Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only (54 page)

For background on the Woodruff Press I consulted the book compiled by the Nebraska Writers' Project,
Printing Comes to Lincoln
(Woodruff Printing, 1940).

“Meeting with great success…” and “Heartily recommend it…” are from the
Gregory Times Advocate
(April 3, 1913). “A few advance copies…” and “The book has had a wonderful [advance] sale…” are from the
Gregory Times Advocate
(April 9, 1913). “Oscar, accept our congratulations” is from the
Dallas News
(December 12, 1912). “The book is entitled
The Conquest
…” is from the
Gregory Times
(March 20, 1913).

“My folks knew him and liked him…” is Merrit Hull of Crane, Montana, from a letter to the editor in the October-November 1966
Frontier Times.

“REV. M'CRACKEN SUED FOR
$10,000…” is from the front page of the
Chicago Defender
(August 2, 1913). “Patrons jumped up and shouted…” is from “Foster's R. R. Porter” in the
Chicago Defender
(November 22, 1913). “The distribution and sales operation…” is from
With a Crooked Stick—The Films of Oscar Micheaux.

Dana F. White graciously shared his paper “Oscar Micheaux's Atlanta Connections,” written for the Society for Cinema and Media Studios, March 4, 2004, and then answered my follow-up questions about OM's purported stay in Atlanta. For information and perspective on the “Leo Frank films” (
The Gunsaulus Mystery
and
Lem Hawkins' Confession
) I relied heavily on Matthew Bernstein's “Oscar Micheaux and Leo Frank: Cinematic Justice Across the Color Line” from
Film Quarterly
(Summer 2004). Bernstein has updated his research and analysis for his book
They Haven't Forgot: Leo Frank on Screen
(University of Georgia Press, 2007). I also cited from “‘Is the Jew a White Man?': Press Reaction to the Leo Frank Case, 1913–1915” by Eugene Levy in
Strangers and Neighbors: Relations Between Blacks and Jews in the United States,
Maurianne Adams and John Bracey, eds. (University of Massachusetts Press, 1999). Although I consulted many factual sources on the Leo Frank case, I fell back repeatedly on Steve Oney's comprehensive
And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank
(Pantheon, 2003).

CHAPTER EIGHT:
1914–1918

“We are always caricatured…” is from OM's article “The Negro and the Photo-Play” in
The Half-Century Magazine
(May 1919). “Certainly aware” and “Of the repeated calls…” are from J. Ronald Green's “Micheaux v. Griffith” in
Griffithiana
(October 1997).

“The injection of the white girl who in the end…” is from OM's June 25, 1918, letter to the Lincoln Motion Picture Company which, like all his correspondence to the Lincoln company or its representatives (including the Johnson brothers and Clarence Brooks), is part of the George P. Johnson (GPJ) collection. That collection also includes numerous clippings and press material and memorabilia pertaining to OM, or race films in general, which provided rich background and detail for this book. GPJ himself considered writing a book about OM, and there are synopses for this project among his papers, including differing versions of the one titled “Oscar Mitcheux.”

The death of Orlean McCracken was reported on the front page of the
Chicago Defender
(August 18, 1917). Circumstances of the deaths of Veatrice and Bell Gough Micheaux were described by Karen P. Neuforth in her “GENERATIONS” genealogy.

“The first Negro postal clerk…” and “As a side issue…showing the Lincoln films…” are from GPJ's oral history transcript, which is part of the UCLA collection.

“Limited to 3 reels, whereas I am sure…” is from OM's May 13, 1918, letter to the Lincoln Motion Picture Company. “A perfect set-up for my brother…” is GPJ in “Oscar Mitcheux.” “The incidents seemed most natural to him…,” “The only Ethiopian…,” and “To treat of the inter-marriage…etc.,” are from GPJ's May 31, 1918, letter to OM. “I agree with you…,” “Assist in general with the direction…,”

“the evil N. Justine McCarthy,” “You might write your brother…” and “To do this, of course, will require time…” are from OM's June 3, 1918, letter to GPJ and the Lincoln Motion Picture Company. “Most of your plays were written…” is from OM's June 25, 1918, letter to the Lincoln Motion Picture Company.

“The heart of the Colored population…” is from “The Negro and the Photo-Play.”

“Join forces” and “Into a Negro film…” are from “Oscar Mitcheux.” “Expect to send my wife to her home…” is from OM's June 9, 1918, letter to GPJ and the Lincoln Motion Picture Company. “Because Micheaux not only had no [film] experience…” and “The film bug” are from “Oscar Mitcheux.” “Saw Johnson kill a dozen…” is from OM's June 9, 1918, letter to GPJ. “Have you had any word from Noble…” and “I have been soliciting subscriptions to the capital stock…” are from OM's August 11, 1918 letter to Clarence Brooks (CB). “The hero in this production…,” “I feel I can collect more complete talent…,” and “Although Sioux City is mentioned as the office city…” are from an undated letter from OM to GPJ.

OM's company prospectus and earliest publicity material are in the GPJ collection. “Two weeks, this I will perhaps write…,” “It is necessary to get these scenes…,” and “Since Ringling Bro's [sic] will be here…” are from OM's August 11, 1918, letter to CB.

Background on the Pekin Theatre was culled from programs and clippings in Special Collections at the Chicago Public Library, but the Pekin Players have also been written about extensively in other key sources listed for this book. For background in general on early African-American theater and film in Chicago I referred to Jacqueline
Najuma Stewart's excellent
Migration to the Movies: Cinema and Black Urban Modernity
(University of California Press, 2005). Jerry Mills “is well versed in the theatricals…” is from OM's September 15, 1918, letter to CB. The early participation of Mills and William Dean Foster in
The Homesteader
is mentioned in unsourced clippings in the GJP collection. “Sweet, tender, vivacious and clever” and OM's other comments on the casting of
The Homesteader
also come from his September 15, 1918, letter to CB.

My chief source on Evelyn Preer, Edward Thompson, and the Lafayette Players is the essays of Sister Francesca Thompson, including “The Lafayette Players, 1917–1932” from
The Theater of Black Americans
(Errol Hill ed., Applause Books, 1987); “From Shadows 'n Shufflin' to Spotlights and Cinema: The Lafayette Players, 1915–1932” in
Oscar Micheaux & His Circle
; and “Evelyn Preer: Early Dramatic Film and Stage Star” from
Black Masks
(July/August 2002). Sister Francesca also graciously answered my e-mail queries about her mother and father. I also consulted LeRoi Antoine's
Achievement: The Life of Laura Bowman
(Pageant Press, 1961), the closest thing to a memoir by one of the Lafayette Players. (Bowman, along with her husband Sidney Kirkpatrick, also acted in Micheaux films.)

Other articles and books: Alex Albright, “Micheaux, Vaudeville & Black Cast Film,”
Black Film Review
(Vol. 7, Issue 4); Arnie Bernstein,
Hollywood on Lake Michigan: 100 Years of Chicago and the Movies
(Lake Claremont Press, 1993); Douglas Gomery,
Shared Pleasures: A History of Movie Presentation in the United States
(University of Wisconsin Press, 1992); Daniel J. Leab,
From Sambo to Superspade: The Black Experience in Motion Pictures
(Houghton Mifflin, 1976); Richard Schickel,
D.W. Griffith: A Life
(Simon and Schuster, 1984);
Simms' Blue Book and National Negro Business and Professional Directory
(J. N. Simms, 1923); Anthony Slide,
American Racist
(University Press of Kentucky, 2004).

CHAPTER NINE:
1919–1921

The “A Good Old Darkey” anecdote is from “The Negro and The Photo-Play.”

To learn about Chicago's race riot during the summer of 1919, I consulted the Chicago Commission on Race Relations,
The Negro in Chicago
(University of Chicago Press, 1922).

Corey K. Creekmur (“The only black character…”) is quoted from “Telling White Lies: Oscar Micheaux and Charles W. Chesnutt” in
Oscar Micheaux & His Circle.
Besides decoding and analyzing
Within Our Gates,
this essay delves deeply into the connections between OM and author Charles W. Chesnutt, the films made by OM from CWC's fiction, and the relationship between the Micheaux film version and the Rhinelander divorce case.

“More versatile than any girl…” is OM quoted in “Death of a Famous Actress a Shock to New York Friends” from the
New York Age
(November 26, 1932). All quotes from Evelyn Preer (“This scene I consider the best…, etc.”) are culled from her series of first-person articles in the June 11, 18, and 25, 1927,
Pittsburgh Courier.

“You did not take enough of the second reel [of
Within Our Gates
] out…” is from GPJ's August 10, 1920, letter to OM. “It is true that our people do not care…” is from OM's August 14, 1920, reply to GJP. “A very dangerous picture…” is from a police captain's March 19, 1920, letter to a Superintendent of Police in New Orleans, part
of the GPJ collection. “The picture is a quivering tongue of fire…” is from Chicago schoolteacher Willis N. Huggins's letter to the
Chicago Defender
(January 17, 1920). I quote Pearl Bowser in this chapter partly from her e-mail correspondence to me about
Within Our Gates.

“Of finish and high aspiration” and “Race filmdom” are from an October 6, 1920, letter to GPJ from the Micheaux Film Company (unsigned). “Has made nothing for himself…” is from GPJ's July 19, 1920, letter to Robert L. Vann (RLV), marked “confidential.” “Produced at a loss…” is from GPJ's March 27, 1920, letter to RLV.

“I know and you know…” is GPJ to OM from an undated letter in the Johnson collection.

“I am expecting phenomenal business…” is from OM's August 14, 1920, letter to GPJ. “Stack them out” and “We opened in New York City…” are from Swan E. Micheaux (SEM)'s September 17, 1920, letter to GPJ.

Lester A. Walton wrote about
The Brute
in the
New York Age
(September 18, 1920) and Sylvester Russell wrote about
The Brute
in the
Indianapolis Freeman
(August 28, 1920).

“He probably regretted that decision…” is from the chapter on
The Symbol of the Unconquered
in
With a Crooked Stick—The Films of Oscar Micheaux.
“Of the Micheaux films that have survived…” is from Arthur Knight's
Disintegrating the Musical: Black Performance and American Musical Film
(Duke University Press, 2002). “A film dramatically different…” is from Jane Gaines, “Within Our Gates: From Race Melodrama to Opportunity Narrative,”
Oscar Micheaux & His Circle.
“Moving pictures have become one…” is from OM's address as quoted in
The Competitor
(January-February, 1921).

Other articles and books: Mary Carbine, “‘The Finest Outside the Loop': Motion Picture Exhibition in Chicago's Black Metropolis, 1905–1928,” included in
Silent Film
(Richard Abel, ed., Rutgers University Press, 1996); Anna Everett,
Returning the Gaze: A Geneaology of Black Film Criticism, 1909–1949
(Duke University Press, 2001); Jane Gaines,
“The Birth of a Nation
and
Within Our Gates:
Two Tales of the American South,” from
Dixie Debates: Perspectives on Southern Cultures,
(Richard H. King and Helen Taylor, eds., Pluto Press, 1996); Wallace Thurman,
Negro Life in New York's Harlem
(Haldeman-Julius Publications, 1928).

CHAPTER TEN:
1921–1922

“By no means a comparison…” is from GPJ's December 30, 1927, letter to C. Boney.

All the Micheaux-Richard E. Norman (REN) correspondence is from the Norman Collection at the University of Indiana. “Some Jews,” “Appears to draw [audiences] very well…,” “We could help them a great deal…,” and footnote (“To the use of…”) are from OM's August 7, 1926, letter to REN.

All the Micheaux-Chesnutt correspondence is from the Charles W. Chesnutt (CWC) collection at the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland. (Some but not all of these letters appear in
Letters of Charles W. Chesnutt, 1906–1932,
edited by Jesse S. Crisler, Robert C. Leitz II, and Joseph R. McElrath Jr., Stanford University Press, 2002).

“A mature gentleman…” is from OM's January 29, 1921, letter to CWC. “Mine own people” and “Like myself…” and “My favorite child” are from CWC's June 16, 1930, letter to John Chamberlain, intended for publication in
The Bookman.

“Any story that deals with the relation…,” “In the last few years…,” “Understand me…,” “This is a very strong start…,” “Would require a great many people…,” “Shortly after the Civil War…,” “I would make the man Frank…,”

“Colored people whom we must depend…,” “Visualize just how…,” “Stronger, and while good…,” and “Out of the theater with this story…,” are from OM's January 18, 1921, letter to CWC.

“I have no doubt that you will make it…” is from CWC's January 27, 1921, letter to OM. “Better than nothing…” and “More or less, and probably change the emphasis…etc.” are from CWC's January 20, 1921, letter to William B. Pratt of Houghton Mifflin. “It is not, when writing directly…,” “Run to conversation” and “Bear this in mind…, etc.” are from OM's January 29, 1921, letter to CWC.