FFifty years ago, negotiations began for a film inspired by real Hollywood bigwigs who helped a Black Panther leader escape America. It’s never been done…until now.
The big cigar, a series premiering on Apple TV+ on May 17, is based on Hollywood producer Bert Schneider’s effort to fly black power group co-founder Huey Newton to Cuba, running the operation as a fake Hollywood film production that he called it The Big Cigar.
The six-episode series follows Newton (André Holland) as he tests Schneider (Alessandro Nivola) to make sure he can be trusted before trusting him with his life. Below is a look at the true story that inspired the show.
Who are the Black Panthers?
Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the political organization known as the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California in 1966.
The organization began as an effort to combat police brutality by placing its members on patrol on streets where minority communities lived, as a form of self-defense. It also served these communities through free breakfast programs and free medical clinics that offered preventive care in 13 cities across the country. Dramatizations of these programs can be seen throughout The Big Cigar.
At the height of the Cold War, many free services were seen as supporting communist ideals. The Black Panthers faced extra scrutiny for this and for their general appearance: members dressed in black, while some were armed to protect their fellow community members, and the visibility of the weapons sparked fears they would turn violent. The Black Panthers also faced constant surveillance from the FBI.
Huey P. Newton’s Great Escape
After co-founding the Black Panther Party, the organization made international headlines when Newton was involved in a shootout with Oakland police that left one officer dead, and Newton was charged with murder and sent to prison — triggering “Freedom” demonstrations. Huey” around the world. When he met Hollywood producer Bert Schneider in September 1970, Newton had already been released on bail. Schneider, enjoying the success of his film Easy Knight (1969) and TV series The monkeys (1966-1968), supported several left-wing political causes and began funding the Black Panthers. “He realized the power that culture played in shaping ideas,” said Joshuah Bearman, executive producer of The big cigar, wrote in 2012 Playboy magazine article that inspired the series. “Hollywood figures were helping raise money for the Panthers.”
Sporting a Black Panther ring and proudly displaying a photo of himself and Newton behind his desk in his office, Schneider (who also had a reputation for having a severe cocaine addiction) would not hesitate to write $10,000 checks to the organization . The money went toward community programs and a penthouse in Oakland that served as the group’s headquarters. In fact, he once wrote a check for $250,000 to fund Black Community Survival conferences. As Bert described his fascination with Newton: “How can I say? He’s my hero.”
But paranoia about the activities of the Black Panthers reached a fever pitch on July 30, 1974, when Newton was arrested following a disagreement with two police officers at an Oakland bar. Six days later, Newton knew he needed to get out of the US somehow when he was falsely accused of killing a 17-year-old prostitute. He sought refuge in the Bel Air home of Schneider’s friend Steve Blauner. Referring to themselves as the Beverly Hills 7, Schneider and a group of his Hollywood friends conspired to take Newton to Cuba, where he could seek political asylum. As Bearman wrote in Playboy:
“Bert and Steve and a trusted core of their Hollywood cronies would set up an underground railroad and smuggle Huey to Cuba. This would turn into a major production, but with real-life risks. Like his films, this project had a title. Bert called it ‘The Big Cigar’.”
“The Big Cigar” represented Cuba. Schneider nicknamed Newton “the Star” and nicknamed Artie Ross, a recent college graduate who worked for him, “the nanny” because he had a boat that was supposed to take Newton to Cuba. One of the most useful sources for Bearman was Newton’s account of the plot, which he found at Stanford University.
First, Newton needed to conquer Mexico. Blauner, who liked to gamble, called his accountant to place some bets so it would appear he was just spending the day gambling, and then drove Newton to the U.S.-Mexico border. “I did everything I had ever seen in those films”, recalls Blauner, in Peter Biskind’s film. Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex Drugs and Rock ‘n Roll Generation Saved Hollywood. “This was the first thing I thought I did under life and death conditions… for only one reason, the love of another human being.”
See more information: Black Panther meets new Hollywood in bold and exciting series The big cigar
Ross was to sail through the Panama Canal, pick up Newton in Mexico, and then head to Cuba. Despite new radar and sonar equipment purchased by Schneider for the trip, the boat ran aground after hitting an underwater statue of Jesus in the Florida Keys, a popular snorkeling destination. The boat was in no condition to transport Newton to Cuba, so Ross hitchhiked to Miami and ended up going to Newton in Jalapa, a retreat on the west coast of Mexico that Bert and some other big kahunas bought in 1968, just in case they wanted to. run away when Nixon became president. A captain nicknamed “Pirate” was located, chosen because he had a lot of experience traveling back and forth between Colombia and Mexico. Schneider agreed to let the captain leave the boat in one piece if it was confiscated. The trip to Cuba was uneventful until the boat Newton and his wife Gwen Fontaine needed to get to shore capsized. Fontaine saved Newton’s life by dragging him ashore.
What happened with the Big Cigar characters?
Sometime in late 1974 or early 1975, Ross told the wild story in a script, titled The big cigar.
Newton liked it and gave Schneider the green light to buy it. Although Warner Brothers and Richard Dreyfuss expressed interest in getting involved, the film was never made. In 1975, Ross died of an overdose after inhaling too much laughing gas. Schneider built a shrine to Ross and held a wake for him in his home’s sauna, which was attended by stars including Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty and Roman Polanski, according to a 2011 Los Angeles Times obituary of Schneider.
In 1975, Schneider appeared on stage to accept the Oscar for his documentary Hearts and minds about the Vietnam War, which he saw as a justification that political issues could generate money. But he struggled with addiction for the rest of his life and died in 2011.
Newton spent three years in exile in Cuba – cutting sugar cane and repairing trucks. Schneider visited him there, along with Hollywood stars Candice Bergen and Francis Ford Coppola. When Newton finally returned to the US in 1977, he was acquitted of assault and murder charges. About a decade later, in 1989, he was shot to death by an Oakland drug dealer.
As for Newton and Schneider’s friendship, it remained close until Newton’s death. As Bearman told TIME in a recent phone conversation: “They stayed in touch. They would see each other. It’s what you would now call a ‘bromance’.”
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
