Synopses & Reviews
Oscar Micheaux was the Jackie Robinson of film, the black D. W. Griffith: a bigger-than-life American folk hero whose important life story is nearly forgotten today. Now, in a feat of historical investigation and vivid storytelling, one of our greatest film biographers takes on one of the most talented and complex figures in the history of American entertainment.
The son of freed slaves, Micheaux grew up in Metropolis, Illinois, then roamed America as a Pullman porter before making his first mark as a homesteader in South Dakota. Disaster and defeat there led him to forge a career publishing a successful series of autobiographical novels. Ever the entrepreneur, when Hollywood failed to bid high enough for film rights to his stories, he answered by forming his own film production company. Going on to produce or direct twenty-two silent and fifteen sound films in his lifetime, Micheaux became the king of the race cinema industry at a time when black-produced films had to scrounge for venues in a segregated society.
In this groundbreaking new biography, award-winning film historian Patrick McGilligan offers a vivid and fascinating portrait of this little-known pioneer. Part visionary, part raffish Barnum-like showman, Micheaux was both a maverick filmmaker and an inveterate hustler who used every weapon at his disposal to break the color barrier and thrive in a profession he helped to invent. He made a fortune and lost it again, and launched repeated con games that were followed by public arrests and bankruptcies. He eagerly took credit for the work of others--including his unsung-heroine wife. In his desperate later years, he even sunk to plagiarizing his final novel--adiscovery McGilligan reveals here for the first time.
In this searching exploration, McGilligan tracks down long-lost financial records, unpublished letters, and unmarked pauper's graves, pinpointing Micheaux's birthplace, his tangled personal life, and the circumstances of his tragic death.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.
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McGilligan does a fine job of reaffirming Micheauxs significance beyond the appreciation of cineastes. Publishers Weekly
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Praise for Alfred Hitchcock:“Magnificently exhaustive, absolutely definitive, marvelously magesterial…” Los Angeles Times Book Review
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“a lively, readable tale” New York Times Book Review
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“McGilligan deftly assembles the sterling research of scholars of early black filmmaking into an enormously moving and compelling account of a quixotic life defined by arduous toil and perpetual optimism.” DGA Quarterly
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Praise for Alfred Hitchcock:“Enthralling, scholarly, and candid.” Publishers Weekly
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Praise for Alfred Hitchcock:“Staggering… illuminating… The Master of Suspense finally gets and authoritative life.” Kirkus Reviews (starred)
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“An enormously moving and compelling account of a quixotic life defined by arduous toil and perpetual optimism.” Directors Guild Association Quarterly
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Praise for Alfred Hitchcock:“A hugely satisfying portrait of the artist.” Entertainment Weekly
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“a well researched, passionately felt and endlessly fascinating look at a singular American life.” Kirkus Reviews
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“McGilligan has made this incredible, half-forgotten life newly available to us all.” The Guardian
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“In the skilled hands of Patrick McGilligan, Oscar Micheauxs life story bristles and takes flight.” Pearl Bowser, author of Writing Himself into History: Oscar Micheaux, His Silent Films and His Audiences
Synopsis
Oscar Micheaux was the Jackie Robinson of film, the black D. W. Griffith—a bigger-than-life American folk hero whose important life story has been nearly forgotten today. The son of freed slaves, he roamed America as a Pullman porter before making his first mark as a homesteader in South Dakota—and going on from there to become the king of the "race cinema" industry, producing and/or directing nearly forty films during a time of Jim Crow segregation when African-American artists were not welcome in Hollywood.
In this groundbreaking new biography, award-winning film historian Patrick McGilligan offers a vivid and fascinating portrait of a true pioneer of American culture who was equal parts visionary, hustler, huckster, innovator, and raffish Barnum-like showman—and the first great African-American filmmaker.
About the Author
Patrick McGilligans biographies include the acclaimed Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only; the Edgar-nominated Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light; Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast; and George Cukor: A Double Life. The author of several New York Times Notable Books, he has also penned biographies of Clint Eastwood, Jack Nicholson, Robert Altman, and James Cagney, along with the oral history Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist (with Paul Buhle). McGilligan lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.