Our program tonight is presented in honor of black History Month for the purposes of Public Education and civil discourse. And our guests are to american historians. Our keynote speaker is a historian of television, radio and the Recording Industry in the united states, a former network and Cable Television executive, and the author of nine books. Tim brooks. His talk tonight is based on his newest publication, the blackface minstrel show in mass media 20th century performances on radio, records, film and television. Recently published by mcfarland. Among tims many accomplishments is a grammy award, which he received for a double cd and book titled lost sounds blacks and the birth of the Recording Industry 18901919. Joined in aen be seated conversation by fellow historian bill doggett. Timprogram will conclude in and bills taking questions from you, our live audience. Now, please turn off the sounds , and join me in welcoming historian and author, tim brooks. [applause] tim thank you, raul. Later on as he mentioned, there will be time for questions and i hope we have some good ones coming up at the end of this conversation and presentation. I would like to start with a question for you, the audience. How many people here have seen a minstrel show, a live minstrel show . Anybody . Interesting. How many have seen one on film perhaps . Remember, im talking about a whole minstrel show, not a clip somewhere, a full show. Anybody . Ok, if i had asked that question 100 years ago, every hand in the audience would have gone up. Part of American Culture at the time. Everybody, we will get into the reasons for that and what it was, but it was on radios, television, when television came along, it was in movies, it was on records. While a lot has been written about the gardens of minstrel, very little has been written about the later years and why it was not only the product of the 19th century but it lasted well into halfway through the 20th century as well. Explore in wanted to explore in this book why it lasted for more than a century here, right into the beginning of the Civil Rights Era, how it changed over that time, and what finally brought about its downfall and how that came about. That is basically what the book is about and what is fairly new to studies of this field. We have to start with where it came from. In the first place. In the 1830s, there were entertainers, white men, always men, who blacked their faces ended dances and songs and so forth. This was in the 1830s. In 1843, 4 of these performers, out of work at the time, decided to get together and put on a show in which they interacted with each other. They called themselves the virgina minstrels. This was an unexpected success. It was the talk of new york where it was launched. And as a result, it attracted a lot of imitators, as you might imagine. As business show business often does. T these shows did was to and this is all in the northeast, by the way. Many of these were irish immigrants putting these on. Were usually four to eight men, this one is five men, the these are the virginia sarah naders, one of the followon groups. Their instrumentations, their instruments were symbol simple, tambourines, they had a banjo for rhythm, a fiddle. So it is small, and they basically were doing parodies. They were doing parodies of every conceivable group in society. Not just blacks, but also other immigrant groups, also the rich, also politicians. It was parity. It was the middle and lower classes of america basically making fun of pretension and the eccentricities of all kinds of groups. Although they did it, as you can see, and blackface. In blackface. It was very populist. It was kind of like, i call it the saturday night live of its time. It was very populist and it was a very american. You have to remember, at this time in 1840s, what americans were use were imports from britain. Almost all plays, many of the actors and comedians, drinking, songs, all of those things came from england. We were still culturally very much under the english umbrella at that time, even though we were an independent country. There was a huge moment in the country to assert something more american. This is the jacksonian era, the era of changed politics as well. First,strel show was the really, that grew out of that. It was very popular, as i say, and quickly began to evolve. The costumes, which were rough beginning, turned into either tuxedos or an exaggerated parity of tuxedos which you will see later on. A man by the name of edward christie, he was a real promoter at the time, and he developed what was essentially a three act format for these shows, as they grew and grew in popularity. The first act, which was called the minstrel first part, was where all of them were on stage interacting with each other, joking back getting up to sing songs and so forth. The second act was called the olio. That was a succession of individual acts on stage much like vaudeville later on and many argue that is where vaudeville came from. They may or may not have been in blackface with those. The third act was called the after piece, which was an extended parody of a play or opera, especially something pretentious that they could make fun of. Acts, the minstrel first part, the olio, and the after piece. Another wason, added, that was an imposing man who would sit in the middle of the group and serve as the mc of it. And go back and forth. A lot is said about the fact that he was the boss, the straw boss or something. In the recordings you hear later, he might be that, but he also be one of the gangs, the person who organizes it and keeps it going. He might not be in blackface or he might, not was different as well. A lot has been said about minstrel songs and songs that came out of the minstrel show. The minstrel show, throughout its history, was a reflection of whatever the popular music was of america at that time. 1850s, it wasnd Stephen Foster because he was writing enormously popular songs. Later on it became songs of the late 1800s or ragtime, when that came in, some of the late minstrel shows in the 1940s and 1950s, featured a big band songs, rock n roll and some of them. Whatever was popular at the time. There were some songs written for the minstrel show but mostly it was a reflection for the current popular music. And a very important part of it is that it was sold as clean entertainment. Entertainment for the family. That may sound strange considering what they are doing up here. But in fact, there was never innuendo in minstrel shows. There was never sexual innuendo, which did appear in other kinds of performances of the time of plays and things. That meant you could bring your family and it was very upbeat. Many of the songs were upbeat kinds of songs. It was kind of a happy, laughing thing. And it was a partylike atmosphere, particularly in the opening minstrel first part where they are all together and it was like a party going on onstage that you, the audience felt you were part of. That is what sold it originally. Jumping ahead, this is a very interesting picture of four or five black minstrels entertaining union troops during the civil war. It 1850s,1860s, and 1860s, it continued to morph and get bigger and black minstrels began to be seen, we will say more about those in a minute. And in fact, during the late 1800s, because i want to jump through this ticket to the media, the minstrel shows got much bigger and much more elaborate. And they started using names like mega variance and gigantic inns to emphasize how many people were up there. It was a spectacle at that time. Some of their some of them were integrated like this one, primrose and wests minstrels 40 white performers and 30 black performers in the same show. Not interacting with each other but alternating through the show, giving employment to a lot of black actors of course. That is the late 1800s. , some of themps as many as 100, drew big audiences too. These big shows, primrose and west and have earlys minstrels, traveled around the country. They were no longer in the northeast. They were appearing in cities big and small. They had tense sometimes, big theaters. There would be hundreds, up to thousands of people watching. It was a very prominent entertainment in the late 1800s. Significantly,y the time that black minstrel shows began to gain traction. Shows put on by africanamericans themselves. I alluded to that before, there were a few before the civil war. After the civil war, troops of blacks putting on these shows began to become popular with white audiences, general audiences and they produced their own stars like this gentleman here, billy kerr sands, one of the biggest of the stars. They are often called georgia minstrels because that was one of the first black troops, they were from georgia. 1870s,he late 1800s, 1880s, 1890s, those, along the white troops, began to become bigger and more prominent. Thisis significant because was the first time, if you think about it, and American History, that african, newly freed from slavery, had an opportunity to bring their child and their talents to a stage before a general audience. And they would tone down the racism of it and they would introduce the music they made and introduce america eventually to blues and to jazz and the things that were enormously influential in this country in the 20th century. This was an open door for them. 1800s. S in the late usually, these troops were managed by whites, owned by whites, who hired the blacks to do it. But not always. Charles b hicks was a pioneer who was a manager who managed many troops and promoted these shows himself. Media, the modern mass media, came around in the early 1890s. Actually,he year, that the edison phonograph, which he may not think of this, but was the first of the modern technological media. It became well enough developed to be sold to the public. The man on the right there is named len spencer. He was a young performer who came up with the idea and really perfected the idea of making recreations of the minstrel first part on a record. An audio version, as true to life as possible, of a minstrel show which everyone was familiar with at that time. Things, heuce these assembled a troupe of four people, including himself. The man on the left was one member of that troop, george w johnson, who was the most popular black recording artist of the 1890s. It was in effect an integrated troop. Three of the four, including spencer, had experience in minstrel shows at the time. They knew what they were recreating. Of minstrel shows produced not only by spencers group, which he called the imperial minstrels, but also by others that came later, became a very popular type of recording for the next 20 years. Basically from the mid1890s to the mid1910s, and hundreds of them were made. They are found in collections of old records now. Not much has been written about them but they recreate what a minstrel show sounded like, at that time. Lasted, as i say, about 20 years. This is an edison ad from 1904 showing the family, an idealized family, laughing and dancing, the kids are dancing to the minstrel show coming out of their edison phonograph on the righthand side. Lp era. Asted into the these are some 1950s lps with the stars of that era. Bill cullen, milton burrow, jack benny, some oldtimers who made comebacks like eddie foy made minstrel recordings in the 1950s. It lasted quite a while on record. What about radio . Radio came on the scene rather quickly, as the audience saw it, in the 1920s with the earliest stations, commercial stations, launching in 2021 1920, 1921. From the start, they started putting on minstrel shows. This man, daily pass men, how many people have heard of him . Anybody . 1, 2 . You would, i know, gary. [laughter] a was the general manager of new york station that came on on air called w gbs still the air, and he felt that there was this voracious need for programming and he wanted more comedy too. Which was not much on television. He put together his own minstrel troupe in 1925. And had them get experience with it on radio, and put on a weekly or biweekly show. That show from 1925 to 1928 was very popular. And was heard throughout the northeast because stations got through a wide range at that time. It was in new york citybased, although it was heard in the northeast, as i say, and the radio networks, which were just Getting Started at that time, heard this and saw this success he was having with the permanent troupe of mist of minstrels on his radio station. Cbs, as they were launching their networks, scratched their heads and said maybe we ought to do some of that. And formed their own minstrel troops, particularly nbc, which was just beginning to spread across the country, launched in 1926 and slowly spread out. They organized a Dutch Masters minstrel troupe, which was a Network Level production with a ,ig orchestra and was writers the whole thing a network could bring to it. And that show which ran from 1928 to 1932 on nbc was one of the early hits of radio. When it started many of the artists in this troop were taken from the record industry. Al bernard who had recorded a lot in the 1920s was the star man. Steve porter who had been the interlocutor on many of those records i talked about early on was the interlocutor and so forth. They went into that industry for the talent. Interestingly in the studio, they wore minstrel costumes. Particularly the end men, the two in blackface here. Even though it was radio, nobody could see them of course, but it was felt that it would be a more authentic performance if they actually formed the traditional minstrel troupe. Shots, theylicity also of course war that. Were notime, there racial jokes, the sensors saw to that, although they did wear blackface, especially in publicity. The jokes were about marriage, insult humor, that kind of humor at that time. WindDutch Masters began to down in the early 1930s, nbc looked around for a replacement for the successful show and found its chicago affiliate was producing a successful show of that type. The became on the Network Sinclair minstrels sponsored by the sinclair oil company. That had a big studio audience. 500 people for a live broadcast. The minstrels were in the background here. They are hard to see, the audiences turning around on looking at the camera behind them. The minstrels are in full minstrel regalia up there for this Live Performance which was broadcast over nbc. That show, the sinclair minstrels, was actually one of the most popular programs of the 1930s. It is not written about much. There were some primitive audience measurements at that time, like in the top five shows right up there with jack benny and the big stars of the day. In the audience could accommodate 500 people. Nbc said it had 20,000 people on a waiting list to get tickets to see this. It ran from 1932 to 1939. And was extremely successful. Also, many other shows featured minstrel segments in them. Like they would devote an episode to it. This is a variety show that ran from 1932 to 1937, i believe. On the two ends are pick and path, they were two of the most popular blackface minstrel performers of the 1930s on radio and on film as well. There were also episodes of the jack benny soap show, the bing crosby show that were even harry cuomo who had a very suave, sophisticated musical show in ae 1940s, even he put on minstrel show. With these two guys, actually. Mr. Como is the interlocutor of all things. It is beauxarts to hear today it is bizarre to hear today. They too had some episodes where they staged an minstrel show. Radio, theheard on minstrel show, quite a bit, not only as a standalone but as part of other popular shows. What about movies . We will move quickly through this. Movies of silence had a minstrel show on a silent film. They tried. In 1913, edison introduced his phone which was a primitive kind of sound system. And one of the movies he film was a six minute called the edison minstrels. And it recently has been restored. It was lost for a long time. It has been restored and you can see here the minstrel outfits of the two end men on the left and right, the interlocutor in the stiff, anding rather everybody else is white face and in what appears to be 18thcentury Court Costumes from england. Something like that. Diduse minstrel shows perform differently. Some of them have that kind of performance as well in different kind of costumes like this. Kind of odd that the orchestra leaders stands his back to the camera mostly. That is movies in 1913, i guess. When sound came in, of course, the music, the minstrel show was too much to resist. This is a 1930, his minstrel behind him. Shirley temple got into the act. Her minstrels and she is singing forth. Cing and so big stars were in minstrel shows, and it wasnt just old folks either. Two of the most popular youthful stars of the 1930s, hard to believe they were once young, Mickey Rooney and judy garland put on a fullfledged minstrel show in babes in arms in 1939. It was enormously successful at the time. So much so, they made another one later called babes on broadway. You notice that garland here is in what was called brown face which was a subdued blackface that was often used for women in the later periods. Were also a lot of biographical movies, may be some of you remember this, in the 1930s and 1940s, including three different films are about Stephen Foster. They all dealt with his relationship with edwin christie who had hired him to write songs. In this one, jolson plays christie, really over the top, too. You would see minstrel shows recreated in those. See them in the westerns. Veryhas been recognized widely. That was a plot device. I can get in how they used to this as a plot device. They would stage a menstrual show of these would be smaller ones with smaller budgets. And they would arrive in the mining camp, and that is what happened in the 1800s. These were more realistic recreations than some of those big, elaborate garland and rooney things. Showswere what minstrel were like. You see the archetypal minstrel bastions of the wide lapels and kind ofted tuxedo outfits that they had. And similar instruments. Lateision arrived in the 1940s. They were minstrel shows there as well, even on the networks. This is fred waring on Cbs Television. He produced three minstrel shows on Cbs Television network. Between 1950 and 1953. , his chorusanians in the background are in blackface, looking uncomfortable but who knows what they were thinking. There were no songs or jokes about race by this time. Proper in was made terms of the lyrics and jokes but they were using blackface and dialect as well. Ed sullivan also staged by the way, they tried to make these a