Oscar Micheaux to Charles W. Chesnutt, 4 December 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.
Charleston, W. Va.2
December 4, "21
Mr. Chas. W. Chesnutt,
Cleveland, Ohio
Dear sir:
Inclosed is check in payment of our note, due November 15th. The one due 15th of December will be paid Jan. 1st.3
Very truly, MICHEAUX FILM CORPORATION Oscar Micheaux PRESIDENTCorrespondent: 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. Oscar Micheaux's connections to Charleston, the capital of West Virginia, are unclear, but his lost 1924 film A Son of Satan was edited there, and in 1923 he was reported to be visiting West Virginia while in Roanoke, Virginia, where the Micheaux Film Corporation had a branch office. [back]
3. Chesnutt came to an arrangement regarding the movie-rights contract for his novel The House Behind the Cedars with Micheaux Film Corporation, which produced a series of five $100.00 promissory ("cognovit") notes, each due on the 15th of the month (September to January). These were paid with delays and incurred additional interest and penalties: the September note was paid on October 1; the October note around November 13; November's on December 4; and December's not until May 1922. The last note was not paid at all. Chesnutt declined several offers of stocks or bonds in the company in trade for the notes, and passed 25% of each payment on to Houghton Mifflin Company. [back]
