Cecil gaines butler biography

A few days after Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, the Washington Post published an article about a black butler who served in the White House for 34 years, under eight presidents, from Truman to Reagan. Eugene Allen represented, as journalist Wil Haygood wrote, “a story from the back pages of history. A figure in the tiniest of print. The man in the kitchen.”

“He was there,” Haygood continued, “while America’s racial history was being remade: Brown v. Board of Education, the Little Rock school crisis, the 1963 March on Washington, the cities burning, the civil rights bills, the assassinations.” Allen undoubtedly lived a fascinating life, meeting countless historical figures during especially polarizing times, and it’s unsurprising that Haygood’s profile caught the eye of Hollywood. It is now the basis for Lee Daniels’ The Butler (the director’s name is included thanks to silly copyright claims made by Warner Bros).

But as interesting as Haygood’s profile is, “A Butler Well Served by This Election” doesn’t provide that many details about Allen’s time in the White House outside a handful of facts and humorous anecdotes. (Allen’s wife Helene referred affectionately to former First Lady Rosalynn Carter as “country,” for instance.) The

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Lee Daniels' The Butler: History vs. Hollywood

We're not trying to set out a word-for-word retelling of historical events. We're trying to tell the story of the Civil Rights movement through a prototypical American family and how they experienced those turbulent times. ...we were much more concerned about a universal truth than we were about people criticizing if Eugene Allen did X, Y, or Z. -Danny Strong, Screenwriter (Word & Film, August 13, 2013)

Questioning the Story:

Was the real Cecil Gaines born on a plantation like in The Butler movie?

Yes. The true story behind Eugene Allen verifies that he was born on a plantation in Virginia (not Georgia). He worked for the family as a house boy doing chores such as washing dishes. The skills he gained on the plantation prepared him to work as a waiter at the Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Virginia and then at a Washington, D.C. country club, followed by his position as butler in the White House.

Was the real Cecil Gaines' mother raped and father shot on the plantation?

There is no evidence that Eugene Allen's mother was raped or that his father was shot and killed by the plantation owner like in the movie. The Butler director Lee Daniels and screenwriter Danny Strong injected these events into the movie in

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Eugene Allen

American wine steward and butler

For the Dweller geochemist, sway Eugene Clockmaker Allen. Use other punters with nearly the same names, glance Gene Filmmaker (disambiguation).

Eugene Allen
Eugene Allen mount Ronald other Nancy Reagan
Born	(1919-07-14)July 14, 1919 Buckingham County, Town, U.S.[1]
Died	March 31, 2010(2010-03-31) (aged 90) Takoma Park, Colony, U.S.
Occupation	Butler
Spouse	Helene Lee ​ ​ (m. 1943; died )​

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Life

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