Ethel Moses

Ethel Moses (April 29, 1904 – June 1982) was an American actress and dancer, billed as "the black Jean Harlow". She is best known for working in films by Oscar Micheaux.

Early life

Ethel Moses was born in Staunton, Virginia and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of William Henry Moses and Julia Trent Moses. Her sisters Lucia and Julia also became performers; their brother Bill taught at Hampton Institute. Their father was a prominent Baptist preacher in New York[1] who disapproved of (but did not prevent) his daughters' stage careers.[2] Ethel attended the Nannie Helen Burroughs School in the District of Columbia.[3] Her aunt, Lena Trent Gordon, was a Philadelphia-area political organizer who served on a national committee with Burroughs.[4]

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.[5] 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.[6] She danced at the Cotton Club,[7] and toured Europe with the Cab Calloway band.[8]

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 Stepchildren (also 1937), in which she played two characters. Finally she was in a remake of Micheaux's silent picture, Birthright (remade in 1939). Moses also appeared in several musical shorts, including Cab Calloway's Jitterbug Party (1935).[8][9]

Ethel Moses left show business by early 1940.[10]

Personal life

Ethel Moses married Benny Payne, a pianist in Cab Calloway's band.[11] They eventually divorced, and in the 1940s Ethel was remarried to a factory worker, Frank Ryan; they lived in Jamaica, Queens.[12][13] She died in 1982, in Brooklyn, aged 78 years.

Her nephew is Bob Moses, a civil rights activist and educator.[2]

References
  1. Martha 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. ISBN 9780393058314
  2. Laura Visser-Maessen, Robert Parris Moses: A Life in Civil Rights and Leadership at the Grassroots (University of North Carolina Press 2016): 11-15. ISBN 9781469627991
  3. Mrs. Bayard, "North Philadelphia Flashes" Buffalo American (November 18, 1920): 2. via Newspapers.com
  4. "Philadelphia's 'Most Dynamic' Woman is Dead". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1935-06-22. p. 8. Retrieved 2020-02-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "Ethel Moses Chosen the Most Beautiful Girl in The Savoy Beauty Contest" New York Age (August 28, 1926): 7. via Newspapers.com
  6. "Three's a Crowd" Pittsburgh Courier (December 24, 1932): 16. via Newspapers.com
  7. "The Albert McCreys and Neighbors Enjoy Gracious Suburban Living" New York Age (July 4, 1953): 13. via Newspapers.com
  8. Bob McCann, ed. Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television (McFarland 2009): 241. ISBN 9780786458042
  9. Spencer Moon, Reel Black Talk: A Sourcebook of 50 American Filmmakers (Greenwood Publishing 1997): 252. ISBN 9780313298301
  10. "Buries Father" Chicago Defender (March 2, 1940): 21.
  11. "Returns to Harlem" Pittsburgh Courier (April 4, 1936): 16.via Newspapers.com
  12. Adrienne Wartts, "Ethel Moses" BlackPast.org.
  13. Betty Granger, "On the Island: Town and Country" New York Age (December 18, 1948): 7. via Newspapers.com
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