♪ Hey, fellow with a million smackers ♪
♪ And nervous indigestion ♪
How'd you fare down at Fort Benning, Mr. Bellowes?
Held my own, sir.
Managed two degrees inside of five years.
Studied straight through the summers. Thanks to the GI Bill.
'All while working part-time'
over at Dexter Broadman Advertising, I see.
I joined their creative side full-time after Wharton.
I'm surprised you want to write ads
for our little family operation.
Well, I'm not one for three-martini lunches, sir.
I have bigger ideas.
- And I know how to sell them. - Such as?
Well, Mr. Kemp, there's a housing shortage here in Philly.
'I came out of the service with Uncle Sam'
backing my first mortgage and not a patch of ground
in this city to plant my flag, and I am not alone.
I don't want to build high-rises.
I'm talking about houses, sir.
Neighborhoods of good men and their families.
I want to make you the Henry Ford of housing.
How exactly do you plan to do that?
'Well, I'd like to show you.'
You're gonna have to take a ride with me.
♪ Have your little fun son ♪
♪ Have your little fun ♪
'Last summer, blight wrecked'
the corn and potato crops as far as the eye can see.
There's 5,500 acres sitting in the bargain bin.
- Get to the point, son. - Cities are crowded.
Dirty, built on grids.
Out here, the streets'll be peaceful
'winding, named after colleges'
flowers, pretty girls.
Picture them lined with ranch-style houses.
'Out front, a bright-green yard'
and an apple tree.
'We'll run print campaigns.'
We'll-we'll open a...a showroom with plenty of fanfare
and we'll call it..
...Libertyville.
'And when the good people'
of Libertyville want groceries, a haircut
or, God forbid, a school--
We build those, too!
Shopping plazas with-with plenty of parking.
Recreation centers where kids can play baseball.
It'll be a whole new way of life, the suburbs.
Any thoughts on financing this boondoggle?
They'll buy on spec.
Home ownership..
...is the cornerstone of the American dream.
It is what makes a man a man.
You trust me, sir.
We will sell out before we break ground.
Lilly, this is Mrs. Chisholm.
She's got information on a murder victim
found out in Somerton in '58.
- I'm Detective Rush. - Hello.
Thank you.
His name was Julian Bellowes.
Met him when I first started out as a maid.
Gracious young man. Worked for Harrison Kemp.
Married the boss's daughter.
Harrison Kemp built Libertyville.
Big suburban development in Somerton.
- Is that where you met him? - No.
The Kemps were members of the Senators Club
in Center City. That's where I worked.
Place is a real "Who's Who."
The thing is, they said Julian was killed out in the boonies
'but I think it happened right there at the club.'
Why is that?
'The night before they found Julian'
I was on my way to clean the Legacy Room
after one of Mr. Kemp's business meetings
when I saw Julian go back inside.
As soon as the door closes a fight break out.
All kinds of yelling
g-glass breaking.
- What'd you do? - Ran for help.
Nobody around.
I got back..
...didn't hear a peep.
So I looked inside.
Never saw a meeting end like that.
You know who else was in there?
'Got a list.'
Been thinking about it 50 years.
You tell your boss?
He said, "Clean up and shut up"
if I wanted to keep my job.
Mrs. Chisholm, why did you wait so long to come forward?
Just saw my doctor.
Time to get my house in order.
If walls could talk, I'm thinking these wouldn't.
'The manager says the room has barely changed'
'in the last 50 years.'
'Picking up on a theme here.'
'Mary said Julian'
walked through the door to find his killer waiting.
Guy approaches. They get into it.
Couple of swings right here.
Somebody crashes into this.
The glass Mary said she heard breaking.
This panel's different.
Been replaced with safety glass.
'Old leaded stuff breaks in shards'
would have crashed down.
Evidence from 50 years ago.
Hard to come by.
Unless it has a place to hide.
I got it.
Walls may not talk, but the floor's got something say.
'Residue.'
- Could be blood. - Mary's right.
Whatever ended in that field started right here.
'Libertyville.'
"The American dream called home."
'Some American dream.'
Thirty four year old Julian Bellowes
throat slit out in the middle of nowhere.
My aunt and uncle were Libertyville pioneers.
One night my Uncle Don has too much to drink
and walks into the wrong house.
They all looked exactly alike.
The wife, Caroline Kemp. Handsome couple.
M.E. says the victim's injury was caused
by a serrated blade or glass.
The evidence you found in the Legacy Room
could be our murder weapon.
So, he's killed at the club
then moved 15 miles to Libertyville?
'No I-95 back then.'
Somerton was an hour's drive away.
Felt like another planet.
Couple of locals reported a drifter.
Victim's wallet was missing.
Assigned was thinking robbery.
A robbery on a farm in the middle of nowhere?
How's that happen?
Julian's headed out there for business
picks up this drifter.
Car was found near the body.
Let's see if the lab can get a DNA sample
from his wedding band, compare it
to the glass samples we gave 'em.
Anything from the list Mary Chisholm gave us?
Maybe. Um, two people stood out.
Angelo Romano and his son Paul.
Yep. Those Romanos.
Connected a family in the construction business.
Slit throat. Could have been a mob hit.
Hmm.
Is that all we got?
Julian's at the Senators Club night before his body's found.
Kemps are lifelong members there
and not a single statement from the place?
No interviews with the victim's family, either.
Why is this box so light?
Good question, Lil. Let me know when you find out.
Well, I have to admit I was surprised by your call.
The police didn't seem to pay attention
when my husband was killed, never mind 50 years later.
Hope to make up for that the second time around.
'My mother was only 22'
when he was killed.
She was pregnant with me.
Completely distraught and..
not much use to the investigation, I'm afraid.
Oh, it was... it was a difficult time.
There's no interviews from your husband's coworkers or family.
'Cops ever talk to you?'
Only to tell me that Julian had been
murdered by a drifter.
Your father was Julian's boss.
Any idea why he wouldn't have given a statement?
Are you saying there was some sort of misconduct?
No, got some... blanks to fill is all.
Well, Julian was estranged from his family.
He was close with mine.
I guess silence was my family's way of...of grieving.
We've got a witness who came forward.
'Heard your husband in a fight at'
the Senators Club night before he died.
He was at the club for a business meeting with these men.
Recognize any of them?
Well..
...there's Paul Romano.
Isn't he the guy you were dating when you met Daddy?
A romance cultivated chiefly
to drive my father around the bend.
No, it all changed the moment I saw Julian.
Three's a crowd?
Paul didn't have a chance.
♪ It looks like love ♪
♪ It feels like love ♪
Cocktail?
Paul, not here.
It's my father's birthday, for heaven's sake.
So let's take a walk.
'He's gonna be 60 all year, right?'
Maybe you'd like some champagne instead?
I thought I'd die of thirst.
I hate to think of you being neglected.
Think I can look after my own date.
Not from where I'm standing.
Well, Paul doesn't cha-cha.
Well, then he won't mind warming the bench now, will you, sport?
- Caroline. - Daddy.
This is Julian Bellowes.
'I see he beat me to an introduction.'
You're the "Ivy League genius" my father's been raving about?
I was picturing Coke-bottle glasses.
Well, I could go home and get 'em, if you'd like.
'Julian grew up a stone's throw'
from Rittenhouse Square, graduated Wharton.
We have so much to talk about.
Then shall we?
♪ Here to stay ♪
Julian made me feel like
I was the only woman in the room.
We were engaged a month later.
I take it Paul wasn't too happy with your whirlwind romance.
Oh, he was angry, all right.
So angry he slashed Daddy's tires
that night in the parking lot, right?
Julian was too much of a gentleman to call the police.
'Caroline Kemp.'
She was a catch.
If you're into debutante types.
Saying you didn't mind Julian Bellows making tracks with her?
Making tracks? The girl was a prude.
My dog Snowflake had a better sex life
than I did when I was going with her.
So, why did you slash his tires?
Big difference between slashing Goodyears and killing someone.
Yeah, except Julian's throat was slashed, too.
Making some kind of implication?
You got anger management issues with the guy
and I got a witness that puts you at a meeting with him
the night before he's dead.
- That's circumstantial. - Here's a circumstance for you.
Hear Romano Construction specializes in cement shoes.
We start sniffing around your sites
we gonna find a body fresher than '58?
Truth is..
...I felt bad for the kid.
Getting in bed with that Protestant family?
You meet those people?
They give you frostbite just looking at you...
Thirty percent off the top of my housing sales is unacceptable.
That's even more than last year.
We been supplying you quality building materials
over 16 years.
'Without Romano Construction'
you're nothing but blueprints.
Capasso Brothers in Camden are offering
us a better price with no profit share.
The Capassos don't care about your safety..
...the way I do.
We accept your offer.
What?
Now listen here, Bellowes.
- Dad, he can't just come in-- - Harry. Not now.
Go ahead.
We'll pay your cut on our builds in town
in exchange for complete control of our profits in Somerton.
Somerton?
What, now you're going to sell horse manure?
You got a deal.
Keep your spazzatura farmland and God bless.
For the Romanos
family is everything. But not those people.
Kemp, he didn't even know his son left the room.
So, Julian was squeezing Harry out of the family business?
Kid had the golden touch.
That, uh, farmland up in Somerton?
That's Libertyville now.
My father gets his cut, we'd be havin' this chat
on my own private island.
You ever see Harry and Julian getting into it?
I saw Harry eating his heart out plenty.
But it took Julian dying
for Harry to get his seat back at the table.
Can I help you?
Philly Homicide. Thought we'd congratulate you
on your promotion to Vice President.
- 50 years late. 1960. - '58, actually.
November 30th, according to the piece we found,
ran in Philly Business Week.
What's this about?
'Your brother-in-law, Julian Bellowes.'
His murder, your big break. Only three weeks apart.
Where were you, night before his body was found?
I don't remember. To be honest, I lost a couple of years there.
Two of you get along all right?
Sure. He was my brother-in-law.
Family, don't you know?
Right. So, any chance you were with him at the Senators Club?
- 'That's where he was.' - Uh.
- Told you I don't remember. - 'Look at this.'
November 6, 1958.
Got your autograph on a bar tab signed at midnight
same time a witness heard
Julian fighting with someone in the Legacy Room.
That much gin will rot your gut, Harry. Does other things too.
I don't know where you're going with this.
Julian made us a fortune.
What was good for Kemp and Sons was good for me.
Well, the guy leapfrogs you to Vice President
gets tagged "Ivy League genius" by your father
and negotiates deals while you're...
stammering on the sidelines.
That good for you?
Slipping down the food chain like a clown on a Vaseline pole?
Well, my ego got a little bruised, but I got over it.
Besides, Julian did far worse to others.
♪ I'm not the guy who cared about love ♪
'So, we should have a contract in hand in under 15 minutes.'
There's ladies in tears over the picture windows.
Raw farmland, but they can already imagine the fruit trees.
Give the people what they want
they stand in line for it, Harrison.
You think if we make you our vice president of sales
I can get you to call me Dad?
'You're engaged to my daughter, after all.'
- I'd be honored... Dad. - Take your pick.
You and Caroline are going to need more room
once you start a family.
Early wedding present.
Bunch of thieves stole my land!
Been in my family over 200 years!
Julian Bellowes, Kemp and Sons.
Save the sales pitch, mister.
This Con man! Convinced my senile
old granddad to sign on the dotted line.
Don't believe a word he says.
If it is land you want, it is land you'll get.
Please.
Please, let me see what I can do for you.
Julian was trying to make it right.
I mean, charming, full of ideas.
Those attributes were lost on that hick.
- Old McDonald got a name? - Julian negotiated the deal.
And you decided not to tell the cops about this incident
even when Julian shows up dead in the same neck of the woods?
We were selling houses on spec.
If people thought we were robbing farmers of their land
it would have decimated sales.
'Tracked down the families'
who sold their land to Kemp and Sons.
Casey Hollenbeck filed a complaint
with the Better Business Bureau.
Arrested in '62 for disorderly conduct.
Guy spent his life raising and slaughtering livestock so
he would have known his way around a knife.
Lived two miles from where Julian's body was found.
You, uh, check out any of those Libertyville
homes while you were out there, Nick?
Matter of fact, saw a few "for sale" signs.
- Might look into it. - Well, interest rates are low.
Time to act is now.
Where is this Casey Hollenbeck today?
Died in '94. I'm looking for anyone
who might have seen him at Julian's office.
Julian's secretary still around?
Yeah, uh, Joan Rasky.
- On her way in now. - Lab report's back.
DNA from the glass in the heating vent
doesn't match Julian.
Working on whose it might be.
You have a swab from Harry?
Paul Romano, too.
What? I'm not going to sit in the corner and knit.
Pace yourself, Will. I don't want you busting a stitch.
Got Julian's bank records.
Guy wrote over $2,000 worth of checks to cash.
Hundred bucks a week, every week, leading up to his murder.
Two thousand clams. That's a lot of cash back then.
Gambling, mistress, drugs.
Or a payoff.
I worked with Mr. Bellowes
from February of '58 until he passed away that November.
A farmer out of Somerton, uh
Casey Hollenbeck...had a gripe with Julian.
Did he ever show up at Julian's office?
Angry as sin.
But Mr. Bellowes patched it up with him, of course.
How did he do that?
Well, he just explained
that this city was sprawling north
whether he liked it or not
and he set his whole family up in Libertyville homes.
We found weekly checks made out to cash
in his personal records.
Any chance Julian was paying him off?
You know, I really don't have any information
about his personal accounts Detective.
Julian's gone, Joan.
And the person who killed him
might still be out there.
I put those checks in the mail once a week
but not to a Mr. Hollenbeck.
They were addressed to an R. Reynolds.
Any idea who that was?
I didn't know, and I didn't ask.
And then, one day, the answer came walking in.
♪ No ♪
♪ Never again ♪
I'm here to see Mr. Bellowes.
- Your name? - Mrs. Regina Reynolds.
I'm sorry, Mrs. Reynolds. Do you have an appointment?
It's urgent.
Mr. Bellowes is behind closed doors at the moment.
Well, you can let Mr. Bellowes know
I am not one for causing a scene
but I am happy to give it a whirl.
♪ Changes the two ♪
Take five, Mrs. Libertyville.
There's a woman here to see you, Mr. Bellowes.
She's, um...a Negro.
♪ Strong enough to flout romance ♪
♪ And say you're out ♪
What are you doing here?
- We have an agreement. - This can't wait.
Now is not the time. I'll call you.
I promise.
So, you can imagine the scandal in 1958.
Do you happen to remember the address you sent those checks?
I do. I typed it so many times it's in the permanent file.
22-21, Robman Street.
- Sorry I'm late. - Thanks for joining me.
Figured, as long as I was going to be in Philly, well--
I can't pass up Chinese.
Remember this place?
Brought you here when you were a kid.
Used to have an aquarium by the door.
Oh, with the angelfish.
Christmas.
We'd come here at Christmastime.
Red lanterns, close as we
were going to get to decorations.
'Still love the holidays.'
Yeah.
Sure.
You know, she didn't mess it all up.
'One year I was six.'
Well, we skipped the Chinese, but not the gin, and..
...and I helped her walk home, and she was so...sad.
Said we didn't have any money for presents
but when we got home
there was this bike on the steps.
Red Huffy with a banana seat.
I don't know.
Maybe she had some kind of pull with Santa.
'Why you looking at me like that?'
Ask Santa. I'm sworn to secrecy.
I loved that bike.
I, uh, went ahead and ordered.
You need a menu or you know what you want?
Um, sesame noodles, Szechuan green beans
and hot and sour soup.
Something I said?
'Great minds think alike.'
Sesame noodles.
'Szechuan green beans.'
Guess the soup's still on its way.
Eat before they get cold.
22-21, Robman Street.
Pissed-off white guy from work
can't handle Julian's taste in women
follows him back to Regina's place.
White guy?
How do you think Regina's black husband was gonna take it?
His wife cheating on him with Julian.
You got a point.
- Regina Reynolds? - Yes?
Few questions about Julian Bellowes.
- Remember him? - "Remember him?"
Two of you were involved?
Of course we were.
Julian was my brother.
'Our mother was Creole.'
Plenty of light-skinned folks in our community
but Julian was by far the lightest.
Kids gave him a hard time
for not being black enough.
'Made him a man without a country.'
How were things at home?
Julian came back from the service.
Living as a white man.
My father felt that he had lost his only son
but he never would have hurt him.
What was so urgent, had you showing up at his office?
Our father was dying.
- I wanted Julian to know. - Julian ever send you money?
Every week without fail. Think it eased his conscience.
Of course, we would have traded every dime
to have him around instead.
Anyone you know find out what Julian was doing?
Secret like that
it's bound to catch up with you.
I see you got married.
Her name's Caroline.
She's a wonderful girl.
How much longer does he have?
Doctor says we're at the end.
It's not too late, Julian.
- It's Daddy. - He won't want to see me.
Caroline's expecting.
- We're gonna have a baby. - 'A baby?'
But what happens if--
I haven't been able to sleep in weeks.
Julian.
You've got to get ahead of this.
Lieutenant Bellowes.
George Watson from Fort Benning.
I think you're mistaken.
No mistake about it.
This is you, isn't it?
'Your wife sure is pretty.'
Sure have done well for yourself, Lieutenant Bellowes.
Is there something I can help you with?
Come to think of it, there is.
Like to come to that office of yours sometime.
Catch up, talk business.
You have a card?
Call first, alright?
That was the last time I saw him.
He never got a chance to say good-bye to my father.
'George Watson.'
He the one with the carpet company?
- Seen his ads. - That's him.
He was just getting started back then.
Why didn't you tell the cops about this
when you found out Julian was murdered?
I was a stranger
at my own brother's funeral, wondering
who all those people were.
What they meant to him.
I realized that
he belonged to them now.
And if that's the way he wanted it
I was going to honor his wishes.
When's the last time you saw Julian Bellowes, George?
In the service.
Fort Benning, Georgia.
'Peacetime enlistment.'
A witness saw Julian give you his business card.
Hot Skillet Diner South Philly
few weeks before he was killed.
You're right. Sorry, Detective, that was a long time ago.
Anything in particular you wanted to discuss with Julian?
Let me see. Um, I was interested in some work
he was doing up in Somerton.
You wanted to buy a Libertyville property?
No, not at all.
I was interested in laying carpet in all those new builds.
We found your name in Julian's office phone records.
You left more than ten messages for him.
Successful men don't take no for an answer.
That's the way I built my company.
Any disciplinary issues when you were in the Army, George?
'Dug up your service record.'
Three non-judicial punishments in your first tour
all from Lieutenant Julian Bellowes.
'W-Wait a second, now.'
He treated me fair. Same as the rest.
Must have made you angry, seeing him in that diner
realizing the guy who'd been so tough on you was pretending.
I was angry because he denied knowing me.
Truth is, I'd known for a long time the secret he was hiding.
Man, I don't know about that Army barber.
I mean, he gonna know what to do with my kitchen?
You seem to be in decent shape.
Tell him to use the clippers.
Private Bellowes.
Yes, sir?
Soldier, how'd you get through school
with grades like this and never learn
how to check a box?
You marked "Negro" instead of "white."
Excuse me?
'You could've ended up on KP duty for the rest of your tour.'
Unless you'd rather peel potatoes than command a unit.
My mistake.
'Now, report to Company First Sergeant in Processing'
'before they close.'
Yes, sir.
Julian had a choice.
A way to be treated better.
Who was I to stand in his way?
'He ever give you that carpet contract you were after?'
No. I guess he was afraid I would tell someone his secret.
I thought successful men didn't take no for an answer.
Look, I didn't begrudge the man.
If I'd had the same choice
no idea what I would've done.
- 'Thank you.' - Ma'am?
The family I..
...I always wanted to meet.
He told me they had nothing in common.
They'd had a falling out over Julian's career plans.
It's something much bigger than that.
Now that you know, it shed any light?
It explains what he was trying to tell me.
Julian.
'You all right?'
I'm fine.
You should go back to sleep.
Can't remember the last time you weren't awake
half the night.
Is it about the baby?
Are you nervous about becoming a father?
Of course not.
Is it about Harry?
What do you mean?
He's got the silliest thing stuck in his craw.
He had a conversation with Gene Reilly.
Gene's a deacon over at All Souls.
It was so strange, but Gene says he's never heard of your family.
I told Harry he must be mistaken.
There's got to be more than one All Souls.
I know you don't like me to bring up your family
and I promised myself I'd stop asking
but...well, there's gonna be a baby.
Your parents are gonna be grandparents.
And they made you.
Which makes me love them.
There's so much that you don't know about me, Caroline.
You mean you don't actually like to cha-cha?
I'm serious.
There's nothing you could tell me
that would make me stop loving you.
Thank you.
I thought he was..
...he was worried about coming from modest means.
What a world we lived in
that he felt he couldn't tell me the truth.
You said Harry was looking into Julian's past.
It possible he found out about your husband's secret?
My brother would have told me.
Wouldn't he?
The hell you still doing here, Will?
Could ask you the same thing.
Fair enough.
Lab results came back.
Blood on the broken glass from the Legacy Room
was Harry Kemp, Junior's.
Night before he died
Julian was fighting with his brother-in-law.
Caroline said he had been looking into Julian's past.
Sounds like it finally caught up with him.
Well, last time we spoke you stated
you and Julian were pretty tight.
- Family, you said. - Uh, that's right, yeah.
You got a little detective in you, Harry?
'Looking into Julian's past.'
Sniffing around the church he went to.
In 1958, where you went to church
was your family's social circle.
I mean, when he told me
that he went to All Souls, I--
You-You wanted to know where this cowboy rode in from.
Looking for a crack in that smooth veneer of his.
Yeah, maybe.
'You found out he didn't go there.'
Never had.
Guy lied to your father, your sister.
Wonder why he'd lie like that, Harry?
I don't know.
You know, my mom
always warned me not to drink gin.
Said it messed with your head.
Could make you do things you didn't mean to.
And you loved your gin martini, Harry.
Tossing 'em back in the Legacy Room. Then Julian comes back.
Told us it wasn't you fighting with him that night.
You want to stick with that story?
Julian's throat got sliced.
- Could have been broken glass. - So?
The blood on the pieces we found in the Legacy Room?
Guess whose DNA.
You know, juries love that DNA evidence, Harry.
If I was you, I'd start cooking up an alibi.
I didn't want to hurt him.
I just wanted the truth.
Harry.
Look, I know you've been talking to Caroline about me.
You got a problem with that, Julian?
She's my damn sister.
Come on. I'm, I'm here to come clean.
You lied about where you grew up.
You lied about who you are.
Who are you, you damn fraud?
Okay. We'll talk when you're sober.
Father's betting everything on a con man
while I'm stuck in the stockroom sharpening pencils!
I know you've gotten a raw deal ever since I showed up.
Yes.
But everyone deserves a shot to prove themselves
and I'm going to make sure your father gives you yours.
Why the hell should I believe you?
I lied about who I was because I had to.
It was the only way for me to be myself
and not be trapped by where I come from.
And where the hell is that?
Abyssinian Baptist is a couple of blocks north of here.
That's where I was baptized.
That's where my whole family was baptized.
Right there..
...is where I grew up.
My father is a carpenter.
His name is James Ridley Bellowes.
He's a Negro, Harry.
So am I.
You're related to them?
I'm their son.
You remember the old saw about judging a book?
Does my sister know?
I'm gonna tell her next.
Figured I'd start with my toughest customer.
- What's the party for? - 'It's not a party.'
They're saying good-bye to him.
Who?
My father.
He's dying.
Why aren't you in there with them?
There's something I got to make right.
When I do, that's when I can go home again.
I don't know, He dropped me off
Drove me home. Never saw him again.
Anyone else find out? Your father maybe?
Julian's death destroyed Dad.
I got the feeling he wished it had been me instead of Julian.
So I told him the secret.
You never saw tears dry up so fast.
'"Don't tell Caroline." That's all he said.'
Went in his office, shut the door
started working the phones.
Well, who was he calling?
Well, his high-placed friends.
Put a lid on the whole investigation.
Julian said there was something he needed to make right
before he could go home again? You know what that was?
Yeah, he wanted to integrate Libertyville.
He'd already implemented the idea.
Well, how so?
A few weeks before his death
he preapproved a loan for a mortgage.
The first black family.
- You remember who they were? - No, I never did know.
Took another 25 years
for the first black family to move into Libertyville.
Libertyville handled its own mortgage applications.
- You still got those records? - There's a storage facility.
- And 50 years of paperwork. - You dig, Harry. I'll watch.
Give me a shot at this guy, John.
Doc said restricted duty.
The only thing that's gonna cure me is doing my job.
Go on. Get in there.
'You told us you had no interest'
in a Libertyville home, George. Look what we found.
A mortgage application for a model called The Philadelphian.
That you, George?
Well, that-that looks like my signature.
'This is where it says you've been preapproved.'
- Whose name's that? - It's Julian Bellowes.
What happened, George? Know you never lived there.
I don't remember. A long time ago.
'Well, mortgage was being set up at Emerson Mutual'
Center City branch.
Everything was going through.
Until that morning, November 7, 1958.
'When you went to the bank to pick up your check'
they told you you couldn't have that loan after all.
I built my company from scratch.
12 stores in the tri-state area.
- Ads on television. - 'Had your wife with you.'
Must have been hard having them tell you
they'd changed their mind right in front of her.
Put three kids through college without help.
Did it all myself.
'Look, reversing your application like that.'
I know what happened.
They saw the color of your skin.
Keep your grass mowed and kids on point.
Smile friendly and never complain.
Still..
...the neighbors are nervous.
I know.
I lived next door to 'em myself.
I know exactly what you would have done
if you had the choice Julian Bellowes had.
Hell, George, we both would have done the same damn thing.
- Taken it. - Yeah.
'Black or not'
Julian had no idea
what it was like for men like you and me.
He set me up for a fall.
Made you promises he couldn't keep.
"Out front, a bright green yard and an apple tree."
"A neighborhood of good men and their families."
I just wanted what was fair.
What every other qualified vet was getting when they came home.
"A piece of the American dream."
Alright, I know it doesn't look like much
but Phase 5 is going to be our best project yet.
I brought the sketches for you.
We're going to put a kidney-shaped pool right--
What the hell's the matter with you, huh?
- Your bank rejected me! - What do you mean?
I personally approved your application.
My wife got herself a new dress.
Wanted to look her best.
Bank manager takes one look at us
then starts talking about some clerical error!
Just calm down, George, I will call him myself
and I will straighten this out.
She cried..
...all the way home.
Nothing I could say made a bit of difference.
I let my family down because of you!
The policies are wrong.
No matter how hard I work
I can't make my life look like it looks in one of your ads.
If I got to lend you the money myself, I will.
You think I want your charity, huh?
I got my own down payment and the monthly.
- I just can't get a break. - I understand.
You have no idea what I'm talking about!
I caught more than my share of hell for the color of my skin.
Most of it from my own people.
What, you blaming us now, huh?
'Cause we can't snap our fingers, skip to the head
of the line like you did?
There's not a day that I have not regretted that decision.
- This is my fight, too. - How dare you?! Huh?
Running around, pretending to be a white man
and now you want to be my brother?
What you are is a disgrace.
♪ This land is your land ♪
♪ This land is my land ♪
♪ From California ♪
♪ Well to the New York Island ♪
♪ From the redwood forest ♪
♪ To the Gulf Stream waters ♪
♪ I tell you ♪
♪ This land was made for you and me ♪
♪ As I went walkin' ♪
♪ Down that ribbon of a highway ♪
♪ I saw above me ♪
♪ All that endless skyway ♪
♪ Now I saw below me ♪
♪ That golden valley ♪
♪ And I said ♪
♪ This land ♪
♪ Was made for you and me ♪
♪ This land is your land ♪
♪ This land is my land ♪
♪ From Riverside California ♪
♪ Up to the Staten Island ♪
♪ Way on down to Augusta Georgia ♪
Stay tuned for the scenes from our next episode.