MANTAN RUNS FOR MAYOR

Lobby Cards (8) (11" x 14")
Very Fine-
Toddy Pictures, 1946

Manan Runs for Mayor is a 1946 comedy film directed by Ted Toddy and stars Mantan Moreland, F.E. Miller, and Fred Gordon. A part-time courthouse janitor runs for mayor after the current mayor is arrested for drunk driving.

Four cards from the set have staple holes or tiny tears in the corners.

Throughout the first half of the 20th century, segregated theaters that catered to black audiences by showing "race films," typically featuring all-black casts often, but not always, made by black directors and primarily financed by white-owned businesses (much like the Blaxploitation films of the 1970s). The films of pioneering black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux found a home in these theaters, as did countless other movies that existed outside the mainstream. Stars like Herbert "The Bronze Buckaroo" Jeffries, Moms Mabley, Pigmeat Markham, and Mantan Moreland (whose bulging eyes made him instantly recognizable) were able to step out of the limited roles they found in typical Hollywood pictures as servants, sidekicks, or comic relief, in movies aimed at an audience that welcomed them. It's estimated that more than 500 race pictures were made during the years of segregated theaters by approximately 150 independent production companies. Sadly, fewer than 100 of these fascinating films still exist today.

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