There is a great movie unmade that should be made about Otis Redding. He married a woman named Zelma which he met in Macon, Georgia, in 1959. They were married in 1961 and Otis died in 1967. According to Zelma, Otis never saw color and he always had time for the big man and the little man. It just did not matter to him. That’s why so many people knew and loved him a lot. Zelma would tell Otis how nice he sang, and he would always say that he couldn’t sing. He would say that he could gimmick real good. Well, from what I hear when I hear his voice, it’s some pretty good gimmicking. The man could sing.
If someone makes a movie about Otis Redding, there would probably be some action in the movie. I was reading some words from a man name Alan “Red” Walden. According to Alan, Otis was not a violent person. You nearly had to pin him against the wall to get him to react, but once he did, you never forgot it. Alan said, “One night in North Carolina, he was down on his knees singing “These Arms Of Mine”, when this guy got jealous of Otis’ effect on his wife. Otis had his eyes closed while he was singing, and this guy walked up on the stage and belted him in the face….Otis finished the song, stood up, got off the stage, and beat the ……out of this guy in front of everybody. A policeman was there, and he kept saying, “Hit him, Otis, I didn’t see a thing,” while Otis beat the crap out of this guy.”
If a movie is ever made about Otis Redding, the sad part would be his death. According to Zelma, the morning he got killed, he called her around eight in the morning. Otis sounded kind of down. He told her that he was tired. There was more that she said he said, but I’m feeling too sad to write the rest. However, I would love to see the good memories of Otis Redding made into a movie.
