Black-face
Why the hell did they have to choose a blackface minstrel show as the finale? What a racist way to waste great talent (Busby Berkley was allegedly racist). Can they just cut it out on TCM to be PC?
shareI didn't know Busby Berkeley had any rumours of being racist, but he was a bit of a nasty individual (so it wouldn't surprise me if he was). I guess they used blackface because of the times they lived in, it was acceptable. Al Jolson is the prime example and the most maligned (unjustly) because of his use of it. However it has been shown that Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Judy Garland, Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire (who all used blackface at one point) were not racist at all and supported black people.
In any case TCM over here (in Australia) has not cut the scene. If it was a racist intent on Berkeley's part then shame, but Judy definatly was not.
It was not considered racist at that time. It's also worth nothing:
- Black performers used black face (they drew the exagerated white lips on their faces). Just off the top of my head, one such duo was Amos and Andy. If the blacks of that period performed the same style, apparently they didn't find it objectionable either.
As for cutting:
That's a horrible idea. History should be shown EXACTLY as it occurred, not censored. The key to free speech is to allow ALL people freedom of expression, including those you find objectionable. Otherwise one day you might hear someone say YOUR words are offensive, and try to censor your freedom.
"Black performers used black face(they drew the exagerated white lips on their faces). Just off the top of my head, one such duo was Amos and Andy."
You are wrong. No black actor did blackface performing in the cast of Amos 'n'
Andy.
During 1928-1960 Amos 'n Andy was a radio show. The title characters were played by a white actor, Freeman Gosden. Another white man, Charles Correll, did the voice for a third black male character, Andrew. On the stage, Gosden and Correll did blackface imitations of the title characters in Sam n' Henry, a radio show that was a forerunner of Amos 'n' Andy. During the 1930s Amos and Andy was hugely popular on radio. Twice in that decade, Gosden and Correll appeared in movies as their creations, in blackface. In 1951-1953 Amos 'n' Andy was a television series. It had an all black cast as the regulars. I've seen some of the episodes when they were in reruns. None of the performers in the television show did blackface. Amos 'n' Andy was cancelled on television after protests from the National Organization for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Black members of that organization objected to the image of African-Americans being depicted as lazy, ignorant and dishonest. Interestingly, there were some complaints from white southerners about blacks not being portrayed in a negative way when appearing with whites.
Watching the blackface singing and dancing in Babes, I, too, cringed. That it was a popular form of entertainment then, I knew. That didn't make me any less surprised that it was put into the film. But, aside from how blacks may have felt watching these stereotyped images of them, my sympathy went to the actors.
However, that being so, you can't delete an offensive scene without doing damage to the continuity of the story. Also, what has been posted about the historical record and censorship is true.
Maybe someone can do a show with black actors in whiteface.
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"Black members of that organization objected to the image of African-Americans being depicted as lazy, ignorant and dishonest."
Lol, I never understood those stereotypes, how could blacks be all those things when they did all the menial work while whites sat and drank mint juleps, whites were notorious for scamming others out of pay wages and their land! Lol! Crazy!