Sale 2503 - Printed & Manuscript African Americana, March 28, 2019

255 c   (FILM.) Stock certificate for the Lincoln Motion Picture Company. Engraved Document Signed by Clarence A. Brooks as secretary and James Thomas Smith as president, certificate #163 for 100 shares issued to Samuel Berry. Double-sided, 8 1 / 4 x 10 3 / 4 inches; folds, minimal wear; embossed company seal. Los Angeles, CA, 18 April 1921 [1,500/2,500] The Lincoln Motion Picture Company was the first African-American film production company, and the first company to specialize in films for the market. This certificate is signed by the company’s secretary Clarence A. Brooks (1896-1969), an actor who also appeared in many of the company’s films. Provenance: R.M. Smythe auction, 14 September 2001, lot 1092; we have traced no other examples at auction. 254 c   (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 [300/400] 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.” 255 FILM LOTS 254 - 260

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