The Negro in Literature and Art in the United States

  XIV

  CHARLES S. GILPIN

  As an illustration of the highly romantic temperament that characterizesthe Negro race, and also as an instance of an artist who has worked foryears to realize his possibilities, we might cite such a shining exampleas Charles S. Gilpin, the star of "The Emperor Jones" in the New Yorktheatrical season of 1920-21. Here is a man who for years dreamed ofattainment in the field of the legitimate drama, but who found noopening; but who with it all did not despair, and now, after years ofstriving and waiting, stands with his rounded experience and poise as anhonor and genuine contributor to the American stage.

  Charles S. Gilpin was born in Richmond, Va., the youngest child in alarge family. His mother was a nurse in the city hospital; his father ahard-working man in a steel plant. He was educated at St. Frances'Convent, where he sang well and took some part in amateur theatricals;but he was to work a long while yet before he found a chance to do thekind of work that he wanted to do, and meanwhile he was to earn hisliving as printer or barber or otherwise, just as occasion served. Hehimself has recently said, "I've been in stock companies, vaudeville,minstrel shows, and carnivals; but not until 1907 did I have anopportunity to show an audience that the Negro has dramatic talent andlikes to play parts other than comedy ones."

  It was in the 90's that Mr. Gilpin began his professional work as avariety performer in Richmond, and he soon joined a travelingorganization. In 1903 he was one of the Gilmore Canadian JubileeSingers; in 1905 he was with Williams and Walker; the next season withGus Hill's "Smart Set"; and then from 1907 to 1909 with the Pekin StockCompany of Chicago. This last company consisted of about forty members,of whom eleven were finally selected for serious drama. Mr. Gilpin wasone of these; but the manager died, and once more the aspiring actor wasforced back to vaudeville.

  Now followed ten long years--ten years of the kind that blast and kill,and with which even the strongest man sometimes goes under. With the NewYork managers there was no opening. And yet sometimes there washope--not only hope, but leadership and effort for others, as when Mr.Gilpin carried a company of his own to the Lafayette Theatre and helpedto begin the production of Broadway shows. Life was leading--somewhere;but meanwhile one had to live, and the way was as yet uncertain. Atlast, in 1919, came a chance to play William Custis, the old Negro inDrinkwater's "Abraham Lincoln."

  The part was not a great one. It was still bound by racial limitationsand Custis appeared in only one scene. Nevertheless the work wasserious; here at least was opportunity.

  In the early fall of 1920 Mr. Gilpin was still playing Custis andhelping to make the play a success. Meanwhile, however, Eugene O'Neill,one of the most original playwrights in the country, had written "TheEmperor Jones"; and Charles S. Gilpin was summoned to the part of thestar.

  There were many who regretted to see him leave "Abraham Lincoln," andsome indeed who wondered if he did the wise thing. To Charles Gilpin,however, came the decision that sooner or later must be faced by everyartist, and indeed by every man in any field of endeavor--either to reston safe and assumed achievement, or to believe in one's own self, takethe great risk, and launch out into the unknown. He choose to believe inhimself. His work was one of the features of the New York theatricalseason of 1920-21, and at the annual dinner of the Drama League in 1921he was one of the ten guests who were honored as having contributed mostto the American theatre within the year.

  The play on which this success has been based is a highly original anddramatic study of panic and fear. The Emperor Jones is a Negro who hasbroken out of jail in the United States and escaped to what is termed a"West Indian Island not yet self-determined by white marines." Here heis sufficiently bold and ingenious to make himself ruler within twoyears. He moves unharmed among his sullen subjects by virtue of a legendof his invention that only a silver bullet can harm him, but at lengthwhen he has reaped all the riches in sight, he deems it advisable toflee. As the play begins, the measured sound of a beating tom-tom in thehills gives warning that the natives are in conclave, using all kinds ofincantations to work themselves up to the point of rebellion. Nightfallfinds the Emperor at the edge of a forest where he has food hidden andthrough whose trackless waste he knows a way to safety and freedom. Hisrevolver carries five bullets for his pursuers and a silver one forhimself in case of need. Bold and adventurous, he plunges into thejungle at sunset; but at dawn, half-crazed, naked, and broken, hestumbles back to the starting-place only to find the natives quietlywaiting for him there. Now follows a vivid portrayal of strange soundsand shadows, with terrible visions from the past. As the Emperor's fearquickens, the forest seems filled with threatening people who stare atand bid for him. Finally, shrieking at the worst vision of all, he isdriven back to the clearing and to his death, the tom-tom beating evernearer and faster according as his panic grows.

  To the work of this remarkable part--which is so dominating in the playthat it has been called a dramatic monologue--Mr. Gilpin brings theresources of a matured and thoroughly competent actor. His performanceis powerful and richly imaginative, and only other similarly strongplays are now needed for the further enlargement of the art of an actorwho has already shown himself capable of the hardest work and thehighest things.

  For once the critics were agreed. Said Alexander Woolcott in the _NewYork Times_ with reference to those who produced the play: "They haveacquired an actor, one who has it in him to invoke the pity and theterror and the indescribable foreboding which are part of the secret of'The Emperor Jones.'" Kenneth MacGowan wrote in the _Globe_; "Gilpin'sis a sustained and splendid piece of acting. The moment when he raiseshis naked body against the moonlit sky, beyond the edge of the jungle,and prays, is such a dark lyric of the flesh, such a cry of theprimitive being, as I have never seen in the theatre"; and in the_Tribune_ Heywood Broun said of the actor: "He sustains the successionof scenes in monologue not only because his voice is one of a gorgeousnatural quality, but because he knows just what to do with it. All thenotes are there and he has also an extraordinary facility for being inthe right place at the right time." Such comments have been re-echoed bythe thousands who have witnessed Mr. Gilpin's thrilling work, and insuch a record as this he deserves further credit as one who has finallybridged the chasm between popular comedy and the legitimate drama, andwho thus by sheer right of merit steps into his own as the foremostactor that the Negro race has produced within recent years.