Seeing Allred Page #4

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so I think that was the attraction.

[Allred] I remember thinking

I would have incredible children

with Peyton Bray.

Went to a Justice of the Peace somewhere

in Philadelphia, and that was it.

I was pregnant at 19,

gave birth to my daughter Lisa at age 20.

I had never cooked ,

and I'd never changed a diaper.

And I don't think I'd ever held a baby,

so this was all culture shock.

I used to iron in front of the television

and watch I Love Lucy .

Being a housewife is a big bore.

Cook the meals, do the dishes,

make the beds, dust the house!

-Cook the meals...

-[Allred] Lucille Ball as the character

who always wanted something

in addition to being married to Desi.

Hey, what do you know? It says here

that Danny Kaye is going to London

to give another command performance

for Queen Elizabeth.

I wonder what the Queen is cooking

for Phil tonight?

[laughter]

[Allred] Peyton went to boot camp.

At some point I found out

that he was in the hospital.

I went to visit him.

It turned out it was

for mental health reasons.

And it became increasingly serious.

[Bloom] He was bipolar,

so he'd be up and he'd be down.

When he was down,

he was very dark and very depressed

and would shut all of us out.

[Allred] Peyton was cooking one time.

Somehow it didn't turn out

the way he wanted it to.

I don't know if it burned or what.

He took the pan and he just threw it.

And that was very frightening to me.

And that happened more than once.

I recognized that I was not able to help.

That if I stayed, it could present

a risk of harm to my daughter.

So I left.

I moved back into my parents' home.

My neighbor's mom said to me,

"Gloria, why don't you try it again

with him?"

I said, "I can't."

And I didn't tell her why,

'cause I didn't tell anybody why.

I didn't tell my own parents why.

There wasn't the kind of discussion

about mental illness that we have today.

Ultimately many decades later,

he ended his life.

It's very heartbreaking.

I was just very, very fortunate

to have a wonderful child.

I did not get child support

for many years.

I knew that I was the one who's going

to have to support my daughter.

I had to be strong

and I had to move forward.

["I'll Take You There" plays]

I began to teach

at Benjamin Franklin High School.

It's an all-boys,

almost all African-American High School.

I was also commuting to NYU

for my Master's in English education.

I know a place

I had written my dissertation

on African-American novelists at Penn.

At NYU, one of my professors said,

"Now you talk about civil rights

for African-Americans.

What about your own rights?"

I said, "What do you mean?"

He said, "Well, women's rights."

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