Charles Henson to Charles W. Chesnutt, 27 May 1922
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MICHEAUX FILM CORPORATION1
PRODUCERS AND DISTRIBUTORS OF
HIGH CLASS NEGRO PHOTOPLAYS
3457 S. STATE ST. VICTORY 7712
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
[illustration]
It will be necessary for us to ask you to hold the check of June 1st until between the tenth and fifteenth of June, between which time we will send you a cashier's check to cover.2
This delay was necessitated by the lateness of the release on our new picture, "THE DUNGEON".3
Yours very truly, MICHEAUX FILM CORPORATION Chas Henson Auditor CH/BA.Correspondent: No additional information is available about Charles Henson, who wrote to Chesnutt twice in 1922, on behalf of the Micheaux Film Corporation, about mix-ups and delays in sending checks.
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. A May 1922 check for $104.26 was the last payment Chesnutt ever received from Micheaux Film Corporation for the film rights to The House Behind the Cedars. An unlocated letter by the Micheaux Film Corporation from April 19, 1922, acknowledged by Chesnutt on April 28, enclosed two checks, one to be cashed May 15, the other June 15, 1922. But the May 15 check (covering the December 1921 promissory note) bounced. Both checks were then replaced by new cashier's checks with interest by Micheaux auditor Charles Henson on May 17, 1922, but only the first of these (for $104.25) could be cashed. Chesnutt passed on 25% ($26.06) to Houghton Mifflin Company on May 24, 1922, as per the contractual agreement, and requested that Micheaux pay the protest fee for the bounced check in his letter of May 23, 1922, but there is no record that the company did so. Instead, Charles Henson's letter of May 27, 1922, asked for more time to cover the June cashier's check (covering the January 1922 promissory note). Chesnutt's repeated inquiries to the company after this date failed to produce a payment on the last note. [back]
3. The Micheaux Film Corporation's lost silent film The Dungeon, a crime drama, was filmed in the spring of 1922 in Roanoke, Virginia, and released in May of that year. It starred Shingzie Howard (1902–1992), who also played Rena in Micheaux's film version of Chesnutt's The House Behind the Cedars, filmed later the same year. [back]
