Bumpy Johnson

[Pioneer1]

It's funny how one thing leads to another and then to another............


Been on a "Bumpy Johnson" mission for the past couple weeks....lol.
Can't seem to get enough entertainment or information about the brother since a lot of the old movies I grew up watching were really about HIM but I didn't know it.


I happened to watch one of my favorite Denzel Washington flix "American Gangster" a few nights ago and of course it was about Bumpy Johnson's driver who turned gangster Frank Lucas.
At one point they played a song by Bobby Womack.... "Across 110th Street"...that we started jamming to. 
I downloaded it and was playing it over and over on my way to work.
Then I thought   -wait a minute....I think there's a movie with the same name so perhaps I'll watch that later on when I get home.


Across 110th Street was an old movie from way back in 1972 but for some reason I didn't have a desire to watch it until now and when I watched it I enjoyed it but it too had a character based on Bumpy Johnson called "Doc Johnson".

Hmmm.....

Then I watched Hoodlum...another film based on Bumpy Johnson's rise to power.

Then a few nights later I decided to watch Shaft.....a movie I've seen dozens of times since I was a kid and didn't pay attention to it but out of the blue I notice that the main gangster in the movie was a dude named "Bumpy Jonas"!

Say what??????

And of course there is some Netflix special about him and Malcolm X that I have yet to see.

Seems to me like the brother Bumpy was a PRETTY BIG legend back in the day.

@Troy did you hear any murmurings or legends about Bumpy in your old neighborhood growing up or is this just a lot of Hollywood hype?

 

[Troy]

@Pioneer1 I grew up on 113th street and was 10 when the film was made. There were many films that were shot in my old 'hood during the Black exploitation era.  While I enjoyed seeing familiar places on the big screen as a kid, it created a distorted perspective. "Hollywood Hype" as you called it.

 

In the video I shot about 16 years ago, you'll see Mayme, Bumpy's widow.  I walked by the building they used to live last week.

 

Karen, the lady speaking in the video, wrote a book about Bumpy.  Karen was Bumpy's Goddaughter and grew up a few blocks from me.  She told me Bumpy used to pass out money to the kids to buy school supplies.  Meeting Mayme long after Bumpy died as about as close as I got to the man myself.  Mayme, passed less than a year after I shot this video.

 

I saw Shaft a few times but never caught the "Bumpy Jonas" reference  

 

 

[ProfD]

5 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

Been on a "Bumpy Johnson" mission for the past couple weeks....lol.

 

Seems to me like the brother Bumpy was a PRETTY BIG legend back in the day.

Bumpy Johnson was a legend in his world. Not exactly a Civil Rights icon. That's why we don't hear much about him.