Monday, June 27, 2022

An Asteroid not a Star: The Life of Anita Thompson

Anita Thompson 1921 

Anita Thompson in By Right of Birth, 1921.


When Anita Thompson looked back on her time as a young woman, she claimed she was “an asteroid then, in orbit about the brilliant stars.” Becoming a celebrity takes a combination of luck and hard work. Thompson certainly had the luck to draw attention but seemed indifferent to fame and content to look on from far away.

Thompson enjoyed a privileged childhood as a member of a prominent mixed-race family clan. She was born in Chicago in 1901 but her immediate family moved to California when she was a teenager. Segregation prevented wealthy blacks from staying in the best hotels so Thompson’s mother hosted family but also unrelated luminaries visiting Los Angeles. In this way, Thompson became friends with A’Lelia Walker, daughter of Madame C.J. Walker. During this period, she probably had an affair with W.E.B. duBois, who featured her on the cover of the magazine he edited.

The Crisis May 1917


Thompson worked her way into a prestigious dancing school that often provided cast extras for Hollywood films. She appeared in the 1921 movie Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, in which Rudolph Valentino danced the tango to fame. Thompson had a more prominent role as a royal attendant in The Thief of Bagdad (1924) and became friends with Anna Mae Wong who also appeared in the film.

Thompson also starred in one of the most successful black production company movies of the 1920s, By Right of Birth. She played Juanita Cooper in this film made by the Lincoln Motion Picture Company. In the film, Thompson’s character is adopted and her search for her birth parents reveals the fact that she is heir to a fortune and mixed race though she had assumed her whole life that she was white. Thompson received praise in the black press for her performance but also in mainstream publications. The Billboard review singled her out and summed up the movie as “a very pretty story, nicely told and well handled with a pleasant surprise at the finish.”


By Right of Birth, 1921.


Thompson, however, left Hollywood and the chance of a movie career. She fell in love with New York when she visited in 1923. She wrote years later that dancing at the Waldorf-Astoria was where she belonged, “feeling glamorous in an accordion-pleated pale yellow chiffon dress.”

Thompson abandoned film acting for other reasons also. Her genteel mother “thought Hollywood was immoral and the next thing to appearing in the circus.” Thompson herself also judged many of the stars as “coarse” and claimed she had only performed in movies for fun.


Anita Thompson 1921

By Right of Birth, 1921.


She may have truly felt that way but she probably also knew she could not succeed in 1920s Hollywood. There was only room for one black Mary Pickford, and Edna Morton already had a lock on that position. The executives at the Lincoln Motion Picture Company, and probably Thompson, knew the firm was in trouble due to distribution complications and a lack of funding. They only made five films and By Right of Birth would be the last. Other black production companies existed but African Americans had few opportunities in film and even fewer chances to play characters who were not racist stereotypes.


Anita Thompson ad By Right of Birth

Advertisement for two-day showing of By Right of Birth in the Dallas Express. September 17, 1921


So Thompson settled on the east coast to attend college but she remained in the spotlight. She danced in the chorus line of the popular Broadway show Runnin’ Wild but passed on the chance to go on tour with the company. She told a journalist that she wanted to pursue more serious art but remembered years later that she doubted anyone could make a living as an artist. She performed in stage plays and caused a scandal by traveling to Atlantic City with an engaged man. Thompson ultimately completed a teaching degree and took a job. Not ready to settle into a conventional life, however, she moved to Paris in 1928.


Anita Thompson 1924

Pittsburgh Courier. October 25, 1924


Thompson remained comfortable in proximity to fame but never seemed to really choose celebrity. In Paris she had some success writing and also modeling for designers such as Coco Chanel. Surrealist artist Man Ray would occasionally take her to lunch and Thompson remembered feeling then that the “star-gazer would be elevated to the upper stratosphere.” She inspired poets and novelists, as well as artists, and was sure to send her mother all the books in which she was mentioned.

She returned to the US as World War II reached France and moved further away from celebrity. She married twice, became a psychologist and teacher. When she recorded her memories of her early decades, she was living on the island of St. Croix. Thompson died there in 1980 but left a fascinating account of her asteroid life.

Thanks for reading! Have a question, comment, or suggestion, let me know. Check out other posts on the right. To subscribe, email angela.firkus@gmail.com

 

Sources and Further Reading

Atwood, Rose. “Tired of Jazz, Pretty Star Deserts Chorus.” Pittsburgh Courier. July 19, 1924. [http://fultonhistory.com]

Bowser, Pearl, Jane Gaines, and Charles Musser, eds. Oscar Micheaux and His Circle: African-American Filmmaking and Race Cinema of the Silent Era. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001.

“By Right of Birth” Clips. Directed by Harry Gant. Lincoln Motion Picture Company, 1921. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCVrFj7fclg

“Dame Rumor Involves Pretty Actress and ‘Divorce Principals’ in Midnight Rout.” Pittsburgh Courier. Sept. 27, 1924. [http://fultonhistory.com]

Review of “By Right of Birth. The Billboard. Oct. 29, 1921. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/sim_billboard_1921-10-29_33_44_0098

Staff, MSRC. “Reynolds, Anita Thompson Dickinson” (2015). Manuscript Division Finding Aids. 166. https://dh.howard.edu/finaid_manu/166

[Thompson] Reynolds, Anita. American Cocktail: A ‘Colored Girl’ in the World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2014.