Black billionaire Johnson on making movies, money

Kam Williams

Robert L. Johnson was born in Hickory, Miss., on April 8, 1946, the ninth of 10 children born to parents Edna and Archie, who later moved the family to Freeport, Ill. The bright young Bob earned a bachelor’s degree in history at the University of Illinois before heading to the prestigious Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University to pursue a master’s degree in international affairs.

After graduating from Princeton, Johnson embarked on a career in media, beginning with stints at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Urban League and the National Cable Television Association. Then, in 1980, he took a loan of $15,000 to launch Black Entertainment Television (BET), the first cable network aimed at African Americans.

Over the years, BET would blossom to become the first black-owned company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1999, Johnson sold the company to Viacom for $3 billion, becoming the only black male billionaire in the world, according to Forbes Magazine. Rather than rest on his laurels, Johnson has since gone right back into business with RLJ Companies, whose holdings include the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats, numerous upscale hotels, an assets management hedge fund, Urban Trust Bank, Caribbean casinos and gaming operations, the financial services corporation Rollover Systems, and the recently created Our Stories Films, a $175 million movie studio.

Johnson has also served on the board of such organizations as Lowe’s, Johns Hopkins University, US Airways, General Mills, Hilton, Wal-Mart’s Diversity Committee and the Deutsche Bank Advisory Committee.

He recently took some time to speak with the Banner about Our Stories Films’ first release, “Who’s Your Caddy?,” a ghetto-goes-golfing ensemble comedy starring Antwan Andre “Big Boi” Patton, Sherri Shepherd, Terry Crews, Tamala Jones, Jeffrey Jones, Faizon Love and Tony Cox.

What motivated you to launch Our Stories Films?

What motivated me sort of got put into its name. When I started BET, the one thing I would always hear when I would go out to L.A. or any place where the entertainers would gather was their complaints about the fact that there’s no way to tell our story, that there was no studio that would consistently tell our stories as African Americans. So I decided that the only way we’re going to be able to greenlight it and get the right to make movies about our stories, if you will, is if someone put up the money and hired the talent and created a business as a black film studio to make black films. And that’s why I decided to start Our Stories and to hire Tracey Edmonds to run it.

Tell me a little about your first release, “Who’s Your Caddy?”

“Who’s Your Caddy?” is a story that was brought to us by Queen Latifah’s production company. And we put together just a talented team of really funny people headed by Big Boi as the star, and Faizon Love and Sherri Shepherd. It’s a simple film, in a funny way, because it tells the story of this hip-hop guy who tries to join an all-white golf and country club where his dad was a caddy. Now he’s trying to join the club and, of course, the white members don’t want him in the club. So he goes about buying one of the holes on the course, which gives him the upper hand. It’s all about how he’s able to get into the club and change attitudes, and all the antics that go along with that are really funny.

Sounds a little like “Caddyshack” to me.

Yeah, like in “Caddyshack,” you have a guy from the wrong side of the tracks trying to hang out with the golf elite. But this time it’s sort of updated to have hip-hop guys, rap guys, walking into a pristine, all-white country club in South Carolina.

What other films do you have planned?

Well, we’ve got a number of projects on the drawing board. Tracey’s team has just found all kinds of scripts and ideas. They’ve got a project called “Courtroom.” It’s about a guy who acts as a public defender when he’s really not a lawyer, and just making it up as he goes along. There’s another project called “Don’t Date Him Girl” about a group of female investigators hired by other women who think their men might be doing them wrong. All we’re going to do are comedies: romantic comedies, buddy comedies, family comedies …
Why all comedies?

That’s the genre that’s most appealing to African American viewers.

How will you be able to gauge the success of the company?

I think you measure the success of a movie company in two ways, really. One is box office, obviously. That’s the biggest driver. If the box office is big, it determines the success of the pay-TV. And if the pay-TV is big, it determines the sale of the movie on DVD, and then on into regular television and basic cable.

What impact do you think the Imus firing is going to have on the black entertainment industry, especially when you hear people calling for gangsta rappers to clean up their act and you see the NAACP holding a ceremony to bury the n-word?

Well, it’s certainly creating a dialogue about the N-word and other kinds of words that are negative, whether it’s about women, or about race or about individuals. But I think the real question is going to be how we as a people handle it, and not simply buy into the simplistic notion that if we fired Imus for saying that then we have to fire so-and-so for saying it, even if they’re black. I think that’s a little simplistic.

Yet clearly, there are issues within our own black family, if you will, that we need to debate about how we handle creativity and how words and images are depicted in the black community. So it’s worth a debate, but how it will come out, I don’t know. On the one hand, I hate to even think of the notion of stifling creativity, but sometimes, if creativity or just words cross the line, you’ve got to sort of step back. It’s certainly a dialogue that’s already started.

Do you regret selling BET? How do you feel about the job that Debra Lee has been doing since you stepped down as chairman a couple of years ago?

Oh, she has done a magnificent job. There’s no hesitation on my part about saying that BET is probably in better hands now than when I was running it, because she’s brought a whole new vision, a whole new energy and some innovative programming ideas. You’ve got a talented team of executives over there. So I have no regrets. I started BET more than 25 years ago, and I created what I think is a brand in much the way that Berry Gordy created Motown. I think BET will be around for a very, very long time, and it will always be a legacy I will cherish. And under Debra’s leadership, it just gives me more confidence that that legacy is in great hands.

During the last Democratic debate, Sen. Barack Obama was asked if he’s black enough and he responded by talking about his not having to explain how black he is when trying to hail a cab. I know that despite all your success, you’ve been mistaken for a stable hand on your own farm and as the chauffeur of your own car. What does that tell you about racism?
The NAACP may have buried the n-word, but they didn’t bury racism, and racism will be around for a very long time. I don’t let it bother me, and I don’t think Barack will let it bother him. But it exists. It’s something you’ve just got to recognize as being there, keep on pushing to move it aside, and try to make the society better in everything you do by making the point that we deserve and have every right to be anywhere in this society, to compete in this society, and to have an equal opportunity to enjoy the fruits of this society. Over time, I think we will conquer it, but it’s here now, and I don’t let it worry me.

Do you ever feel a burden as the first black billionaire?

No, I don’t feel a burden at all, because everything I did, I did the old-fashioned way. I worked hard for it. I earned it. The money is just a measure of some success. It’s not the reason you do what you do. It’s just the results from doing it. What I find the most exciting, having created BET, is that I simultaneously created an opportunity for lots of people to get jobs and positions that they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. And RLJ Companies, which I’m running now, also has some very talented people in private equity real estate. We have a bank, we’re providing student loans, and I own the Charlotte Bobcats in partnership with my good buddy Michael Jordan.

The way I look at it, it’s an opportunity, an opportunity to do things with people and hopefully have a positive impact. So, to me, it’s not a burden. It’s really a joy to do things that I like to do with people I like to do them with.

Being born black in Mississippi, the ninth of ten children, and becoming a billionaire. That’s quite a story. Are you going to write your autobiography?

[Laughs] No, no, no. I don’t believe in reading my press releases, so I certainly don’t believe in writing them. No, I haven’t done anything like that.

How about making a movie abut your life, like they just did for another innovator in the entertainment industry, Petey Greene, with “Talk to Me”? Did you know Petey?

I knew Petey Greene well. In fact, we put Petey on national television on BET. He was first on local TV in D.C., and I said, “This guy’s funny enough to be seen all across the country.” I remember standing in line at the church for his funeral when he passed away, and I guarantee you it was 5,000 deep. It was a real cold night, but people came out to pay their last respects to him. Petey Greene was a dynamic personality, and a heck of a funny guy, too.

I know that in 1995, BET covered the Million Man March. Did you catch any flak for that from your advertisers?

No, we didn’t. We basically thought that it was an important enough event to African Americans that we turned the network completely over to covering it. So we simply didn’t run any advertising that day. We told our advertisers that it wasn’t going to be interrupted by commercials, and we went with it. None complained, and they all came back when the regular advertising came back.

What advice do you have for youngsters looking to follow in your footsteps?

I think there’s no substitute for hard work. Prepare yourself. Get an education. Be willing to work hard at whatever you do. Martin Luther King was quoted as saying, “If you’re going to sweep the streets, sweep the streets like Michelangelo painted pictures.” In other words, be the best at everything you do. Believe in yourself, and have the faith and confidence that you can achieve, and never let anything stand in your way as an obstacle. Because if you believe in it, and exhibit the passion that proves that you believe in it, you’ll find people who are willing to back you and help you along the way.