Topline:
Noble Johnson was able to find success in Hollywood by playing characters of every race except his own.
About this episode: Host Jacqueline Stewart talks with Cara Caddoo — media studies scholar at Indiana University Bloomington — about Johnson's career and legacy.
Why you should listen: Previously lost materials help us better understand Hollywood's overlooked first Black movie star.
The list of things that makes Noble Johnson remarkable is almost comically long. He was the first Black matinee idol and the first Black person to write a Hollywood movie: The Indian's Lament (1917). He’s also believed to be the only Black actor to play a starring role in a silent-era film: Universal’s The Lady from the Sea in 1916.
Throughout his long career in Hollywood, Johnson acted alongside some of the most famous actors in film history, including: John Barrymore, Douglas Fairbanks, Anna May Wong, Bette Davis, John Wayne, Gary Cooper and Bob Hope. He was in the original King Kong (1933), The Mummy (1932), Moby Dick (1930), The Ten Commandments (1923) and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916).
He was a skilled horseman, makeup artist, and dog trainer. (An article about Johnson from the December 1933 issue of Kennel Review notes that he taught a deaf English bull terrier to understand hand signals — a skill he’d learned from Mexican sheepherders he’d worked with in his home state of Colorado.)
Johnson also started his own independent studio in Los Angeles, the Lincoln Motion Picture Company. History was made just last year, when a film scholar discovered a fragment of one of their earliest films — 1916’s The Trooper of Troop K — embedded within another Lincoln Company film from 1921.
The company was formed in Los Angeles in 1915 by Johnson, who served as president, and a small group of other founding members — Black and white — while Johnson was also working as an actor for Universal. Their mission was to make so-called “race films”: movies intended for Black audiences that featured Black actors in roles that weren’t stereotypical caricatures (unlike other films made by white filmmakers at the time) and that weren’t played by white actors in blackface.
What now stands as the oldest surviving footage of a film produced by a Black film company is from The Trooper of Troop K (a discovery that was made in 2021 by Cara Caddoo, Indiana University cinema and media studies scholar).
Prior to Caddoo’s identification of the footage, and its verification by the Library of Congress, film scholars believed the oldest surviving films produced by Black filmmakers were from the 1920s.
The Lincoln Motion Picture Company’s films were popular, and they played in theaters across the country (thanks to Noble’s brother George P. Johnson, who marketed and distributed them), but Caddoo told The Academy Museum Podcast host Jacqueline Stewart, the company’s run was short-lived.
“The big Hollywood companies that were doing the same thing, they were struggling. It was just really hard to make a profit off of the productions. And especially enough profit that they could continue making more productions,” says Caddoo.
There was also the flu pandemic of 1918, which resulted in the shuttering of many movie theaters and made distributing films even more difficult and costly.
But another unique problem for the Lincoln Co. was the success Johnson found being cast in films for studios like Universal, playing characters of various races.
“On one hand, Noble is playing all of these Black leads in the Lincoln Motion Picture Company films,” Caddoo says. “But at Universal where he was working as a contract actor, he's playing, Native Americans, he's playing Asians, he's playing Mexicans.”
At the Academy Museum in L.A., Johnson is featured in an original 1937 issue of The Academy Players Directory, a catalog of photos of actors that for years was published by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and used by directors, writers, producers and studio heads to cast films.
For the first several years that the directory was issued, including the one on display in the museum, it was racially segregated. But Johnson is included among the white actors.
And while film historian Caddoo says Johnson never “passed” in the sense of denying his Blackness and saying he was white, she also says, “he also just refused to talk about his race altogether.”
George P. Johnson: At Universal, out of 50 pictures, I don’t think he played a Negro part in more than about three. As a great makeup artist, he made up as an Indian or a West Indian or a South American or pretty near anything they wanted to make-up.
Interviewer: But in the Lincoln Company films he played Negro parts?
Johnson: Oh, in the Lincoln Company he played naturally. He didn’t need any makeup, no. Of course we were featuring Negro films, that was our business. But he got in pictures accidentally and made good. He got in all those big pictures, but he didn’t get in there as a Negro, he got in there as an actor.
Then complaints from white theater owners — that Johnson’s Lincoln Motion Picture Co. films were taking business away from their theaters — changed things.
“They complained to Universal,” Caddoo says. “And Universal called Noble on the carpet and was basically like, ‘Are you gonna continue with that work or are you gonna continue with our work?’”
The fact that Johnson was “kind of advertising himself out there as this representative of the Black race,” Caddoo says, also “really complicated Universal's ability to market and to advertise him as all these different kinds of racial types. And it really made it dangerous for Universal, in their minds, [to show] him on screen with white women.”
While all the reasons that Johnson had for leaving the company he founded aren’t totally known, he parted ways with his partners in 1918 and the company shuttered in 1921.
Today, though Johnson may not be a household name, the impact he had on Hollywood is undeniable. He had one of the longest-running careers of any Hollywood actor — spanning 1915 to 1950, from the silent era to horror films of the 1930s and comedies in later years. Apart from his groundbreaking work making “race films” with his own company, and creating opportunities for himself and other Black actors, he also used his skills as an actor and makeup artist to originate character types that previously hadn’t existed.
You don't forget seeing him on screen. He's just got this charisma and this ability to kind of take over whatever scene he's in.
“Even though his characters, in many ways, we would see them as problematic today,” says Caddoo, “They're always these standout [roles]. You don't forget seeing him on screen. He's just got this charisma and this ability to kind of take over whatever scene he's in.”
When it comes to Johnson’s legacy, Caddoo says he paved the way for actors who would be described as “ethnically ambiguous” today. “He made space for these other kinds of actors and he made space for other kinds of representations on screen that weren’t legible and that weren't easy to read.”
“And I think that's really important because it really pushes us to think about the complexity of race and also the complexity of what it means to be Black. That there's a much wider range of appearances, of behaviors, of actors who are Black than we typically see on screen.”
It's now available from LAist Studios. Check it out wherever you get your get podcasts! Or listen to the second episode of season two on the player above.
What to expect: More dry heat and windy conditions across Southern California. Coachella Valley highs could reach up to 118 degrees today.
Read on ... for more details.
Get comfortable with the heat because it's here to stay. The dry weather and windy conditions will continue to make conditions ripe for fire.
The National Weather Service says coastal areas will continue to see cooler weather today with highs in the mid 70s to low 80s, while temps along the inland coast are expected to reach mid 80s to low 90s. In Orange County inland areas will see temperatures from 81 to 90 degrees.
For the valley communities, temperatures there today will reach 89 to 98 degrees again, and up to 99 to 104 degrees more inland.
Coachella Valley will be scorching today with highs from 113 to 118 degrees. Meanwhile, in the Antelope Valley, expect highs from 101 to 110 degrees today, and around 93 to 98 degrees for the cooler hills.
Wind gusts today could reach up to 35 mph but otherwise expect southwest to northwest winds of 10 to 25 mph.
Make sure to stay hydrated and check in on any loved ones who might be vulnerable to the heat!
You can find cooling centers via the following links:
Protect a pet from excessive heat
Protect a human from excessive heat
Check in frequently with family, friends and neighbors. Offer assistance or rides to those who are sick or have limited access to transportation. And give extra attention to people most at risk, including:
Topline:
As it looks to rebuild after the Eaton Fire, Pasadena Rosebud Academy is holding its biggest fundraiser yet on Sunday featuring comics showcased by Kevin Hart's Funny AF.
The backstory: The TK-8 charter school displaced by the Eaton Fire serves a predominantly Black and brown student body and was founded nearly 20 years ago to promote student excellence through academics and financial literacy. About a third of Rosebud students lost homes in the fire, and many families are still displaced.
Why now: Their temporary setup at a Pasadena public school has required constant workarounds, from classrooms without sinks to annual uncertainty over facilities. Still, enrollment is growing, and some displaced families continue to drive in from downtown Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.
What's next: Rosebud hopes to raise upwards of $50 million to rebuild in the Pasadena or Altadena area, with a timeline set by the pace of fundraising.
Sometimes 8-year-old London Cook can convince herself the temporary digs for her elementary school are her old campus, the place where she first discovered her love of math and P.E. — that “this is just Rosebud.”
It’s been a year and a half since the Eaton Fire tore through the Pasadena Rosebud Academy, destroying the TK-8 charter school founded in the Altadena foothills nearly 20 years ago to promote Black and brown student excellence.
London and the 175 students and staff moved to modular buildings on the campus of the Don Benito Fundamental elementary school, nearly seven miles away in Pasadena.
London, one of a third of Rosebud students displaced by the Eaton Fire, says: “I think it’s nice of them to let us share their campus.”
But administrators at Rosebud say it’s time for students to have their own campus again and have embarked on a capital campaign to rebuild in the Pasadena area. They’re holding their biggest fundraiser yet this Sunday with the “Stand Up For Students” comedy show at the Alex Theatre in Glendale hosted by writer-producer Chris Spencer.
Stand up for Students Comedy Fundraiser for Pasadena Rosebud Academy
Where: Alex Theatre, 216 N Brand Blvd, Glendale, CA 91203
When: Sunday, July 12, 5:30 p.m.
Purchase tickets here
“Our kids deserve the best, we want them to have the best, so we won't settle for just making it work,” said Shawn Brown, Rosebud’s founder and executive director.
It’s hoped the event — with a lineup of comedians like Jesus Trejo and Aida Rodriguez who have been showcased on Funny AF with Kevin Hart — will raise a significant sum toward the school’s eventual rebuild, projected to cost upward of $50 million. It also offers a check-in on where Rosebud stands now: still in recovery.
“We don’t want people to forget about us and think that because we’re somewhere, that we are where we need to be,” Brown said. “We still have a long journey.”
Brown, who also lost her own home in Altadena in the Eaton Fire, said the school has been trying to make the portable classrooms work as much as possible but faces challenges to hands-on learning.
With no sinks in the classrooms, for example, the students are limited to art and science projects that don’t require much handwashing.
Yet, despite these constraints, the school community is growing stronger and expects to hit its highest enrollment yet this coming school year, with 215 incoming students.
Meanwhile, displaced families are still driving in from places including downtown Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.
“The fire really kind of brought us together more,” Brown said. “It kind of reminded us of who we were, who we are.”
Brown founded Rosebud in 2007 after years teaching middle school. She said she kept seeing Black and brown students arrive well below grade level and believed a different kind of school environment could help them excel.
Brown said Rosebud curricula is built around five pillars: critical thinking, financial literacy, exposure and experience, cultural awareness and service.
There is the added benefit, she said, for students of being around other young Black and brown people with similar life experiences.
"Another big thing is you are working with teachers and staff who believe that you are capable of achieving at a high level, and knowing that they have a fair shot in the future to be successful," Brown said.
For London’s grandfather, Joseph Shambrey, the school has been one of the few constants after the fire.
Shambrey, who with his wife are London’s legal guardians, are living in a Pasadena apartment post-fire as they work toward rebuilding their house in Altadena.
There was no question that they would keep London at Rosebud, even when they were temporarily staying in Gardena and the commute stretched to more than an hour.
Shambrey said London is a “very happy” child, which he credits in no small part to Rosebud.
Whether London will enjoy a new campus is unclear. Brown said the timeline of construction will be decided by the pace of fundraising.
But London is just looking to the year ahead when she enters fourth grade and hopes to make even more friends.
“She always loves coming to school,” Shambrey said. “She does not like staying home.”
Topline:
The city council in Culver City will consider a citywide ban on new drive-thrus after a group of neighbors raised concerns that a proposed In-N-Out could hurt air quality and create safety issues for pedestrians.
Status of the ban: In June, the City Council approved a 45-day moratorium on approving permits that involve a new drive-thru. In the meantime, city staff is drafting an ordinance banning new drive-thrus. The ordinance will first appear in front of the city’s planning commission for guidance and recommendation before heading to the City Council for a vote. Dates have not yet been set.
Community concern: An online petition urging Culver City residents and the City Council to oppose the In-N-Out drive-thru gathered just under 950 signatures in recent months.
Read on … to hear about drive-thrus from the perspective of urban and land use planners.
The City Council in Culver City will consider a citywide ban on new drive-thrus after a group of neighbors raised concerns that a proposed In-N-Out could hurt air quality and create safety issues for pedestrians.
"Density is inevitable, and development is inevitable,” said Vanessa Martin, a city resident organizing support for the drive-thru ban. “We want to be proactive and smart about it.”
Culver City Councilmember Bubba Fish, who sits on the city’s mobility subcommittee that voted to recommend staff draft the ban in May, said drive-thrus are fundamentally incompatible with the vision the city set for itself in its general plan. The planning document was adopted by the city in 2024.
“We need to be creating more walkable, bikeable, safer streets for people of all modes, and drive-thrus are the antithesis of that,” Fish said.
If you have a tip, you can reach me on Signal. My username is kharjai.61.
Drive-thru bans aren’t unprecedented in California. Culver City already bans drive-thrus in its downtown corridor. Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo have had citywide bans for decades. Carlsbad’s citywide ban that began in the late 1990s was recently softened to allow for consideration of new drive-thrus on a case-by-case basis.
Critics of such bans have called drive-thrus an important option for consumers, including people with disabilities and families with children.
In-N-Out did not provide a comment to LAist, saying “as a private, family-owned company, we generally don’t comment publicly on business matters.”
In early June, the city council passed a 45-day moratorium on approving permits that involve a new drive-thru. In the meantime, city staff is drafting an ordinance banning new drive-thrus. The ordinance will first appear in front of the city’s planning commission for guidance and recommendation before heading to the city council for a vote. Those dates have not yet been set.
If the council approves a citywide ban, the already-existing eight drive-thrus in the city would not be affected — only new businesses. In-N-Out would be the first new drive-thru in Culver City since 1997, according to a city staff report.
In-N-Out hasn’t yet submitted the formal application for a permit it was preparing when Culver City City Council passed the moratorium, according to city spokesperson Dustin Klemann.
According to a copy of the proposed site plan, the In-N-Out in Culver City would include 61 parking spots and a drive-thru lane that could accommodate 26 vehicles.
After In-N-Out held required community meetings earlier this year about its planned development, Culver City resident Paul Hewitt began distributing flyers calling the project a “terrible idea” to his neighbors.
“I had several people contact me as I was passing out these flyers saying, ‘Hey, I wanna join forces with you,’” Hewitt said. “I gathered up a little ragtag group of neighbors, all different ages, all different backgrounds.”
That group included Martin and her wife Cynthia, who created an online petition urging residents and the city council to oppose the In-N-Out “mega drive-thru” because it would create traffic congestion, worsen local air quality and present safety concerns for pedestrians and cyclists.
The petition has gathered just under 950 signatures in five months.
Drive-thrus are an element of city planning that urban planners call auto-centric design since it’s a portion of land exclusively devoted to people in cars. Drive-thrus, for example, require breaks in the sidewalk for cars to enter the queue, according to David Morley, research program manager at the American Planning Association.
Vehicle speed, which is the main factor determining the level of harm to pedestrians during collisions, is less of an issue with drive-thrus. Still, increasing the number of places where a car might interact with pedestrians creates more risk, UCLA’s Madeline Brozen said.
“In a city where we are trying to reduce traffic crashes and fatalities, we need to be very cautious about anything that is going to increase the likelihood for conflicts,” Brozen said.
Drive-thrus don’t necessarily have to come at the expense of walkability and safety, said Jill Bahm, a partner at land consulting firm Giffels Webster.
Bahm said communities could only allow drive-thrus in areas near highway access or where there isn’t a lot of bike or pedestrian traffic. Or they could set drive-thrus behind a building or landscaping to make the business itself more inviting to people not in cars.
Jot Condie, the president of the California Restaurant Association, said he sees drive-thru bans as generally “shortsighted.”
“You’re essentially banning quick-service restaurants without specifically stating that,” Condie said.
According to the American Planning Association, 70% of all fast food sales come from customers placing orders at drive-thrus.
When San Diego considered a partial drive-thru ban in 2021, the California Restaurant Association sent a letter saying such a ban would block certain groups, including people with disabilities, access to products and services.
Councilmember Fish said he understands accessibility concerns but thinks there are other ways to make Culver City more accessible, from encouraging walk-up windows, increasing handicap parking and investing in other city services.
The city council meets on the second and fourth Monday of most months in Culver City. Meetings start at 7 p.m.
Here's how you can follow along:
Topline:
Norway’s historic World Cup performance has brought together Southern California’s relatively small, but spirited Norwegian community.
Why now: They’ve been packing into a San Pedro Church, a Westside Irish bar and have taught people to row like a Viking at watch parties throughout the region, after Norway qualified this year for the World Cup for the first time since 1998.
Norwegian pride: Vilde Vevatne, who was born and raised in Oslo but now lives in L.A., said she’s proud of the team’s performance on the pitch but also their attitude outside of the matches. “ How kind and humble the team are being. … They're not bragging unnecessarily,” Vevatne said. “They're genuinely just excited to be there. They're doing their best job and not thinking they're better than anyone else.”
What's next: Saturday’s quarterfinal game between Norway and England in Miami is scheduled to start at 2 p.m.
Norway’s historic World Cup performance has brought together Southern California’s relatively small, but spirited Norwegian community.
They’ve been packing into a San Pedro Church, a Westside Irish bar and have taught people to row like a Viking at watch parties throughout the region, after Norway qualified this year for the World Cup for the first time since 1998.
“This whole experience also just reminded me of why I'm proud of being Norwegian and all of these values that the society and my parents instilled upon me from a young age,” said Vilde Vevatne, who was born and raised in Oslo but now lives in L.A.
She’s proud of the team’s performance on the pitch but also its attitude outside of the matches.
“ How kind and humble the team are being. … They're not bragging unnecessarily,” Vevatne said. “They're genuinely just excited to be there. They're doing their best job and not thinking they're better than anyone else.”
Vevatne says it’s the embodiment of the Law of Jante.
“That's like an unwritten rule in Norwegian culture where we're taught from a young age — ‘Don't think you're special. Don't think you're better than everyone else,’” Vevatne said. “Just be part of the pack and just be a nice, genuine person."
And now SoCal’s Nordic community has an open invitation for anyone looking for a team to support during the quarterfinals.
Row with us. (The practice of imitating a Viking longboat of warriors rowing into battle started within the last year, but quickly became a viral phenomenon.)
“ We're a small country. We need every fan we can have,” said Petter Isaksen, who helped organize the watch parties at the Norwegian Seaman’s Church in San Pedro.
The Norwegian Seaman’s Church or Sjømannskirken was founded in 1941 to serve the community of Nordic sailors in San Pedro.
“Now there are almost no Norwegian sailors left, but there's still a lot of Norwegians in L.A. and in SoCal,” Isaksen, who works as a host at the church, said. “We're there for them as a church and as a cultural center,”
There are about 42,000 people who reported Norwegian ancestry in L.A. County according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey estimate.
The church hosts groups for toddlers, knitting and Norwegian language classes in addition to a Sunday Lutheran service that welcomes all faiths.
And five days a week, there are waffles for sale — always heart-shaped and with your choice of goat cheese, jam or sour cream.
“We can eat several,” Isaksen said.
Isaksen has followed Norway’s football team “since I was born” and started organizing the watch parties at the church during the qualifying matches.
He said dozens of people, including several new to the church, have attended each watch party for communal singing, waffle eating and rowing.
“Everyone, whether they're, like, 12 weeks or 99 years old, they're in on it,” Isaksen said. “It's so much fun, and it brings so much togetherness.”
A Culver City Irish sports bar has become another bastion of Norwegian pride during the World Cup thanks to Erik Steigen.
When he first moved to Los Angeles 30 years ago to work in the music industry, he didn’t prioritize seeking out his countrymen.
“I'm not moving to the US … to hang out with Norwegians and eat lutefisk,” Steigen said, referencing the divisive dried, lye-soaked fish. “I'm here to try to build a career and pursue my own dreams.”
But that changed about a decade ago.
“I started wondering, ‘Where are all the Norwegians at?’” Steigen said. He joined the board of the Seaman’s Church in San Pedro and today helps organize events through Peer Gynt LA, a cultural group that evolved from an early 20th century chapter of the Sons of Norway lodge.
“When you're from a different country — I've spent most of my life in the U.S. now — I think you become extra patriotic about your native country,” Steigen said.
So why organize a watch party at an Irish sports bar?
Steigen is a lifelong soccer fan, but when he first arrived in the U.S., the national team’s games didn’t broadcast in the states. So he adopted the Liverpool Football Club and often catches the games at Joxer Daly's in Culver City.
When people asked him where to watch Norway play, he defaulted to his home bar.
Steigen wasn’t sure if anyone would show up to watch Norway take on Iraq in their first match, but dozens did — and Norway won 4-1.
“ It's amazing how many Norwegians really exist in L.A. that you've never heard of,” Steigen said.
Elise Maeland, has attended several of the matches at Joxer Daly’s.
She’s made a handful of Norwegian friends since moving to Southern California more than a decade ago for grad school, but outside of May 17, Norway’s Constitution Day, she said there are few large Norwegian gatherings.
“I feel like that was what was really cool about the World Cup is that it really brought Norwegians together in L.A.,” Maeland said.
She hasn’t decided whether she’ll watch Saturday’s quarterfinal at Joxer Daly’s or join a larger watch party in Venice Beach.
“ I'll go where the most Norwegians go,” Maeland said.
Saturday’s quarterfinal game between Norway and England in Miami is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. local time.
Address: 1035 S. Beacon St., San Pedro
Watch party: 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
More information: Website, Facebook
Good to know: This family-friendly watch party promises waffles, hot dogs, popcorn and a bouncy castle for the kids. In addition to Sunday services, the church also runs a Norwegian goods shop — and sells waffles — Wednesday through Sunday.
Address: 11168 Washington Blvd., Culver City
Watch party: Noon-Until the match is over.
More information: Facebook, Peer Gynt LA website (organizers)
Good to know: There will be waffles starting at noon, and organizer Erik Steigen recommends arriving early to snag a seat.
Address: 1 Windward Ave.
Watch party: Noon-10 p.m.
More information: Website, Facebook
Good to know: This event has both free and premium tickets that include a reserved viewing area, food and drinks.
