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Transcription: {SPEAKER name="Harryette Miller Barton"}
[00:08:02]
uh, now in terms of the representation
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in the films themselves, do you, do you, think that the um
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films uh during this period, the ones that you were
[00:08:12]
involved with, as well as
[00:08:15]
um, any other black cast or black produced films,
[00:08:19]
do you think that they represented um
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or projected that attitude that was among
[00:08:27]
blacks during the period about
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sort of the preferences for skin color and so on?
[00:08:34]
{SILENCE}
{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
[00:08:38]
I--
{SILENCE}
[00:08:41]
I believe-- I believe there may have been some
[00:08:46]
prejudices against very dark-skinned women.
[00:08:50]
I believe that there was some prejudice.
[00:08:54]
{SPEAKER name="Harryette Miller Barton"}
Do you think this film still represents that in some way--
{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
and I think I think that everybody who made films
[00:08:59]
remember, I think it was very, very difficult for dark-skinned women unless they had
[00:09:04]
some unusual dramatic talent to really be
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given a preference to really get
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a job. It wasn't until
[00:09:16]
as far as I'm concerned, of course, by that time, I was no longer working in motion pictures, but I
[00:09:21]
don't believe it was until the early '60s
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[[car sound]] where uh filmmakers began to include
[00:09:32]
uh dark-skinned actresses
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in their films. Uh, I think the
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dark-skinned men were more acceptable than dark-skinned women
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were, and this is purely my personal opinion. I could be wrong
[00:09:49]
but from the films that I saw, the [[??]]
[00:09:54]
uh, which appeared in such magazines as Ebony and Al World [[car sound]]
[00:09:59]
and other magazines, which I later worked at when I left motion pictures
[00:10:03]
uh, I think uh it it- it began in the '60s
[00:10:10]
to give dark-skinned actresses
[00:10:16]
uh, an opportunity to work.
[00:10:20]
I believe that, for instance, Cicely Tyson, as fine an actress as she is,
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would have had a very difficult time
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being cast in a leading role in the 1940s or early '50s.
[00:10:35]
This is my personal opinion.
[00:10:38]
{SPEAKER name="Harryette Miller Barton"}
You suppose that that, um, well
[00:10:44]
prevalence of attitude um might have affected um
[00:10:47]
actresses sort of pursuing, dark-skinned women pursuing uh acting careers uh in film?
[00:10:57]
{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
Oh, I'm sure that it did! Not only in film but in the theater also
[00:11:02]
It's a peculiar, a peculiar, phenomenon uh
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that, uh, well, I don't say it's peculiar. It's a fact of life, really
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that uh dark-skinned people have difficulties in doing anything serious in the theater or in motion pictures
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if their skin was dark.
[00:11:26]
{SPEAKER name="Harryette Miller Barton"}
Hm [[positive]]
{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
Unless it was merely a character role
[00:11:31]
and of course, it handicapped no well it also handicapped
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any black actors,' negroes as they were called at that time, with the few exceptions such
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as Ethel Waters, who played more or less character roles,
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um um Lena Horn, who is a very beautiful woman who was almost
[00:11:55]
white-looking in her screen portrayals
[00:12:02]
uh, certainly, it was a handicap.
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[[car sound]] and then uh
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Many years ago uh, the storylines, the plots
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which were used in uh films as well as on stage
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uh did not present the negro in a serious manner.
[00:12:32]
It didn't have the stories uh with a strong dramatic line in which the person's character
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and, uh his well, adjustment to family life and life in America
[00:12:49]
those things with those kind of roles were just not written for black people
[00:12:55]
and even some, if I remember correctly, and I can't name any names at this time,
[00:13:01]
unfortunately, my memory isn't what it used to be there were
[00:13:05]
there were stories that uh were written really about, uh, the plot
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was really something taken from black livelihood and played by white actresses.