tirelessly through tumultuous periods of history, throughout the ’60s. For instance, you had the murder of Medgar Evers, the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. During this dark period, many didn’t see the virtue of service and left the White House. However, Allen, like Odysseus, journeyed on, and despite these low moments, maintained hope that change was on the horizon.
I think of him, in the midst of all of this violence and upheaval, stomach gripped with fear and doubt, hearing President Johnson assure the nation that we shall overcome, standing there, just a few feet away as he said these words. It must have been a spiritual experience.
Allen found his dedication and perseverance rewarded when Ronald Reagan made him the first, and perhaps the only, White House service staff member to be formally invited to a state dinner as an official guest, slipping our hero through the silk curtain and into the receiving line with the international dignitaries and political leaders that he’d so dutifully served. It’s people like Allen, quietly endeavoring behind the scenes, that we must credit for literally forging our seat at the table. When I sat next to Allen for Obama’s inauguration, he leaned over and said to me in a poignant moment that, “early on when I’d first started in the White House, I didn’t dream you could dream like this.”
My Washington Post article, A Butler Well Served by This Election, brought Allen’s story to the world shortly after Obama was first inaugurated. But, it is Lee Daniels who’s led the effort to bring this American myth to the silver screen in the film The Butler (scheduled for release August 16, 2013), harnessing the colossal talent of Forest Whitaker, Jane Fonda, Oprah Winfrey and Vanessa Redgrave, just to name a few of the luminaries who make up this star-studded cast.
When I was on set in New Orleans, I would look around and see all of these amazing actors and actresses. I said to myself that this experience, just as unique and meaningful as the story we were trying to tell, needed be captured for people. Even with my level of experience, there were many publishers who said no to the idea for a book. Just when I thought it wasn’t going to happen I got a call from Sean Davis at Simon and Schuster who said they were interested, and in the spirit of so many coincidences that led me to Allen’s story, I told Sean that I had been waiting for that call.
In the book [that was released] on July 30 2013, accompanying my in-depth discussion of Allen and his life are beautiful photos of Allen, his family and moments captured on the movie set. You really get a sense of what a special man Allen was and what an amazing experience being a part of the film was.
When I think of him now, and all of the people his story will reach with the film and the book, I can’t help but wonder, like any enduring fable, what lessons we can take from a story like Allen’s. What I’m left with is simply a name, printed there in The New York Times, when The New York Times still printed the list of dignitaries invited to the state dinner. Amongst those names of diplomats, celebrities, politicians, and other very powerful people, is Eugene Allen. His is a story to me that stands as a testament to the power of consistency, and I have never been more proud of knowing another human being.
Chase Quinn is a freelance writer, art critic, and budding novelist, who has worked with several leading human rights organizations in the U.S. and the U.K., promoting social and economic justice. Follow Chase on Twitter at @chasebquinn.
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