Feb 28, 2002 - Sale 1926

Sale 1926 - Lot 166

Price Realized: $ 978
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
ONE OF THE EARLIEST BLACK MOVIE COMPANIES(FILM.) The Birth of a Race Photoplay Corporation, Certificate for 10 shares of stock in the Corporation. Standard engraved certificate, 8x11 inches. Np, 1918
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Emmett J. Scott, best known for his book Scott's Official History of the American Negro in the World War (Naperville, IL, 1919), formed the Birth of a Race Film Company in 1917 with a capital stock of $1,000,000. The company undertook one of the largest stock-raising promotions ever, signing up approximately 7000 shareholders for a total of $140,000. The title reveals the intent of the film as an answer to D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation. The producers had originally intended the film to be based on Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery, however so many changes were made in the script that the final product was not only unrecoginizable, but no longer had "race" as its theme.
For a copy of his book, see lot 234.<