From June 14 through August 18, 2019, the Norman Studios presented an exhibit entitled, Norman Studios Presents The Flying Ace, at the Cade Museum for Creativity & Invention in Gainesville, Florida.
The exhibition highlighted the early days of silent films in Jacksonville, Florida, and in addition to The Flying Ace (1926) , the only Norman Studios film existing in its entirety, featured vintage movie posters and other vintage items.
The exhibit dovetailed with the Cade’s museum-wide themes of aviation and optics, film & photography. The exhibit was the result of an exciting collaboration envisioned by Phoebe Cade Miles of the Cade Museum and Barbara Wingo of Norman Studios.
As Barbara Wingo, Norman Studios Board Member and Curator of the Exhibit, remarked: “The Norman Studios exhibit highlights the early motion picture industry in Jacksonville and Richard Norman’s career as a producer in the silent era. The Cade Museum is a particularly appropriate venue for this exhibit because Norman’s work epitomized creativity and invention as well as entrepreneurship, just as did the work of Dr. Robert Cade, the namesake for the museum.”
In addition to producing, directing and writing “race films,” motion pictures that portrayed African Americans in non-stereotypical and aspirational ways, Norman was an inventor. Early in his career he developed “Passi-Cola,” and at the close of the silent era he invented the Camera-Phone to facilitate synchronization of film and sound.
On August 11 David Norman, a grandson of Richard Norman, participated in a “Meet the Inventor” conversation at the Cade Museum to explain his grandfather’s Camera-Phone. He also discussed his living at the Norman Studios property as a youngster, his grandfather’s legacy and his hopes for the future of the Studios.
About Norman Studios: Founded in 1916 as Eagle Film City and purchased by Richard E. Norman in the 1920’s, Norman Studios was among the nation’s first to produce “race films” with African-American characters in positive, non—stereotypical roles. Norman’s five-building complex, now a National Historic Landmark, survives in Jacksonville’s Old Arlington neighborhood.
The mission of Norman Studios Silent Films Museum, Inc, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization, is to preserve, present and promote the history of silent motion pictures in Northeast Florida and the history of race films through the reunification and restoration of the Norman Studios complex as a museum, education, film and community center. Learn more at normanstudios.org
