The Very Last Laugh, Part 2

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You You You You You You You You You You You Chicago is one of the world's major film centers in the silent era It was the dream Factory tensile town flicker gulls long before Hollywood In the early years of filmmaking Chicago ground out movies for the whole world to enjoy they came from such studios as SNA celic polyscope America and the ebony film corporation the first black motion picture company Luther Pollack the founder of ebony recalls those days The movement picture centers if I think it led we had producers here and distributors Seemed to me like Chicago was an entire film industry and when he was 38 in 1916 Pollard had high hopes for his new company ebony And this young man was one of his cameraman Charlie David I was I'm a Chicago boy and I Started with SNA in 1908 and at that time one -fifth of the motion pictures were produced in Chicago regardless of what they say About how New York's led everything and started everything and Hollywood of course was unknown at that time Under banks of blazing Cooper Hewitt and arc lights the SNA company filmed melodramas Comedies And out in the summer sunshine on the back lot They filmed spectacles like grouse stark a six -reeler starring the world's most popular screen couple Francis X Bushman and Beverly Bane Or they hopped into company cars and went out on location Inside outside and hamming it up all around town was the most uninhibited of the SNA players Wallace Beery Before moving pictures grew more elaborate one -reelers were precious entertainment for the thousands of storefront theaters Early days of Chicago it have four subjects At 1 ,000 feet one reel the early studios protected their films from parroting by displaying trademarks in key scenes SNA's was an Indian head It was almost impossible to keep up with the demand for films as theater sprang up everywhere in 1908 They try to make a motion picture theater out of any place and in my neighborhood There was a friendly fish market and I knew some of the fellows and they knew I was in the picture business In a small way, I mean I was starting with SNA in their mind that was an authority so they asked me some questions about how to do it and I Told them that I'd help them out, but I'd like to be the operator So I said the first thing is get the fish market Smell like hell and that I couldn't smell anything like a theater and they had to do some scrubbing and they really did they The fish market and they scrubbed night and day and they bought a few chairs and a mediocre projector and Hit the open market for film and they were in business But I lost my job as an operator to some of the relatives and the whole family run the show and I was out While Charles David worked days at SNA in the lab back in 1908 and 1909 Luther Pollard was in advertising He was a crack copywriter His selling copy was responsible for moving carloads of motion picture projectors by mail when I was selected as advertising director to handle them the sale of The iconograph moving picture machines.

I of course had to sell them and I had to think of something so I Used the slogan moving picture in your own home and the sale of those Machines went like wildfire And while Pollard sold the iconograph with the slogan moving pictures in your own home Charles David lost his job at SNA.

You might wonder how I come to believe SNA Well, it was purely accidental I have always had a yen for being a son make for a ballplayer and this was Saturday and we worked all day Saturday in those days and our superintendent On the stall.

He was gonna time one of the films on the projector.

He went in the projector rejecting him with his secretary and He was in there Considerably longer than I thought he should be and I was kicking on the door and asked him if I could go home And I kicked so hard that finally came out red face and says you're fired By the time Pollard established the ebony film corporation in 1916 David was a skilled cameraman and he filmed a number of ebony comedies The stories were largely group efforts Someone had an idea and everyone worked it out Well, they were made from stories that originated from myself and from my Director maybe we had some help from the cameraman It's surprising how we get scripts and ideas in those days.

We had one of our one of our character actors a good man at that and he suggested a certain script about a prize fight and We more or less to you when we started it and it turned out to be one of our best productions The wildest silent ebony pantomime by far was mercy the mummy mumbo The action revolves around a professor his daughter her boyfriend and a mummy The professor having discovered the elixir of life puts an ad in the newspaper a suitable price will be paid for an Egyptian mummy In his own rooms the future son -in -law reads the professor's ad and cooks up a scheme plot To Egyptians read the professor's ad Oh Back to the scheme a mummy coffin is delivered A Future son -in -law calls the professor under an assumed name He goes out to find a front man I I I I I Mercy mummy mumbo Oh All the fun continued at Ebony through 1970 and as the world turned into 1918 a mischief got merrier the studio was running full tilt Most of the time the ebony hijinks occurred inside the hot studio But when summer came cast and crew headed for Ebony's outdoor stage up in, Wisconsin It was not only pleasant outdoors it was also good business One of my associates thought it would be a good idea to move the troop up in Wisconsin and make pictures so This studio was built And great many of the first bits Were produced there that was when? The Ebony Film Corporation started to move Everyone was curious they came to watch these were movie people blacks in the movies Onlookers applauded each new scene some brought picnic lunches It was something to remember Ebony in the summer of 1970 those sunlit days of laughter Early in 1918 Ebony advertised some of its new releases distributed by the General Film Company Some baby the comeback of Barnacle Bill good luck in old clothes Sam Robinson Ebony's lead comic streaked across the screen in a score of one realist never losing his expression of wonderment And Never did a pretty face cease to cause a faster pulse and a reaching out so to speak Here Sam Robinson is the inept employee of a head of a Chinese laundry played in yellow face by the marvelous deadpan fat man Ebony's Sam Jacks Every filmic trick the whole language of film is a trick of the century The actor is employed in these Ebony films including these graceful leaps out a window Here's how the fall was accomplished One shot shows the actor with most of his body out the window someone is holding his feet The camera stays in the same position and the actor is propped upside down against the fence But the two shots together and the fall is complete Ebony Even punctuated a smash over the head with impact marks inked on the negative While Ebony moved forward the rest of the movie business in Chicago slowed down In 1917 Seelig Chicago studio closed Scenery props and equipment went to the highest bidder The once busy back lot of S &A became a ghost town a Fire took the flimsy back lock houses and lack of business took the rest of S &A it too shut down George spool S &A's founder didn't give up he and the inventor John Bergeron Developed a new widescreen motion picture system utilizing 63 millimeter film they called it natural vision American the flying a flew out of the city on terracotta wings General films the distributor of Ebony's comedies went out of business Luther Pollard did not give up hope I didn't Feel that I have to close it up because the general film company Closed I figured something else and that's something else was the most famous black entertainer in America Bert Williams Bert Williams was always an elegant performer a pantomime artist singer lead comic in a number of all -black musicals and Star of the sick fell follies for years Bert Williams trademark was the song nobody He wrote the music Alex Rogers wrote the words for him Bert made a telling comment with that song While you were laughing you also felt like crying He was saying something about the incredible loneliness of people who were left out He talked this last verse When I try hard and scheme and plan to look as good as air I can Who says look at that handsome man? Nobody when all day long things go amiss and I go home to find some bliss Who hands to me? Kiss Nobody Never And I had an idea that I might interest Bird Williams in Ebony, so I went to New York With my associate And met Bert Williams For the first time I spent about three months with him Friday Interest him in joining Ebony Offered him a large sum of money Get him to sign the contract Because I understood for my backers That if I could get him on a contract I could get the financial Assistance to produce pictures with him But something happened on my way from New York to Chicago And that was the end of Bert William Bert had other commitments the sick felled follies and his own road shows Without Bert Williams Ebony to closed its doors.

I went back in the freelance advertising Working for Ebony was like working for the our gang comedies We were grown people who he had as much fun as kids The man who carried on at the Lufa Pollard was Oscar Michaud In his lifetime Michelle wrote Directed produced and distributed a total of 30 feature films and Lutha Pollard helped him get started He wrote a book called within our gates He lived in Sioux City, Iowa My sister lived there and He said to my sister that he'd like to make a movie picture that book and she helped him edit the book and She told him that she had a brother in Chicago that was engaged in the moving printer making business And he came here and he looked me up Now I rented him our studio And he produced that picture and I rented him the studio three or four times and he produced them but Those pictures were not for the general public They were intended for American Negro and a great many of them You might say racial It was Chicago weather that helped close down S &A and ceiling and American some extent ebony In Hollywood you just set up outdoors and the Sun would be there every day and Then you couldn't keep the best actors in Chicago with the snow and the wind Hollywood was without smog then Ebony Was there ever anything like it? Did you see the latest ebony comedy? I Ebony had the very last laugh as the silent pantomime went west

Identifier

F.2017-12-0003

Date Of Production

1976

Abstract

Part two of William Franklin Grisham's The Very Last Laugh, which documents the history of the first known African American film studio in the country, Ebony Studios (1914-1918), based in Chicago. The film features interviews with Luther J. Pollard (1878-1977), and is the only known footage of him on camera.

According to the established scholarship, Ebony Studios emerged from the embers of another company, Historical Feature Film Company, which was founded with the intention of produced animated cartoons and comedies featuring all Black casts, aimed for the general audience. In 1916, the company was purchased by the newly formed Ebony Film Corporation, which had white capital but employed an African American producer, Luther J. Pollard, as its president.

However, The Very Last Laugh presents another narrative, and indicates that Ebony was the sole brainchild of Pollard, who was not simply a figurehead but was also the founder of the studio. This would make Pollard the first known African American producer in film history.

The film also features interviews with his collaborator Charles David, who previously worked as a cinematographer at Essanay Films before joining Pollard at Ebony.

The Very Last Laugh is a documentary although it features a few "scripted" scenes set up as a way to narrate the history of Ebony Film Co. The film won an Emmy for Best Local Television Documentary in 1976.

Run Time

0:25:22

Format

16mm

Extent

938 feet

Color

Sound

Optical

Reel/Tape Number

1/1

Has Been Digitized?

Yes

Language Of Materials

English

Element

Distribution Print

Genre

Documentary

Form

Television specials

Subject

Motion picture production & direction
History
Chicago (Ill.)
African Americans

Related Collections

SERIES I: The Very Last Laugh

Related Places

North America ➜ United States ➜ Illinois ➜ Chicago

Main Credits

Grisham, William Franklin (is filmmaker)

Additional Credits

Grisham, William Franklin (is writer)

Participants And Performers

Pollard, Luther J. (is interviewee)

David, Charles (is interviewee)

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The Very Last Laugh, Part 2

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