The Pride of Jesse Hallam (1981)
TV Movie | 97 min | Drama | 3 March 1981 (USA)
Jesse Hallam, an illiterate coal miner from Kentucky, moves to Cincinnati so that his daughter may receive spinal surgery. Determined to support his family in the city, he decides he must learn how to read and write as an adult, and resolves to graduate from high school.
Director: Gary Nelson
Writer: Suzanne Clauser
Stars: Johnny Cash, Brenda Vaccaro, Ben Marley
TV Movie | 97 min | Drama | 3 March 1981 (USA)
Jesse Hallam, an illiterate coal miner from Kentucky, moves to Cincinnati so that his daughter may receive spinal surgery. Determined to support his family in the city, he decides he must learn how to read and write as an adult, and resolves to graduate from high school.
Director: Gary Nelson
Writer: Suzanne Clauser
Stars: Johnny Cash, Brenda Vaccaro, Ben Marley
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Mr. Hallam, did you want to see me?
00:13Please come in.
00:24You know I work for your daddy now.
00:26Well, I respect him.
00:31And he said he thought that you might be able to fix up some lessons.
00:40I can't read nor write.
00:43Are you totally illiterate?
00:44Well, now, what kind of dumb question is that?
00:48That's like asking, are you totally pregnant?
00:51I'm sorry.
00:58I never took any reading prizes, okay?
01:03Well, now your fine state of Ohio says I gotta pass a written test in this manual to get
01:10my driver's license.
01:11Oh, they'll let you take that test orally.
01:14Ted could help you with the manual.
01:15He could use the reading practice.
01:17Now, Ted, Ted's not to know anything about this, all right?
01:21How soon can I get the lessons?
01:23Takes time to learn to read.
01:24If it were easy, there wouldn't be 25 million adult functional illiterates in this country.
01:31It's plain hard work.
01:33Nobody ever accused me of being afraid of hard work.
01:41All my life, I've wanted to read.
01:49I can find you literacy lessons.
01:52Let me check into when and where, and I'll call you.
01:57Thanks, Miss Gallucci.
01:58Mr. Allam.
01:59Yes?
02:00May I ask you a personal question?
02:06How have you managed this long?
02:15You lie a lot.
02:16You get cheated some.
02:19You wrap yourself in a sweet cocoon like Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, and you fake it.
02:28What's up here?
02:30No way.