The history of Blacks in the movie industry is as old as the industry itself. A 29-second silent film entitled “Something Good—Negro Kiss” from 1898 depicts a black couple kissing and holding hands. Unfortunately, the history of racial prejudice in the film industry is almost as old. One of the most technically accomplished silent films ever made, D.W. Griffith’s 1915 epic, “Birth of a Nation,” is also one of the most racist. Although many film scholars have written about “Birth of a Nation,” few studies have explored the many black performers who worked in film, both in front of and behind the camera, since 1898. Ben Arogundade attempts to correct that omission in “Hollywood Blackout,” a meticulously researched and detailed study of the history of Blacks and other minorities in the film industry.

“Hollywood Blackout” is primarily a study of Blacks in the film industry, but the author also examines the changing status of other minorities, including Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, and women. Although the book looks primarily at the accomplishments and representation of actors, it also looks at minorities and women in behind-the-camera capacities like directors and screenwriters. The author includes some mini-biographies of seminal figures like Hattie McDaniel, Sidney Poitier, and Denzel Washington. The author concentrates on the Academy Awards, focusing on the presence or absence of Blacks and other minorities among Oscar nominees and winners.

Recognition and inclusion of minorities in the film industry have been agonizingly slow, especially before the 21st century. “Hollywood Blackout” traces that process, beginning with the advent of the Hollywood studio era after World War I. Many people wanted to appear in the movies. These often untrained and untalented would-be actors, inundated Hollywood, clamoring for any parts they could get in films. Most of those roles are what we now consider extras, although the number of applicants far exceeded the available parts. The flood of would-be extras of all nationalities attracted negative press attention, so the influential Central Casting Corporation was founded in 1925 to organize the hiring process better. The agency started a specialized African American division in 1927, headed by Charles Butler. He soon became the most influential Black in Hollywood. Blacks began to be seen on-screen more often as extras, usually playing domestic servants. Those with comic or musical talent got bigger parts, although often at a humiliating price. Veteran vaudeville performer Lincoln Perry was believed to be the first black actor to get credits billing in a film under the demeaning stage name he was given, Stepin Fetchit.

I consider myself relatively well-versed in Hollywood history, yet almost all of this material was new. I was shocked and fascinated, but not really surprised to learn most of it. Once “Hollywood Blackout” moved into more recent times, the names and stories became more familiar. The author devoted considerable space to the story of Hattie McDaniel, who rose from Central Casting days as a domestic extra to playing the same type of role in the most expensive film made to date, “Gone with the Wind.” I knew McDaniel could not attend the movie’s premiere in Atlanta due to the segregation laws in Atlanta at the time. However, I didn’t know that Clark Gable had to personally intervene to get the “Whites only” and “Colored only” signs removed from port-a-potties on the set during filming. I also didn’t know that the Ambassador Hotel in Hollywood, where the 1939 Oscars were presented to Hattie McDaniel and other winners, was also segregated, and the studio had to make special arrangements to allow her and her escort to attend the ceremony. And I didn’t know that McDaniel couldn’t be buried in the Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery when she died in 1952 because the cemetery, like the Ambassador Hotel and much of Hollywood, was still segregated.

“Hollywood Blackout” is filled with sad yet fascinating stories like these. The 2002 Oscar ceremonies were especially poignant when Halle Berry and Denzel Washington won the Best Actress and Actor Oscars on the same night and stage as Sidney Poitier was given the Lifetime Achievement Award. The author points out that progress in black representation at the Oscars was often accompanied by significant world events affecting civil rights. McDaniel’s Oscar nomination and victory followed Hitler’s invasion of Poland. Sidney Poitier’s win for Best Actor in 1964 came a few months after Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and the march on Washington. More recently, in 2017, after the #OscarsSoWhite campaign highlighted the lack of minority acting nominees in the two previous years, nine of the 20 nominees and two winners (Viola Davis and Mahershala Ali) were persons of color. The author shows how the #OscarsSoWhite and similar campaigns came to pass and their effects on the Academy Awards voting practices.

My major criticism of “Hollywood Blackout” concerns its focus on one highly visible but tiny aspect of minority presence in the film industry… the Oscars. Only 20 actors receive Oscar nominations each year, yet thousands more have successful careers without getting close to an Academy Award. I realize that data from the early days of Hollywood is sketchy, but figures for minority representation in the industry today are readily available. Actors like Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart will probably never get Oscar nominations, but they do well financially and at the box office. Yet, after a promising start, “Hollywood Blackout” focuses almost entirely on the presence (or lack thereof) of minorities at the Oscars. The Blaxploitation phenomenon of the 1970s isn’t mentioned (other than Isaac Hayes’s Oscar for the theme from “Shaft”), and the groundbreaking 1940s musical “Cabin in the Sky” (directed by Vincente Minnelli with an all-black cast) gets one brief mention. The author finds time to describe the changes in the design of the Oscar statuette over the years and the outfits minority nominees wore to the ceremonies in different years but not significant events in filmmaking that didn’t involve the Academy Awards per se.

Racism and discrimination in Hollywood are less prevalent today than in previous decades, but they still exist. No black director has ever won the Best Director Oscar, although two films with black directors and predominantly black casts (“12 Years a Slave” and “Moonlighting”) have won the Best Picture Oscars in the last decade. “Hollywood Blackout” demonstrates the ugly side of racism in the industry, with depressing, often shocking anecdotes and dozens of pages of interesting facts and figures. The author has taken his detailed research and presented it in a form that’s both easily readable and compelling (including a yearly chronology of significant milestones). I recommend “Hollywood Blackout” for those interested in the film industry or current events.

NOTE: The publisher graciously provided me with a copy of this book through NetGalley. However, the decision to review the book and the contents of this review are entirely my own.

Good read! Based on the title and cover this was not quite what I was expecting, but the book and writing style kept me interested.

Thanks to NetGalley and Octopus Publishing for the digital copy of this book; I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I used to watch the Academy Awards religiously as a teen and young adult. As the years have gone by, I haven’t really tuned in to the broadcast but avidly read up on the event. I knew the history of African Americans winning the Oscar: first it was Hattie McDaniel, then 20+ years later, it was Sidney Poitier, then 20 years later, it was Louis Gossett, Jr. Hollywood Blackout discusses all this and more in its pages. The lack of BIPOC representation in the movies has long been a problem, not just for African Americans, but Indigenous people, Latinos, Asians, and any other minority. It also discusses the roles women have played in Hollywood and the glass ceiling that still exists in the community for such roles as director and producer.

The book takes a long look at the history of how white Hollywood was, and is, today. It breaks down how roles for BIPOC performers were usually harmful stereotypes, yet if they wanted to work, they took the jobs. Hattie McDaniel may have been the first person of color to win an Academy Award, but it did not open any more doors or get her better roles. Halle Berry, who was the first Black woman to win Best Actress, said the same thing happened to her.

What I did find most interesting in the book is that as the years go by, small strides are made, from Denzel Washington winning two Academy Awards, to Ang Lee winning Best Director, all the way up to last year’s Asian explosion with wins in several categories. Much of the work to balance the Academy’s voters was done by Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the first African American president of the Academy. What was once an almost exclusively old, white male voting populace has now better representation among BIPOC and women, but there’s still a long way to go. It’s indicative of the country as a whole, in that the people in power are still generally old, white males who do not speak for the majority of the country.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of film or race relations in Hollywood.

This book was an extremely interesting & informative read. I enjoyed reading about Gone With the Wind. Hattie McDaniels is an impressive woman. She was set up to fail, but she refused to give up, keeping her chin high with pride & courage when she was attacked by both sides. There's a lot I didn't know about her.

"I've learned by livin' and watchin' that there is only eighteen inches between a pat on the back and a kick in the seat of the pants." Hattie McDaniels, 1941

She succeeded in winning an Oscar, but failed to land progressive roles after that. She didn't change Hollywood, but she tried. And she did make a difference.

Here are a few of the many Black people I enjoyed learning about (amongst many of the others that are mentioned in this book):
Charles Butler
Sydney Poitier

"I like to think it will help someone. But I don't believe my Oscar will be a sort of Magic wand that will wipe away the restrictions on job opportunities for Negro actors." Sidney Poitier, 1964

Louis Gossett Jr.
Denzel Washington Jr.

"I'll always be chasing you, Sidney. I'll always be following in your footsteps. There's nothing I would rather do, sir... God bless you." Denz Washington, 2002

Cheryl Boone Isaacs
Mo'Nique

"I just felt Hattie all over me at that moment, for showing that it can be about the performance and not the politics... for enduring all that she had to so that I would not have to." Mo'Nique, 2010

Lupita Nyong'o

"When I look down at this golden statue, may it remind me and every little child that, no matter where you're from, your dreams are valid." Lupita Nyong'o, 2014

Notable Oscars:
1940
1964
1973
1982
1986
1988
1990
1996
2002
2014
2015

If you want to know more about Hollywood & its racism through the years, this book is for you. Eye-opening, educational, and emotional.

#OscarsSoWhite

Factually informative dense read. It spans a cinematic history from actors in blackface to the inroads BIPOC actors have made. Still more work to be done.Distracting font though as at times in bold abruptly and large. This interrupted the flow of the read and bit distracting.

This ARC was made available for by the publisher, Octupius Publsihing, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Most of the book had information that I already knew or have amassed through reading other books and watching documentaries about the history of Black Hollywood. However, I would still recommend this for someone who is hoping to learn more about that history and why so much discrimination and stereotypical images persist in the industry. There is also a big focus on the Oscars and recent events, so this isn’t going to feel dated when it is released next year.

This was a eye-opening experience, it had that fact element that I was looking for and was engaged with the historical element of this. It really brought a new perspective and was written so well and made a lot of great points. I appreciated Ben Arogundade sharing this with the reader.