All-American News was a film production company in the U.S. bringing war propaganda newsreels and entertainment films to African American audiences. [1] [2]
Emmanuel M. Glucksman was a film industry veteran who produced All-American News films for African American audiences. [3] He was paired with young African American filmmaker William D. Alexander, who worked on the newsreel production team, narrated, and did interviews, and Claude Barnett, an experienced journalist who also helped produce the films. [4] Josh Binney directed some of the films.
The Library of Congress has a collection of All-American newsreels and films. [5]
Chicago After Dark is a 23 minute American comedy film from 1946. It was directed by Josh Binney. [6] [7] A poster for the film advertised it as "An All-American Streamlined Feature" with "Lollypop Jones and a cast of all colored stars." [6] The Museum of the Moving Image has a lobby card from the film. [8] It was an All-American News production. [9]
The film is part of the Black Film Center collection at Indiana University. [10] In 2000, Chicago After Dark featured at the Harlem Week Black Film Festival; according to the festival, it was the film's first showing in forty years. [11] The plot description read, "A lady escapes from the 'nut' house in this comedy classic." [11]
Lucky Gamblers is a 1946 American action comedy short film. It was advertised as having an "all-colored cast of stars". [13] It was an All-American News production, directed by Josh Binney. [14]
Jonelle R. Allen is an American actress, singer, and dancer. Beginning her professional career in the late 1960s, Allen has co-starred in films, Broadway productions, and television. In 1972, Allen was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in the musical Two Gentlemen of Verona. She appeared in films such as Come Back Charleston Blue (1972) and The River Niger (1976) and was a regular cast member in television series Generations (1989–1991) and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993–1998).
William D. Alexander was an American filmmaker. He made U.S. government-sponsored newsreels for African American audiences. He later established his own production company, Alexander Productions, in New York City and became a film producer.
Rhythm in a Riff is a 1947 medium length musical film produced by William D. Alexander and directed by Leonard Anderson. The film stars Billy Eckstine and his band performing as well as Ann Baker, Hortense Allen Jordan, Sarah Harris, and Emmett "Babe" Wallace. The film is extant. The film was.made in New York City. It was released by Astor Pictures. The film was targeted to am African American audience, features an African American cast, and was produced and directed by African Americans. The film is also known as Flicker Up.
Boarding House Blues is a 1948 American musical race film directed by Josh Binney which featured the first starring film role by Moms Mabley. It was the penultimate feature film of All-American News, a company that made newsreels about black Americans.
Sybil Lewis was an actress in the United States. An African American, she appeared in several films including musicals during the 1940s. She appeared in African American films and Hollywood pictures. She had starring roles in several African American films including Lucky Gamblers and Am I Guilty? and portrayed smaller roles including as a maid in Hollywood films. She also had a leading role in Broken Strings (film) in 1940.
Harold "Josh" Binney was an actor, film producer, film company executive, and film director in the United States. He worked as an actor before establishing the Florida Film Company in Jacksonville, Florida in 1918 and produced and producing their films through his Harold J. Binney Productions division. He moved on to Canada and then Sonoma, California.
The Joint is Jumping is a musical comedy film from 1949. A "race film" with an African American cast of performers, it was one of several such films produced by the All-American News film company and directed by Josh Binney. It was written by Hal Seeger. The 4-reel film was previewed in the Chicago Defender October 16, 1948.
Leonard Anderson was an American film editor and film director, and he co-owned a film production company. Anderson's short films of African-American musical acts include footage of Anna Mae Winburn with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, Lucky Millinder and his orchestra, and Henri Woode.
Nicky O'Daniel was an American actress on stage and screen. In the short film Caldonia she portrays the title character, a possessive girlfriend who convinces her man not to go to Hollywood for a film production but to stay New York City. She was one of the performers featured in the 1945 short film It Happened in Harlem. A soundie titled The Pollard Jump (1946) includes her dancing.
George Randol (1895–1973) was an actor, screenwriter, director, and producer of films in the United States. In 1938 he was honored as an influential film executive in a newspaper writeup of the "Negro" film industry.
Alfred N. Sack was an American businessperson, newspaper publisher and the proprietor of film distribution, production, and the theater-owning business Sack Amusements in the United States.. He collaborated with Spencer Williams to make films with Black casts. Sack Amusement Enterprises was the leading distributor of this type of film between 1920 and 1950.
One Dark Night is an American film released in 1939. Also known as Night Club Girl. It was directed by Leo C. Popkin. It was produced by Harry M. Popkin. The film features an African American cast including Mantan Moreland in a dramatic role.
Gang Smashers, also released as Gun Moll, is an American film released in 1938. It features an African American cast. Leo C. Popkin directed the Million Dollar Productions film from a screenplay by Ralph Cooper. The University of South Carolina libraries have an 8-page pressbook for the film. Nina Mae McKinney stars in the film a thriller about the Harlem underworld and racketeering.
Maceo Bruce Sheffield was a police detective and an actor in American films. He worked in Los Angeles as a policeman before acting and assisting in the production of films with African American casts. He was also a stuntman and pilot. He portrayed a swindler in Lucky Ghost as Dr. Brutus Blake in the sequel to Mr. Washington Goes to Town. He was the associate producer of both Lucky Ghost and Mr. Washington Goes to Town.
Am I Guilty? is a 1940 American film directed by Samuel Neufeld for the Supreme Pictures Corporation. The film's producer A. W. Hackel, who had founded Supreme Pictures, planned a series of films featuring black casts, but Am I Guilty? was the only one to be released. The screenplay was cowritten by Earle Snell and George Wallace Sayre based on a story by Sherman Lowe.
Harlem Hotshots is an American short film from 1940 produced by Sack Amusements. The 20 minute film is a musical. One poster for the film includes a skyline of buildings and street sign for Lenox Avenue and 125th Street. The film was reissued in 1986 as part of Jazz Classics, No. 110; Harlem Harmonies Volume 1, 1940–1945.
Midnight Menace is a short American musical film released in 1946. It was produced by All-American News and Al Sack. Josh Binney directed. The plot involves a Voodoo practitioner making dead bodies appear around Lollypop Jones. The film features songs by Fats Waller and Andy Razaf. An alternative description of the plot says the film is about a Voodoo practitioner hypnotizing a man's wife and using her in his stage show.
Vivienne Baber, sometimes credited as Vivian or Vivianne, was an American actress. She had a starring role in the 1932 film The Black King.
Milton Woods was an actor. He was in several films. In 1946, Newsweek described him as the "colored Basil Rathbone". In 1951, Jet reported that he directed of the American Negro Repertory Theater, touring the country in a trailer.
Ernest Howard Culbertson, also known as E. H. Culbertson and Howard Culbertson, was an American newsreel editor, journalist, playwright, and screenwriter. Educated in Washington D. C., Culbertson began his career working for William Randolph Hearst as a features writer for The Washington Times. A pioneer in newsreel journalism, he was appointed head of the features department for William Fox's newly created Fox News in 1919; the organization that invented the newsreel. He later worked as a newsreel editor for Universal Newsreel. As a dramatist he is best known for the play Goat Alley which was first staged on Broadway in 1921 and later revived in 1927. He also wrote screenplays for films made by Pathé Exchange and Paramount Pictures, and was a writer for the 1937 CBS Radio program Living Dramas of the Bible.