The Black and White Minstrel Show - Leaflet, 1961
Title
The Black and White Minstrel Show - Leaflet, 1961
Date
2 October 1961
Description
Front and reverse of promotional leaflet for The Black and White Minstrel Show, featuring Tony Mercer, Dai Francis, John Boulter, Leslie Crowther, Penny Nicholls and George Chisholm and his Jazzers.
What's the story?
“Blackface minstrelsy is a popular entertainment form, originating in the United States in the mid-19th century and continuing in American life and overseas, including the UK, through the 20th century. The form is based around stereotypical and racist portrayals of African Americans, including mocking dialect, parodic lyrics, and the application of Black face paint; all designed to portray African Americans as othered subjects of humour and disrespect. Blackface was a dominant form for theatrical and musical performances for decades, both on stage and in private homes.
The Our Theatre Royal digital archive includes Blackface minstrelsy materials for the benefit of scholars seeking to better understand the role racial performance has had in shaping Western culture.” Text courtesy of https://www.dorothy-berry.com/minstrel-description
The Black and White Minstrel Show was a BBC variety programme that first aired in 1958 and spawned several stage productions, including this two week run at the Theatre Royal in October 1961.
With its unashamed racial stereotyping, inspired by the ‘minstrel’ entertainment that was at its height during the antebellum American South, it can be hard to perceive that such a TV programme and subsequent stage shows could take place in Britain throughout the 60s and well into the 1970s. The TV show was finally cancelled in 1978.
Often the argument is “well, it was different time back then”, but as Professor David Hendy from University of Sussex comments in his essay on the BBC website, this was a time when the first Windrush generation had arrived in Britain a whole decade earlier. Therefore, the notion of white performers ‘blacking up’ for a prime-time audience seems so incongruous to what was actually happening in society at that time.
Facts show that the TV series drew large viewing figures and won the prestigious Golden Rose of Montreux television award. However, the BBC cannot claim that they were unaware of the explicit racism of the show.
As Hendy states:
In May 1967, the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination submitted a petition calling for the show to be axed. The minutes of a BBC Board of Management meeting record the Corporation’s head of publicity turning to the letters page of the Daily Mail to gauge the public’s ‘general view’, and, having adopted this methodology, rather predictably coming to the conclusion that ‘the programme was not racially offensive’. Apparently satisfied with this, the Director-General, Hugh Greene, decided that ‘no further action was necessary’.
There can be no doubt that The Black and White Minstrel show remains a deeply problematic part of our post-war British popular culture.
https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/people-nation-empire/make-yourself-at-home/the-black-and-white-minstrel-show
The Our Theatre Royal digital archive includes Blackface minstrelsy materials for the benefit of scholars seeking to better understand the role racial performance has had in shaping Western culture.” Text courtesy of https://www.dorothy-berry.com/minstrel-description
The Black and White Minstrel Show was a BBC variety programme that first aired in 1958 and spawned several stage productions, including this two week run at the Theatre Royal in October 1961.
With its unashamed racial stereotyping, inspired by the ‘minstrel’ entertainment that was at its height during the antebellum American South, it can be hard to perceive that such a TV programme and subsequent stage shows could take place in Britain throughout the 60s and well into the 1970s. The TV show was finally cancelled in 1978.
Often the argument is “well, it was different time back then”, but as Professor David Hendy from University of Sussex comments in his essay on the BBC website, this was a time when the first Windrush generation had arrived in Britain a whole decade earlier. Therefore, the notion of white performers ‘blacking up’ for a prime-time audience seems so incongruous to what was actually happening in society at that time.
Facts show that the TV series drew large viewing figures and won the prestigious Golden Rose of Montreux television award. However, the BBC cannot claim that they were unaware of the explicit racism of the show.
As Hendy states:
In May 1967, the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination submitted a petition calling for the show to be axed. The minutes of a BBC Board of Management meeting record the Corporation’s head of publicity turning to the letters page of the Daily Mail to gauge the public’s ‘general view’, and, having adopted this methodology, rather predictably coming to the conclusion that ‘the programme was not racially offensive’. Apparently satisfied with this, the Director-General, Hugh Greene, decided that ‘no further action was necessary’.
There can be no doubt that The Black and White Minstrel show remains a deeply problematic part of our post-war British popular culture.
https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/people-nation-empire/make-yourself-at-home/the-black-and-white-minstrel-show
Type
Leaflet
Location of item
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Rights
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Catalogue or reference number
13cm x 21cm
Contributor
Researcher: David Longford
