Octavus Roy Cohen

Octavus Roy Cohen (1891–1959) was an early 20th-century American writer specializing in ethnic comedies. His dialect comedy stories about African Americans gained popularity after being published in the Saturday Evening Post and were adapted into a series of short films by Al Christie featuring actors Charles Olden, Spencer Williams Jr., Evelyn Preer, and Edward Thompson. His portrayals drew criticism from the likes of W. E. B. Du Bois, who complained about "the monstrosities he has created".

Biography Early life Cohen was born on June 26, 1891, in Charleston, South Carolina, to Octavus and Rebecca Cohen (née Ottolengui). He pronounced his first name oc-tav'us, a as in have. Through his mother, he was the cousin of Rodrigues Ottolengui, who also wrote crime fiction.

He received his secondary education at the Porter Military Academy, now the Porter-Gaud School, and graduated in 1908. He went on to Clemson College (later renamed Clemson University) and graduated in 1911 with a degree in engineering.

Career Between 1910 and 1912, he worked in the editorial departments of the Birmingham Ledger, the Charleston News and Courier, the Bayonne Times, and the Newark Morning Star. In 1913, he was admitted to the South Carolina bar and practiced law in Charleston for two years. He was known to host local writers and journalists to discuss fiction writing while in Birmingham. These were "ethnic comedies" following the bumbling investigations of Slappey and his travels from Birmingham, Alabama, to Harlem, New York. They were later assembled into a stage play, Come Seven, with Slappey played by Earle Foxe, which ran for 72 performances. A second detective stage play, The Crimson Alibi, featured a white detective, David Carroll.

He wrote:

Polished Ebony (1919) Gray Dusk (1920) Come Seven (1920) Highly Colored (1921) Midnight (1922)

Installment of the short-lived comic strip Tempus Todd, which ran from April to September 1923. Here, Tempus and a bakery owner talk about advertising.

Cohen wrote several novels about detective David Carroll. One of these novels, The Crimson Alibi, was adapted for the stage by George Broadhurst. Cohen's character of Jim Hanvey, "a sort of backwoods Nero Wolfe", "one of the earliest private eyes", appeared in two films; Curtain at Eight (1933), based on his novel The Backstage Mystery, and Jim Hanvey, Detective (1937), based on his original story. "Hanvey made most of his appearances in short stories in The Saturday Evening Post, where much of... Cohen's other work was also published... Cohen created a few other detectives... one of the first black private eyes, Florian Slappey, although they're more famous now for their unflattering portrayal of blacks than their historical significance." Jim Hanvey, Detective (1923, short stories) Detours (1927, short stories, one featuring Hanvey) The May Day Mystery (1929) The Backstage Mystery (also published as Curtain at Eight) (1930) Star of Earth (1932) Scrambled Yeggs (1934, short stories)

Films The Lady Fare is a 1929 American comedy film adapted from a Cohen story.

Cohen was scriptwriter (or co-scriptwriter with Alfred A. Cohen) for six known films: Music Hath Harms (1929) directed by Walter Graham, Florian Slappey played by Harry Tracy The Framing of the Shrew (1929) directed by Arvid Gillstrom, Florian Slappey played by Charles Olden False Witness (1935) directed by Edward Buzzell They Met in a Taxi (1936) directed by Alfred E. Green