Clarence Muse was an African American vaudevillian, actor, singer, screenwriter, director, composer, and lawyer. Muse was the first African American to "star" in a film. He acted for more than sixty years, and appeared in more than 200 movies. Page 215 of The Official California Negro Directory: A West Coast Directory, 1942-1943 with portraits and captions for Norman O. Houston, S. P. Johnson and Clarence Muse. S. P. Johnson was a director of the Conner-Johnson Mortuary. Norman O. Houston was the president of the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company, at one time the largest black-owned business west of the Mississippi. He was the son of a pioneer California family, grew up in Oakland, and was a graduate of the University of California Berkeley. Houston was a lieutenant in World War I and was a captain of the California state guard, reserve.
Type
image
Identifier
uclalsc_1889_b16_f03_003.tif ark:/21198/z18640j4
Subject
African American businesspeople Insurance executives African American actors Houston, Norman O. (Norman Oliver), 1893-1981 Muse, Clarence Johnson, S. P. (Simon Peter), 1875-1951
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