Pulp International - Cotton+Comes+to+Harlem

Dec 2 2018

From behind the microscope to in front of the camera.

You don't know U.S. actress Emily Yancy but she's been around for a long time. She started performing on television in 1963 and is still going strong as of 2018. Of her few cinematic efforts two were notable—the blaxploitation classics Cotton Comes to Harlem and Blacula. Her small screen appearances include Starsky & Hutch, The Mod Squad, and MacGyver.

The above photo is from 1961, and it was made when she was eighteen years old and competing in the Miss American Beauty Pageant, not be confused with the Miss America Pageant. Interesting story, she was a biology major and was working at NYU Medical Center operating an electron microscope when her coworkers persuaded her to give parading up and down a stage in a swimsuit a shot. She won Miss American Beauty, which gave her a chance to compete again in France.

She was sent to Cannes and finished second in the Miss Cannes Film Festival competition. After that Hollywood called and those boring old electrons were forgotten. Television, film, nightclub performing, modeling and a lot of travel followed. There's a lesson in this story, and maybe not one that should be taught to little girls—Forget science! Give us a little leg!—but you don't need a microscope to see that Yancy takes a great picture, and her career longevity suggests she made a good choice.

France Cannes Cannes Film Festival New York City Cotton Comes to Harlem Blacula Starsky & Hutch The Mod Squad MacGyver Emily Yancy television blaxploitation

Vintage Pulp

Oct 22 2015

Harry Bennett channels Himes and Harlem.

Chester Himes’ cycle of Harlem detective fiction spanned eight complete novels, and one unfinished effort, with five of the paperback editions illustrated by Harry Bennett, whose work you see above. Himes is world renowned, Bennett somewhat less so, but he was an award winning artist who illustrated hundreds of paperbacks during his career. We were reminded of him by a recent entry on Killer Covers, and remembered how much we like these pieces. In contrast to his lushly rendered romance covers, or more conventional crime novel art, these have an almost spontaneous quality. Publisher input usually has quite a bit to do with it, but we suspect Bennett was also influenced by Himes’ writing and the Harlem setting, and as a result produced this jazzy art for a jazzy novelist. Excellent stuff.

New York City Harlem Dell Publishing Berkley Books All Shot Up The Real Cool Killers Cotton Comes to Harlem Big Gold Dream Chester Himes Harry Bennett cover art literature

Vintage Pulp

May 27 2015

Coffin and Gravedigger do the Harlem shake-up.

Numerous web scribes have written about Cotton Comes to Harlem, so another amateur review is not needed, but we decided to post a little something anyway because we found some nice promo images that perhaps haven’t been widely seen. Those appear below (and the poster above is the work of Ronert McGinnis). If you haven’t watched Cotton Comes to Harlem and you appreciate blaxploitation movies check this one out. It was directed by Ossie Davis and hits all the requisite buttons—action, comedy, social commentary, and as a bonus it has two cops nicknamed Coffin Ed and Gravedigger Jones. It premiered in the U.S. today in 1970.

Cotton Comes to Harlem Godfrey Cambridge Raymond St. Jacques Calvin Lockhart Judy Pace Ossie Davis Robert McGinnis poster art cinema blaxploitation

Femmes Fatales

Apr 27 2014

To dance, to sing, to laugh, or to just be.

Above, American actress Judy Pace, who appeared in such films as Cool Breeze and Cotton Comes to Harlem, and on television shows like Kung Fu, Mod Squad, and Shaft, seen here expressing herself circa 1968.

Cool Breeze Cotton Comes to Harlem Kung Fu Mod Squad Shaft Judy Pace blaxploitation cinema television