Release Date: 1921/1922
Silent
Black & White
Genre: Western
Director: Richard E. Norman
Studio(s): Norman Film Manufacturing Company
Running Time: 50 mins.
Cast: Bill Pickett, Bennie Turpin, Anita Bush, Steve Reynolds
Details: The Bull-Dogger was a feature-length Western starring real-life African American cowboy Bill Pickett.
An excerpt from the Exhibitor’s Herald, states “A virile story of the golden west, featuring Bill Pickett, the Black hero of the Mexican bull ring, in death defying feats of courage and skill, such as wild horse racing, roping and tying wild steers. The picture also includes fancy and trick riding by Black cowboys and cowgirls and bull dogging and throwing with their teeth, the wildest steers on the Mexican border. This is the first feature picture of its kind, and proves conclusively that the Black cowboy is capable of doing anything the white cowboy does.” – excerpt from the Exhibitor’s Herald.
This film is considered lost, only fragments survive.
Notes: The film was produced by Norman Film Manufacturing Company, a Jacksonville, FL based company headed by Richard E. Norman, a white filmmaker who catered to black audiences. Shooting took place in and around Wellington, Okmulgee, Oklahoma City and Boley, Oklahoma, as noted in the February 27, 1922 Vicksburg Evening Post, which advertised screenings that day and the next at the Princess Theatre in Vicksburg, MS. An item in the same issue noted that Boley, OK, was an “all-colored city.”
An article in the February 1997 Texas Monthly stated that Bill Pickett was fifty years old at the time of production. Publicity for The Bull-Dogger quoted U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt on the film’s star: “Bill Pickett’s name will go down in Western history as being one of the best trained ropers and riders the West has produced.” Sources: daarac.org; tcm.com; American Film Institute catalog; Photo Sources: daarac.org; Wikipedia.
Movie Clip:
Fearing that his secret will be discovered, Nelson urges Graves to pose as a Spaniard, but Graves refuses. Finally Nelson agrees to make Graves his private secretary if he will remain quiet about Nelson’s true race. Graves accepts, though he feels contempt for Nelson. Deeply affected by seeing Graves again, Nelson pays a visit to Graves’ sister Elinor, who was his childhood sweetheart. Elinor is cold to him, angered by his denial of his own people. When a representative of the Santos Company, a competitor who is trying to put the Brazilian-American Coffee Syndicate out of business, offers Nelson a bribe to destroy some contracts that could ruin the company, Nelson indignantly refuses. Their conversation is overheard by Beauregard Stuart, Nelson’s co-worker who was vexed that Nelson had received the promotion to general manager rather than him. That night, Graves overhears Stuart make a deal to get the contracts for the Santos representative. 
As Stuart is about to take the contracts from the company safe, Graves attacks him, and during their struggle, retrieves the contracts. After Graves runs off, Nelson returns to the office, and Stuart mistakes him for his attacker, then accuses him of the theft. The next morning, as Stuart is telling their boss, Lionel Weathering, that Nelson stole the contracts, Elinor arrives with the contracts and a letter from Graves, which proves Stuart’s guilt. Nelson, extremely grateful for Elinor and Graves’ loyalty, finally informs his boss that he has been passing for white. Weathering assures Nelson that it is the quality and not the color of a man that counts, and Nelson asks Elinor for her hand in marriage, once again proud to be black.
Black Cinema Connection 