Sign in or register
for additional privileges

Birth of An Industry: Blackface Minstrelsy and the Rise of American Animation

Nicholas Sammond, Author
Introduction, page 7 of 17
Previous page on path     Next page on path

 

You appear to be using an older verion of Internet Explorer. For the best experience please upgrade your IE version or switch to a another web browser.

Introduction, Page 14

A central conceit of early minstrelsy was that its ostensibly white performers had traveled to plantations and witnessed the authentic songs, dances and wordplay of African American slaves. This fantasy treated the slave as a natural commodity, an object and owner of nothing, not even her own thoughts and gestures. 

In the 1800s, this minstrel as happy trickster was embodied by Jim Crow, later by Tambo and Bones. In the twentieth century there are echoes of the minstrel in characters such as Lincoln Perry's Stepin Fetchit and Redd Foxx's Fred Sanford from Sanford and Sons. 

Even as late as 1953, in John Ford's The Sun Shines Bright, Perry performs his controversial Fetchit persona, falling asleep and snoring loudly in the courtroom. He speaks with heavy-lidded eyes and droopy lips, and excitedly joins in with the banjo player to sing and dance to the minstrel tune "Dixieland". 

Perry's character is also parodied in the 1935 Disney Silly Symphony short Broken Toys. In this uplifting Depression-era short, a group of discarded toys bands together to repair each other, then marches off to give themselves to orphans. While most of the toys make valuable contributions to the repair effort, the Stepin Fetchit doll has a hard time staying awake; African Americans had a harder time embodying racialized ideals of New Deal uplift.

More recently, white entertainers have used blackface in attempts to comment on the racial formation of the moment, an example being Ted Danson's widely criticized appearance in burnt cork alongside his then-girlfriend Whoopie Goldberg at a 1993 Friar's Club roast. 
Comment on this page
  • Local Discussion
    •
  • Popout
    •
 

Discussion of "Introduction, Page 14"

Add your voice to this discussion.

Checking your signed in status ...

Previous page on path Introduction, page 7 of 17 Next page on path
Bones    Tambo    1950s    Walt Disney    1970s    Live Cinema    Image    Moving Image    Sound    Black and White    1930s    Color

Related:  Space, Page 152,  Race, Page 225,  Performance, Page 82,  Labor, Page 109,  Performance, Page 52,  Conclusion, Page 302,  Labor, Page 119,  Introduction, Page 2,  Space, Page 146,  Introduction, Page 21,  Race, Page 204,  Conclusion, Page 298,  Race, Page 232,  Race, Page 257,  Race, Page 221,  Labor, Page 128,  Conclusion, Page 286,  Performance, Page 62,  Performance, Page 84,  Introduction, Page 30,  Space, Page 155,  Performance, Page 41,  Performance, Page 74,  Space, Page 138,  Labor, Page 132,  Space, Page 188,  Space, Page 190,  Conclusion, Page 292,  Race, Page 253,  Space, Page 162,  Performance, Page 72,  Performance, Page 45,  Labor, Page 112,  Space, Page 137,  Race, Page 220,  Space, Page 150,  Performance, Page 46,  Conclusion, Page 278,  Race, Page 230,  Conclusion, Page 303,  Race, Page 248,  Performance, Page 77,  Race, Page 235,  Race, Page 251,  Race, Page 231,  Race, Page 239,  Race, Page 258,  Space, Page 181,  Space, Page 194,  Introduction, Page 23,  Space, Page 175,  Performance, Page 54,  Performance, Page 60,  Space, Page 148,  Performance, Page 34,  Race, Page 245,  Conclusion, Page 296,  Performance, Page 43,  Space, Page 172,  Labor, Page 98,  Labor, Page 101,  Space, Page 193,  Labor, Page 126,  Conclusion, Page 273,  Labor, Page 102,  Performance, Page 35,  Labor, Page 110,  Space, Page 192,  Race, Page 219,  Space, Page 197,  Race, Page 213,  Space, Page 178,  Conclusion, Page 304,  Race, Page 206,  Race, Page 229,  Labor, Page 129,  Performance, Page 47,  Labor, Page 113,  Space, Page 141,  Introduction, Page 9,  Introduction, Page 29,  Space, Page 187,  Space, Page 189,  Performance, Page 44,  Labor, Page 88,  Introduction, Page 18,  Space, Page 171,  Conclusion, Page 291,  Labor, Page 122,  Race, Page 254,  Labor, Page 123,  Labor, Page 133,  Conclusion, Page 289,  Conclusion, Page 300,  Introduction, Page 4,  Space, Page 159,  Space, Page 184,  Introduction, Page 6,  Space, Page 182,  Space, Page 143,  Labor, Page 96,  Space, Page 191,  Conclusion, Page 284,  Labor, Page 131,  Introduction, Page 15,  Space, Page 165,  Conclusion, Page 275,  Space, Page 177,  Race, Page 252,  Space, Page 163,  Space, Page 156,  Space, Page 169,  Performance, Page 42,  Performance, Page 50,  Space, Page 170,  Race, Page 224,  Labor, Page 93,  Space, Page 183,  Conclusion, Page 274,  Performance, Page 78,  Performance, Page 80,  Performance, Page 67,  Race, Page 261,  Introduction, Page 26,  Performance, Page 56,  Conclusion, Page 268,  Introduction, Page 16,  Introduction, Page 12,  Race, Page 247,  Introduction, Page 1,  introduction-page-22,  Performance, Page 40,  Performance, Page 70,  Introduction, Page 20,  Space, Page 195,  Conclusion, Page 272,  Conclusion, Page 290