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25 Cards in this Set
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Jump Jim Crow |
Song performed originally by Thomas “Daddy”/Diamond Rice, a white minstrel performer, in 1828. Song inspired by a crippled African Slave (Jim Crow). Song became a big hit and was a key step in tradition of popular music in the U.S. Exploded in popularity with the rise of minstrel shows in the 1830’s. “Jim Crow” became a word meaning “African American”, and racial segregation laws became known as “Jim Crow Laws”.
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Tambo and Bones |
The two “end men” in a minstrel performance, one on each end of the half-circle. Their specialty is humor, so they tell all the best jokes. They are the most exaggerated characters. Tambo plays the tambourine, while Bones plays two bones that he hits together. The two end men engage in jokes between the group’s songs and dances. Tambo is usually slim, while Bones is fat. 1840’s |
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Interlocutor |
1840’sThe emcee or announcer of a minstrel performance. He sits in the middle of the circle, and is usually the only person who is not black-faced. He moves the troupe along from performance to performance. Acts as a dignified, straight man who speaks in aristocratic English and uses a much larger vocabulary than the rest. Responsible for beginning and ending each segment of the show. Very well-paid in comparison to the other performers. Humor in his exchanges with the two end men, whom often misunderstand the interlocutor (best part of the show, in the audience’s opinion). |
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Zip Coon |
A minstrel performer who portrays a free African American who constantly makes a fool out of himself. He is arrogant, and full of himself. Nor capable of handling American freedom. He is dressed very flamboyantly, and always overdressed. He delivers the “stump speech”, which is a comic monologue that contains nonsense topics such as politics, science, and social issues. “Zip” is the abbreviated version of the common (at the time) African American name, “Scipio”. Provided the socially weak with symbolic power. Made a mockery of free blacks. Jim Crow and Zip Coon eventually emerged into a single stereotype, simply called “coon”. |
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Stephen Foster |
Born in Pittsburgh in 1826. Bad family life - always moved around from place to place. Started song writing full-time in the 1840’s. Wrote “Oh! Susannah”, which he published in 1848, at age 22. As the song became extremely popular, Foster published sixteen more songs in 1850. Sold a song, “Old Folks at Home”, to the Christy Minstrels in 1851 and withheld his name from the credits. Fought to add his name in 1852, but was unsuccessful. Died in January 1864, at the age of 37, due to alcoholism. Songs became even more famous after his death. His songs helped move minstrelsy from the streets to a more reputable status.
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Lydia Thompson |
Born “Eliza Hodges Thompson” on February 19,1838. Leading dancer and actress. Introduced Victorian burlesque in America with her English troupe, “The British Blondes”, in 1868. Opened her play, “Ixion”, in 1865. According to Robert Allen, it was “the most thoroughly feminized form of theatrical entertainment in the history of the American stage to that time.” British Blondes displayed the female body in tantalizing ways. Middle-class women started dying their hair blonde and wearing heavy cosmetics. On stage, the blondes talked and acted in unladylike ways, exhibiting male cockiness. Her career declined in the 1890’s.
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Mae West |
Born in 1893 and grew up in Brooklyn. Was performing on stage by the age of 8. American sex symbol in Burlesque shows. “Bad Girl” who toyed with sexual and racial boundaries. Made a name for herself in vaudeville and on the stage in New York before moving to Hollywood. Named one of the 15 greatest female stars of all time, according to the American Film Institute. Arrested and locked up for 8 days for indecency and corrupting morals after releasing her plays “Sex” and “The Drag”. Received considerable publicity. Late 1920’s - 30’s. She celebrates the bad girl. She was a master at the double entendre. |
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Vaudeville |
1880’s-1920’s. Shows put on in order to create polite entertainment for the masses. This was the beginning of family-friendly entertainment. They banned alcohol in the theaters, and let women in for free once a month to try to reach out to all audiences. It was a “continuous” flow of entertainment, meaning that there was no clear beginning, middle, or end. Associated with the Orpheum Theater chain. A series of short variety acts, together lasting as long as two hours. “Something for Everybody.” Acts drew from minstrelsy, circuses, and highbrow theater. A variety show that was polite, cheap, and continuous.
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Coney Island |
Featured hotels, cafe’s, boardwalks, amusement parks, musical entertainment, etc. Many amusement parks, but the three main ones were Luna Park, Steeple Chase Park, and Dreamland. Amusement parks reached a historical peak during the first half of the 20th century. Became a major resort destination after the Civil War. Amusement parks were home to freak shows and alternative entertainment such as the Barrel of Fun, the Human Roulette Wheel, and the Blowhole Theater. Featured entertainment such as midget city, circuses, theatrical performances, animal shows, etc. After WWII and years of neglect, it declined in popularity . 1890’s - 1900’s |
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Cincinnati Red Stockings |
First Professional Baseball Team, founded in 1869. Consisted of 10 members. Toured the whole country and won 58 games, tied 1, and lost 0. Paid its players around $1,000 per year, when $350 was the average laborer’s salary. The team drew substantial crowds, and showed other cities that a baseball team could boost its home base.
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Moses Fleetwood Walker |
Born on October 7, 1856. An American Baseball player, inventor, and author. First known African American to play baseball. Recruited for varsity baseball by the University of Michigan in 1882, after being a catcher for Oberlin College’s varsity team in 1881. He then played in the minor leagues until 1889, when professional baseball erected a color barrier.
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Cap Anson |
1887. The first big “star” player. Was an outspoken white supremacist. He had a lot of clout, as he was who the crowds were coming to see. Refused to play with black players. Creates a big conflict for baseball $$. The business leaders of baseball, owners, etc. got together and voted for a solution - agree to phase out black players.
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Senda Berenson |
1890’s. A female physical education professor at Smith College. James Naismith, inventor of the sport of basketball, shows her the game and she thinks it would be great for her girls. Soon basketball spreads to other elite women’s colleges on the east coast. Basketball starts off as a woman’s sport.
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Nickelodeon |
A place to see a film for 5 cents. Plain rooms, a sheet for a screen, people crammed in together. Films play on a continuous loop. Most popular in immigrant parts of town. It’s cheap and you don’t need to speak english to enjoy. Becomes a regular activity for immigrants. By 1908 there are hundreds of nickelodeons all over the U.S. |
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Birth of a Nation |
One of the most racist films ever made, but the most influential film in American History. Single most profitable silent film in American History. Directed by DW Griffith. Cast of thousands of extras. KKK are seen as the heroes of the film, which revived the KKK in the real world. Protests and boycotts against this film took place. This film was banned in several cities for several years. It was seen as a rallying cry in favor of white supremacy. 1915
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Bill Bojangles Robinson |
Best known for being in Shirley Temple movies. His characters always had the “Uncle Tom” stereotype. He was the perfect servant in the perspective of white mainstream society. One of the greatest dancers in American Popular Culture. 1930’s
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Stepin Fetchit |
1930’s actor whose real name was Lincoln Perry. Played the role of a really bad servant for comedic purposes - lazy, sleepy, mumbled dialogue. Catered to white audiences expectations, (coon type characters). Perpetuated every black stereotype blacks were trying to get away from in the 20th century. First black millionaire in Hollywood. Good friends with boxer Muhammad Ali. They shared ideas of civil rights.
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Hattie McDaniel |
“Mammy” in Gone with the Wind. Denied the opportunity to be glamourous and beautiful in movies. First African American woman to win an academy award in 1939.
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Sidney Poitier |
Represented the changing face of black representations in movies. Plays the same type of character in most films: Professional people, middle/upper class characters, often in charge, well-dressed, intelligent, perfect speech, interracial romance, assimilationist dramas, black character trying to get accepted in white society. Famous for his role in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), where he plays a Doctor who falls in love with a white woman.
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Blaxploitation |
film genre that exploited the fact that there’s an audience they never paid attention to before. Deliberate flaws in the filmmaking process to make you think that it’s a big joke, so that whites still want to see it. Mocking the black movement.
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Bandito |
A recurring characterization of latinos in film. Mexican character who gets in the way of the white character. Irrational and overly-emotional. Speaks English with a heavy accent, wears a sombrero, and has facial hair. Quick to resort to violence. Vicious, shifty, dishonest, quick to anger - all things whites were not. |
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Ricardo Montalban |
An actor who most often played the role of the latin lover. Was frustrated at the way latinos were portrayed in film. Tried to bring some dignity to his roles.
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Carmen Miranda |
A bright, flamboyant, colorful latina actress. Came to the U.S. from Brazil in 1940. Became very popular as a “samba” star. Known for wearing fruit on her head. There was lots of poverty in Brazil and beggars would often sell fruit, and they carried it on their heads. She wore it to express her solidarity with these women, she sympathized with them. Considered herself a cultural ambassador. American audiences criticized her for being over-the-top, and think that the fruit on her head is funny because they don’t know the cultural significance of it. They saw her as a minstrel character. Became a big star, went back to Brazil but faced lots of criticism for making light of those who worked hard on plantations (unrealistic portrayals, sexualization). Came back to U.S., became an alcoholic,and drug addict and died of a heart attack at 46yrs.
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Fu Manchu |
Villainous Asian monster character who you find in a series of novels, films, comic books, etc. Mad scientist who studied in the U.S., but fuses Western culture with his exotic Eastern beliefs. Tortures people in unique and strange ways. One of the most dominant Asian male representatives in popular culture in the early 1920’s.
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Anna May Wong |
Plays Fu Manchu’s daughter in Daughter of the Dragon. Always plays the same characters that use their sexuality to lure white men to their deaths also known as dragon lady roles. She was tired of the parts she had to play because they were always villains. Her lines were usually in “Chinglish”. People were surprised that she could speak and write in English, even though she was born and raised in Los Angeles and had never even been to China. She was not allowed to kiss someone of another race on-screen, which limited her. Her characters almost always died so that the white girl could get the white man. This made her known as the “woman of a thousand deaths”. She decided to pack her bags and go to China, where she would live for several years, but she only stayed for 9 months because the Chinese were troubled by the roles that she had taken. She felt imprisoned by these roles. Her career was at its peak in the 1930s and 40s and started to decline in the 1950’s. Was in a total of 54 films. She spoke up at a time when women and Chinese Americans couldn’t.
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