Did you know about Midnight Ramble?
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Did you know about Midnight Ramble? I didn’t. The first I heard about this was from Ruth Byrd-Smith, director of the Department of Minority Women and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise in Pittsburgh Pa.
There is not much written about this and so my research consisted of information obtained from Wikipedia.
There are videos Midnight Ramble
James Avery (Actor), Bester Cram (Director), Pamela Thomas (Director) | Format: DVD
And
Midnight Ramble - The Story of the Black Film Industry [VHS] (1994)
Available on www.amazon.com
Learning about minorities and women is something that we should do and celebrate every month.
Did you know ?
That Black characters have appeared in Hollywood films for as long as motion pictures have been produced. In the early years the hiring of black performers was rare?
That when feature roles requiring a black player came along, the film’ producers habitually hired white actors and let him, or her portray the character in “Blackface”?
That In the South, to comply with laws on racial segregation, race movies were screened at designated black theaters?
That even though northern cities were not formally segregated, race films were generally shown in theaters in black neighborhoods?
That many large northern theaters incorporated special balconies reserved for blacks?
That while it was rare for race films to be shown to white audiences, white theaters often reserved special time-slots for black moviegoers?
That this special time slot his resulted in race films often being screened as matinées and midnight shows?
That during the height of their popularity, race films were shown in as many as 1,100 theaters around the country?
That the films were produced primarily in northern cities and the target audience consisted primarily of poor southern blacks and southerners who had migrated northward?
That many of the race films, especially those produced by white studios, expressed middle-class urban values, especially education and industriousness?
That the common themes included the “improvement” of the black race, the supposed tension between educated and uneducated blacks, and the tragic consequences in store for blacks who resisted liberal capitalist values?
That the most famous race movie, The Scar of Shame, incorporated all of these themes?
According to Wikipedia:
“Race films typically avoided explicit depictions of poverty, ghettos, social decay, and crime. When such elements appeared, they often did so in the background or as plot devices. Race films rarely treated the subjects of social injustice and race relations, although blacks were legally disfranchised in the South and suffered discrimination in the North.
Race films avoided many of the popular black stock characters found in contemporary mainstream films, or else relegated these stereotypes to supporting roles and villains. Micheaux depicted his protagonists as educated, prosperous, and genteel. Micheaux hoped to give his audience something to help them “further the race”.
Black comedians such as Mantan Moreland, who had played supporting comedy roles in mainstream Hollywood films, reprised his character as the lead in such films as Professor Creeps and Mr Washington Goes To Town. Some black entertainers, such as Moms Mabley or Pigmeat Markham, starred in their own vehicles. Mabley and Markham did not appear in mainstream entertainment until the late 1960s, when both were featured on Laugh-In on American television.
Many black singers and bands appeared in lead or supporting roles in race films; Louis Jordan, for example, made three films.
Race movies are of great interest to students of African American cinema. They have historical significance, but also showcased the talents of actors who were relegated to stereotypical supporting roles in mainstream studio films. Hattie McDaniel and Clarence Muse are two of the most striking examples of talented performers who generally were given minor roles in mainstream movies. A few stars from race films were able to cross over to relative stardom in mainstream works – for example, Paul Robeson and Evelyn Preer. Hollywood studios often used race movies as a recruiting source of black talent.”
