Old+Black+Hollywood

Smith
Old Black Hollywood (1920-1970)

 **//RACE MOVIES: 1927-1948//** The year of 1927 ushered in a new era in the motion picture industry. The use of sound films or the "talkies" was the new technique connecting the silent staged scenes in movies to the voices of actors and the action of those scenes. The usage of blackface in sound films was still a carry over from the silent films when depicting African-Americans in movie roles. The old minstrel shows of entertainment by using exaggerated black characters was also a continued trend. The popular rendition of **Al Jolson** as the **Jazz Singer**, produced in 1927, and two white sisters, Rosetta Duncan (in blackface) and Vivian Duncan (in natural face), as **Topsy and Eva** in 1927 dealt with Whites in characterizations of Blacks. In the sound films, the actors were forced to be convincing or sensitive or silly and stereotypic. Soon the black dialect and "suitable" musical talents of both black and white actors had to fit into the making of "talkie" motion pictures. Entertainment had to be more convincing by phasing out the blackfaced white actors and the use of more "suitable" African-Americans in black character roles. The roles of African-Americans during the 1929's thru 1940's saw the rise of black actors seeking work but only receiving roles dealing with light comedy, music, or dance. Therefore we see **Stepin Fetchit** getting star billing as an African-American actor in a series of films as the slow-talking, lazy-like plantation Negro (**Hearts in Dixie**, 1929). The film, **Hallelujah** (1929), conveyed multiple themes of black stereotypes exhibited in song, dance, blues, spirituals, and frivolity, making star billing with **Nina Mae McKinney**, a light-skinned African-American woman as a standard barer for future lead roles when using black women. Other stars to receive star billings were **Ethel Waters** (**On with the Show**, 1929) and **Lorenzo Tucker**, who was given the name of the Black Valentino, appearing in **Wages of Sin** (1928), **The Black King** (1931), **Daughter of the Congo** (1930), and **Temptation** (1936). The famed **Bessie Smith** made her only screen appearance in the short film, **St. Louis Blues** (1929). From 1929 thru 1939, we see America experiencing two major events: These two events saw the co-existence of the **race movies** being made and the **Hollywood** versions (MGM, Hollywood Productions, United Artists) at the same time periods being produced. **Race movies** were low-budgeted and mostly aimed at black audiences in segregated movie-houses of the South and where large city black populations dwelled in the North. Hollywood was not interested in making Positive Image Movies about African-Americans -- they saw them as "risky" undertakings; therefore the major roles available to black actors were maids, walkons, butlers, servants, or comics. **Remember: blackface** was still in vogue, and it could sell movie tickets:
 * 1) The **Great Depression of 1929**, when America's stock market crashed, causing massive layoffs
 * 2) The start of **World War II** in 1939 which lasted until 1945

Paul Robeson (1898-1976): [|ConcreteLoop Entry of Paul Robeson]

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Harry Belafonte- [|Photo of Harry Belafonte]

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Sidney Poitier- [|Photo of Sidney Poitier]

 **//RACE MOVIES: 1927-1948//** The year of 1927 ushered in a new era in the motion picture industry. The use of sound films or the "talkies" was the new technique connecting the silent staged scenes in movies to the voices of actors and the action of those scenes. The usage of blackface in sound films was still a carry over from the silent films when depicting African-Americans in movie roles. The old minstrel shows of entertainment by using exaggerated black characters was also a continued trend. The popular rendition of **Al Jolson** as the **Jazz Singer**, produced in 1927, and two white sisters, Rosetta Duncan (in blackface) and Vivian Duncan (in natural face), as **Topsy and Eva** in 1927 dealt with Whites in characterizations of Blacks. In the sound films, the actors were forced to be convincing or sensitive or silly and stereotypic. Soon the black dialect and "suitable" musical talents of both black and white actors had to fit into the making of "talkie" motion pictures. Entertainment had to be more convincing by phasing out the blackfaced white actors and the use of more "suitable" African-Americans in black character roles. The roles of African-Americans during the 1929's thru 1940's saw the rise of black actors seeking work but only receiving roles dealing with light comedy, music, or dance. Therefore we see **Stepin Fetchit** getting star billing as an African-American actor in a series of films as the slow-talking, lazy-like plantation Negro (**Hearts in Dixie**, 1929). The film, **Hallelujah** (1929), conveyed multiple themes of black stereotypes exhibited in song, dance, blues, spirituals, and frivolity, making star billing with **Nina Mae McKinney**, a light-skinned African-American woman as a standard barer for future lead roles when using black women. Other stars to receive star billings were **Ethel Waters** (**On with the Show**, 1929) and **Lorenzo Tucker**, who was given the name of the Black Valentino, appearing in **Wages of Sin** (1928), **The Black King** (1931), **Daughter of the Congo** (1930), and **Temptation** (1936). The famed **Bessie Smith** made her only screen appearance in the short film, **St. Louis Blues** (1929). From 1929 thru 1939, we see America experiencing two major events: These two events saw the co-existence of the **race movies** being made and the **Hollywood** versions (MGM, Hollywood Productions, United Artists) at the same time periods being produced. **Race movies** were low-budgeted and mostly aimed at black audiences in segregated movie-houses of the South and where large city black populations dwelled in the North. Hollywood was not interested in making Positive Image Movies about African-Americans -- they saw them as "risky" undertakings; therefore the major roles available to black actors were maids, walkons, butlers, servants, or comics. **Remember: blackface** was still in vogue, and it could sell movie tickets:
 * 1) The **Great Depression of 1929**, when America's stock market crashed, causing massive layoffs
 * 2) The start of **World War II** in 1939 which lasted until 1945

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 **//A PERIOD OF FREE FLOWING IMAGES AND EXPERIMENTATION: 1970-1990//** By 1970, African-Americans were firmly in the doors of Hollywood. There were enough purely black themes to play in movies, but also many, many crossover roles were available. It was not strange anymore to see a black actor or actress dressed up as a lawyer or doctor. The African-American was ready to be portrayed as part of America's everyday occurrences. Something else happened at the beginning of the 1970's -- African-Americans could **now** play strong roles as detectives, cowboys, superheroes, supervillains, and black bucks. Black violence, black comedy, and a host of "blaxploitation" films which had begun in the **Sixties** were still in vogue, but they expanded into the **Seventies**. 1970 brought in the second African-American under the name of **director** in a **movie production**. (Oscar Micheaux was credited with being the first African-American movie director). Ossie Davis, the actor, was now directing a movie based upon the novel, **Cotton Comes to Harlem**, written by the African-American writer, Chester Himes. Because it was a comedy based upon a story taking place in Harlem, New York -- it was at first criticized for its undertaking. The movie, starring Raymond St. Jacques and Godfrey Cambridge, proved to be funny and a financial success at the box office. 1971 brought to the silver screen a successive series of superhero black or "blaxploitation" films. **Shaft** was released in 1971, and **Richard Roundtree** was the superman black hero detective. He was compared by many to the white James Bond. Gordon Parks was the movie director for **Shaft** which took hold and became a box office success with both black and white moviegoers. 1971 saw **Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song**, directed, written, and acted by Melvin Van Peebles in the leading role.  Being big, bad, tough, and in charge as a black male was being endorsed by Hollywood. Along with violence, hand guns were part of filmmaking and black star's action parts. We see:
 * Jim Brown**, the former college and professional football star from the Cleveland Browns, came to the silver screen in 1964, appearing in **Rio Conchos**, a western. He later made his mark in the 1967 movie, **The Dirty Dozen**, with Lee Marvin and Telly Savalas. **Jim Brown** was able to do what many African-American males had previously been denied. He portrayed on the silver screen a black male being aggressive, hip, smart, and playing the big black buck. He was one of the first African-American actors to play romantic love scenes with white female actresses. Some of his movies were:
 * * **The Split**, 1968
 * **Dark of the Sun**, 1968
 * **100 Rifles**, with Raquel Welch and Burt Reynolds, 1968
 * **Ice Station Zebra**, 1968
 * **Riot**, 1969
 * **The Grasshopper**, 1970
 * **Tick... Tick... Tick**, 1970 || * **El Condor**, 1970
 * **Black Gunn**, 1972
 * **Slaughter**, 1972
 * **Slaughter's Big Rip-Off,** 1973
 * **The Slams**, 1973
 * **I Escaped from Devil's Island,** 1973
 * **Three the Hard Way,** with Jim Kelly and Fred Williamson, 1974 ||

media type="youtube" key="d83NnlL83mc" height="385" width="480" All text is credited to : **//http://www.liu.edu/CWIS/CWP/Library/african/movies.htm//**