(FILM) Stock certificate for the Birth of a Race Photoplay C

Sale 2503 - Lot 254

Price Realized: $ 219

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

Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400

(FILM.) Stock certificate for the Birth of a Race Photoplay Corporation. Engraved Document Signed by the company's secretary and president, certificate #5283 for 4 shares issued to Henrietta Eggert. Double-sided, 8 1/4 x 10 3/4 inches; folds, minimal wear; embossed company seal. Np, 9 March 1918

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The film Birth of a Race was originally conceived in 1915 by an aide to Booker T. Washington. The goal was to counter the overt racism of the recent Klan epic Birth of a Nation. The film began shooting a saga of racial uplift, but eventually white investors took control of the project, threw out most of the footage, and re-wrote the film to eliminate the racial angle altogether. It somehow became a World War One film about a German-American family--and a complete disaster from both a critical and financial perspective. with--a 1922 form letter from the Securities Realization Company, pronouncing the certificate worthless and asserting "no doubt that fraud was committed in the sale of the stock."