This is done very well. One of the more difficult parts of being a fan of older films is the random and unexpected appearance of blackface in films. It's a sore surprise.
It's hurts to see your favorite actors and dancers in blackface. But just like in life you have to have a forgiving heart as we receive forgiveness for our shortcomings in life. It's not easy however there is freedom in forgiving.
I was watching "Babes in Arms" awhile back, a really enjoyable musical from the late '30's. All of a sudden, Mickey and Judy appeared onscreen in full blackface. I was shocked, but not particularly surprised.
No it's not. The only way it's a "sore surprise" is if you're immature and don't understand context like these TCM hosts. If you find historical "blackface" painful then you need to see a therapist.
It’s an obsession and they’re still obsessed to this day. It’s crazy people hate you for the color of your skin but absolutely love everything about our flavorful culture . Smh
When I was studying film in school, we had to look at films as a product of their time. It's a shameful past, but we need to be able to see it and understand it. "Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it." That being said, I don't think I could watch The Jazz Singer. I wouldn't be able to appreciate the film, I'd be so uncomfortable with black face.
I'm uncomfortable with ever watching The Birth Of A Nation. It's not because of actors in blackface. It's because they had the KKK be the good guys and the African Americans the bad guys!
So glad that TCM created this short documentary about blackface - as hard as it is to watch, it is part of our history. The commentary was superb. Where could I find a listing of classic films starring black actors/performers of that era?
Then you have the rare movie like Stormy Weather where you had an all black cast peforming their own music and educating the masses on their own culture BUT they still had to do a black face routine. It sucks. Sidenote, the clip they showed from A Day at the Races is my favorite part of the movie. I absolutely love the dancing and music of the Black performers, despite the stereotypes on display.
Thank you, TCM, for putting this together. It is the single best short you have ever done (and I've been watching religiously since you went on the air). Kudos to all!
But some people guess Hispanic. It’s my blonde mom whose Hispanic. It’s nerve racking putting down part Hispanic with Caucasian. Do I have to show everyone my DNA results? I hate the census bureau. My last name has nothing to do with my background. It was changed when my grandparents came to the United States.
Jacqueline Stewart was my professor at the University of Chicago nearly 20 years ago. We learned all about the history of cinema and portrayal of Black folk in movies. And we also celebrated Black filmmakers. Absolutely one of the best educational experiences I ever had.
This was very well done. It makes me proud of TCM. It's important to be handled with honesty and respect on many fronts and I think they accomplished that. I'd love to see one of these maybe about misogyny and domestic violence in classic film. Just a thought.
@@arthurallenbrown1305 You can’t equate the single mockery of white “superiority” by a black comedian to decades of mockery of an entire group of people.
@@davmorga It’s not a single mockery it was done many times by different black artists Also no one forced black artists to do black face use the Google So you don’t like black face comedy?
@@GuamGrrl If you don’t understand or know something and then you don’t have to answer I know you’re an expert so you have to know that black performers also did black face and no one forced them to do it
As a classic film viewer of color, it's really difficult to watch someone in blackface. Often I like the actor, but do not appreciate the choice to do blackface. It was a different time, but times haven't changed all that much. I still think we should show movies that contain actors in blackface so others can see how ugly it is. I'm glad that people watching TCM, especially some older viewers who don't get why it's offensive, can be educated between viewings of Niagara and Singing in the Rain.
Oh gosh I feel this comment. I like old movies too, while being black but it’s so awkward watching Eddie Cantor or something doing blackface but jamming to the songs lol. I guess it’s nice that sometimes they were tryna pay tribute to black performers, but Idk if I’ll ever find a justification for liking these movies that I can sit comfortably with
What about all the degrading stereotypes of WHITES routinely coming out of the CONTEMPORARY MAINSTREAM mass media ( Hollywood, television, and so forth )? .. . like "dumb blonde", suburbanite, frat boy, and "hillbilly", which all these militant leftist "politically correct" SJW "liberal" types never seem to get so indignant about and raise such a clamor over?
I am very appreciative of this segment and glad it is on RU-vid. I have seen The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson and I am not a fan of it. But unfortunately it is part of a horrible movie history that needs to be discussed and underderstood in it's historical problematic context. People romantically nostalgic for this timeframe and other subservient Black actor roles during that timeframe yet don't desire to want to understand it I give serious side-eye and eyeroll too and want to say yeah attitudes like yours are the problem. The problem society has on a larger scale about HONEST racial dialogue in this country to have.
Dr. Lott, you are a brave man indeed. And thanks to the black historians who appeared on this. Dr. Bogle, I had the pleasure of seeing you when I was a teen at Livingstone College many years ago. You wrote many books about black Americans in show business and this inspired me to become interested in how this posion of entertainment still tries to ruin the atmosphere that we are trying to clear up so to speak. Will be looking into reading new writings by all three of you.
@@arthurallenbrown1305 didn't see it or hear about it, so no also how long did it take you to send this reply to every comment here that has the slightest hint of being against blackface lmao
My grandmother was in high school around the time the Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland movies with the minstrel show numbers with them in blackface were made. As a teenager in the 70s, when I saw these movies, I was appropriately offended by these numbers. That was when I found out my grandmother's high school did blackface minstrel shows and she took part in them. I don't think even in the 70s she really understood why that was a bad thing.
Maybe because when she did it she wasn't doing it with hate in her heart. She didn't do it thinking she was "making a statement". They were kids in costumes. It's so sad that we now have no concept of innocence. Because we have no concept of innocence, it's all dirty, evil, and unforgivable. I'm sure that makes us better people. Not.
So sorry that you did not have someone caring to explain these movies to you. I also was a teen in the 1970s and my mom saw some of these movies when she was in college during WWII. She became a history educator and taught us to really see just how bad this stuff was. I am continuing her work even into retirement because we need to show that this is a shock to the mind and soul. Also, depression is running rampant among teens and as a former high school educator, it concerns me a lot. Yes show the films but stop showing a lot of the more racists ones and allow all of our kids to heal.
Blackface is very contradicting. Making fun of a person because of a certain skin color. And then putting on an entire performance of the ones they were disgusted by in the first place. And seemed to have fun while doing it. Times were strange.
I love Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney so much its just crushing to see them in blackface. And it doesn't help that I love the music and so wish it had been performed differently.
Fuck Mickey Rooney-he also played the INCREDIBLY racist typecast Mr. Yunioshi on Breakfast at Tiffany’s. After all the cast apologized for their participation in something with such horribly anti-Asian racism, he was the only one after decades who forever refused to apologize for his performance. You shouldn’t miss him. Good riddance
Performing in blackface back then was done by lots of performers. It was considered perfectly normal and inoffensive. It was a long time ago. Take that into account.
Judy, Mickey, and other child stars are the only ones I will defend, because they didn’t have a choice. Their parents sold them to MGM, to do with them as they wished. The studio went as far as constantly filling them up with cocaine so they could work for 72 hours straight, then give them sleeping pills to sleep, then cocaine all over again. They gave them pills to stay skinny, sexually abused them, I could go on and on and on. Judy was never a racist, but MGM was.
I've actually heard a group of right-wingers arguing that blackface was a tribute to Black Americans. I hope documentaries like this expose more people to reality.
I agree that it's wrong but why is Tropic Thunder included in this ? Wasn't that the point that what the character was doing was wrong? You had the actual black character calling him out on it pretty much through the bulk of the movie and asking the question of why they got a white guy to play a black character. The movie literally points out the whitewashing. And the character its self is intended to be a parody of the method actor those people that looses themselves in their roles, its just that Tropic Thunder took it to an extreme.
your'e an Idiot, how are pork chops growing on tress funny? you should be ashamed of yourself as a black middle age man and you think this is funny you are a disgrace to all black people maybe your parents did a horrible job raising you
@@arthurallenbrown1305 Eddie did it to show the various difference of being a white individual than being a black man… the people in these visuals are racist simple
What issue? There's no issue here! It was comedy of the day. Like rap was the music of the 80s and 90s. How marching was the thing of the 60s. And how owning slaves was the thing of the 1800s. It was from a different time. It's not an issue. We just see it different. Because we're not living in that time anymore.
@@arthurallenbrown1305 How is that even the same thing? Blackface was made to mock, make jokes, and stereotype black people for they're skin color and facial features it has been a thing for over 200 years and was something people in the kkk would do before lynching blk people! White people didn't have to fear of being a slave or being killed cause of they're skin color in the 1800's for more then 400 years white people were superior because they were light and poc were put down just cause of they're color. Basically what you're saying is that white people are oppressed from whatever "whiteface" is and that they have been oppressed long enough to the point its a real thing? If you saw memorabilia in museums of racist items from the 1950's and higher and lower you would see that none of those items were white people they were all black people because for some reason white people had such a hate for black people.
AS it states here Whatever? the movies that include blackface should be shown, so we can learn WHY it happened. So we don't remain ignorant, learn by OUR mistakes. OK look at them, and if you want to have HATRED and REVENGE within yourself,compounded with a be WITH IT NOW aspect - YOU will find nothing but evil and continual ongoing division in humanity. Instead of going into a great deal of rhetoric about blackface use, which proves nothing one way or the other, why not explain the circumstances, the technical restrictions, the problems making early sound movies like the Jazz Singer and The Singing Fool. That would be to me more historical educational than stimulating on going hatred all the time.
Wow the black heaven , was luke wtf really tho, i mean what can you expect after 400 yrs of slavery smfh , sad ,sad , sad History is so important and has to be documented
An interesting side note is that the blackface aesthetic was so deeply ingrained in American popular culture that even African American stage performers in the 19th and early 20th centuries would, themselves, appear in blackface. Ziegfeld star Bert Williams, for example, regularly appeared in blackface in his shows. Even as late as the 1940s (and beyond) Redd Foxx began his standup career by performing in blackface. It's fascinating (in a disturbing way) that blackface - and presumably its insinuation of an unthreatening African American image to a white audience - had so broad and insistent a reach.
I wish someone could speak on the economics of Minstrelsy to really delineate the scale of blackface's impact as a social phenomenon as well as a business platform. It speaks volumes of the level of black exploitation that was involved.
I remember even in the Wilder books there's a part where the little town has a talent show and Pa performs a minstrel act in blackface. Made me feel sad
Thank you for breaking this down. It’s disgusting how they treated them in those days the entertainment business disrespected black entertainers.. They always copied our style and got rich off of it . Still to this day .. Black entertainers In those days is very strong They understood it what it took to become successful I thank them for that .
No, Astaire was merely a performer,he had nothing to do with the technicla aspects. He did as he was told because he like all actors was under contract.
My theory is that it may have originated in the Hayes code/ censorship which banned to create a love story between a white protagonist and a black (or an other different race) as well as to represent white people as slaves in the movies…
I regularly perform 'black face' (Mr. Tambo), with my local company, The Somalian Serenaders. We entertain mostly black oldtimers, both at old folks homes, and a hospice. There is no mean or racist intent, we make it our mission to carry out fundraising for many local charities. Last year, supporting the hospice, to the tune of $22,000.
Not specifically about blackface, but I have never figured out how we, as a multicultural society, can have different cultures but yet expect identical outcomes of income, employment, and even things such as marriage. Different cultures make for differences in interests, wants, values, etc. As for blackface, it is a thing of the past. Anyone in blackface today get highly criticized.
Don't you dare mention Tiffany Haddish name affiliated with A List comedians Dave Chappelle Richard Pryor she's a D-List comedian you should be ashamed of yourself
I remember watching this short documentary on air. I thought this was very well done! Pointing out why it's insulting is all good and what not, but I really appreciated this for going into the history and the different perspectives people had about it as an expressive art form throughout the years. Always interesting to understand the reasoning. Thank you again!
I agree with one person's comment. It is difficult being a fan of older films. I loved Fred Astaire....was not too comfortable with seeing his blackface scene in Swing Town. At the time of writing this, I'm watching the 1936 version of Show Boat for the first time. Enjoyed the movie up to the point were actress Irene Dunne does a number in blackface. The movie is pretty racial out the gate, but seeing that scene changed things a bit.
@@jeniferwilde-mcmurtrie9970 Can you tell us what “point” Eddie Murphy was making in less than 10 words? Use reason and logic and try to make an argument like a lawyer. Also why did Black people at one time also do black face? Yes, that was a thing and easy for you to Google What point were THOSE entertainers trying to make?
@@arthurallenbrown1305 Okay, and were white people ever banned from entering stores or other places because of their race in the Unites States? Were they ever enslaved in the United States because they were seen as inferior and property? Were white people ever made fun of with degrading dances and stereotypes in venues where they were not allowed to even set foot in? Context matters. Get off your high horse and stop making excuses for dumb shit.
I wish you had addressed the tribute to Bill Robinson by Eleanor Powell in blackface in Honolulu. She did not wear loud prints or characterize Robinson in a demeaning way, but respectfully performed the signature dance he taught her personally and okayed for use in the film. The two were close lifelong friends. It is an effort that does stand out as approached differently. If only she had not worn the makeup, however...
Thank you for creating this short doc. I learned a lot. Makes me sad for how my people were depicted. We are both beloved and reviled in the World. Absolutely fascinating.
At 9:52, there is a clip of Ballet in Jive from Hollywood Canteen featuring Joan McCracken. I don't quite understand why it is included. All of the dancers are in stylized costumes, but none are in blackface, nor is it a minstrel show.
That's why it's shown. In the voiceover at that point, they say how it had tapered off by then, so they're in the costumes but not the blackface, and it was still enjoyed. Therefore, they could still do the style without the blackface and have a great number.
@@noducksaloud7554 Yes, but they aren't doing the style. McCracken is doing a jazz/ballet about a naive girl from a small town arriving in a big city. The costumes aren't minstrel costumes. They are exaggerations of sailors, cowboys, etc. McCracken's own costume is a variation on a ballet tutu. The exaggerated facial expressions come directly from the tradition of pantomime in ballet from the 1800's. I know it may seem odd today, bu if you were to look at a ballet from the 40's or 50's (like the ballets Gaite Parisienne, Filling Station or Con Amor), it would look very much like this. There is a term in language called False Friends. When a word from one language sound like one from another, but they are not related. That is what this seems like to me.
Interesting piece. I only wish that TCM would take the advice espoused in the piece, which says that "I think that people should have an opportunity to see these films, it's history." They need to show the films of Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, and others of the era, which are sadly missing from their schedule.
@@MarcLeavey "In context" and "period pieces" now, that's the difference! It's different from me dressing up and going to the theatre to actually PAY to see a complete "blackface" film because It's history and I get a kick out of watching it.
They actually very recently showed The Jazz Singer and months ago showed Swing Time where I saw Fred Astaire in blackface for the first time. If your going to make a statement, be sure it’s factual.
The fellow at 7:25 who say's that Jolson did blackface to demean blacks is TOTALLY WRONG.....he should apologize to the memory of AL JOLSON who championed black culture..
TCM is COMPLETELY OFF BASE HERE......and so are most of the comments below by people who totally misunderstand the intensions of these artists thru their ignorance.
"Since the dawn of cinema and until the mid-20th century, the minstrel show-based practice of donning blackface to portray characters of African descent has been a staple in Hollywood. " - Lol, what utter nonsense. "Blackface" was rarely used beyond the 20's and 30's. You could count on one hand the amount of times it cropped up.
Fred Astaire saying he was paying tribute to bojangles is like Frank Sinatra calling Sammie Davis Junior a “good boy” when he died as a 60 something year old -MAN- . It was all disrespect. All of it.
You can't realistically apply a universality to this "art form". In the 1830s there was the "Lyceum" lecture circuit, classical performances of music, dance, opera and recitals and then there were variety acts including "minstrel" shows. Not everyone looked at black face in the same way, but by the 1860s it did become somewhat standardized in its comedic format including Mr. Interlocutor, Mr. Tambo and Mr. Bones. Not all blacks seemed to view it as demeaning. There were actually successful black minstrel troupes who put on black face as well. Portraying oneself in black face was akin to putting on clown makeup. The Minstrel Show was generally bawdy, low brow entertainment and not considered appropriate for ladies. Hollywood cleaned up the material for presentation to general audiences, but from my studies, modern audiences are much more offended by this art form than even early 20th century audiences.
