Dick Campbell (producer)
Encyclopedia
Dick Campbell, born Cornelius Coleridge Campbell (June 27, 1903 – December 20, 1994), was a key figure in black theater during the Harlem Renaissance
. While a successful performer in his own right, Campbell is best known as a tireless advocate for black actors in general. As a theater producer and director, he helped launch the careers of several black theater artists, including Ossie Davis
, Frederick O’Neal, Loften Mitchell, Helen Martin
, and Abram Hill.
He was a co-founder of the Negro People's Theatre in 1935 and the Rose McLendon Players in 1937, which soon produced only plays written by African Americans. That year he co-founded the Negro Actors' Guild as well. His advocacy of the hiring of more blacks in TV included a boycott in 1955. From 1956-1964 he represented the State Department in Africa in its International Cultural Exchange Program. Later he was appointed to public affairs for the Human Resources Administration under Mayor John Lindsay and acted as a spokesperson for his anti-poverty programs. In 1972 he was co-founder of the Sickle Cell Disease Foundation of Greater New York and served as its executive director until his death.
. Orphaned at the age of six, Campbell was raised by his maternal grandmother, Pauline Snow. He worked as a janitor at his local high school prior to attending Paul Quinn College
in Waco, Texas
, the first historically black college (HBCU)
established west of the Mississippi River
.
in a series of vaudeville
shows.
After two years, Campbell joined the touring Whitman Sisters’ Show, which brought him to New York City
. Beginning in 1929, he worked regularly in various stage productions in Harlem and on Broadway
. In June of that year, Campbell appeared in the Fats Waller
musical revue, Hot Chocolates, which featured a young Louis Armstrong
in his Broadway debut.
Campbell also appeared in Hot Rhythm, Singing the Blues and Brain Sweat. The latter was a comedy that ran briefly on Broadway in 1934 and featured the legendary Rose McClendon
in its cast.
by Clifford Odets
. Two years later, in the wake of McClendon’s death, Campbell and his wife, the concert singer Muriel Rahn
, founded the Rose McClendon Players. Their activities took place in the basement of the Mt. Morris Park Library at 9 West 124th Street in New York City
. Under Campbell’s direction, the Rose McClendon Players helped establish the careers of several black artists, including Frederick O'Neal
, Helen Martin
, Edmund Cambridge
, Loften Mitchell and Abram Hill.
One of Campbell's best-known protégés was Ossie Davis
, a young actor who immediately impressed Campbell with his booming voice and commanding presence. Later, Campbell was instrumental in getting Davis an audition for the lead in a Broadway play JEB. Davis not only got the role (which led to his admission in Actors Equity), but he met his future wife Ruby Dee
in the production. Other people who were involved with the Rose McClendon Players included Canada Lee
, Dooley Wilson
, Jane White, Austin Briggs-Hall, George Norford, Eugene Grisby and Fred Carter.
The Rose McClendon Players initiated a policy of doing only plays written by black playwrights. During their five years of operations, they produced fifteen plays (including both full-length and one-act works). This included the initial production of Hill’s On Striver’s Row before it premiered with the American Negro Theatre with Frederick O’Neal in the cast.
Also in 1937, Campbell joined actress Fredi Washington
, actor Leigh Whipper, Noble Sissle
and W. C. Handy
to form the Negro Actors Guild. While simultaneously serving as director of the Rose McClendon Players, Campbell was appointed director of the Harlem unit of the Federal Theater Project in 1939, part of the cultural programs under President Franklin D. Roosevelt
's New Deal
to support the arts.
About the time that the Rose McClendon Players closed in 1942, Campbell was chosen by the Army to produce Black USO camp shows. His shows featured such leading artists as Duke Ellington
and Pearl Bailey
. After the end of World War II
, Campbell started his own talent agency, representing such clients as Ossie Davis
and Ruby Dee
. He also served as executive director of the Symphony of the New World and helped found the Harlem Theater Workshop.
Unhappy with the number and quality of roles offered black actors, Campbell initiated a media campaign in the black press. In a series of editorials and press releases, he complained about the type of roles that blacks were playing on television and in other media outlets. This was highlighted by a media boycott, in which he demanded that blacks turn off their television sets on Saturday, February 26, 1955 to show their economic clout. He discussed his rationale for the media boycott in the Alexandra Isles
documentary, Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist, which was released after Campbell's death. "Don't turn on your TV," he told people. "Leave it black, because that's the only way you can make the producers understand that you want a different type of show on television."
This media boycott, commonly referred to as a "blackout," drew much attention. In the wake of the boycott, Campbell was asked to meet with various television executives, which led to increased opportunities for other actors, if not for him. Ossie Davis, who also appeared in Scandalize My Name spoke about Campbell's boycott, "On the basis of that, Dick was sent for. And he talked, and he negotiated, and he opened some doors, and got us some jobs. Of course, they never gave Dick a job." Campbell mounted his media campaign against discrimination in the entertainment industry during the height of McCarthyism
. "I was blacklisted," Campbell said.
In 1956, Campbell worked as a director and producer for the American National Theatre Association, a branch of the U.S. State Department. He served in that capacity until 1964, representing the US in Africa in the International Cultural Exchange Program.
. He served as a spokesperson in support of the city's anti-poverty programs.
Campbell continued to criticize theatre companies that did not hire blacks, both on and off the stage. This included black theatre companies, especially those receiving large grants. In 1968, Campbell expressed outrage at the newly formed Negro Ensemble Company
because in their initial season, they lacked plays written by African-American playwrights but had just received a $450,000 grant from the Ford Foundation
to help support such work.
In 1972, Campbell and his second wife, Beryl, founded the Sickle Cell Disease Foundation of Greater New York to address a genetic
disease that occurred among people of African descent. He served as executive director of the organization until his death.
Later he married Beryl Campbell; together they co-founded the Sickle Cell Disease Foundation of Greater New York.
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke...
. While a successful performer in his own right, Campbell is best known as a tireless advocate for black actors in general. As a theater producer and director, he helped launch the careers of several black theater artists, including Ossie Davis
Ossie Davis
Ossie Davis was an American film actor, director, poet, playwright, writer, and social activist.-Early years:...
, Frederick O’Neal, Loften Mitchell, Helen Martin
Helen Martin
Helen Dorothy Martin was an American actress of stage and television who is perhaps most well known for her role in the sitcom 227 as Marla Gibbs' neighbor Pearl.-Early life and education:...
, and Abram Hill.
He was a co-founder of the Negro People's Theatre in 1935 and the Rose McLendon Players in 1937, which soon produced only plays written by African Americans. That year he co-founded the Negro Actors' Guild as well. His advocacy of the hiring of more blacks in TV included a boycott in 1955. From 1956-1964 he represented the State Department in Africa in its International Cultural Exchange Program. Later he was appointed to public affairs for the Human Resources Administration under Mayor John Lindsay and acted as a spokesperson for his anti-poverty programs. In 1972 he was co-founder of the Sickle Cell Disease Foundation of Greater New York and served as its executive director until his death.
Childhood
Campbell was born Cornelius Coleridge Campbell on June 27, 1903 in Beaumont, TexasBeaumont, Texas
Beaumont is a city in and county seat of Jefferson County, Texas, United States, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's population was 118,296 at the 2010 census. With Port Arthur and Orange, it forms the Golden Triangle, a major industrial area on the...
. Orphaned at the age of six, Campbell was raised by his maternal grandmother, Pauline Snow. He worked as a janitor at his local high school prior to attending Paul Quinn College
Paul Quinn College
Paul Quinn College is a private, historically black college located in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Texas . Paul Quinn College holds the distinction as the oldest historically black college in the country west of the Mississippi River...
in Waco, Texas
Waco, Texas
Waco is a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas. Situated along the Brazos River and on the I-35 corridor, halfway between Dallas and Austin, it is the economic, cultural, and academic center of the 'Heart of Texas' region....
, the first historically black college (HBCU)
Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Historically black colleges and universities are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the black community....
established west of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
.
Early career
In 1926, after completing his studies at Paul Quinn College, Campbell moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a performer in the entertainment industry. There he appeared as singer and a straight manDouble act
A double act, also known as a comedy duo, is a comic pairing in which humor is derived from the uneven relationship between two partners, usually of the same gender, age, ethnic origin and profession, but drastically different personalities or behavior...
in a series of vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
shows.
After two years, Campbell joined the touring Whitman Sisters’ Show, which brought him to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Beginning in 1929, he worked regularly in various stage productions in Harlem and on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
. In June of that year, Campbell appeared in the Fats Waller
Fats Waller
Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...
musical revue, Hot Chocolates, which featured a young Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
in his Broadway debut.
Campbell also appeared in Hot Rhythm, Singing the Blues and Brain Sweat. The latter was a comedy that ran briefly on Broadway in 1934 and featured the legendary Rose McClendon
Rose McClendon
Rose McClendon born Rose Virginia Scott McClendon, was a leading African American Broadway actress of the 1920s....
in its cast.
Mentor and advocate for black actors
Not satisfied with the number and range of roles available for black actors, he and McClendon founded the Negro People’s Theatre in 1935. A highlight of their Harlem-based company was the successful staging of an all-black production of Waiting for LeftyWaiting for Lefty
Waiting for Lefty is a 1935 play by American playwright Clifford Odets. Consisting of a series of related vignettes, the entire play is framed by the meeting of cab drivers who are planning a labor strike. The framing situation utilizes the audience as part of the meeting.While this was not the...
by Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets was an American playwright, screenwriter, socialist, and social protester.-Early life:Odets was born in Philadelphia to Romanian- and Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Louis Odets and Esther Geisinger, and raised in Philadelphia and the Bronx, New York. He dropped out of high...
. Two years later, in the wake of McClendon’s death, Campbell and his wife, the concert singer Muriel Rahn
Muriel Rahn
Muriel Rahn was an American vocalist and actress. She co-founded the Rose McClendon Players with her husband, Dick Campbell and was one of the leading black concert singers of the mid-20th Century. She is perhaps best known for her starring role in the original Broadway production of Carmen Jones...
, founded the Rose McClendon Players. Their activities took place in the basement of the Mt. Morris Park Library at 9 West 124th Street in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Under Campbell’s direction, the Rose McClendon Players helped establish the careers of several black artists, including Frederick O'Neal
Frederick O'Neal
Frederick O'Neal was an American actor, theater producer and television director. He founded the American Negro Theater and was the first African-American president of the Actors' Equity Association...
, Helen Martin
Helen Martin
Helen Dorothy Martin was an American actress of stage and television who is perhaps most well known for her role in the sitcom 227 as Marla Gibbs' neighbor Pearl.-Early life and education:...
, Edmund Cambridge
Edmund Cambridge
Edmund Cambridge was an American actor and director who was a founding member of the Negro Ensemble Company and the Kilpatrick-Cambridge Theater Arts School.- Biography :...
, Loften Mitchell and Abram Hill.
One of Campbell's best-known protégés was Ossie Davis
Ossie Davis
Ossie Davis was an American film actor, director, poet, playwright, writer, and social activist.-Early years:...
, a young actor who immediately impressed Campbell with his booming voice and commanding presence. Later, Campbell was instrumental in getting Davis an audition for the lead in a Broadway play JEB. Davis not only got the role (which led to his admission in Actors Equity), but he met his future wife Ruby Dee
Ruby Dee
Ruby Dee is an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and activist, perhaps best known for co-starring in the film A Raisin in the Sun and the film American Gangster for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.-Early years:Dee was born Ruby...
in the production. Other people who were involved with the Rose McClendon Players included Canada Lee
Canada Lee
Canada Lee was an American actor who pioneered roles for African Americans. A champion of civil rights in the 1930s and 1940s, he died shortly before he was scheduled to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He became an actor after careers as a jockey, boxer, and musician...
, Dooley Wilson
Dooley Wilson
Arthur "Dooley" Wilson was an American actor and singer. He was born in Tyler, Texas, and is remembered as piano-player "Sam" who sings "As Time Goes By" at the request of Ilsa Lund in the 1942 film, Casablanca - the Sam in the famously misremembered line "Play it again, Sam" -- a phrase which...
, Jane White, Austin Briggs-Hall, George Norford, Eugene Grisby and Fred Carter.
The Rose McClendon Players initiated a policy of doing only plays written by black playwrights. During their five years of operations, they produced fifteen plays (including both full-length and one-act works). This included the initial production of Hill’s On Striver’s Row before it premiered with the American Negro Theatre with Frederick O’Neal in the cast.
Also in 1937, Campbell joined actress Fredi Washington
Fredi Washington
Fredericka Carolyn "Fredi" Washington was an accomplished dramatic film actress, most active in the 1920s- 1930s. Fredi was a self-proclaimed Black woman, who chose to be identified as such, and wished for others to do so as well...
, actor Leigh Whipper, Noble Sissle
Noble Sissle
Noble Sissle was an American jazz composer, lyricist, bandleader, singer and playwright.-Early life:...
and W. C. Handy
W. C. Handy
William Christopher Handy was a blues composer and musician. He was widely known as the "Father of the Blues"....
to form the Negro Actors Guild. While simultaneously serving as director of the Rose McClendon Players, Campbell was appointed director of the Harlem unit of the Federal Theater Project in 1939, part of the cultural programs under President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
's New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
to support the arts.
About the time that the Rose McClendon Players closed in 1942, Campbell was chosen by the Army to produce Black USO camp shows. His shows featured such leading artists as Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
and Pearl Bailey
Pearl Bailey
Pearl Mae Bailey was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968...
. After the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Campbell started his own talent agency, representing such clients as Ossie Davis
Ossie Davis
Ossie Davis was an American film actor, director, poet, playwright, writer, and social activist.-Early years:...
and Ruby Dee
Ruby Dee
Ruby Dee is an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and activist, perhaps best known for co-starring in the film A Raisin in the Sun and the film American Gangster for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.-Early years:Dee was born Ruby...
. He also served as executive director of the Symphony of the New World and helped found the Harlem Theater Workshop.
Unhappy with the number and quality of roles offered black actors, Campbell initiated a media campaign in the black press. In a series of editorials and press releases, he complained about the type of roles that blacks were playing on television and in other media outlets. This was highlighted by a media boycott, in which he demanded that blacks turn off their television sets on Saturday, February 26, 1955 to show their economic clout. He discussed his rationale for the media boycott in the Alexandra Isles
Alexandra Isles
Countess Alexandra Moltke or Alexandra M. Isles is an actress and documentary filmmaker. She is best known for her role as the original Victoria Winters from 1966–68 on the cult TV serial Dark Shadows, which aired on ABC TV from 1966–1971.Isles was born in Uppsala, Sweden to Mab Wilson Wright and...
documentary, Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist, which was released after Campbell's death. "Don't turn on your TV," he told people. "Leave it black, because that's the only way you can make the producers understand that you want a different type of show on television."
This media boycott, commonly referred to as a "blackout," drew much attention. In the wake of the boycott, Campbell was asked to meet with various television executives, which led to increased opportunities for other actors, if not for him. Ossie Davis, who also appeared in Scandalize My Name spoke about Campbell's boycott, "On the basis of that, Dick was sent for. And he talked, and he negotiated, and he opened some doors, and got us some jobs. Of course, they never gave Dick a job." Campbell mounted his media campaign against discrimination in the entertainment industry during the height of McCarthyism
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
. "I was blacklisted," Campbell said.
In 1956, Campbell worked as a director and producer for the American National Theatre Association, a branch of the U.S. State Department. He served in that capacity until 1964, representing the US in Africa in the International Cultural Exchange Program.
Later years
In 1967, Campbell was appointed as assistant director of public affairs in the New York City Human Resources Administration under Mayor John LindsayJohn Lindsay
John Vliet Lindsay was an American politician, lawyer and broadcaster who was a U.S. Congressman, Mayor of New York City, candidate for U.S...
. He served as a spokesperson in support of the city's anti-poverty programs.
Campbell continued to criticize theatre companies that did not hire blacks, both on and off the stage. This included black theatre companies, especially those receiving large grants. In 1968, Campbell expressed outrage at the newly formed Negro Ensemble Company
Negro Ensemble Company
The Negro Ensemble Company is a New York City-based theater company. Established in 1967 by playwright Douglas Turner Ward, producer/actor Robert Hooks, and theater manager Gerald S...
because in their initial season, they lacked plays written by African-American playwrights but had just received a $450,000 grant from the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
to help support such work.
In 1972, Campbell and his second wife, Beryl, founded the Sickle Cell Disease Foundation of Greater New York to address a genetic
Genetic
Genetic may refer to:*Genetics, in biology, the science of genes, heredity, and the variation of organisms**Genetic, used as an adjective, refers to heredity of traits**Gene, a unit of heredity in the genome of an organism...
disease that occurred among people of African descent. He served as executive director of the organization until his death.
Marriage and family
Campbell married Muriel Rahn, a concert singer, in 1932. They were married until her death in 1961. They had three daughters: Diana Wilson, Paulette Wilson and Patricia Wilson Campbell.Later he married Beryl Campbell; together they co-founded the Sickle Cell Disease Foundation of Greater New York.