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Anita Bush
Anita Bush (September 1, 1883 – February 16, 1974) was an African American stage actress and playwright. She founded the Anita Bush All-Colored Dramatic Stock Company in 1915, a pioneering black repertory theatre company that helped gain her the moniker "The Little Mother of Colored Drama". Biography Anita Bush was born to Chapman Bush and Annie Elizabeth Bush, née Brown, on September 1, 1883, in Washington, DC. When she was three years old, the family moved to Brooklyn, New York, where her father, a master tailor, became “a theatrical costumer whose clients included many New York actors and performers”. She grew up spending many hours working alongside her father, and delivered costumes to the theaters. She was exposed to legitimate shows in theaters where blacks were not allowed, and to many white theater actors and actresses. While working with her father, she also she acted alongside her sister in William Shakespeare's ''Antony and Cleopatra'', which inspired her to pu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Crimson Skull
''The Crimson Skull'' is a 1922 American silent film, silent Western (genre), Western film that was produced by the Norman Film Manufacturing Company. The six-reel film was made on location in Boley, Oklahoma and was made along with ''The Bull-Dogger'', which its release followed. Local cowboys appear in the film backing up the actors and professional rodeo performer Bill Pickett. It was marketed as a "Baffling Western Mystery Photo-play". Press books for the film remain in existence. Cast * Anita Bush * Lawrence Chenault * Bill Pickett * Steve “Peg” Reynolds References 1922 films 1922 Western (genre) films 1922 lost films American black-and-white films Films shot in Oklahoma Lost American films Lost Western (genre) films Okfuskee County, Oklahoma Silent American Western (genre) films 1920s American films {{silent-film-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dooley Wilson
Arthur "Dooley" Wilson (April 3, 1886 – May 30, 1953) was an American actor, singer and musician who is best remembered for his portrayal of Sam in the 1942 film ''Casablanca (film), Casablanca''. In that romantic drama, he performs its theme song "As Time Goes By (song), As Time Goes By". Wilson was a drummer and singer who led his own band in the 1920s, touring nightclubs in London and Paris. In the 1930s he took up acting, playing supporting roles onstage on Broadway theatre, Broadway and in a series of modest films. His role in ''Casablanca'' was by far his most prominent, but his other films included ''My Favorite Blonde'' (1942) with Bob Hope, ''Stormy Weather (1943 film), Stormy Weather'' (1943) with Lena Horne and the Nicholas Brothers, and the Western ''Passage West (1951 film), Passage West'' (1951). Early life and career Arthur Wilson was born in Tyler, Texas, the youngest of five children. At age seven, the year of his father's death, he began to earn a living by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lawrence Chenault
Lawrence Chenault (November 23, 1877 – December 27, 1943)Wintz, Cary D. and Paul Finkelman. Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance. Ebook, Taylor & Francis group. 2004 was an American vaudeville performer and silent film actor. He appeared in approximately 24 films between years 1920 and 1934; most of his performances were in films directed by pioneering African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux. His brother, Jack Chenault (September 26, 1888 – May 22, 1925), was also a film actor. Early life Lawrence Chenault was born on November 23, 1877, in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, to Mollie Mitchell and William O. Chenault. They later moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where Chenault became a soloist for the Allen Temple Church. In 1888, Chenault's mother Mollie Mitchell married Ambrose Saunders. Because of this, Chenault became Saunders' stepson and was listed in the 1900 US Census as Lawrence Saunders."Chenault, Lawrence E. · Notable Kentucky African Americans Database". ''nkaa.uky.edu''. Ret ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Pickett
Willie M. Pickett (December 5, 1870 – April 2, 1932) was a cowboy, rodeo, Wild West show performer and actor. In 1989, Pickett was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame. Personal life Pickett was born in the Jenks Branch community of Williamson County, Texas in 1870. (Jenks Branch, also known as the Miller Community, is in western Williamson County, five miles southeast of Liberty Hill, and near the Travis County line.) He was the second of 13 children born to Thomas Jefferson Pickett, a former enslaved person, and Mary "Janie" Gilbert. Pickett had four brothers and eight sisters. The family's ancestry was African-American and Cherokee. By 1888, the family had moved to Taylor, Texas. In 1890, Pickett married Maggie Turner, the formerly enslaved daughter of a white southern plantation owner. The couple had nine children. Career Pickett left school in the 5th grade to become a ranch hand; he soon began to ride horses and watch the longhorn steers of his native Texas. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Bull-Dogger
''The Bull-Dogger'' is a 1922 American five-reel silent film, silent Western (genre), Western film starring Bill Pickett, an African American and Native American who is credited with inventing bulldogging or steer wrestling. It was filmed on location in Boley, Oklahoma. The film is presumed to be lost film, lost with only fragments known to have survived. Cast * Bill Pickett * Bennie Turpin * Anita Bush * Steve Reynolds References External links * * * * 1922 films 1922 Western (genre) films 1922 lost films American black-and-white films Films shot in Oklahoma Lost American films Lost Western (genre) films Okfuskee County, Oklahoma Silent American Western (genre) films 1920s American films {{silent-film-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Studios
Norman Studios, also known as Norman Film Manufacturing Company is a former American film studio in Jacksonville, Florida. Founded by Richard Edward Norman, the studio produced silent films featuring African-American casts from 1919 to 1928. The only surviving studio from the period of early filmmaking in Jacksonville, its facilities are now the Norman Studios Silent Film Museum. One of the most prominent studios creating films for black audiences in the silent era, Norman's films featured all-black casts with protagonists in positive roles. During its run it produced eight feature length films and numerous shorts; its only surviving film, '' The Flying Ace'', has been restored by the Library of Congress. The studio transitioned to distribution and promotion after the rise of talking pictures made its technology obsolete, and eventually closed. In the 21st century, the studio's facilities were restored and re-purposed as a museum. On October 31, 2016, the location was designated a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evelyn Preer
Evelyn Preer (née Jarvis; July 26, 1896 – November 17, 1932), was a pioneering American stage and screen actress and jazz and blues singer of the 1910s through the early 1930s. Preer was known within the black community as "The First Lady of the Screen." She was the first black actress to earn celebrity and popularity. She appeared in ground-breaking films and stage productions, such as the first play by a black playwright to be produced on Broadway, and the first New York-style production with a black cast in California in 1928, in a revival of a play adapted from Somerset Maugham's ''Rain''. Early life Evelyn Jarvis was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 26, 1896. After her father, Frank, died prematurely, she moved with her mother, Blanche, and her three other siblings to Chicago, Illinois. She completed grammar school and high school in Chicago. Her early experiences in vaudeville and "street preaching" with her mother are what jump-started her acting career. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Sidney Gilpin
Charles Sidney Gilpin (November 20, 1878 – May 6, 1930) was one of the most highly regarded stage actors of the 1920s. He played in critical debuts in New York City: the 1919 premier of John Drinkwater's ''Abraham Lincoln'' and the lead role of Brutus Jones in the 1920 premiere of Eugene O'Neill's ''The Emperor Jones'', also touring with the play. In 1920, he was the first black American to receive The Drama League's annual award as one of the 10 people who had done the most that year for American theatre. Early life and education Gilpin was born in Richmond, Virginia, to Peter Gilpin (a factory worker) and Caroline White (a nurse);"Charles Gilpin Buried After Simple Services in Trenton Baptist Church." ''Amsterdam (NY) News'', May 14, 1930, p. 1. he attended St. Francis School for Colored Children in that city. He started work as an apprentice in the '' Richmond Planet'' print shop before finding his career in theater. He first performed on stage as a singer at the age of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lester Walton
Lester Aglar Walton (April 20, 1882 – October 16, 1965) was a St. Louis-born Harlem Renaissance polymath and intellectual, a well-known figure in his day, who advanced civil rights in significant and prescient ways in journalism, entertainment, politics, diplomacy and elsewhere. ''The New York Times'' called him an "authority on Negro affairs." Historian Susan Curtis describes him as a man who "advised U.S. presidents and industrialists ... ndwas instrumental in desegregating housing" in New York City. As "America's first black reporter for a local daily," Walton also became the first full-time Black sportswriter and the first Black journalist to cover golf and the nascent sport of pre-1910 basketball. A Broadway songwriter who wrote lyrics for Bert Williams and George Walker, Walton also produced his own theater productions, managed Harlem's Lafayette Theatre and frequently collaborated on lyrics with the "legendary Ernest Hogan, a.k.a. the Unbleached American, an early ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harlem Renaissance Theatre Companies
A number of theatre companies are associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Lafayette Players (1916–1932) Anita Bush, a pioneer in African American theater, began an acting company after seeing a show at the Lincoln Theater in Harlem. She wanted an all-Black group that performed Broadway plays, to combat the popular "racial stereotypes of African Americans as singers, dancers, and slapstick comedians."http://content.ebscohost.com/pdf9/pdf/2008/6LP/01Sep08/35545793.pdf?T=P&P=AN&K=35545793&S=R&D=f3h&EbscoContent=dGJyMNLe80SeqLU4zdnyOLCmr0meprVSrqy4SbSWxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGut0yyrq5LuePfgeyx44Dt6fIA According to Bush, she wanted to prove that Blacks can do the same thing as whites. They were called the Bush Players. After performing at the Lincoln Theater for two years, the owner, Marie Downs, wanted to change their name to the Lincoln Players. Anita refused and took her company to the rival theater, The Lafayette Theatre. In 1916, due to financial difficulties, Bush sold ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York, New York
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the United States, and is more than twice as populous as second-place Los Angeles. New York City lies at the southern tip of New York State, and constitutes the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass. With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous megacities, and over 58 million people live within of the city. New York City is a global cultural, financial, entertainment, and media center with a significant influence on commerce, health care and life sciences, research, technology, education, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harlem, New York
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), Central Park North on the south. The greater Harlem area encompasses several other neighborhoods and extends west and north to 155th Street, east to the East River, and south to Martin Luther King, Jr., Boulevard (Manhattan), Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Central Park, and 96th Street (Manhattan), East 96th Street. Originally a Netherlands, Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands. Harlem's history has been defined by a series of economic boom-and-bust cycles, with significant population shifts accompanying each cycle. Harlem was predominantly occupied by Jewish American, Jewish and Italian American, Italian Americans in the 19th century, but African-American residents began to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
