Swan E. Micheaux to Charles W. Chesnutt, 24 September 1921
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MICHEAUX FILM CORPORATION1
PRODUCERS & DISTRIBUTORS OF
HIGH CLASS NEGRO PHOTOPLAYS
538 SOUTH DEARBORN STREET
CHICAGO
FOREIGN DISTRIBUTION BY
JOSEPH P. LAMY
NEW YORK LONDON PARIS
OSCAR MICHEAUX, PRES
W. R. COWAN, VICE PRES
S. E. MICHEAUX, SECY. & TREAS
September 24, 1921.
Mr. Charles W. Chesnutt,
1106 Williamson Building,
Cleveland, Ohio.
Dear Sir:-
On receipt of your letter of September 23rd, we are enclosing herewith a check for $2.31, protest fee on your note. We noted after the notes had been made that they should have been payable at our bank in Chicago.
The check that I sent you will be O. K. if you deposit it in your bank October 1st, as I have taken particular care to see that the necessary funds will be in the bank.
We thank you for the compliment of "THE GUNSAULUS MYSTERY",2 and to show you that we are going to do our best to make the "HOUSE BEHIND THE CEDARS" properly,3 we are issuing $30,000 worth of gold notes bearing interest of 8% payable October 1st and April 1st, due October 1st, 1926. We intend to use this or rather the largest portion of this money to produce the "HOUSE BEHIND THE CEDARS". We wonder if it would be of interest to you to take one or two of these hundred dollar notes, which are first lien on the assets of the corporation, which pay interest of $4.00 each six months, in part payment for the notes you are now holding.
At any rate, we are bending every effort to take care of your notes, and we thank you for your consideration, and we trust that you will find time to write a story especially for us, as we are in need of good material.
Very truly yours, MICHEAUX FILM CORPORATION S. E. Micheaux SM/BA.Correspondent: Swan Emerson Micheaux (1896–1975) was Oscar Micheaux's younger brother and served as secretary, treasurer, and booking manager of the Micheaux Film Corporation from 1920 to 1927. He was suspected of financial mismanagement and forced to resign in 1928.
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. The Gunsaulus Mystery was a Micheaux Film Corporation movie released in the spring of 1921. It was based on the murder trial and lynching of a Jewish factory superintendent, Leo Frank (1884–1915), in which a Black janitor was involved as an accomplice. [back]
3. 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]
