Hollywood's African American Films: The Transition to Sound

265 Pages·2011·2.236 MB·English

by  Ryan Jay Friedman

Hollywood’s African
American Films
(cid:2)

Hollywood’s African
American Films
(cid:2)
The Transition to Sound
Ryan Jay Friedman
rutgers university press
new brunswick, new jersey, and london
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Friedman, Ryan Jay.
Hollywood’s African American films : the transition to sound / Ryan Jay Friedman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–8135–5048–0 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978–0–8135–5049–7
(pbk. : alk. paper)
1. African Americans in motion pictures. 2. African Americans in the motion
picture industry. 3. Race in motion pictures. 4. Motion pictures—United States—
History—20th century. I. Title.
PN1995.9.N4F75 2011
791.43'652996073—dc22 2010041969
A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the British
Library.
Copyright © 2011 by Ryan Jay Friedman
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, elec-
tronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written
permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 100 Joyce Kilmer
Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854–8099. The only exception to this prohibition is “fair use”
as defined by U.S. copyright law.
Visit our Web site: http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu
Manufactured in the United States of America
For Ruth

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Negro Talking Pictures 1
1 “Black Became the Fad”: White Highbrow
Culture and Negro Films 28
2 “The Negro Invades Hollywood”: The Great
Migration, the Studios, and the Performance
of African American Social Mobility 57
3 On (With the) Show: Race and Female Bodily
Spectacle in Early Hollywood Sound Film 88
4 The Unhomely Plantation:
Racial Phantasmagoria in Hallelujah 127
5 Blackness without African Americans:
Check and Double Check and the Dialectics
of Cinematic Blackface 153
Conclusion: “The Required Negro Motif”
after the Transition to Sound 180
Notes 203
Index 241
vii

Acknowledgments
In bringing this book to completion, I am struck by the extent to which its
existence depends on the encouragement, insights, and examples offered by
supportive teachers, colleagues, friends, and family. Although it is difficult to
do so adequately or comprehensively, I would like to express my gratitude for
these many gifts.
I was fortunate to have encountered such rigorous, challenging, inspiring, and
kind teachers and mentors while a graduate student at Northwestern University.
I would like to thank especially Kevin Bell, Betsy Erkkila, Christine Froula, Jay
Grossman, Chris Lane, Susan Manning, and Jeffrey Masten. Chuck Kleinhans
deserves special thanks for a series of early conversations that helped me to navi-
gate the then-unfamiliar terrain of film studies. Perhaps the single most important
influence on this project and my critical sensibility more broadly has been Julia
Stern, whose sharp analytical eye and rhetorical acumen continue to provide
models for my own work. An ideal mentor, Julia devoted an extraordinary amount
of time and effort to reading and discussing my writing with me and provided pro-
fessional guidance and emotional support throughout my time at Northwestern.
I must also thank several bodies within the Northwestern community for
providing financial support essential to the progress of my work: the Weinberg
College of Arts and Sciences for awarding me a fellowship (2002–2003), the
Kaplan Center for the Humanities for making me a graduate affiliate (2003–
2004), and the Department of English for hiring me as a visiting assistant pro-
fessor (2004–2005). I thank the faculty and staff of the Department of English
at Rice University, who were extremely welcoming and generous in helping me
to learn the ropes during my year there as a visiting assistant professor. Thanks
in particular to Caroline Levander and Susan Wood.
I am most grateful to my colleagues in the Department of English and on
the Interdisciplinary Film Studies Committee at The Ohio State University
ix