'The Playhouse' includes a group of minstrels as part of the opening dream sequence in which all the performers and the entire audience of a small vaudeville theatre are played by Buster Keaton.
I've seen that! It was technically very impressive and psychologically very nonplussing as a reminder of things that were once considered so neutral and universal that Buster Keaton could dream about them without it meaning anything in particular. I prefer the all-Oscar Levant orchestra in An American in Paris (1951).
Though still not comfortable to watch, it's interesting to see that the extreme makeup was worn by the two comics, while the musicians only had their faces darkened a bit.
That matches what I know of both black and white minstrel shows, at least in the later phases. The endmen are the clowns, the cherished stereotypes. They have to look the part.
There's a scene in John Ford's Upstream (1927)—noted in the footnotes—where two characters are rehearsing their comedy act, which obviously includes use of blackface onstage. Without it, though, their jokes just sound like the ordinary kind of fast-paced absurd humor that we're all used to, taking the silliest part of the sentence at face value, redirecting the intentions of the straight man. That was an interesting realization.
Even the in stills I've seen from Bert Williams' 'Lime Kiln Field Day,' in which all the actors really are African-American, he, as the comedy lead, is in a more subdued version of his vaudeville stage makeup while everyone else looks normal.
I wonder if that was proof of "authenticity" as well as ability to observe the traditions.
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I've seen that! It was technically very impressive and psychologically very nonplussing as a reminder of things that were once considered so neutral and universal that Buster Keaton could dream about them without it meaning anything in particular. I prefer the all-Oscar Levant orchestra in An American in Paris (1951).
Though still not comfortable to watch, it's interesting to see that the extreme makeup was worn by the two comics, while the musicians only had their faces darkened a bit.
That matches what I know of both black and white minstrel shows, at least in the later phases. The endmen are the clowns, the cherished stereotypes. They have to look the part.
There's a scene in John Ford's Upstream (1927)—noted in the footnotes—where two characters are rehearsing their comedy act, which obviously includes use of blackface onstage. Without it, though, their jokes just sound like the ordinary kind of fast-paced absurd humor that we're all used to, taking the silliest part of the sentence at face value, redirecting the intentions of the straight man. That was an interesting realization.
Even the in stills I've seen from Bert Williams' 'Lime Kiln Field Day,' in which all the actors really are African-American, he, as the comedy lead, is in a more subdued version of his vaudeville stage makeup while everyone else looks normal.
I wonder if that was proof of "authenticity" as well as ability to observe the traditions.