Viewing page 14 of 18

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Transcription: [00:36:44]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Carnivals carried with them at least one top, one tent, which specialized in performance.
[00:36:50]

Now, in the white-owned and operated carnivals, which was almost all carnivals,
[00:36:57]

especially in the early part of the century, there was always a tent which included Black performers, and only Black performers.
[00:37:05]

Willie, could you tell us a little bit about the nature of that tent. What was that called and why was it there?
[00:37:11]

{SPEAKER name="Willie"}
Well, I'm gon'a tell 'em, but I wanna give them some calls, how to get 'em in,

[[crosstalk]]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Okay.

{SPEAKER name="Willie"}
what the difference --

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Do a, do the whole thing there.

{SPEAKER name="Willie"}
that's what I wanna do.
[00:37:20]

[[side conversation]] Gimme yours. I want yours. Oh come on. Okay.

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Just turn it on. There you go. [[hard to hear]]
[00:37:28]

{SPEAKER name="Willie"}
Now ladies and gentlemen, what I'm getting ready to say. The show was called, ah, a plantation show.
[00:37:36]

Some of it call it a Minstrel Show. It would call a Jig Show, it was called different things.
[00:37:42]

In in that show, you'd have singers, dancers. You'd have a chorus girl, you'd have a blue singers, tap dancers.
[00:37:49]

You'd have all that, and that was ah 'bout an hour and a half show you would get.
[00:37:54]

But the first thing befo -- on the carnival, before you could give a show, you had to tell the people what you were gonna do.
[00:38:02]

You would get outside and say, "Ladies and gentlemen, right down, in close. We gon' bring 'em out and give you a li'l on the outside. We do a whole lot on the inside!
[00:38:11]

Come on down ladies and gentlemen! Come right down and close! Come on now, in close! Yeah, just put one foot in front of the other, and you'll be right down here."
[00:38:17]

Yeah, well alright. They don't come down in these sidelines and leave a hole in the middle.
[00:38:22]

I said, "Would you please cover up that hole!". I thought someone would fall and break their leg and I'd have to shoot 'em.
[00:38:29]

Well, that would, you know, make them come down.
[00:38:31]

Then I would say, "Fellow back there, hey!". I say, "Yeah. I know you don't wanna go in this show.
[00:38:36]

I know your mother told you not to go in that car, my mother told me not to go in there. She said if you go in that show, you'll see something you don't wanna see."
[00:38:44]

So one day I slipped in, and then she would tell me the truth. I saw something I didn't wanna see; it was my father sitting on the front seat.
[00:38:51]

[[audience laughs]]
{SPEAKER name="Willie"}
[[laughs]]
[00:38:54]

Hey, but come now then, you say, uh -- you'll bring somebody out tonight.
[00:38:57]

"Ladies and gentlemen." This is, this is the way you'd have to have call, that's why he was telling you then
[00:39:01]

that you would have to have this show for the family, because everyone didn't come to play games then, didn't come to ride.
[00:39:09]

And they won't let you bring a show in, unless you bring a mister to show with it.
[00:39:13]

So you would tell 'em to come on in, and then you would give them a picture. And, "Now ladies and gentlemen, we'll bring out the girl. She gon' do a little dance for ya."
[00:39:20]

She'll come out and do a little dance, said now she'll do more on the inside.
[00:39:24]

And you said "This is the show for the ladies, gentlemen, and children; It's a family show."
[00:39:28]

There will nothing be said, seen or done, to offend the most fastidious person among you.
[00:39:33]

Then you'll bring a comedian out. "And now this is the man, if he don't make you laugh, he'll make you laugh on one side, and down the other.
[00:39:39]

If you don't laugh at him, go see you family doctor or somethin', there's somethin' wrong with your life and apparatus."
[00:39:45]

Transcription Notes:
Edited. Speaker 1 - moderator of the interview. Speaker 2 - Willie Jones.