by Omar Tyree
Tracy laughed and began to introduce us.
“This is my cousin Vanessa Tracy Smith, who’s been living with me in L.A. since her last few years in high school. And if it wasn’t for her bothering me about this damn thing, I definitely wouldn’t be here right now.”
“So, you’re the one who finally pushed her into doing it?” Robin asked me with a handshake and a smile. Robin Antoinette was the casting director who would be running the show with Tracy that week, to select all of the possible stars and extras.
“I figured it was gonna happen sooner or later, I was just pushing for sooner,” I spoke up and told her. I wanted to back down from taking too much of the credit though. It could be a real headache for me if things didn’t work out in the end. But there I was in the middle of things.
Tracy introduced Robin to my crew, and Robin introduced us to hers. They were mostly personal assistants and film students who were still in film school from New York.
Tracy said, “Okay, first thing first. Let’s get all the girls up to their rooms, let them sort out their outfits for the week, and then while they run along to South Street to play, we can go over our game plan and run it down to the girls for tomorrow.”
“Sounds like you got it all covered,” Robin stated.
“Well, let’s jump to it then,” Tracy told her.
We all received the keys to our hotel rooms, dragged our luggage up on the elevators, picked out our Flyy Girl Ltd. shirts for the week, and got ready to go out to South Street to enjoy the sights and sounds of Philadelphia.
“Philadelphia, here I come,” Jasmine yelled into the night air as soon as we walked out of the hotel that evening.
“Yeah, so everybody get ready to cover your ears,” Maddy joked.
We giggled like the girls we were and started walking toward the weekend excitement on South Street.
Wow!
First thing Monday morning, Tracy had me accompany her to the radio station at Power 99 FM. But she had my girls report straight to Freedom Theater for instructions from Robin Antoinette and her casting crew. I was decked out in my Flyy Girl Ltd. baby-tee, the lime green one, with the matching hat and matching lime green pants. Tracy wore the rust-colored tee with black jeans and no hat.
“So you’re finally doing the Flyy Girl movie?” Golden Boy was asking Tracy at the station. We were inside the live recording booth with the Power 99 morning team, minus Wendy Williams, who had moved on to her own syndicated show in New York.
Tracy answered, “First we need to find the right people to put in the movie.”
“You got a cameo spot for me?” the comedian Dee Lee asked her. “I can play a drug dealer with a sense of humor. Only I don’t sell no drugs, I sell jokes all day. And my jokes are so hot on the street, that they’re addictive. Hell, you can do a whole movie off of that. Let me write that down for my own first movie.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” my cousin humored him.
I had never seen the Power 99 morning show team in person, but Dee Lee was as light as I was with tight curly hair, and Golden Boy looked just like his name. He had golden brown skin and brown eyes. There were also two young women on the show since replacing Wendy Williams, but I didn’t know who they were.
“So you’re having a casting call today at nine o’clock?” they asked Tracy.
“At the Freedom Theater on Broad Street,” my cousin filled in.
“And just any old body can come and try out for the movie?” Dee Lee asked.
“Anyone can come, but we’re seeing agency actors and actresses first, and then it’s first-come first-serve with everyone else.”
Dee Lee nodded. “So if you’re not represented by an agency, then you could be standing there in line for like two hours.”
Tracy answered, “Do you want to be in a movie or not? I mean, you gotta do what you gotta do. I have to be there all day long. And when you’re actually shooting a movie, you’re there on the set for months. So you might as well get used to waiting now.”
“I heard that,” they all responded.
“I see you’re also starting a Flyy Girl clothing line,” one of the young women on the show commented. They had already commented on it when we first walked in, but now they were bringing it up on the air.
Tracy smiled and pointed to me. I had a few of the Flyy Girl Ltd. shirts in a large carry bag.
She said, “Yes, I am, and we brought you guys a few samples to sport for us.”
“Oh, thank you, thank you. Freebies are always nice,” the women hosts responded with smiles as I handed them the shirts.
Tracy said, “We’ll have shirts and hats for sale at the casting calls, but we only have a limited supply, so get it while it’s hot. That’s why it’s called Flyy Girl Ltd. We’re not into the one-size-fits-all bag. We’re going after the tailor-made audience who like one-of-a-kind apparel.”
“So you’re still on your hustle,” Dee Lee stated. “Oh, I know you’re from Philly now, girl.”
“You know that’s right,” Tracy responded with a chuckle. She said, “But a lot of my hustle now is coming straight from my little cousin right here, Vanessa. And she’s straight out of North Philly.”
Dee Lee said, “Oh, that’s my neck of the woods. What street?” he asked me.
I was nearly ready to faint. I was in there just to assist my cousin, not to be put on the spot like that.
I stepped up to the big black microphone with my heart racing and said, “Twenty-second and Girard.”
Dee Lee started smiling wider. He joked and said, “I probably
passed you standing at the bus stop in the cold a hundred times and didn’t even offer you a warm ride.”
He had us all laughing in there.
I said, “That’s all right. I wouldn’t have known who you were anyway. I just know your name and your voice,” I told him.
He joked again and said, “Yeah, I could have been some light-skinned maniac. Your momma wouldn’t let you jump in the car with me.”
“Probably not,” I told him.
“So, outside of Flyy Girl, are you working on anything else right now, something you can give us the scoop on before you film it?” they asked her.
“Well, to tell you the truth, my last couple of Hollywood films were not all that much to talk about,” Tracy told them.
Dee Lee jumped all over that. He said, “Well now, I wasn’t gonna say nothin’ about it, but since you brought it up. What the hell were you thinking? What were you trying to be, Sheena of the Urban Jungle? I saw that Road Kill movie at the dollar screen and couldn’t believe it. I mean now, Led Astray was good. That was good. But Road Kill . . .”
“I kind of liked that movie,” one of the female hosts spoke up. “We don’t have to always be the damsel in distress. We can kick butt, too.”
Dee Lee said, “You know what, I really think we need to leave that kicking butt to the Asians, or The Matrix movies.”
To make a long story short, we did our thing on Power 99’s morning show, and got out of there to make it down to Freedom Theater.
* * *
“What do you think?” Tracy asked me after the show.
I was still thinking about her giving me so much credit for what she was doing. I mean, I was flattered by it, but it was really not expected.
I said, “I didn’t know you were gonna put me on the spot like that?”
“Why not? I’m only telling them the truth. You did push me into this.”
“Yeah, but . . .” I didn’t know what else to say, so I thought of a way where I could make her think twice about it.
I said, “So, since it was my idea, what percentage of the profits do I get?”
I felt for sure that my cousin would change her tune after I said something like that. But she surprised me again when she said, “Name your price.”
I looked at her and was stunned, but Tracy didn’t appear to be joking.
“Are you serious?”
“Name your price,” she rep
eated.
I took a deep breath and thought of a fair number for a minor producer.
“Ten percent.”
“Of what?” she asked me next.
I was stunned again.
“Of what?” I thought it was obvious. I said, “Of the movie.”
“And what about the clothing line?”
I thought about it and said, “Yeah, that too.”
A lot of it was my idea. I mean, Tracy had finally decided to run with things, but . . .
“And the television rights?” she asked me.
I wasn’t even thinking about all of that. She was far ahead of me.
She said, “If you’re gonna play the role of power, then you have to understand what you’re getting into. You have to think about everything. Now, I’m gonna hook you up, Vanessa, but only because you’re my little cousin, and I want you to do well. But in real-life business, you get everything that you need to get on paper before you press any GO buttons. You hear me? So I’m glad we’re having this conversation. Because I really believe that you have what it takes to be a real power broker. Even Susan noticed that in you.”
She said, “You’re a lot like me in some ways, Vanessa, but you’re totally different in others. Like, you’re not really a show-off like I was at your age, but you definitely want to be in control. And you’re much more pushier than I was. I would beg and scheme for a lot of the things that I wanted, but you . . . you just make your own way. Even how you gathered your group of girlfriends. You’re younger than most of them, but you can’t tell, because you always know what you’re doing.
“So yeah, I give you a lot of the credit for this,” my cousin told me. “Because you deserve it, and I see something in you that I want to work with. So this is really more about me developing you than it is me. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m gonna get mine. You can best believe that. But at the same time, you’re family, and I want to build you into someone powerful. Then you can continue to help me in whatever it is that I need to do, just like Susan and her family do. Black people don’t do that enough. And that was one of my main reasons for finally deciding to do this. I want to get you ready.”
I was speechless. I sat there feeling all clammy and good inside. But I was scared, too. I mean, it was one thing for my cousin to do what she was doing with me as her sidekick, but once she made it known that she was watching me, that seemed to change everything. Because now I knew that she was watching.
As we drove toward Freedom Theater, right past my old neighborhood on Girard Avenue in North Philadelphia, I was in a dream world. Could I really handle the power that Tracy was trying to prepare me for? I didn’t know. But it was too late to back down. The next level of the game had already begun.
Tracy chuckled to herself in the silence of the limo as we got closer to Freedom Theater. She said, “Don’t get scared now, Vanessa. Be who you were meant to be.” She said, “Your whole generation is a step up from mine. We used to think about making it on a minor level with a family, a husband, and kids. But you guys . . .”
She shook her head and said, “You guys are thinking about running girl companies. Every last one of you.”
I said, “I don’t know about all of that.” Tracy was starting to exaggerate.
She said, “We’ll see. And if you start with something as big as Flyy Girl, then where do you go from there?”
When I thought about her question, it scared me even more. What was I about to get myself into? Flyy Girl was big! I still don’t think my cousin understood how big it was, or it could be. I mean, I could be satisfied with running Flyy Girl for life, with Tracy’s blessings of course. I could see Flyy Girl scholarships, fashion shows, reading centers, even a doggone sorority organization or something. I would never have to leave the Flyy Girl brand. And we could have everything we needed in house.
I finally spoke up with a smile on my face. I said, “Like you told me, law number one is to remember never to outshine the master.”
I was no damn fool. I was still a young nobody next to a giant, who just happened to be my cousin. Without her power, her hard work, and her hustle, I wouldn’t be worth a phone call. So I had to play my cards like I had some sense.
Tracy smiled at me real easy from her side of the limo and said, “Good answer.” And that was all she needed to say.
* * *
We arrived at Freedom Theater on Broad Street, and I was amazed by the crowd.
I opened my mouth and said “Oh my God!” It looked like a concert line out in front of the building. People flowed all the way down the block and wrapped around the corner. We couldn’t even see the end of the line. More people were hopping out of cars, off of buses, and crossing Broad Street to join the line. And it was only just after nine o’clock in the morning, which meant that a lot of the people at the front of the line were out there at eight o’clock or earlier.
Tracy looked over at me and smiled again.
“Now you see what I’m talking about?” she asked me. “This is what you got me into. And we don’t even have a green-light for this film yet.”
I thought fast and said, “Well then, we need to take a picture of this line and show it to your producers.”
Tracy looked at me and said, “Another good idea. Girl, you are just bubbling with them.” She said, “I’m gonna get a cameraman out here immediately.”
I couldn’t believe it. She had me afraid to speak anything else. I was only getting myself deeper in trouble with every idea that I came up with.
When the driver opened the limo door for us to climb out, I became nervous as hell. All eyes were on us. I wasn’t used to that. I was used to all eyes being on Tracy in Hollywood. They didn’t pay much attention to me once they realized I was only the little cousin. But in my home city of Philadelphia, on a casting call that I had instigated for Flyy Girl, I felt a thousand eyes on me, and I was ready to puke. I was preparing to step out of a limo with my cousin, while wearing original Flyy Girl Ltd. clothing that I had helped to come up with, and it was a totally different feeling for me.
Oh my God! a little voice inside my head continued to scream. Just walk straight in behind her, I told myself. Just walk in behind her.
But as soon as my feet hit the pavement among murmurs of “There she goes” from the people in the line who recognized my cousin, someone yelled out, “Vanessa! Hey, Vanessa! I knew I’d see you down here.”
I looked back nervously and spotted my girl Danielle Watkins from my Engineering & Science High School days.
She said, “Oh, now that’s flyy,” in reference to my lime green Flyy Girl Ltd. shirt, hat, and matching pants.
“We’ll have them for sale inside,” I told her.
“Let’s go, Vanessa,” Tracy told me. “We got work to do.”
Before I could leave, Danielle whispered, “Get me in there, girl. Get me in.”
As they say, I was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
I squirmed in response to my old girl and said, “I can’t. But I’ll see you inside.”
I felt ready to hurl with each step I took toward the entrance. It got worse when we stepped inside.
Robin grabbed Tracy by the hand and pulled her behind the stage. She said, “Girl, this is the craziest casting call I have ever been involved with in my life, and we haven’t even started yet.
“We have about two hundred agency talents here already, and a thousand people who are just walking in off the street. So I let my agency people in to sit them down in the front audience seats. Then I started letting some of the first walk-ups in and directed them to the back rows. But I can already see that this here is gonna be a mess.”
Robin was excited with big eyes and everything.
Tracy responded as if she had ice water in her veins. “Well, we’ll just move them in and move them out. I know what I need to look for. Do they have their script sheets?”
“Yeah, but we ran out of them real fast,” Robin answered.
“So we’ll just have our as
sistants collect them and redistribute them.”
“Exactly,” Robin agreed.
Tracy then addressed the Freedom Theater staff.
“We don’t know if it was a good idea to go on the radio and advertise this,” an older black woman told Tracy. She said, “We didn’t expect a crowd as large as this. People have literally been here waiting since seven o’clock this morning.”
Tracy had run advertisements on Power 99 Radio for a week before we had arrived.
“We’ll try to make things move as swiftly as possible,” she said. “In the meantime, you have thousands of new supporters and talent to sell on Freedom Theater.”
That was part of the deal with us using the Freedom Theater. They would get to collect information from potential supporters and solicit new talent from the crowd.
Tracy had no time to waste, so she moved on toward the front of the stage where the auditions would take place. I hurried behind her, and caught Jasmine rushing past with paperwork in her hands.
She spotted me with wide eyes of her own. And despite it being nine o’clock in the morning, or six o’clock L.A. time, Jasmine was wide awake.
“Do you see all of these people in here this early? Is this an East Coast thing or what?” she asked me.
I hadn’t seen the people in the audience yet. I was still moving toward it.
“Wait till you see it,” Jasmine told me.
I took another deep breath and walked out to the front of the stage, behind my cousin’s lead. I don’t know how many people Freedom Theater could hold, but there was no room left in that place. The entire audience was packed to capacity.
I spotted Sasha, Maddy, Alexandria, and the other assistants and camera crew from New York, all working their positions and wearing the Flyy Girl gear.
My girls spotted me and shook their heads in my direction. None of us could have imagined that kind of enthusiasm for the Flyy Girl movie. Then again, we could, but actually seeing it made it more unbelievable than the dreams we had all shared.
There were four tables set up in the middle of the stage, with a camera pointed toward the audience at dead center. All of the casting crew were sitting at the tables with Tracy to judge the talent, while everyone in the audience watched. So if you were afraid to perform in front of a crowd, then you were definitely in the wrong place.