Dominic Vautier 1/7/2011
The first stage presentations of minstrel shows occurred as early as 1844, around the same time that Foster started publishing. Minstrelsy was a type of musical theater that tended to follow a prescribed format and use a predefined set of characters. It became very popular just before the Civil War. The great pioneer in this field was Edwin Christy, who developed what many considered the standard format. An interesting thing about minstrelsy is that it utilized some of the basic ideas of Greek Drama. The blackface and whiteface were masks or “persona” which transformed an individual into something else, a stage actor. Also, as in Greek drama, women were not allowed to act and the parts of females were traditionally played by transvested men. As the 19th century wore on, the exclusion of women began to disappear and it became more common for women to appear in minstrel shows.
Perhaps the best way to describe the format of minstrelsy is to run through an actual show. The first part of the performance is called, logically enough, The First Part. The curtain opens to a rousing number, usually De Camptown Races, Entry of The Gladiators, Swanee River or, more commonly after 1898, Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight. Minstrels drill back and forth on the stage during this opening song and wind up in front of their seats just before it ends. The acting troop forms a semi-circle facing the audience and the interlocutor (in-ter-loc-a-ter) announces, to a shrill of trumpets, “Gentlemen, be seated.” The show formally has begun.
The interlocutor, or middleman, is usually in whiteface, well dressed, acts as master of ceremonies, and controls the general pace of the show. His demeanor is proud, haughty, and condescending, representing the upper class, businessmen, land owners, and politicians. At the end of both sides of the semicircle of performers are his arch antagonists, Mr. Bones to his left and Mr. Tambo on his right, so named because they play bones (castanets) and tambourine, respectively. These two people, known as end-men, are always in blackface and are dressed in colorful and often outlandish outfits. They continue through the course of the program to ridicule, belittle, and torment the unfortunate interlocutor, making all manner of jokes at his expense. The interlocutor is slow of mind and manner, and purposely acts as the butt of all these jokes. By the way, the jokes are very bad. Here is an example:
Bones: Mr. Interlocutor,
I’d like to ask you a question.
Inter: Why certainly. Go ahead Mr. Bones.
Bones: What has four legs and flies?
Inter: You’re not going to pull that old one on me again, are you?
Bones: Why you just don’t know the answer do you?
(laughter)
Inter: Of course I do. It’s a dead horse.
Bones: Wrong, all wrong.
(mild laughter)
Inter: I’m wrong? Well
suppose you tell me then what has four legs and flies.
Bones: Two pair of pants.
(great laughter)
The second part of a typical minstrel show, called the Oleo or variety show, consists of specialty acts and non-stop comedian performances, soft-shoe, tap dances, and the like. The third part is called the burlesque or conclusion, which is a review or parody of the first two parts. It may be composed of a skit, a farce or a short one-act play.
The early minstrel show usually consisted of the First Part, the Oleo, (the variety show), and the Conclusion. The Conclusion could be a finale, or a short skit, or burlesque satire. This standard arrangement of the parts changed over the next 80 years as minstrelsy evolved. Sometimes the second and third parts were combined. Sometimes the burlesque was skipped. Often there were many burlesques. Recent research into the playbills (programs) of early minstrel shows indicates that the structure was even looser than previously thought.[1] In larger shows there were as many as ten end-men, and even sometimes two middlemen, one in whiteface and the other in blackface.
Throughout all this evolution and experimentation, however, the characters of minstrelsy remained much the same: the middleman (in whiteface, proud, haughty, well dressed, slow of mind) and the end-men (black-faced wise-guys, smart-alecks, outlandishly dressed). The end-men symbolized the common man, that is to say, the audience, and when the smart-alecks directed their ridicule at class structure, they spoke for the masses. Common folk felt that social position, power, and wealth did not reflect essential human worth, and that all people were equal, in life, in death, and on stage. Minstrelsy sang the praises of a society without class. It was indeed a classless act.
The blackface motif associated with Minstrelsy was not intended to constitute a racial put-down that we may be tempted to interpret it today. Rather, blackface was chosen because it was a powerful way to deliver satire, something that audiences could readily understand, and it was practical as well. First of all, the easiest way to become a different person while on stage was to assume some kind of disguise, and burnt cork was a cheap and available commodity. Secondly, the black tradition offered a stereotype of the quintessential “common man,” who did not equate wealth or social position with essential human value. This stereotypical man in blackface offered the audience a character to identify with. He was fun-loving, uninhibited, lazy, and disposed to laugh at the expense of those who were pompous, haughty, and self-impressed, and the average folks in the audience were more than glad to laugh along with him.
The inclusion of the stereotypical black man may well be considered racist in today’s world, but a few additional things must be kept in mind. First, the character in blackface was a “wise-guy,” and he was never the butt of the audience’s laughter. He was, instead, the audience’s accomplice in the assault on class distinctions. Second, in 1844 ethnic stereotypes were considered fair game. In an era when racial sensitivity and political correctness were unknown, people accepted the use of ethnic humor as just one more thing to laugh at. Third, there was a necessity, just as in Greek drama, for the actors to assume a stage "persona," that is, the character of an unrecognizable person while on stage. That on-stage actor had to be essentially disembodied, completely disassociated from the actual person who played the part, and this was accomplished by wearing a "mask." That "mask" was burnt cork. The effect is similar to the strict rule at Disneyland that a cartoon character must never, ever, be seen partially out of disguise because it destroys the illusion.
Minstrelsy was important in the development of popular music for it became the custodian for much of Foster’s material, and his tradition played a key roll in the subsequent development of popular music. After all, it was Edwin Christy, organizer of “Christy’s Minstrels,” who purchased and performed many Foster songs. This inclusion of Foster’s music in minstrel performances preserved and protected his song tradition through the so-called “dry” years (between his death in 1864, and the beginning of the popular-music era in 1892). Without this preservation, the strong influence of Foster’s work on popular music may have been lost.
For a long time it seams, popular music cast envious eyes on the minstrel way of singing and even went so far as to develop its own brand of blackface. Blackface then became a legitimate subset within popular music to support heavy syncopation and snappy tempos, techniques that were otherwise not yet accepted in mainstream music. Irving Berlin, the Von Tilzer brothers, Al Piantadosi, Fred Fisher, and other top-rate writers of the period were able to write popular songs in blackface in order to justify use of catchy rhythms and syncopations. Also among these writers was the song-and-dance man Eddie Leonard who absolutely excelled in blackface. He fell in love with a girl named Ida and wrote the song Ida, sweet as Apple Cider!. This song was one of many that well captured the minstrel style.
[1] William J. Mahar, Behind the Burnt Cork Mask, (University of Illinois Press, 1999).
Here are some other links in this article:
Origins
of Early Popular Music
Broadway
Vaudeville
Other sources
People Growth - the First Baby Boom and it's effect