Evelyn Preer

nobody@ipernity.com (Kicha) — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 16:50:50 +0000

Kicha has posted:

As she appeared in a scene from Oscar Micheaux's film Homesteader. It was the first full length feature directed by a black film director. This was also the film debut of Ms. Preer. Unfortunately the film has been lost .. hopefully it will be discovered in someones attic in pristine condition.

Synopsis: The story of a Black pioneer's life as a South Dakota rancher. Out of loneliness, he marries the daughter of a vain Black clergyman, forsaking his true love, a Scottish woman, to avoid social stigma and trouble with the law. The marriage sours owing to interference by his hostile father-in-law. The rancher's wife goes insane and kills her father and herself. The authorities arrest the pioneer for both murders, but his first love hires detectives who prove his innocence. There is also a happy ending when it is revealed that the Scottish woman is in fact a light complected black woman thus clearing the way for them to be together.

Image: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture / Photographs and Prints Division

Scene from St. Louis Blues

nobody@ipernity.com (Kicha) — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 17:37:58 +0000

Kicha has posted:

Ruby Dee, as the sweet natured good girl (dressed in white), and Eartha Kitt, as the mean bad girl (dressed in black), in the movie St. Louis Blues.

The 1958 movie also starred: Nat "King" Cole, Pearl Bailey, Cab Calloway, Mahalia Jackson, and Ella Fitzgerald.

Plot -- The life of legendary bluesman W.C. Handy is highly dramatized in this tuneful biopic. The story opens as his father, a minister chastises his son for playing "the devil's music." Despite his father's admonitions, Handy is drawn to the blues. He is encouraged by two disparate women, one an earthy singer from New Orleans and the other a good-hearted girl from his hometown whose main concern is Handy's happiness. Stress causes Handy to go blind for a while, but eventually he regains his sight, becomes famous for his music, and wins the respect of his father. The highlight of the film involves the performance of Handy's music by some of the great blues and jazz singers of the 1950s including Cole, Calloway, Jackson, and Fitzgerald. Songs include "Hesitating Blues," "Chantez Les Bas," "Beale Street Blues," (W.C. Handy), "Careless Love" (based on folk music by Handy; lyrics by Spencer Williams, Martha Koenig), "Morning Star," "Way Down South Where the Blues Began," "Mr. Bayle," "Aunt Hagar's Blues" (Handy; lyrics by Tim Brymn), "They that Sow" (hymn), and "Going to See My Sarah" (spiritual). ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi.

Source: Brown Sugar: Eighty Years of American's Black Female Superstar by Donald Bogle

Photos, videos and docs of Kicha, with the keywords: "Film Scene"

Evelyn Preer

Scene from St. Louis Blues