Questions? Ask Special Collections
Last modified: July 30, 2010
© 2010 University of Delaware Library

Identification: MSS 099, F868
Creator: Lipton, Lew, 1893-1961.
Title: Harlem Cavalcade : story and screen play
Inclusive Dates: 1935-1961
Extent: 1 item (154 p.)
Abstract: American film writer and producer Lew Lipton worked on this typescript for Harlem Cavalcade from 1935 until his death in 1961. It follows the story of African American life from 1626 to the 1930s.
Language: Materials entirely in English.
MSS 099, F868, Lew Lipton, Harlem Cavalcade : story and screen play, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.
Box 60, F868: Shelved in SPEC MSS 0099 manuscript boxes
Special Collections Department, University of Delaware Library / Newark, Delaware 19717-5267 / Phone: 302-831-2229 / Fax: 302-831-6003 / URL: http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/
Purchase, February 2010.
Processed and encoded by Anita Wellner, June 2010.
The collection is open for research.
Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. Please contact Special Collections Department, University of Delaware Library, http://www.lib.udel.edu/cgi-bin/askspec.cgi
American film writer and producer Lew Lipton wrote or adapted over twenty screenplays and was the producer of twenty other films. He was born on February 23, 1893, in Chicago, Illinois, and died in New York City on December 27, 1961.
Sources:
"Lew Lipton." The Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0513858/ (retrieved June 2010).
Lew Lipton worked on this script for Harlem Cavalcade from 1935 until his death in 1961. It follows the story of African American life from 1626 to the 1930s.This script includes 154 pages of legal-sized original typescript and typescript carbon pages. The second page of the manuscript bears this typed statement: “The idea of Harlem Cavalcade was conceived by the author in 1935. Since then he has devoted most of his time to research, compilation, arrangement and the actual writing.” The play is an epic history of the Negro in America, including the social, political and cultural experience, about which the author writes on page five: “Throughout this entire story, there is not a single white person visible. White participation is illustrated purely by suggestion.” Lipton's story began in 1626 on the docks of the Dutch community in what is today New York City. His story continued with vignettes of major events and the lives of African Americans as they shaped history until about 1938. Among those depicted in the story were many noted African Americans, such Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglas, George Washington Carver, Joe Lewis, Satchel Paige, Cab Calloway and numerous others. The story ends in a classroom in Harlem in the late 1930s with the singing of the Colored National Anthem.
Harlem Cavalcade : story and screen play, 1935-1961 [Box 60 F868]