Charlene B. Regester – författare

Nine actresses, from Madame Sul-Te-Wan in Birth of a Nation (1915) to Ethel Waters in Member of the Wedding (1952), are profiled in African American Actresses. Charlene Regester poses questions about prevailing racial politics, on-screen and off-screen identities, and black stardom and white stardom. She reveals how these women fought for their roles as well as what they compromised (or didn't compromise). Regester repositions these actresses to highlight their contributions to cinema in the first half of the 20th century, taking an informed theoretical, historical, and critical approach.

For the first half of the twentieth century, the best coverage of blacks in entertainment--especially the developing motion picture industry--was in the newspapers published and circulated by the African American community. This annotated bibliography adds to the first volume with easy access to entertainment coverage in two more of the most influential black newspapers during that time: the Pittsburgh Courier and the California Eagle. These papers were selected for their wide circulation, proximity to the two major American geographical centers for film production, and their high quality coverage of entertainment. The chronological arrangement allows the reader to trace developments in entertainment from the early days of motion pictures to mid-century. Quotations from the articles offer a taste of each newspaper's style, and extensive indexing provides quick access to names, titles, and subjects, making the book an invaluable aid to researchers.