Tuesday, May 07, 2019

BROS #6


Posted by Chic Silber at 5/07/2019 03:09:00 PM

8 comments:

Chic Silber said...


Fréres is brothers in French

07 May, 2019 16:11
Roger Smith said...

And "B'rers" is brothers in SONG OF THE SOUTH, as we learned from the lyrics, "That's what Uncle Remus said!"

07 May, 2019 17:22
Chic Silber said...


I will always remember

B'rer Rabbit's plea to

B'rer Fox & B'rer Bear

"Whatever you do please

don't throw me in that

briar patch"

07 May, 2019 17:52
Roger Smith said...

SONG OF THE SOUTH came from Disney, in 1947. It's lead song, ZIP-A-DEE-DOO-DAH won the Oscar for Best Song.

So a bit of trivia. Who was the first black man to win an acting Oscar? Not Sidney Poitier (for LILIES OF THE FIELD, 1963). It was James Baskett, for his role as Uncle Remus. But his carries an asterisk. The Academy voted him an Honorary Oscar, almost the same as saying he could pick it up on the back porch. The insult hurt, when Hattie McDaniel's Best Supporting Oscar, for GONE WITH THE WIND (1939), was presented fully recognized.

Today, SONG OF THE SOUTH is internationally banned as deeply racist, although millions of children didn't think of it that way, and loved the stories Uncle Remus told and the songs he sang. I was among them, and we re-told the stories, and sang the songs, and we were not damaged at all.

08 May, 2019 05:36
Paul Gutheil said...

My first movie Roger and racism never entered my young mind. Now I might try to see it again all these decades later and see what the heck they were talking about. I was also too young to understand at the time why it was such a big deal for Jackie Robinson to play in major league baseball. I found out pretty quick though and regard Mr Robinson as one of the most exceptional human beings in my lifetime.

08 May, 2019 10:29
Roger Smith said...

PAUL: Your search for the film will be a challenge. Some current-day bigots would tell us what we can and cannot see, and SONG OF THE SOUTH was pulled as racist. Your efforts may locate an old VHS or DVD, but you'll need luck. Whoopi Goldberg is among those calling for Disney to re-release it as innocent story-telling, so who knows? In the meantime, there is a welcome long list of clips on YouTube, ready to take us back to happier times.

08 May, 2019 19:25
Roger Smith said...

I wanted to add, I share ZIP-A-DEE-DOO-DAH as a theme song of mine. I sing it every year on the anniversary of my divorce.

08 May, 2019 19:30
Tony Greiner said...

It has been too long since I saw the movie, but Joel Chandler Harris, who recorded the stories, always made it clear that these were Negro folk tales...he was just putting them down on paper before they were lost.

09 May, 2019 00:09

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