Title supplied by cataloger. Rolland Joseph 'Speedy' Curtis was born in Louisiana in 1922. After serving three years in the Marines during World War II, he and his wife, Gloria, relocated from New Orleans to Los Angeles in 1946. Curtis served four years with the Los Angeles Police Department, but resigned from the force in order to pursue both a Bachelor's and Master's degree from USC. He later became involved in city politics, as an associate of Sam Yorty, and later a field deputy to City Council members Billy Mills and Tom Bradley. He was briefly director of the Model Cities program in 1973. Rolland J. Curtis died in his home in 1979, the victim of a homicide. An affordable housing complex on Exposition Blvd. near Vermont Ave. was named in his honor in 1981, along with a nearby street and park.; Elected in 1963, Billy G. Mills (1929-) was the third African American to serve on the Los Angeles City Council, a seat he held until 1974 when he became a Los Angeles Superior Court judge. He was the first African American chairman of the Democratic County Central Committee, winning over fellow Councilman Tom Bradley by just three votes.; Founded by Nick and Edna Stewart in 1950, the Ebony Showcase Theater was the first African American owned theater in Los Angeles, located at 4718-26 W. Washington Blvd. Nick Stewart, who was most famous for his portrayal of "Lightnin'" in the TV show Amos and Andy, and voicing Brer Rabbit in Disney's Song of the South, sought to build a place where African Americans could act in roles outside of the traditional stereotypes. The theater has been credited for starting the career of many young black actors, including Michelle Nichols, John Amos and Isabel Sanford. It was demolished in 1998.; In the production depicted in this photograph, African American actors satirize the practice of blackface minstrel by wearing white makeup to impersonate white supremacists. Blackface minstrel is the practice of white people wearing black makeup, wooly wigs, and eccentric costumes in order to caricature and demean African Americans for entertainment. Dating back to the 1830s, actors in blackface would perform songs and dances supposedly learned from happy-go-lucky slaves on the plantation. L-R front row: Councilmember Billy Mills; Nick Stewart, co-founder of the Ebony Showcase Theater; unidentified man; Councilmember Gilbert Lindsay; Dianne Jackson (?); Carolyn Booker (?); Isabel Sanford partially visible behind Lindsay, and Board of Public Works Commissioner Alerico Ortega along with the cast and special guests take photo after the show "Day of Absence" at the Ebony Showcase Theater located at 4720 W. Washington Boulevard in Los Angeles. "Day of Absence" was performed with "Happy Ending," both one-act satirical comedies, written by playwright Douglas Turner Ward, directed by Hal Dewindt, and produced by Nick and Edna Stewart. Photograph circa 1967. See images 00053402 and 00123301 through 00123305 for additional photos in this series.
Type
image
Format
1 negative : safety ; 10 x 13 cm. Photographic safety negatives
Mills, Billy G Lindsay, Gilbert Moore, Juanita,--1914-2014 Sanford, Isabel,--1917-2004 Stewart, Nick,--1910-2000 Stewart, Edna Ortega, Alerico D Ebony Showcase Theater (Los Angeles, Calif.) Los Angeles (Calif.).--Board of Public Works--Employees African American men Men African American women Women City council members Actors Actresses Acting Theater performances Theater productions Theater Minstrel shows Costumes Lost architecture Los Angeles (Calif.)
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