Session 6 Saturday April 18, 2020
2:00pm - 4:00pm
Black Emperor of Broadway 95 min
Charles Gilpin begins his career in minstrel shows in the early 1900's. He struggles to find serious work as an actor, but there are very few parts available. He finally arrives in New York and becomes a star of the all black Lafayette Players in Harlem. A Broadway gig in 'Abraham Lincoln' gets him in front of Eugene O'Neill, who is breaking all the rules of traditional theater. He casts Gilpin as the lead in 'Emperor Jones', a play about an ex-Pullman porter turned leader of a small island country. It's O'Neill's first commercial success and it makes both men famous. But Gilpin has been uncomfortable with the language of the film, especially the free use of the 'N' word. When he starts changing the lines of the play, O'Neill fires him and replaces him with Paul Robeson, and Gilpin is ruined.