(ENTERTAINMENT FILM) Promotional pamphlet for The Birth of

Sale 2663 - Lot 190

Price Realized: $ 5,500

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500

(ENTERTAINMENT--FILM.) Promotional pamphlet for "The Birth of a Race," produced in response to "Birth of a Nation." [8] pages, 8¾ x 7½ inches, folding down into original 8¾ x 3¾-inch illustrated wrappers; wrappers with moderate wear and coming detached. Chicago: Birth of a Race Photoplay Corporation, 1917

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Additional Details

In reaction to the popular 1915 Ku Klux Klan epic "Birth of a Nation," this ambitious film was planned in response. The producer was Emmett Jay Scott (best known as Booker T. Washington's right-hand man at the Tuskegee Institute), in conjunction with the Selig Polyscope Company. This pamphlet describes the project as "a Master Photoplay conceived in the spirit of truth and fairness and dedicated to the races and nationalities of the world." It includes endorsements from dozens of prominent civic and business leaders, and a 4-page synopsis of the project which addresses both artistic and financial concerns. The front wrapper is illustrated with a model of Thomas Ball's "Emancipation Memorial" of Lincoln freeing an enslaved man. The film grew to include a World War One subplot, and was released shortly after the end of the fighting in late 1918.

Stock certificates issued to finance the production have appeared on the market, but we have traced no other related material at auction, and do not find this pamphlet recorded in OCLC.