Ethel Moses (April 29, 1904 – June 1982) was an American stage and film actress, and dancer. She was billed as "the black Jean Harlow". Moses is best known for working in films by Oscar Micheaux.
Early life Ethel Moses was born on April 29, 1904, in Staunton, Virginia, the daughter of William Henry Moses and Julia Trent Moses. She was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her sisters Lucia and Julia also became performers; their brother Bill taught at Hampton Institute. Their father was a prominent Baptist preacher in New YorkMartha Simmons and Frank A. Thomas, eds., Preaching with Sacred Fire: An Anthology of African American Sermons, 1750 to the Present (W. W. Norton 2010): 303. who disapproved of (but did not prevent) his daughters' stage careers.Laura Visser-Maessen, Robert Parris Moses: A Life in Civil Rights and Leadership at the Grassroots (University of North Carolina Press 2016): 11-15. Ethel attended the Nannie Helen Burroughs School in the District of Columbia.Mrs. Bayard, "North Philadelphia Flashes" Buffalo American (November 18, 1920): 2. via Newspapers.com Her aunt, Lena Trent Gordon, was a Philadelphia-area political organizer who served on a national committee with Burroughs.
Career In 1924 she made her stage debut as a dancer in a show called Dixie to Broadway. She won a beauty contest at the Savoy Hotel in 1926."Ethel Moses Chosen the Most Beautiful Girl in The Savoy Beauty Contest" New York Age (August 28, 1926): 7. via Newspapers.com In 1929 Ethel Moses was voted the "Shapeliest Chorus Girl" on the New York stage; her sister Lucia placed second in the same poll. She was in the company of a Broadway revival of Showboat in 1932."Three's a Crowd" Pittsburgh Courier (December 24, 1932): 16. via Newspapers.com She danced at the Cotton Club,"The Albert McCreys and Neighbors Enjoy Gracious Suburban Living" New York Age (July 4, 1953): 13. via Newspapers.com and toured Europe with the Cab Calloway band.Bob McCann, ed. Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television (McFarland 2009): 241.
In the mid-1930s, she began working with filmmaker Oscar Micheaux; her first film role was as "The Bronze Venus", an artist's model who is seen nearly nude on screen, in Micheaux's Temptation (1936). The pair followed that success with Underworld (1937), in which Moses plays a college student, and God's Step Children (also 1937), in which she played two characters. Finally she was in a remake of Micheaux's silent picture, Birthright (remade in 1938). Moses also appeared in several musical shorts, including Cab Calloway's Jitterbug Party (1935).Spencer Moon, Reel Black Talk: A Sourcebook of 50 American Filmmakers (Greenwood Publishing 1997): 252.
Ethel Moses left show business by early 1940."Buries Father" Chicago Defender (March 2, 1940): 21.
Personal life Ethel Moses married Benny Payne, a pianist in Cab Calloway's band."Returns to Harlem" Pittsburgh Courier (April 4, 1936): 16.via Newspapers.com They eventually divorced, and in the 1940s Ethel was remarried to a factory worker, Frank Ryan; they lived in Jamaica, Queens.Adrienne Wartts, "Ethel Moses" BlackPast.org.Betty Granger, "On the Island: Town and Country" New York Age (December 18, 1948): 7. via Newspapers.com She died in 1982, in Brooklyn, aged 78 years.
Her nephew is Bob Moses, a civil rights activist and educator.
Legacy Despite her notable presence in the world of Black independent cinema, her career was limited by racial barriers in the American film industry. Several records from the Pearl Bowser Oral History Collection show how Moses claimed that many of her performances were not credited in the film titles or did not receive national distribution. Even though her film career was brief, Moses left a significant mark on Black American Cinema and the representation of American women during the Harlem Renaissance. Her work helped to open up opportunities for Black actresses in narrative productions, and her legacy is now being reclaimed by film historians as an example of talent rendered invisible by the racial structures of classic Hollywood. Stage shows
Keep Shuffling (1928) Show Boat (1932) Black Birds of 1935 (1935)
Filmography
Birthright (1924) Cab Calloway's Hi-De-Ho (1934) Cab Calloway's Jitterbug Party (1935) Temptation (1936) Underworld (1937) God's Step Children (1937) Harlemania (1938) Policy Man (1938) Birthright (1938; remake) Gone Harlem (1939)
References
External links
Ethel Moses listing at IBDB. Ethel Moses listing at BFI.