Acts of Love

Black Performance and the Kiss That Changed Film History

Allyson Nadia Field

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2026
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780520392946
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

"This book doesn't just fill gaps in film history; it demands that we confront why those gaps existed in the first place. A fascinating read for lovers of film."—Ava DuVernay​

The rediscovery of the first film to depict African American affection revises the history of American cinema.
 
In 1898, vaudeville actors Saint Suttle and Gertie Brown joyously embraced in a short silent film titled Something Good—Negro Kiss. The first known film to portray African American affection, it was lost for over a century until its rediscovery inspired contemporary audiences with a powerful and enduring depiction of Black love. More than a missing piece in an untold history of Black cinematic performance, Something Good—and the magnetism of Suttle and Brown—attests to the power of Black performance on stage and screen from the nineteenth century to today.
 
In Acts of Love, Allyson Nadia Field tells the story of Something Good and recovers the forgotten yet fascinating lives of its performers and their world. Drawing a vivid picture from sparse historical records, Acts of Love examines popular culture's negotiation of blackness to reconsider the intersections of minstrelsy, vaudeville, and cinema in ragtime America. This book not only presents the story of Something Good, its performers, and the drama of its rediscovery; it shows how the rediscovery of this short early film changes our understanding of American film history.

Table of contents

• Imprint
• Subvention
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction: Out of the Archive
• 1. Solving the Mystery of Archival Rediscovery
• Grand Theater, Bedford, Indiana, 1899
• 2. The Attraction of Affection
• George Innes & co. Department Store, Wichita, Kansas, 1899
• 3. To Take the Cake: The Rag-Time Four from Stage to Screen
• Dallas State Fair Advertising Car, Texas, 1900
• 4. “The Black Millionaire” and “The Creole Gal”
• Grace Church, Wilmington, North Carolina, 1901
• 5. Saint Suttle After the Rag-Time Four
• The Empire Theater, Ardmore, Territory of Oklahoma, 1906
• 6. Gertie Brown: Trouper of the Harlem Renaissance
• Julien Levy Gallery, New York City, 1945
• Conclusion: The Afterlives of Archival Rediscovery
• Plate Captions
• Appreciations
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index