Oscar Micheaux
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| Oscar Micheaux | |
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| Born | Oscar Devereaux Micheaux January 2, 1884 Metropolis, Illinois, USA |
| Died | March 25, 1951 (aged 67) Charlotte, North Carolina, USA |
| Occupation | Director, author |
| Spouse(s) | Alice B. Russell (1926-1951) |
Oscar Devereaux Micheaux (2 January 1884 – 25 March 1951) was an American author and film director. Although predated by the short lived Lincoln Motion Picture Company that put out smaller films, he is regarded as the first African-American feature filmmaker, and the most prominent producer of race films.[1] Despite his pioneering in the fields of both independent film-making and African-American cinema, his films are widely regarded to be among the worst ever made.[2]
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[edit] Biography
Micheaux (sometimes written as "Michaux") was born near Metropolis, Illinois and grew up in Great Bend, Kansas, one of eleven children of former slaves. As a young boy he shined shoes and worked as a porter on the railway. As a young man, he very successfully homesteaded a farm in an all-white area of South Dakota, where he began writing stories. Given the attitudes and restrictions on black people at the time, Micheaux overcame them by forming his own publishing company to sell his books door-to-door.
The advent of the motion picture industry intrigued him as a vehicle to tell his stories. He formed his own movie production company and in 1919 became the first African American to make a film. He wrote, directed and produced the silent motion picture The Homesteader, starring pioneering African-American actress Evelyn Preer, based on his novel of the same name. He again used autobiographical elements in The Exile, his first feature film with sound, in which the central character leaves Chicago to buy and operate a ranch in South Dakota. In 1924 he introduced the moviegoing world to Paul Robeson in his film, Body and Soul.
Given the times, his accomplishments in publishing and film are extraordinary, including being the first African American to produce a film to be shown in "white" movie theaters. In his motion pictures, he moved away from the "Negro stereotypes" being portrayed in film at the time. In his film Within Our Gates, Micheaux attacked the racism depicted in the D.W. Griffith film, The Birth of a Nation.
The Producers Guild of America called him "The most prolific black - if not most prolific independent - filmmaker in American cinema." Over his illustrious career, Oscar Micheaux wrote, produced and directed forty-four feature-length films between 1919 and 1948 and wrote seven novels, one of which was a national bestseller.
Micheaux died in Charlotte, North Carolina while on a business trip. His body was returned to Great Bend, Kansas, where he was interred in the Great Bend cemetery with other members of his family.
[edit] Legacy
- In 1986 the Directors Guild of America honored Micheaux with a Golden Jubilee Special Award and today the Oscar Micheaux Award is presented each year by the Producers Guild.
- For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Oscar Micheaux has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6721 Hollywood Blvd.
- There is a 1994 documentary about Micheaux, Midnight Ramble, named after the "Midnight Rambles" in which cinemas would show films at midnight to an African American audiences.
- In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante, father of African-American filmmaker M.K. Asante, Jr. listed Oscar Micheaux on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.[3]
[edit] Filmography
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[edit] Bibliography
- Micheaux, Oscar (1913). Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer. Lincoln, Nebraska: Woodruff Press. OCLC 254051406. http://books.google.com/books?id=A9CJ_dPnd18C.
- Micheaux, Oscar (1915). The Forged Note. Lincoln, Nebraska: Western Book Supply Company. OCLC 2058028. http://books.google.com/books?id=Y8WCUEcbPbgC.
- Micheaux, Oscar (1917). The Homesteader: A Novel. Sioux City, Iowa: Western Book Supply Company. OCLC 10616358. http://www.archive.org/details/homesteadernovel00michrich.
- Micheaux, Oscar (1941). The Wind from Nowhere. New York: Book Supply Company. OCLC 682477. http://books.google.com/books?id=XVcGuV3s7s8C.
- Micheaux, Oscar (1944). The Case of Mrs. Wingate. New York: Book Supply Company. OCLC 5541463. http://books.google.com/books?id=qMyGFdhojFYC.
- Micheaux, Oscar (1946). The Story of Dorothy Stanfield. New York: Book Supply Company. OCLC 300792169. http://books.google.com/books?id=38lxUGc58twC.
- Micheaux, Oscar (1947). Masquerade, a Historical Novel. New York: Book Supply Company. OCLC 300739700. http://books.google.com/books?id=3yDWLrSc7KEC.
[edit] References
- ^ "The Lincoln Motion Picture Company a First for Black Cinema". The African American Registry. 24 May 2005. http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1830/The_Lincoln_Motion_Picture_company_a_first_for_Black_cinema. Retrieved 2009-02-12.
- ^ Hoberman, J. "Bad Movies" in Vulgar Modernism: Writing on Movies and Other Media. Temple University Press, 1991.
- ^ Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). 100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. ISBN 1573929638.
[edit] Further reading
- Yenser, Thomas (1933). Who's Who in Colored America: 1930-1931-1932. Brooklyn: T. Yenser. OCLC 26073112.
- Green, J. Ronald (2000). Straight Lick: The Cinema of Oscar Micheaux. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253337534.
- McGilligan, Patrick (2007). Oscar Micheaux, the Great and Only: The Life of America's First Black Filmmaker. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0060731397.
[edit] External links
- Oscar Micheaux at the Internet Movie Database
- Bibliography of books and articles about Micheaux via UC Berkeley Media Resources Center
- Stace England & The Salt Kings Original Song Within Our Gates With Film Clips
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