Movie Ad of the Week: DON'T LEAVE GO MY HAND (1974)

World Premiere - March 13, 1974 - San Antonio, TX

Arthur Roberson's play Don't Leave Go My Hand was first produced in California in 1969, directed by the late, great Vantile Whitfield. Four years later, Roberson himself wrote and directed a stagey, low-budget film adaptation, and this letter from Roberson's son to Ferris State University's Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia reveals that Burt Ward of TV's BATMAN was originally considered for the lead role! Artisan Releasing Corporation premiered the PG-rated DON'T LEAVE GO MY HAND in San Antonio in March 1974. By November the title had been changed to BLACK HOOKER, sex scenes with body doubles had been added to get an R rating, and the Wheeler Film Company out of Washington D.C. was unveiling this grittier version in Maryland and Virginia ahead of a more extensive rollout beginning in January '75. It was released on video in the 1980s as BLACK MAMA and 1990s as STREET SISTERS, but the original title of the play as well as the movie is nowhere to be found in the IMDb and other references such as the poorly researched FAB Press book Blaxploitation Cinema.