Blackface Minstrelsy

Blackface Minstrelsy

The Minstrel show presents a strange, fascinating and awful phenomenon. Between 1843, when the first organized troupe

appeared, and the 1870's, the minstrel show was one of the most popular forms of entertainment in America. White performers wearing burnt cork or black shoe polish on their faces assumed the roles of African American men and women. A typical minstrel show would have songs, dances, jokes and grand hoe-downs. The minstrel show tried to capture the "happy-go-lucky" slave that ate watermelon and shuffled about. However, this idea of the "happy slave" was very wrong. Since this was before the civil rights movement, African Americans were caricatured and often stereotyped as the lazy, shuffling, hungry and ignorant "darkie." The dialect of the performances was inspired by the blacks on Southern plantations. Characteristics and hallmarks of the Minstrel show emerged from preindustrial European traditions of masking and carnival. Even though the minstrel show echoed racism, some people believe that it was a step in theater's history, especially American theater. It was the prerequisite to some of America's well known songs and dance styles. It also influenced writers such as Harriet Beecher Stow and Mark Twain.

The earliest form of the minstrel show can be contributed to a man named Thomas D. Rice, or often called "Daddy Rice." While walking to a theater in Louisville, Kentucky, he came across a singing slave grooming a horse. The melody intrigued him so much that he wanted to learn it. The lyrics were "You wheel about and turn about and do just so, You wheel about and turn about and jump Jim Crow." Hence, the term "Jim Crow" was coined. The character of Jim Crow was an exaggerated stereotype, who in the

eyes of white people appeared as a naive, clumsy, devil-may-care southern plantation slave who dressed in rags. Also, Jim Crow was often used to refer to any black slave of the time.

The slave Rice encountered also had a shuffle step to accompany the song. Rice seen the potential in the song and dance of the slave for an entr'acte piece, or after piece. Theater during the period of the nineteenth century often performed lengthy productions for its audiences. It was not uncommon for audiences to spend up to five hours in the theater. After the regular play was over, a short play, or entr'acte piece was performed to allow the audience to leave the theater on an "up beat" note. These after pieces were usually farces and comical performances. The audience loved the imitation of the black slave Rice had performed. Soon the popularity of this act caught on and many other troupe

s and actors began performing the "black face" shows. The tradition began in 1843 when a group of four white men from Virginia, known as the "Virginia Minstrels," performed a song-and-dance act in a small hall in New York City. The Virginia Minstrels took their name from a popular variety act from Austria, the Tyrolean Minstrels. Thus, "minstrels," or minstrelsy became the generic term for this form of entertainment.1 The performance was such a success that the group was invited to tour to other cities and imitators sprang up immediately.

A typical minstrel show performance was divided into three parts, if the afterpiece is counted. The first part was the actual minstrel show, in which approximately nine or ten performers sat in a semicircle on stage. In the middle sat the character of "Mr. Interlocutor," who introduced the acts and cued the two actors on either end of the semicircle who acted as comic sidemen. These characters on the ends were usually given

the name of Mr. Tambo, who played a tambourine and Mr. Bones, who shook a percussive instrument. Another example that represented the white people's idea of a typical black male was a character named Zip Coon or Dandy Jim, who portrayed the urban black as an absurd man who wore a blue coat with tails. This idea of a white man with a black face that imitated the "silly and ignorant" blacks of America was a guaranteed laugh just as seeing a white man in a dress. One can imagine the comical hysteria audiences encountered as they saw the combination of a white man dressed as a black woman. Radio audiences witnessed this once the minstrel show progressed past the theater and into American homes. Every week America would tune in to hear Marlin Hurt as "Beulah" on Fibber McGee and Molly. After the minstrel show was over, it ended with the "walk around," where the individual performers displayed their special trait one last time before exiting. The second half was called the olio, named after the painted backdrops for what was essentially a conventional vaudeville show, or variety act show. This part of the performance was not necessarily performed entirely in blackface. The show was then concluded with the comical entre' piece as the audience exited the theater.

As the popularity of the minstrel show grew, these minstrelsies became more independent from the theater. As mentioned before, New York City was the birthplace of the minstrel show, including ten major minstrel houses that thrived during the 1850's. The existing minstrel companies of the time included the Bryants Minstrels, Christy Minstrels, Ethiopian Serenaders, Fisk Jubilee Singers, Georgia Minstrels, Hampton Singers, and the Virginia Minstrels. The minstrel companies performed in large theaters such as Bowery and Barnum's Museum, showboats that toured around New York, and newly built

theaters known as "Ethiopians Opera Houses." The classic age of blackface minstrelsy lasted from 1840 until 1870; during this period, individual blackface performers began to join with other blackface performers to form duos, trios, and finally quartets. These troupe

s became so popular that they went to the White House, where they entertained such presidents as Polk, Filmore, Tyler and Pierce.

Music was also an important part of the minstrel show. Minstrel music was established in the late 1830's with the development of the five-string banjo. This new form of music became very popular as the performers, working usually in pairs, toured from town to town. In 1843, Dan Emmetts of the Virginia Minstrels performed the first minstrel show with banjo, fiddle, bones, and tambourine. From this point, "minstrel mania" swept the nation as hundreds of minstrel troupe

s toured throughout the country. It reached its peak in the 1850's and 1860's as it became the popular music of the