The Colored Players (1926-1929)
The Colored Players Film Corporation was a silent film production company based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the early twentieth century. Though short-lived, it was able to add some much needed respectability to black film at the time. Sherman H. “Uncle Dud” Dudley was born in Texas in about 1872, and found some success in his early career in medicine and minstrel shows. When cinema arrived on the scene at the beginning of the 20th Century, he transitioned into vaudevillian and race movies. Though he became a bit of a celebrity, he was never satisfied with how the industry portrayed African Americans and therefore not particularly proud of his part in it. He had a vision to create a company that produced black films with more depth and more interesting characters for the audience (as well as for the actors portraying them). Dudley found a way to make his dream a reality when he met David Starkman in 1926, an owner of a black theatre who agreed that black film should transcend what had previously been offered to the public. Starkman was able to finance the Colored Players Film Corporation, also becoming head of its operations while Dudley became its … Continue reading The Colored Players (1926-1929)
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