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Brown Gravy
''Brown Gravy'' is a 1929 American comedy film with an African American cast. William Watson directed the Al Christie production. It was among the early "talkie" films released with African American casts. Octavus Roy Cohen wrote the story, part of a series he wrote for the ''Saturday Evening Post'' adapted to film in collaborstion with Christie. The film's thin plot includes themes addressing religion, fraternal organizations, con men, and family life. The New York Public Library has photos used in promoting the film including caricatures of the leads. The film features a singing contest between choral groups in Memphis. Cast *Spencer Williams *Roberta Hyson *Sam McDaniel * Edward Thompson'' *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 Georgia Jubilee Sing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Watson (director)
William, Willie, Bill or Billy Watson may refer to: Entertainment * William Watson (songwriter) (1794–1840), English concert hall singer and songwriter * William Watson (poet) (1858–1935), English poet * Billy Watson (actor) (1923–2022), American actor * William Watson (writer) (1930–2005), also known as Bill Watson, Scottish writer * William C. Watson (1938–1997), American actor * Willie Watson (musician) (born 1979), American folk musician Military * William H. Watson (1815–1846), Mexican–American War soldier from Maryland, U.S. * William Watson (sergeant) (1826–1906), in the Confederate States Army * William Watson (surgeon) (1837–1879), in Pennsylvania Volunteers during the American Civil War * William Thornton Watson (1887–1961), New Zealand officer in the Australian Imperial Force * William E. Watson, military historian Politics * William Watson (16th century MP), MP for the City of York * William Henry Watson (1796–1860), British politician and j ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al Christie
Charles Herbert Christie (April 13, 1882 – October 1, 1955) and Alfred Ernest Christie (November 23, 1886 – April 14, 1951) were Canadian motion picture entrepreneurs. Early life Charles Herbert Christie was born between April 13, 1880 and April 13, 1882, and Alfred Ernest Christie was born between October 23, 1881 and November 23, 1886, both in London, Ontario. Their father managed the Opera House and their mother was its box-office manager and accountant. Charles graduated from school at age 14, and graduated from the four-year accountancy course in two years at age 16. Career Charles, at age 23, was offered a job as the stage manager for Liebler and Company and accepted it on the condition that his brother Al also be given a job. They worked for the organization for three years. Charles joined the film industry after being hired as an accountant for the Nestor Film Company. William Horsley stated that "I wonder if we would have survived as a viable industry had ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Octavus Roy Cohen
Octavus Roy Cohen (1891–1959) was an early 20th century American writer specializing in ethnic comedies. His dialect comedy stories about African Americans gained popularity after being published in the ''Saturday Evening Post'' and were adapted into a series of short films by Al Christie featuring actors Charles Olden, Spencer Williams Jr., Evelyn Preer, and Edward Thompson. Biography Early life Cohen was born on June 26, 1891 in Charleston, South Carolina, to Octavus and Rebecca Cohen (née Ottolengui). He pronounced his first name ''oc-tav'us, a'' as in ''have''. He received his secondary education at the Porter Military Academy, now the Porter-Gaud School, and graduated in 1908. He went on to Clemson College (later renamed Clemson University) and graduated in 1911 with a degree in engineering. Career Between 1910 and 1912, he worked in the editorial departments of the '' Birmingham Ledger'', the ''Charleston News and Courier'', the ''Bayonne Times'', and the '' Newark ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saturday Evening Post
''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influential magazines within the American middle class, with fiction, non-fiction, cartoons and features that reached two million homes every week. The magazine declined in readership through the 1960s, and in 1969 ''The Saturday Evening Post'' folded for two years before being revived as a quarterly publication with an emphasis on medical articles in 1971. As of the late 2000s, ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is published six times a year by the Saturday Evening Post Society, which purchased the magazine in 1982. The magazine was redesigned in 2013. History Rise ''The Saturday Evening Post'' was first published in 1821 in the same printing shop at 53 Market Street in Philadelphia where the Benjamin Franklin-founded ''Pennsyl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress) and the fourth largest in the world. It is a private, non-governmental, independently managed, nonprofit corporation operating with both private and public financing. The library has branches in the boroughs of the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island and affiliations with academic and professional libraries in the New York metropolitan area. The city's other two boroughs, Brooklyn and Queens, are not served by the New York Public Library system, but rather by their respective borough library systems: the Brooklyn Public Library and the Queens Public Library. The branch libraries are open to the general public and consist of circulating libraries. The New York Public Library also has four research libraries, which are also open to the ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spencer Williams (actor)
Spencer Williams (July 14, 1893 – December 13, 1969) was an American actor and filmmaker. He portrayed Andy on TV's '' The Amos 'n' Andy Show'' and directed films including the 1941 race film ''The Blood of Jesus''. Williams was a pioneering African-American film producer and director. Early career Williams (who was sometimes billed as Spencer Williams Jr.) was born in Vidalia, Louisiana, where the family lived on Magnolia Street. As a youngster, he attended Wards Academy in Natchez, Mississippi. He moved to New York City when he was a teenager and secured work as call boy for the theatrical impresario Oscar Hammerstein. During this period, he received mentoring as a comedian from the African American vaudeville star Bert Williams. Williams studied at the University of Minnesota and served in the U.S. Army during and after World War I, rising to the rank of sergeant major. During his military service, Williams traveled the world, serving as General Pershing's bugler wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roberta Hyson
Roberta Hyson (née Roberta Mae Dudley; 1905–1989) was an American 20th-century actress, dancer, and singer. She appeared in several all African American-cast early Sound film, talking films by Christie Film Company, and had a leading role in ''The Melancholy Dame'' (1929). Roberta Mae Dudley was born on March 27, 1905, in Dallas, Dallas County, Texas, Dallas County, Texas. She died on January 21, 1989, in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California. Filmography *''Brown Gravy'' (1929) *''Oft in the Silly Night'' (1929) as Mezanine Conner *''The Melancholy Dame (1929)'' as Sappho Dill *''Music Hath Harms'' (1929) as Zenia Sprowl *''The Framing of the Shrew'' (1929) as Mallissie Cheese *''The Lady Fare'' (1929) as Miss Eva Mapes *''Georgia Rose'' (1930) as Helen References External links * 20th-century American actresses 20th-century American dancers American female dancers African-American female dancers African-American actresses 20t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam McDaniel
Samuel Rufus McDaniel (January 28, 1886September 24, 1962)Tanner, Beccy (November 7, 1991)"McDaniel Opened Doors; 'Gone With the Wind' Was Actress' Most Famous Film" ''The Wichita Eagle''. Retrieved January 3, 2021. was an American actor who appeared in over 210 television shows and films between 1929 and 1950. He was the older brother of actresses Etta McDaniel and Hattie McDaniel. Early life Born in Wichita, Kansas, to former slaves, McDaniel was one of 13 children.Bogle, Donald (2019)''Hollywood Black: The Stars, the Films, the Filmmakers'' New York: Perseus Books. p. 199. . His father Henry McDaniel fought in the Civil War with the 122nd USCT and his mother, Susan Holbert, was a singer of gospel music. In 1900, the family moved to Colorado, living first in Fort Collins and then in Denver where he grew up and graduated from Denver East High School. The children of the McDaniel family had a traveling minstrel show. After the death of brother Otis in 1916, the troupe began to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Thompson (actor)
Edward Thompson (1898–1960) was an actor in the United States. He appeared in several films with African American casts. He worked on films with his wife Evelyn Preer, Spencer Williams, and other prominent African American actors including in Al Christie productions. He played in various theater productions as an actor, including in a musical dancing role in '' Darktown Follies''. He was born James Edward Thompson. He married fellow actor Evelyn Preer. Her second husband, they were both with the Lafayette Players in Chicago. They married February 4, 1924, in Williamson County, Tennessee, Tennessee (while in Nashville). The couple had a daughter in 1932. Thompson starred in the 1929 Al Christie film ''Oft in the Silly Night'', as Temus Robinson. Filmography * ''The Melancholy Dame'' (1929) as Permanent Williams. * ''Framing of the Shrew'', 1929, as Privacy Robson. *''Brown Gravy'' (1929) *''The Lady Fare'' (1929) *''Oft in the Silly Night'' (1929). as Temus Robinson *'' The Wi ... [...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] |
The Georgia Jubilee Singers
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with nouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of the archaic pron ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1929 Comedy Films
Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music * 19 (band), a Japanese pop music duo Albums * ''19'' (Adele album), 2008 * ''19'', a 2003 album by Alsou * ''19'', a 2006 album by Evan Yo * ''19'', a 2018 album by MHD * ''19'', one half of the double album ''63/19'' by Kool A.D. * ''Number Nineteen'', a 1971 album by American jazz pianist Mal Waldron * ''XIX'' (EP), a 2019 EP by 1the9 Songs * "19" (song), a 1985 song by British musician Paul Hardcastle. * "Nineteen", a song by Bad4Good from the 1992 album '' Refugee'' * "Nineteen", a song by Karma to Burn from the 2001 album ''Almost Heathen''. * "Nineteen" (song), a 2007 song by American singer Billy Ray Cyrus. * "Nineteen", a song by Tegan and Sara from the 2007 album '' The Con''. * "XIX" (song), a 2014 song by Slipkn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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