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Show THE USTORY BLAZER XEI'I'S OF U7ilH'S PAST FROM THE Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Grande Salt Lake City. VT 84101 ( 801) 333- 3300 FA)( ( 801) 533- 3303 Minstrel Shows Proved Very Popular in 19th- Century Utah From the 1840s until the turn of the century blackface minstrelsy... was arguably the most popular form of entertainment in America. Traveling minstrel shows made Salt Lake City, Ogden, and other major Utah towns part of their regular circuit, and local residents formed amateur troupes. Minstrel shows, whether featuring whites in blackface or real African Americans, drew large and enthusiastic audiences of blacks and whites in Utah. The Mormon pioneers valued dramatic entertainment, and Brigharn Young promoted the establishment of the Salt Lake Theatre in 1862, requesting that only performances of high literary and moral value be presented. From the start, however, minstrel shows were a favorite feature. These shows offered a variety of songs and skits, the most characteristic of which featured an ' interlocutor" and two ' endmen"- Tambo and Bones- who provided comic commentary on the proceedings. Minstrel performances were highly ritualized and predictable; audiences sometimes knew and called out the punchlines to jokes before the performers did. The songs and skits featured and perpetuated negative stereotypes about African Americans, slavery, and the South: the lazy, slow- witted, shuffling ' Sambo" who longed for the old plantation, and the strutting, razor-wielding, outlandishly dressed, lady- killing ' Zip Coon" were common stock characters. Most of the early troupes that passed through Utah featured white wormers in blackface and generally advertised their shows as ' negro" or ' Ethiopian." In 1868 some local residents formed the Salt Lake Minstrels and put on a show of their own. The first real Afiican American performers ( who generally billed themselves as ' colored") to visit Utah were apparently the Original Georgia Minstrels in 1876. Minstrelsy remained popular through the 1890s; a traveling promoter put together a minstrel show in 1 895 that included ' 60 Salt Lake Society Ladies. " The Utah National Guard formed a blackface troupe as well. the 24th Infantry Regiment, an African American unit garrisoned at Fort Douglas from 1896 to 1900, performed a benefit show for the Semicentennial Pioneer Day Jubilee in 1897 and later formed a permanent troupe. Minstrel shows often attracted members of Salt Lake City's small African American population as performers and audiences. Despite the general popularity of minstrel shows, however, some local African Americans strongly objected to their content. Julius Taylor, the African American editor and publisher of the Broad Ax, fumed that '. . . under no consideration would we permit ourselves to witness such degrading and demoralizing performances . . . they are both degenerating and they unmistakably tend to lower every negro in the estimation of the opposite race. " ( more) Although the shows seem offensive to 2Oth- century audiences, in its time minstrelsy may have held some attractions for African Americans. Such performances may have provided Utah blacks with a rare opportunity for local fame and recognition and a chance to demonstrate their talents. Within the strict limits of its stereotypal stock characters, minstrelsy offered some African Americans an avenue into show business. See Robert C. Toll, Blacking Up: The Minstrel Show in Nineteenth- Century Ameri~( N ew York, 1974); Michael Hicks, ' Ministering Minstrels Blackface Entertainment in Pioneer Utah," UIcJl Historical Quarterly 58 ( 1990); Broizd AX, April 2, 1898. HISTORYB LAZERi s produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more- information- a bout- the Historical - Society- t elephone 533- 3500. .-..- . |
