David Starkman (1885-c.1947) was an American film producer who helped found Colored Players Film Corporation, an independent

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

studio. He wrote and produced the film company's most famous film '' The Scar of Shame''.

Colored Players Film Corporation

In 1926, Starkman helped to found the Colored Players Film Corporation with Sherman H. "Uncle Dud" Dudley, a veteran of

vaudevillian Vaudeville (; ) is a theatre, theatrical genre of variety show, variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comic ...

and

race movie The race film or race movie was a genre of film produced in the United States between about 1915 and the early 1950s, consisting of films produced for black audiences, and featuring black casts. Approximately five hundred race films were produce ...

s. Dudley and Starkman shared a common vision in which there was a black

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

free of the traditional black

stereotype In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalization, generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can ...

s. With Starkman's theatre in Philadelphia as a base of operations, Colored Players Film Corporation developed with Dudley as the president of the company and Starkman in charge of the management, finances and operation of the

production company A production company, production house or production studio is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television show, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and video ...

. The Colored Players Film Corporation took the morals and ethics of Starkman and Dudley seriously and their films attempt to show the

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

s as successful, able to achieve middle class status, and apart from the typical stereotypes and minstrel films of the time. While only Dudley and the cast comprised the African Americans of the Colored Players Film Corporation, the collaboration between both the white and black staff was an integral part of the company. The interracial co-operation found in the company allowed for the success of the film ''The Scar of Shame''.Wood, Brett
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''The Scar of Shame''

The peak of the company's success came when it produced the film ''The Scar of Shame'' in 1929, a year before the company closed. Starkman produced the film and wrote it with the co-operation of the black staff in order to understand the

social caste A caste is a fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste (endogamy), foll ...

among African Americans living within the same neighborhood. The film primarily focuses on two protagonists, each from different levels of society. The main protagonist must choose whether or not to be with a woman from a lower caste of society or to leave her in order to keep with the plan his

social status Social status is the relative level of social value a person is considered to possess. Such social value includes respect, honour, honor, assumed competence, and deference. On one hand, social scientists view status as a "reward" for group members ...

has pre-planned for him.

The White Micheaux?

Sometimes called the "

Oscar Micheaux Oscar Devereaux Micheaux (; January 2, 1884 – March 25, 1951) was an American author, film director and independent producer of more than 44 films. Although the short-lived Lincoln Motion Picture Company was the first movie company owned and c ...

" of the white independent film producers, Starkman helped to produce and write ''The Scar of Shame'' a famous film that the Colored Players Film Corporation produced and released before it was eventually absorbed and merged with another film production company. Starkman eventually went

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the de ...

due to the competition with other independent film companies and a lack of revenue brought in by the company's productions.Lupack, Barbara Tepa. ''Literary Adaptations in Black American Cinema: from Micheaux to Morrison''. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester, 2002. 164-66. Print.

Downfall

Although Starkman worked for his audience in order to enhance their experience in the theatre, he did not always have the money to fund his films. He eventually sold his theatre and then turned his wife's

inheritance Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...

into cash. He intimidated local

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

lawyers and merchants for capital.Smith, Valerie. ''Representing Blackness: Issues in Film and Video''. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 1997. 54-55. Print. He ultimately wrote scripts and carried the "release prints to out of town play dates and ountthe house in person" (Smith 54). During production of his last film, ''The Scar of Shame'', Starkman began to offer his own car for the film, put forward his sister's house as a shooting location and decorated the set with his own furniture. In the end, the financial pressure got the best of Starkman and after releasing ''The Scar of Shame'' he could no longer compete because of the arrival of

sound film A sound film is a Film, motion picture with synchronization, synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, bu ...

, ruining him and similar independent film companies. In a last effort to save the Colored Players Film Corporation, Starkman merged the company with one of his partner's, Sherman Dudley, but the company never took off.

Notes

References

* Lupack, Barbara Tepa. ''Literary Adaptations in Black American Cinema: from Micheaux to Morrison''. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester, 2002. * Smith, Valerie. ''Representing Blackness: Issues in Film and Video''. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 1997.

External links

TCM Turner Classic Movies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Starkman, David 1947 deaths American film producers Austrian emigrants to the United States 1885 births