Hollywood's first all-black cast film.
Originally planned as a musical short, the film began production with George Gilpin as Nappus. Gilpin, a stage performer, was too broad for the subtleties of motion picture work, and producer Winfield R. Sheehan shut down the film and recast it. He expanded the project into a full-length dramatic film, the first major studio feature with a virtually all-black cast.
The film was first shown to a preview audience as a special, without announcing the title or subject, at the Mission Theatre in San Jose, California on 30 January 1929. (San Jose Evening News, 31 January 1929).
The official premiere was at the Gaiety Theatre in New York City on 27 February 1929.
(New York Evening Post, 27 February 1929)
Bernice Pilot's debut.