Forgotten Black films of 1930s and '40s are restored in Texas

Jet, Dec 15, 2003

Forgotten films discovered in an old warehouse 20 years ago now enjoy a new life across Texas, thanks to technology and an effort to preserve movies made for and by Blacks during the 1930s and '40s.

Southern Methodist University got a grant last year to digitize nine feature films and seven shorts it obtained in 1983, when then-professor G. William Jones got a call about some old films found in Tyler, a town approximately 90 miles southeast of Dallas.

The collection, known as the Tyler, Texas Black Film Collection, comes from about 400 films made in the early 20th century, including mysteries, comedies and vaudeville-like shorts, which gave Black audiences an alternative to the stereotypes portrayed in Hollywood productions.

Among the movies found were Juke Joint, about two down-and-out men who pose as theatrical experts to get free room and board for helping the landlord's daughter prepare for a beauty pageant, and Murder in Harlem, about a lawyer defending a man framed on a murder charge.

The films were restored and copied onto DVDs, and this fall the university distributed about 1,000 three-DVD box sets to about 900 school districts and Black museums statewide.