Madame Sul-Te-Wan

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Madame Sul-Te-Wan (born March 7, 1873 in Louisville , Kentucky , † February 1, 1959 in Woodland Hills , Los Angeles , California ; actually Nellie Crawford ) was an American film and stage actress . Her career spanned over 70 years. With Madame Sul-Te-Wan, a member of the Afro-American population of the USA received a studio contract for the first time . In 1986, Madame Sul-Te-Wan was posthumously inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame .

Life

Madame Sul-Te-Wan was the daughter of former slaves and began to be interested in acting as a child. At 15, she joined the theater group Three Black Cloaks. She later formed her own troupe and toured vaudeville for years . When she moved to Hollywood , she took on the stage name Madame Sul-Te-Wan. She had been working as a film actress since at least 1913. Madame Sul-Te-Wan starred in The Birth of a Nation and in Intolerance by DW Griffith , among others . She had personally reached out to the director, who was also from Kentucky, and asked for work. The two remained friends afterwards and Madame Sul-Te-Wan was the only person who woke up to the last on his deathbed.

During her long career, Madame Sul-Te-Wan's film appearances were mostly limited to portraying domestic servants, cooks or maids due to her Afro-American origins. In many cases it was not mentioned in the credits. One of the few exceptions was her appearance in Maid of Salem , which described the Salem witch trials in 1937 . Madame Sul-Te-Wan took on an important supporting role and was expressly praised by the critics for her portrayal.

In 1953, in honor of her 80th birthday, a banquet was held in the Hollywood Playground Auditorium, at which her career and her merits were recognized. The 200 guests included Louise Beavers , Rex Ingram , Mae Marsh , Eugene Pallette and the stage actress Maude Eburne . In 1954, Madame Sul-Te-Wan appeared as the grandmother of Dorothy Dandridge in Otto Preminger's Carmen Jones alongside Harry Belafonte , Diahann Carroll and Pearl Bailey .

The origin of her unusual stage name remained unclear.

“We never found out the origin of their name. Nobody was brave enough to ask them about it. "

- Lillian Gish

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Commons : Madame Sul-Te-Wan  - Collection of Images

Footnotes

  1. ↑ see: Denise Lowe: An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films, 1895–1930. Haworth Press, New York NY et al. 2005, ISBN 0-7890-1842-X , p. 504.
  2. ↑ see: Donald Bogle: Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams. The Story of Black Hollywood. One World et al., New York NY 2005, ISBN 0-345-45418-9 , and here online .
  3. ↑ see: Anthony Slide: Hollywood Unknowns. A History of Extras, Bit Players, and Stand-Ins. University Press of Mississippi, Jackson MS 2012, ISBN 978-1-617-03474-9 , p. 196, reprinted here online .
  4. ↑ see inter alia: Jet Magazine , October 1, 1953 .
  5. ↑ see: Madame Sul-Te-Wan
  6. ^ "We never did discover the origin of her name. No one was bold enough to ask. "
personal data
SURNAME Sul-Te-Wan, Madame
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Crawford, Nellie (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film and stage actress
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Louisville , Kentucky , United States
DATE OF DEATH February 1, 1959
Place of death Woodland Hills , Los Angeles , California , United States