Sign in or register
for additional privileges

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

Nicholas Sammond, Author

This page was created by Patricia Hill.  The last update was by Alice Xue.

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 21

Animators and the cartoons they produced were and are the twentieth-century inheritors of the iconography, conventions, and performance tropes of blackface minstrelsy.

In Harman and Ising's Bosko the Talk-Ink Kid, circa 1930, Bosko performs the audience interaction common to both minstrelsy and vaudeville. By the late 1930s, the associative links between cartoons and the minstrel stage had become largely vestigial, but at the beginning of the decade they still had currency. Bosko performs a classic two-act with animator Rudy Ising as his interlocutor, in a dynamic that Disney would reprise in performances of the father/son relationship between Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse.   

In the 1840s—not long after the mythical "originator" of the practice of blackface minstrelsy Thomas Dartmouth Rice began blacking up as Jim Crow—Stephen Foster began writing minstrel classics such as "Old Folks at Home" and "Camptown Races." But Rice had already penned the most enduring minstrel song, "Old Zip Coon," which later became "Turkey in the Straw." That tune is well-known today, not as a staple of the minstrel stage but as the innocuous melody that heralds ice cream trucks
Comment on this page
 

Discussion of "Introduction, Page 21"

Add your voice to this discussion.

Checking your signed in status ...

Previous page on path Introduction, page 12 of 17 Next page on path

Related:  Race, Page 224Space, Page 141Space, Page 152Performance, Page 50Space, Page 146Labor, Page 113Introduction, Page 2Space, Page 137Space, Page 181Performance, Page 52Labor, Page 133Space, Page 178Labor, Page 101Performance, Page 60Race, Page 258Race, Page 225Space, Page 177Space, Page 170Race, Page 232Conclusion, Page 291Introduction, Page 6Space, Page 193Race, Page 221Introduction, Page 16Space, Page 143Space, Page 175Labor, Page 110Performance, Page 84Conclusion, Page 304Space, Page 184Labor, Page 88Conclusion, Page 289Labor, Page 112Labor, Page 122Introduction, Page 23Space, Page 182Space, Page 163Conclusion, Page 300Labor, Page 123Performance, Page 42Conclusion, Page 302Space, Page 187Race, Page 231Race, Page 220Race, Page 206Race, Page 230Race, Page 219Performance, Page 47Race, Page 229Race, Page 253Space, Page 155Labor, Page 98Race, Page 235Space, Page 150Space, Page 190Performance, Page 46Labor, Page 119Space, Page 165Conclusion, Page 284Introduction, Page 1Performance, Page 45Space, Page 172Race, Page 251Performance, Page 44Performance, Page 82Space, Page 183Space, Page 194Space, Page 188Labor, Page 109Space, Page 195Race, Page 252Introduction, Page 30Performance, Page 70Race, Page 248Introduction, Page 14Race, Page 213Race, Page 247Conclusion, Page 278Space, Page 191Space, Page 148Labor, Page 129Labor, Page 128Conclusion, Page 298Race, Page 239Introduction, Page 29Conclusion, Page 296Space, Page 196Performance, Page 54Labor, Page 131Race, Page 204Performance, Page 35Space, Page 162Performance, Page 74Space, Page 171Race, Page 254Conclusion, Page 286Performance, Page 77Space, Page 197Conclusion, Page 292Space, Page 138Conclusion, Page 273Performance, Page 72Labor, Page 132Conclusion, Page 275Introduction, Page 26Performance, Page 34Space, Page 189Race, Page 261Performance, Page 43Introduction, Page 4Conclusion, Page 303Conclusion, Page 290Performance, Page 41Race, Page 245