Oscar Micheaux and His Circle , livre ebook

OSCAR MICHEAUX AND HIS CIRCLE
Oscar Micheaux (1884-1951)
African-American Filmmaking and Race Cinema of the Silent Era
OSCAR MICHEAUX HIS CIRCLE
Pearl Bowser, Jane Gaines, and Charles Musser EDITORS AND CURATORS
This book is a publication of
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS Office of Scholarly Publishing Herman B Wells Library 350 1320 East 10th Street Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
First paperback edition 2016 2001 by Pearl Bowser, Jane Gaines, and Charles Musser, Eds. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z 39.48-1992.
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
The Library of Congress has cataloged the original edition as follows:
Oscar Micheaux and his circle: African-American filmmaking and race cinema of the silent era / edited by Pearl Bowser, Jane Gaines, and Charles Musser.
p. cm.
Chiefly papers presented at a conference held Jan. 1995, Yale University.
Includes filmographies, bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-253-33994-4 - ISBN 0-253-21484-X (pbk.)
1. Micheaux, Oscar, 1884-1951-Criticism and interpretation-Congresses. 2. African Americans in motion pictures-Congresses. I. Bowser, Pearl, date II. Gaines, Jane, date III. Musser, Charles.
PN 1998.3. M 494 O 83 2001
791.43 0233 092-dc21
2001001386
ISBN 978-0-253-02135-9 (pbk.) ISBN 978-0-253-02155-7 (eb.)
2 3 4 5 21 20 19 18 17 16
for Spike Lee
In memory of Toni Cade Bambara
CONTENTS
The Touring Package: Programs and Credits
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Oscar Micheaux and Race Movies of the Silent Period PEARL BOWSER, JANE GAINES, AND CHARLES MUSSER
I. OVERVIEWS
1. Black Silence and the Politics of Representation CLYDE R. TAYLOR
2. The Notion of Treatment: Black Aesthetics and Film, based on an interview with Peter Hessli and additional discussions with Pearl Bowser ARTHUR JAFA
3. From Shadows n Shufflin to Spotlights and Cinema: The Lafayette Players, 1915-1932 SISTER FRANCESCA THOMPSON
4. The African-American Press and Race Movies, 1909-1929 CHARLENE REGESTER
II. OSCAR MICHEAUX
5. Oscar Micheaux s Within Our Gates: The Possibilities for Alternative Visions MICHELE WALLACE
6. Within Our Gates: From Race Melodrama to Opportunity Narrative JANE GAINES
7. Oscar Micheaux s The Symbol of the Unconquered: Text and Context PEARL BOWSER AND LOUISE SPENCE
8. To Redream the Dreams of White Playwrights: Reappropriation and Resistance in Oscar Micheaux s Body and Soul CHARLES MUSSER
9. Black Patriarch on the Prairie: National Identity and Black Manhood in the Early Novels of Oscar Micheaux JAYNA BROWN
10. Telling White Lies: Oscar Micheaux and Charles W. Chesnutt COREY K. CREEKMUR
III. MICHEAUX S CONTEMPORARIES
11. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: The Flying Ace , the Norman Company, and the Micheaux Connection PHYLLIS R. KLOTMAN
12. Colored Players Film Corporation
An Alternative to Micheaux CHARLES MUSSER
Lost, Then Found: The Wedding Scene from The Scar of Shame (1929) PEARL BOWSER
13. Richard D. Maurice and the Maurice Film Company PEARL BOWSER AND CHARLES MUSSER
14. Cinematic Foremothers: Zora Neale Hurston and Eloyce King Patrick Gist GLORIA J. GIBSON
APPENDIX A The Reemergence of Oscar Micheaux: A Timeline and Bibliographic Essay J. RONALD GREEN
APPENDIX B An Oscar Micheaux Filmography: From the Silents through His Transition to Sound, 1919-1931 COMPILED BY CHARLES MUSSER, COREY K. CREEKMUR, PEARL BOWSER, J. RONALD GREEN, CHARLENE REGESTER, AND LOUISE SPENCE
APPENDIX C A Colored Players Film Corporation Filmography COMPILED BY CHARLES MUSSER
APPENDIX D Norman Film Manufacturing Company: Production and Theatrical Release Dates for All-Black-Cast Films COMPILED BY PHYLLIS R. KLOTMAN
Notes
Bibliography COMPILED BY KRISTEN BARNES, JANE GAINES, FRED NEUMANN, AND HANK OKAZAKI
About the Contributors
Credits
Index
THE TOURING PACKAGE: Programs and Credits
P ROGRAM 1
Happy Though Married . Screen Snapshots Corporation. 1920. 35mm. 10 minutes. Produced by Jack Cohn and Louis Lewyn. Includes footage of director Oscar Micheaux. Print courtesy of the British Film Institute.
Within Our Gates . Micheaux Film Corporation. 1920. 35mm. 5,935 ft. (originally 8 reels). Produced, written, and directed by Oscar Micheaux. Evelyn Preer (Sylvia Landry), William Starks (Jasper Landry), Mattie Edwards (Jasper Landry s wife), Grant Edwards (Emil Landry) E. G. Tatum (Efrem, Girdlestone s faithful servant), Jack Chenault (Larry Prichard), S. T. Jacks (Reverend Wilson Jacobs), Grant Gorman (Armand Girdlestone), Flo Clements (Alma Prichard), Jimmie Cook, Charles D. Lucas (Dr. Vivian), Ralph Johnson (Philip Girdlestone), James D. Ruffin (Conrad Drebert), Bernice Ladd (Mrs. Geraldine Stratton), Mrs. Evelyn (Mrs. Elena Warwick), William Smith (Philip Gentry, detective), LaFont Harris (Emil as a young adult). Filmed at the Capitol City Studios, Chicago, and in the Chicago area in 1919. Print courtesy of the Library of Congress.
P ROGRAM 2
A Pictorial View of Idlewild . Chicago Daily News Film Service. 1927. 35mm. 2,234 ft. (3 reels). Filmed at the black summer resort of Idlewild, Michigan. Re-edited and copyrighted by Benjamin C. Wilson and Edward Reed, 1979. Print courtesy of Library of Congress.
The Symbol of the Unconquered . Micheaux Film Corporation. 1920. 35mm. 3,852 ft. (originally 8 reels). Produced, written, and directed by Oscar Micheaux. With Iris Hall (Evon Mason), Walker Thompson (Hugh Van Allen), Lawrence Chenault (Jefferson Driscoll), Edward E. King (Tom Cutschawl), Jim Burris, Mattie V. Wilkes (Driscoll s mother), E. G. Tatum, Leigh Lee Whipper (Tugi Boj, Indian fakir), George Catlin (Dick Mason), James Burroughs, Edward Fraction (Peter Kaden), Lena L. Loach (Christina). Filmed in the New York City area. Fall 1920. Print courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art.
P ROGRAM 3
[ Zora Neale Hurston .] 1927-1929. 16mm. 400 ft. (Selected 100-foot rolls). a) [Logging, April 1928]; b) [Children dancing and girl rocking on porch, January/February 1929]; c) Children s games and baptism, August 1929]; and d) [Kossula, last of the Takkoi slaves, February 1928]. Field footage taken by Zora Neale Hurston at the Everglades Cypress Lumber Company near Loughman, Florida. Funded by Mrs. Rufus Osgood Mason. Print courtesy of the Library of Congress.
The Flying Ace . Norman Film Manufacturing Company. 1926. 35mm. 5,005 ft. (6 reels). Produced, written, and directed by David Norman. With J. Lawrence Criner (Captain William Stokes), George Colvin (Thomas Sawtelle, stationmaster at Mayport), Kathryn Boyd (Ruth Sawtelle, his daughter), Harold Platts (Finley Tucker, local aviator), Steve Reynolds ( Peg, Stokes s mechanic), Boise DeLegge (Blair Kimball, paymaster of the MN O Railroad), Lyons Daniels (Jed Splivens, local constable), Sam Jordan (Dr. Maynard, the local dentist), Dr. R. L. Brown (Howard Mac Andrews, general manager of the MN O Railroad). Produced at the Norman Studios, Arlington, Fla. Print courtesy of the Library of Congress.
P ROGRAM 4
Body and Soul . Micheaux Film Corporation. 1925. 35mm. 7,700 ft. (originally 9 reels). Produced, written, and directed by Oscar Micheaux. With Paul Robeson (Rgt. Rev. Isiaah T. Jenkins, Sylvester), Mercedes Gilbert (Martha Jane), Lawrence Chenault (Yellow Curly Hinds), Julia Theresa Russell (Isabelle), Marshall Rodgers (saloon owner), Chester A. Alexander (Deacon Simpkins), Walter Cornick (Brother Amos), Madame Robinson (Sister Lucy), Lillian Johnson (Sister Ca line), and Tom Fletcher. Filmed in the New York-New Jersey area in late 1924. Print courtesy of the George Eastman House.
P ROGRAM 5
Hell-Bound Train . ca. 1930. 16mm. ca. 20 minutes. Produced by James E. Gist, Jr., with commentary and additional contributions by Eloise King Patrick Gist. Print courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Ten Nights in a Barroom . Colored Players Film Corporation. 1926. 35mm. 4,559 ft. (originally 8 reels.) Written and directed by Roy Calnek; presented by David Starkman and Louis Groner. With Charles S. Gilpin (Joe Morgan), Lawrence Chenault (Simon Slade), Harry Henderson (Willie Hammond, the judge s son), Arline Mickey (Mehitable Cartwright), Myra Burwell (Jannie Morgan, Joe s wife), William A Clayton, Jr. (Harvey Green), William R. Johnson (Judge Hammond), Edward Moore (Sample Swichel), William F. Milton (Alfred Romaine), Reginald Hoffer (William Carr), Ethel Smith, Sam Sadler, and Boxana Mickelby. Based on William W. Pratt s play Ten Nights in a Bar-Room (1858). Produced at Colored Players Film Corporation studio, 58th Street and Woodlawn Avenue, Philadelphia, during June 1926. Print courtesy of the George Eastman House.
P ROGRAM 6
The Scar of Shame . Colored Players Film Corporation. 1929. 35mm. 8,023 ft. (8 reels). Directed by Frank Perugini; story by David Starkman; cinematography by Al Liguori. With Harry Henderson (Alvin Hillyard), Lucia [Lynn] Moses (Louise Howard), Lawrence Chenault (Ralph Hathaway), Pearl McCormack (Alice Hathaway), Norman Johnstone (Eddie Blake), William E. Pettus (Spike Howard), Ann[ie] Kennedy (Lucretia Green). Produced a