Vaudeville was a popular form of entertainment
in the US during this time period. It featured multiple acts that included
burlesque, song and dance. On an article on Virtual Vaudevill.com, it says
that Vaudeville attracted both men and women because there were many
different performance aspects that appealed to both genders. Vaudeville also
attracted young people because they sought pleasure and saw it as an opportunity to explore
freedom without parental control. Vaudeville also consisted of highly diverse short
acts or "turns". These acts included singing groups, animal acts,
comedians, contortionist, magic tricks, and short musical plays. Also, Black face.com notes
that most film stars got their "big break" in Vaudeville. These stars
include Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson, Charlie Chaplin, The Marx Brothers, Jack
Benny, and Bob Hope. Because of the big stars being involved in Vaudeville and
all of the phenomenal acts, Vaudeville became even more popular than before.
But it was not just one race watching Vaudeville. What made Vaudeville so
popular was that it appealed to every race. More specifically it appealed to
African Americas. Vaudeville saw an opportunity to reach out to larger
audiences and so they did, thus the creation of blackface comedy.
According to Black face.com, Black
face played a huge role in the evolution of dance, music, and entertainment as
a whole. Black face changes the face of entertainment because it was the first
time whites ever accepted Blacks on their television screens. After researching
an article on Wikipedia about Black
vaudeville
and black-facing, it was revealed that most African Americans got
into black vaudeville because it was better than working as a maid or in a
field. It also said that it was very difficult for black to be accepted on a tv
screen with other white people. But it was okay because other blacks enjoyed
being able to watch and enjoy entertainment that they could relate to
regardless of the racist stereotypes. So what it is Black-face comedy in
Vaudeville exactly? According to Black face.com, it is when both white and
black people take a layer of burnt cork, cocoa butter, or black grease paint,
and cover their entire faces with it. They also drew big round lips around
their original mouths to mock the face of a black person. The shows illustrated
"blackness" while making jokes on common stereotypes. Black
performers even painted their faces even darker than their original skin tone
because most American believed that the darker you skin was, the more
uncivilized you were. This relates to both house slaves being lighter skinned
than the slaves that worked in the field. On an article on UsFacingGrace.com
entitled Vaudeville and the American
Entertainment Industry, there were many terms that
were used later in film as characters that originated from these Minstrel Shows
such as Jim Crow, Zip Coon, Mammy, Uncle Tom, Buck, Wench, Mulatto, and
Pickanniny. All of these characters were based on stereotypes that were derived
all the way back from slavery. Black face in Vaudeville also produced many
African stars such as William Henry Lane aka "Master Juba", whom was
one of the first African American blackface performers and also the inventor of
tap dancing. However, One of the most famous and influential Black- performers
of her time was the one and only Sissieretta Jones.
Sissieretta
Jones was an African American opera singer. A Newspaper Article in The Seattle Republican
written on March 08, 1907 says, "Miss Jones is a singer with a large
reputation and is herald as being the greatest of her race." Being apart
of a newspaper as an African American with this sort of recognition was a big
deal at the time and still is today. Sissieretta Jones was known as the
original "Black Patti". According to an article on History.com
entitled 10 19th century celebrities you should know, Jones had the capability to headline operatic
productions all around the world, but was not able to because she was black.
Jones was the first African American to sing at the Music Hall in New York
(today known as Carnegie Hall). She received raving reviews from powerful
people such as multiple presidents. However with all of this fame and
recognition, she was never offered an opportunity to make it big time. She sang
and traveled all around with Vaudeville shows and her group, Black Patti
Troubadours, and ended up being the highness paid black performer of her time.
A book entitled The Early Life and Career of the "Black Patti":
The Odyssey of an African American Singer in the Late Nineteenth Century, she was
noted to have a long career compared to most African American performers. This
shows because her talents were respected everywhere by many people but not
enough. Jones ended up dying without any money and having never been casted in
a professional company.
During all this research the one question that repeatedly came up was why did African Americans put up with all of
this racial hate and stereotyping, unfairness, and low pay? Why did they accept
this? The Early Life and Career of the
"Black Patti": The Odyssey of an African American Singer in the Late
Nineteenth Century says that Sissisiertta Jones was compared to
multiple famous opera singers. And most of their hits came from using black
stereotypes as comedy to make money. I was confused and frustrated and they it
finally hit me. Although African Americans were being mistreated, they realized
that this was the only way to showcase what they love to do. Preforming is a
passion and you cannot half way do it. It's an all the way or not at all kind
of thing. Part of being a performer is putting up with hate, bullying, and
criticism. But if you are doing what you love and you are happy, then there is
no point on dwelling on the bad. These performers thought that this was the
best that it was ever going to get for them so they put up with it and they
were happy.
Thanks to leisure time, entertainment was
allowed to flourish and grow and create new things. Because of these new
opportunities were created for every one of all races and genders. Vaudeville
was revolutionary because it gave opportunities to multiple performers and
produced many famous performers that are still talked about today. Vaudeville
and minstrel shows has also affected the way we view entertainment today
because shortly after movies began to be created and a whole new era of
entertainment began.
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| This is a picture of a contortionist act in a Vaudeville show. One big change that happened at the start of live shows was Coney Island, a huge amusement park that had multiple sows. |
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| This is a picture of one of the most famous and influential Vaudeville performers, Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin began his debut as an entertainer in Vaudeville and later started working on film as movies became more popular. |
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| This is a poster that was used to advertise one of the blackface and minstrel shows in Vaudeville. White actors would often paint their faces black in order to act as the stereotypical black man or woman at that time period. |
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| This picture is another example of white people black facing themselves for shows. |
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| This is a picture of Jim Crow, one of the commonly used African American stereotypes used for characters. |
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| This is a picture of Buck, another black character stereotype used in Blackface. Buck was a proud black man who was attracted to white women. |
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| Mammy is another stereotype used in blackface. Mammy is the "strong independent black woman." |
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| This character in blackface is referred to as Uncle Tom. Uncle Tom is the old man who often gives wise advice to the other characters in blackface. |
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| This is a picture of the character who is called Wench. A wench is a man dresses as a woman whom seduces the characters. |
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| This is a picture of a pickaninny. A pickaninny is a chid character in blackface who has messy hair and loves watermelon. |
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| This character is named Zip Coon. Zip Coon is a character in blackface that represents the free blacks during slavery. Zip Coon wore lavish suits and talked like a gentleman. |
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| This is a picture of the blackface character who is often referred to as Mulatto. Mulatto is a light- skinned African American who tries to pass as a white person. |
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| This is a picture of a flyer that is advertising for Sissieretta Jones' group: Black Patti Troubadours. |
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| Sissieretta Jones; the most iconic African American female artist of her time. |
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| Sissieretta Jones or "Black Patti" |
Sources:
I used this website to provide me with other resources in order to find information about my topics.
I used this book on Jstor as a starting point within my research of Vaudeville. It gave me tips on what to search for and what I wanted to write about.
I used this website to get a better understanding of why entertainment was used during leisure time and how it effected the people. I also pulled quotes from this website.
I used this website to gain a general knowledge of Vaudeville and to find specific points that I wanted to expand my research on.
After researching vaudeville, I I found the information about African American performers in Vaudeville very interesting. This website gave me the basics to that information.
I used this website because it gave me most of the information I needed to know about the history of black face in America.
This website gave me all of the information I needed on the stereotyped characters in Vaudeville.
This newspaper article was a great source for quotes that were authentic because it was written by people living at the same time as Sissieretta Jones.
This website helped me find the most influential celebrities of the 19th century such as Sissieretta Jones.
This chapter in this book found on Jstor gave me information about Sissieretta Jones' legacy as a singer in her era.
This chapter in this book found on Jstor gave me information about Sissieretta Jones' early life and career as an African American performer.
