Black Star over Hollywood (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781543426014)

Black Star tells the story of Ted Masters, a burned-out tap dancer and guitarist who leaves the southern black theater circuit (TOBA) and ventures west, eventually finding Sid Grauman (and his famous theater), the mom-and-pop movie producer Nat Levine, as well as Hattie McDaniel, Rex Ingram, Stepin Fetchit, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, and a host of other moviemakers who pitch in, attempting to turn Masters into the first black cowboy movie star. A long-lost love appears at the most inopportune time. It is a unique look at African Americans and their struggles in the moviemaking years prior to WWII.