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Poverty Row was a slang term used in Hollywood from the 1920s through the 1950s to refer to a variety of small B movie studios. Although many of them were on today's Gower Street in Hollywood, the term did not necessarily refer to any specific physical location, but was rather a figurative catch-all for low-budget films produced by these lower-tier studios.
Astor Pictures was a motion picture distribution company in the United States from 1933 to 1963. It was founded by Robert M. Savini. The Astor specialised in re-releases of films, releasing independent films, and some of its own film production in the 1950s.
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, 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 and African American cast, and was produced and directed by African Americans. The film is also known as Flicker Up.
Girl On The Run is a 1953 ultra-low budget independent production, the plot of which drops a standard crime melodrama into the noirish, tawdry world of a carnival burlesque show. According to filmographer Michael Pitts, "Released by Astor Pictures late in 1953, Girl on the Run was filmed as The Hidden Woman. A Rose Tree Production, it opens and closes with scenes of a hysterically laughing mechanical clown and all its action takes place during one night at a tatty carnival."
Adrienne Dore was an American actress, model, and beauty pageant winner. She was first runner-up in the Miss America 1925 pageant, competing as Miss Los Angeles. Dore went on to have a modest career in motion pictures before retiring in 1934.
Gun Girls is an American crime film, written, edited and directed by Robert C. Dertano as well as being based on Dertrano's novel Girls on Parole. The film starred Jeanne Ferguson, Jacqueline Park, Eve Brent and Timothy Farrell and was released in 1957 by Astor Pictures.
It Happened in Harlem is an American musical comedy film directed by Bud Pollard and starring Chris Columbus, Phil Gomez, and Nicky O'Daniel. The film was partly shot at Smalls Paradise and released in 1945.
Anna Lee "Boots" Carroll was an American actress, based in Alabama, whose career included dozens of theaters productions, as well as several movies and television shows. Carroll was best known for her portrayal of Nurse Bradford in the 1968 film, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, alongside Alan Arkin. Arkin plays a deaf-mute in the film, while Carroll's Nurse Bradford provides the dialogue for his character in their mutual scenes. Carroll's additional film roles included Not of This Earth in 1957 and Marlowe in 1969.
Trem Carr (1891–1946) was an American film producer, closely associated with the low-budget filmmaking of Poverty Row. In 1931 he co-founded Monogram Pictures, which developed into one of the leading specialist producers of B pictures in Hollywood.
George Wiltshire was an actor in the United States. He appeared on stage, film, and television. He was known as a character actor. He portrays Ed Smalls, proprietor of famed Harlem nightclub Smalls Paradise the 1945 film It Happened in Harlem.
Brud Talbot was an American film actor, producer, director and writer.
Caldonia is a two reel American musical short film directed by William Forest Crouch and released by Astor Pictures in 1945. The film stars jazz musician Louis Jordan and was produced by his manager Berle Adams. The film includes four songs performed by Jordan and his band: "Caldonia", "Honey Child", "Tillie" and "Buzz Me", which were also released individually by the Soundies Distributing Corporation of America.
Ebony Parade is a 1947 American musical compilation film made from footage of African-American performers. The 3-reel film features jazz music from many famous acts with interstitial segments featuring Mantan Moreland as a comedic magician. Advertised as including 20 great stars, it was an Astor Pictures release. The National Museum of African American History and Culture has a poster for the film. Getty Images also has an image of a poster from the film.
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.
Frontier Justice is a 1935 black-and-white Western film directed by Robert F. McGowan starring Hoot Gibson based on the novel by Colonel George Brydges Rodney. Produced for Walter Futter's Diversion Pictures, it was rereleased by Grand National Pictures in 1937 and later reissued by Astor Pictures in the 1940s.
That Man of Mine is an American film released in 1946. Directed by Leonard Anderson, it featured an African-American cast.
Nicky O'Daniel was an American actress on stage and screen. In Caldonia (film) 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 film It Happened in Harlem. A soundie titled The Pollard Jump (1946) includes her dancing.
William Lewis Nolte (1889–1965) was a screenwriter and film director in the United States. He directed the musical film The Duke Is Tops released by Million Dollar Productions. It was re-released in 1943 under the title The Bronze Venus. He is credited as a production manager for the 1942 film Thunder River Feud and as a line producer on the 1947 film Shadow Valley. From 1949 until at least 1957 he was an assistant director on several films.
The Silver Bandit is a 1950 American musical western film directed by Elmer Clifton and starring Spade Cooley, Bob Gilbert and Ginny Jackson. It was originally shot in 1947 on a budget of $30,000, but wasn't picked up for distribution for three years. It was the final film of the veteran director Elmer Clifton.
"That Chick's Too Young to Fry" is a song written by Tommy Edwards and Jimmy Hilliard. It was performed by Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five, recorded in January 1946, and released on the Decca label. The record's "B" side was "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie".
References
- ↑ pp. 5-6 Pitts, Michael R. Astor Pictures: A Filmography and History of the Reissue King, 1933-1965 McFarland, 12 Apr 2019
- ↑ p. 6 Pitts, Michael R. Astor Pictures: A Filmography and History of the Reissue King, 1933-1965 McFarland, 12 Apr 2019
- ↑ pp. 46-47 Cripps, Thomas Making Movies Black: The Hollywood Message Movie from World War II to the Civil Rights Era Oxford University Press, 1993