Black Gold ; promotional brochure or pressbook early African American cinema

First edition. 14 x 22 inches opened flat, (folded size 11 inches long and 3-1/2 inches wide and will be mailed folded size). 4 page multi-panel promotional brochure meant for mailing . With orange, blue, and black poster cover with photographs showing scenes from the movie with text as follows: Coming To This Theater. (This Is An Exact Reproduction Of Window Card). The Norman Film Studios . Presents Black Gold. Thrilling Epic Of The Oil Fields With All Colored Cast. One Of The True Stories Of Living Colored Examples. A Smashing Photo-Play Co-Starring Lawrence Criner and Kathryn Boyd, Original Lafayette Players. Steve Reynolds, "Peg" [,] Alfred Norcom, United States Marshal, L.B. Tatums and The Entire City Of Tatums, Okla.

The other three pages have many photographs from the film, tips on promoting the film, a letter from R.E. Norman to the cinema owner, and an article on making the picture in Tatums, Oklahoma which was founded by a Kentucky born "adventuresome colored man" who founded the town over thirty years before when Oklahoma was the Indian Territory. The article also speaks of John Crisp who brought in three producing oil wells and the troubles he had with crooked drilling contractors, which was the basis for the movie.

Some offsetting of type on right side of the coloured poster, from the blue type otherwise, very good condition.

"He (Norman) soon went into business for himself and by 1921 had made a number of short films as a traveling film producer. After 1921 Norman established himself and his company in Jacksonville, Florida, and began producing all black films. He made several of these "race" films in the 1920's and distributed them through the 1930's. Norman continued to be involved with the motion picture industry in one capacity or another until the mid 1950's. Among the films produced by Norman are Belle Starr (1912), The Man at the Throttle (1915), Sleepy Sam the Sleuth (1915), The Wrecker (1915), The Green Eyed Monster (1916 and 1920), Pro Patria (1916), The Love Bug (1920), The Crimson Skull (1921), The Bull Dogger (1921), Regeneration (1923), The Flying Ace (1926), and Black Gold (1928). quoted from Indiana University Archives, which holds the R.E. Norman papers.