Black Cast
Seventy years beford Spike Lee 'did the right thing', America's history of black actors in film began, with independent film makers casting African Americans as doctors, teachers, cowboy heroes - 'intelligent' people it would take Hollywood years and years to recognize. These 'race films' made mostly by and for black audiences, shown in segregated theatres, cast black actors and actresses in the leading roles that eluded them at the Hollywood studios who were more interested at the time in Al Jolson playing on his knees in blackface.
By the 1940s some black actors were 'crossing over' into mainstream productions and more often than not taking demeaning or negative roles. Yet stars such as Lena Horne, Ethel Waters, Hattie McDaniel and Paul Robeson managed to manoeuvre into roles with a dignity belying society's prejudicial preconceptions.
By the 1950s the sidelining of black films was over. The NAACP continued to lobby against racial stereotypes - a fight it had originally started at the opening of Birth Of A Nation in 1915. After the war, as the civil rights movement began to cohere, Hollywood chose to address racial conflict and made several 'problem pictures'. Once Hollywood put its polished skills to work on issues black audiences cared about, the 'race film' all but vanished. With blacks making up a disproportionately high percentage of American movie audiences in the 1960s, films like Raisin In The Sun, The Defiant Ones and To Sir With Love propelled Sidney Poitier to become the first black superstar.
Within the past five years, several film books on the subject have led to a new interest in the imagery of African Americans on film. Posters of this haunting slice of motion picture history are becoming exceedingly hard to find.
John Kisch
Co-author of A Seperate Cinema
Black Cast Films
Details
Black Cast Films
Thirteen British Quads comprising Paris Blues, 1961, U.A., Poitier/Armstrong, (A-); A Raisin In The Sun, 1961, Columbia, Poitier, (A-); Carmen Jones, 1954, T.C.F., Dandridge, (A); Porgy And Bess, 1959, Columbia, Poitier/Dandridge, (A); Sergeant Rutlidge, 1960, Warner Bros., Woody Strode, (A-); To Sir With Love, 1967, Columbia, Poitier, (A-); The Defiant Ones, 1958, U.A., Poitier, (A-); Lilies Of The Field, 1963, U.A., Poitier Best Actor Oscar, (A-); The Greatest, 1977, Columbia, Muhammed Ali, (A-); In The Heat Of The Night, 1967, U.A., Poitier Best Film Oscar, (A-) plus three others, each - 30 x 40in. (76.2 x 101.6cm.) (13)
Thirteen British Quads comprising Paris Blues, 1961, U.A., Poitier/Armstrong, (A-); A Raisin In The Sun, 1961, Columbia, Poitier, (A-); Carmen Jones, 1954, T.C.F., Dandridge, (A); Porgy And Bess, 1959, Columbia, Poitier/Dandridge, (A); Sergeant Rutlidge, 1960, Warner Bros., Woody Strode, (A-); To Sir With Love, 1967, Columbia, Poitier, (A-); The Defiant Ones, 1958, U.A., Poitier, (A-); Lilies Of The Field, 1963, U.A., Poitier Best Actor Oscar, (A-); The Greatest, 1977, Columbia, Muhammed Ali, (A-); In The Heat Of The Night, 1967, U.A., Poitier Best Film Oscar, (A-) plus three others, each - 30 x 40in. (76.2 x 101.6cm.) (13)
Provenance
Collection from a private Irish cinema