A Story of Many Lifetimes
80-year-old student David “Papi” Hunt reflects on his experience as a performer, playwright, and lover of history and learning.
David Hunt sits outside on the main SMC Campus on Friday, September 30, 2022. (Anthony Clingerman | The Corsair)
To David “Papi” Hunt, there is power in storytelling. Carrying manila folders filled with packets of paper, Hunt has been documenting his life on a quest of personal discovery.
“I made it to my fifth lifetime,” he said.
Hunt is an 80-year-old student at Santa Monica College and has been enrolled in classes for the past 22 years. He’s taken a swath of classes, including philosophy, video and sound editing, and theatrical production. It hasn’t been in pursuit of any degree or major, he said, but for the sake of his learning and continued enrichment.
“I'm not coming here for grades. You know, I don't even check my grades. I just found out my grades after 22 years,” he said. “They gave me a sheet of my grades and they say ‘you got a B-plus average.’ Oh, I didn't know that.”
Hunt worked as a studio engineer at NBC for 16 years and then as a technical director in the late ‘90s, which he regarded as his dream job. After just 30 days, he got laid off. He began working as a guide for Starline Tours in 1998, where he wrote his own tour and sold his original book, titled “Hooray for Hollywood,” and DVD to eager tourists.
Hunt attends Adult Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama every year, and is a member of their Space Academy ambassador team. He is also a member of the Big Horn Mountain Men, a group that is “dedicated to promoting interest and understanding in the art of buckskinning, and the legal and safe use of muzzle loading firearms,” according to their website.
“I was born during the 20th century, reenacting the 19th century, while living in the 21st century,” he said. “I'm 300 years old.”
His love of storytelling stems from his time as a performer and playwright from decades ago. In the late 1960s, Hunt was working at a post office in Hollywood when he ran into an up-and-coming performer named Ben Vereen. Vereen invited him to watch the latest production he was starring in, a rock musical called “Hair.” The show immediately captivated him, and altered the trajectory of his life.
“When I saw that show, that changed my whole life,” he said. “I was going into another lifetime.”
Hunt auditioned for a role in the musical for nine months in a row, but never got a part. One day, the stage manager came to him in the parking lot of the Aquarius Theater and suddenly requested his audition.
Hunt said that despite not having any prepared material for the audition, he improvised an acapella of “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah.” As the cast was coming back from lunch, band members joined in with bass and congas, propelling his performance. The cast lauded his audition, urging his immediate hiring.
“Went back to work saying ‘I'm through,’” Hunt said. “They couldn’t believe it, they were like ‘What?’ I'm going into show business, I got a contract right here!”
Hunt played the role of Hud in the Los Angeles production of the musical, running from 1968 to 1970. He also left for New York on Broadway as part of a national tour of the show until 1972. He later played as Simon in “Jesus Christ Superstar” in 1972.
Hunt recalled during his performance as Simon when he decided to jump off the stage, copying how the actor for Judas started his part in the audience. He sang out in the crowd as the spotlight struggled to find him. He said the audience loved it, but the director Tom O'Horgan scolded him for it, demanding that he never do something like that again.
He did it again in subsequent showings, this time with the approval from the light technician and the director.
“You know, I wanted to do it because Judas did it,” Hunt said. “And he was the star of the show. I thought I was the star too.”
David Hunt talks about his work as a writer outside on the main SMC campus on Friday, September 30, 2022. (Anthony Clingerman | The Corsair)
Hunt enjoys writing stories based on his own life experiences. Two of his original works were produced by the La MaMa Theater in L.A. and ran for about six to eight months in the late ‘70s. The first was titled “Hooked Special Delivery” in 1976, which Hunt wrote based on his experiences taking drugs. The second play was “Funny How We Look at Each Other,” which ran in 1977 and was a three-person show based on his first gay experience; the conflicted relationship between two men and a woman.
When asked about the one thing he hopes others take away from his own story, Hunt said that it’s the fact he enjoyed his life and made it to the next adventure with the lessons he has learned.
“One through 20, one lifetime. 20 through 40, two lifetimes. 40 through 60, three lifetimes. 60 to 80, four lifetimes. 80 to 100, it’s a blessing,” he said.
Hunt’s most recent project has the working title “Bloods of Color,” a combination of play, book and documentary with the purpose of exploring the “untold history” of the Maroons and Melungeons. Tracing his own roots back to the 1500s and earlier through DNA testing, Hunt learned he was a descendent of the Melungeon people, an ethnic group descended from sub-Saharan Africans, white Europeans and Native Americans, and the Maroons, Africans who freed themselves from slavery and formed their own free communities.
“It's my responsibility, not only to tell the story, but to pass this down to my descendants,” he said. “And that way, when I'm not here, they're able to go back and they're able to read who they are.”
Hunt studied the writings of previous scholars and authors as research for his work, including Dr. Arwin Smallwood of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Dr. Marcus P. Nevius of the University of Rhode Island, and playwright Kermit Hunter.
In August 2022, Hunt returned to his birthplace of Hoop Creek, Tennessee, after 74 years as part of an effort to explore his heritage. He took part in a discussion on Black history in Appalachia with other researchers and historians, talking about how the efforts and contributions of Black people throughout history have been minimized or left out of many Western textbooks and media.
In his writings, Hunt says that the story of the Maroons “demonstrates the same spirit of rebellion, self-determination and strength shown by Black people throughout history.” He writes that there is a disconnect between this history and how many young people today inaccurately view their ancestors as docile victims who kept their heads low.
He notes that while modern phrases such as “I am not my ancestors” may be misguided in their messaging, they still demonstrate the spirit of rebellion and strength shown by Black people throughout history.
Hunt writes “perhaps with more of a complete education on who our ancestors were, how they lived, and what they experienced, the mantra for our next generation will become ‘I am my ancestors.’”
