• Interview with Lorenzo Tucker. Remembering Dorothy Dandridge. • Vonetta McGee • The Blaxploitation Era • Paul Robeson •. m Vol. 4, No.2 Spring 1988 ,$2.50 Co-produced with the Black Film Institute of the University of the District of Columbia .,.... ~. .# • ...-. .~ , .' \ r . t .• ~ . ·'t I !JJIII JlIf8€ LA~ ~N / Ul/ll /lOr&£ LAlE 1\6fJt1~ I WIL/, ,.,Dr 8~ tATE /lfVll" I h/ILl kif /J£ tlf1E M/tl# / wlU ~t11' BE 1II~ fr4lt11 I k/Ilt- /V6f Ie tJ]1f. 1t6/tlfV _ I WILL No~ ~'% .,~. "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.