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Clarence Muse - Star of the Month (February 2010)
Written by Gary Sweeney   

Every month we throw the spotlight on an actor or actress who exemplifies what it means to be a class act. We welcome your emails if you have a suggestion for a future Star of the Month. The Midnight Palace is pleased to present the Star of the Month for February 2010: Clarence Muse.

Date of Birth
October 14, 1889, Baltimore, Maryland

Date of Death
October 13, 1979, Perris, California

Birth Name
Clarence Edouard Muse

Nickname(s)
N/A

Height
5?6

Overview:

African-American performers in early cinema were mostly relegated to stereotypical roles that portrayed them as ignorant, subservient, and uneducated. Regardless of their talents, many were used as a backdrop to whichever star was thought more important. Clarence Muse was one such performer. His intelligence helped to provide him with a successful career; but sadly, he remains unknown to a majority of classic film enthusiasts.

Clarence Edouard Muse was born in Baltimore, Maryland to Alexander Muse and Mary Sales. Though his birth has been documented as October 14, 1889, this is the subject of some dispute with October 7 supposedly being his actual date of birth. Baltimore, founded in 1729, was largely comprised of black citizens by 1820, when the city was the third largest in population. Slavery was legal in Maryland; however, Baltimore had more free blacks then slaves. Those who enjoyed freedom fought discrimination by setting up churches and organizations, resulting in the many black churches which still survive. The status of Alexander Muse is unknown but it?s safe to assume that he was both free and capable of supporting his family. At the age of eighteen, Clarence married Frieda Belle Moore. The couple had one son in 1910, but their marriage dissolved while Clarence was attending the Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He was one of the first black students to graduate from Dickinson in 1911, with a law degree that he never utilized professionally.

With a lack of opportunities for black lawyers, and having participated in choral groups while in college, Muse turned his attention to show business. He flexed his creative muscles in as many areas as possible, appearing as an opera singer, minstrel show performer, and as a vaudeville and Broadway actor. By 1914, Muse married for the second time. He and his new wife Ophelia performed along the East Coast as ?Muse and Muse? before settling in Harlem, New York. At the Franklin Theatre, along with their partner Willard Pugh, they established the Muse and Pugh Stock Company, which was later known as the Crescent Players. Their company was briefly moved to the Crescent Theatre where the play Another Man?s Wife starred Muse and his wife. Once again, they moved their company, this time to the Lincoln Theatre. There it merged with a progressive group known as the Lincoln Players. Originally named The Anita Bush Players, the company was formed by Anita Bush, a dancer-turned-actress who wanted to provide more theatrical opportunities for African-Americans. The group eventually merged with the Lafayette Players in 1916, and Muse became their leading actor, succeeding Charles Gilpin who quit after a salary dispute. Muse appeared in such plays as The Master Mind and A Servant in the House, but his real success came from the title role in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Playing in whiteface and a blonde wig, Muse created a stir since he was very dark-skinned and the majority of the Lafayette Players were of fair complexion.

In 1920, the Lafayette group supported Muse when he became one of the founding directors of the Delsarte Film Corporation, a black independent film company in New York City. He wrote and starred in one known film, Toussaint L?Ouverture, a biopic about Toussaint Breda, the Haitian general who drove Napoleon out of Haiti and led his country to independence.

Following his stint in New York, and after a divorcing Ophelia, Muse moved to Chicago to produce and direct shows at the Royal Gardens Theatre. Some of the most notable were Boola Boola (1922), Rambling Around (1923), The Charleston Plantation Revue (1926), and Miss Bandana (1927). The success of these plays eventually led the Fox Film Corporation to invite Muse to Hollywood, where he starred in his first commercial film, Hearts in Dixie in 1929 with Stepin Fetchit, which was also the second film to feature talking (he?d had two previous credits, 1921?s The Custard Nine and 1929?s Election Day). With the medium of sound in its infancy, Muse believed that talking films were part of a fad that would die a quick death. Because of this, he requested a high salary of $1,250 a week with a 12-month contract, as well as round-trip tickets for his family to travel with him. As extravagant of a request as it was for the time, it was honored.

In Hollywood, Muse hammered out role after role in films like Frisco Jenny (1932), Hell?s Highway (1932), Flying Down to Rio (1933), The Count of Monte Cristo (1934), and Way Down South (1939), among numerous others. Interestingly, Muse co-wrote the screenplay for Way Down South with Langston Hughes in addition to composing the songs. However, though he worked constantly, it was a career built on labels and typecasting, with Muse depicting the submissive black stereotype. On one occasion in 1940?s Broken Strings, he was able to avoid playing such a character, instead portraying a concert violinist who opposes the desire of his son to play "swing". In 1941?s The Invisible Ghost with Bela Lugosi, Muse once again defied convention, playing a butler who addresses a white female servant as ?you old fool!? This was a landmark for the black community in a time of fighting for equality. Take a look at this clip from The Invisible Ghost:


During World War II, Muse served as a member of the Hollywood Victory Committee, an organization formed just after the attack on Pearl Harbor to entertain and boost morale for troops stationed overseas. The Hollywood Victory Committee was associated with the Screen Actors Guild and organized events between January 1942 and August 1945. Chairmen of the committee included Clark Gable, James Cagney, and George Murphy. Hattie McDaniel was the Chairman of the Negro Division.

At an undocumented time during these years, Muse married Willabella Marchbanks. Together they had one child and were divorced by 1949. His fourth and final marriage was to Irene Claire Kellman in 1954. A great number of Muse?s roles throughout the 1940s and into the 1950s went uncredited. Surprisingly, he became a supporter of the controversial TV series Amos 'N' Andy, despite his lifelong campaign for the fair treatment of black performers. He reasoned that although the series did portray some misrepresentation of African-Americans, it also allowed black actors to play doctors, bankers, judges, professors, and other parts generally denied them in "white" shows. In 1955, Muse was a regular on the weekly TV version of Casablanca, playing Sam the pianist, and in 1959, he appeared in the film Porgy and Bess.

The Great Muse...

In the later years of his life, Muse lived in Perris Valley, California. He received an honorary doctor of humanities degree from Bishop College, Dallas, Texas, in 1972, and was a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., Omega Chapter. He attended the city council meetings and brought to attention many concerns that involved the community arts and senior-citizen issues. When Muse was in his early 70s, he began the Perris Arts Festival, which continues to this day. He also requested that he be addressed as Dr. Muse, a nod to the law degree he earned from Dickinson School of Law many years before.

On September 22, 1979, at his ranch in Riverside County, Muse suffered a stroke and was admitted into the Community Hospital of Perris Valley. He died at the age of 90 on Saturday, October 13, 1979, of a cerebral hemorrhage. Shortly after his death, his last film, The Black Stallion, was released. Clarence Muse was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1973.

Special Links of Interest:
Clarence Muse on IMDB

Downloads:
Clarence Muse SOTM Wallpaper (1024x768)
Clarence Muse SOTM Wallpaper (800x600)

The Invisible Ghost - MPEG2 Format (1941)

 

 

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