Were the Real Tony Lip and Don Shirley Actually Friends?
Tony Lip (real name Tony Vallelonga, pictured above left in 2005) and Don Shirley (pictured above right, in a portrait from the 1960s) were indeed real men, who met in the same way they do in the film. In January 1963, the Don Shirley Trio played a number of dates across the country, including a set in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Despite being hailed as a "brilliant and exciting" performer, the renowned pianist didn't fail to realise that the seemingly warm welcome was only skin-deep, as evidenced by a disgusting, racist sign hanging in the city: "N*****, don't let the sun go down on you in our town." The incident prompted him and his record label to seek out a white driver (and bodyguard, of sorts) when the Don Shirley Trio set out on another tour later that same year.
His search led him to an Italian-American, NY-based bouncer known as Tony Lip, who was prepared to handle any problems that could arise in the aforementioned "sundown towns." According to Lip's son Nick Vallelonga, who recently spoke to Smithsonian Magazine about helping to write Green Book, his father and Shirley encountered a number of issues along the way. "My father said it was almost on a daily basis they would get stopped, because a white man was driving a black man," he explained.
Vallelonga, who was only 5 years old when his dad left to drive for Shirley on tour, says that though the men returned to their separate lives after they returned — with Shirley going on tour in Europe to critical acclaim, and Lip becoming an actor and author — their friendship remained until each of their deaths in 2013. Vallelonga told Smithsonian Magazine that he'd frequently visit the studio where Shirley was recording in Manhattan, where the two old friends would regale listeners with stories from their trip.
When he was in his 20s, Vallelonga, who followed in his father's footsteps by becoming an actor and screenwriter, sat down to interview both his father and Shirley about their trip and the racism they encountered along the way. However, Shirley made that Vallelonga promise that if a film was to ever come out of their experience, he didn't want it to be made until after he'd passed away.
Of the story's powerful message of overcoming starkly different backgrounds to become friends, Vallelonga claims the trip "opened my father's eyes . . . and then changed how he treated people."