About TCM's Blackface & Hollywood

This short feature, running about 10-12 minutes, is a TCM Original Production labeled as "a Brief History." There are three commentators in it -- a White gentleman named Eric Lott and two African American scholars -- Professor Jacqueline Stewart, director of the Motion Picture Academy Museum, and noted author Donald Bogle. This short feature aired on the 4th of July right before the airing of YANKEE DOODLE DANDY. I'm sure it was programmed that way because there's blackface number in that musical biopic of old Broadway's George M. Cohan.

The TCM short feature is important but, to me, it feels unbalanced. I wish I could've been a writer on the project. I wanted to see less of one aspect and see more about others. I wanted more information

In the first 90 seconds, we see footage from the 1934 Warner Bros movie, WONDER BAR, starring Al Jolson. We also see Fred Astaire and young Judy Garland.

One weekend afternoon, watching a local independent Southern California TV station, my sister and I were watching WONDER BAR to pass the time. When Al Jolson did the "Goin' To Heaven On a Mule" number, a long production number set in a swanky nightclub, my sister were slack jawed at the abundance of racially offensive images and stereotypes. We were only in middle school, but we looked like audience members watching the "Springtime for Hitler" number in Mel Brooks' THE PRODUCERS. That Al Jolson number doesn't get as much attention as Astaire's "Bojangles of Harlem" number in SWING TIME, a number that -- no pun intended -- pales in comparison to Jolson's "Goin' To Heaven On a Mule."

WONDER BAR was directed by Lloyd Bacon. The musical numbers were designed and directed by Busby Berkeley. Whenever I've seen an hour-long documentary on Berkeley or segments praising his innovative work, they focus rightfully on his kaleidoscopic overhead images. He used all-Caucasian showgirls as glamorous props in musical numbers with geometric designs -- such as "The Shadow Waltz" in GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933. His numbers in 1933's 42nd STREET were groundbreaking and influential as was the thrilling and slightly militaristic "Lullaby of Broadway" number in GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935. Never mentioned is Berkeley's affinity for blackface which we see in 1930s Eddie Cantor musicals for Goldwyn Studios, in Warner Bros.musicals and in MGM musicals starring teen Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. Berkeley's name does not come up in the TCM feature.

As for the Judy Garland clip, she did blackface numbers when she was a juvenile under contract to MGM. Middle-aged White studio bosses told her what to wear, what to do, where to be and at what time. They even told her what she could and could not eat. She was a kid following orders. When she became an adult and had starring roles in MGM musicals such as PRESENTING LILY MARS, GIRL CRAZY and MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, she had some clout and never did blackface again. I would've cut Judy some slack.

Fred Astaire''s "Bojangles of Harlem" number in 1936's SWING TIME was meant as a salute to dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. Astaire never did another blackface number. In it, Astaire didn't use the coal-black make-up that Al Jolson always applied, His make-up was a shade lighter. Also, he did not don a nappy, Brillo-like wig. We saw his real hair. However, Stewart and Bogle spend an oddly extensive amount of time criticizing Astaire.

Astaire did not write the song, design the set, design his costume or direct the movie. George Stevens directed the movie. Wearing coal-black make-up, dancer Eleanor Powell also did a musical salute to Bill Robinson in the 1939 MGM musical, HONOLULU. That's not mentioned in the TCM short feature.  Like Astaire, Powell never did another blackface number.

There were other Classic Hollywood movie stars who did a blackface number once and then never again. We don't see them in the TCM feature. Some of them are:  Betty Hutton (THE PERILS OF PAULINE), William Holden (FATHER IS A BACHELOR), Doris Day (I'LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS), Joan Crawford (TORCH SONG) and Janet Leigh (WALKING MY BABY BACK HOME).

Then there's Bing Crosby. Like Astaire, Crosby professed a great admiration for Black musical talent -- especially Louis Armstrong. Crosby finessed Armstrong's feature film debut with him in 1936's PENNIES FROM HEAVEN. Crosby did a blackface number in 1942's HOLIDAY INN. We see a snippet of it in the TCM short feature. He starred in the 1943 historical musical DIXIE. The whole period piece movie is about the beginning and popularity of blackface minstrel shows with Crosby in several blackface performances. The Johnny Mercer song, "Accentuate the Positive" was a hit song during WW2 and sung by Bing Crosby in the 1944 musical comedy, HERE COME THE WAVES. Why don't we ever see a clip of him singing that? Because Bing sang it in blackface...during WW2 when America was at war and the troops were segregated. So why is there such a long verbal spanking of Fred Astaire for his only blackface number in his entire film career?

And now this: The first performer to get an Oscar nomination for playing a Black character was Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel for 1939's GONE WITH THE WIND. The third performer to get an Oscar nomination for playing a Black character was Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee Ethel Waters for 1949's PINKY.

The second person to receive an Oscar nomination for playing a Black character was Caucasian. The porcelain-white British actress Flora Robson played the housekeeper/narrator in William Wyler's WUTHERING HEIGHTS and she played Queen Elizabeth I in THE SEA HAWK with Errol Flynn. 

Somehow, Warner Bros. executives looked at her and said, "Wow! She'd be perfect to play the dark-skinned stern Haitian maid to Ingrid Bergman's character in SARATOGA TRUNK!"

In dark make-up, about the same shade as Fred Astaire's in the "Bojangles of Harlem" number, Flora Robson played the Haitian maid. She had her hair up in a bandana and wore round earrings. Caucasian Flora Robson got an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress thanks to her performance as an unsmiling Black maid. How did this bit of Hollywood casting happen?

If that 1944 movie role was strong enough to get a woman an Oscar nomination, why didn't the studio give the role to a Black actress -- like lovely Theresa Harris who played the maid to Bette Davis's southern belle in JEZEBEL and was the best friend to Barbara Stanwyck's character in BABY FACE?

I would have preferred hearing Stewart and Bogle go into that bit of blackface in Hollywood history instead of the too-long criticism of that one Fred Astaire dance number.

Those are examples of why I feel the TCM short historical feature is not quite balanced. I've been an avid TCM fan and viewer since 1999. The TCM Blackface & Hollywood feature is available on YouTube.