JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
This is well outside what I usually write about here, but I could not resist sharing this interesting find. “All Negro Cast Features” is a five-page section in a 150pp film distributor catalog from 1944, listing 100 all-Black movies for rent. I know very little about this genre of film-making, but in checking out some sites dedicated to the subject I found that only about a third of the hundred were mentioned—which of course sparks curiosity and interest.
[See the wonderful “Separate Cinema” site from whom I borrowed the phrase in the title to this quick post at http://www.separatecinema.com/exhibits_vintageyears.html (with posters!); also the IMDb/Afro-Centric Film Collaborative “Definitive List of Black Movies from the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s,” which as it turns out lists only 32 films from the 1940s.]
The “All Negro” offerings (no films in the catalog are dated) included 37 features ranging from 1931-1944, with ten in the 1930’s and three in the 1940’s. Only 12 of these are referenced in full on the Separate Cinema site, with four others tangentially mentioned and dated. There are then two pages of shorter, movies including: Short Subjects (14 films), “1-Reel All-Negro Cast Subjects (16 films), “Features with Prominent Negroes…” (4 films), “Cabin Kid Comedies” (8 1-reel films), “Musicals” (9 1-reel), “Joe Louis Fights” (9 1&2-reel films), and “Spice of Your Program” (3 2-reels).
Some of the descriptions for the feature films are spare, some not, though even the quick descriptions of some of these movies are captivating–for example, for Harlem is Heaven (1932), the entry reads “Bill Robinson, the dark cloud of joy with Eubie Blake’s orchestra”. On the other hand, the description for Marching On reads “the picture that leaves you gasping” without any reference to it being one of the very few films dealing with African American military life during WWII.
In any event someone out there in Interwebtubelandia may find this list useful or supplementary.
All of the images of the text are expandable:
