Sewickley Anticipates Release of Tuskegee Airmen Action Film 'Red Tails'

When Regis Bobonis watches Red Tails on Friday night, he’ll surely analyze each scene, looking for familiar characters, including some of Sewickley's own Tuskegee Airmen, an all-black air unit that served in World War II.

He’ll definitely recognize native Mitchell Higginbotham if the movie depicts the 100 black officers, from the 477th Bombardment Group, who walked into an illegal all-white officers club and insisted on being served. Higginbotham helped organize the revolt in Freeman Field, Indiana.

He’ll also recognize the late George “Spanky” Roberts, a graduate of the first class at Tuskegee Army Air Field notable for wearing the flight gear helmet and goggles in photos. Roberts lived just over the West Virigina border.

“He was quite a man…He was a remarkable pilot,” said Bobonis, a retired journalist and member of the , who has done extensive research on Sewickley's black fighter pilots.

Although it’s been 70 years in the making, and despite a failure to get the financial backing from Hollywood studios, Sewickley residents like Bobonis are excited to finally see the story of the Tuskegee Airmen realized on the big screen.

“I’m so thrilled,” Bobonis said. “I welcome this film.”

Sewickley's African-American population was particularly sizable by the 1940s, when locals began to enlist in the military to fight in World War II. The largest contingency of Tuskegee Airmen came from Western Pennsylvania with at least 70 from the Pittsburgh region.

Red Tails definitely created a buzz around Sewickley Thursday afternoon with folks anticipating the release of the PG-13 action film that centers on the heroics of five Tuskegee Airmen, a corps of trained African-American fighter pilots who fought in World War II. The soldiers were enlisted to help combat enemy forces, but also had to battle institutional racism.  

“A lot of people are really excited about it,” said Autumn Redcross, a Sewickley resident and local historian.

“I’m sure it’s going to be good – and accurate. Unfortunately, movies don’t stay out that long,”said Thomas "Scooby" Robertson, also a member of the Daniel B. Matthews Society.  

Bobonis, also chairman of the  honoring the airmen, said some of the soldiers who still reside in this area were slated  to watch a pre-screening of the film, including Dr. Harry Lanuaze of McKeesport, who flew in combat.

Lanuaze, 85, told Sewickley Patch in November the skills Tuskegee Airmen gained as pilots did not help them later when it came to transferring their experience to the post-war business world. Many of the soldiers were undereducated people who continued their fight against segregation as civilians, he said.

“When we came back to the U.S., things had not changed," said Lanuaze, of McKeesport. "We had problems before Tuskegee Airmen and afterwards.”

When it came to depicting that story, the movie's executive producer George Lucas had problems too. According to Ebony magazine, it took Lucas 23 years to produce the $95 million movie because no film distributor with the means to do so would embrace the production. Lucas found the money, in his own pockets, and financed the distribution to every major city in America.

The movie stars Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard, who play older officers, along with a cast of other characters, including Ne-Yo, Andre Royo and Clifford Smith, also known as rapper Method Man. The movie is named for the P-51s the squadron flew with the signature red painted tails.

“I don’t think Hollywood would ever have made an all-black movie, but thank goodness George Lucas felt so strongly about this that he put his own money out to produce this,” Bobonis said.

And for some, like Carlos Norman, owner of , that makes the movie all the more of a must-see. He’s had local Tuskegee Airmen who have come into his barbershop, and said he wants to take his sons and some friends to watch the film over the weekend.

“I’m definitely planning on seeing it…I can’t wait to see it myself,” Norman said.

Bobonis plans to attend Friday’s showing at the Cinemark in Robinson Township. The film is also being shown at AMC Loews in West Homestead. Tickets have been given to supporters of the memorial, and Bobonis said he's been giving out theater gift cards to extended family to see the film.

He said he hopes the motivation and obstacles the pilots faced will resonate particularly with young people, whom he said can find a role model “in the legacy” of the pilots.  

 “This is a film that young men, of all races, but especially black American males need, and ought to see.”