Sporting a bowtie, vest, and sportscoat, a silver-haired Marlo Stanfield posed for photos with family, child actors, and a detective who helped put him in jail for 36 years.
The scene played out at Harbor East Cinemas on Thursday evening, where the premiere for the docuseries “Marlo” was screened. The docuseries is three episodes of interviews interspersed with reenactments of the early life of Stanfield, the former West Baltimore kingpin on whom the HBO series “The Wire” based its character of the same name.
Only two of the three episodes were screened, due to technical difficulties and a late start, but the premiere still gave viewers the flavor of the series and insights into Stanfield’s life, as did the moderated discussion that took place after the episodes were shown.
Marlo Stanfield as a fictional character in The Wire. “Stanfield is a young, ambitious, intelligent and ruthless gangster and head of the eponymous Stanfield Organization in the Baltimore drug trade,” reads the entry in Wikipedia.
Neither Stanfield, nor his life, are fiction however, and he told the audience that he’s never seen “The Wire.”
“Why would I?” the real Stanfield asked. “It said I killed some people for two lollipops? I don’t need to see that.”
One of the revelations from the docuseries is that as a child Stanfield couldn’t read. It was a source of shame and made him the target of substantial bullying. He developed a fondness for Bruce Lee movies and, according to his older brother, once he decided to fight back there was no stopping him.
Stanfield said he was happy when he heard the producers wanted to do the docuseries on his life.
He recalls when the project was brought up to him by D’Oyen Fraser, co-founder of RepItSocial. RepItSocial’s production arm, RepIt Productions, produced the series with Southeast Productions.
“I was excited when Fraser, you told me about this, man. Just to say, like you, I wanted to do something different,” Stanfield said. “These kids are smart, even though they’re arrogant,” which elicited laughter from the audience.
Moderator Micheline Bowman asked Stanfield what was next for him, and he spoke about his inventive side.
“Well, a lot of you don’t know, but I’m an inventor, and I invented a lot of things… I got a lot of apps that are gonna come out…. I’ve got a lot of inventions I’ve been drawing since 1989,” Stanfield said. He’s copyrighted his inventions and has patents pending on some of them.
Stanfield’s brother backed him up, calling him a genius. While Marlo was in jail for 36 years, his older brother was in jail for 40 years, and for part of that time they shared a cell.
“What they don’t know is that he got a ledger,” said his brother. “Everything that he ever thought of, every idea, he wrote it down. If he sent out a copyright, he wrote down the date he sent it out. He wrote down the date he got it back. My brother is a genius. I mean that guy couldn’t read in the beginning. But his mind is clear as a river.”
Fishbowl spoke to Marlo Stanfield after the event and asked him what was next for him now that he’s home.
“I’ve got the Marlo Stanfield Foundation, and I’m trying to get people to sponsor me and get the things that I need to put the program together, and to run the program out with the kids, and to clean up the community. To give the kids somewhere to go, give the kids something to do that’s positive,” Stanfield said.
Stanfield said he wants to give Baltimore City kids the resources he didn’t have growing up.
“I want to clean up some of the things I left behind,” he said. “Things I know I didn’t have that I want the children to have, and that is to know how to read, and have food on the table, and for them to go to school.”
Stanfield told Baltimore Fishbowl that he didn’t learn to read until he was 26 years old, in prison. “Hooked on Phonics. I taught myself how to read. I taught myself how to do everything. I wrote books, movies, plays, screenplays, novels, greeting cards. I can draw a little bit, I do artwork,” Stanfield said. “I really want to teach people how to read, because Hooked on Phonics, that really worked, and I’m going to try to do an app that I’m going to create myself.”
You can view the docuseries “Marlo” on the RepItSocial app beginning Friday, Oct. 13.
I have lived in Baltimore all my life. During the late 60s through the end of the 70s, I knew most of the major players in the drug trade. I could name a number of them but I won’t. There was no Marlo Stanfield “running this city”. I never heard of any Marlo Stanfield until The Wire showed him. I don’t know what your sources are but they are at odds with what I know to be true.
I just wish Marlo The Best l would like to See His FOUNDATION MOVE CAUSE ONLY A TRUE BALTIMORE GENERAL CAN HELP US I KNOW THIS