Heading: (African American)
Author:
Title: Set of eight lobby cards for the film Regeneration featuring an "All Colored Cast", produced by the Norman Film Mfg. Co., Jacksonville, Florida
Place Published: Chicago
Publisher:Western Photogravure Co.
Date Published: [1923]
Description:

Eight lobby cards with photogravure illustrations of scenes from the movie, plus the original envelope, with some text. 28x35.5 cm. (11x13¾").

Regeneration, "A Romance of the South Seas," featured Stella Mayo, "Sensational Colored Screen Beauty," and an all black cast, in "Six Smashing Reels." The plot is summarized as "A girl, a man, cast upon an uninhabited island, a Garden of Eden, then the Serpent..." Richard E. Norman was an independent filmmaker who wrote, directed, filmed, edited, marketed and distributed "race films" in the teens and twenties, beginning with Sleepy Sam, the Sleuth, in 1915. These films, starring exclusively African American actors in non- stereotypical roles, carved Norman, a Caucasian Southerner, a niche in filmmaking history largely unknown. OCLC/WorldCat lists a poster (2 copies), a 4-page leaflet (3 copies), and a broadside (1 copy) relating to the movie Regeneration, but lists no copies of this set of lobby cards. Added to the lot are two copies of a 4-page publicity piece for Norman films, including The Crimson Skull, The Green Eyed Monster, The Bull-Dogger (featuring rodeo champion Bill Pickett), and The Love Bug.

The envelope with wear and separation around the edges; one card with a small corner chip; very good or better condition, quite rare.