SOURCE: "The Micheaux Film Corporation; Oscar Micheaux," in Blacks in Black and White: A Source Book on Black Films, The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1977, pp. 42-55.

[In the following essay, Sampson presents a historical overview of Micheaux's filmmaking career.]

The appreciation my people have shown my maiden efforts convinces me that they want racial photoplays depicting racial life, and to that task I have concentrated my mind and efforts.

—Oscar Micheaux (1920)

Undoubtedly the most successful of all black-owned independent film production companies which produced films about black people and employed all-black casts was the Micheaux Film and Book Corporation, which later became the Micheaux Film Corporation. This company, founded in 1918, was the only black-owned company which continued to produce films through the 1920's and 1930's. This company was established by one of the most colorful characters in the history of American films, Oscar Micheaux. During the 21 years between 1918 and 1940, Micheaux produced and distributed nationally and in Europe over 30 black-cast films, many of which were based on books which he wrote himself. Until recently, Micheaux has received very little recognition by film historians, but among his contemporaries who knew him he was considered to be a skilled entrepreneur, an astute businessman and a man who was sensitive to the needs of the black film audience. From an analysis of the responses of black film audiences to his films, Micheaux concluded that they did not care for propaganda as much as they did for a good story. Although he recognized that a strong story line was a key ingredient for a successful film, Micheaux also felt that his films should depict accurately the social, economic and political conditions under which the black man existed in America. Although perhaps not intended as such, some of his films can be considered as protest films. They were, in any event, considered at the time, by both whites and blacks, to be quite controversial.

Micheaux was born in Metropolis, Illinois in 1884. Not much is known about his parents and early childhood, although it is known that he had a brother, Swan Emerson Micheaux. The extent of his formal education is uncertain, but in his youth he worked as a Pullman porter and a farmer. Later, as a young man, he was a rancher. In 1909, at the age of 25, Micheaux purchased a homestead in South Dakota and after five years had successfully expanded his holdings to 500 acres.

During his period as a rancher in South Dakota, Micheaux conceived and wrote a book titled The Homesteader which he eventually published in 1914 or 1915. In 1915 he established the Western Book and Supply Company, headquartered in Sioux City, Iowa. Micheaux worked hard traveling about the countryside around Sioux City selling his book, primarily to white farmers and businessmen. The Homesteader was based on his experiences as a rancher and the characters in it were Negro substitutes for the white persons with whom he had been in contact. The book was fully illustrated and sold for $1.50 per copy.

In 1918, Micheaux's book came to the attention of George P. Johnson, then General Booking Manager of the black-owned and operated Lincoln Film Company of Los Angeles, California. From his office in Omaha, Nebraska, Johnson contacted Micheaux regarding the feasibility of letting Lincoln Film Company produce The Homesteader. Micheaux responded favorably to this proposition and in May 1918 traveled to Omaha and lived in Johnson's house for two days while discussing the details of the contract. Eventually, contractual papers were drawn up and ready to be signed, but Micheaux insisted that as part of the agreement he would go to Los Angeles and supervise the filming of the story. On the basis of Micheaux's lack of film experience, Johnson and the other directors of the Lincoln Motion Picture Company decided that they could not go along with the deal, and hence it fell through. This is the set of circumstances that launched Oscar Micheaux into a career of film production.

In 1918, Micheaux organized the Micheaux Film and Book Company with offices in Sioux City and Chicago, Illinois to produce the film The Homesteader. Using his considerable skills as a businessman and salesman, Micheaux sold stock in his corporation to the white farmers around Sioux City at prices ranging from $75 to $100 per share. Eventually enough capital was secured to produce The Homesteader as an eight-reel film starring Charles Lucas as the male lead, and Evelyn Preer and Iris Hall, two well-known dramatic actresses who at the time were associated with the Lafayette Players Stock Company.

In 1920, Micheaux's brother Swan joined him as Manager of the Micheaux Film and Book Company. Swan was later promoted to Secretary and Treasurer and General Booking Manager. In 1921, the company announced a cash dividend of 25 per cent. Also in 1921, in order to take advantage of better studio facilities and the availability of more talented actors, the company established an office in New York City. The distribution and financial office remained in Chicago under the supervision of Swan Micheaux and Charles Benson, formerly with the Quality Amusement Company. Tiffany Tolliver and W. R. Crowell, operating out of a branch office in Roanoke, Virginia, were in charge of the distribution of the company's films in the east. The distribution of films in the southwest was done by A. Odams, owner of the Verdun Theatre in Beaumont, Texas. Production of the film Deceit was begun at the Esste Studios in New York, June 6, 1921.

The first controversial film produced by Micheaux was Within Our Gates (1920), controversial because it contained a scene involving the lynching of a Negro in the south. The film was shown for the first time in Chicago at Hammon's Vendome Theatre. Before that, however, the picture had been turned down by the Chicago Board of Movie Censors because it was claimed that its effect on the minds of the audience would result in a race riot similar to the one which had occurred in Chicago a year earlier. The picture was given a second showing at the Censor Board, and a number of prominent people, including a representative of the Association of the Negro Press, were called in to see the picture in its entirely and express their opinions on the effect the film might have on public sentiment.

Opinion was divided after the showing. Those who objected pointed out that because of the previous race riot, showing the film would be dangerous. Others who approved argued that because of the existing conditions of the time, the lynchings and handicaps of ignorance, it was time to bring such issues before the public. Among those who argued forcefully for the film were Alderman Louis B. Anderson and Corporation Counsel Edward H. Wright. These men, with the endorsement of the press, prevailed, and a permit to show the film was finally granted.

Those who objected, however, did not give up. They visited churches and protested at length against the showing. Among the most vigorous protesters were blacks, many of whom had not seen the picture. The protests against the film continued right up to the day of the opening of the film. That morning a committee was appointed from the Methodist Episcopal Ministers' Alliance, consisting of both whites and blacks. This committee visited the Mayor of Chicago and the Chief of Police, but without avail. The picture opened to a packed house.

Within Our Gates was shown at the Loyal Theatre in Omaha, Nebraska on August 9, 1920. It had taken two months to get approval from the Omaha Censor Board.

The majority of people who objected to the film had never seen it. One reaction from a movie reviewer who had reads as follows:

Preliminary reading of the outrages perpetrated in the south opened the scene of Within Our Gates at the Pickford last week, Friday, when I dropped in to see the picture released in its entirety. You see the chickens out of doors and the good mother of a progressive family all enacted most naturally. Discussions which show the colored race had never practiced anarchy and there never was a slacker and Theodore Roosevelt's picture seen on the outside of the Literary Digest which opened to readings of great value seen in the movies by reflection. You do not see much in evaluation of the south but you see a minister of the submissive to Massa Charles type who agrees with everything that the white man says and you see singing and shouting and old time religion and the tedious church collection. You see the white man who claims the black child laid at his doorstep by the mother because it is his own and he later gives the mother some money. The lynching attempt leads to the boy who dreams he is lynched. You see him hung up in the vanishing illusion. It is quite natural and effective. Attempted burning at the stake in another scene only shows fire. There is nothing in the picture but what is true and lawfully legitimate.

Many theatres in the south refused outright to book the film because of its "nasty story." The white manager of the Star Theatre in Shreveport, Louisiana, refused to book the picture on advice of the Superintendent of Police in New Orleans who stated that " … the present Manager of the Temple (Theatre) stated that he had witnessed this picture demonstrating the treatment during slavery times with which the negroes were treated by their masters, also show the execution by hanging of about nine negroes for absolutely no cause and that it is a very dangerous picture to show in the south."

The controversy caused by Within Our Gates did not deter Micheaux from making another picture with similar theme, The Gunsaulus Mystery, in 1921. This eight-reel film was based on a murder case in which Leo Frank was convicted of the crime. The movie was filmed in New York studios and starred Evelyn Preer, Dick Abrams, Lawrence Chenault and L. DeBulger.

In a letter dated May 5, 1919, Oscar Micheaux offered George P. Johnson, then General Manager of the Lincoln Motion Picture Company and employee at the Omaha Post Office, a position as General Manager, providing that Johnson could be transferred to the Chicago Post Office and work on a part-time basis at a salary of $50 per month. Johnson decided not to accept Micheaux's offer.

The Dungeon, a seven-reel feature, was produced by Oscar Micheaux in 1922. The Chicago Defender openly criticized Micheaux for using light-skinned actors and not advertising the film as a "Race" production. In a column which appeared in the July 8, 1922 edition of the Chicago Defender, D. Ireland Thomas stated:

The advertising matter for this production has nothing to indicate that the feature is colored, as the characters are very bright; in fact almost white. 'The All-Star Colored Cast' that is so noticeable with nearly every race production is omitted on the cards and lithographs. Possibly Mr. Micheaux is relying on his name alone to tell the public that it is a race production or maybe he is after booking it in white theaters.

Micheaux released Son of Satan in 1924. The film was reviewed by D. Ireland Thomas, black owner of the Lincoln Theatre in Charleston, South Carolina. In a column appearing in the January 31, 1925 edition of the Chicago Defender, Mr. Thomas commented:

It was a very good picture and comes nearer to having an all-star cast than any other Race picture that I have noticed. The cast includes Andrew S. Bishop, Lawrence Chenault, Emmet Anthony, Edna Morton, Monte Hawley, Shingzie Howard, Ida Anderson, E. G. Tatum and others. Some may not like the production because it shows up some of our race in their true colors. They might also protest against the language used. I would not indorse this particular part of the film myself, but I must admit that it is true. We have got to hand it to Oscar Micheaux when it comes to giving us the real stuff. This is all the criticism that I could find and I am a hard critic when it comes to Race pictures, and like Sylvester Russell, I do not want to see my Race in saloons or at crap tables. But it is not what the public clamors for that makes the coin jingle. We naturally expect good acting from Andrew Bishop, Lawrence Chenault, E. G. Tatum, Shingzie Howard, Edna Morton and Ida Anderson. I was very much impressed with the clever acting of Monte Hawley. I like his pleasing appearance and I predict a great future for him if he is given a chance. Just one more word before I finish, I wish to praise the work of E. G. Tatum in this production, it stood out strong. His acting greatly helped to put the picture over—but as I said before we expect it from him. I remember him way back in the Ebony Comedy company's days when he did good work also.

On March 1, 1927, Swan Micheaux resigned his position with the company to become manager of imported films of the Agfu Raiv Film Corporation of Berlin, Germany, with offices at 729 Seventh Avenue, New York City. After a year in this job he left this company to become the Vice President and General Manager of Dunbar Film Corporation, with offices at 440 Lenox Avenue, New York City.

Micheaux produced two versions of the film Birthright, the first a silent picture in 1924 featuring Evelyn Preer, J. Homer Tutt, Salem Tutt Whitney and Lawrence Chenault. The second version was a sound picture released in 1939 and featured Ethel Moses, Alec Lovejoy, and Carmen Newsom. J. A. Jackson, whose column appeared in the Baltimore Afro-American, reviewed the silent version and stated in a column appearing in the January 25, 1924 edition of the Afro-American that

The photoplay is good, the scenes well selected, the continuity carefully done, the atmosphere carefully created and maintained, and Micheaux has a film of which he may well be proud.

Every school teacher, every Negro who has purchased property in the south, all who have ever had a contact with the police and deputy sheriffs or constables in the southern states, every returned soldier, and every pretty colored woman who has or does live in a southern state will find some big truth that a personal experience or observation can confirm.

Micheaux was married in 1929 to Alice Russell, an actress who appeared in a number of his films and had a leading role in God's Stepchildren. The couple set up a home in Montclair, New Jersey, but both Micheaux and his wife did a lot of traveling around the country in the interest of the company. Although not an official member of the company, Mrs. Micheaux took charge of the office after Swan left the company.

Micheaux operated the company with a limited staff, primarily as an economy measure. He did all of the work himself. He wrote scenarios, supervised filming and did the bookkeeping; in short, he did everything. Micheaux pictures took about an average of ten days to shoot and cost from $10,000 to $20,000. Micheaux usually obtained his actors from around the New York City area, frequently using actors of the Lafayette Players Stock Company. However, in several instances when filming on location he employed local talent. For example, The House Behind the Cedars, written by Charles W. Chestnutt, was filmed on location in Roanoke, Virginia. In this film he made generous use of local talent as extras. One of the familiar persons used was William "Big Bill" Crowell, who was at the time a popular fraternal leader in the state of Virginia. Other cast members included Shingzie Howard, Lawrence Chenault and Douglass Griffin.

Evelyn Preer, a member of the Lafayette Players Stock Company, was featured in many Micheaux films, as were Mercedes Gilbert, and Julia Theresa Russell, a sister-inlaw of Micheaux.

In February 1928, the Micheaux Film Corporation, with offices at 200 West 125th Street, filed a voluntary petition of bankruptcy in the U.S. Seventh District Court. The petition listed the assets of the company as $1,400 and liabilities as $7,837.

In the latter part of 1929, the company reorganized with new capital and was incorporated as a new company under the laws of the state of New York. At the time of reorganization, the officers were Oscar Micheaux, President; Frank Schiffman, Vice President; and Leo Bracheer, Treasurer.

Shortly after reorganization, Micheaux produced and directed A Daughter of the Congo in 1930 and his first "all-talkie" film, The Exile, in 1931. The cast which Micheaux assembled for The Exile included Charles Moore, Eunice Brooks, George Randol, Lorenzo Tucker, Nora Newsome, Stanley Morell, Inez Persaud, A. B. Comethiere, Norman Reeves, Lou Vernon, Carl Mahon, and a number of singers and dancers from "Blackbirds," "Brown Buddies," Connie's Inn, and the Cotton Club appeared in cabaret scenes in the picture.

Both pictures met with some negative reaction. Micheaux was accused of perpetuating the "high yaller fetish" in A Daughter of the Congo. Theophilus Lewis, in an article which appeared in the April 16, 1930 issue of the New York Amsterdam News, stated that:

The first offense of the new film is its persistent vaunting of intraracial color fetishism. The scene is laid in a not so mythical republic in Africa. Half of the characters wear European clothes and are supposed to be civilized, while the other half wear their birthday suits and some feathers and are supposed to be savages. All the noble characters are high yellows; all the ignoble ones are black. Only one of the yellow characters is vicious, while only one of the black characters, the debauched president of the republic, is a person of dignity.

Even if the picture possessed no other defects, this artificial association of nobility with lightness and villainy with blackness would be enough to ruin it. It is based on a false assumption that has no connection with the realities of life, as Mr. Micheaux could have been convinced by five minutes reflection of the progress of his race.

The Exile had a successful premiere in New York City, but the first showing in Pittsburgh was halted mid-way through the showing. The action was taken by two members of the Pennsylvania Board of Censors, both women.

Their reason for stopping the showing was that it did not carry the seal indicating that it had been passed by the State Censor Board. There was some speculation at the time, however, that the real reason for stopping the picture was that it contained scenes showing a Negro making love to a "near-white" woman. In a scene near the end of the picture (which the Censor Board members did not see) it is revealed that the woman actually had one per cent "Negro" blood. Another scene in the picture shows a white man trying to take advantage of the woman and being soundly thrashed by the Negro who comes to her rescue. It was at this point that the picture was stopped. In reaction to the halting of the film, an article in the Pittsburgh Courier stated in part that

The refusal to allow the running of The Exile brings clearly to mind the furor created by the running of The Birth of a Nation, a race-hating and mob-inciting film if ever there was one, and the apathetic attitude of the Board of Censors in connection with this film. It's all right for a picture to arouse race hatred, apparently, if the victims of the mob's spirit are Negroes, and now they're making a 'talkie.' Negroes all over the country will watch with a great deal of interest just what action the Board of Censors of the Keystone State will take in this film.

The background of The Exile is Chicago, at a time when blacks migrating from the south were pushing wealthy white property owners off South Parkway.

Micheaux produced two pictures in 1936, Temptation and Underworld. Each picture cost about $15,000 to produce, of which approximately $2000 was allocated for salaries to the actors. The minor actors were paid about $10 per day and the principals received from $100 to $500 per picture. All of the money, including production costs, was paid before the pictures were completed. For these two pictures, Micheaux used professional singers and dancers instead of trained dramatic actors. Most of the performers were nightclub stars instead of stage artists because, Micheaux claimed, he could depend on the former being available in one city at least until the picture was completed. Micheaux also stated that the big problem was getting the artists to work on time in the morning. This was a serious matter because the technicians, who were paid by the hour, would be standing around waiting for the performers to appear.

The picture God's Stepchildren, released in 1938, was probably the most notable of Micheaux's productions. The film was unique in that most of the important scenes were shot in a friend's home in front of a staircase where Micheaux found optimum lighting conditions.

God' Stepchildren had its world premiere at the RKO Regent Theatre, 116th Street, New York City; it was withdrawn after a two-day run and was later prohibited from being shown at any RKO Theatre in the country. The announcement of the ban followed previous announcements, made prior to each showing by Oscar Micheaux, that the objectionable parts of the picture had been deleted.

One scene which caused many of the patrons to get up and walk out of the theatre showed an actor, playing the part of a white man, knocking down a young girl and spitting upon her because she had revealed that she had "colored blood" in her veins. Among those groups protesting the picture were the Young Communist League and the National Negro Congress. A clipping from a New York City newspaper reads, "the picture creates a false splitting of Negroes into light and dark groups. It slandered Negroes, holding them up to ridicule."

In 1940, Micheaux produced The Notorious Elinor Lee, and announced that Negro aviator Col. Hubert Julian ("The Black Eagle") was joining the company as coproducer. The film had its world premiere in Harlem, complete with gold-engraved invitations, floodlights, a carpeted sidewalk, police, and Col. Julian as master of ceremonies in formal dress, top hat, white silk gloves and a flowing cape.

Not much is known about the activities of the company after the release of The Notorious Elinor Lee in 1940. The last known activity of Micheaux was in 1948 when he wrote and directed the film The Betrayal for Astor Pictures. The film was based on Micheaux's book, The Wind from Nowhere. Other books by Micheaux include, The Case of Mrs. Wingate, The Masquerade, The Story of Dorothy Stanfield, and The Forged Note.

Perhaps the best summary of Oscar Micheaux's approach to film production is given in a signed article he wrote for the Philadelphia Afro-American. It appeared in the January 24, 1925 edition, and is presented here in its entirety.

Unless one has some connection with the actual production of photo plays, it is impossible fuly to recognize the tremendous scope which the motion picture embraces. The completed picture is a miniature replica of life, and all the varied forces which help to make life so complex, the intricate studies and problems of human nature, all enter into the physical makeup of the most lowly photo play.

The mastery, therefore, of the art of production, for indeed it is an art, is no small attainment, and success can only be assured when assisted by the most active encouragement and financial backing. The colored producer has dared to step into a world which has hitherto remained closed to him. His entrance into this unexplored field, is for him, trebly difficult. He is united in his themes, in obtaining casts that present genuine ability, and in his financial resources. He requires encouragement and assistance. He is the new-born babe who must be fondled until he can stand on his own feet, and if the race has any pride in presenting its own achievements in this field, it behooves it to interest itself, and morally encourage such efforts.

I do not wish anyone to construe this as a request for the suppression of criticism. Honest, intelligent criticism is an aid to the progress of any effort. The producer who has confidence in his ideals, solicits constructive criticism. But he also asks fairness, and fairness in criticism demands a familiarity with the aims of the producer, and a knowledge of the circumstances under which his efforts were materialized.

I have been informed that my last production, Birthright, has occasioned much adverse criticism, during its exhibition in Philadelphia. Newspapermen have denounced me as a colored Judas, merely because they were either unaware of my aims, or were not in sympathy with them. What then, are my aims, to which such critics have taken exception?

I have always tried to make my photoplays present the truth, to lay before the race a cross section of its own Ufe, to view the colored heart from close range. My results might have been narrow at times, due perhaps to certain limited situations, which I endeavored to portray, but in those limited situations, the truth was the predominant characteristic. It is only by presenting those portions of the race portrayed in my pictures, in the light and background of their true state, that we can raise our people to greater heights. I am too much imbued with the spirit of Booker T. Washington to engraft false virtues upon ourselves, to make ourselves that which we are not. Nothing could be a greater blow to our own progress.

The recognition of our true situation, will react in itself as a stimulus for self-advancement.

It is these ideals that I have injected into my pictures, and which are now being criticized. Possibly my aims have been misunderstood, but criticism arising from such misunderstanding, only doubles the already overburdening labors of the colored producer.

If I have been retarded by the unjust criticism from my own race, it has been amply made up by the aid of the Royal Theatre, which from the very beginning, has encouraged the production of colored photoplays, and in the face of burning criticism, has continued to foster my aims, and help place my organization on a strong footing.

It is only by constructive criticism, arising from an intelligent understanding of the real problem, however, that the colored producer can succeed in his efforts and produce photoplays, that will not only be a credit to the race, but be on a par with those of the white producer.—[Signed] Oscar Micheaux.

Oscar Micheaux died in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1951 at the age of 67.