Advertisement in the Exhibitors Herald, June 29, 1918

Ebony Film Corporation was a film company established in Chicago in 1915 as Historical Feature Film Company.[1] Its films were distributed "exclusively" by General Film Company. The company's films and its depictions of African Americans caused outrage and opposition from African Americans.[1] The company used a logo of a monkey in blackface.[2] The business folded in 1919.[3]

The company produced two-reel Westerns, newsreels, and documentaries[4] as well as several short comedy films with African American casts depicting degrading racial stereotypes. A Reckless Rover is a 1918 slapstick comedy film that survives in the Library of Congress' collection. The film credits C. N. David as its director and features a man who does not want to get out of bed pursued by bumbling Keystone Cops style antics. He is put to work in a Chinese laundry and various antics ensue.[5] Sam Robinson starred in several of Ebony's slapstick comedy films. Luther J. Pollard was credited as a producer.[6][7]

One of the company's advertisements listed its film offerings and teased the coming of a film adaptation of Eldred Kurtz Means' story "Good Luck in Old Clothes" s from the Tickfall Tales series.[8] The film was produced.[9]

Filmography

  • The Shooting Star (1915)
  • Two Knights of Vaudeville (1915),[10] extant
  • Spying the Spy (1915), an extant detective comedy that parodies The Birth of a Nation[3]
  • Shine Johnson and the Rabbit's Foot (1917)
  • Wrong All Around (1917)
  • Dat Blackhand Waitah Man (1917)
  • A Reckless Rover (1918), extant
  • Mercy, the Mummy Mumbled (1918), extant
  • The Bully (1918)
  • A Black Sherlock Holmes (1918)
  • Black and Tan Mix Up (1918)
  • Some Baby (1918)
  • A Busted Romance (1918)
  • Firing the Fakir (1918)
  • When You Hit, Hit Hard (1918)
  • Are Working Girls Safe? (1918)
  • The Porters
  • The Janitor
  • A Milk Fed Hero (1918)
  • Busted Romance (1918)[11]
  • Spooks (1917)

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Hemann, Mitch (17 January 2017). "The Rise and Fall of Ebony Films". Norman Studios. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  2. ↑ Waterman, Richard W. (9 October 2019). "The dark side of the farce: racism in early cinema, 1894–1915". Politics, Groups, and Identities. Informa UK Limited. 9 (4): 784–806. doi:10.1080/21565503.2019.1674670. ISSN 2156-5503. S2CID 214140441.
  3. 1 2 "Ask Geoffrey: What's the Story with Ebony Films in Logan Square?". WTTW News.
  4. ↑ Trenholm, Richard. "How Oscar Micheaux defied Hollywood to make the first all-black feature film". CNET.
  5. ↑ "A Reckless Rover". The Criterion Channel.
  6. ↑ "Luther J. Pollard". The New York Times. 13 October 1977.
  7. ↑ Luther J. Pollard: Ebony Film Corp by Kevin Scott Collier (2017)
  8. ↑ "Good Luck in Old Clothes (1918)". IMDb. 30 July 2021. Retrieved 30 July 2021. Film Card, Ebony Film Corporation (1918)
  9. ↑ Good Luck in Old Clothes at IMDb.
  10. ↑ Hoberman, J. (August 10, 2016). "'Pioneers of African-American Cinema': Black Filmmaking Aborning (Published 2016)". The New York Times.
  11. ↑ "Chicago Film Office — Movies Filmed in Chicago".
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