Evelyn Preer

Evelyn Preer (born Evelyn Jarvis, July 26, 1896, Vicksburg, Mississippi; died November 17, 1932, Los Angeles, California) was an African American actress, jazz and blues singer, and stage performer active from the late 1910s through the early 1930s. Known within the Black community as "The First Lady of the Screen," Preer was the first Black actress to achieve widespread celebrity and popularity. Her Broadway appearances spanned 1923 to 1927 and included The Chip Woman's Fortune, Lulu Belle, The Comedy of Errors, Salome, and Rang Tang.

Following the early death of her father, Frank, Preer moved with her mother, Blanche, and three siblings from Vicksburg to Chicago, Illinois, where she completed both grammar school and high school. Early experiences in vaudeville and street preaching with her mother provided the foundation for her acting career. In 1920, she joined the Lafayette Players, a theatrical stock company founded in 1915 by Anita Bush and dedicated to bringing legitimate theatre to Black audiences across a racially segregated country.

Preer's film career began at age 23 when she appeared as Orlean in Oscar Micheaux's 1919 debut feature The Homesteader. Micheaux promoted her through personal appearance tours and publicity campaigns, establishing her as one of the first African American women to become a star to Black audiences. She went on to appear in Micheaux's Within Our Gates (1920), playing Sylvia Landry, a teacher raising money to save her school, and continued with The Brute (1920), The Gunsaulus Mystery (1921), Deceit (1923), Birthright (1924), The Devil's Disciple (1926), The Conjure Woman (1926), and The Spider's Web (1926). Micheaux shaped many of these productions specifically to showcase her range. Preer made her talkie debut in the race musical Georgia Rose (1930), appeared alongside Sylvia Sidney in Ladies of the Big House (1931), and gave her final screen performance as Lola in Josef von Sternberg's Blonde Venus (1932), starring Cary Grant and Marlene Dietrich. She was recognized by both the Black and white press for her ability to move between villainous and heroic roles, and she was known for refusing parts she believed demeaned African Americans.

Her Broadway career began in 1923 when she appeared in the Ethiopian Art Theatre's production of Willis Richardson's The Chip Woman's Fortune, the first dramatic play by an African American playwright to be produced on Broadway, a run that lasted two weeks. In 1926, Preer appeared in David Belasco's Broadway production of Lulu Belle, supporting and understudying Lenore Ulric in Edward Sheldon's drama centered on a Harlem prostitute. That same year she performed in Salome and The Comedy of Errors on Broadway, and in 1927 she appeared in the musical Rang Tang at the Royale Theatre in New York City.

Also in 1928, Preer rejoined the Lafayette Players for a production of Rain, adapted from Somerset Maugham's short story, performed at the Lincoln Theater in Los Angeles. This marked the first New York-style production featuring a Black cast to be staged in California. In addition to her stage and screen work, Preer sang in cabaret and musical theater, where she was at times backed by musicians including Duke Ellington and Red Nichols.

Preer married Frank Preer on January 16, 1915, in Chicago. She later met actor Edward Thompson while both were performing with the Lafayette Players, and the two married on February 4, 1924, in Williamson County, Tennessee. In April 1932, Preer gave birth to their daughter, Edeve Thompson. Complications following childbirth led to pneumonia, and Preer died on November 17, 1932, in Los Angeles at the age of 36. Edward Thompson continued working as an actor in race films throughout the 1930s and 1940s and died in 1960. Their daughter Edeve later converted to Catholicism, entered the Sisters of St. Francis of Oldenburg, Indiana, took the name Sister Francesca Thompson, O.S.F., and pursued an academic career teaching at Marian University in Indiana and Fordham University in New York City.