Sign in or register
for additional privileges

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

Nicholas Sammond, Author

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.

Performance, Page 60

The hand of the animator often appeared in the frame of early commercial
animation, a reminder of the performative roots of the craft. Here, a photograph of a hand, presumably that of Otto Messmer, draws Felix the Cat, who impatiently awaits his completion as a highly mutable animated minstrel, capable of metamorphosis and transformation.

The hand that drew Felix was like the hand that applied the greasepaint to the minstrel's face. In the final production number in the 1934 Warner Bros. film Wonder Bar, Al Jolson, in blackface, plays an old field hand who goes up to heaven and discovers it filled with stereotypical wonders such as a pork-chop tree, an endless supply of fried chicken, and public transportation that runs directly from an all-black heaven to Harlem and back. This is one example about the way the color line was extended beyond the physical world to its representational equivalent. (Note also that at one point Jolson's character reads a Yiddish newspaper...a nod to audiences about the Jewish performer under the burnt cork.
Comment on this page
 

Discussion of "Performance, Page 60"

Add your voice to this discussion.

Checking your signed in status ...

Previous page on path Performance, page 14 of 25 Next page on path

Related:  Space, Page 152Labor, Page 119Space, Page 194Space, Page 163Space, Page 182Space, Page 170Labor, Page 123Introduction, Page 30Race, Page 251Race, Page 232Race, Page 206Introduction, Page 2Space, Page 178Race, Page 219Performance, Page 44Space, Page 171Performance, Page 84Space, Page 148Labor, Page 128Introduction, Page 1Introduction, Page 15Space, Page 191Space, Page 181Conclusion, Page 289Space, Page 197Introduction, Page 23Conclusion, Page 278Performance, Page 41Space, Page 177Labor, Page 113Performance, Page 82Space, Page 187Labor, Page 109Race, Page 231Space, Page 162Conclusion, Page 275Race, Page 204Race, Page 252Conclusion, Page 300Conclusion, Page 284Conclusion, Page 292Race, Page 229Race, Page 213Race, Page 220Race, Page 253Introduction, Page 21Performance, Page 72Race, Page 224Conclusion, Page 296Performance, Page 43Space, Page 188Space, Page 165Performance, Page 46Space, Page 195Introduction, Page 29Space, Page 175Conclusion, Page 290Race, Page 261Space, Page 183Performance, Page 54Space, Page 141Space, Page 190Space, Page 138Performance, Page 34Performance, Page 45Introduction, Page 16Race, Page 247Conclusion, Page 303Race, Page 230Conclusion, Page 273Space, Page 146Performance, Page 80Performance, Page 35Performance, Page 52Conclusion, Page 304Race, Page 225Race, Page 248Space, Page 172Labor, Page 122Race, Page 254Labor, Page 98Introduction, Page 14Conclusion, Page 286Space, Page 193Space, Page 189Performance, Page 47Introduction, Page 6Introduction, Page 4Performance, Page 50Race, Page 239Race, Page 221Space, Page 137Conclusion, Page 302Labor, Page 132Space, Page 159Labor, Page 88Race, Page 235Labor, Page 112Space, Page 184Space, Page 155Conclusion, Page 298Race, Page 258Space, Page 150Labor, Page 133Labor, Page 131Space, Page 143Performance, Page 74Performance, Page 77Labor, Page 110Conclusion, Page 291Performance, Page 42