''Harlem on the Prairie'' (1937) is a

race movie The race film or race movie was a genre of film produced in the United States between about 1915 and the early 1950s, consisting of films produced for black audiences, and featuring black casts. Approximately five hundred race films were produce ...

, billed as the first " all-colored"

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...

. The movie reminded audiences that there were black cowboys and corrected a popular

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

image of an all-white

Old West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...

. It was produced by Associated Features, which was organized in 1937. The picture premiered at the Paramount Theatre in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and was first shown in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

at the Rialto Theatre on Broadway. The company had offices at 937 N. Sycamore Ave.,

Hollywood, California Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, ...

, and the officers of the company were Jed Buell, president;

Bert Sternbach Bert or BERT may refer to: Persons, characters, or animals known as Bert *Bert (name), commonly an abbreviated forename and sometimes a surname *Bert, a character in the poem "Bert the Wombat" by The Wiggles; from their 1992 album Here Comes a Son ...

, vice president; and Sabin W. Carr, secretary-treasurer. ''Harlem on the Prairie'' was filmed on location at the Walker Ranch in Newhall, California, and the Iverson Ranch, Chatsworth, California. President and chief producer Jed Buell spent less than $50,000 on this picture.

Plot summary

Doc Clayburn returns with his medicine show and young daughter Carolina to the country where 20 years before he had been a rider with an outlaw gang and assisted in a gold robbery; the gold, which was hidden when all but Doc were killed in a fight with a posse, has never been recovered. When Doc is on his way to retrieve it and wipe out the memory of those early days, his caravan, which was trailed by a rival gang, is attacked and he is mortally wounded. Just before he dies, he gives a map of the gold cache to Jeff Kincaid, a younger rider he entrusts with the plan of finding the gold and restoring it to its rightful owners. In doing this, Jeff encounters the heavies, and Mistletoe and Crawfish supply the comedy relief.

Cast

Herbert Jeffrey Herb Jeffries (born Umberto Alexander Valentino; September 24, 1913 – May 25, 2014) was an American actor of film and television and popular music and jazz singer-songwriter, known for his baritone voice. He starred in several low-budget "ra ...

: Jeff Kincaid *

Spencer Williams Spencer Williams (October 14, 1889 – July 14, 1965) was an American jazz and popular music composer, pianist, and singer. He is best known for his hit songs " Basin Street Blues", "I Ain't Got Nobody", "Royal Garden Blues", "I've Found a New B ...

: Doc Clayburn * Connie Harris: Carolina, Doc's daughter *

George Randol George Randol (1895–1973) was an actor, screenwriter, director, and producer of films in the United States. In 1938 he was honored as an influential film executive in a newspaper writeup of the "Negro" film industry. Randol was born in Buena V ...

: Sheriff *

Maceo Bruce Sheffield Maceo Bruce Sheffield (September 8, 1897 – August 20, 1959) was a police detective and an actor in American films. He worked in Los Angeles as a policeman before acting and assisting in the production of films with African American casts. He was ...

: Wolf Cain *

Mantan Moreland Mantan Moreland (September 3, 1902 – September 28, 1973) was an American actor and comedian most popular in the 1930s and 1940s. He starred in numerous films. His daughter Marcella Moreland appeared as a child actress in several films. E ...

: Mistletoe * Flournoy E. Miller: Crawfish (is credited with some of the writing) *

Lucius Brooks Lucius "Dusty" Holcey Brooks was a musician, recording artist, and actor in American films. An African American, he portrayed a comedic sidekick in several Western films with African American casts. He performed as part of the Four Tones in several ...

: Musician (as The Four Tones) * Leon Buck: Musician (as The Four Tones) * Ira Hardin: Musician (as The Four Tones) * Rudolph Hunter: Musician (as The Four Tones)

Background

The film combines all the typical elements of a good old-fashioned western. Melodrama, comedy, romance, action, and suspense are woven together as the characters strive to complete the old man's last wish and search for the gold. Somewhere within all of the riding, shooting and fighting bad guys Kincaid and his pistol-toting back-up group, The Four Tones, manage to sing both the title song, "Harlem on the Prairie", and the once-popular hit "Romance in the Rain". The film's hero,

, who at the time was a popular singer with Earl "Fatha" Hines Band, initially conceived of making an all-black cowboy picture. He intended to distribute the film to the hundreds of movie houses across the South that catered exclusively to black audiences, as the strict racial segregation in effect in the South at the time forbade blacks and whites from being in the same theater at the same time. However, with the help of

Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning s ...

, another well-known screen cowboy, Jeffrey made a deal with Dallas-based Sack Amusements for national distribution.Berry, S. Torriano. ''The 50 Most Influential Black Films'' (2001), page 45 The film was so successful that Sack Amusements executive

Richard C. Kahn Richard C. Kahn (January 26, 1897 in New Orleans, Louisiana - January 28, 1960 in Hollywood, California) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer known for his B movies of the 1930s and early 1940s. He often worked with an all-bla ...

approached Jeffrey about continuing the saga of the black cowboy. Since rights to the original character of Jeff Kincaid were tied up with the original producer, Jed Buell, Kahn and Jeffrey created the character of Bob Blake and introduced his trusty horse Stardusk. The first film produced through this new partnership was ''

Two-Gun Man from Harlem ''Two Gun Man from Harlem'' is a 1938 American contemporary Western film directed by Richard C. Kahn. It was produced by Merit Pictures, distributed by Sack Amusement Enterprises and featured an all-African-American cast. Plot summary A man wr ...

'' (1938). A 1940 newspaper credited the film with holding the largest box-office profits of any all-African-American film.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harlem On The Prairie (Film) 1930s English-language films 1937 films Films directed by Sam Newfield Race films 1930s Western (genre) musical films American black-and-white films American Western (genre) musical films Melodrama films Toddy Pictures Company films 1930s American films