GREAT BRITAIN: Back Home

Actors traditionally have trouble with prejudiced landlords, but the members of Blevins Davis' Porgy and Bess company are more sensitive than most to such snubs: all but three of the 65 in the cast are Negroes. From the American cast's point of view, one of the best things about Porgy's current triumphant tour of Europe has been the relative absence of discrimination. Then last month the Porgy company arrived in London, and became a prompt smash hit (TIME, Oct. 20).

Sure of a long stay, the actors began looking for permanent places to live. Irving Barnes, chief understudy, went to inspect a flat. "Sorry," said the landlady, "I won't rent to a Negro. You people don't know how to take care of other people's property." Joe Crawford tried to find a flat by telephone. The agent asked his nationality. "I said American," said Crawford, "and the agent told me to come on out and see it. When I got there, the landlady took one look and said it was rented."

The cast learned that many London leases have automatic prohibitions against Indians and Negroes. It hurts more in London, says Barnes: "In New York, or Pittsburgh, or Atlanta, you see signs that say 'Whites Only' and you expect it. I've met Britishers back home who saw such things and said they thought it was horrible. Then, when you come over here and meet the same thing face to face again, it gets pretty discouraging."