![]() ![]() The look on Clara’s face-jealousy? concern? indignation?-surely alludes to a turning point in her relationship with Jimmy and her feelings about Joe. The title card suggests that the scene occurs sometime after Joe has left for Mexico, while he is “doing duty…near Casas Grandes, Mexico,” and Jimmy is at home “finding it not so clear sailing with Clara.” When the film cuts from the title card back to Jimmy and Clara, we see a quick iris shot of Noble appear behind Jimmy’s shoulder. Next, we see a title card decorated with images of saguaro cacti- at the time, a common visual signifier of Mexico. In the scene, Clara holds what appears to be a letter, which she excitedly reads to Jimmy. Yet it’s filled with rich imagery-including the only footage we have of Noble Johnson in a Lincoln production. The surviving footage from Trooper, which you see in the clip above, is only about fifteen seconds in length. She “denounces Jimmy for his false accusations,” and welcomes Joe home “with open arms.” The story ends happily after Clara reads about Joe’s accomplishments in the newspapers. When the men are dispatched to Mexico, Joe and his fellow soldiers are drawn into the Battle of Carrizal. In the army, Joe is “still a little crude and shiftless,” but his captain is charmed by his good-hearted nature and the way he takes care of his horse. Clara suggests that Joe join the army, which she hopes will cure him of his “shiftiness.” Jimmy (whose hard-working mother, a washerwoman, pays for his fancy clothes), responds with disgust. When Joe tells Clara what happened, she is disappointed. Clara tells him that he needs to “clean up his act.” Joe finds a job but arrives late because of his “deep love and sympathy for animals.” Flustered, he accidentally drops a hod of bricks on his foreman and is summarily fired. But instead of impressing her, his gesture backfires. One day, Joe decides to spend his last pennies on flowers for Clara. He has a crush on a high school-educated girl from his hometown, Clara Holmes (Beulah Hall), who takes a charitable interest in his well-being, much to the dismay of her “ardent admirer” Jimmy, a popular man-about-town played by real-life Los Angeles heartthrob Jimmie Smith, who later became a well-known casting agent for Black actors in Hollywood. Poster for The Trooper of Troop K (Lincoln Motion Picture Company, 1916)Īccording to the company’s synopsis of Trooper, Joe (Noble Johnson) is “unkept and careless of dress,” and can’t seem to keep a job. They expanded the film, added additional scenes, and ultimately produced what became the most profitable of all the Lincoln’s productions. But instead of giving up, they used the setback to their advantage. The Lincoln’s directors were devastated by the fire. Then, just as Trooper was nearly complete, a fire at the processing laboratory destroyed part of the footage, delaying the picture’s release date. That meant they only had Sundays, his only day off, to finish the film. ![]() At the time, actors generally worked six days a week, Monday to Saturday, from sunup to sundown. Noble had to balance his responsibilities as the Lincoln’s President and star actor with his work as a full-time actor for Universal. ![]() ![]() The production ran into problems from the start. The Trooper of Troop K, produced in 1916, was the Lincoln’s second feature film. Johnson joined the company as its Booking Manager. Thomas Smith, Clarence and Dudley Brooks, and Harry Gant, a white camera operator, organized the Lincoln Motion Picture Company to produce “Negro moving pictures that will reflect merit and credit upon the race, as well as opening a field of employment to Negroes and an opportunity to make profitable financial investments.” Soon after, Noble Johnson’s brother George P. In May 1916, four Black men, Noble Johnson, J. Clip from The Trooper of Troop K (1916), edited from the original digitized footage by Andrew Grodner. ![]()
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