The Brief

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).

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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.)

About Lincoln Motion Picture Company

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.

Why it was popular, but short-lived

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.”

How Hollywood saw Johnson

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.”
In a 1967 oral history interview, George P. Johnson said of his brother’s acting career: “Colored men had no chance to be a star because the white firms never had any colored actors. The only reason my brother got in — he never got in as a colored man — was because of his ability as a makeup artist.”
For a time, Universal considered Johnson’s success with his own company a good thing. “They knew about it and they liked it because people were going to Universal films,” Caddoo says. “They were going to Noble's films because he was a Black star and they wanted to see him even though he wasn't, you know, the star — in the traditional sense — of those productions all the time.”

What happened when white theater owners complained

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.

Johnson's impact in Hollywood

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.

“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.”

How do I find The Academy Museum Podcast?

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.

LAX officials are considering a proposal Tuesday to increase the fees rideshare companies are charged to access the airport.

Currently, rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft generally pass a $4 to $5 airport fee along to their customers. You might see this listed as a line item on your receipt as an “LAX Airport Surcharge.”

But the Los Angeles World Airports Board of Commissioners could vote to increase that fee by as much as $2 to $8 depending on where the rideshare picks you up or drops you off.

The idea behind the proposal is to encourage the use of the long-awaited, much-delayed and over-budget Automated People Mover once it opens and decrease congestion in the central terminal area, the area of the airport that’s also known as the horseshoe.

David Reich, a deputy executive director for the city agency that manages the airport, told LAist that if the proposal is approved, LAX doesn’t plan on increasing the fee until after the Automated People Mover opens, which could be later this year.

The proposed increases

When the Automated People Mover opens, there will be new curb space for drop-off and pick-up. Known as the “ground transport center,” this new curb space will be a 4-minute trip from the terminal area via the Automated People Mover, according to Reich.

LAX-it will shut down as a rideshare and taxi lot once the train opens, Reich said.

If the proposal is approved, getting an Uber or Lyft to and from the ground transport center will come with a $6 airport fee.

Even once the Automated People Mover opens, you will still be able to get rides directly to and from the curbs along the horseshoe, but they will come with a $12 fee.

The proposed increases would also apply to taxi and limousine services, which currently operate under a slightly different fee structure than rideshare companies.

The increased fees are expected to generate as much as $100 million in the first year the Automated People Mover is usable, according to a report to the board.

Why the different fees for the different locations?

In a report to the board, Reich said the Automated People Mover represents a "significant investment” that aims to “fundamentally reshape how vehicles move through the airport.”

The idea behind having a higher fee for direct access to the curbs along the horseshoe is to encourage “use of new, high-capacity infrastructure” and preserve central terminal access for trips “that most require it.”

Uber is trying to fight the increases

Uber is trying to mobilize the public to fight the proposed fee increases.

“Raising the LAX rideshare fee from $5 to $12 at the curb would punish travelers, working families, and seniors who depend on affordable, reliable transportation,” Danielle Lam, the head of local California policy for Uber, said in a statement.

On Monday, Uber sent an email to passengers who recently used the rideshare service, urging them to write to city officials to “stop this massive fee hike.”

Lyft has not responded to a request for comment.

Ten state lawmakers who are members of the L.A. County delegation sent a letter on Monday to the board expressing their “strong opposition” to the proposed increases.

“Many Angelenos rely on a mix of options, including rideshare services and friends or family dropping off loved ones,” the legislators wrote in the letter. “Managing congestion cannot realistically rely on steep fee increases for certain transportation options.”

Eight of the 10 legislators who signed the letter have received campaign contributions from Uber or Lyft, according to an LAist analysis of state campaign contribution data.

Other ways to access the airport

Now is probably a good time to remind folks that there are other ways to get to the airport that don’t involve rideshares, taxis or even lifts from families and friends.

The FlyAway bus offers regularly scheduled rides from the airport to Union Station in downtown L.A. and Van Nuys. You can see the schedules here. 

Last year, the countywide transportation agency unveiled the LAX/Metro Transit center, which is accessible from the C and K rail lines and several bus routes. For now, an LAX shuttle is bringing travelers from the station to the airport. It will be one of the stops on the Automated People Mover once it opens.

The Newport Beach City Council is considering demolishing part of its quirky, beloved sculpture garden in Civic Center Park to make way for a new police station.

The city has been trying to figure out how to replace its aging police headquarters for years. It bought a property in 2022 with that intent. But an ad hoc City Council committee decided, controversially, it might be better to instead build a new station on the parkland next to city hall.

What’s so great about the sculpture garden?

The sculpture garden is a “museum without walls” treasured by art and nature lovers alike. It houses the quirky and once-controversial “Bunnyhenge,” included on the popular Atlas Obscura travel guide. Opponents of putting a new police headquarters on park grounds say it would compromise the environment, and decimate the sculpture garden.

What do supporters of the new station idea say?

Supporters say the current police station, built in 1973, is long overdue for an upgrade, and that the police force needs more space for things like servers to store digital evidence. The council ad hoc committee that studied the issue says the Civic Center parkland makes the most sense for a new building because the city already owns the land, and it would consolidate the city’s main services in one place.

Is it a done deal?

Far from it. The City Council is holding a study session Tuesday to present the plan publicly and gather input. If the council decides to go forward, the next step would be to hire a consultant to design the building and get started on an environmental impact report.

Here’s how to learn more and weigh in:

A new exhibit in L.A. — Vehicles of Expression: The Craft of the Skateboard — arrives this weekend, highlighting the cultural impact, history and artistry of handmade skateboards.

It’s the latest exhibit at Craft in America Center, a museum and library that highlights handcrafted artwork.

Todd Huber, skateboard historian and founder of the Skateboarding Hall of Fame, said before 1962, it wasn’t possible to buy a skateboard in a store.

“Skateboarding started as a craft,” Huber said on AirTalk, LAst 89.3’s daily news program. “Somewhere in the 50s until 1962, if you wanted to sidewalk surf, as they called it, you had to make your own out of roller skates.”

What to expect

Emily Zaiden, the director and lead curator of the Craft in America Center based in Los Angeles, told LAist’s AirTalk the exhibit was tricky to curate.

“What we wanted to do was focus on both the history and then expand into how this has been an object that people have interpreted in so many different ways since the very beginning,” Zaiden said.

Artists who craft skateboards not only think of design, but also of the features that give riders the ability to do tricks, such as wheelies and kickflips.

“The ways that people have constructed boards, engineered boards, design boards … people are really renegade, which I think is really the spirit of skateboarding overall,” Zaiden said. “This very independent, out-of-the-box approach and making boards that allow them to do all kinds of wacky tricks and do all kinds of things that no one imagined possible physically with their body, but through the object of the board.”

Know before you go

The exhibit at Craft in America Center opens to the public on Saturday. Admission is free. The museum is open from noon to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.