Ebony Film Corporation

The Ebony Film Corporation (also known as Ebony Film Company) was formed in 1917 in Chicago, Illinois. The company was started by two white men, but the president of the company was an African-American named Luther J. Pollard. The company produced several comedies during its' short operation and was praised for providing black actors with opportunities and non-stereotypical roles that were uncommon for blacks during that time. Many of these films today are badly damaged or lost. We have compiled a comprehensive list of the Ebony Comedies for research and reference purposes.

List of Films

• Are Working Girls Safe? (1918) [imdb]
• Black and Tan Mix Up (1918) [imdb]
• A Black Sherlock Holmes (1917) [imdb]
• Bully, The (1918) [imdb]
• A Busted Romance (1917) [imdb]
• Comeback of Barnacle Bill, The (1918) [imdb]
• Dat Blackhand Waitah Man (1917) [imdb]
• Devil for a Day (1917) [imdb]
• Do the Dead Talk? (1918) [imdb]
• Fixing the Faker (1918) [imdb]
• Ghost (1917) [imdb]
• Good Luck in Old Clothes (1918) [imdb]
• Hypocrites, The (1917) [imdb]
• Janitor, The (1918) [imdb]
• Luck in Old Clothes (1918) [imdb]
• Mercy, the Mummy Mumbled (1918) [imdb]
• A Milk-Fed Hero (1918) [imdb]
• Porters, The (1918) [imdb]
• A Reckless Rover (1918) [imdb]
• Shine Johnson and the Rabbit Foot (1917) [imdb]
• Some Baby (1917) [imdb]
• Spooks (1918) [imdb]
• Spying the Spy (1918) [imdb]
• Two Knights of Vaudeville (1915) [imdb]
• When Cupid Went Wild (1917) [imdb]
• When You Are Scared, Run (1918) [imdb]
• When You Hit, Hit Hard (1918) [imdb]
• Wrong All Around (1917) [imdb]

Spying the Spy (1918)

Starring:

• Samuel 'Sambo' Jacks 
• Sam Robinson

Storyline
Amateur detective Sambo Sam sets out to round up German spies, but his bungling leads him to the Coffin Club, a fraternal organization with a morbid sense of humor just itching to have some fun at the would-be sleuth's expense. -Harpodeon 

Mercy, the Mummy Mumbled (1918)

Directed by:

• R.W. Phillips

Storyline
A professor of Egyptology seeks a mummy for experimentation. A young man devises a scheme to give the professor his desire in hopes of winning the hand in marriage of the teacher's daughter.