Speaker 1: My next guest is that person. Call him a good friend,
Speaker 1: somebody I laughed. I've laughed many times and in entertainment
Speaker 1: where we walked with eating together. He's called on me
Speaker 1: to do favors for him, and I've and I've done
Speaker 1: him because guess what, he's the type of person when
Speaker 1: he calls you, you should do a favor for. And
Speaker 1: more than thirty years, more than thirty year career. My
Speaker 1: next guest is written, directed to produce numerous classic feature
Speaker 1: films including House Party, Awesome, Boomerang, Classic Baby's Kids, Classic Django,
Speaker 1: Unchained and started my board. Jamie Fox and Marshall, you know, hey,
Speaker 1: my man Black Panther and that one. He's excutive abusive
Speaker 1: writer of the animated TV series Black Panther, executive producer Boondocks.
Speaker 1: He's on the show to day to talk about this
Speaker 1: his first that's what the that's what the bio said,
Speaker 1: his first feature Lynch documentary, The Black Girlfather, which is
Speaker 1: currently airing right now on Netflix. Please work with the
Speaker 1: money making conversation. My dear friend Reginald Hudland, thank you,
Speaker 1: you come on now. Black Godfather Clarence A. Vot I
Speaker 1: had a chance in the two thousand, I was in
Speaker 1: there and and Steve Harvey was doing radio and l
Speaker 1: A blowing up. We took a station that was nineteen
Speaker 1: in the market. It was number one and six months
Speaker 1: so we were Who's who black radio a radio period
Speaker 1: in l A. And everybody kept telling me, Chean, you
Speaker 1: gotta meet this guy, Clarence Avon. He's uh, you gotta
Speaker 1: meet him, man, you gotta meet He's kind of like you.
Speaker 1: He's kind of like you in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: but he's a bad man. I will tell you this, Reginald.
Speaker 1: I did not meet him after watching this special, The
Speaker 1: Black Girl Father, which I am recommending everybody watch. All right,
Speaker 1: he's special. Man. How did you come across the story
Speaker 1: and how were you able to put all of this,
Speaker 1: all of this footage together. Man, there's so many clearances
Speaker 1: you had to do to get all this stuff clear.
Speaker 1: You know that. I love that you went straight to
Speaker 1: the business side. The movie got mad. Yes, man, I'm
Speaker 1: talking about I'm talking to people you're watching special. It's
Speaker 1: amazing the journey this young man had through his life. Okay,
Speaker 1: coming from the South, going to Chicago in l A. Presidents.
Speaker 1: You know the fact that he um. But then I
Speaker 1: then that can that go business? The Reginald go Okay, uh, okay,
Speaker 1: that needs to be clear. Okay, that needs to be clear. Okay,
Speaker 1: how did you get permissure of that? That needs to
Speaker 1: because Stan Lathan sitting up in there, you know Lyon
Speaker 1: Richie sitting up in there. You know l A. Reid
Speaker 1: and Baby facitting up in there. You know Jimmy jam
Speaker 1: and Terry Lewis sitting up in there. It's just a
Speaker 1: list after listen, President Barack Obama sitting up in there,
Speaker 1: President Bill Clinton sitting up in there. Talking about this man.
Speaker 1: This is what this special is about. And I'm leaving
Speaker 1: out a whole lot of names because guess what you
Speaker 1: need to watch and be on at this man's ability
Speaker 1: to be able to communicate at every level of our society. Who, Reginald,
Speaker 1: how did you get this story and how did you
Speaker 1: get started? Well? Crazy enough? I met him at the
Speaker 1: beginning of my career in show business. Um. I made
Speaker 1: some little short films, and when I started doing music videos,
Speaker 1: all my music business friends would talk about Clarence A.
Speaker 1: Vo Andre Herredo Russell Simmons. They talked about plans like
Speaker 1: he was Zeus you know what I mean. He was
Speaker 1: model Lympus level, like you know. Uh, so I knew
Speaker 1: he was important. I knew he was at the top
Speaker 1: of the food chain. But then I get a call
Speaker 1: from George Jackson mckenry, who were black producers making movies,
Speaker 1: and one of the movies. You know, I'm absolutely and
Speaker 1: George was a few years ahead of me in college.
Speaker 1: So he said, oh, I know this young kid, he
Speaker 1: just graduated. He's got a little student film called House Party.
Speaker 1: He's talented. So they called me out to l A
Speaker 1: for a meeting about a movie that was supposed to
Speaker 1: start Janet Jackson. And the time, Janet Jackson had just
Speaker 1: done her first album, uh, you know, a control that
Speaker 1: really had broken out, and you know, the time was hot,
Speaker 1: coming off a Purple Rain. So they were like, let's
Speaker 1: do a movie with them together. So they brought me
Speaker 1: out there and Clarence met me at the airport, which
Speaker 1: I knew was a big deal because Clarence was the man.
Speaker 1: And so then they brought me to his house, which
Speaker 1: was in the beautiful home in Beverly Hills, filled with
Speaker 1: the most amazing black art. It was like a museum. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then I'm looking around, and then I see an
Speaker 1: Andy Warhol painting and I'm like, whoa, that's that's stuff.
Speaker 1: You see a museums in this man's house. And then
Speaker 1: I met him, and he was everything everyone claimed he was.
Speaker 1: He was wrong, he was real, He cut to it.
Speaker 1: At the same time, you know, you knew he was
Speaker 1: the man that just made things happen. And then over
Speaker 1: the years, in all my time and show business, you
Speaker 1: really can't do too much without hearing Clarence names evoked
Speaker 1: one way or the other. Whether it's music business or
Speaker 1: politics or whatever it is, Clarence is always up in there.
Speaker 1: Uh So I knew I wanted to tell his story
Speaker 1: because we all respected him, our whole generation of folks
Speaker 1: who worked entertainment, Black folks who worked in entertainment. I
Speaker 1: don't care if you're in the music business, movie business, whatever,
Speaker 1: you respected Clarence avan And I thought, well, I want
Speaker 1: to tell his story, right doc. Clarence did not want
Speaker 1: his story told. He was like, I'm not writing a book.
Speaker 1: I'm not doing this, I'm not doing that. So finally
Speaker 1: his daughter and Nicole, maybe not a book, maybe let's
Speaker 1: do a documentary, and he agreed to that, and then
Speaker 1: She asked them, well, who do you want to make it?
Speaker 1: And he said, well call Reggie. I like Reggie. And
Speaker 1: that's funny, you know boom. Now when you get that
Speaker 1: called that's like a papal order, that's like a Vatican right,
Speaker 1: you do, go, your sir, get on it. And but
Speaker 1: it also but it also has some fear in that
Speaker 1: too when you say, because you know, you know the
Speaker 1: body of work that you how do you do the beginning,
Speaker 1: middle of the end, because this is an incredible beginning,
Speaker 1: because we could have stayed on the beginning when you
Speaker 1: got started, you know, a gainst the relation background, that
Speaker 1: was a whole story yourself. You know that's a movie. Really,
Speaker 1: you know that's a movie. Really right, well, there's no
Speaker 1: question and you know when I you know it was me,
Speaker 1: Nelson Georgs, the you know journalists, uh you know Byron Phillips,
Speaker 1: my producing partner, and also had these backgrounds in the
Speaker 1: music business. We all have new clearents. We all heard
Speaker 1: all these great journeys. We thought we knew what we
Speaker 1: were doing. But once you start thinking, then you realize
Speaker 1: way that this door just opened to another door, open
Speaker 1: to another door. Every time you interview somebody that at
Speaker 1: the end of the interview they go, oh, you know
Speaker 1: who you need to talk to, and then they name
Speaker 1: three more names. So at a certain point I turned
Speaker 1: to the cool um U I said, Nicole, this is
Speaker 1: I don't know how far are we gonna go, but
Speaker 1: this is my promise to you. I'm gonna shoot until
Speaker 1: we're done, right to how long it takes. So we're
Speaker 1: really supposed to interview thirty people in a year, so
Speaker 1: we did seventy five people in three years because we
Speaker 1: had to tell it right to me, Clarence is a
Speaker 1: part of black history, but you don't know it because
Speaker 1: he don't want you to know it. Right he You know,
Speaker 1: people say the phrase like Carol or trus once said
Speaker 1: it real bad boys moving silence. Clarence is the definition
Speaker 1: of real bad boys moving silence. So many people today
Speaker 1: they always want to gas themselves up. I'm this, I'm
Speaker 1: not you know that. I'm on social media. You need
Speaker 1: to give me my pops. I've won an award. He's
Speaker 1: the opposite. He don't want nobody to know nothing unless
Speaker 1: you need to know. But let's put this way. His boys,
Speaker 1: Chrissy Jones, I mean they boys like his boy boy.
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, I mean they're sitting across each other.
Speaker 1: So so that lets you know that you know, we
Speaker 1: know Chrissy Jones just say you're hanging out called Nobody's boy.
Speaker 1: You know. They it was like their friends best friends
Speaker 1: and so and our journey has been years put together.
Speaker 1: But the beauty of this whole when I'm watching this,
Speaker 1: I'm watching this, I'm going, you know, and I have
Speaker 1: to consider myself a guy who knows a lot. Okay,
Speaker 1: now here's a guy. People have been telling me when
Speaker 1: I was in l a and the two early two thousand,
Speaker 1: this is a guy I was supposed to meet. Several
Speaker 1: times they kept saying, Rachelle, you gotta meet this guy.
Speaker 1: Just talk to you, gotta meet this guy and then
Speaker 1: to see what he was. And I just saw and
Speaker 1: I'm sure, Reggie, you see a piece of yourself in
Speaker 1: him because he is so fearless. He is so he
Speaker 1: would go up and went to the head of Coca Cola.
Speaker 1: Told me, I need to get Harry Aaron out there
Speaker 1: because because black people, we need to say black people,
Speaker 1: but black people drink cold. It was clean because he
Speaker 1: told it he he was a straight shooter. He would saying,
Speaker 1: and Henry Aaron will tell you in the interview that
Speaker 1: he broke all the grounds for him to be a
Speaker 1: recognized person and sponsors and commercial endorsements. You go, there's
Speaker 1: no soul train. There's no Soul train without there's no
Speaker 1: Clarence has been involved in every black institution there is,
Speaker 1: from from Motown to Soul Trained, WBLS. You know, help
Speaker 1: Kathy Hughes. Cathy would say, oh, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: Clarence is like my dad. He advised me on everything.
Speaker 1: You know, you know, you know everything magazine, w PLS,
Speaker 1: you can just name it. If it's an important Black institution,
Speaker 1: Clarence has had his fingers on it. You don't know it,
Speaker 1: but he's there. So when you saw, you know, and
Speaker 1: did his daughter became in you know, ambassador to the
Speaker 1: Bahamas and you know his son. You know, he has
Speaker 1: a talent agency. But you can tell in the story
Speaker 1: that he cares to weight of his dad's greatness. How
Speaker 1: can I live up to him my dad's greatness. There
Speaker 1: It really was a touch moment in the documentary when
Speaker 1: he when when he talks about when you hear him
Speaker 1: talking feeling that that weight of his dad's greatness because
Speaker 1: he is a great and then you don't understand it
Speaker 1: because guess what, you don't know what just Dad's done.
Speaker 1: Oh you know it's that successful. But when you look
Speaker 1: through the history books of entertainment politics, that's the part
Speaker 1: that you really don't that you can't you can't his value.
Speaker 1: I remember when I met uh before he was President
Speaker 1: Barack Obama. I made him at the L. A. Reids
Speaker 1: penthouse in New York City, and I remember in that meeting,
Speaker 1: you know, Ellie Reis said he was gonna have a
Speaker 1: big event for him in uh l A at Clarence.
Speaker 1: I didn't know who Clarence was. Okay, you're gonna come
Speaker 1: to every shot I go. I guess I didn't make
Speaker 1: it there because I didn't understand that the the layers here.
Speaker 1: But when you watch that special, you understand why he
Speaker 1: said the next event is going to be a Clarence's
Speaker 1: house in l A. We're gonna be right back when
Speaker 1: we'll talk some more, because I also want to talk
Speaker 1: about the Double A CP Image Awards. Who this man
Speaker 1: right here has changed the game and has become one
Speaker 1: of the most recognized awards shows on television, not just
Speaker 1: for black people for for viewers in general. Hi, this
Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald and you're listening to money making conversations on
Speaker 1: the phone. Is ah is the producer, director, EP Relationship
Speaker 1: Guy Academy Awards. But what we're really on the show
Speaker 1: to talk about as the individual who who has in
Speaker 1: the background changed the way black entertainment has grown in Hollywood.
Speaker 1: If he if he doesn't exist, a lot of things
Speaker 1: that we consider rememberable about Hollywood that has been a
Speaker 1: lawyers that we've where we've long that we've gained h
Speaker 1: as part of our history, would not have been there.
Speaker 1: His name is that gentleman. Name is Clarence Avon. The
Speaker 1: documentary was put together by over three year period by
Speaker 1: the incredible Reginald Hutland. Reginald we was talking about when
Speaker 1: we left for the break was about one year project.
Speaker 1: He turned into three because I remember last time he
Speaker 1: was on the show, you talked about this project, but
Speaker 1: you didn't have an exit. So so and you're looking
Speaker 1: at the guy because you know it's a segment in
Speaker 1: the in the show where he's going to be honored.
Speaker 1: I won't tell you what he's being honored for. And
Speaker 1: that's the only time you will see Reginald in the
Speaker 1: documentary is that little it's a little quick shot him
Speaker 1: him being that that I said, my boy didn't get
Speaker 1: right over there a little face that a little bit,
Speaker 1: but just seeing my man's stand Lathan stand Lathan, um uh,
Speaker 1: there's no death comedy jam where I stand later. Okay,
Speaker 1: just tell you that's just one um one of the ankles.
Speaker 1: But stan Lathan was given opportunity to do the special
Speaker 1: that Mohammed Ali did because class ain't gonna said, oh
Speaker 1: he's gonna do it, and there's no other option. He
Speaker 1: stood up. He stood up. But one thing that that
Speaker 1: they walked you through this whole thing. He understood the
Speaker 1: value of relationships. And I'm gonna tell you him, he
Speaker 1: has some powerful relationships, didn't he. Reginald, He's he's he's
Speaker 1: incredible because he's a person understand ninth grade education from Climax,
Speaker 1: North Carolina. Okay, he gets kicked out of his house
Speaker 1: from an abso stepfather. He gets on the train for
Speaker 1: the first time in his life as a young boy,
Speaker 1: goes to New Jersey. But somehow, no matter what situation
Speaker 1: he's thrown in, he rises to the occasion and he
Speaker 1: builds relationships, not because he's kissing, but but because he
Speaker 1: works hard and he gets it done and everybody likes him,
Speaker 1: and he just from that he gets given another opportunity
Speaker 1: and guess what he achieved at that opportunity, which puts
Speaker 1: so he can hire and hire. Pretty soon he's in
Speaker 1: the executive suite in New York, l A everywhere. He
Speaker 1: still has his same values is them even though he
Speaker 1: dealing with people that would make your head spin, and
Speaker 1: that balancing that of thing, taming your core values at
Speaker 1: the same time they gave betwe evolved as a person
Speaker 1: and evolved as a set of goals is highly unusual.
Speaker 1: You know, there is the thing I want to tell
Speaker 1: everybody about. We're talking about The Black Guardfather, which is
Speaker 1: currently available on Netflix. Um it's an in brilliant um
Speaker 1: uh portrayal of an individual who didn't put himself in
Speaker 1: front of the opportunity. He provided the opportunity. And that
Speaker 1: point in question is this, If you came to him
Speaker 1: with a bad record deal, he fixed it. If he
Speaker 1: told you came to him and you didn't know how
Speaker 1: to do a record deal, he told you how to
Speaker 1: do it. He didn't try to take advantage of it.
Speaker 1: That is what I'm talking about. When I talk about this,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call him a young man because he's still
Speaker 1: out there making a difference in my life just by
Speaker 1: watching this special. If you're an entrepreneur, if you're interested
Speaker 1: in entertainment, you want to say you want to under
Speaker 1: understand how you walk through life and understand the values
Speaker 1: of relationships and and and people stepping in front of
Speaker 1: you to give you the opportunity. He worked hard. First
Speaker 1: of all, let's put that down. He worked hard. He
Speaker 1: did not change who he was. So if he failed,
Speaker 1: he knew why he failed because he was being himself.
Speaker 1: So he always maintained that integrity. And that is why
Speaker 1: it's important that we understood that. He also became the
Speaker 1: voice of a brand, and at that time was black entertainment.
Speaker 1: He was crazy enough, Yeah, coming to me, I can
Speaker 1: make it happen. He said that, and then guess what,
Speaker 1: White Hollywood went okay, and guess what he would and
Speaker 1: made it happen. Even if he didn't have the relationship,
Speaker 1: he wouldn't have made it happen. That was I'm saying.
Speaker 1: This is an incredible journey. So let me ask you this.
Speaker 1: Reginald and during the documentary The Black Guard Father, which
Speaker 1: is available now on Netflix. What it a couple of
Speaker 1: days the most for you, Well, a couple of things.
Speaker 1: One is that he would not sell out when when
Speaker 1: Dick Clark was trying to create a competing black show
Speaker 1: for Soul Train and Don Kurles is fighting for the
Speaker 1: West my own man. If they do a knockoff, they're
Speaker 1: gonna have the hook up. They're gonna take my advertiser,
Speaker 1: they're gonna take my viewers, and I'll be done for
Speaker 1: And Clarence was like, Nope, I don't care how much
Speaker 1: money you are for me. I'm on Don Cornelius side.
Speaker 1: You've got a black businessman who created this show, supported
Speaker 1: by another black businessman, Johnson Products, the you know, the
Speaker 1: the the the beauty product company, and this is for
Speaker 1: black people. So no, we're not gonna put all these
Speaker 1: black people out of work, Don Cornelia is We're not
Speaker 1: gonna hurt this black hair care company. We're gonna protect
Speaker 1: all this. You know, this is part of the bigger
Speaker 1: plan of black people moving forward. These folks are all
Speaker 1: doing excellent work, whether it's Johnson Products, whether it's not Cornelius.
Speaker 1: So you know what we're gonna we're gonna like link
Speaker 1: arms and we're gonna protect that. And if it's just him,
Speaker 1: then it's just him. And Clarence would go into the
Speaker 1: rooms of the power brokers and he would tell them,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna do this, and he would turn down
Speaker 1: the payoff and he said, no, we're just gonna do
Speaker 1: it for my man. That he just said that politely too.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna do this to these in words, to us,
Speaker 1: the white folks in the room. He just told him
Speaker 1: like it is. Now he's not switched style depending on
Speaker 1: who was in the room. Yeah, he don't care. He
Speaker 1: don't care. Now, here's the funny part about listening to
Speaker 1: watching this show. So you know, I know Regilards coming
Speaker 1: on the show, and I would I know he did
Speaker 1: the documentary Black Hard Father, So I thought, I cheat, right,
Speaker 1: I came on Netflix two hours, so I go, okay,
Speaker 1: thirty minutes. I know, thirty minutes. I could probably cheat.
Speaker 1: Act like I watched the rest right minutes. Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: in forty minutes. Okay, in an hour, because because each
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes keeps you you're like nah, nah, another start.
Speaker 1: You know. Bill Clinton goes on there talking about he
Speaker 1: was there when he's about to be impeached. He went
Speaker 1: to him, clans Clarson hanging that brother gonna be all good.
Speaker 1: That's how he told him. Bill Clem said, thank you. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is the guy. This is the this is the
Speaker 1: type of guy we're talking about that people came to him.
Speaker 1: You know, when they're talking about they talk about when
Speaker 1: Loud Richard talks about, we're talking about you know, baby
Speaker 1: face talking about his importance. It's just so many individuals
Speaker 1: and yeah, like even though I know Cathy Hughes, and
Speaker 1: Cathy Hughes, you know she expouses on him and and
Speaker 1: his integrity and when he did for him. But the
Speaker 1: number one thing that I kept hearing from everybody was
Speaker 1: that it was never about him going how much money
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make off you. It was never about how
Speaker 1: much money I'm gonna make off of you. In fact,
Speaker 1: when he should have been charging, it said several times
Speaker 1: when he should have been charging, everybody's waiting on the
Speaker 1: bill to come their way, and it never came. Because
Speaker 1: he was all about protecting you, showing you the right
Speaker 1: path to success, and he believed he was gonna get
Speaker 1: taken care and he has been taken care of. But
Speaker 1: it was never about sitting down in front of you
Speaker 1: talking about Look here, I'm gonna show you how to
Speaker 1: do this record deal. But I'm gonna take my little
Speaker 1: side over here. What conna do I do my little
Speaker 1: hook up? He showed you how to do it, so
Speaker 1: you can show somebody else. That's the beauty of this special.
Speaker 1: That's why you have to watch it. It's called The
Speaker 1: Black gold Father is now available on Netflix, and it's produced, directed, edited,
Speaker 1: executive produced by my man Reginald Hudling. Reginald, you bro,
Speaker 1: there's another great project down in your resume. Huh. Look well,
Speaker 1: I'm so grateful for is the response to the public.
Speaker 1: I've got people who said, Reggie, I put it on
Speaker 1: at eleven o'clock. I finished it at one. I know
Speaker 1: I should have gone to bed. I just watched it again,
Speaker 1: back to back, but this time I had my notepad
Speaker 1: out and I'm taking notes. I'll talk to people who
Speaker 1: said they've seen it four times, six times, and oh
Speaker 1: I get something different out of it every time. And
Speaker 1: I and I'm talking to black folks, white folks, rich people,
Speaker 1: poor people. It doesn't matter young or old. Everyone is resonating.
Speaker 1: My kids saw it and they were inspired. A lot
Speaker 1: of folks they watched the movie, they said, Man, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go back to the office. I need to work
Speaker 1: a little harder. Uh some people hit me and go,
Speaker 1: you know what, I need to be a little more
Speaker 1: generous that I'm being with people who are coming up
Speaker 1: behind me. I need to help more. So it's it's
Speaker 1: transforming people. Uh So I'm really grateful that the movie
Speaker 1: is having the impact that it is. I want to
Speaker 1: I know, we've got two minutes left in this interview,
Speaker 1: and I just got to talk about the CP Image
Speaker 1: Awards UM which has become the award show that it
Speaker 1: always uh should have been. Is it recognizes Anthony Anderson
Speaker 1: has been Anthony Anderson has been amazed as the host.
Speaker 1: What do you feel that you brought to the table
Speaker 1: that now makes this show they must see it, must
Speaker 1: attend show, must attend show. Well, Well, well, thank you.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, we worked hard on a couple
Speaker 1: of things. One is we wanted to make sure the
Speaker 1: full range of black Hollywood was represented, you know, not
Speaker 1: just your friends, but you know, okay, here's an exciting
Speaker 1: new voice. Well let's make sure we honor the legends,
Speaker 1: make sure we you know, folks who are working in
Speaker 1: unusual parts of entertainment for black folks. We want to
Speaker 1: make sure everybody's represented. And then the second thing is
Speaker 1: and we you know, and you know, our our black
Speaker 1: talent are Latin, are at in town on our Asian
Speaker 1: talent are white allies. They're all are welcome. You know.
Speaker 1: We make sure the show starts sometime and then sometimes
Speaker 1: the live show. Everyone knows. We handle our business like
Speaker 1: it's no CPT, it is JPT. And and and then
Speaker 1: the last part is we try to keep up in
Speaker 1: the production values a little more every year. How can
Speaker 1: we top ourselves? How can we make it better? So
Speaker 1: now people are like, whoa, you know what. I may
Speaker 1: or may not win that Oscar this year, but I
Speaker 1: know my family with the act and black folks are
Speaker 1: going to embrace me and give me the love. I
Speaker 1: may or may not get that at me, or may
Speaker 1: or may not get that Grammy, but I know when
Speaker 1: I come home, I'm going to get the warm embrace
Speaker 1: that I deserve. Regild is always thank you for coming
Speaker 1: on money making conversations, keep winning, my brother, Thank you,
Speaker 1: my brother,