Joseph Outen

Rastus Johnson, a happy-go-lucky coon, after eating a large meal, lies down on the dock to take a nap. While he is slumbering three roughs happen along and see him, and knowing a sea captain who is in need of men to fill out his c...

Arthur Hotaling

Rastus Among the Zulus

a rare &quot;coloured comedy&quot;

This is a sadly rare survivor of Sigmund Lubin&apos;s series of &quot;coloured comedies&quot;, featuring all-black or largely black casts made between 1913 and 1918 although there seems to have been a pilot, Rastus in Zululand, in 1910 which has a very similar story to this films and may have starred the same actor. The first official &quot;coloured comedy&quot; was The Zulu King of 1913 and thereafter they appeared at the rate of two per month until autumn 1915 although Lubin continued to produce films featuring black casts as late as 1918.

Many featured the black vaudevillian team John and Mattie Edwards but at least two of them featured the young actor who appears in this 1913 film, Joseph Outen. Even if the films and the roles are a shade caricatural, it is great to see black actors at this period given the chance to perform and Lubin is much to be commended for the initiative, even if his motives weer purely mercenary. The films proved extremely successful particularly in the South. Lubin was therefore the first producer to put black actors under contract and the earliest of these films precede the better known films made by black comic star Bert Williams for Biograph (1916 but also the never finished Lime Kiln Field Day of 1913).

Hotaling, who directed, was, it is true, rather a specialist in &quot;ethnic&quot; films of all sorts and himself held distinctly racist views but Lubin&apos;s biographer, Joseph P. Eckhardt, is I think very unjust when he decries these films as mere exploitation of anti-black prejudice and as being demeaning and humiliating for the black actors who performed in them. Such harsh and simplistic judgements on early performances by African Americans are rarely made by black critics who better appreciate the difficulties that African American actors and African American audiences faced. The success of these films in the South, despite their shortcomings, was almost certainly due to black audiences and bears witness to their burning desire, so rarely fulfilled, to see black faces on the screen. Here Outen is unquestionably the star of the film.

To dismiss the films in this way appears on the face of it purports to be attacking racism but in fact seems somehow to add further insult to injury in the rather scornful attitude it implies (while carefully only criticising the producer and director) towards black performers and black audiences. It is noticeable that, beyond making it sternly clear that they were being demeaned and humiliated (presumably whatever they may themselves have thought about the matter), Herr Eckhardt does not have a word to say about the actors involved.

This daft little film is not really racially offensive. Rastus gets shanghaied, then shipwrecked on the African coast, captured by the Zulus and offered the choice of marrying the chief&apos;s daughter or going in the cookpot. The twist comes when........and then when.....but I won&apos;t spoil it for you. It&apos;s a very innocent little comedy and Outen turns in a perfectly creditable performance.

Sadly I have been able to find no further information about Outen. Possibly he was Bahamian in origin (he looks a bit West Indian); &quot;Outten&quot; was also the maiden name of Sidney Poitier&apos;s mother.

Oliver Hardy, who began his career with Lubin, appears in at least one of the coloured comedies - The Rise of the Johnsons - as a grocery delivery man in support of John and Mattie Edwards.

This is a sadly rare survivor of Sigmund Lubin's series of "coloured comedies", featuring all-black or largely black casts made between 1913 and 1918 although there seems to have been a pilot, Rastus in Zululand, in 1910 which has a very similar story to this films and may have starred the same actor. The first official "coloured comedy" was The Zulu King of 1913 and thereafter they appeared at the rate of two per month until autumn 1915 although Lubin continued to produce films featuring black casts as late as 1918.

Many featured the black vaudevillian team John and Mattie Edwards but at least two of them featured the young actor who appears in this 1913 film, Joseph Outen. Even if the films and the roles are a shade caricatural, it is great to see black actors at this period given the chance to perform and Lubin is much to be commended for the initiative, even if his motives weer purely mercenary. The films proved extremely successful particularly in the South. Lubin was therefore the first producer to put black actors under contract and the earliest of these films precede the better known films made by black comic star Bert Williams for Biograph (1916 but also the never finished Lime Kiln Field Day of 1913).

Hotaling, who directed, was, it is true, rather a specialist in "ethnic" films of all sorts and himself held distinctly racist views but Lubin's biographer, Joseph P. Eckhardt, is I think very unjust when he decries these films as mere exploitation of anti-black prejudice and as being demeaning and humiliating for the black actors who performed in them. Such harsh and simplistic judgements on early performances by African Americans are rarely made by black critics who better appreciate the difficulties that African American actors and African American audiences faced. The success of these films in the South, despite their shortcomings, was almost certainly due to black audiences and bears witness to their burning desire, so rarely fulfilled, to see black faces on the screen. Here Outen is unquestionably the star of the film.

To dismiss the films in this way appears on the face of it purports to be attacking racism but in fact seems somehow to add further insult to injury in the rather scornful attitude it implies (while carefully only criticising the producer and director) towards black performers and black audiences. It is noticeable that, beyond making it sternly clear that they were being demeaned and humiliated (presumably whatever they may themselves have thought about the matter), Herr Eckhardt does not have a word to say about the actors involved.

This daft little film is not really racially offensive. Rastus gets shanghaied, then shipwrecked on the African coast, captured by the Zulus and offered the choice of marrying the chief's daughter or going in the cookpot. The twist comes when........and then when.....but I won't spoil it for you. It's a very innocent little comedy and Outen turns in a perfectly creditable performance.

Sadly I have been able to find no further information about Outen. Possibly he was Bahamian in origin (he looks a bit West Indian); "Outten" was also the maiden name of Sidney Poitier's mother.

Oliver Hardy, who began his career with Lubin, appears in at least one of the coloured comedies - The Rise of the Johnsons - as a grocery delivery man in support of John and Mattie Edwards.

Rastus Johnson, a happy-go-lucky coon, after eating a large meal, lies down on the dock to take a nap. While he is slumbering three roughs happen along and see him, and knowing a sea captain who is in need of men to fill out his crew, they seize Rastus and shanghai him. He is placed aboard the ship and the voyage started. The vessel is wrecked off the African coast, and poor Rastus is the only survivor. While wandering along the beach he is seen by the Zulus, who immediately give chase. Rastus runs through the jungle, but is compelled to give up. They capture him and take him before their king, who orders him to be cooked. One of the women of the tribe, who happens to be present when Rastus is brought in, knowing the king's daughter is ambitious to be married to some man outside of her own tribe, runs off to tell her of the captive. Rastus is led to the royal kitchen, where the cook pot is prepared. They are just about to thrust him in, when the daughter pleads with her father, for Rastus' life. This he grants on one condition, that Rastus must marry the daughter. This he tells to Rastus, and Rastus, after a good look at the daughter, decides to take to the cook pot. This enrages the king so that he orders Rastus to be seized and given a sound beating. They seize him and throw him on the ground and commence. They beat him so hard that he wakes up to find a policeman tapping him with his club. The blue coat orders Rastus to move on his way, which he does, little the worse for his terrible dream.

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Rastus Among the Zulus

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