In 1928 Ransom Rideout (1889-1975) had some success in New York with Goin’ Home, a melodrama about miscegenation in which, regrettably, the central character was played by an actor in blackface.This may or may not have qualified him to contribute dialogue to Hallelujah, which stands as his sole contribution to the cinema.
Tag: MGM musical
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Ransom Rideout
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Richard Schayer
Richard Schayer (1880-1956) helped to write over 100 films during a forty-year career, and perhaps staked his claim to a place on the lower levels of immortality by co-writing the treatment that became Universal’s The Mummy (1932).
While at MGM, Schayer worked on four of the studio’s early musicals. He wrote the treatment for Hallelujah, developing King Vidor’s basic idea. In the same year he adapted a French play from 1851 into the Roman Novarro swashbuckler Devil-May-Care. He then displayed his versatility by scripting Free and Easy for Buster Keaton and turning a recent Crane Wilbur play into Children of Pleasure.
By 1932, Schayer was a member of the Laemmles’ team at Universal.
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Wanda Tuchock
Writing the scenario forHallelujah was the only MGM musical credit for Wanda Tuchock (1898-1985), though she did script Youth Will Be Served (1940) for 20th Century-Fox. Tuchock worked in most of the other major genres during her career, and was also one of only three women credited as a Hollywood director during the 1930s (the others being Dorothy Arzner and the less well-known Dorothy Davenport).
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King Vidor
King Vidor (1894-1982) was celebrated throughout his career at MGM and later as a maker of ‘prestige’ pictures. This applies to Hallelujah, his only musical and a film celebrated (and criticized) for many things other than its musical performances. Hallelujah stands alongside The Crowd (1928), The Champ (1931), The Citadel (1938) and War and Peace (1956) as a film for which Vidor was nominated for the Best Director Oscar (he never won).
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Hallelujah
Principal Crew
King Vidor Director Wanda Tuchock Scenario Richard Schayer Treatment Ransom Rideout Dialogue King Vidor Story Marian Ainslee Titles: in sound version, uncredited King Vidor Producer Irving Thalberg Producer (uncredited) Gordon Avil Cinematographer Hugh Wynn Editor Anton Stevenson Editor (uncredited) Cedric Gibbons Art Director Douglas Shearer Sound Irving Berlin Songwriter/composer Eva Jessye Musical Director (uncredited) Henrietta Frazer Wardrobe -
Victoria Spivey
It is typical of the unfathomable decisions sometimes made by MGM in its early musicals that it cast Victoria Spivey (1906-76) in a non-singing role in Hallelujah!. In her day job Spivey was a notable blues singer and songwriter who went on to work with artists ranging from John Lee Hooker to Bob Dylan, and whose personality bore no resemblance to Missy Rose. Hallelujah! was her only acting credit.
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Harry Gray
Very little is known about Harry Gray. It is probable he was born in the 1840s and lived the first decades of his life as an enslaved person. He was apparently working as a porter when he was cast as the patriarch in Hallelujah, joining a number of other non-professional actors. Gray has two subsequent credits, but remains something of a mystery.
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Nina Mae McKinney
Nina Mae McKinney (1913-67) was one of the many Black performers–talented and beautiful–whose careers were stifled by Hollywood racism.
After relocating from South Carolina to New York, McKinney was only 15 when she was cast in the all-Black Broadway musical revue Blackbirds of 1928. Her performance was noted by King Vidor, who subsequently cast her as the female lead in Hallelujah. She replaced his original choice, who was rejected by Irving Thalberg as lacking sex appeal.
McKinney received glowing reviews for her performance as Chick and it secured her a five-year contract with MGM, but no further roles of substance. She made an uncredited appearance as a singer in They Learned About Women, and eventually walked out on MGM. Richard Watts of The New York Herald Tribune wrote at the time that her “exile from the cinema is the result entirely of narrow and intolerant racial matters.”
She made only a few films thereafter, perhaps most notably as Paul Robeson’s queen in Sanders of the River (1935) and as Rozelia in Pinky (1949).
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Daniel M Haynes
Daniel M Haynes (1894-1954) was a successful stage actor working as Jules Bledsoe’s understudy in Show Boat when he was offered the lead role of Zeke in Hallelujah. The part had been intended for Paul Robeson, but he was unavailable.
Inevitably, given the times, Haynes’s powerful performance did not open the door to a film career. King Vidor used him again in So Red the Rose, but further down the cast list. Other than that, Haynes’s film work was mostly uncredited bits, and he eventually gave up acting to become a Baptist minister.
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Hallelujah
Cast
Daniel L. Haynes Zeke Nina Mae McKinney Chick William Fountaine Hot Shot Harry Gray Parson Fanny Belle DeKnight Mammy Everett McGarrity Spunk Victoria Spivey Missy Rose Milton Dickerson Johnson Kid Robert Couch Johnson Kid Walter Tait Johnson Kid Dixie Jubilee Singers Vocal Ensemble Matthew ‘Stymie’ Beard Child (uncredited) Evelyn Pope Burwell Singer (uncredited) Eddie Conners Singer (uncredited) William Allen Garrison Heavy (uncredited) Eva Jessye Singer (uncredited) Sam McDaniel Adam (uncredited) Clarence Muse Church Member (uncredited) Arvert Pott Black Child (uncredited) Madame Sul-Te-Wan Church Member (uncredited) Blue Washington Church Member (uncredited) Georgia Woodruff Singer (uncredited)
