Charles W. Chesnutt to Robert Levy, 17 February 1921
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February 17, 1921.
Mr. Robert Levy,
Care Reol Productions Corporation,1
126-130 West 46th Street,
New York City.
Dear Sir:-
Replying to yours of February 15th, I should be very glad to see you while you are in Cleveland. If you come on Sunday, call me by telephone at my residence, Garfield 507-J, on the Bell Telephone, and I will arrange to meet you wherever you say. My house number is 9719 Lamont Avenue, N. E.2
Should you happen to be in town any other day than Sunday, I can be reached at my office, 1106 Williamson Building, corner Euclid Avenue and the Public Square, telephone, Main 2164.3
I hope by that time you will have read the book and that you may like it.4 It is full of dramatic interest and should furnish material for a stirring motion picture.
Yours very truly,Correspondent: Robert Levy (1888–1959) was a producer and director in Black theater and film in the 1920s. He was the manager of the Lafayette Theater in Harlem from 1916 until 1919, and founded REOL Productions, a film company dedicated to making films for Black audiences. A White Jewish immigrant from Britain, he was at times criticized for not making space for Black leadership in his theater and films.
1. REOL Productions was a film company founded by Robert Levy (1888–1959). Like the Micheaux Film Corporation, its direct rival, REOL sought to produce films based on the writings of Black writers and aimed at Black audiences. The company was incorporated in May of 1920 and released twelve silent films in 1921 and 1922, before being dissolved in 1924. Negotiations over the film rights to Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition did not ultimately result in a contract. [back]
2. After relocating to Cleveland in 1884, Chesnutt's family lived in a series of rental houses (on Wilcutt Avenue, Ashland Avenue, and Florence Street), and then built a home to Chesnutt's plans at 64 Brenton Street, where they lived from May 1889 until May 1904. At that time, he purchased the house at 9719 Lamont Avenue, which continued to be owned by the Chesnutt family after his death in 1932 (see Helen Chesnutt, Charles Waddell Chesnutt: Pioneer of the Color Line [Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1952], 37–39, 48 and 184–185). [back]
3. The Williamson Building, occupied by many prominent Cleveland firms, was a lavish 17-story office building with marble floors and walls on Public Square in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. It stood on the site of the homestead of Samuel Williamson (1776–1834), and in these years was owned by the Williamson Corporation, which was founded by his son Samuel Williamson, Jr. (1808–1884), a railroad-company director, banker, and lawyer whose own son, Judge Samuel E. Williamson (1844–1903) provided Chesnutt with his legal training in the 1880s. Chesnutt's stenography and law practice had three different offices (1005, 1105, and 1106) in the building between 1901 and 1924. [back]
4. In a letter to Chesnutt on February 3, 1921, Levy had requested a copy of Chesnutt's novel The Marrow of Tradition, saying that he was interested in turning the book into a film. Chesnutt replied on February 7, sending Levy a copy but asking that it be returned. Levy acknowledged receipt of the book on February 15, but said he had not yet had time to read it. [back]
