Kenn Freeman papers

1930-1988

Kenn (Kenneth) Freeman was a versatile performing artist during the 1940s and 1950s. In addition to his acting career, he was a singer/dancer, writer, and director, and also designed costumes and sets. Freeman's exposure to the theatre began when as a young boy he toured with his mother, the actress, Bee Freeman. As a teenager he joined the Dramatic Society while attending De Witt Clinton High School and was a member of the City College Players during his years at City College. His early ventures in acting began in the period before he joined the United States Navy and included roles in the theatrical productions of: The Youngest, Where the Cross Is Made, Ropes End, and Hell's Half Acre. After his discharge from the Navy in 1945, he appeared in the Broadway and British productions of Anna Lucasta. He also had a role in Because I Am Black, a play performed by the Birmingham Repertory Company in England.

Other Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway plays in which Freeman appeared were: Climate of Eden, Greener Grass, Agean Fable, Stevedore, The Philanderer, and Evening with Swans. In the 1950s, Freeman directed several productions of Anna Lucasta in Great Britain. When he returned to the United States, he performed with or had affiliations with several organizations, including the Negro Opera Guild, New York Trade Show, Columbia Concert Bureau, and the Carnegie Recital Hall. He directed a number of plays, among them The Bohemian Girl, Faust, Frankie and Johnny, Imoinda, and Blessed Are the Fruits. He also directed performances of the Carib Singers, New Lafayette Players, and the Stanley Woolf Players.

Freeman's career included roles in films and television in: What a Guy (1947), Miracle In Harlem (1948), and in television shows: Phantom of Kenwood, the Nora Morales Show, Poppy Cannon Show, Pulitzer Playhouse, Naked City, Omnibus, Tonight In London, and Caribe Cruise (B. B. C. London).

In addition to acting and directing, Freeman wrote dramas and was a scenic and costume designer. Among the scripts he wrote are: 'Tis Cricket; Back Tu Me Mad, Tad; Imoinda; and Blessed Are the Fruits. He designed the costumes and sets for 'Tis Cricket, Imoinda, Calypso Carnival, Cinderella, Theatre of the Soul, as well as others. As a singer and dancer Freeman performed in nightclubs in the United States and Canada. He also gave concerts in New York, at universities and concert halls, and performed with the Negro Opera Guild. His repertoire included voice-overs for Ten Steps to the Gallows (London) and Bimina Baby (a vocal sound tract for Pathe Records).

Freeman was active in theatre-related organizations such as the Negro Actors Guild (historian), the Co-Ordination Council for Negro Performers (Secretary) and the Ira Aldridge Society (Public Relations Assistant). He held professional memberships with the British Actors' Equity Association, the Negro Actors Guild of America, Inc., the Screen Actors Guild, and the Actors' Equity Association. He was also active with the Harlem Cultural Council. During the formation of the New Lafayette Players in the 1940s, Freeman was part of the Interim Committee along with Dick Campbell (Chairman), Hilda Simms, Frederick O'Neal, Amil Brown, and others, and also served as a director of that group and contributed articles to its newsletter. Freeman was also drama critic and theatre columnist for the West Indian American newspaper.

In the 1980s due to ill health, Freeman became a resident of the Actors Fund Nursing Home in New Jersey.

Bee (Beatrice) Freeman was billed as "The Sepia Mae West", and worked in vaudeville, theatre, film, and nightclubs. She was married to Kenneth James Freeman and they resided in Boston until shortly after the birth of their son, Kenneth James Freeman, Jr. After Freeman, Jr. was born, the family relocated to New York City, where Freeman began her acting career.

After her arrival in New York City, although a novice to the theatre, Freeman was cast in the musical, Shuffle Along (1921). She had impressed the composer Eubie Blake and the lyricist Noble Sissle so much that they wrote a song for her: "If You've Never Been Vamped By a Brown-Skin Vamp". Freeman subsequently appeared in Liza (1922) Runnin' Wild (1923), Ole Man Satan, Anna Lucasta (1944) and Dear Ruth (1940s).

Her Off-Broadway and summer stock performances included roles in Melinda, High Point, Carib, and Salt and Pepper. Her performance in Melinda caught the eye of filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, who gave her character parts in his films including Lying Lips and The Underworld (1937),. She also appeared as a walk-on in a scene in the film, Emperor Jones (1933). Other films she was in include: Harlem After Midnight (1934) Lem Hawkins Confessions (1935), Temptation (1936), and The Phantom of Kenwood.

During World War II like many women Freeman found work in the war industry while she continued to perform in nightclubs. In the fifties her son produced Anna Lucasta in Great Britain and cast her in the role of Theresa, the mother. She was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1977. Freeman also volunteered to work with organizations whose primary goal was the betterment of actors' welfare. She served as executive secretary of the Negro Actors Guild and was a board member in 1982. After a long illness, Bee Freeman died in 1986.