AFRICAN-AMERICAN ACTRESSES WERE ALL OVER HOLLYWOOD in the 20th century, yet their names are rarely spoken. While most of us know the interesting and inspiring story of Hattie McDaniel, there were other Black woman taking on the very white – and very male – Hollywood scene, too. Today you’re going to get to know a little bit about one of these multi-talented women. Her name is Evelyn Preer, a woman who fellow actor Paul Robeson called, “the race’s most famous and versatile actress.” She was a true movie star and yet many of us have never heard of her.
Evelyn Preer starred in numerous films, many directed by the famous Oscar Micheaux, including his renowned feature, Within Our Gates. Doing most of her work in the 1920s and 30s, she had a reputation as an actor who could play most any part – but would not always agree to do so. She was clearly an independent, strong woman, yet much of the writing about Ms. Preer identifies her as “Micheaux’s actress” or in some other similarly possessive form. She may have been made famous by the director’s well-known films, but Preer was working hard – and successfully – as an actress before he “discovered” her. “Miss Preer could play any role assigned her and always did so cheerfully and without argument,” Micheaux said, according to the Kennedy Center. Apparently Mr. Micheaux appreciated the actress’ good behavior.
(Now, let me say that Micheaux was an incredibly important person in the history of Black film. He made movies with all-Black casts that eschewed most every stereotypical role assigned to Black actors – and African Americans, more generally – in a time where that was not the norm. I am only wanting to emphasize here that Ms. Preer was not quietly waiting to be plucked out of oblivion. She was busy acting, traveling the country, and Micheaux was wise enough to recognize her talent when he saw it).
Evelyn Preer started her career in Chicago, with the famous Black acting troupe the Lafayette Players who originated in New York City. The group was founded by yet another pioneering African-American woman by the way, Anita Bush. Preer’s family was a part of the Great Migration, having moved to Chicago with her mother and three siblings from Mississippi in 1898, at the age of two. She was attracted to acting early, some say spurred on by her mother’s street preaching which she often participated in as a child. Ultimately Preer traveled with several acting troupes, first in high school with the group Lady American Minstrels. When she was nineteen, club owner Frank Preer saw her sing in a show and apparently fell in love with her. They were married. And Mr. Preer worked hard to promote his new wife, including to his friend, the director Oscar Micheaux.
Evelyn Preer ended up making eleven films with Micheaux and her reputation as a sort of activist artist is due in part to the themes of these films. Micheaux made films expressly countering the multitude of discriminatory and dismissive stories around African American history and culture that were being promoted in movie theaters at that time. Preer’s unwillingness to compromise herself by participating in anything that she found demeaning only added to her identity as a “race woman.” At least once she was asked to blacken her light skin in order to appear more “Black.” And another time, it was suggested that in order to secure more roles she leave the business altogether, for a short while, then return and pass for white.
In Hollywood, Preer signed with Paramount, made three short films, and then ended up walking out of her contract because the studio was asking her to perform roles that she did not find representative of her race. Her reputation continued to precede her. And yet there is not that much in the form of primary sources to share her story of these battles in her own words or images.
In 1928 Evelyn Preer performed in the play Rain, based on a short story by Somerset Maugham. It was staged at Los Angeles’ Lincoln Theater – often referred to as the Apollo of the west. The Lincoln was located in the famous Central Avenue Black arts district that I have previously written about. Described as a “New York style” production, Preer played the starring role of Sadie Thompson, seen as a major breakthrough for a Black actress. The play was also staged by the famous Lafayette Players, that group that originated in New York. This acting troupe is a major memory in a lot African-American oral histories surrounding Los Angeles’ Great Migration era.
NB: For the record, Google’s “AI Overview” emphatically states: “The stageplay Rain did not directly play in Los Angeles in 1928, as its legendary original star, Jeanne Eagels, had finished her multi-year theatrical run and transitioned to vaudeville and film.” Eagels is, need I say, a white actress. Yet, multiple reliable sources have this play being staged in 1928 in Los Angeles, starring Ms. Preer. It turns out, when I added “African-American” to my search our friendly robot corrected itself to let me know that indeed there was a play staged by this name. (Though it says it was staged at the Alhambra Theater – a downtown movie theater – and not the famous Lincoln Theater where much Black entrainment occurred beginning in 1927. And this, my friends, is how we come to lose so much African-American history – and why AI is only making things worse. AI scrapes what’s already there. Nothing there? Wrong information? AI reports what it finds – or doesn’t.
Okay, back to the regularly scheduled program…
As is so often the case, this Black woman had multiple talents and wore many hats. During her time as an actress in Los Angeles, she also sang with Duke Ellington, making recordings under the name “Hotsy” Jarvis. Here she is singing “If You Can’t Hold the Man You Love” with the Duke Ellington Band in 1927.
And here’s a slightly confusing album cover I found via Spotify. (Not sure why Ms. McDaniel is featured in her “Mammy” outfit for this; and also her name does not have an “s” at the end).
Here’s another Spotify cover:
While working in Los Angeles, Evelyn Preer became pregnant with her daughter, Edeve, perhaps a combination of her name and her new husband’s, Edward Thompson, also an actor. Her daughter is now known as Sister/Dr. Francesca Thompson. She lost her mother when she was just seven months old. There are varying stories concerning Preer’s death, some attributing it to giving birth. But her daughter insists that Preer died of pneumonia due to prolonged exposure to bad weather.
There is no star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame for Evelyn Preer. And most of the information about her comes from either her daughter’s work or writings focused on the director Oscar Micheaux. So I offer up a little bit of a biography of this incredibly talented woman of deep integrity. We really must do better when it comes to the knowledge of our country’s African-American history. And using AI is clearly not the answer.