The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1931-06-18
"Rlanc ct Noir" Paris
Sex Problem Picture
Continued from Page One.

Continued from Page One.1
call on her. In due course. Nine.
Desnoyers becomes mother in Par
. is, her home. but the child is black.
The husband. fearing ridicule, has
the child exchanged for a white one
at the Assistance Publiuee govern
ment orphanage) unknown to the
mother. A reconciliation is made be-
tween husband and wife and all ends
happily.
Good Comedy
Blanc ct Noir' is com d Y
throughout, an excellent one. and the
audience, civilized one. takes all
in good part and laughs heartily. Be-
tween the laughs. NJ. Guitrv gets in
a few truths especially salutary for
American audiences.
The deceived husband explains to
the servants of the house that
white couple does. at times, produce
a black child though the cases are
very rare. The doctor. however,
that atavism does not work in such
instances and that according to all
the laws of nature the father is
black man.
The Black Child
Again. in filling out the legal sheet
necessary for the handing over of
the black child to the official of the
orphanage. the husband makes an
embarrassed explanation for the col
or of the child but the official
promptly sets him as ease: why"
hn tthoff-
days. At this moment We have be-
tween $50 and 800 such eases"
1t is also made clear, after the re-
Cancellation that the husband who
wanted child. would have been will
ling to keep the black child but for
the fact that its color would have
stamped him to the world as cuck-
old.
Last year "Blanc ct Noir" appear
ed as a regular play and scored n
success. The well-known Senegalese
actor. Habib Benglia, played the part
of the lover then. In the moving
picture, this part is taken by black
Cuban who plays in Montmartre, and
whose name has escaped me just
now.
The American Version
The New York version by Du Bose
Hayward, is based on the name given
to persons of mixed blood in the
South. They are referred to as
Brass Ankles"
In his plny. Mr.. Howard cites the
case of Larry and Ruth Learner.
They are prominent middle class cit
liens in the village of Rivertown.
Larry runs the general store and he
and his wife and 6-year-old daughter
live upstairs. Gradually they are
acquiring some social standing with
the plantation folk.
AS the play picks them up, Ruth
Learner is daily expecting the birth
of her second child and Larry is
looking forward confidently to the
welcoming of son. Meantime. he
is doing what he can to make River
town fit place in which to rear his
children. As a member of the school
board he has taken firm stand
against the admission of any chill
dren against whom rests the suspi-
cion of black blood. There Is one
family of Jacksons who have been
accepted rs white for years. Now,
it appears that there is reason to be-
'ieve there is a strain of Negro blood
in their line and Larry is deter
mined that the Jackson children shall
be excluded from the school
Then, his own son is born black
and Larry learns for the first time
that his wife's grandfather had been
Brass A n k lie, and had, as be
thought, nobly concealed the fact.
Nature has followed the Mendelian
law and revenged itself by casting
this throwback offspring into the
bosom of the Learner family.
The tragedy is crushing. Ruth, the
mother, is willing to make any SAG
rifice. She will take her son and
go back to her people, leaving her
daughter to be brought up by her
husband. But that cannot solve
barry's problem since the knowledge
that his daughter also is colored
must forever be with him.
For the ten days of Ruth's conva-
lescence the new baby's color is kept
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