MrGeorgeE3, Sept. 25, 2017
Trailer featuring the Hall Johnson Choir performing "In
Bright Mansions Above" in the 1936 film "The Green Pastures". I
do not own any of the copyrights to this material.
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents information about the 1936 American film Green Pastures and showcases three musical clips from that film.
The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, religous, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who were associated with this film and thanks to the publishers of these film clips on YouTube. Thanks also to all those who ae quoted in this post.
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INFORMATION ABOUT THE GREEN PASTURES" PLAY & FILM
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Pastures
"The Green Pastures is a play written in 1930 by Marc
Connelly adapted from Ol' Man Adam an' His Chillun (1928), a collection of
stories written by Roark Bradford. The play was the winner of the Pulitzer
Prize for Drama in 1930. It had the first all-black Broadway cast.[1][circular
reference] The play and the film adaptation were generally well received and
hailed by white drama and film critics. African-American intellectuals,
cultural critics, and audiences were more critical of Connelly's claim [citation
needed] to be presenting an authentic view of black religious thought.
The play portrays episodes from the Old Testament as seen through the eyes of a young African-American child in the Great Depression-era Southern United States, who interprets The Bible in terms familiar to her. Following Bradford's lead, Connelly (a white man) set the biblical stories in New Orleans and in an all-black context. He diverged from Bradford's work, however, in enlarging the role of the character "De Lawd" (God), played on stage by Richard B. Harrison (1864–1935). The Green Pastures also featured numerous African-American spirituals arranged by Hall Johnson and performed by The Hall Johnson Choir. The cast also included singer Mabel Ridley.The chorus included torch singer Eva Sylvester and members of the Sylvester family as cherubs.
Connolly later collaborated with William Keighley in the
direction of a Hollywood film adaptation of the play, which was made in 1936,
starring Rex Ingram as "De Lawd". At the time the film caused some
controversy. It was banned in Australia, Finland, and Hungary on the grounds
that it was "blasphemous" to portray Biblical characters in this way.
The play was adapted for television, and presented twice
during the days of live TV on the Hallmark Hall of Fame in 1957 and 1959. Both
productions starred William Warfield as "De Lawd", in the largest
dramatic acting role he ever had on television."
-snip-
For the record, Roark Bradford was a White American short story writer and novelist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roark_Bradford . Marc Connelly was also a White American https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Connelly
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INFORMATION ABOUT THE GREEN PASTURES" FILM
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Pastures_(film)
"The Green Pastures is a 1936 American film depicting stories
from the Bible as visualized by black characters. It starred Rex Ingram (in
several roles, including "De Lawd"), Oscar Polk, and Eddie
"Rochester" Anderson. It was based on the 1928 novel Ol' Man Adam an'
His Chillun by Roark Bradford and the 1930 Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the
same name by Marc Connelly.
The Green Pastures was one of only six feature films in the Hollywood Studio era to feature an all-black cast, though elements of it were criticised by civil rights activists at the time and subsequently.
Plot Summary
God tests the human race in this reenactment of Bible stories set in the world of black American folklore.
Reception
Despite criticisms about its racial
stereotyping, The Green Pastures proved to be an enormously popular film. On
its opening day at New York's Radio City Music Hall, tickets sold at a rate of
6,000 per hour. The film was held over for an entire year's run at some
theaters. It remained the highest-grossing all-black-cast film until the
release of Carmen Jones in 1954."...
-snip-
The songs in The Green Pastures film were also performed by the Hall Johnson Choir.
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXD4V4t5MPE&ab_channel=HerbertDennard for another YouTube video clip from The Green Pastures film. That clip is of the angels singing "Is You Been Baptized".
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FILM CLIP #2: So High (Green Pastures)
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FILM CLIP #3: Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory
Herbert Dennard, Jul 10, 2008
261 views • Jul 10, 2008
