WHY the blackface??????`
Tacky, tacky...only thing I didn't like about this film!
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Yeah, I know that, but it doesn't excuse it!
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MovieChat Forums > Young and Innocent (1937) Discussion > WHY the blackface??????`
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The American novelty "Jazz" music - which is essentially what the orchestra is playing in this scene - was thought (in Europe) to be only played by "Negroes". It was common for white musicians to go blackface to play that type of music in England during that time period. Check out the Ken Burns documentary on Jazz.
shareTaken from website www.musicals101.com:
We are frequently reminded that former minstrel Al Jolson continued to use blackface on stage and screen in the early 20th Century, but he was far from alone. Eddie Cantor wore burnt cork, and Hollywood thought nothing of putting blackface on such white stars as Fred Astaire, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland – to name just a few. These stars were not racists, and they had no idea how hateful their blackface performances would seem to us decades later. Much as we may hate to admit it, 20th Century America was an amazingly racist nation, with practices and attitudes frighteningly close to the apartheid mentality of South Africa. It was not until the Civil Rights movement caught fire in the 1950's and 60's that performing in blackface fell into disrepute. Today, many old musical films are televised minus their blackface numbers, and any performer appearing in blackface risks a publicity firestorm. (Consider how Ted Danson was vilified for appearing in blackface at a celebrity roast for then-girlfriend Whoopi Goldberg.)
There is no disputing that blackface was and is an embodiment of racism, and that it could only thrive in a culture that took bigotry as a casual fact of life. It is right for us to deplore the use of blackface and all it represented. However, I think it is painfully naive – and insufferably self-righteous – to condemn well-intentioned entertainers of a previous time for not meeting our contemporary standards of sensitivity.
...and Hollywood thought nothing of putting blackface on such white stars as Fred Astaire, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland – to name just a few. These stars were not racists, and they had no idea how hateful their blackface performances would seem to us decades later.
In Astaire's case, if I understand correctly, it was something that the producer of the film he was in forced him to do over his own objections.
"Bojangles Of Harlem," the dance routine from Swing Time, was the only time Astaire ever appeared in blackface in any of his films. That particular routine was a tribute to Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, whom he was friends with: I doubt that he would want to do anything to upset his friend.
I've been told that he didn't want to do it in blackface, but that he was overruled by the producer of the film.
(I can't speak for Rooney and Garland. Frankly I suspect Rooney would appear in blackface even today for another fifteen (okay, five) minutes in the spotlight.)
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In addition to endorsing some of the comments already made, I'd like to point out that the blackface fits in thematically with the rest of the film, which centers on motifs of sight, seeing and disguise.
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Tacky, tacky...only thing I didn't like about this film!
Yes, clearly when Hitch made this film, he should have worried less about how it was going to be perceived by audiences when first released and a lot more about how the PC-stricken populace was going to feel about it 70 years later. [rolls eyes]
Returning to Planet Earth, I wish you understood more about blackface (and why it was used) because you obviously haven't a clue. Blackface was, in fact, frequently used by both white and black entertainers.
In the case of white entertainers, it was done (among other reasons) so they could steal black music and comedy/dance routines. White people did not have a monopoly on good songs and good routines and liked to "borrow" from others. When whites wore blackface, this gave them carte blanche to steal songs and dances from black acts.
Blackface was also, believe it or don't, worn by many black entertainers of the time. Why? Well, because donning it gave them a chance to perform in front of white audiences (after all, who could tell that these were black performers under all the makeup and wigs?). For example, Bert Williams, the highest-paid black entertainer of his day, appeared with the Ziegfeld Follies in 1910. He was the only black entertainer with the Follies, and the blackface he wore helped him to be accepted by white audiences who, let's face it, weren't ready to accept talented black performers even at that relatively late date.
Another one of my favourite entertainers, Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham, had, by the 1920s, graduated to the burlesque circuit, where he was frequently billed with white artists such as Milton Berle, Red Buttons and Eddie Cantor. Even though he was black, Markham insisted on appearing in black face (in fact, in his case, the makeup actually served to lighten his skin). As a result, many fans didn't actually realize that he really was black. Needless to say, this meant a lot more money for him as an entertainer.
At any rate, I can understand why you might take offence at the use of blackface from the "PC" perspective of today. However, you have to understand that Young and Innocent was a product of its time. Blackface was with us for another 20 years after Young and Innocent came out (well into the 50's) before it finally fell out of favor with the public.
And while black entertainers certainly hated blackface and what it meant, that doesn't mean that they didn't take the opportunity to turn the use of it to their own advantage whenever they could. Let's face it: there weren't many opportunities for blacks to make good money back then. And while donning black face was, more often than not, an odious thing, the alternative (manual labor of some kind) was even worse. So you could say that blackface was all that black entertainers had to help make them acceptable to a white audience and make them more money .
Okay?
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Skin color shouldn't be considered part of someone's cultural identity. It's a visual distinguisher, like blond hair and blue eyes or heavy brows and dark facial hair. Only racists separate everything into black and white.
I'd say determining whether 'black face' performances intended to be discriminatory or attempted homage depends on examining the individual cases. There must have been some white musicians who believed themselves superior to black musicians and couldn't take second place on the stage without adopting a mocking tone, but there were probably more who thought they were bringing the complete experience of this great new music to a culture with very few black musicians.
This being a British film, I'm excusing its inclusion of this performance -- at that time -- and not American films, because I find it hard to dismiss having so many great musicians to hand and yet hiring performers they supposed were less-offensive as anything but racist.
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What an interesting thread!
Going further to what Black Rebel Base said, there was a Woody Allen movie where a Rabbi had a fantasy about being whipped by a blonde beauty while his wife eats a pork chop. I wonder how that was perceived by a Jewish audience given the fact that Woody Allen is Jewish.
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The reason for a provincial hotel having a band in blackface at this time would be because they couldn't get the real blacks who would be playing this type of music in an upmarket London establishment -- it was an attempt to make themselves seem more glamorous and, if you like, cosmopolitan. Similarly there was a vogue for 'gypsy' orchestras (most of whose members were probably about as Romany as Noel Coward) and for 'Parisian' dressmakers (who would put on a fake French accent to justify the elevated prices at their establishment).
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Thanks fast_fierce_and_funny for an informative post!
So long and thanks for all the fish!
Blackface was with us for another 20 years after Young and Innocent came out (well into the 50's)
The Black and White Minstrel Show aired on British television well into the 1970's !
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shareà propos de bottes, should caucasoid or europid actors be banned from playing Othello in blackface due to their ethnicity? In 1981 James Earl Jones was aggrieved that he lost out on that role to a Welshman, Anthony Hopkins. (But JEJ was not a member of the British Actor's union, Equity; so he wasn't being dissed.) Anyway, Hopkins did not use blackface so much as tawnyface or mebbe ochre. I loved the scene in "The Dresser" where Albert Finney pastes his face in Othello's makeup instead of Lear's. In any case, the film's mise-en-scène being a repertory theatre in wartime England and not being a politically correct venue given the times, there was no outcry.
It was grey face rather blackface.
And why are you Americans complaining? The British freed the slaves 30 years before you Americans got around to it.
Actually, I'm an Anglophilic type (my dad being Canadian with a Scottish father and Swabian mother) but he went into the States during the depression and when war commenced in '39, Canada had no conscription. So he had to wait to enlist until 12/7/41 to try to join the U.S. army but was turned down due to his not being a citizen (that has change!)and had to wait until later when he got his commission at U. of Alabama til "He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,
Off-hand like — just as I —
Was out of work — had sold his traps —
No other reason why.
(the delay saved him from joining the first draft in the Philippines, tho'.)
The BBC aired its version of Wilberforce and the abolition of slavery about the same time the U.S. was airing "Roots". I preferred the Wilberforce treatment. The other was too mawkish.
The stereotypes ABOUNDED in the old films. How about Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbridge as white trash hillbillies, the numerous Irish stereotypes, the Jewish comics etc. etc. Everyone was made fun of. I can make you a LONG list of films in which WASPS are made fun of (especially screwball comedies of the depression) and Italians, Mischa Auer as an hilarious stereotype of Russians etc. etc. You see all that you want to see BLACK VICTIMIZATION even if its 80 years ago and that is all that matters.
shareMore milky brownface than blackface.
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