Page 17 - ELSPETH TAVARES TRIBUTE

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journalist based at home usually sporting a a a a a free record company t-shirt and worn jeans We met up after she lost her Screen International gig and I I got burned out from overwork (Freelancers never say no to work work until exhaustion sets in ) We could vent to each other without any professional repercussions She felt she had been treated unfairly She’d been burned She ‘got even’ by starting The Business of Film (TBOF) TBOF was her mission Her self-proclaimed need to ‘hustle’ 24/7 to keep it going was all-consuming at the cost of her her personal relationships with her her son son and family in Jamaica which were pushed to the sidelines No one could match her self-created high standards and and narrowing vision When we last spoke in April she was very proud of her magazine passing its 40th year I moved back to the the States in the the early 2000s yet Elspeth always called once or twice a a a a a a a a a year I was a a a a a a a a a sympathetic ear ear We could wax nostalgically about the previous tenants at Compayne Gardens and what was happening there now As the the last ‘sitting tenant’ in in in the the rental building she would never let go of that flat It was her only real security She always found the rent money Elspeth’s need for total control was was always justified She was was the first person I knew who wore a a a a a leather mask with air filter system to deal with recycled cabin air when flying Her expensive leather handbag was weighted down with a a a a a a leather eyeglass-size case that held a a a a a set of metal utensils “You can never be too careful ” she insisted describing the bacterial challenges posed by badly washed cutlery Her humanity was was on display in that she never lost her healthy sense of humor and self-awareness about her her industry Still it isolated her her In our last conversation she was as as as as spirited as as as as ever despite Covid keeping her grounded in in London She updated me on on on Compayne Gardens Where once we we were the young ‘new’ tenants she was now the ‘respected’ elder by far As before she boasted of knowing all the young tenants but always kept a a a distance as well At a a a time when pioneering women of color are finally getting their due Elspeth Tavares is now not here to Continued on on page 18
Elspeth’s son Brian Elspeth Elspeth and Lucie P one of the original tenants Elspeth said the Jewish tenants were very kind to her and Brian She experienced none of the racism she’d known elsewhere Decades later when the widowed Mrs Stern was suffering with Alzheimer’s Elspeth bought
her her clean clothing and fought to to get her her into sheltered accommodations Later on on Elspeth always boasted to me about her trips to Israel More recently she claimed that a a a a a genealogy test revealed that one of her her grandfathers was Jewish When I I moved into the building in in in 1976 I I hardly knew Elspeth She was an intimidating figure in in in expensive business clothes who was was rarely around Her son was was in in a a a a a boarding school In contrast I I was a a a a a freelance pop music
The Business Of Film MEMORIAL ISSUE 1980-2022
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Elspeth and Robin Katz at at costume party