• Interview with Lorenzo Tucker. Remembering Dorothy Dandridge. • Vonetta McGee • The Blaxploitation Era • Paul Robeson •. m

Vol. 4, No.2 Spring 1988 ,$2.50

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~'% .,~. "o~ ~/~-_/~ This is the Spring 1988 issue of der which we mail the magazine, the Black Fzlm Review. You're getting it U.S. Postal Service will not forward co- ~~~~~ some time in mid 1988, which means pies, even ifyou've told them your new',: - we're almost on schedule. - address. You need to tell us as well, be- \ Thank you for keeping faith with cause the Postal Service charges us to tell us. We're going to do our best not to us where you've gone. be late. Ever again. Third: Why not buy a Black Fzlm Without your support, Black Fzlm Review T-shirt? They're only $8. They Review could not have evolved from a come in black or dark blue, with the two-page photocopied newsletter into logo in white lettering. We've got lots the glossy magazine it is today. We need of them, in small, medium, large, and your continued support. extra-large sizes. First: You can tell ifyour subscrip­ And, finally, why not make a con­ tion is about to lapse by comparing the tribution to Sojourner Productions, Inc., last line of your mailing label with the the non-profit, tax-exempt corporation issue date on the front cover. If they're that puts out Black Fzlm Review? You'll the same, you need to renew to continue find a list of people who already have receiving the magazine. If they're not, inside the back cover, together with sug­ either you still have some issues coming gested categories ofgiving. Any amount or we've made a mistake. We're a small will be gratefully accepted. magazine with limited resources: Please Thank you, again, for your sup­ help us by renewing your subscription port. We've come a long way in three promptly. years, but we won't be able to go on Second: If you're moving, send us without you. a postcard with your new and old ad­ David Nicholson dresses. Because of the special rate un- Editor and Publisher Black...,Film •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Vol. 4, No. 2/Spring 1988 Black Film Review 110 SSt., NW Washington, DC 20001 The Queen of Black Beauty (202) 745-0455 by Arthur J. Johnson Stanley Nelson's new film ponrait of Madame CJ. Walker p. 2 Editor and Publisher David Nicholson The Black Valentino Managing Editor by Richard Grupenhoff J Jacquie Jones An interview with the late Lorenzo Tucker, the matinee idol who Senior Associate Editor starred in 20 Black-cast films, including 11 directed by Oscar Micheaux p. 3 Virginia Cope Consulting Editor The Achievement of Oscar Micheaux Tony Gittens By Mark A. Reid (Black Film Institute) During a career that spanned four decades, the novelist turned ~ Associate Editor/Film Critic filmmaker and remade stock Hollywood types for Black audiences p. 6 Arthur Johnson A Life in the Projection Booth Associate Editors By Charles Osborne Pat Aufderheide; Victoria M. Mar­ During the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, Charles Osborne owned and shall; Mark A. Reid; Miriam Rosen managed several Black theaters in Texas p. 8 (Paris); Saundra Sharp; Janet Single­ ton; Clyde Taylor The Tragedy of Dorothy Dandridge Design By Michelle Parkerson Robert Sacheli Sultry and sensuous, she was type cast as Hollywood's Exotic Object of Desire, Typography playing roles which seldom allowed her to express the full range of her talent ... p. 10 Word Design, Inc. Portrait of a Survivor Layout Vonetta McGee's Career Continues Loretta King By Janet Singleton Vonetta McGee's film career began by accident and continued by sheer Black Fzlm Review (lSSN 0887-5723) is force of will once the blaxploitation era ended p. 12 published four times a year by Sojourner Productions, Inc., a non-profit corporation When Black Faces Were in Vogue organized and incorporated in the District of Columbia. This issue is co-produced with By Tony Gittens the Black Film Institute of the University It started with Super Fly, the Black action-adventure hero who of the District of Columbia. Subscriptions spawned a genre p. 14 are $10 a year for individuals, $20 a year for institutions. Add $7 per year for overseas Paul Robeson subscriptions. Send all correspondence con­ Portrait of a Giant cerning subscriptions and submissions to By Saundra Sharp the above address; submissions must include Actor, singer, and activist, Paul Robeson broke the color line in the a stamped, self-addressed envelope. No part 1920s and throughout his long life continued to fight racism and oppression .... p. 16 ofthis publication may be reproduced with­ out written consent of the publisher. Logo Between Popular Culture and the Avant-Garde and contents copyright ©Sojourner Produc­ tions, Inc., 1988, and in the name of in­ By Chris Brown dividual contributors. Rarely screened despite the presence of Paul Robeson, Borderline is a radical ponrait of relationships between Blacks and whites p. 18 Black Film Review welcomes submissions from writers, but we prefer that you first query with a letter. All unsolicited manuscripts must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. We are This issue of Black Film Review was produced with the assistance not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts. of grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities Black Fzlm Review has signed a code of and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. practices with the National Writers Union, Special thanks to the Lucius and Eva Eastman Fund, Inc., 13 Astor Place, 7th Floor, New York, N.Y. and to the World Council of Churches, Programme to Combat Racism. 10003. 2 Black Film Review

'The Queen ofBlack Beauty

By Arthur J. Johnson licity." Her exploits were well-chronicled in the Black press, and even occasionally men­ f asked about her on a Black history tioned in white publications. quiz, few people would fail to identify Because of A'Lelia's extravagance ,. the Madame C. ]. Walker as "that Black Walker fortune did not last through the Iwoman who invented the straightening Depression. Eventually the Dark Tower comb and made a fortune." But few would closed and the villa was sold. When A'Le­ probably know much more about the first lia died in 1931, Langston Hughes eulo­ woman-of any race-in the United States gized her. to earn a million dollars. Together, the two women's lives en­ Walker developed an entire system of compass Black history and achiever;nent hair care for Blacks at a time when no one from the end ofslavery-Walker watborn else was addressing the special needs of to newly freed slaves in 1867 -through the Black hair- and she never allowed the word Harlem Renaissance and the Depression. "straightener" to appear in advertisements Two Dollars is well-paced. Each inter­ for her products. Far from being a miserly viewee offers a special insight into Walker, millionaire, she was Black America's lead­ A'Lelia and the times in which they lived. ing philanthropist, contributing thousands What may be most imponant is that the of dollars to anti-lynching groups, the documentary represents Black people tell­ YMCA, and to pioneer activist and civil Mme. C.]. Walker behind the wheel ofone of ing their own history - something we have her three cars rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune. She not always been able to do. Nelson's film felt Black women relied too much on men takes us on a fascinating journey.• for survival, and created beauty colleges to up." Says one woman, "It was a method to train them and offered careers as Walker beautify, not to make you whiter." products saleswomen to women whose only Once, when Walker was giving a alternative was usually scrubbing for white speech, her floor-length mink coat fell to folks . Walker erected buildings where Black the floor. But when someone ran to pick professionals could operate businesses and it up, she waved them away, and finished a movie theater for Blacks. She employed her speech with the mink on the floor, one hundreds of Black men and women. She woman interviewed recalls. was 52 when she died in 1919, and willed Film footage of the Walker plant in two-thirds of the company's future profits operation provides an inspirational oppor­ to charity with the stipulation that the presi­ tunity to see the Walker phenomenon at dent of the company always be a woman. work. Blacks are shown operating in every This and more about the dynamic capacity of the company, from the board Walker is revealed in independent New room to the delivery trucks. York filmmaker Stanley Nelson's documen­ Two Dollars anda Dream also includes tary, Two Dollars and A Dream. Nelson the story of Walker's only child, daughter cleverly juxtaposes archival photographs and A'Lelia, one of the first Blacks to inherit period songs such as "Nappy Headed Blues" great wealth., "You wouldn't expect her to and Duke Ellington's "The Mooch," adver­ be like her mother," says one woman in the tisements for the Walker company and in­ film, and A'Lelia was not. She became the terviews with Walker employees and ad­ queen of Harlem society during the Harlem mirers. The documentary paints a Renaissance, partying "well and often," ac­ crystal-clear picture of the times and how cording to one interviewee. Married and Walker changed them for the better for divorced three times, she was one of the few Blacks. Blacks admitted into the Cotton Club as a A Black woman who ran a beauty shop patron. She even opened her own night for white women from 1906 to 1946 recalls spot, the Dark Tower, which became a Call or write: in the film that she couldn't even fix her watering hole for literary luminaries such 625 Broadway. 9th floor own hair until Walker taught her. "I had as Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and New York. NY 10012 to go to one of Madame Walker's gradu­ Zora Neale Hurston. On Sundays, she host­ (212) 473-3400 ates to get my own hair done," she says. ed classical concerts at her villa, presenting The film refutes the notion that Walk­ promising Black talent to Blacks and in­ er encouraged Black women to "whiten fluential whites. One company employee, rather than ArthurJ. Johnson has written film reviews criticizing A'Lelia for spending so much and about film for several metropolitan money, praised her because "she gave the Washington publications. company millions of dollars worth of pub- Spring 1988 3 Interview ••••••••••••••••••• Lorenzo Tucker: The Black Valentino

By Richard Grupenhoff pieces of conversations, little skits and so ixty years ago Lorenzo Tucker was a forth. And then I'd push them out from matinee idol ofBlack-cast films. He behind the trees and make them say it right was known for a time as "the Black then and there in front of all the adults. SValentino," or, more precisely, "the There I was, a producer and an actor, and Colored Valentino." He was given that I didn't even know it. I remember they used name as· a publicity gimmick by Oscar to call me "show off." Well, if that's what icheaux Tucker's early mentorand the I was, then so be it. I didn't mind. I was most prolific and persistent Black filmmaker enjoying myself. of this century. From 1927 until 1948, Tucker acted in 20 Black-cast films, 11 un­ BFR: What other shows did you see in those der Micheaux's direction. days? Born in Philadelphia in 1907, Tucker Tucker: It was in Gloucester [Virginia] that spent much of his early life on his grand­ I saw my first black-face entertainer, a mother's farm in Virginia. From the very medicine man who was white and he dar­ beginning, he knew he wanted to be a per­ kened down and put on a show ofjokes and former. He began his show business career dancing. He would get the crowd laugh­ in Atlantic City in 1926 as an adagio danc­ ing and then hawk his elixir off his wagon, er in Black vaudeville. While he was act­ and he sent a couple of kids through the ing in movies, he also performed in shows crowd selling the bottles. My grandfather with such luminaries as Bessie Smith and always bought a bottle of elixir to cure his Mamie Smith, was a straight man for aches and pains. He believed in the medi­ comics, an emcee in clubs and cabarets, act­ cine man. I was just crazy about the medi­ ed with the Lafayette Players in Harlem, cine man and his show, and I liked the for­ and appeared on Broadway. In all, his ca­ tune tellers, too. reer in entertainment spanned 60 years. On Aug. 19, 1988, Lorenzo Tucker BFR: When did you see your first movie? died of cancer at-the age of 79 in his small Tucker: Around 1918.. I had heard of mo­ apartment on an obscure side street in tion pictures before, ofcourse, but I'd never Hollywood. For most of the 18 months seen one. Then this man by the name of preceding his death he was robust and full Haley came to town.and threw up a tent of energy. He worked as a full-time night with a sign announc2ing "Haley's Motion security guard in a Wilshire Boulevard of­ Pictures." I went to see it, and the first film fice building so his days would be free for I ever saw was the World War I documen­ auditions. His dream ofmaking it in Holly­ tary on the 369th Colored Regiment that wood, however, was never realized. fought in Europe. I was so proud of those In the months before his death, Loren­ men it drove me crazy. zo Tucker recounted his life in a series of recorded interviews, from which the follow­ BFR: Did you have any idols in those days? ing remarks have been edited. His biogra­ Tucker: When I was about 14 I went to the phy, The Black Valentino, written by Standard Theatre in Philadelphia and saw Richard Grupenhoff, was published this my first real idol, the:.. straight man by the spring by The Scarecrow Press. name of George Cont>er. He was the best dressed and most dapper straight man of BFR: When did you first become interest­ them all. Top hat, tai,ls, cane-the works! ed in performing? Lorenzo Tucker in 1931 I knew right then ana there that I wanted Tucker: Oh, as a child I would go around to be like him some day. reciting poems and famous passages, things like that. Things I was taught by rote, or BFR: Later, as a child, you lived on your BFR: When you were19, you quit Temple conversations I had overhead and just grandfather's farm in Virginia. Were you University and went to':Atlantic City to work remembered. I wanted, I guess, to be seen. still interested in acting then? as a waiter at one ofthe resort hotels. How Tucker: Yes. Oh, I was about 7 or 8. I don't soon did you get involved in the entertain­ Richard Grupenhoffis an assistant profes­ know, Ie guess it was just in me because I ment world? sor ofcommunications at Glassboro State did it without thinking. While the adults Tucker: This other guy and I started hang­ College in New Jersey. He is collecting were sitting on the porch I'd get all the ing out in cabarets at night. And in this one interviews with Black actors who appeared kids-my friends and cousins- behind the cabaret I met this chorus girl [Rae Hewitt]. in independent Black-cast films between big trees in the yard that faced the porch. So this girl says to me, "I want to get out 1925 and 1950. And then I'd tell them what to say. Poems, Continued on page 4 4 Black Ftlm Review

Tucker from page 3

of the chorus, and you're a nice type. DG you know how to do the adagio dance?" I didn't so she taught me. In the morning we would go into the cabaret and rehearse. So that's what I started out doing. We be­ came a dance team in Black vaudeville.

BFR: Tell us about your work with Bessie Smith. Tucker: She hired me and Rae as a special­ ty dance team. But she also chose me to es­ cort her on stage for her featured song near the end of the show. During the rehearsal period Bessie said, "Lorenzo, I want you to go bring me out." So I was the guy who would bring her out for her number when the music began for her song. I'd escort her on my arm down to center stage, bow, and then leave. But I was so poor that the suit I had on was torn out and shiny on the bot­ tom. So I couldn't turn my back to the au­ dience, and I would sort of backtrack off the stage so it couldn't be seen.

BFR: When did you first meet Oscar Micheaux? Ethel Moses and Lorenzo Tucker in Oscar Micheaux's "Temptation" (1936) Tucker: I was sitting in this theater wait­ ing to audition when the guy came up the up the scene and expect you to get it in the stereotypes. I played bad guys, too, and I aisle and asked me if I was an actor. I told first take. When I would ask him for time was light-skinned. He wrote his stories to him I was, and he said, "My name's Oscar to rehearse the scene he would get frustrat­ use all the shades ofthe Black race, because Micheaux; I make movies. Here's my card. ed and yell at me, "You young actor! I don't that's the way we are. If you ever want to act in the movies, look know what I'm going to do with you. me up." A few weeks later I saw him on What's the matter, Tucker, you can talk, BFR: After a while you sxopped working the street by the Tree of Hope [a famous can't you? And you can walk, can't you? with Micheaux. Why? Harlem landmark] and he asked me to be Well, then, let's shoot the scene." His pet Tucker: You see, Micheaux was always hurr­ in a movie. I thought, "What the hell? I'll names for me were "Big Boy" and "Useless." ing for money when he did his pictures, so do this. It doesn't matter to me, as long as 'I don't know what I'm going to do with he never let his actors do their best work. I'm getting paid. After all, something you, Useless," he would say when I arrived I think deep down he didn't want actors to might come of it, you never know." late for a scene. And we would play practi­ get big-headed about their performances, cal jokes on him sometimes. He always en­ because they might demand more money BFR: What year was that? joyed them, but he would say, "You boys for their next movie. I can remember go­ Tucker: Around 1927. I made a lot of mo­ are going to pay for this someday." ing up to his apartment to see ifhe had any vies with him while I was.acting and doing work for me. He showed me his next script. other things. BFR: And Micheaux billed you as "the "My name's not in the cast," I said. "I Black Valentino?" know," he told me, and said nothing else. BFR: Micheaux's films were shot on low Tucker: Yes, it worked. And I kind of Later, when I got up to leave, he said, "Take budgets, consequently they didn't have the looked like Valentino, too. But I never got a script on the way out- you're playing the high production values ofHollywood films. any white press at all, and very few people lead!" That way he always had me at his Why was that? outside the Black community ever heard of mercy. "I made more money with you as Tucker: Micheaux would laugh when he me. But I want to get one thing straight: my leading man than with anybody else," saw some of the money white producers These historians today always say that I was he once told me, but that was as far as he were putting into Black-cast films. He knew called "the Black Valentino." Well, I was would go. He always paid me on time, and that the market wouldn't support the in­ never called that because we never used the even loaned me money at times, but he vestment. He would put just so much and word "Black" like that in those days. would never let me get too big. So after a nothing more into a film, because he knew Micheaux only called me "the Colored while I stopped working with him. I just he would only make so much money. That's Valentino," nothing else. In fact, if you got tired of doing things that way. why his films were technically poor. And really want to know, I was even lighter than the acting was sometimes bad because he Valentino himself. BFR: You were in four Broadway shows. would only allow one take. He could have Was this at the same time you were work­ made better films, but he knew they BFR: Micheaux was accused ofusing a caste ing for Micheaux? wouldn't make any more money anyway. system when he chose his actors. That is, Tucker: Yes, my agent was trying to get me he supposedly used light-skinned actors for in as many of these new shows as possible, BFR: What was it like working with the good guys and dark-skinned Blacks for and he wanted me to stop working for Micheaux? the bad guys. Was that true? Micheaux and to pass for white. He said I Tuc~er: Micheaux was a genius at getting Tucker: No. You see, Micheaux automati­ could get more shows that way, and if the all those films made, but·because he was cally integrated his films. He gave all differ­ people downtown knew I was working for on such a low budget he didn't give the ac­ ent kinds of roles to different shades. And Micheaux they would drop me. But I had tors much ofa chance to act. He would set he used different-looking people, not Continued on page 5 Spring 1988 5

LORENZO TUCKER FILMOGRAPHY Tucker from page 4 1. The Fool's Errand 1927 Oscar Micheaux to keep on working. Oh, I could have 2. Wages ofSin 1928 Oscar Micheaux passed for white and left Harlem behind, 3. When Men Betray 1929 Oscar Micheaux but I didn't. Maybe that was a mistake as 4.Easy Street 1930 Oscar Micheaux far as my career was concerned, but I didn't 5.A Daughter ofthe Congo 1930 Oscar Micheaux do it. 6.The Exzle 1931 Oscar Micheaux Throughout my career I could have 7. Ten Minutes to Live 1932 Oscar Micheaux passed for white and forgotten all about my 8. Vezled Aristocrats 1932 Oscar Micheaux race, and at times I have taken roles meant 9. The Black King 1932 Southland Pictures for whites. It would have been easier that 10.The EmperorJones 1933 Krimsky/ Cochran way, passing for white and keeping my past 11.Harlem After Midnight 1934 Oscar Micheaux a secret, like others did, but I chose to be 12. Temptation 1936 Oscar Micheaux considered as colored. You see, I still want 13. The Underworld 1937 Oscar Micheaux to prove that the Negro race is not all Black­ 14.Straight to Heaven 1938 Million Dollar Pictures skinned; we're all shades of the rainbow. 15.Paradise in Harlem 1939 Jubilee Productions Micheaux knew that, but he was criticized 16. One-RoundJones 1946 Sepia Productions for casting us. People just didn't understand 17.Boy! What a Girl 1946 Herald Pictures what he was trying to do. 18.Reet-Petite & Gone 1947 Astor Pictures Even today Hollywood producers 19.5epia Cinderella 1947 Herald Pictures won't cast someone like me in a Black role 20.Miracle in Harlem 1948 Herald Pictures because I just don't fit their stereotypical image of what a Black man should be. If to do with. But that's why I believe the color be in films. Sometimes my agent calls me anybody thinks that discrimination no of a man's skin shouldn't be considered at up and asks me, "Well, Tucker, what do longer exists in Hollywood they're mistaken. all in a film. Mix it up; that's the way it you want to play today?" And I answer, Somebody like me, they don't know what is in real life, and that's the way it should "Whatever the occasion demands.".

Let's Do It Again: Black Ftlm on Videotape

By Arthur J. Johnson

ome Entertainment Video's Black Stars ofthe Szlver Screen offers a treasure trove of previously lost, Hneglected, or forgotten Black films and musical shorts. The films star all the great ones, from the sultry Billy Holiday to a dancer named "Snakehips" and her in­ credible undulations. There's Duke Ellington doing a little acting, but for the most part letting Black actress Fredi Washington (Peola of the original version of Imitation ofLzfe) steal the show in the musical short Black and Tan, which also features the Cotton Club Orchestra. Besides showing the elegant El­ lington conducting, the short film tells the story of Ellington and Washington, a mu­ sician and a dancer, who are down on their l~ck. Forced to dance while ill, Washing­ ton's character does a frenzied dance before collapsing, and on her death bed requests Ellington's classic "Black and Tan." Other HEV films feature Ellington and his band in musical shorts such as 'Jam Ses­ sion" featuring Ray Nance on violin, Rex Stewart on trumpet, Ben Webster on saxo­ phone, Joe Nanton on trombone, Barney fashions , hairstyles, and dances. You also ring Paul Robeson, Lena Horne and other Bigard on clarinet, and Sonny Greer on get an idea of the standards of beauty for Black stars. The list offilms includes Lying drums. In addition to the classic sounds, Black women in the 1930s, '40s and '50s. Lips and the documentaries Life in Harlem these films offer the rare opportunity to see HEV also offers filmed Apollo Thea­ and Colored Amenca on Parade.• these musicians actually playing their mu­ ter performances from the '50s featuring sic, and offer us a time capsule of Black Sarah Vaughn, Count Basie, Mantan For further information, contact: Moreland, Cab Calloway, Nipsey Russell, ArthurJ. Johnson has wn·tten film reviews Nat King Cole, The Delta Rhythm Boys, HEV and about film for several metropolitan Dinah Washington, and a host of others. P.O. Box 8999 Washington publications. Also available are seldom-seen films star- Stanford, CA 94305 6 Black FzJm Review

Pioneer Black PZ/?n?naker

I The Achievement of Oscar Micheaux

By Mark A. Reid

scar Micheaux, the best known of the early Black independent film­ makers, began his career as a popu­ O1ar novelist. In 1919, he turned his second pulp novel, The Homesteader, into a film. According to film curator Pearl Bowser, "Micheaux financed. the film in the same way he had financed the publication of the book- by selling shares in his West­ ern Book Supply Co. to the white (Mid­ western) farmers he had written about. He raised $15,000 to produce The Homestead­ er, the first feature-length (eight reel) in­ dependent Black productiqn." The last is important because between 1913 and 1915 the feature film became the main attraction in movie programs, replac­ ing one- and two-reeler films. In his The Rise ofAmerican Fzlm: A Critical History, Lewis]acobs writes that "the supply offea­ ture films was swelled in 1913 by feature­

length importation from Europe ° 0 ° The film that decided the issue and marked the A scene from Oscar Micheaux's liThe Brute" (1920) beginning of a new kind of movie making was the Italian Quo Vaidis, which was nine vance in Black film production. Using stead of the sexual farce, Micheaux made reels long and held its audiences for over profits from The Homesteader, Micheaux emotional, sexually charged melodramas. two hours." D.W. Griffith's The Birth Of produced Within Our Gates (1920), based Instead offamily melodramas that stressed a Nation (1915) proved that the American on the Leo Frank lynching. Micheaux's third the improvement of the race and avoided film industry (and American audiences) feature, The Brute (1920), pitted Black box­ the depiction of urban low life, Micheaux were ready for the feature-length film; er Sam Langford against evil white lY~,ch­ depicted violence and the suggestion ofin­ within a year ofits release, Birth had earned ers. A commendable feat, but according to terracial intimacy. He did not shy away more than seven times its pr;oduction costs. the New York Age's entertainment critic from horrifying portrayals of lynching. The advent of the feature film put Lester Walton, "scenes ofcrap games, Black Certain elements in these first films re­ Black-owned film companies at a disadvan­ dives, wife-beating, and women congregat­ cur in the modern Black action film. The tage, however. The first Black production ing to gamble" displeased Blacks who want­ "colored man with bricks" who defeats the company, the Foster Photoplay Co. (found­ ed positive images of the Mro-American Klan in Symbol can be considered a su­ ed circa 1910), had a limited production ca­ community. perhero. Similar actions became the quin­ pacity ofsix shorts. The Lincoln Motion Pic­ Commenting on Micheaux's fourth tessential requirement for Black action-film ture Company made only two- and feature-length film, The Symbol ofthe Un­ heroes (or heroines), in which physical acts three-reelers, permitting neither to success­ conquered(1920), the Age called it "most of racism, Black-on-white violence, tend to fully compete with feature films. When timely, in view of the present attempt to expiate the white-on-Black violence with Blacks were exposed to the technically su­ organize night riders in this country for the which the film began. perior photography and .well-developed express purpose of holding back the ad­ Micheaux's interest in controversial narratives ofwhite-produced feature films, vancement of the Negro." The Age later subjects were those ofan entrepreneur who Black film producers were in danger oflos­ said that Symbol "graphically shows up the wanted first to make a profit and then, if ing their audience. evils of the Ku Klux Klan. The biggest mo­ popular tastes allowed, to present positive Therefore, Micheaux'~ production of ments of the photoplay are when the night images of Afro-American life. As the 1920s feature-length films represented a major ad- riders are annihilated, a colored man with ushered in a new morality and new tastes, bricks being a big factor." Micheaux borrowed from existing Holly­ Mark A. Reid teaches film and literature It is worth noting that, in contrast to wood stock types and developed a Black star courses at the University~ of Flon:da in the films of the first Black production system, creating new cultural icons like Gainesvzlle. He has taught at the Universi­ companies - the comedies of the Foster Lorenzo Tucker for new consumers. Work­ ty ofIowa, where he completeda doctorate Photoplay Co. and the family melodramas ing in the action-film genre, Micheaux's in American Studies with an emphasis on of the Lincoln Motion Picture Co.­ films reflected the post-World War I era Black film. He has wnOtten for otherpubli­ Micheaux's films introduced controversial, from a Black perspective. cations, includingJump Cut and Cinemac­ Black-oriented subject matter, dramatizing Micheaux's first use ofHollywood stock tion. subjects that convention deemed illicit. In- types was in The Spider's Web, a 1926 film Spring 1988 7·

ket and gave Micheaux access to other Black film houses: the Dunbar in Philadelphia, the Howard in Washington, D.C., the Colonial in Baltimore, and the Attucks in Norfolk. One result was the determining role that white producers played in marketing and financing Black-oriented films direct­ ed and/or written by Mro-American anists. Micheaux's films enjoyed the suppon ofthe Shiffman-Brecher theater chain. This situ­ ation was analogous to that of Hollywood directors who enjoyed the suppon ofHolly­ wood studios whose theater chains in turn ensured a market for their films. In the years between World War I and World War II, Hollywood studios became the dominant image-makers through their venical control of film production, distribution, and exhi­ bition, while white independent exhibitors like Shiffman, Brecher, Roben Levy, Alfred Sack, and Ted Toddy became the employ­ Tucker, Katherine Noisette, and Wtiliam A. Clayton Jr. in "The Wages ofSin" (1927) ers of Black filmmakers like Micheaux. Micheaux's relationship with Shiffman and in which Tucker made his film debut. Ac­ '20s, drew the best-known Black stars away Brecher had perhaps an additional effect on cording to an Age synopsis ofthe film, Nor­ from Black independent filmmakers. the Black-action film genre: his films had ma Shepard (Evelyn Preer), a New York The Depression also brought Black to be immediate to the Black urban ex­ woman, goes to a "small Southern Delta filmmakers into unequal pannerships with perience and reflect popular Black heroes, town" to visit her Aunt Mary. When Nor­ whites, who controlled most of the Black just as the films of Depression-era Holly­ ma arrives at the depot, she receives direc­ community's film and stage entenainment. wood reflected white experiences and ideals. tions from a man who is accompanied by Between 1926 and 1928, even Micheaux ex­ Since Micheaux no longer owned his a stranger. The stranger informs Norma that perienced a lessening of control over his company, he became a contract director de­ "he would call on her late that night." Mary productions. The high cost of sound tech­ pendent on white financing. Like other low­ tells her niece that the stranger is Ballinger, nology, the new production techniques re­ budget filmmakers, Micheaux adopted "a planter's son," who "must sweetheart quired for sound films, the wider use of Hollywood genre types, but he added a with every colored girl who comes to town." Black talent in Hollywood, and the central­ Black style to ensure that his films remained When Norma leaves the South to escape ized management ofHarlem theaters forced attractive to Black audiences. One has only this intended rape, Aunt Mary accompanies Micheaux into an interracial alliance with to recall the characterization of Lorenzo her. Meanwhile, Elmer Harris (Tucker), a Leo Brecher and Frank Shiffman, who oper­ Tucker as the "Black Valentino" and the Chicago detective working for the U. S. ated five of the seven Harlem theaters. "colored William P6weil/~ ofBee Freeman Department ofJustice, enters the Southern Micheaux declared bankruptcy in 1928 as the "Sepia Mae West," Slick Chester as ­ town and arrests the man he is looking for. but continued to make films. Between 1928 the"colored Cagney," and Ethel Moses as Once in the North, Aunt Mary begins to and 1931, his productions became col­ the "Negro Harlow." Micheaux's appropri­ play the numbers, loses self-control, and laborative interracialeffons- Black creative ation ofpopular American images, myths, bets their rent money. Fortunately for both talent backed by white financing. His and fantasies reassured his white backers women, she wins. Returning to the virtue Micheaux Film Corporation, founded in while guaranteeing his films access to the of thrift, Aunt Mary plans to place her win­ 1928 and incorporated in Delaware before Black community. nings in a bank. By a stroke of bad luck, it was reorganized and incorporated in New Micheaux's move in the late 192 Os she is falsely accused ofmurdering a bank­ York, had as its officers Micheaux, Shiff- from Black independent film to Black com­ er and is placed in prison. Detective Elmer man, and Brecher. ' mercial film signaled a 40-year pause in Harris appears on the scene and unravels Using my strict definition ofBlack in­ Afro-American independent film produc­ the murder case, freeing the innocent Aunt dependent films as those produced by tion. In Black Fzlm as Genre, Cripps writes Mary. Black-controlled film production compa­ that "after 1931, Blacks raised capital from In this film, the first Black detective nies, the work Micheaux produced after Frank Shiffman of Harlem's Apollo Thea­ melodrama, Micheaux introduces two ma­ 1931 cannot be considered Black indepen­ tre, Robert Levy ofReol, and white South­ jor themes of special relevance to Blacks: dent films. In 1931, the Age reported that ern distributors like Ted Toddy and Alfred Southern racism and the Black migration "while Mr. Micheaux remains the titular Sack. By the end ofthe decade ... all white nonhward. In doing so, he incorporates cer­ head of the motion picture company, the prevailed." tain aspects of Black Northern and South­ control has passed into the hands of It is absurd, then, for film historians ern life. As Donald Bogle writes in Toms, (Brecher and Shiffman) the lessees of the and critics to call Micheaux's post-1931 films Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks, Lafayette and other theaters in Harlem." "Black independent cinema," for these Micheaux also introduced his "handsome The Age added that The Extle would be the films herald the start of two decades of and smooth Lorenzo Tucker (who) was first first film produced under the New York in­ Black-directed, white-financed, low­ referred to as the 'Black Valentino' and, corporation. budget., commercial films made outside of when talkies came in, the 'colored William The EXIle is an important transition in Hollywood. Micheaux did, however, co­ Powell."~ Afro-American film history, for it was the produce two independent films-Lying Lips Despite Micheaux's pathbreaking ef­ first all-talking, feature-length, Black com­ (1939) and The Noton'ous Elinor Lee fons, by the late 1920s, Black independent mercial film and it marks the beginning of (1940) - with the financial backing of the filmmaking was almost nonexistent. The at­ Micheaux's collaboration with a large, white Black aviator, Col. Herben Julian. And, traction of Hollywood, which temporarily firm, Quality Amusement Corp. This col­ without question, Micheaux left an impor­ opened its doors to Black entenainers in the laboration captured the Harlem film mar- tant legacy for today's Black filmmakers.• 8 Black Film Review

A Life in the Projection Booth

By Charles Osborn

n the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, I had the son was that, of the hour and 15 minutes ticularly, going to the theater was a family pleasure ofowning and managing sever­ running time, about 40 minutes was a com­ get-together. al Black - or "colored," as they were plete Mass, filmed in the Sacred Heart Ca­ The audiences in the Black theaters Icalled then- theaters in Texas. My work thedral. laughed as much at Mantan Moreland and introduced me to some of the great Black By the late '40s and '50s, I had J.C. Miller as they did at Laurel and Hardy producers and their films, the best ofwhich managed and owned theaters just about all or Abbot and Costello. They cried just as I think were made in the '30s and '40s. over Texas. I eventually managed and much for Louise Beavers as they did for What fascinated me about the Black owned 15 or 20 theaters; about five of those Bette Davis, and were as thrilled by Ralph films of that time was that they were put were Black theaters. Cooper as by George Raft. The good, well­ out with almost no backing, yet were as Back then, distributors had what was made Black films, and even the poorly good as the ones the major studios released. termed "availability" on runs. Features produced ones, were just as well-received Harry Popkin's Million Dollar Productions wouldn't run for more than a week at a time as their white counterparts. They enter­ created well-made films. His Ten Little In­ in a theater, and usually not that long. The tained people: made them laugh and cry dians had quite a cast, and Four Shall Die theaters were divided according to how soon and took their minds off their problems for was good and suspenseful, equal to similar they got a run- and the longer the wait, an hour or two - and that is truly what mo­ films made by Warner Brothers and Univer­ the cheaper the admission. The first-run vies are for. I can say one thing for the Black sal Pictures. His gangster movies, such as theaters in the '40s charged 35 to 50 cents; films that I can't say for the white films. Gang War, were not only well-made, but in the second run (sub-run) theaters it I never remember running one to an emp­ made money and were enjoyable. dropped to 20 to 25 cents. By the time a ty house or a low gross, no matter how I got my first view offilmmaking when film got to the fourth-run "grind houses," many times I'd shown it. And no one ever I was a teenager working as a projectionist admission was down to 10 or 15 cents. (The walked out or asked for his money back, ex­ at the Gem Theaters in Waco, Texas. In the second run began the sixth Friday after the cept one man: a white patron who walked late '30s, Spencer Williams was making first run; third run was the seventh Friday; in without realizing it was a Black theater. Blood ofJesus. He filmed it at the old fourth run the eighth Friday and so forth.) And I don't think he left because of the Jamieson Film Studios and Lab in Dallas. The Black theaters didn't have a film; he left because he felt out of place. We booked it at the Gem and did a lot of chance at first-runs; ifa Black wanted to see The theater then was a real night out. advertising for it. But Alfred Sack of Sack a film he'd have to wait, or pay 40 or 50 A program at a second-run theater usually Amusement Co., which backed it and han­ cents to sit in the balcony of a white thea­ consisted of two features and a newsreel, dled the distribution, booked it so close to ter, if a white theater in town had a bal­ a cartoon, travelogue or sports reel, "trail­ its scheduled completion date that Williams cony. ers" ofupcoming features and a serial. Seri­ had to bring a rough cut ofthe picture from From 1950 to 1960, I managed a sub­ als were called chapter plays. They were the lab. I think Spencer finished filming run white house and owned a Black thea­ cliffhangers that always left the hero on a that Thursday, and he brought it to us on ter in Wichita Falls, Texas. The founh-runs cliff or run over by a car- to be continued. Saturday. They hadn't had time to balance went to skid row grind houses and the Gem The program usually lasted three or the sound, and for the first three days, and the Carver, which had the only Black four hours. Features like Bette Davis or Spencer stayed in the booth nearly all the balcony in town. It took me almost a year, James Cagney films would run for 95 time riding the volume control. but I finally got 20th-Century Fox and minutes to two hours; the second feature It was a good thing he did, too. Ifthey MGM to try letting the Carver show films would run 60 or 70 minutes. The balance had not brought it, we would have been one week after the first run. Within two was shorts and what have you. in trouble. We could have put in another months all of the majors had moved us up The travelogues didn't go over too well feature, but with all the advertising we'd to one week after the first run, since our in Black theaters. They weren't much more done, there would have been plenty of grosses were equal to or better than the sub­ popular in white theaters. Young people complaints. There weren't that many Black run houses. used the newsreel or travelogue or the fash­ films available, and they were always popu­ The Black theaters back then were a ion reels to get popcorn or candy. lar. Blood ofJesus did a great business at lot easier to manage than the white theat­ Around World War II they started 10 cents and 25 cents admission. ers. You didn't have the problems with kids making all-Black newsreels covering events In the early '40s, Spencer went on to and even teenagers and older kids like you of more interest to Blacks: the war news make several other films in Dallas for True did in the white theaters. When Black peo­ would focus on Black soldiers, or they'd Thompson, the owner of several "colored" ple came to a show, they came to enjoy it, have stuffon Black entertainers. They were theaters and Astor Pictures. He made one not to wrassle with their next-door neigh­ quite popular. in color for Jenkins and Bourgeous called bor or chase girls. They came for what was There just weren't many Black films Brother Martin, Servant ofJesus. As far as on the screen. made, however. We couldn't count on I know it did not go over too well. One rea- The kids in the white theaters could more than perhaps one new one a month. go wherever they wanted; they were more We'd have to fill them in with older films Black Fzlm Review Senior Associate Editor rowdy. About halfof the kids in the white and white films. The old pictures always did Virginia Cope contn'butedsubstantially to theater didn't come with their parents, but well, no matter how old, as long as some the wn'ting ofthis story. in the Black theaters, on the weekends par- of the actors were Black. If they had F. E. Spring 1988 9

worked in the late 1960s he would have been one of our top producers. Black theater oV/ners were not given the chance they deserved, but some white theaters suffered the same problems. Dis­ tributors were reluctant to serve Black the­ ater owners, but they were equally unwill­ ing to serve any small: independent theater, regardless of the race, creed, or color of its owners. Some of the blame for the problems rests with the filmmakers, too. Black and white artists today share one problem: They're obsessed witp the idea of making a great work of art. It's a great idea, and a few pieces ofan have been made. But the filmmakers and actors and actresses have forgotten the lifeblood of the movies­ providingtntertainment- and the entire industry has suffered. Finally a few com­ panies, like Tri-Star and Cannon, are mak­ ing films once agairl' to entertain. I was puzzled for a long time by the fact that when integration came, the "col­ ored" theaters closed. I don't know if this At the Crescent Theater, Belzoni, Mzss., 1939 (Credit: Mqrion Post Wolcott) happened nationwide or just in my area. For a while after integration, there was an Miller or Ralph Cooper or Hattie McDaniels ity but whom no one cared enough about increase in attendance in the white theat­ in them, you could play them over and to give them the push that counted so ers, but then it fell back to pre-integration over. Very few didn't do exceptionally well. much. levels. I think part of the reason was the The only Black movies that ran regu­ Black moviemakers and Black actors coming of television, but Black people larly in white theaters were Cabin in the also had production and distribution prob­ stopped coming before admissions went up Sky, Stormy Weather, and Green Pastures. lems. The Black producers were faced with so high and videotapes started coming out. They went first to the white theaters, and the same problems as white independent I think one reason is that the films the white theaters would have one or two producers: Money. But the white producer made in the '60s and '70s didn't have the days in the week when they'd make the en­ had one advantage over the Black produc­ same appeal as the Qlder films. The films tire theater available to Blacks. er. He didn't have to contend with the ra­ ofthe '30s, '40s, and '50s weren't about so­ Back then, the studios controlled the cial prejudice of the '40s and '50s. Spencer cial problems, but were entertainment stars. They put them under contract, paid Williams and others like him found it very films. When the studios began to go in for them a certain amount per film, and had hard to get a white money man to back heavy drama, the ~udience's weren't as advertising departments push them and cre­ them. eager. ate an image for them. The love life of a I got out ofthe theater business about star like Rock Hudson was entirely differ­ Black and white artists today 10 years ago. It just wasn't as much fun as ent in the press than it was in his private are obsessed with making a it used to be. The new system of bidding life. The studios kept an ideal image ofthe meant a theater could show a film until stars in front of the public, and the gross great work ofart . .. everyone who wanted to had seen it. Film stayed high in the theaters. filmmakers and actors and rentals had gotten so high, it was just a has­ The so-called moguls also selected the actresses have forgotten sle. Now, by the tirri:e the smaller theaters scripts and kept the stars making hit after get movies, they're already out on video­ hit. When someone showed up with star­ the Izfeblood ofthe tape. quality promise, the moguls made sure movies -providing For a time Dallas was a center offilm­ their publicity department kept these new entertainment. making, and many alack films were made actors and actresses in the public eye. I think there, but I have seen little or not~ing writ­ if the same movie-makers had put Blacks Men like Alfred Sack, Jenkins and ten about them. I have heard a lot of the under contract and pushed them like they Bourgeous, and True Thompson were few so-called "Lost Film~~of Tyler" that Dr. G. did the white stars, they would have gone and far between. From contact with the Williams Jones of Southern Methodist far. But they probably thought the white men and conversations I had with Williams, University "found." However, only one or community wouldn't accept a Black star. I feel they gave him a free hand in direct­ two of those were made in Dallas. Cabin in the Sky had an all-Black cast, but ing and cast selection and so forth. Mr. "B" And, while I ani:not trying to belittle it was done as a novelty. Ifyou'd told Louis often said he and Jenkins did not blame SMU's attitude about the "lost films," I can B. Mayer to take those stars and make mo­ Spencer that Brother Martin, Servant ofJe­ hardly call them lost inasmuch as they were vies with them, he'd probably have said sus did not cliSk. Any picture is somewhat in a warehouse in Tyler, Texas, and had "We can't, it'll never work." of a gamble, a religious one even more so. been there since the time we closed the old As sad as it is to say, the truth is that They all put their best into it; that the pub­ Astor film exchange in the early '70s. When ifthat attitude had not existed then, some lic did not accept it was just one of those the exchange closed a lot ofprints were left great Black actors would have been stars things. He also said he felt there was a strike in the vaults. When the building was torn during the late '30s and '40s: Ralph Coop­ against them from the start. It was a reli­ down in Dallas, the owner stored them in er, Lawrence Cox, Louis Beavers, and Wil­ gious film with a Catholic theme. All ofthe a building they owned in Tyler. I suppose liam Marshall. I could list at least 30 or 40 other films Williams made in Texas made you could say they were lost, but some of Black actors and actresses who had star qual- money. I feel that ifWilliams had lived and us knew they had been there all the time.• 10 Black FzJm Review

The Tragedy ofDorothy Dandridge

By Michelle Parkerson

he decline of Dorothy Dandridge, many friends and associates speculated, began with her second marriage to white restau­ TrateurJack Dennison in 1959. Dramatic film roles that suited Dandridge's complexity, talent and color were further and further apart. Faulty investments in her husband's busine~s and in risky oil ventures led to bankruptcy. She attempted to rally her show business career by rejuvenating on a health farm and signing a new movie contract in Mexico. But on Sept. 6, 1965, she was found dead in her apartment. Little remains ofthe phenomenon ofDoro­ thy Dandridge beyond a rare 8x10 glossy or yel­ lowed pages in vintage Ebony magazines. Her screen brilliance surfaces occasionally on late night television in Bnght Road(1953) or Porgy andBess (1959). Hollywood's first movie queen of color committed suicide in- 1965. Her death was attributed to an overdose of barbiturates, but there were few explanations. She was 42. Hollywood assigned Dorothy Dandridge star quality based solely on her skin color. Dark enough to embody The Exotic, light enough to be Negro Object of Desire, her on-screen fate always hinged on the leading (Black or white) hibited all the characteristics of her screen man-Harry Belafonte in Island in the Sun predecessors, but most important to her appeal (1957) or Curt Jergens in Tamango (1958), for was her fragility and her desperate determina­ instance. In his book Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, tion to survive." Mammies andBucks, (Viking Press, 1973, New The white media surrounded Dandridge York) author Donald Bogle w~ites: with awe and voyeurism. When she was the "Before her, Nina Mae McKinney had dis­ leading lady in Carmen Jones, she was the first played uncontrolled raunchiness, Fredi Black on the cover ofLife magazine. But Dan- . Washington had symbolized intellectualized de­ dridge was often at odds with the Black press. spair, and Lena Horne had acquired a large fol­ Her screen image and romances with white men lowing through her reserve and middle-class (particularly an affair with Otto Preminger) aloofness. On occasion, Dorothy Dandridge ex- made her controversial. Deeply scarred by fa­ mily relationships, love and lovemaking, she Michelle Parkerson is a wn·terandindependent juggled both devastation and Hollywood glam­ film producer. Her most recentfilm is HStorme: our. Her death made good myth. The Lady ofthe Jewel Box," a portrait ofthe Beneath the packaging was a Black wom­ M. C. ofthe famed troupe offemale imperso­ an intensely committed to social change. Scarce nators. Her secondbook, Hpublic Love, " willbe editions of her autobiography, Everything and published by Be Bop Books later this year. Nothing, reveal Dandridge's political awareness Spring 1988 17

years, beginning with the silent film Body described Song ofFreedom as "the first film tragedy. But through it some small gems and Soul, made by Oscar Micheaux. The to give a true picture ofmany aspects of the of light shone, some exhilarating moments film is a classic-it is Robeson's film debut life of the colored man in the West." "As that Robeson and his fans might not have and an interesting collaboration between Hollywood superfilms show him, he is ei­ had in more rational times. For example, two men who wanted to present more ther a stupid fellow, or a superstitious sav­ in May of 1957, Paul performed a concert honest versions of Black lifestyles than age under the spell ofwitch doctors ...This for Britain's National Paul Robeson Com­ Hollywood was willing to portray. Unfor­ film shows him as a man." mittee. Still banned from travel, he gave tunately, this was the only Black indepen­ Unfortunately, Song of Freedom is a 20-minute concen by telephone-the first dent film Robeson made. Body and Soul receiving more exposure today than it did trans-Atlantic concert in communication was released in 1924 - the same year Robe­ when it was released 30 years ago. Still, by history. A thousand Londoners listened. son appeared in the plays EmperorJones this time, Robeson's stature in the Black Several months later he gave the same kind and All God's Chzllun, and from then on community was so strong that the Repub­ of concert with the National Union of the bigger producers and studios claimed lican Party made him an offer. Ifhe would Mineworkers in South Wales. him. leave London and return to America to en­ Three years after his passport was Motion pictures seemed an arena in courage Black voters to campaign against taken, Robeson did what may have been which Robeson was never quite happy and President Franklin Roosevelt, the GOP, his most passionate work in a film. The always at odds with himself. His commit­ through its eminent connections, would film, Song ofthe Rivers, was sponsored by ment to provide intelligent and proud Black guarantee Robeson's film career. He decid­ the World Federation of Trade Unions. In male role models on the screen was fre­ ed it was an offer he could refuse. 1954 the organization forwarded a letter quently thwaned and distoned by the films' In the film Jericho, (also known as from Europe, along with a page oflyrics in producers-producers who would make Dark Sands), made for Capitol Films in German. They requested that Robeson rec­ Robeson look like their"nigger," and Mrica 1937, Robeson was able again to make ord the song to be used in the soundtrack appear to be the land of savages. changes in the script. Among the changes, and mail it to them. No other pertinent If there is one visible flaw in Robeson's Jericho, a leader of his people, lives at the information about the film was included. career it is that he thought, as many actors end of the film, rather than being killed. In Here I Stand, Robeson describes how he do today, that he could take a buffoon of Still, Song ofFreedom andJericho did divided himself into Robeson the Producer a character and empower it, that he could not put things in balance for Robeson, and and Robeson the Singer. take a demeaning script and transform it more than once he declared that he was The singer had to find a way to trans­ into one of dignity. ending his film career. In an interview in late the lyrics into English. The producer For example, the film version of Em­ London, in 1937, he said: had a larger problem. This was a song of perorJones was praised for showing a Black "I thought that I could do something peace, to be used by Ro beson allies . No man in a position of authority, complete for the Negro race in the films: show the recording company was going to come near with a white "lackey," but it was attacked truth about them - and about other peo­ it because of either politics or fear. And if for showing a Black man as a criminal, and ple, too. I used to do my part and go away one did, then Robeson would risk having for showing him groveling at the feeling satisfied. Thought everything was the final product sabptaged. But, as in one conclusion - punishment for having assert­ O.K. Well, it wasn't. Things were twisted of the songs in his repertoire, "Love Will ed himself. and changed-distoned. They didn't mean Find Out A Way," the feat was accom­ In Sanders of the River, (London the same. That made me think things out. plished. With the assistance ofhis son, Paul Films, 1934), Robeson eagerly anticipated It made me more conscious politically. One Jr., an electrical engineer, and his brother, playing the role of Bosambo, an African man can't face the film companies. They a pastor in Harlem, ponable equipment was leader, with cultural integrity. He hoped represent about the biggest aggregate offi­ set up in the parsonage, and Robeson it would expose more of the world to the nance capital in the world. That's why they recorded this song of the six rivers. wonderful depths of African culture. How­ make their films the way they do. So, no "Conditions were not exactly ideal ever, through editing and reshooting, pro­ more films for me." when we came to make the recording," he ducer Alex Korda altered the Bosambo Still, he did make two more films, the recalled. "Taxis did honk, and a small boy character from esteemed leader to loyal ser­ more infamous being Tales ofManhattan shouted, and an airliner roared over the vant. Worse, the film became a rationali­ for Hollywood, (20th Century Fox) in 1942. roof, and the six rivers of the song became zation for, and an affirmation of, colonial­ As in EmperorJones, Robeson thought he sixty through all the retakes ... but ism in Africa. Lawrence Reddick, writing could dignify a buffoon role. As in Sanders finally ... the mighty rivers now ran their in theJournal ofNegro Education in 1944, ofthe River, the producers manipulated the courses on a thin ribbon of magnetic tape noted that "the film was advertised as a sto­ finished product to thwan his effons. Robe­ that was packed into a little box and sent ry in which three white men held at bay a son joined those who protested the film and across the sea ... " war-crazed empire ofthree million natives." attempted, as he had done with Sanders of Months later, he wrote, " ...clippings Robeson responded through interviews that the River, to keep the film out of distribu­ from the European press told of a new "the twist in the picture which was favora­ tion by buying all the prints. But his bid documentary film titled Song Of The ble to English imperialism was accom­ to alter these bits of history did not work, Rivers, made by the great Dutch movie­ plished during the cutting of the picture, and both films remained on the market. maker Joris Ivens. It was, said the critics, after it was filmed. I had no idea it would Tales ofManhattan was, for Robeson, the 'a masterpiece,' a hymn to Man, honoring have such a turn after I had acted in it." unmendable split. labor and assailing colonialism." The mag­ But by now Robeson was an interna­ Arna Bontemps, writing in 100 Years nificent score was composed by tional film star, the first Black man to ofNegro Freedom, (1961) noted that: "Per­ Shostakovich! ... the 'unknown' lyricist was achieve this position. And he used his pow­ sonalities in the arts and in entertainment, the famous German writer, Benoit Brecht. er. Two films later, in Song ofFreedom, when permitted to do so, have generally The commentary was written by Vladimir he became the first Black actor to receive tried to think of themselves as artists and Pozner, the noted French novelist, and final-cut rights in his contract. only incidentally as Negroes. It was appar­ Picasso was making a poster to publicize the With Song ofFreedom , (1936), he fi­ ently to the difficulties of this position that film. nally achieved what he had been striving the mighty and gifted Paul Robeson reacted "Masters of culture, champions of for in the character of Zinga, a dock work­ so drastically that he became a center of peace-what a wonderful filmmaking com­ er in England. Zinga discovers he is of roy­ controversy. " pany I had become associated with." al African descent and returns to Africa to The controversy that grew into a polit­ find and to lead his people. Robeson ical movement against Robeson was a Continued on page 19 12 Black Film Review

Portrait of a Survivor ~Vonetta McGee's Career Continues

By Janet Singleton

onetta McGee became an actress by acci­ critics dubbed "blaxploitation movies." In the dent. One night in the late ~60s she was early '70s, when the film industry fell upon hard at Maverick's Flat-a then-trendy night times, filmmakers turned to Black audiences for Vclub frequet;lted by Hollywood's Black a box office boost. Whites had fled the inner crowd-and people were talking about a cattle cities and were no longer going downtown to call. Casting was beginning for a film to be shot fill the big, antique movie houses. Few of the in Italy. Some of her friends said they were go­ multiplex theaters that soon would become ing, and she tagged along. None ofher friends ubiquitous in the suburbs existed. Hollywood were chosen, but the director, Sergio Corbuc­ found a gold mine in young, frustrated Blacks cio, said he wanted to test McGee for a part. longing to see themselves as macho conquerors, McGee won the part in II Grande Sielen­ and films like Super Fly, by Warner Brothers, zio (The Grand Silence) along with a one-way became top-grossers for their studios. "I got ticket to Rome. Her friends counseled her there at the right time," McGee says. "I came against going, though. She could get stranded to Hollywood just as everything was hap­ in Europe if the offer fell through, they said. pening." Even if she did make the movie, they said, it In 1975, something more unusual hap­ would probably just be some spaghetti West­ pened to McGee. She starred in a dominant­ ern no one would ever see. culture film opposite the biggest star ofthe '70s. She went anyway, and after completing II She played Clint Eastwood's love interest in The Grande Sielenzio, starred in Saustina as an adult Eiger Sanction. Italian-American war baby in search of her fa­ Now McGee regrets not exploiting the op­ ther. portunity more. "I was naive," she says. "I Neither film was released in the United should have gone out and hired a publicist. But States. Yet when McGee came back to Ameri­ I had stars in my eyes and was innocent then." ca, she found steady work. In her first U.S. film, However, even in her innocence, McGee she was cast as Al Freeman's wife in 'The Lost balked at the name of the heroine she was' to Man, starring Sidney Poitier. play. An undercover agent operating as a flight Between 1972 and 1975, McGee appeared attendant, McGee's character was called Jemi­ in a lengthy string of movies. In 1972, she ma (like the pancake mix). That was the name played the title role in Melinda, as a disc~ jock­ used in the spy novel upon which the film was ey's lover who's hunted by the Mafia. That year based. she also had a supporting role in Blacula, the "I found it very offensive, and I spoke film billed as "the first Black horror movie." She about it," she says. "They (the filmmakers) just also appeared in Hammer with Fred William­ looked at me like I was crazy because it was like son. In 1973, she was featured with Richard that in the book." Roundtree in Shaft in Africa. The following year McGee wasn't pleased with the final cut of she was in a title role with then-boyfriend Max the film, either. "They cut out scenes and made Julien as the female half of Thomasine and our relationship seem like a one-night stand," Bushrod, commonly described as a Black, West­ she says. "It was actually a love affair. We had ern Bonnie and Clyde. dates and walks on the beach, but those scenes Most ofMcGee's American films were what were cut. (In the final version) I met him (East­ wood) and next thing we were in bed." Black Ftlm Review Associate EditorJanet Sin­ Still, McGee says The Eiger Sanction was gleton is a free lance-writer living in Denver. the height of her career. "It was also the end," Spring 1988 13

As the '80s opened, her career began to move into an upswing curve. The resurgence came via the small screen. She was making guest appear­ ances on Starsky and Hutch and Benson. She appeared in a television movie, Countdown at the Superdome, with David Jansen. In '85, McGee won a role as a regular on the series Helltown, playing a nun opposite Robert Blake's priest. The show was short-lived and she continued to make guest appearances on shows that feature Black characters regular­ ly, such as Magnum P. I. and Amen. It was while preparing for one of these appearances, on Cag­ ney and Lacey, that she met Carl Lumbly. Lumbly was then a member of the series' cast and McGee had just been chosen for a recur­ ring role as his wife. Lumbly phoned McGee and Vanetta McGee asked if they could meet before rehearsals be­ gan so they would be more comfortable in their she quickly adds. 'But I didn't know it at the roles. "An actor had never called me about that time." before," McGee recalls. "When I got off the Being relegated to 'Jemima" in the film phone, I thought, boy does he have manners; might have been a prophetic missive to McGee. his mother must have raised him well." She had been given a major role in an expen­ Lumbly and McGee got together every sive white movie playing the lover ofa big white night that week to go to an African arts festival. star, but still she was Black - and the era of Life began to imitate an, and they have been Black exploitation was coming to an end in married for almost two years. Hollywood. Something else good was in store for Whites again were going to their movie McGee. Last year, she was cast as a lead charac­ theaters - relocated in the suburbs - in large ter on the syndicated series, Bustin' Loose. Based numbers. Black machismo was replaced by white on the 1981 feature film that starred Richard machismo. Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson Pryor and Cicely Tyson, the show is about an and Burt Reynolds were in; Super Fly was out. idealistic social worker, Mimi Shaw (played by "In essence, the phone stopped ringing," McGee), who adopts four homeless children. McGee says. "I went from being a sought-after, Jimmy Walker co-stars as a happy-go-lucky hot property to ... basically fighting for roles." ne'er-do-well sentenced, after a brush with the After The Eiger Sanction, McGee did not make law, to community service - which leads him to another American feature film for more than a become a live-in helper to Mimi Shaw and her decade. brood. To fill the void, she took up yoga, ceram­ To prepare for her role, McGee made up ics and weaving. "And I went home to San Fran­ a history for the woman, as she often does. "I cisco where I have a very big family and people make up a life for the character from the time loved me," she says. they were born to the period we're doing, so I For the first time, McGee took formal act­ know how the character will react in any given ing lessons. Years before, she had been coached situation," she says. "I even decided what informally in Italy by an American actor named sorority Mimi had pledged to in college." Frank Wolf. "He thought I had talent," she says. She hasn't been influenced by Tyson's por­ McGee undertook serious study with the trayal in the film, -McGee says. She has her own late Peggy Scury, who once taught at Lee Straus­ relationship with Mimi and feels that she has berg's Actors' Studio. Looking back, she finds common ground with the character. "She is like it ironic that when she was seriously studying me (because) I was brought up to feel it was acting, there wasn't much acting for her to do. important to believe in something bigger than "I worked," she says, "but it was not as con­ myself-like helping the misfortunate," she sistent as it had been before (when) I was going says. from project to project. When the films with Though its waifs may be barely in from the Black folks died out and there weren't that many cold, as-1i series Bustin'Loose has been anything parts, I realized I had to change if I wanted to but unfonunate. In its first season-the one that work. I found it very difficult to break into tel­ kills so many network sitcoms-Tribune Broad­ evision, though." casting renewed it for another 26 episodes. Though McGee had become an actress by It looks like Bustin' Loose -like McGee­ accident, staying one took sheer force of will. will be a survivor.• 14 Black Ftim Review

When BlackFaces Were in Vogue ~ Looking Back at Blaxploitation Films

By Tony Gittens

n 1971, an all-Black film opened in a small theater in inner-city Detroit. Its director, producer, star, writer, and edi­ Itor, Melvin Van Peebles, had made the film in a somewhat clandestine manner at Columbia Studios, where he worked. He got away with using a nonunion crew by telling them he was making a pornograph­ ic movie. When Sweet Sweetback's Badasss Song was given an X rating, Van Peebles advertised, "Rated X by an all-white cen­ sorship board." During the film's first week, he could only get it into two theaters. But by the end ofthe year, the film - which cost only $500,000 to shoot-had grossed more than $10 million. The highly profitable film opened the door to the era of the Black exploitation film. Filled with sex and violence, its artis­ tic and social merits have been widely de­ bated. But what cannot be debated is that The blaxploitation era saw a shift from good Negroes, like those played by Sidney Poitier, left, to bad hundreds of thousands ofBlacks turned out Blacks, like those played by Fred Wtiliamson, right, to see this film. Similar films followed. A few months formed, so did the career of actors such as as Christ figures - morally correct, but too later, MGM Studios released Shaft, an all­ Sidney Poitier, unquestionably the major often dead. Poitier had given up his free­ Black detective story directed by Gordon personality in the history ofBlacks in Holly­ dom for Tony Curtis in The Defiant Ones, Parks, with music by Isaac Hayes and star­ wood. During the two decades prior to the and had even died for]ohn Cassavettes in ring Richard Roundtree. It cost $1.2 mil­ release of Sweetback, Shaft, and Super Fly, Edge ofthe City, lion to make and within a year had grossed Poitier was Hollywood's top Black star. In Dramatic changes were taking place in almost $11 million. 1967, he was one of the top five box office Black dress , music , lifestyles, and Perhaps the most controversial of the attractions in the -tJnited States. All three attitudes - changes that were not reflected early Black exploitation films was Super Fly of his films that year- Guess Who's Com­ in Hollywood films. Blacks wanted to see (1972), released by Warner Brothers. Gor­ ing to Dinner, To Sir With Love, and The Black men ofaction who were ready to take don Parks]r. directed and produced this Heat ofthe Ntght-did well. It was his suc­ on the white man on any terms and, most film about a drug dealer who wanted to get cess which brought home to the filmmak­ importantly, come out winners. out ofthe business. Like Sweetback, Super ing industry the fact that a significant- por­ Because of the urban riots of the late FIy was an antihero. Like Shaft, he wore tion of the movie-going public was Black, '60s, whites were fleeing the cities, aban­ fancy clothes, knew karate, and operated But in the early '70s, Black infatuation doning downtown and the big movie theat­ in the city. He was a foul-mouthed crimi­ with Poitier's characters began to fade. Po­ ers. Blacks made up inner-city audiences, nal with no social conscience and he was litically, Blacks had moved from a posture and whites in the film business were aware only out for himself. But, once again, the of protest to one of demanding power, The of this trend, Sensitive to the change in Black community turned out in droves to sentiment of the day became Black Power. taste, Peebles, Parks, and his son Gordon see it. From an investment of$500,000, the Poitier-like characters tried too hard to Parks]r. helped produce films to satisfy the film grossed $5 million during its first year. be accepted by white society. Critics said new demand. These three films were the prototypes Guess Who's Coming to Dinner was frivo­ Between 1970 and 1974, more Black for the "blaxploitation"- the term coined lous in its ponrayal ofBlack I white relation­ films were produced by Hollywood than by Van'ety - genre of cinema. Many ques­ ships. Poitier was also criticized as being too during any other period in cinematic his­ tions remain about these type films: What passive. He portrayed the "super nigger," tory, Dozens of Black actors and artisans spawned their creation? And did anything an integrationist hero whose goal was to be were working then who cannot find work good come from these productions whose accepted into a white social system that today, earmarks were primarily sex and violence? seemed constantly to reject him. Black au­ Films produced then included adven­ The films' popularity can be attribut­ diences felt he was too constrained in his tures (Shaft, Shaft'sBtg Score, Shaft in Afn'­ ed partly to a change in Black attitudes. As anger towards whites. ca, and Super Fly TNT); dramas (Lady Sings the ideal for appropriate Black heroes trans- The new Black audience of the '70s the Blues and Sounder, starring Diana Ross wanted new Black heroes who reflected its and Cicely Tyson, respectively, both con­ Tony Gittens is director ofthe Black FtJm new aspirations and self-assurance. The au­ sidered for Academy Awards); musicals Institute ofthe University ofthe Distnet of dience was tired of the constraints. It was (Wattistax, Soul to Soul, Brothers andSis­ Columbia anda co-founder ofFilmfest DC. tired of Black characters symbolically used ters in Concert); comedies (Cotton Comes Spring 1988 15

to Harlem, Goodbye Charleston Blue, Wa­ of freedom. Burn was directed by Gillo only answer for Blacks. While definitely a termelon Man, and Car Wash). Pontecorvo, who also directed The Battle commercial film, it was atypical of blaxploi­ Black super-heroines were featured in ofAlgiers. tation films because it had little gore and Foxy Brown, Colfy, and Cleopatra Jones; More suited for the blaxploitation mar­ violence. Black athletes Jim Brown in Riot and Fred ket were Brothers and Spook. Brothers Since the blaxploitation period, Black Williamson in The Legend of Nigger (1977) was a fictionalized drama about po­ militancy has rarely been depicted in Holly­ Charley and The Soul ofNigger Charley. litical activist George Jackson. It concerns wood films. The trend is to keep Blacks The audiences for these films were jackson's alleged participation in an armed singing and dancing, or to place Black dra­ overwhelmingly-in some cases, almost 80 robbery, his subsequent arrest, trial, and ma within conventional American contexts, percent-Black, with white ticket-buyers imprisonment, and his effons to organize similar to films made previous to blaxploi­ incidental to this very focused market. prisoners to protest their inhumane treat­ tation. For example, A Soldier's Story takes 1973 saw the beginning ofthe demise ment. The relationship between Jackson place within the armed force. In Beverly of blaxploitation films. Shaft in Afnea, Su­ and teacher and political activist Angela Hzlls Cop, Eddie Murphy is a policeman, per Fly TNT, and The Soul of Nigger Davis is also ponrayed. But the hean ofthis and in Trading Places, he becomes a stock­ Charley failed to live up to their expecta­ drama is Jackson's rage over prison condi­ broker. tions at the box office. The blaxploitation tions and his dedication to educating and Blaxploitation films suffered from film had become repetitious and predicta­ organizing his fellow inmates to fight repetition, explicit violence, and usually ble. Discriminating Black audiences against those conditions. had little intention of raising public con­ stopped buying tickets to see the same kind Spook (1973) was directed by Ivan sciousness. But their success proved that of film over and over. With the American Dixon. Like the Sam Greenlee novel on there was a market for Black films, and market drying up, the virtual nonexistence which it is based, the didactic film was sin­ paved the way for productions portraying of a European market, and with Black au­ cere in its premise that revolution was the Black militancy authentically.• diences also willing to pay to see white films such asJaws, Hollywood reduced its produc­ tion of Black films. Crossover films, featuring Black characters and themes, but acceptable to A Man Called Adam whites, followed. The first was Uptown Saturday Night (1974), directed by Poitier By Mark A. Reid get out ofmy life." Adam exchanges some and starring Poitier and Bill Cosby. Other controlled words with his agent and pours early attempts at crossover films were Cooley etween 1966 and 1974, the Black ac­ another glass ofwhiskey from Manny's bar. High and The Wiz. tion film generated the largest op­ Then he breaks the whiskey bottle and Anumber of films also were released ponunities for Blacks in Hollywood. brandishes it to make Manny crawl. Adam which tried to incorporate the sentiment of BIn an early version ofthis genre, the bitterly says, "That's discipline," and walks militant Black politics. They grew directly hero of a Sammy Davis production of A out of his agent's office. out of the blaxploitation momentum, but Man CalledAdam (Embassy Pictures, 1966) In those scenes, Adam violently rejects did not stay in commercial theateri long. is placed in the context of Black civil dis­ attempts by white men to dehumanize him Among these films were Uptight, The River obedience and rejects its teachings. legally and professionally. Like the heroes Niger, The Lost Man, Burn, Brothers and The Adam in A Man Called Adam is of the Black action films that followed, The Spook Who Sat by the Door. Several a Black musician named Adam Johnson, Adam uses violence and anger, rather than of these gave a negative image of Black who has relationships with several Black legal recourses and patience, to maintain militancy. For example, in Uptight, women. Unlike the Black action films ofthe his hJlmanity. He is a marginalized, em­ released in 1969, and starring the lateJulian '70s, the film showSJno interracial intima­ bittered, "unpoliticized" member ofa Black Mayfield, the hero eventually becomes an cy. In fact, a pre-dawn barroom scene por­ community of jazz musicians. alcoholic and betrays the revolution to the trays the perversion of racial integration. A Man Called Adam also presents an police for money. In The River Niger, the When Adam enters the bar, he exchanges alternative to Adam's violence in the charac­ son's involvement with a young Black mili­ sexual innuendos with two white women ter of Claudia. Claudia is a Southern, tant organization is subordinate to the rela­ seated at a table awaiting paying customers. "politicized-integrationist" college student, tionship among the film's characters. In The The white women's interest in Adam is who has panicipated in the sit-in movement Lost Man, Poitier portrays the leader of a based on his ability to pay for their white and patiently endured both Black and white Black militant organization preparing to flesh. Their presence exotically decorates a­ abuses. She reflects the political conscious­ take over Philadelphia through a payroll capitalist venture rather than expresses the ness and middle-class affiliation of the robbery. The trumped-up romance be­ humanity of racial integration. Still, as character played by Diahann Carroll in Pans tween Poitier and a white society girl was Adam leaves he shows his lack of interest Blues (UA, 1961). Nevertheless, the film's clearly out of place in the film. The plots in the two women, thus his heroism is panly dominant message reflects the Black com­ of all three films end in tragedy and don't established by his willingness to leave these munity's impatience with nonviolent tac­ teach us anything important. women and seek Bhil:k women. tics. Time reponed that "the film's message Burn, Brothers, and Spook deal with Adam's heroism is violent, denying the ... ends with the distressing thought that Black militancy in an authentic, noncavalier passive trend ofthe civil rights movement. nonviolence, man, will get you nowhere." manner. But neither Burn nor Spook Adam does not believe in passive resistance (Time, Aug. 8, 1966 as cited in Fzlmfacts played very long in the theaters. Burn, or "putting his best foot forward;" in fact, IX, 19 (Nov. 1, 1966), p. 236.) released in 1970, is one of Marlon Brando's he bitterly rejects this tactic. He punches In addition to introducing a new kind lesser-known films. While Brando is the a white police officer who verbally abuses of Black heroism, the film's production star, the cast is predominantly Black. Bran- him and responds violently when his white helped Blacks enter decision-making areas do plays a British secret agent on a mission agent, Manny, tries to discipline him by in the industry. According to Van'ety, the to break the Ponuguese sugar monopoly on sending him on a six-week tour of the film's co-producer, IkeJones, was "the first a Caribbean island and open it to Britain. South. Manny callously tells him, "Look, Negro to receive a producer's credit on a To accomplish this, he trains Black slaves you're a musician, you go down there and [major] U.S. pic." Van'ety also stated that, in militant ideology and instigates a revo­ blow. And you get in the bus, in the back "according to production notes, the origi- lution. Inadvertently, he sparks the ideal if necessary! Now, sign these contracts or Continued on page 19 16 Black FzJm Review

Paul Robeson Portrait of a Giant

By Saundra Sharp precedented critical acclaim. A Broadway record was set, with 296 performances, and he preeminent Black historian,].A. more than half a million people saw it on Rogers, has stated, and most would Broadway or on tour. A larger number agree, that Paul Robeson could have might have been reached, but Robeson re­ Tbecome famous with anyone of his fused to perform in the South before many gifts. My task here is to delineate the segregated audiences. Subsequently, he entertainment career of this giant- no easy recreated the role for London audiences. task. Robeson's interpretation of Othello Paul Buskill Robeson was born in 1898 epitomized another "first." He was, in my in Princeton, N.]. His father had escaped opinion, the first major Black entertainer from slavery. When Robeson died 77 years to openly claim a connection to Africa, and later, he had: Performed in more than a to celebrate that connection. dozen plays, setting box office records on It was during the 12 years that he and Broadway and in London; starred in 12 his wife, Eslanda, lived in London that he, films; made numerous recordings that con­ as he puts it, "discovered Africa," and came tinue to sell; raised the status of the Negro to consider himself an African. In the mid­ spiritual from a plantation folk song to art; ,30s he wrote an article for a London film lifted his voice in song on every continent, magazine titled, "What I Want from Life." and in almost every country; and sung to "In my music, my plays, my films," he stat­ aristocrats and to the workihg classes in 20 ed, "I want always to carry this central idea: languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Rus­ to be African. Multitudes ofmen have died sian, and four African languages. Paul Robeson for less worthy ideals; it is even more emi­ Before he began his odyssey as an art­ However, in Eugene O'Neill's All God's nently worth living for." ist, he was the first Black to become an "All­ ChzJlun Got Wings, Robeson not only He began to study African languages, American" in college football and the first played in a mixed cast, but marries an un­ to make a connection between the scales he Black lawyer hired by a prestigious New stable white woman considered beneath his heard in African music and music around York law firm. Later, in 1948, working with intellectual level, and at the end ofthe play the world. Spurred by his wife's interest in the Progressive Party in the presidential the woman kisses his hand. Before it could anthropology, he and Eslanda traveled and campaign to defeat Harry Truman, Robe­ even open, the KIu Klux Klan issued death studied throughout Africa. He spent time son became the first Black to playa key role threats. The Daughters of the Confedera­ with London's African students in London. in formulating the platform of a major po­ cy demanded that authorities ban the play, Kwame Nkrumah and]omo Kenyatta were Iitical party. and the press went crazy predicting, and his friends long before they were known to Ro beson was the first concert artist to therefore inciting, the possibility of vio­ the rest of the world. perform a commercial concert of all-Negro lence. AllGod's ChzJlun somehow opened More than 20 years later he explained music. After having had dinner with friends without incident to mediocre reviews and this aspect ofhis cultural growth in his book one evening in 1925, he sang a few songs. closed in three weeks. But it was the be­ Here I Stand(Beacon Press, 1971; originally He was not yet a recognized singer; how­ ginning of Robeson's sometimes-volatile published by Othello Press, 1958): ever, a theater director who was present be­ relationship with the press. "There was a logic to this cultural came so excited upon hearing him that Among Robeson's assets was his in­ struggle I was making, and the powers-that­ within just three weeks a concert had been credible thirst to research the projects he un­ be realized it before I did. The British In­ arranged at New York's Greenwich Village dertook. When he prepared to open in telligence came one day to caution me Theatre. The concert was described by The Othello in 1930, he documented about the political meaning of my activi­ New York Times as "the first appearance Shakespeare's original intent that the ties. For the question loomed of itself: If of this folk wealth to be made without character be portrayed as, a Moor- as a Afn'can culture was what I insisted it was, deference or apology. Paul Robeson's voice Black. In an interview in the early '60s, Paul what happens then to the claim that it is. , .a voice in which deep bells ring." For Robeson indicated that the change in would take 1,000 years for Afn'cans to be the next five years, Robeson used only Ne­ Othello's skin tone on the stage had oc­ capable ofselfrule?" gro spirituals and Black folk songs in his curred "when Europe made Africa a slave Obviously the question evoked a repertoire. center. ,.English critics seeing a Black strange paranoia, an unbridled fear among In the theater he was often forced to Othello .. ,were likely to take a Colonial those who ruled. When Robeson's passport rise above controversy. Through the mid­ point of view and regard him ... as low and was canceled in 1950 by the U.S. govern­ '20s, Broadway approached the color prob­ ignoble ... Shakespeare saw his era in hu­ ment, the reason stated for the action was, lem by avoiding it. Rather than suffer a ra­ man terms. In Othello, he anticipated the " ... the appellant's frank admission that he cially mixed cast, the roles ofpeople ofcolor rape of Africa and some of the subsequent has been for years extremely active politi­ were performed by whites in blackface. racial problems." cally in behalf of independence of the Robeson's approach to playing Othel­ colonial people of Africa," and was there­ Black FzJm Review Associate Editor Saun­ lo from a strong Afrocentric perspective by acting "against the best interests of the dra Sharp is a writer, actress andfilmmaker stunned critics and audiences. The produc­ United States." who lives in Los Angeles. tion opened in America in 1942 to un- Robeson's work in films spanned 18 Spring 1988 17

years, beginning with the silent film Body described Song ofFreedom as "the first film tragedy. But through it some small gems and Soul, made by Oscar Micheaux. The to give a true picture of many aspects of the of light shone, some exhilarating moments film is a classic- it is Robeson's film debut life of the colored man in the West." "As that Robeson and his fans might not have and an interesting collaboration between Hollywood superfilms show him, he is ei­ had in more rational times. For example, two -men who wanted to present more ther a stupid fellow, or a superstitious sav­ in May of 1957, Paul performed a concert honest versions of Black lifestyles than age under the spell ofwitch doctors. ,.This for Britain's National Paul Robeson Com­ Hollywood was willing to portray. Unfor­ film shows him as a man." mittee. Still banned from travel, he gave tunately, this was the only Black indepen­ Unfortunately, Song of Freedom is a 20-minute concen by telephone - the first dent film Robeson made. Body and Soul receiving more exposure today than it did trans-Atlantic concert in communication was released in 1924 - the same year Robe­ when it was released 30 years ago. Still, by history. A thousand Londoners listened. son appeared in the plays Emperor jones this time, Robeson's stature in the Black Several months later he gave the same kind and All God's Chtllun, and from then on community was so strong that the Repub­ of concert with the National Union of the bigger producers and studios claimed lican Party made him an offer. Ifhe would Mineworkers in South Wales. him. leave London and return to America to en­ Three years after his passport was Motion pictures seemed an arena in courage Black voters to campaign against taken, Robeson did what may have been which Robeson was never quite happy and President Franklin Roosevelt, the GOP, his most passionate work in a film. The always at odds with himself. His commit­ through its eminent connections, would film, Song ofthe Rivers, was sponsored by ment to provide intelligent and proud Black guarantee Robeson's film career. He decid­ the World Federation of Trade Unions. In male role models on the screen was fre­ ed it was an offer he could refuse. 1954 the organization forwarded a letter quently thwaned and distoned by the films' In the film jen'cho, (also known as from Europe, along with a page oflyrics in producers-producers who would make Dark Sands), made for Capitol Films in German. They requested that Robeson rec­ Robeson look like their "nigger," and Mrica 1937, Robeson was able again to make ord the song to be used in the soundtrack appear to be the land of savages. changes in the script. Among the changes, and mail it to them. No other pertinent If there is one visible flaw in Robeson's Jericho, a leader of his people, lives at the information about the film was included. career it is that he thought, as many actors end of the film, rather than being killed. In Here I Stand, Robeson describes how he do today, that he could take a buffoon of Still, Song ofFreedom andjen'cho did divided himself into Robeson the Producer a character and empower it, that he could not put things in balance for Robeson, and and Robeson the Singer. take a demeaning script and transform it more than once he declared that he was The singer had to find a way to trans­ into one of dignity. ending his film career. In an interview in late the lyrics into English. The producer For example, the film version of Em­ London, in 1937, he said: had a larger problem. This was a song of perorjones was praised for showing a Black "I thought that I could do something peace, to be used by Robeson allies . No man in a position of authority, complete for the Negro race in the films: show the recording company was going to come near with a white "lackey," but it was attacked truth about them - and about other peo­ it because of either politics or fear. And if for showing a Black man as a criminal, and ple, too. I used to do my part and go away one did, then Robeson would risk having for showing him groveling at the feeling satisfied. Thought everything was the final product sabotaged. But, as in one conclusion - punishment for having assert­ O.K. Well, it wasn't. Things were twisted of the songs in his repertoire, "Love Will ed himself. and changed-distoned. They didn't mean Find Out A Way," the feat was accom­ In Sanders of the River, (London the same. That made me think things out. plished. With the assistance ofhis son, Paul Films, 1934), Robeson eagerly anticipated It made me more conscious politically. One Jr. , an electrical engineer, and his brother, playing the role of Bosambo, an African man can't face the film companies. They a pastor in Harlem, ponable equipment was leader, with cultural integrity. He hoped represent about the biggest aggregate offi­ set up in the parsonage, and Robeson it would expose more of the world to the nance capital in the world. That's why they recorded this song of the six rivers. wonderful depths of African culture. How­ make their films the way they do. So, no "Conditions were not exactly ideal ever, through editing and reshooting, pro­ more films for me." when we came to make the recording," he ducer Alex Korda altered the Bosambo Still, he did make two more films, the recalled. "Taxis did honk, and a small boy ·character from esteemed leader to loyal ser­ more infamous being Tales ofManhattan shouted, and an airliner roared over the vant. Worse, the film became a rationali­ for Hollywood, (20th Century Fox) in 1942. roof, and the six rivers of the song became zation for, and an affirmation of, colonial­ As in Emperorjones, Robeson thought he sixty through all the retakes ... but ism in Africa. Lawrence Reddick, writing could dignify a buffoon role. As in Sanders finally ... the mighty rivers now ran their in thejournalofNegro Education in 1944, ofthe River, the producers manipulated the courses on a thin ribbon of magnetic tape noted that "the film was advenised as a sto­ finished product to thwan his effons. Robe­ that was packed into a little box and sent ry in which three white men held at bay a son joined those who protested the film and across the sea ... " war-crazed empire of three million natives." attempted, as he had done with Sanders of Months later, he wrote, " ...clippings Robeson responded through interviews that the River, to keep the film out of distribu­ from the European press told of a new "the twist in the picture which was favora­ tion by buying all the prints. But his bid documentary film titled Song Of The ble to English imperialism was accom­ to alter these bits of history did not work, Rivers, made by the great Dutch movie­ plished during the cutting of the picture, and both films remained on the market. maker Joris Ivens. It was, said the critics, after it was filmed. I had no idea it would Tales ofManhattan was, for Robeson, the 'a masterpiece,' a hymn to Man, honoring have such a turn after I had acted in it." unmendable split. labor and assailing colonialism." The mag­ But by now Robeson was an interna­ Arna Bontemps, writing in 100 Years nificent score was composed by tional film star, the first Black man to ofNegro Freedom, (1961) noted that: "Per­ Shostakovich! ...the 'unknown' lyricist was achieve this position. And he used his pow­ sonalities in the arts and in entertainment, the famous German writer, Benolt Brecht. er. Two films later, in Song ofFreedom, when permitted to do so, have generally The commentary was written by Vladimir he became the first Black actor to receive tried to think of themselves as artists and Pozner, the noted French novelist, and final-cut rights in his contract. only incidentally as Negroes. It was appar­ Picasso was making a poster to publicize the With Song ofFreedom , (1936), he fi­ ently to the difficulties ofthis position that film. nally achieved what he had been striving the mighty and gifted Paul Robeson reacted "Masters of culture, champions of for in the character ofZinga, a dock work­ so drastically that he became a center of peace-what a wonderful filmmaking com­ er in England. Zinga discovers he is of roy­ controversy. " pany I had become associated with." al African descent and returns to Africa to The controversy that grew'into a polit­ find and to lead his people. Robeson ical movement against Robeson was a Continued on page 19 18 Black Ftlm Review ,Between Popular Culture And the Avant-Garde

By Chris Brown wonder that a man so clear-sighted and elo­ In many ways Borderline comes closest here are films heralded as art, and quent should be feared and prevented from to fulfilling Robeson's desire to make films then, ofcourse, there are the movies. singing or speaking at home or abroad. in which he would not be typecast as a 'no­ The border between the avant garde It was not until 1958 that Robeson was ble savage' or 'po' boy'. Even the parts of and popular culture has been crossed again allowed to tour Europe, where he was Othello or Brutus Jones derive from the T greeted with the same enthusiasm that had split role of the Black naive, whereas Bor­ so many times that it has become hard to believe it exists. Yet in the 1930s the dis­ met him three decades earlier. In 1928, he derline subordinates his social role to his tinction seemed clear enough. The line of had become an immediate success on the relationship to the other characters. Made demarcation was crossed only at the risk of London stage in Showboat. His rendering by an amateur production company with falling into cinematic limbo. Such was the of the Kern and Hammerstein song, "01' a cast that included Robeson's wife, Eslan­ fate of the silent film, Borderline (1930). Man River," charmed the London populace da, and the poet, H.D., Borderline consis­ The film has rarely been screened since, de­ and literati alike. This stage appearance and tently works against the conventions of ra­ spite the presence in it of one of the pre­ his later performances in the London cial typecasting. Rather than playing along eminent actors of the day, Paul Robeson. revivals of Eugene O'Neill's plays and in with these conventions, it openly confronts Besides the difficulty in classifying this Othello established his reputation. The and exposes their part in a wider pattern film, the disappearance of Borderline can doors ofLondon society drawing rooms were of prejudice and stereotypes engendered by be ascribed to several other causes. It was thrown open to him. national, sexual, and moral boundaries. a late silent, made during the upheaval In private as well as public recitals of The plot develops around a love tri­ brought about by the introduction of syn­ American spirituals, Robeson kept his au­ angle with Adah (Eslanda Robeson) claimed chronized sound, and never received wide dience spellbound. The accounts ofhis per­ by two men: one white, Thorn, (Gavin Ar­ distribution. It has not enjoyed the status formances echo the same metaphors of bell, thur), the other, Pete (Robeson), Black. of an auteur film because of its unknown drum, and river to suggest the power and This conflict is complicated by the jealousy director, Kenneth Macpherson. And with resonance of his deep baritone. Through of the abandoned white woman, Astrid its straightforward exposition of plot, it can song, performed in collaboration with his (H.D.), who translates her feelings of re­ hardly excite those interested in experimen­ arranger, Lawrence Brown, Robeson became jection into a rabid hatred ofthe Black cou­ tation or minimalism. Even so, the silence increasingly aware of the significance ofhis pie. The irrationality of racial bigotry is surrounding the film may be due more to people's culture and the political dimen­ heightened by the ponrayal of her as an ex­ the controversial figure of its star and its sions of popular art. But if listeners were treme neurotic or 'borderline' ca}5e and her radical treatment of relationships across the struck by the sincerity and power ofhis sing­ lover as a dipsomaniac. The sexual politics color barrier than to any aesthetic consider­ ing voice, it was his presence that over­ of the plot, in which Adah becomes the ations. whelmed them. His commanding stage prize, are played out on a stage ofjealousy, Robeson's careers as an athlete, actor, presence led to his invitation to Switzerland masochism, and madness and include an and singer, and particularly his work on to take part in Borderline. accidental death. film, have been the subject of several This was not Robeson's film debut, as The film's conclusion leaves Robeson's retrospectives since his death in 1976. Still, he had previously acted in Oscar Micheaux's character in the position of outsider and his name remains partly obscured by the melodrama, Body and Soul (1924). But scapegoat, though this action is undercut concerted attempts to silence him in the Borderline, with its expressive close-ups and by the questioning of assumptions about 1950s for his forthright stand against ne­ ensemble work, afforded Robeson an excel­ guilt. All four of the main characters are ofascism and for his internationalism. lent opportunity to develop his screenact­ in some sense blamed for the accidental W.E.B. DuBois, also hounded by the ing ability. At the close of the silent era, death, but the responsibility falls on the House Un-American Activities Committee, he appears in a film that could make no use community. Thus the film poses questions said of his friend's struggle: "The persecu­ of his voice-how ironic, especially when about the mass psychology of blame rather tion of Paul Robeson by the government one considers that one of the best known' than concerning itself with answers to the ... has been one of the most contempti­ sound films of the time, Al Jolson's Jazz "Negro question." In a pamphlet H.D. ble happenings in modern history." Singer (1927), quite clearly exploits the wrote promoting the film, she claims that Denied his passport, denounced by wealth of the Black musical tradition. But the problems between Adah and Pete were Jackie Robinson, virtually banned from Hollywood studios were not ready to allow not "dealt with as the everlasting Black­ making public engagements in the United Black actors any but minor and stereotyped white Problem with a capital," and suggests States, Robeson was all but under house ar­ roles. Only in an independent film could that this in only one strand in the film's fab­ rest. Yet he continued to speak out. Robeson find a role worthy of his stature. ric. But can the film be viewed as entirely Whether denouncing the adventurism of The difficulty offinding suitable roles free of stock responses? Nixon, Dulles, and Eisenhower in Vietnam plagued Robeson throughout his career. Regardless ofits resistance to racial typ­ (1954) or calling for unity between Black Though he did manage to-make one or two ing and the advanced treatment of its ma­ workers in America and those seeking liber­ films in England that were not thoroughly terial, the story line cannot entirely extri­ ation in Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa, demeaning (Song o/Freedom in 1937 and cate itself from the network of class, race, his voice rings clearly in his writings. Small Proud Valley in 1940), in most of the 11 and gender representation. Though it at­ films in which he acted he was either tacks the taboo on miscegenation and strays Chris Brown teaches in the English Depart­ betrayed in the cutting room (Sanders 0/ from the morality emerging with the con­ ment at the University 0/ Wisconsin at the River, 1935) or exploited for his con­ trol of the Hollywood studios, it also dis­ Madison. tribution to the sound track. closes the resilience of the very conventions Spring 1988 19

that it attempts to break. The pervasiveness no less repressive acts of collective provin­ the problematic relation ofwhite artists to of, racial and gender typing seems to be in­ cial mentality are expressed in the mayor's Black 'subjects'. As in the classical nude escapable. Whenever a film relies on rapid letter exiling Pete, and in the ominous pres­ studies made by Nickolas Muray in 1924, character development for narrative econ­ ence ofan old hag who appears in the back­ Macpherson's cinematography presents omy, the tyranny of dominant typing as­ ground whenever racist sentiments come to Ro beson as an image of the erotic. The sens itself. Because Borderline begins in the the fore. In this context the film's resolu­ eroticized film image reproduces the dual­ middle of the action, the opening throws tion attempts to go beyond the victim­ ity of Black god or Black servant, a politi­ the audience on its own resources, and on oppressor dichotomy. Pete recognizes his cally dubious gesture to say the least. images derived from other films. In one potential for complicity in his own ritual Whatever one thinks ofthe film's po­ sense the film reinforces stereotypes by as­ expulsion. Shaking hands with Thorn, he litical content, Borderline does demonstrate sociating Robeson with the natural land­ refuses the Black-and-white division of that Robeson had already mastered the sub­ scape and by depicting the main white blame. He asserts that it is not just small­ tleties of cinema acting and could have characters as decadent. minded and provincial people or even liber­ achieved wider success had he been given The arguments for Borderline's ad­ al whites who are "like that" but "we" who more challenging roles. This film's survival vanced status, therefore, do not depend on are like that. in the archives at Eastman House is most its racial theme nor its characterization, but Borderline could not have been made fortunate for those studying Robeson's ca­ on its bold presentation of the conflicts in without Paul and Eslanda Robeson, as the reer or cinema history. Borderline will also interracial relations. The assumptions of plot owes not a little to their own story. be distributed through the Museum of Black and white differences are laid bare Even more important, the figure of Robe­ Modern Art. The film's abiding interest for when the neurotic Astrid calls her lover a son was pivotal to the film. That the direc­ most of us is that it should have been made "nigger lover." The vicious insult hits hard. tor and cinematographer, Macpherson, had at all. Only at the intersection of avant This violent outburst is only the most become enamored of hirn can be clearly garde and popular art could such a film extreme display of the racism of those in seen in the lingering pans and close-ups of have arisen, and Robeson stands at that the 'borderline' village. The less violent but Robeson's face and hands. This film repeats crossroads.•

Sources used in writing this article include: Robeson from page 17 Here I Stand by Paul Robeson; Beacon Adam from page 15 Press, 1972 ; (original publ. by Othello As far as I can determine, Robeson Press, 1958) -~ nal screenplay was once planned by the late remains the first African - American artist Nat (King) Cole."(Variety, June 22, 1966, to reach international prominence, and The Whole World in His Hands by Susan as cited in Ftlm/acts IX, 19 (Nov. 1, 1966), then to have his art disparaged solely Robeson; Citadel Press, 1981. p. 236.) because of his political beliefs. Donald Bogle wrote that "the feature Now we have the legacy he left us-a Paul Robeson at the Peace Arch Park 1953 seemed to have a certain oppressive legacy of films, speeches, photographs, (phonograph recording); AfroAmerican centered-in-the-ghetto air about it (perhaps recordings, writings. But of these, the most Museum of Detroit, Mich. because it was such an inexpensive film and important legacy he left is a clear and pre­ because its producers shrewdly distributed cise guide for our existence as guardians of History o/Blacks in Frim Exhibit Catalog; it in ghetto areas), and certainly the idea cultural expression. edit., Dr. Henry Sampson and Saundra of a jazz film itself appealed to Black au­ He left us a guideline for living: "I Sharp; City of Los Angeles, 1982. diences. So, too, did the idea ofa new Black speak as an American Negro whose life is heel ofan antihero. (This idea was later suc­ dedicated, first and foremost, to winning 100 Years o/Negro Freedom by Arna Bon­ cessfully picked up in 1971 with Sweet full freedom ...for my people. My views, temps; 1961. Sweetback's Baadasssss Song and Shaft.). my work, my life are all of one piece." (Bogle, p. 214.) A guideline for carrying oneself in the Black Theatre USA, edit. James V. Hatch, Adam was a forerunner of a Black ac­ world: "In my music, my plays, my films, Ted Shine; Free Press, 1974. tion film style that emphasized Black ghetto I want always to carry this central idea: to environments. Its protagonist was an early be African." Black Ftlms andFtlmmakers, edit. Lindsay kind ofhero later developed in other Black A guideline for facing opposition: Patterson; DoddMead, 1975. action films. The studio's intention to dis­ "From my youngest days I was imbued with tribute the film within the Black ghetto nar­ the concept 'Loyalty to Convictions.' Black Manhattan by James Weldon John­ rowed the estimated box-office receipts and Unbending There is no force on earth son; 1930. required a low production budget. Thus the that will make me go back, not even one­ formal and cultural elements dramatized in thousandth of a part of one little inch." Blacks in Black and White by Dr. Henry the film and the industry's production and A guideline for honor: "I came to T. Sampson; Scarecrow Press, 1977. distribution strategy became the basic mode understand that the Negro artist cannot of Hollywood's Black action film produc­ view the matter simply in terms of his To Findan Image byJames Murray; Bobbs tion.• individual interests, and that he had a Merrill, 1973. responsibility to his people. .. " A guideline for making decisions Sex andRace by J .A. Rodgers, Vol. I; edi­ about our work: "The artist must elect to tion nine 1967. Mark A. Reid teaches film and literature fight for Freedom or for Slavery. I have courses at the University 0/ Flon'da in made my choice. I had no alternative." Black Drama by Loften Mitchell; Haw­ Gainesvtlle. He has taughtat the Universi­ And a guideline for coming together: thorne Books, 1967. ty o/Iowa, where he completeda doctorate "Had I been born in Africa, I would have in Amen'can Studies with an emphasis on belonged, I hope, to that family which sings Black World Magazine, Johnson Publ., Black film. He has wn'tten for otherpubli­ and chants the glories and legends of the Nov. 1970 Paul Robeson: Black Star: by cations, includingJump Cut andCinemac- tribe." • C.L.R. James. tion. . 20 Black Film Review

,After Super Fly: The Rise and Fall ofan Anti-hero

By Janet Singleton ed in 1971, led the pack. "It wasn't a part "Like every other trend in movies," he said, of the era," Van Pebbles said of his film. "the one true way to kill them off is to have heir influence could be seen on just "It started an era. It predated Shaft, Fred a glut of them. Filmgoers were inundated about every street corner in urban Williamson and all that. Before that, with these films. They killed the goose that Black America. Young men who had bloods couldn't even get arrested." laid the golden egg. The blaxploitation Tonce worn big, fierce-looking Afros Hollywood's mid-70s rejection of films died because there were too many of melted their hair into straight, slick styles Blacks made little difference to his career, them and too many bad ones." that hung from their temples to their necks Van Peebles said. "I owned (Sweetback)," Though "blaxploitation" came to a and flipped upward at the ends. Wide­ he said. "I wasn't a person for hire. If I halt- with the exception ofrare movies like brimmed hats were often perched on their wanted to do another one; I'd do it. I'm Penitentiary-the stigma remains. Black ac­ heads, and their height was exaggerated by not dependent." tion pictures were Hollywood's raggedy platform shoes. Those who best captured Van Peebles has led what he called a step-children, battered by the critics and the image were called "fly." "very renaissance kind of existence" based cursed by social activists. Now tp,ere are ac­ That was the second word in the title on writing (12 books), acting, directing, tors connected with the era, and their of the archetypal Black action film, Super and producing. After creating Sweetback, agen~s, who would rather not talk about the Fly. In the early 1970s, the movies the me­ he produced a successful Broadway play, mOVIes. dia dubbed "blaxploitation" pics were Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death. Richard (Shaft) Roundtree's manager, changing the way young Black Americans More recently, he entered the world ofstock Patrick McMinn, says his client doesn't want looked at themselves, and some claimed the options trading and wrote a book on how to be interviewed for articles about Black change wasn't good. Movies like The Mack, to win big in the stock market, called Bold actors or the blaxploitation for fear of be­ Melinda, Black Mama, White Mama, and Money. ing pigeon-holed. "In Richard's case, to be Sweet Sweetbacks Badassss Song were mak­ Fred Williamson, too, got his big start stereotyped as a Black, strong-armed cop ing money and making people mad. in the early '70s and refused to let his ca­ was so identified with him," McMinn said. For Hollywood, Black action films were reer end there. Since 1973, he has been an "To get you to identify too closely to one a tiny~gold mine. Like horror flicks, they independent filmmaker through his character is not to the advantage of the didn't cost much to make, but made a tidy Chicago-based company, Po' Boy Produc­ actor." profit..At the opening of the '70s, movie tions. He and his wife and partner, Linda, Rosalind (Melinda) Cash's agent,]ohn attendance and box office receipts had .run the company, which has cranked out Sakura, also says he didn't want his client's plunged, putting major studios in a·bind 16 low-budget movies. name to appear in any article covering the that forcibly opened them to low-cost, low­ "The Black hero is no longer being 1970s. Such a piece, he said, would have risk films. produced by the power structure of Holly­ to be about "has-beens." For Black leadership, "blaxploitation" wood," Williamson said. "If you were an By contrast, Vonetta McGee, who ap­ films were an anathema preying on an all­ E.T. and just arrived on the planet, you peared in several Black action films before too-willing community. Tony Brown, the would think that all Black people know how 1975, expresses no discomfort about her host of Black Journal, has been quoted as to do is sing, dance and be funny." past. Moreover, she says she would do it all saying, "The blaxploitation films are a "I'm the only Black action star who's over again. "Yes, I would accept every role phenomenon of self-hate. Look at the im­ left," Williamson said. "Nobody else has because there were roles that I didn't ac­ age of Super Fly. Going to see yourself as survived the '70s as a constantly working ac­ cept," she said. a drug dealer when you're oppressed is sick. tor or producer or director." In the late '80s, it would seem that Not only are Blacks identifying with him, His films, like the studio-backed Black McGee, Roundtree, and Cash have con­ they're paying for the identification. It's sort movies of the past, are made for small tinued their careers. The legacy of the '70s, oflike a]ew paying to get into Auschwitz." sums-$500,000 on the average-and at­ says Williamson, has been more helpful (Black Ftlms andFtlmmakers, Lindsay Pat­ tract modest but consistent box office than harmful. "Any actor who worked dur­ terson, 239.) receipts - usually about $1 million. "It's ing that period and gave you a resume After inciting such strong reactions, easy to keep the costs down when you wear would include that work experience because the pop Black movies disappeared as all the hats," he said. that's what they were - work experiences," abruptly as they had appeared. Before you "Hollywood was not, all of a sudden, he said. could say, "Who was that masked drug going to give Blacks their big break," Wil­ The Black action films weren't always dealer?" the American screen was washed liamson said. In his view, Black films died socially positive; they may have been vio­ white again. By the mid-'70s, the only Black out for the same reason they were born: lent and sexist, but so were the white films actor who starred regularly in films was money. "The most they ever made was $8 of that era, McGee and Williamson point­ Richard Pryor. million," he said. This money was enough ed out. "Is Death Wish good? Is Dirty Hatry When asked why he thinks the Black to pay the interests and loans of indebted good?" Williamson asked. films disappeared, producer and director studios, but as soon as the major filmmak­ "I don't hear anybody talking about Melvin Van Peebles replied, "A better ques­ ers were able to, they returned to making whitesploitation," McGee said. And, she tion would be 'Why did they come into be­ blockbusters, Williamson said. says, the motto she applies to her career is ing in the first place?'" One reason, Van Leonard Maltin, Entertainment To­ a line from a script by Ossie Davis: "Don't Peebles claimed, is he. He says Sweetback, night critic, says the decline of the films was sell anymore than you can buy back by sun­ which he produced, directed and distribut- a matter of gluttony and lack of quality. down.". Spring 1987

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