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Hekate

(90,616 posts)

15. Wake up and smell the greasepaint. It was a "thing" in theater and movies for a very long time...

Reply to elehhhhna (Original post)

Fri Mar 23, 2018, 04:33 PM

Mar 2018

I'm pretty sure the movie that had the song "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" in it had a blackface scene as well -- I may have the movie wrong, but I do remember that a singer-actress was trying to ditch her boyfriend, who showed up just before a big choral number. She nipped off to disguise herself as the one and only actress in the all-white chorus who was wearing blackface. And golly gee, the ruse worked.

Times change, sometimes very much for the better, and it can be a shock to revisit old classics of literature and film without preparation. The movie was good -- a classic of its kind -- but boy, was that scene jarring when I saw it on TCM.

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29 replies

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Highlight:

Joan Crawford in blackface in Torch Song omg wtf? [View all] elehhhhna Mar 2018 OP

Have you never watched any movies from that time period? oberliner Mar 2018 #1

Yeah but wtf did I block it out? elehhhhna Mar 2018 #2

There is some pretty ugly stuff out there oberliner Mar 2018 #4

Mickey Rooney playing a Japanese sterotype irisblue Mar 2018 #21

1955? I would have thought the time had LONG passed! Siwsan Mar 2018 #3

Ever see Soul Man? oberliner Mar 2018 #5

No - never saw that. But my brain/memory are starting to spring to life Siwsan Mar 2018 #7

Yep that was Silver Streak. One of my favorite Gene Wilder movies sdfernando Mar 2018 #12

"I can't pass for black!" gratuitous Mar 2018 #13

I guess the difference is between plot related and gratuitous Siwsan Mar 2018 #14

Kinda feel that if Pryor signed off on that, it's okay. elehhhhna Mar 2018 #23

Love his story from that era about how he burned himself, just dipping his cookies into his milk mr_lebowski Mar 2018 #26

His opening joke that night was about running down the street on f ire elehhhhna Mar 2018 #29

and whats scarier, those eyebrows are making a comeback..... a kennedy Mar 2018 #16

I've noticed that! Siwsan Mar 2018 #19

This is Joan Crawford's birthday. mahatmakanejeeves Mar 2018 #6

Seems so! elehhhhna Mar 2018 #8

Bing Crosby sang in blackface kskiska Mar 2018 #9

That was a decade prior oberliner Mar 2018 #10

My guilty secret: I was in a minstrel show. trof Mar 2018 #11

Wake up and smell the greasepaint. It was a "thing" in theater and movies for a very long time... Hekate Mar 2018 #15

Lincoln's Birthday in Holiday Inn, yes Maeve Mar 2018 #17

Thanks! Hekate Mar 2018 #18

We watch it every year at Christmas Maeve Mar 2018 #20

Too funny about Bugs Bunny. Once my folks got a tv, we kids watched after school cartoons... Hekate Mar 2018 #22

At schools in upstate integrated New York, there were minstrel shows with blackface in 1960's wishstar Mar 2018 #24

I'm shocked that you are shocked. nt Kirk Lover Mar 2018 #25

Blazing Saddles-1974 Wounded Bear Mar 2018 #27

Favorite old Hitchcock movie had dance band in blackface. edbermac Mar 2018 #28