Charles W. Chesnutt to William B. Pratt, 24 May 1922
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May 24, 1922.
Messrs. Houghton Mifflin Company,
4 Park Street,
Boston, Mass.
Attention Mr. W. B. Pratt,Manager Syndicate Bureau. Gentlemen:
Enclosed please find my check for $26.06, being twenty-five per cent. of amount collected1 from Micheaux Film Corporation2 for their note due December 15, 1921, for $100 and interest3 on film rights for "The House Behind the Cedars."4
The Micheaux people have promised to pay the note due January 15th on June 1st.5 When they remit I will remit to you.6
Yours very truly, CWC/FLCorrespondent: William Brace Pratt (1886–1961) was a White Bostonian whose mother was a daughter of Henry Oscar Houghton, co-founder of Houghton Mifflin Company. He graduated from Yale in 1906 and worked for Houghton Mifflin's Special Sales department from 1907 to 1929; as the manager of the syndicate bureau, he frequently correspondended with Chesnutt about the film rights to his works in the 1920s.
1. 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]
2. 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]
3. 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]
4. The House Behind the Cedars (Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 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]
5. Charles Henson at the Micheaux Film Corporation asked for another extension the following day; see letter to Chesnutt from May 27, 1922. The last (January) note was never paid. [back]
6. Between January and September 1921, Oscar Micheaux negotiated with Chesnutt to pay $500 in five installments for the film rights to Chesnutt's novel The House Behind the Cedars. This was a low sum for movie rights to a novel, but Chesnutt likely took into account that Black-produced films had low budgets. Ultimately, 25% (rather than the originally suggested 33%) of the money received went to Chesnutt's publisher, Houghton Mifflin Company. Several of the payments were delayed, and Chesnutt never received the final installment. Micheaux's film adaptation was released in December 1924. [back]
