Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry, better known by the stage name Stepin Fetchit, was an American vaudevillian, comedian, and film actor of Jamaican and Bahamian descent, considered to be the first black actor to have a successful film career. His highest profile was during the 1930s in films and on stage, when his persona of Stepin Fetchit was billed as the "Laziest Man in the World".
Pinocchio is a 1940 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Loosely based on Carlo Collodi's 1883 Italian children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, it is the studio's second animated feature film, as well as the third animated film overall produced by an American film studio, after Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Fleischer Studios' Gulliver's Travels (1939). With the voices of Cliff Edwards, Dickie Jones, Christian Rub, Walter Catlett, Charles Judels, Evelyn Venable, and Frankie Darro, the film follows a wooden puppet, Pinocchio, who is created by an old woodcarver, Geppetto, and brought to life by a blue fairy. Wishing to become a real boy, Pinocchio must prove himself to be "brave, truthful, and unselfish." Along his journey, Pinocchio encounters several characters representing the temptations and consequences of wrongdoing, as a cricket named Jiminy, who takes the role of Pinocchio's conscience, attempts to guide him in matters of right and wrong.
Hester Street is a street in the Lower East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It stretches from Essex Street to Centre Street, with a discontinuity between Chrystie Street and Forsyth Street for Sara Delano Roosevelt Park. There is also a discontinuity at Allen Street, which was created in 2009 with the rebuilding of the Allen Street Mall. At Centre Street, Hester Street shifts about 100 feet (30 m) to the north and is called Howard Street to its far western terminus at Mercer Street.
Robert Beck, better known as Iceberg Slim, was an American pimp who later became a writer. Beck's 1967 memoir, Pimp: The Story of My Life sold very well, mainly among Black audiences. By 1973, it had been reprinted 19 times and had sold nearly 2 million copies. Pimp was eventually translated into German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, and Greek. He also wrote novels such as Trick Baby.
John Shaft is a fictional private investigator created by author/screenwriter Ernest Tidyman for the 1970 novel of the same name. He was portrayed by Richard Roundtree in the original 1971 film and in its four sequels—Shaft's Big Score!, Shaft in Africa, Shaft (2000) and Shaft (2019)—as well as in the seven 1973–74 Shaft television films. Samuel L. Jackson portrayed his son, named John Shaft II, in Shaft (2000) and Shaft (2019), and Jessie Usher portrayed the character's grandson in Shaft (2019). The blurb on the paperback on which the original film is based states Shaft is "Hotter than Bond, cooler than Bullitt."
Herbert A. Magidson was an American popular lyricist. His work was used in over 23 films and four Broadway revues. He won the first Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1934.
Sparkle is a 1976 American musical drama film directed by Sam O'Steen and released by Warner Bros. Pictures. With a plot inspired by the history of the Supremes, Sparkle is a period film set in Harlem, New York, during the late 1950s and early 1960s. It presents the story of a musical girl group that ends up breaking apart due to individual issues each member faces. This film not only "recreates the magic of a special period in American history, but it explores the effect of Harlem's musical and social culture on the rest of the world," as well as the linkages to black power.
Cleopatra Jones is a 1973 American blaxploitation film directed by Jack Starrett. Tamara Dobson stars as an undercover government agent who uses the day job of supermodel as her cover and an excuse to travel to exotic places. Bernie Casey, Shelley Winters and Antonio Fargas also feature. The film has been described as being primarily an action film, but also partially a comedy with a spoof tone.
Donald Goines was an African-American writer of urban fiction. His novels were deeply influenced by the work of Iceberg Slim.
Kiel Urban Mueller, known professionally as Kiel Martin, was an American actor best known for his role as Detective John "J. D." LaRue on the 1980s television police drama Hill Street Blues.
An iceberg is a large piece of ice that has broken off from a snow-formed glacier or ice shelf, and is floating in open water.
Mel Martin is an English actress.
Racial passing occurred when a person who was categorized as black in regard to their race in the United States of America, sought to be accepted or perceived ("passed") as a member of another racial group, usually white. Historically, the term has been used primarily in the United States to describe a black person, especially a Mulatto person who assimilated into the white majority to escape the legal and social conventions of racial segregation and discrimination. In the Antebellum South, passing as white was a temporary disguise used as a means of escaping slavery.
A Rage in Harlem is a 1991 American crime film directed by Bill Duke and loosely based on Chester Himes' novel A Rage in Harlem. The film stars Forest Whitaker, Danny Glover, Badja Djola, Robin Givens and Gregory Hines. Producer Stephen Woolley intended it to be a comedy film, and several reviewers have described it as such, but this categorization has been disputed by director Bill Duke.
The Payback Press was a specialist imprint of Canongate Books devoted to (initially) reprints of classic black crime novels, which later branched out into contemporary black fiction. Notable authors included Chester Himes and Clarence Cooper Jr and Iceberg Slim. As with Rebel Inc., after its successful foundation in the late 1990s, it was discontinued due to a financial crisis in its parent company.
Sied Chahrour, better known by his stage names Pittsburgh Slim and later as Slimmie and Slimmie Hendrix is an American rapper from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, of mixed Algerian and Mexican origins. Previously signed to Def Jam Recordings as Pittsburgh Slim, he is now signed to Snowballers Entertainment with his new adopted name Slimmie Hendrix.
Document Records is an independent record label, founded in Austria and now based in Scotland, that specializes in reissuing vintage blues and jazz. The company has been recognised by The Blues Foundation, being honoured with a Keeping the Blues Alive Award in 2018. Document Records is the only UK-based recipient of the award.
In US cinema, Blaxploitation is the film subgenre of action movie derived from the exploitation film genre in the early 1970s, consequent to the combined cultural momentum of the Black civil rights movement, the black power movement, and the Black Panther Party, political and sociological circumstances that facilitated Black artists reclaiming their power of the Representation of the Black ethnic identity in the arts. The term blaxploitation is a portmanteau of the words Black and exploitation, coined by Junius Griffin, president of the Beverly Hills–Hollywood branch of the NAACP in 1972. In criticizing the Hollywood portrayal of the multiracial society of the US, Griffin said that the blaxploitation genre was "proliferating offenses" to and against the Black community, by perpetuating racist stereotypes of inherent criminality.
Hustle & Flow is a 2005 American drama film written and directed by Craig Brewer. The film stars Terrence Howard as a Memphis hustler and pimp who dreams of becoming a rapper. The ensemble cast includes Anthony Anderson, Taryn Manning, Taraji P. Henson, Paula Jai Parker, Elise Neal, DJ Qualls and Ludacris. Produced by John Singleton and Stephanie Allain, the film tells the story of one man's struggle to turn his life around through music.
