RICHARD E. NORMAN

Richard E. Norman was a director, producer and exhibitor from the 1910s to 1940s. He started his career in the Midwest by making movies for white audiences in the 1910s. His first silent film with an all-black cast was The Green-Eyed Monster in 1919 (Norman later decided to split the film into a drama and a comedy, Green-Eyed Monster and Love Bug). Norman moved to Jacksonville, Florida during the height of the film industry there, and bought a studio in 1920 at the age of 29. Success brought attention to the studio from other African-American actors hoping to star in films. After several successful films in the 1920s, Norman Studios closed due to an investment in an early (but soon obsolete) sound system for talking films, and because by the 1930s, the film industry had moved on from Jacksonville (to southern California). Norman Studios eventually became a distributor and then Richard began exhibiting films in the 1940s. Some of his movies include: The Bull Dogger, The Crimson Skull, and The Flying Ace. Norman passed away in 1960 at the age of 69.