minstrel show

Examples of minstrel show in the following topics:

• Minstrel Shows

  • Minstrel shows originated in the early 1830s as brief burlesques with comic interludes and evolved into a national theatrical art form within the next decade, superseding less accessible genres such as opera for the general populace.
  • Early American popular music consisted of sentimental parlor songs and minstrel-show music, some of which remains in rotation to this day.
  • Many minstrel songs and routines were depicted as authentically African American; however, this often was not the case.
  • By the turn of the twentieth century, the minstrel show enjoyed but a shadow of its former popularity, having been replaced for the most part by vaudeville.
  • An illustration from the playbill for a minstrel show, highlighting singing and dancing by actors in blackface.

• Popular Culture

  • Minstrel shows were plays acted by white men wearing a black face (in imitation of African-Americans).
  • Rice was called the "Father of American Minstrelsy. " Characters played by these minstrels, such as Uncle Ned and Zip Coon, portrayed African-American males as stupid and lazy.
  • This reproduction of a 1900 minstrel show poster, originally published by the Strobridge Litho Co., shows the blackface transformation from white to "black. "

• Conclusion: The State of Slavery before the War

  • White actors often performed minstrel shows while wearing "blackface," or exaggerated black makeup.
  • The shows portrayed black men as stupid and lazy and black women as rotund and genial.
  • For several decades, and despite their strong racist overtones, these shows provided the lens through which white Americans viewed black Americans.

• Cheap Amusements

  • American Burlesque is a genre of variety show.
  • Derived from elements of Victorian burlesque, music hall and minstrel shows, burlesque shows in America became popular in the 1860s and evolved to feature ribald comedy such as lewd jokes and female striptease.
  • By the late 1930s, a social crackdown on burlesque shows began their gradual downfall.
  • Types of acts included popular and classical musicians, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, impersonators, acrobats, illustrated songs, jugglers, one-act plays or scenes from plays, athletes, lecturing celebrities, minstrels, and movies.
  • Poster of U.S. burlesque show, 1898, showing a woman in outfit with low neckline and short skirts holding a number of upper-class men "on the string."

• The Harlem Renaissance

  • They rejected the stereotypes of the blackface and minstrel show traditions.
  • Musicians at the time including Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton, and Willie "The Lion" Smith showed great talent and competitiveness and were considered to have laid the foundation for future musicians of their genre.

• Vaudeville

  • Types of acts included popular and classical musicians, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, impersonators, acrobats, illustrated songs, jugglers, one-act plays or scenes from plays, athletes, lecturing celebrities, minstrels, and movies.
  • Vaudeville had many influences, including the concert saloon, minstrelsy, freak shows, dime museums, and literary burlesque.
  • Called "the heart of American show business," vaudeville was one of the most popular types of entertainment in North America for several decades.
  • Hoping to draw a potential audience from female and family-based shopping traffic uptown, Pastor barred the sale of liquor in his theatres, eliminated bawdy material from his shows, and offered gifts of coal and hams to attendees.
  • He incorporated them in his shows as early as 1902.

• Television

  • Comedy and variety shows were popular.
  • Comedy stars with their own shows included: Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Burns and Allen, Jack Benny,Bob Hope, Jackie Gleason, Red Skelton, Abbott and Costello, Martin and Lewis, and Groucho Marx who starred in his quiz show You Bet Your Life.
  • The Ed Sullivan Show showcased many famous acts during the decade.
  • Talk shows had their genesis in the decade with NBC's Today hosted by Dave Garroway creating the much-copied genre format.
  • The Tonight Show debuted in 1954 with Steve Allen as host.

• Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Maine

  • This is a map showing the Connecticut, New Haven, and Saybrook colonies from 1636-1776.
  • It does not show Connecticut's western land claims and dispute with Pennsylvania.

• Diplomacy

  • There never will be money in the treasury till the Confederacy shows its teeth.
  • The Jay–Gardoqui Treaty with Spain in 1789 also showed weakness in foreign policy.

• Technological Advancement

  • Musical programs, comedy and variety shows, and westerns quickly became a staple of 1950s TV entertainment.
  • Popular quiz and panel shows resulted in quiz show scandals that rocked the nation after it was revealed that contestants were secretly given assistance by the producers to arrange the outcome of a supposedly fair competition.
  • Talk shows also had their genesis in the 1950s with NBC's Today hosted by Dave Garroway creating the much-copied genre format.
  • The Tonight Show debuted in 1954 with Steve Allen as host.
  • In 1953 CBS anchor Walter Cronkite was the host of an historical news show entitled You Are There.