Status Updates From Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mam...

The New Negro archetype emerged in the mid-1940s in films like Paisan and The Quiet One, demonstrating “that Blacks could be handled sympathetically without relying on the old types…this new kind of handling could contribute to a quality of serious and successful motion pictures.“ They “pav[ed] the way for the Negro as leading character, for the Negro Problem as Motion Picture Theme.”

“The Huckfinn fixation, perhaps represents the white liberal Americans dream of lost in ascension freedom. To fit into society, when loses the “spirituality” the Negro is believed to thrive on.”

“Huckfinn fixation: a good white man opposes the corruption and pretenses of the dominant white culture. In rejecting society, he takes up with an outcast. The other man is a trustworthy Black, who never competes with the white man and who serves as a reliable ego pattern… it appears as if the white hero grows in statue from his association… Blacks seem to possess the soul the white man searches for.”

1940s was peak “Negro Entertainment Syndrome”, where Black people were cast in playful roles as entertainers to relieve the doldrums of the realities WW2: i.e. Hazel Scott, Lena Horne playing themselves in films. These scenes were often cut for broadcast in southern theaters

Oscar Micheaux dominated the 1930’s and 40’s with his independent films that put Black people in middle class roles reserved for whites. While his films promoted hair straightening and light skin (presenting Black people, as such, as white) it marked a period propelling Black actors out of stereotypes

The Duke is Tops - Black independent film that launched Lena Horne

Black independent film began in the 1910s and exploded in growth through 1923 and drew in popular names like stepin fetchit, Louise beavers, etc . It was lucrative, thanks to the abundant theaters in “ghettos” in the north, to the point that even whites got in on the action, writing coon scripts under pseudonyms. It was wiped out due to dku epidemic and the Great Depression

“Why should I complain about making $7,000 a week playing a maid? If i didn’t, I’d be making seven dollars a week actually being one!” Hattie McDaniel

Fredi Washington’s career failed to take off after her performance in Imitation of Life as Peola, a tragic mulatto effectively humiliated by crying at her estranged mother’s funeral in the final act. Louise Beavers pushed herself to eat more and more to land roles as a mammy and made a career for herself.

The Imitation of Life, a “conscious apotheosis of the tom spirit” introduced the doctrine of Christian stoicism on Black characters, “making the character more self-effacing than ever and even more resolutely resigned to accepting his fate of inferiority.”

Black child Buckwheat, Farina and Stymie Beard (whom it is seemingly implied were raised by the studios? I want more on that) took their names from common items like food and brand names at the direction of white executives. Naming convention is persistent through today, though not always at the white executives direction. Many modern iterations of art build on vaudeville and jim crow stereotypes

Stepin Fetchit opened the door for other Black men to play roles of subservience white audiences were comfortable with such as Bill Bojangles Robinson in his many roles next to Shirley Temple.

Depression movies were dominated with master-servant dynamics where Black characters provided comic relief to the bleak reality of the 1930s. Fetchit created and popularized what he called “a lazy man with soul” who was harmless and deferential to the white master.

Nina Mae McKinney was one of the first sultry light skinned leading ladies who starred in Hallelujah. Her performance in the film landed her a 5 year contract at MGM but she only secured obscure roles and shorts. She was more successful in European cabaret shows and once appeared beside Paul Robeson. She died in 1967 in NYC

Stepin Fetchit - early Black film star who “developed into the arch-coon” and lived a larger than life presence off screen: 6 houses, 16 Chinese servants, $2k cashmere suits imported from India, lavish parties, 12 cars including a pink cadillac w/ his name in neon lights

“The old Southern superstition: touch an n* head for luck”

1910s, Black actors slowly introduced to film. 1920s: Black actors introduce white audience to emotions as they played to a type.
1930s “the very best Black performers played their types but played against them…created worlds where the servant often outshone the master.”

“Directed by the whites in scripts authored by whites and then photographed, dressed and made up by whites, the Negro actor, like the slaves he portrayed, aimed(and still does aim) to please the master figure…the actor becomes a Black man in blackface.”

The Greatest Thing in Life - movie where Black WW1 private saves a racist southern soldiers life, fatally wounding himself. He calls for his mother and asks for one last kiss, the white soldier pretends to be the Black man’s mother and lissrd him on the lips

1910s - guise of brutes and villains
1920s - plantation jesters
1930s - servants
1940s, 1950s - troubled problem people
1960s - angry militants