The heydey for blackface minstrelsy as a popular form of stage performance is roughly from the 1870s to the first decade of the 1900s. In the 1900s, stand-alone blackface shows were eventually incorporated into the new performance favorite of the 20th century, vaudeville, and into large review shows such as the Ziegfeld Follies.

Not all blackface minstrels were white, however. One of the most famous minstrels of the early twentieth century (and certainly one of the best paid) was the Afro-Caribbean blackface minstrel Bert Williams. Along with his partners George Walker and Ada Overton Walker, Williams founded a wildly successful troupe of African-American performers, many of whom were minstrels, that toured the world. In shows such as In Dahomey (1902), Abyssinia (1906), and Bandannaland (1907), the troupe created sly satirical versions of the founding conceits of blackface minstrelsy as emerging from the wild, dangerous, and fascinating jungles of Africa. 

Bert Williams appeared alongside another famous minstrel of the early twentieth century, Eddie Cantor. Although Cantor went on to have a successful movie career (both in and out of blackface), he and Williams were the stars of the Ziegfeld Follies, which brought blackface to Broadway.

By the 1920s, blackface minstrelsy was waning as a live performance form, as was vaudeville. In spite of this, two of the biggest stars of early sound film,  Cantor and Al Jolson, were blackface minstrels. While blackface was central to American commercial animation, in live film it was popular only briefly, primarily through Jolson's films. As the century progressed, in films such as Babes in Arms (1939) and Holiday Inn (1941), blackface and vaudeville (disturbingly) signaled a nostalgia for a simpler past.

In animation, the traditions that had informed the creation of cartoons' most enduring continuing characters, such as Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse, were gradually overtaken by more overt and egregious racist caricatures associated with swing music.