Oscar Micheaux to Charles W. Chesnutt, 18 January 1921
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Micheaux Film Corporation
PRODUCERS & DISTRIBUTOR OF HIGH CLASS NEGRO FEATURE PHOTOPLAYS.1
538 SOUTH DEARBORN STREET
CHICAGO
January 18th.1921. Mr. Charles W. Chestnutt, Cleveland, Ohio. Dear Mr. Chestnutt
I had intended writing you several months ago to acknowledge receipt of your "Conjure Woman"2 and to say that while I found the same unusually interesting, owing to the nature of it divided as it is into a series of short stories, regret to advise that the same could not very well be filmed otherwise in a series of two reel comidies, which we are not specializing in at this time owing to the inability to receive any large rental fee, therefor. I dare say, however, that some time in the future I may be able to consider this volume more favorably.3
Your "House Behind the Cedars" which I have known of for a number of years,4 but had never read, was brought to my attention recently and on my return from New York where we have been and expect to during the year, to produce all of our pictures, and am pleased to report that after a carefull reading of the above stated volume, I am favorably impressed.
Before going further, however, permit me to say that while I consider this work available for a photoplay, in my opinion it will need to be handled, directed I should say, with the utmost care and the finest possible skill. Any bad direction, a poorly scenarioized adaptation would result in a good story being made into a bad picture. Please consider this very carefully. Any story that deals with the relation between these two races in the manner as portrayed in this book is, to say the least, a very delicate subject. Describing the posibility at this time with a view to adapting the same for the screen I will try herewith in brief to set forth the necessary changes that I consider practical and which would, from my experience and observation, result in the story being accepted and appreciated more thoroughly by those who would be most likely to see it, and whom in the realm of our business we must consider when contemplating a play which we are to offer them.5
First, you are no doubt aware that in the last few years the Negro race has risen almost in a unit against the use of the word nigger, coon, darky, etc. Understand me, for being a writer myself I find that being compelled to abstain from the use of these words, a very great deal of originalty is lost in portraying the lives of the race to which we belong.
Micheaux Film Corporation
PRODUCERS & DISTRIBUTOR OF HIGHCLASS NEGRO FEATURE PHOTOPLAYS. 538 SOUTH DEARBORN STREET CHICAGO 2.
But public sentiment is stronger than even originalty, and, regardless of how much I may object to having or using a word which every one know would likely be used in a conversation or a controversy the Negroes of this country will not stand for any of these words flashed on the screen. Of course I am aware that twenty years have elapsed since the writing of this story and no way seek to criticise it therefor. My effort is to have you appreciate the suggestions I will now make.
To begin with I find that as a photoplay it should begin in the middle of the story about the chapter "Under the Old Regime" continuing from there with the first episode ending at page 174. This is a very strong start and will have to be handled very carefully and with defind intelligence. Fading out at this point, a title reading "Ten years later", would bring us up to where the story now starts. From there on I find parts that you have described in places only mildly that I would intensify very greatly, while other more carefully drawn out I would in many instances be compelled to omit or change altogether, for this reason "The Race Tournament" would require a great many people dressed in costumes of that period which would entail an expense so large that the limited amount of returns which we can look forward to would not justify. The story with its time shortly after the Civil War as a whole, will require such minute detailing to avoid the camera catching some modern incident that crowds and too many street scenes must be avoided, etc., etc., in order to avoid unpleasant criticism.
I would make the man Frank more intelligent at least towards the end of the story permitting him to study and improve himself for using the language as he does in the story he would not in any way be obvious as a lover or that the girl could have more than passing respect for him. Colored people whom we must depend upon as a bulwark for our business, as I view them orare at this time very much incapable of appreciating immortality, the which the ending of this story is a wonderful version of. I have been trying to visualize just how they would leave the theatre after the close of a performance. You have created a wonderful heroine in Rena -- but for her to die in the end of the story as therein detailed, I have grave doubts as to the outcome. To work the ending up, and as above described to play Frank up stronger and while good as he is portrayed, unselfish and devoted, but in the meantime for permit hoim to have become sufficiently intelligent, such a reasonably courageous fellow that during Rena's illness she would be able to see and appreciate in him the wonderful man he really was and to have her heart go out to him in the end as his reward, would, I am sure, in so far as our people are concerned send them out of the theatre with this story lingering in their minds, with a feeling that all good must triumph in the end, and with the words "Oh' want that just wonderful'" instead of a gloomy
Micheaux Film Corporation
PRODUCERS & DISTRIBUTOR OF HIGH
CLASS NEGRO FEATURE
PHOTOPLAYS.
538 SOUTH DEARBORN STREET
CHICAGO
3.
muttering and a possible knocking with their invisible hammers, would result much more profitably from a financial point of view.6
Having sought now to make it clear as to changes that I would reserve the right to make in the event of an agreement I am prepared and have concluded to purchase the film rights to this novel with a view to producing it if nothing happens to change my present plans, starting about the latter May or early June. If, therefore, you are agreeable to accepting such changes as I may see fit to incorporate and which are only to make the story more acceptable to a peculiar clientele, I am willing to pay for all screen rights the sum of $500.00 payable, a portion down on acceptance say $25.00, $75.00 in thirty days thereafter or say March 1st., the balance June 15th., or on date of release should it be filmed and released before that time which is not likely, since I have two other pictures to make before I will reach this.7 And, besides, it is necessary to film this in the summer as you will realize. In the event of agreement the present title will be retained and the photoplay from same approximating most likely seven reels long would be advertised about so "Oscar Micheaux presents 'The House Behind the Cedars' a story of the south by Charles W. Chestnut, featuring Evelyn Preer".8
I am leaving for New York before you will receive this so please reply to me directly at 115 W. 135th., sending a copy of your letter to this office at the same time.
Very truly, MICHEAUX FILM CORP. Oscar Micheaux CCF/OMP.S. Under separate cover am forwarding you a copy of scenariao for our next production that you may have an idea just how a work is adapted for the screen. I do not suggest that you attempt to write a scenariao to any of your work for the reason that this a knowledge that can only be acquired by being in a studio as detailed or technical artist or assistant director on a series of productions.
Correspondent: Oscar Micheaux (1884–1951) was a Black American writer and film director known for his films about race and racism. Originally from Illinois, he began his career as a novelist and later founded the Micheaux Film and Book Company (ultimately renamed Micheaux Film Corporation) in 1919. He first adapted his early novel The Homesteader to film, and directed and produced over three dozen films in the 1920s and 30s, typically writing the scripts as well as overseeing the low-budget production and distribution of the films. Several of his films were loosely based on the works of Black authors, including Chesnutt. After the demise of his company in 1940, Micheaux founded a publishing business and wrote several more novels.
1. The Micheaux Film Corporation began in 1919 as the Micheaux Book and Film Company. Founded by Black novelist, film director, and film producer Oscar Micheaux (1884–1951), it was based in Chicago, with offices in New York City and Roanoke, Virginia, and became the most successful Black-owned film company of the 20th century. In the 1920s and 30s, Micheaux produced at least three dozen films featuring Black actors and themes he believed to be of particular interest to Black audiences, three of them based loosely on Chesnutt's work. In 1928, the company voluntarily filed for bankruptcy, reorganized, and survived until 1940. Most of the films are lost. [back]
2. Chesnutt's collection of short stories, The Conjure Woman, was published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company in March 1899. [back]
3. When the Micheaux Film Corporation first negotiated with Chesnutt in 1920, Oscar Micheaux (1884–1951) seemed interested in adapting portions of Chesnutt's short story collection The Conjure Woman before settling on an adaptation of The House Behind the Cedars. Oscar and Swan E. Micheaux brought up the collection frequently in the fall of 1921, but no précis, script, or treatment by Chesnutt has been located. It is unclear whether Micheaux's lost 1926 film The Conjure Woman, starring Evelyn Preer (1896–1932), was an unauthorized adaptation, since no plot description has survived and he sometimes used known titles to draw attention to unrelated film plots. [back]
4. The House Behind the Cedars (Houghton Mifflin, 1900) was Chesnutt's first published novel. House evolved over more than a decade from a short story, "Rena Walden," first drafted in the late 1880s. It was the only novel by Chesnutt to be serialized, once in 1900-1901 in the monthly Self Culture and again in 1921-1922 in the Black weekly Chicago Defender. House was also his only novel to be adapted to film (1924 and 1932). [back]
5. The lost 1924 silent film version of The House Behind the Cedars, produced by the Micheaux Film Corporation with a script by Oscar Micheaux (1884–1951), was very loosely based on Chesnutt's novel. It was filmed in 1923 in Roanoke, Virginia, and New York City, starring the Black actors Shingzie Howard (1902–1992) as Rena, Lawrence Chenault (1877–1943) as her White suitor, and Douglass Griffin as Frank Fowler. It premiered at Philadelphia’s Royal Theater in December 1924 and was shown in the spring of 1925 in Black movie theaters nationwide. Chesnutt saw it, but it is not known when. Micheaux later remade the film with sound under the title Veiled Aristocrats (1932) without notifying Chesnutt. [back]
6. Chesnutt copied the following paragraph verbatim in his January 20, 1921 letter to William B. Pratt at Houghton Mifflin's Syndicate Bureau. [back]
7. Between January and September 1921, Oscar Micheaux negotiated with Chesnutt to pay $500 in five installments for the film rights to Chesnutt's novel The House Behind the Cedars. This was a low sum for movie rights to a novel, but Chesnutt likely took into account that Black-produced films had low budgets. Ultimately, 25% (rather than the originally suggested 33%) of the money received went to Chesnutt's publisher, Houghton Mifflin Company. Several of the payments were delayed, and Chesnutt never received the final installment. Micheaux's film adaptation was released in December 1924. [back]
8. Evelyn Preer (1896–1932) was a Black film and stage actor and singer whose career began with a major role in The Homesteader (1919), the first movie of the Micheaux Corporation. She was part of the Lafayette Players, a pioneering Black repertory troupe, and on film played the lead in many Micheaux productions between 1919 and 1926, including in the lost 1926 film possibly based on The Conjure Woman. She was considered for, but ultimately not cast in, the 1924 movie adaptation of The House Behind the Cedars. [back]
