Between 1908 and 1918, Florida had been the winter
headquarters to the film industry. Jacksonville seemed to be the Florida
hub with more than 30 silent film studios located there during that
time.
Hollywood, California, had emerged as the major movie
production center by 1920, when Richard E. Norman purchased the bankrupt
Eagle Film Studios complex in Arlington. Just across the river from
Jacksonville, Arlington is now part of Jacksonville. Norman, who was
white, is remembered for making a string of silent movies starring
black actors. Between 1920 and 1928 at least eight features were produced
at Norman Studios in Arlington.
Richard Norman was a traveling filmmaker for a decade
before returning home to Florida. For several years the Springfield,
Florida native earned a living by producing small comedies for Midwestern
audiences starring their own local talent. In 1916 he achieved wide
release for a full-length movie, The Green-Eyed Monster. It was a
popular drama of romance and deception set in the railroad industry.
Perhaps taking his cue from several black filmmakers who were finding
success, Norman remade the film with an all-black cast.
It is not clear why Norman began making films for
African American audiences. Most notable is that he portrayed his
subjects with respect. Black actors in films of the day generally
were reduced to playing stock characters-comical, stereotypical, and
unflattering. The "race" movies, as they were known, that
Norman wrote and produced, like those of his black contemporaries
such as the Lincoln Motion Picture Company and Oscar Micheaux, were
different. Instead of degrading roles, these were positive stories
featuring black actors described in Norman's publicity as "splendidly
assuming different roles."
Besides attracting many accomplished stage actors
to perform in his films, Norman featured blacks who were not actors
but talented in their field. The Bull Dogger (1921), a western shot
in Oklahoma, gave eastern and southern black audiences an opportunity
to see black cowboys in action, including the famous rodeo rider Bill
Pickett. The Flying Ace (1926), an action-romance filmed in the Arlington
studios, played off the interest in contemporary black aviators such
as Eugene Bullard and Bessie Coleman. Sadly, Coleman, the first black
woman licensed pilot, famous for her "heart thrilling stunts,"
made news in April of that year when she died in a fiery crash over
Jacksonville.
Most of Norman's full-length movies now are lost.
His son, Richard Norman, Jr., has donated photographs, records, and
other memorabilia to several institutions. Photographs and some original
equipment from the studio are on display at Jacksonville's Museum
of Science & History. Records and other materials from the Norman
Studios were given to the Black Film Center and Archive at Indiana
University. Some resources, including a rare copy of The Flying Ace,
reside at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
As a note:
Last April, the city purchased four of the original
Norman Studios buildings. The structures that once housed sets, props,
a 1905-vintage generator, and other moviemaking facilities have seen
other uses since Norman's death. The original darkroom, screening
and projection rooms, and walk-in safe for storing films can still
be seen in the old production building. Water scenes were filmed in
a swimming pool now buried on the site.
