James Brown used to behave as a double for Little Richard, it appears.
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Lisa Cortes screened new doc “Little Richard: I Am Every part” at Martha’s Winery Movie Pageant this week and revealed the “Tutti Frutti” story throughout a Q&A with Henry Louis Gates.
In keeping with a supply who attended the screening she advised the group, “Little Richard would get so busy that he had no time to meet all his gigs, so his protege James Brown would gown up like him and take his gigs.”
Cortes’ rock doc reminds music followers — particularly ones who may assume a sure Elvis Presley was the primary rock ‘n’ roll god — that Little Richard is “the originator.. the emancipator… the architect of rock n roll” (as Richard himself coyly put it when accepting the Advantage Award on the 1997 American Music Awards.)
Little Richards influenced rockers like Mick Jagger, David Bowie and Brown.
Cortes is anticipated to host a second screening of the movie on Thursday and CBS Information’ Michelle Miller will average a Q&A after, we hear.
The doc, which “tells the story of the Black queer origins of rock n’ roll, exploding the whitewashed canon of American pop music to disclose the innovator — the originator — Richard Penniman,” will make its debut on the small display this fall when CNN premieres it on September 4.
“I made this movie as a result of the story of Little Richard is the story of rock ‘n’ roll — and rock ‘n roll is the American idiom,” Cortes has advised Deadline.