Oscar Micheaux: The Great And Only - Plot & Excerpts
The armory had a seating capacity of eight thousand, and in half-page newspaper advertisements Micheaux promised a film as monumental as the facility: a “Mammoth Photoplay…destined to mark a new epoch in the achievements of the Darker Races.” Micheaux’s name was set in large type, his photograph included along with the principal players. “Every Race man and woman should cast aside their skepticism regarding the Negro’s ability as a motion picture star,” said the ads, “and go and see [the film], not only for the absorbing interest obtaining herein, but as an appreciation of those finer arts which no race can ignore and hope to obtain a higher plane of thought and action.” The premiere, held on February 20, 1919, was just the kind of road show-style gala Micheaux had envisioned—and it was packed. An orchestra played music composed especially for the film by Dave Peyton, a jazz bandleader who was also a Chicago Defender columnist; the celebrated tenor George R. Garner Jr.
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