An African-American veteran performer who struggled in vain to build a
film career following a top role in an early all-black musical, Fannie
Belle DeKnight found herself in a dead end situation trapped in an
unflattering, stereotyped role and her film career went nowhere. Best
known for her benevolent, upbeat character of Mammy in the
King Vidor musical
Hallelujah (1929), the first all-black
feature film, she made only one more film, the musical short
A Rhapsody in Black and Blue (1932)
starring Louis Armstrong.
She was born Fannie Belle Johnson in Richmond, Virginia on May 22,
1869, during the "Reconstruction" period following the Civil War. Her
parents, Frank and Purie Johnson, encouraged her interest in the arts
and she grew in popularity singing and performing in church socials and
amateur theatre shows. She wound up marrying her pianist Samuel Knight,
a Barbados-born musician, in 1896. The couple toured together and she
eventually changed her stage name in consideration.
The Texas-born Vidor cast her in her most famous support role (she is
billed here as Fanny Belle DeKnight) in 1928 after seeing her in a
couple of concert performances. Co-starring
Nina Mae McKinney and
Daniel L. Haynes and with a 20s flavor,
this spiritual film focuses on the toils of a black family living on a
cotton plantation in the Deep South. When nothing came of her film
career, Fannie and her husband continued to perform musically across
the country in concert. She would also appear in short-runs on
Broadway, including the drama "Taboo" (1922), "Lulu Belle" (1926) and
"Carry Nation" (1932).
The couple eventually retired their act and settled in her native
Richmond in later years. She was a widow by the time she died
tragically on April 28, 1950, at age 81, after her clothes accidentally
caught fire at home from a kitchen wood stove. She was buried in the
Woodland Cemetery in Richmond.
