Release Date: 8/21/1921
Genre: Drama
Rating: NR
Director: J.M. Simms
Studio: Progress Picture Association
Running Time: 75 mins.
B&W
Silent
Cast: John Cobb, Regina Cohee, Dr. A. Porter Davis, Lenore Jones, Alonzo Nixon, Regina Taylor
Details: According to information in the George P. Johnson Collection at the UCLA Special Collections Library, this was the first release of The Afro-American Film Exhibitors Co. of Kansas City, Missouri. An advertisement called the film “the first Negro production ever made in Kansas City” and stated, “All the cast in this production are Kansas City Negroes. All the scenes were taken about the city.” Charles H. Allen, the male lead, was the general manager and treasurer of the company. They planned a series of eight films that would be released in Central and South America, as well as in the U.S., and boasted of a distribution policy “that will enable it to overcome some of the difficulties usual to colored pictures.” Their second release was to be called The Human Devil.
There is no information available regarding the plot of this film.
An item in the 14 May 1922 Kansas City Kansan reported that a print of the film caught fire during a screening at Western University. The audience was evacuated, and only the film print was burned.
Source(s): TCM; IMDB; American Film Institute (AFI) catalog. Photo Source: Wiki Commons.