Swan E. Micheaux to Charles W. Chesnutt, 18 February 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
February 18th., 1921.
Mr. Chas. W. Chesnutt,
1106 Williamson Bldg.,
Cleveland, Ohio.
Dear Sir:
We have been waiting for a contract from you or your publishers2 for the story of "The House Behind the Cedars".3
We are ready to accept the proposition as stated by Mr. Oscar Micheaux4 in his letter to you of January 29th. We will pay the $100.00 on receipt of the contract, the $400.00 balance due the 15th of June.5 We will not film until August.
Trusting an early reply to this communication, believe us to be
Sincerely and cordiallyyours, MICHEAUX FILM CORP. Per S. E. Micheaux Sec'y & Treas. CCF/SM
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. In the postscript of a letter to Chesnutt from January 29, 1921, Oscar Micheaux requested that Chesnutt ask his publisher to prepare the contract. Chesnutt overlooked this until he received a follow-up from Swan E. Micheaux on February 18, 1821, prompting Chesnutt to redress this with the Micheaux Corporation on February 19 and with William B. Pratt of Houghton Mifflin. In his letter to Chesnutt on March 3, 1921, Pratt enclosed a letter of the same date to Swan E. Micheaux, in which he had included the contract. The contract itself has not been located. [back]
3. 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]
4. 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. [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]
