In 1931 the great depression loomed over the country.
But not every one was poor not every one was suffering Henry Sinclear of Sinclear oil managed to make a killing in the stock market and got out just in time. He was however about to get hit with a massive amount of taxes but his accountants found a loophole, a system of creative tax write offs that would shield his company and personal income from a great deal of suffering all he had to do was create a business purposely designed to fail. Being a known oddball he decided to do it in the most outlandish and purposely weird fashion possible.
He looked for one of the most segregated cities in the united states, then he bought up a bunch of land and created an amusment park. He then made it into a spy themed amusement park complete with secret rooms secret passages, a giant medieval castle in the center. He purposely paid a higher then normal wage to get it built and insisted on making it a bizarre work of art that we know today.
And then he loudly announced that the park would not discriminate against any one of any race and contacted members of the KKK so they could lead a protest and boycott against it. It was thought that Brimingham Alabama was the single worst place in the country to do this. That the business would fail instantly.
Instead the safe house became one of the favorite hang outs of the civil rights movement, its secret passages helped save the lives of several prominent members of the movement, the secret rooms used for meetings, and as a safe place to hide their children when things got iffy. As the park became more successful Sinclear oil company did more construction adding more secret passages, lowering ticket prices, upping quality. They made offers to black directors to allow them to film in the park for free to increase their tax write off.
This is why the safe house gets used in so many black films during the 60s and expecially the 70s blaxpoltation films. During the 80s the loopholes that made the safehouse possible were closed and the park was sold off. It still operates to this day and is considered a place of historic significance.
But what if it wasn't built? How would it change the civil rights movement? How would that change black cinema, how would it change Brimingham Alabama?
But not every one was poor not every one was suffering Henry Sinclear of Sinclear oil managed to make a killing in the stock market and got out just in time. He was however about to get hit with a massive amount of taxes but his accountants found a loophole, a system of creative tax write offs that would shield his company and personal income from a great deal of suffering all he had to do was create a business purposely designed to fail. Being a known oddball he decided to do it in the most outlandish and purposely weird fashion possible.
He looked for one of the most segregated cities in the united states, then he bought up a bunch of land and created an amusment park. He then made it into a spy themed amusement park complete with secret rooms secret passages, a giant medieval castle in the center. He purposely paid a higher then normal wage to get it built and insisted on making it a bizarre work of art that we know today.
And then he loudly announced that the park would not discriminate against any one of any race and contacted members of the KKK so they could lead a protest and boycott against it. It was thought that Brimingham Alabama was the single worst place in the country to do this. That the business would fail instantly.
Instead the safe house became one of the favorite hang outs of the civil rights movement, its secret passages helped save the lives of several prominent members of the movement, the secret rooms used for meetings, and as a safe place to hide their children when things got iffy. As the park became more successful Sinclear oil company did more construction adding more secret passages, lowering ticket prices, upping quality. They made offers to black directors to allow them to film in the park for free to increase their tax write off.
This is why the safe house gets used in so many black films during the 60s and expecially the 70s blaxpoltation films. During the 80s the loopholes that made the safehouse possible were closed and the park was sold off. It still operates to this day and is considered a place of historic significance.
But what if it wasn't built? How would it change the civil rights movement? How would that change black cinema, how would it change Brimingham Alabama?