Ebony Film Corporation

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]

Advertisement in the Exhibitors Herald, June 29, 1918

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. 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. "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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