Cooley High Is On!

The other night I was settling in after a long day at work and as I surfed through the channels I happened upon a new episode of Unsung Hollywood featuring Cooley High.  Cooley High!  You remember Cooley High, right?!?  Who doesn't remember Cooley High?!? Ooooh, if you don't please do not raise your hand or say, "I don't!" because that's just bad.  One word:  Netflix!  Anyways.  Man...I absolutely, positively, without a doubt love this movie!  Back in 1975, it was one of the first coming of age stories about people that looked like me living a very similar experience.  I even remember memorizing certain lines from the movie, "If I ain't going, ain't nobody going." "Aw, man I thought this was gonna be fun.  You can't get nothing in here but a heat rash!"  Dig what I learned the other day about Cooley High...

"You coulda been the greatest man…coulda been."

Cooley High was written by Eric Monte, a young black male that left Chicago for Los Angeles to pursue his dream of being a writer.  Shot in and around Cabrini Green Housing Projects in Chicago in only 6 weeks and using actual residents of the projects, Cooley High was a coming of age saga about the black experience of many young folks growing up in the hood.  Remember the gangster cats, Stone and Robert that were always chasing Cochise and 'nem around?  Those cats were actually gangsters the directors found in a community casting call and they executed their roles perfectly!  Cooley High was so familiar to anyone that grew up in an urban area in the 70's.  Girls being chased by boys.  Boys clowning in class.  Boys trying their best to talk girls out of their panties.  Those same girls losing their virginity to those fast, slick talking boys.  Families struggling to provide a better life for their kids.  Kids cutting class to hang in the streets. Kids living for today as if there was no tomorrow.  And senseless violence just…because.  Sounds like what's happening today, right?  

Directed by Michael Schultz, an African American director Cooley High offered an all black ensemble different that the black exploitation films that were popular in the 1970's.   Copied a bit after the movie, American Graffiti to attract audiences Cooley High earned $13 million dollars at the box office and it only cost $700,000 to make the film.  The two main characters, Preach, played by Glenn Turman who was 27 years old playing a 16 year old character and fine, fine, fine Cochise, played by Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, count their roles in Cooley High as some of their favorites.  We can't forget sweet Pooter and that scene at the zoo when the gorilla threw s&!t on him, which was actually real!  Motown scored the film and that made the house party, doo wopping, making out and funeral scenes some of the best of the movie.  Rog, Rerun, Dwayne and Dee from "What's Happening" can thank Eric Monte for inspiring his creation of the show that launched their careers.    

Some of the cast struggled after Cooley High including one that was murdered, another slipped away into obscurity and the film's writer struggled with a drug addiction that found him homeless and sleeping in a park.  Some years later, Eric Monte managed to gather the rest of his life and is now living the rest of his life clean and sober.  Michael Shultz went on to direct Car Wash ("You gotta believe sumthin'!  Why not believe in me?!?"), another one of my favorite movies.  Garrett Morris became an accomplished comedian starring on Saturday Night Live.  Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs went on to star in "Welcome Back Kotter" and enjoys writing and directing.  Glenn Turman has well over 100 acting and directing credits under his belt and is a real, 'sho 'nuff black cowboy having ridden in several rodeos and owns and operates his own ranch.  

Movies like Cooley High remind us that despite where we may come from, we can go on to do great things.  They remind us that any kind of achievement begins with someone believing they can be something other than what they see all around them.  They remind us of the value of having true friendships and cherishing them for the gift they are.  This skinny, determined black boy from Cabrini Green dreamt of entertaining people with his written word and I am so glad he did.  His passion encouraged me just when I thought something was terribly wrong with my life.  So!  Do yourself a favor this weekend or the next weekend or the next weekend and sit through a viewing of good old, Coolie High.  Pop some popcorn the old school way on top of the stove with a pot and lid.  Grab a blanket and pillow and munch on your popcorn watching Cochise and 'nem trip through Cabrini Green and their teenage existence at Cooley High.  

"We were friends a long time ago, laughin, rappin, chasin girls,obeying no laws except the one of caring.  Basketball days and high nights.  No tomorrows.  Unable to remember yesterday.  We live for today." 

 ~Preach