Leab, D. J. "All-Colored"-But Not Much Different: Films Made for Negro Ghetto Audiences, 1913-1928. Phylon [0031-8906] 36.3 321-339. 3rd Qtr., 1975

Leab discusses the representation of blacks in film during the period from 1913-1928 and the audience that were the targets of such representations. This discussion of spectatorship and black representation in film is relevant to the context in which the Colored Players Film Corporation of Philadelphia worked during the second half of the 1920s. By Elissa Stern

Canby, Vincent. ‘Scar of Shame,’ a Black Pioneer Film, at Whitney. The New York times [0362-4331] (March 18, 1976).

This article summarizes the Colored Players Film Corporation’s 1927 film The Scar of Shame and reviews a 1976 screening of the film at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, providing an example of the place the company’s work has taken in the discourse of film history. By Elissa Stern

Fraser, Gerald C.  Two Weekends of Black Film Classics at Symphony Space ...  The New York times [0362-4331] (Nov 30, 1979).

This article announces a 1979 screening of the Colored Players Film Corporation of Philadelphia’s 1927 film The Scar of Shame in association with a screening of Oscar Micheaux’s Body and Soul(1925), briefly summarizing the two films and the context of their production.  These are billed as “Black Film Classics” providing an example of the place the work of the Colored Players has come to hold in film historical discourse.  By Elissa Stern

Elmore Theater. Pittsburgh Courier, 10A. Aug 6, 1927. [Cited in Oscar Micheaux and his circle : African-American filmmaking and race cinema of the silent era / Pearl Bowser, Jane Gaines, and Charles Musser editors and curators. [0253339944] Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c2001.]

Advertises a film by the Colored Players Film Corporation of Philadelphia entitled Children of Fate, with the interesting misprint “Children of Hate” as mentioned in Musser (2001). Cites the film as the “most talked-of movie of the year” and “The Greatest Colored Picture Ever.” By Elissa Stern

Black Film Series.  The New York times [0362-4331] (March 21, 1979).

This advertisement announces a 1970 screening of the Colored Players Film Corporation’s Ten Nights in a Barroom (1926) at the Jewish Museum in New York, providing an example of how their work has engaged in inter-ethnic discourse within film history.  By Elissa Stern

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Kalinak, Kathryn. Kathryn Kalinak Responds to Jane Gaines’ “The Scar of Shame: Skin Color and Caste in Black Silent Melodrama." Cinema journal [0009-7101] 27.2 54-56. Summer 1987.

Kalinak responds briefly to Gaines’ social and historical analysis of the context in which The Scar of Shame (1927) was produced and screened. She calls for an analysis of the portrayal of black female sexuality in the film. By Elissa Stern

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Bowser, P. & Spence, L. Oscar Micheaux’s Body and Soul and the Burden of Representation. Cinema journal [0009-7101] 39.3 3-29. Spring 2000.

This article provides a good discussion of film production in the context of stratification within black urban communities at a time contemporary with the production of the Colored Players Film Corporation.

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Gaines, Jane. The Scar of Shame: Skin Color and Caste in Black Silent Melodrama. Cinema journal [0009-7101] 27.2 54-56. Summer 1987.

Gaines analyzes issues of aesthetics and spectatorship surrounding the 1927 Colored Players Film Corporation’s 1927 film The Scar of Shame. She notes that the portrayals of black figures in the film are specific to a particular historical moment and are “haunted by white society” and a pervasive class consciousness among the black community (p. 5). She addresses the political views of the owners of the company in reference to those portrayed in the film citing the influence of a racist society as a cause for the melodramatic “stylistic excess” in the film (p. 16). By Elissa Stern

Goldwyn, R. (1974, November 17). The Scar of Shame: Why the Fuss over this Old, Made-in-Philadelphia, Silent Black Film.  Sunday Bulletin, Philadelphia Bulletin, p. 16.  [Cited in Oscar Micheaux and his circle : African-American filmmaking and race cinema of the silent era / Pearl Bowser, Jane Gaines, and Charles Musser editors and curators. [0253339944] Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c2001.278-85.]

By Elissa Stern  

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Cripps, Thomas.  Thomas Cripps Responds to Jane Gaines.  Cinema journal [0009-7101] 27.2 56-59.  Winter 1988.

Cripps responds to Jane Gaines’ analysis of The Scar of Shame, praising her application of melodramatic cinema and literature theory to black film, but calls for increased attention to the black audience and its modes of spectatorship in 1920s America.  By Elissa Stern