Monday, July 30, 2018

GIRLIE #5


2 comments:

Chic Silber said...


I guess there was no such thing

as "political correctness" then

The MeToo movement would have had

a field day over this window card

I'd be afraid to put up any of the

old "Minstrell" stuff nowadays

You can't (or shouldn't) try to

erase some of our history

Roger Smith said...

Most of our old minstrel shows were highly-charged, brilliantly-conceived, and ideally-staged productions filled with energizing music and good-natured hilarity. You can find old films of them on the net, but you could never resurrect them for live stage now. Hell, even so harmless a film as Disney's SONG OF THE SOUTH, featuring Uncle Remus telling children's stories about animals, is now banned from the world's screens.

For a little trivia: OK, film buffs, who was the first black man to win an acting Oscar? Sidney Poitier, for 1963's LILIES OF THE FIELD? You can't be blamed for thinking so, but the man was actually James Baskett, for his role as Uncle Remus, in 1947. Sadly, his Oscar comes with an asterisk. He was so overwhelmingly popular in this film, the Academy felt obligated to give him something--but his Oscar was designated as "An Honorary Oscar", not quite the real thing, since after all, it was the late '40s, and he was black. It was much the same as having Mr. Baskett pick up his statuette on the back porch.