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Transcription: [00:13:36]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
When he was working with Pops and Louie, he was doing the tent-show circuit but before that, as Willy mentioned, he started off on the carnival.
[00:13:43]
Now, a lot of us now, when we think of carnivals, think of rides, and think of gambling establishments, chance establishments, but not shows, certainly not a show that has music and dance, uh, comedy, maybe a band.
[00:14:00]
The reason is, that the tradition of carnivals has changed quite a bit since the nineteen-twenties and nineteen-thirties. Many carnivals carried a specific show, especially a black show, a show of black entertainers that was part of the carnival setup. Willy could you tell us a little bit about th-this type of show on the carnival?
[00:14:21]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
Well, [[I'll come?]] to that time. They must- they had to carry a show. And the best show then was called plantation or minstrel show, or a jig show, a lot of people called it the jig show.
[00:14:37]
So, they had to carry it because they couldn't come in town with just the rides and the games. So you always had a committee bring you in, in to town, and that committee wouldn't let them bring [[nothin' but?]] rides and games and that 'cause you had a lot of people that didn't- didn't ride, you had a lot of people [[that]] didn't play games.
[00:14:54]
But they would wait year round to see that show. A lot of them would come in [[and]] the first thing they ask, "where is the minstrel show," "where is the jig show," or "where is the plantation show?"
[00:15:01]
Cause that's what they come to see. And that's why they had to carry them at the time. But today, they don't have to carry them. They can come in town now and, uh, they got a thing called a patch.
[00:15:17]
You come in town before them and tell the committee "what do you got" and he say, "well they don't have to have no show because people don't worry about it."
[00:15:25]
He says, "well I give you so much outta this game and so much outta that game" and they let him come on in. But before, you couldn't do it.
[00:15:33]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
So, basically, a carnival, at that time, depended on having a component that was a performance, a show performance, had its own special top, its own tent and in this were a variety of performance forms, often in the guise of a minstrel show.
[00:15:52]
Now, when we think of minstrel shows nowadays, I think most people tend to think of the performance style of the eighteen hundreds. Which involved white people donning cork, putting cork on their faces, so that they could caricature African-American music, dance, and humor.
[00:16:12]
They would be mimicking traditions from the black community and presenting those traditions to the white community.
[00:16:20]
What we tend to lose sight of, was the fact that around the turn of the century, a number of black entrepreneurs developed their own shows, minstrel shows, that followed somewhat of the same format.
[00:16:33]
They had comics, they had dancers, they had a band that worked with them, they had their singers. But it was all black shows, owned and operated by blacks, and performing to black audiences.
[00:16:47]
It is out of that tradition of minstrelsy that was using African-American traditional performers rather than whites who were corked-up, that bled over into the carnival.
[00:16:58]
So that, when every carnival began to carry the plantation show, it was a small version of the black minstrel shows.
[00:17:05]
Now, the black minstrel shows of that period were quite large and carried quite a variety of entertainment. Willy, could you give us an idea of what made up a black owned minstrel show from that time.
[00:17:19]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
Well, that time the black owned minstrel show would have a band, they would have a talker that- we called him a barker- he was out front and he talked.
[00:17:28]
And then you have a band, you have a chorus girl, you have a Blues singer, you have tap-dancers, and then you have other, [[that's right, ?]] and, but you must have that tap-dancer, and Blues singer, and band. And the chorus girl.
[00:17:46]
If you didn't have, you had to have that. That was the basic. Then you have other, all kind of other acts. You would have [[?]] and things come in.
[00:17:53]
But you must have, if you had a minstrel show, you had to have a band, girl, comedian, and Blues singers.