<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=3>Bill Oakley: I'm out on a limb about minstrel shows. I maintain that they were not necessarily just blackface shows but that they were entertaining vandevillian type of shows and the blackface thing came in as a variation on it. A black musician friend of mine states that they were strictly blackface shows. I can remember seeing minstrel shows in my youth that were not black face and I saw some that were part of a circus and they were all black.<BR>
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So, can you fill my in on this a bit.<BR>
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Regards, Jim Beebe</FONT></HTML>