Jump to content

Hunter Haynes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hunter C. Haynes (1867 – January 1, 1918) was an innovator of strops to sharpen razor blades, founded a barbershop supply company, and was a film producer and film company founder. His parents had been enslaved for part of their lives. He established Haynes Photoplay Company after working as a producer at the white-owned Afro-American Film Company.[1] He was lauded as a Black filmmaker.[2]

He was born in Selma, Alabama. His parents were William Haines, a laborer, and Silvia Haines, a seamstress.[1]

Afflicted with tuberculosis, he resided in Saranac, New York to recuperate but died on New Year's Day of 1918. He was buried in his hometown of Selma, Alabama.

Career

[edit]

Haynes became a barber's apprentice at the age of fourteen. By twenty-seven he owned a barbershop in Selma, Alabama. Haynes dabbled in entrepreneurship when he began developing a chemical treatment to make razor strops more effective and easier to use. Pre-treated strops, such as those marketed by Haynes rose in popularity during the early twentieth century. Knowledge of these treatments was often proprietary but Haynes assured customers that his strops were subject to rigorous personal inspection before they were approved. By using his strops to refurbish discarded straight razors, Haynes began a successful business selling his products to independent barbers. In 1904 he founded the The Haynes Razor Strop Co. in Chicago.

Filmography

[edit]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Olive III, J. Fred (September 9, 2010). "Hunter C. Haynes". Encyclopedia of Alabama.
  2. ^ Field, Allyson Nadia (May 22, 2015). Uplift Cinema: The Emergence of African American Film and the Possibility of Black Modernity. Duke University Press. ISBN 9780822375555 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ Massood, Paula J. (January 22, 2013). Making a Promised Land: Harlem in Twentieth-Century Photography and Film. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-5589-8.
  4. ^ "100 Years in post production" (PDF). press.moma.org. Retrieved January 29, 2021.