United States, Florida, Duval County, Jacksonville, 30.33218, -81.65565United States, Georgia, Bibb County, Macon, 32.84069, -83.6324Norman, Richard E., 1891-19611927-10-15Letter from Richard E. Norman, head of Norman Film Manufacturing Company, a Jacksonville-based, white independent film company active from 1921 to 1926 that specialized in outdoor adventure films for African American audiences, to Ben Stein, owner and manager of the Douglass Theatre, dated October 15, 1927, regarding Norman's competitor, Oscar Micheaux, seminal African American film director, producer, and president of the Micheaux Film Corporation. Norman agrees with Stein that Micheaux's film The Millionaire would conflict with his film Black Gold and that the biggest business is done by showing only one "colored picture" per month. He argues that it is unfair to his company to ask for a price reduction since Stein had scheduling problems with the film exchange circuit. Norman counters that he will wait to rent the film Black Gold to Stein until Stein can afford to pay the appropriate amount. He advises Stein not to run two full-length films at once, since the audience would find the length tiresome, but instead to run one with a short subject, comedy, or newsreel. Norman reminds Stein that his films have been very successful in the Douglass Theatre, recalling that his film The Flying Ace packed the Douglass Theatre for two days, doing more business in one day than Colored Players Film Corporation's A Prince of His Race did in two days. He concludes by asking Stein if he would like to execute a contract to have his road show appear at the Douglass Theatre.Digital image and encoded transcription of an original manuscript, scanned, transcribed and encoded by the Digital Library of Georgia in 2005, as part of Georgia HomePLACE. This project is supported with federal LSTA funds administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Georgia Public Library Service, a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.image/jpegtext/htmldbr030Blues, Black vaudeville, and the silver screen, 1912-1930s (Digital Library of Georgia) GAGALhttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/Norman Film Manufacturing CompanyAfrican Americans in the motion picture industryAfrican Americans in motion picturesRace in motion picturesRent chargesFeature films--United StatesRace films--United StatesMotion picture theaters--Georgia--MaconCommercial agents--FloridaNegotiation--Georgia--MaconVaudeville--Georgia--MaconContracts for work and labor--Georgia--MaconPrince of his race (Motion picture : 1926)Flying Ace (Motion picture : 1926)Millionaire (Motion picture : 1927)Black gold (Motion picture : 1928)Douglass Theatre (Macon, Ga.)Stein, BenLetter: Arlington, Florida to Ben Stein, Macon, Georgia, 1927 Oct. 15Text