With an Name like Juano

Juano Hernandez may not be a household name, certainly not like that of Sidney Poitier, but Poitier in many ways has benefited from the film career of Juano Hernandez. Born in Puerto Rico, Hernandez moved and grew up in Brazil where he joined the circus at a young age to work as an acrobat. After emigrating to New York City, without a formal education he learned to speak English by studying Shakespeare which with his perfect diction landed him a job as an actor on the radio. He starred in the first all-black radio soap opera, "We Love and Learn," which then led to a role in the original 1927 Broadway production of "Showboat." The role caught the attention of pioneering black filmmaker, Oscar Micheux who cast Hernandez in his first film role in "The Girl from Chicago (1932)." By 1949, Hernandez starred in his first mainstream film for MGM as the lead in "Intruders in the Dust." The role won him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor.

Hernandez never took a role that he felt was demeaning or stereotyped. One of my favorite films of his was the 1950 Warner Brothers film, "Young Man With A Horn," starring Doris Day, Kirk Douglas and Lauren Bacall. Loosely based on the life of trumpet player, Bix Beiderbecke portrayed by Douglas and renamed Rick Martin in the film, Hernandez portrays Art Hazzard, a jazz trumpeter who practically raises Martin from childhood. A controversial move by Warner Brothers in 1950, Hernandez portrays a strong African male in the role of surrogate father to a white child. I first saw the film as a kid and was instantly drawn to Hernandez's patience and kindness towards the young Martin character. When Douglas grows into a man and has a successful musical career of his own, it is Hernandez who resurfaces later in the film trying to prevent Douglas' spiral downward into alcoholism. Doris Day also shines in one of her first film roles as the wide-eyed band singer who watches Douglas as he slowly throws away his career and marriage with Bacall. It is Bacall's character which is the most confusing in the film. As Douglas' tortured wife, her motivations are unclear, and her jealousies towards Doris Day's character, Jo Jordan are equally fuzzy. A possible lesbian relationship has often been the explanation by film historians, but it remains unspoken on film. Day performs many standards including With A Song In My Heart, all lovingly orchestrated by Ray Heindorf, Max Steiner and performed by Harry James but all are uncredited in the film. Hernandez went on to appear in many films and on tv, and starred along Sidney Poitier in his last film, They Call Me Mr. Tibbs. He would die in his native country later that year, but remains one of the first Black Hispanics to achieve stardom in early Hollywood.