Judith Weisenfeld, Hollywood Be Thy Name: African American Religion in American Film, 1929-1949

Abstract

Judith Weisenfeld, Hollywood Be Thy Name: African American Religion in American Film, 1929-1949. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2007. Pp. 340. Cloth $60.00. Paper $25.95. While there have been numerous works on in as well as race and religion, Judith Weisenfeld is first scholar to bring three categories together in one text. The result is a broadly successful account of American racial ideology from Great Depression through years following World War II. The lens of filmic representations of African American religion offers a way to illuminate larger trends in American society, giving this book utility for those interested in 20th century religion, race, and popular culture. The book's narrative are moves from 1929 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer release of King Vidor's Hallelujah, depicting black religion as childish, sexualized, and ecstatic to 1949 RD-DR Corporation's Lost Boundaries, which demonstrated both progress and limitations of postwar liberal Christian rhetoric in addressing U.S. race relations. King Vidor, raised in Texas, considered himself to be an expert on unique of African Americans. This purported expertise informed his direction of Hallelujah, story of Zeke's itinerant ministry, seduction, corruption, and restoration. Throughout film, black worship is depicted as intensely sexual through sensuous dancing and ecstatic moaning. This sexual religiosity is too much for Zeke and leads him away from his idyllic rural home to epicenter of temptation and sin, city. His restoration requires him to return to his rural home and recognize his incapacity for substantial religious leadership. Following success of Vidor's Hallelujah, other white directors clamored to share their own personal knowledge of the Negro. Mark Connelly offered his interpretation in Green Pastures, a play representing a black version of Old Testament. The play won Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930, and film after considerable production delays, enjoyed success as well. While whites praised film as a demonstration of primitive theology of African Americans, response in black press was mixed. What puzzled many black viewers most were depictions of heaven as rural South, complete with a fish fry. As with Hallelujah, black press praised skill of actors, while white directors claimed that their films captured African Americans' true nature and that performers were simply acting naturally. Films like Hallelujah and Green Pastures, while concerning themselves with issues of race, were not directed primarily at an African American audience and certainly were not representative of African American sentiments. However, numerous productions were created specifically for black audiences. Weisenfeld divides these films into those with explicitly religious subjects and those without. What is most striking is how both categories dwell on common theme of urbanization. The religious films, most of which involved black director Spencer Williams, in some ways echoed work of white directors by decrying urban culture as sinful. However, unlike their white counterparts, black directors were unwilling to idealize rural, resulting in a more nuanced portrayal of realities of Great Migration. …