[Dixielandjazz] Minstrel shows

[JimDBB at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/26/03 2:55:45 PM Central Standard Time, 
gwilliamoakley at earthlink.net writes:

> 
> Hi Jim:
> Historically the minstrel show started as a black-face entertainment.  The 
> first performer in black-face (other than portrayers of Othello) was Thomas 
> "Daddy" Rice who wrote the song Jim Crow.  The first actual minstrel troupe 
>  was formed by Dan Emmett (Dixie), Frank Brower, Dick Pelham, and Billy 
> Whitlock.  They called themselves the Virginia Minstrels and gave their 
> first performance at the Bowery Amphitheater on February 6, 1843.  
> Throughout the heyday of the minstrel show they were done in blackface.  In 
> later years, however, there were whiteface minstrels.  Like you,  I 
> remember tent shows coming to the small Oklahoma town I was born in and 
> white face minstrels were the rule. As an aside,  we also had another 
> unique form of entertainment called the Toby Show.  These were very popular 
> shows that toured throughout the Midwest, generally in tents.  The format 
> was the Toby character (a rube type) who in the end bested the city 
> slicker.  There was one of these shows still touring the Midwest as late as 
> 1960.
> It is interesting to note that black performers did minstrel shows as early 
> as the 1870's and they also corked up.  This was long before Bert Williams 
> became a big star.
> I can only surmise that with the advent of Vaudeville after the turn of the 
> century some remnants of minstrelsy continued to tour the hinterland and 
> since we both have recollections of seeing these musical mastodons there 
> were white-face minstrels. However,  the initial troupes were black-face 
> and continued to be such until the demise of the form around 1900.  Many of 
> the black-face performers went into Vaudeville and continued their 
> black-face characterizations, i.e. Eddie Cantor.  
> I know it is popular to denigrate the minstrel show but like jazz it was a 
> unique American entertainment and occurred in a less critical age. And like 
> it or not,  its impact on popular music was great and left a legacy of 
> memorable tunes.
> Best Regards,
> Bill

         Thanks, Bill for a very good and interesting writeup on Minstrel 
shows.  I get from this that I was wrong.  I had seen minstrel show in my 
youth with white casts and no blackface.  I just assumed that they were a 
riverboat type of entertainment show.  I also  saw the same sort of show with 
black casts. These were ususally part of a circus.  I never saw one that was 
in blackface.

    JIm Beebe
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://ml.islandnet.com/pipermail/dixielandjazz/attachments/20030126/b2aeb80b/attachment.html