# REOL Productions

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/REOL_Productions
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/REOL_Productions.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REOL_Productions
> Source revision: 1357199370
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

**REOL Productions Corporation** was a film production company in New York City from 1921 until 1924 during the [silent film](/source/Silent_film) era.[1] It released ten films for African American audiences. The company promoted its films by noting they were adaptations of works by African American authors such as a film version of [Paul Laurence Dunbar](/source/Paul_Laurence_Dunbar)'s 1902 novel *[The Sport of the Gods](/source/The_Sport_of_the_Gods)*. [Lafayette Theatre](/source/Lafayette_Theatre_(Harlem)) manager [Robert Levy](/source/Robert_Levy_(producer)) managed the film productions with casts from the [Lafayette Players](/source/Lafayette_Players).

The studio's first release was *[The Sport of the Gods](/source/The_Sport_of_the_Gods)*.

The company's *[The Call of His People](/source/The_Call_of_His_People)* was an adaptation of [Aubrey Bowser](/source/Aubrey_Bowser)'s book about [passing](/source/Passing_(racial_identity)) *[The Man Who Would Be White](/source/The_Man_Who_Would_Be_White)*.[2] Plans developed to adapt [Charles W. Chesnutt](/source/Charles_W._Chesnutt)'s *[The Marrow of Tradition](/source/The_Marrow_of_Tradition)* but did not come to fruition. The film company went out of business in 1924.

Productions included melodramas, at least one comedy, and two documentaries. It secured a distribution agreement in Philadelphia and Baltimore.[3]

In 2002, the Cornell Institute for Digital Collections sought out any holders of the company's films for a restoration and preservation project.[4]

## Filmography

- *[The Sport of the God](/source/The_Sport_of_the_Gods_(film))* (1921)[5][6]
- *[The Burden of Race](/source/The_Burden_of_Race)* (1921)[7]
- *[The Secret Sorrow](/source/The_Secret_Sorrow)*,[8] starring George Edward Brown[9]
- *[The Call of His People](/source/The_Call_of_His_People)* (1922), an adaptation of [Aubrey Bowser](/source/Aubrey_Bowser)'s *The Man Who Would Be White*.[5]
- *[The Jazz Hounds](/source/The_Jazz_Hounds)*
- *[The Simp](/source/The_Simp_(1921_film))* (1921), featured [Sherman H. Dudley](/source/Sherman_H._Dudley), [Inez Clough](/source/Inez_Clough), [Edna Morton](/source/Edna_Morton), Alex K. Shannon, and [Percy Verwayen](/source/Percy_Verwayen).[10]
- *[Ties of Blood](/source/Ties_of_Blood)* (1921)
- *[The Schemers](/source/The_Schemers_(1922_film))* (1922)
- *[Easy Money](/source/Easy_Money_(1922_film))* (1922), starring Sherman H. Dudley[11]
- *[Spitfire](/source/Spitfire_(1922_film))* (1922)

## See also

- [African American cinema](/source/African_American_cinema)

## References

1. Petersen, Christina (December 3, 2008). ["The 'Reol' Story: Race Authorship and Consciousness in Robert Levy's Reol Productions, 1921–1926"](https://muse.jhu.edu/article/254498). *Film History: An International Journal*. **20** (3): 308–324. [doi:10.2979/FIL.2008.20.3.308](https://doi.org/10.2979/FIL.2008.20.3.308). [S2CID 193192040](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:193192040). – via Project MUSE.

1. Petersen, Christina G. (2008). ["The 'Reol' Story: Race Authorship and Consciousness in Robert Levy's Reol Productions, 1921–1926"](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236714236). *Film History: An International Journal*. **20** (3): 308–324. [doi:10.2979/FIL.2008.20.3.308](https://doi.org/10.2979/FIL.2008.20.3.308). [JSTOR 25165484](https://www.jstor.org/stable/25165484). [S2CID 193192040](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:193192040)

1. ["Reol Productions"](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25853495/reol-productions/). *The Dallas Express*. September 10, 1921. p. 1. – via newspapers.com.

1. ["LISTSERV 16.0 - AMIA-L Archives"](https://lsv.uky.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0212&L=AMIA-L&P=26529). *lsv.uky.edu*

1. ["REOL Productions"](http://normanstudios.org/nsdrc/portfolio/reol-productions/). *Norman Studios*

1. ["Reol Productions film at Lafayette"](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30525698/reol-productions-film-at-lafayette/). *The New York Age*. May 21, 1921. p. 6. – via newspapers.com.

1. ["Reol Productions"](https://blackcinemaconnection.com/tag/reol-productions/). *Black Cinema Connection*. 12 July 2020.

1. ["AFI|Catalog"](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/146). *catalog.afi.com*

1. ["The Secret Sorrow"](http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.9004/default.html). November 9, 1921. – via memory.loc.gov.

1. ["The Simp"](https://web.archive.org/web/20220929065522/https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/562107/the-simp/#overview). Archived from [the original](https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/562107/the-simp#overview) on September 29, 2022.

1. ["Easy Money (1922) \[Lost Film\]"](https://www.daaracarchive.org/2016/10/easy-money-1922-lost-film.html?m=1)

## External links

- [IMDb page for REOL Productions](https://pro.imdb.com/company/co0013166)

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [REOL Productions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REOL_Productions) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REOL_Productions?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.