Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only: The Life of America's First Black Filmmaker [Hardcover]

Patrick McGilligan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 12, 2007

Masterful film biographer Patrick McGilligan brings to life the 20th century's greatest unknown director: The complex visionary who pioneered African American cinema, yet died penniless and forgotten. Oscar Micheaux was the Jackie Robinson of film, the black D. W. Griffith: a bigger-than-life American folk hero. Early on he was inspired by Jack London to write fiction, and began an entrepreneurial career successfully publishing a series of his own autobiographical novels. In 1919, he formed his own film production company after Hollywood failed to bid high enough for film rights to his stories, he went on to produce or direct twenty-two silent and fifteen sound films in his lifetime. Now, in a feat of historical investigation and vivid storytelling, one of our greatest film biographers takes on one of the greatest and most complex figures in the history of American entertainment. In this searching exploration, McGilligan tracks down long-lost financial records, unpublished letters, and unmarked pauper's graves, pinpointing his birthplace, his tangled personal life, the circumstances of his tragic death. The result is an epic that bridges a fascinating period in American history, and offers lessons for anyone who would understand the role of black America in forming the culture of our time.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At a time when Hollywood was so white that conditions would have had to be improved one hundredfold before it could even qualify as Jim Crow, Micheaux (1884–1951) was forced to pursue his creative ambitions as an independent filmmaker in the race picture market. McGilligan, the author of several acclaimed biographies of film directors (George Cukor: A Double Life), returns again and again to the image of Micheaux as a lone wolf, churning out two or three pictures a year at his peak while barely managing to stay ahead of creditors. And it wasn't just the all-black casts that put his films outside the mainstream; the stories often ran afoul of censors and critics for their uncompromising portrayals of contemporary African-American society. McGilligan sketches a crucial portrait of his subject's life before motion pictures, including an attempt to work a South Dakota homestead and a failed marriage that would provide the impulse for much of his creative output. The story isn't always as detailed as readers might like, but that's due to the limited available historical record. McGilligan does a fine job of reaffirming Micheaux's significance beyond the appreciation of cineastes.
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From Booklist

The author of George Cukor (1991) and Alfred Hitchcock (2003) here limns a far less renowned but equally compelling figure: Oscar Micheaux, foremost director of race films, featuring all-black casts and aimed at black audiences during the era of segregation. After stints as a Pullman porter and homestead farmer, Micheaux, the son of freed slaves, penned autobiographical novels. When Hollywood wouldn't buy his stories, he took up filmmaking in 1919. The quality of his efforts was restricted by financial constraints and the limitations of his talents (McGilligan implies he was more skilled at marketing movies than at making them), yet they shed valuable light on the harsh realities of African American life. Despite thorough research, gaps remain in McGilligan's account. But then, two-thirds of Micheaux's 40-plus films are lost, and the rest survive only as truncated by censorship. Micheaux's career began to fizzle, along with race films, in the late 1930s, and he died in obscurity in 1951. Rediscovered decades later, he is now considered, as McGilligan puts it, the Jackie Robinson of American film. Flagg, Gordon

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1 edition (June 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060731397
• ISBN-13: 978-0060731397
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #513,273 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #45 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Movie Directors

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars McGilligan does it again!, June 20, 2007

By 

BMT (Brooklyn, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only: The Life of America's First Black Filmmaker (Hardcover)

Having successfully chronicled such outsiders behind the camera as Cukor and Lang, celebs with secrets like Eastwood and Nicholson, and iconic geniuses like Hitchcock, I must say that I was surprised when I picked up this latest from the master film historian becuase I knew absolutetly nothing about the book's subject, a deficiency I am afraid that I share with the vast majority of American film-goers.
Now thanks to McGilligan's mastery I a aware of the "great and only" Oscar Micheaux who seems to have gotten the short shrift of American History in much the same manner as Crispus Attucks and Danile Hale Williams.
McGilligan charts the almost unchartable as this self-made man moves from porter to homesteader to author to film-maker, mixing the economics and art of the early film industry in an effort to supply entertainment and Art to an audience neglected by the major studios.
Filled with documentation, numerous name walk-ons, and insightful criticisms one is left with only one question after reading this book : how could Oscar Micheaux have been so neglected by both the public eye and history? ... and the fact that that question is raised is all to the credit of McGilligan's work.
BRAVO Patrick McGilligan - you've done it again!
Please try to write faster.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book about a great man, June 23, 2007

By 

Martin J. Keenan (Great Bend, KS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only: The Life of America's First Black Filmmaker (Hardcover)

McGilligen's "deep background" research pays off as his prose brings life to the mysterious life of Oscar Micheaux. McGilligen's knowledge of film history and movie directors brings historical context and makes Micheaux's accomplishments seem all the more amazing. Paced like a novel, the book is sprinkled liberally with Micheaux's own words, and really seems to capture the man. I certainly hope this book introduces Micheaux to a new generation of readers.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a Great Book on a Great Black Pioneer Film-maker, June 24, 2007

By 

A customer "mistermaxxx" (usa) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only: The Life of America's First Black Filmmaker (Hardcover)

Oscar Micheaux was a Ground-breaking Film-Maker who paved the way for the Likes of Melvoin Van Peoples,Ossie Davis Jr, Gordon Parks,Spike Lee, John Singleton and other Highly Creative African-American film-Makers that carried on the tradition that was set by Micheaux. Patrick Mcgilligan does a Great job at speaking on the Independence of Oscar Micheaux's creativity. a great job of talking and speaking on Micheaux's Creativity. this Book is a Great introduction for a New Generation just discovering the Great works of Oscar Micheaux. a Must read and have.