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  1. "Gentlemen, be seated!" : A parade of the American minstrels

    Paskman, Dailey
    Rev. ed. - New York : C. N. Potter : distributed by Crown, c1976.

  2. Racism and early blackface comic traditions : from the old world to the new

    Hornback, Robert
    Cham, Switzerland : Palgrave Macmillan, [2018]

    This book traces blackface types from ancient masks of grinning Africans and phallus-bearing Roman fools through to comedic medieval devils, the pan-European black-masked Titivillus and Harlequin, and racial impersonation via stereotypical 'black speech' explored in the Renaissance by Lope de Vega and Shakespeare. Jim Crow and antebellum minstrelsy recycled Old World blackface stereotypes of irrationality, ignorance, pride, and immorality. Drawing upon biblical interpretations and philosophy, comic types from moral allegory originated supposedly modern racial stereotypes. Early blackface traditions thus spread damning race-belief that black people were less rational, hence less moral and less human. Such notions furthered the global Renaissance's intertwined Atlantic slave and sugar trades and early nationalist movements. The latter featured overlapping definitions of race and nation, as well as of purity of blood, language, and religion in opposition to 'Strangers'. Ultimately, Old World beliefs still animate supposed 'biological racism' and so-called 'white nationalism' in the age of Trump.

  3. The blackface minstrel show in mass media : 20th century performances on radio, records, film and television

    Brooks, Tim
    Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, [2020]

    The minstrel show occupies a complex and controversial space in the history of American popular culture. Today considered a shameful relic of America's racist past, it nonetheless offered many black performers of the 19th and early 20th centuries their only opportunity to succeed in a white-dominated entertainment world, where white performers in blackface had by the 1830s established minstrelsy as an enduringly popular national art form. This book traces the often overlooked history of the "modern" minstrel show through the advent of 20th century mass media--when stars like Al Jolson, Bing Crosby and Mickey Rooney continued a long tradition of affecting black music, dance and theatrical styles for mainly white audiences--to its abrupt end in the 1950s. A companion two-CD reissue of recordings discussed in the book is available from Archeophone Records at archeophone.com. -- From AmazonThe minstrel show occupies a complex and controversial space in the history of American popular culture. While it is seen as a relic of America's deeply shameful and racist past, it also provided the first vehicle by which African-Americans were able to enter the entertainment world. This book investigates the often ignored 20th century history of minstrelsy as it entered the age of mass media, addressing such minstrel stars as Al Jolson, Bing Crosby, and Mickey Rooney. Tracing the history of minstrelsy through to its abrupt end in the 1950s, this book is a chronicle of "modern" minstrelsy and America's rapidly changing values.

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