Black Minstrel Costumes ORIGINAL Al Jolson negro

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Black Minstrel Costumes ORIGINAL Al Jolson negro

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Sold Date: 06/27/2007
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Ethnic, Folk & Native American Art

This auction is for a beautiful collection of Black Minstrel costumes from the turn of the century. These items are the real deal, NOT imitations. Included at the end of the auction is a picture of Al Jolson, probably the most famous "Black Minstrel" and an explanation of this particular form of vaudeville or performance.

Included in this are:

Purple silk dress jacket with bright pink buttons.

Purple silk dress pants with suspender buttons on the inside.

Multicolored dress shirt.

Bright neon green pants.

Bright neon green pants with bibs and bib straps included.

Multicolored short jacket with pockets.

The following is an explanation of "Black Minstrels" from wikipedia:

The minstrel show , or minstrelsy , was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing , and music , performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the American Civil War , African Americans in blackface. Minstrel shows portrayed and lampooned blacks in stereotypical and often disparaging ways: as ignorant, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious, joyous, and musical. The minstrel show began with brief burlesques and comic entr'actes in the early 1830s and emerged as a full-fledged form in the next decade. By the turn of the century, the minstrel show enjoyed but a shadow of its former popularity, having been replaced for the most part by vaudeville . It survived as professional entertainment until about 1910; amateur performances continued until the 1950s in high schools, fraternities, and local theaters. As African Americans began to score legal and social victories against racism and to successfully assert political power, minstrelsy lost popularity.

The typical minstrel performance followed a three-act structure. The troupe first danced onto stage then exchanged wisecracks and sang songs. The second part featured a variety of entertainments, including the pun-filled stump speech . The final act consisted of a slapstick musical plantation skit or a send-up of a popular play. Minstrel songs and sketches featured several stock characters . Minstrels claimed that their songs and dances were authentically black, although the extent of the black influence remains debated. Spirituals (known as jubilees ) entered the repertoire in the 1870s, marking the first undeniably black music to be used in minstrelsy.

Blackface minstrelsy was the first distinctly American theatrical form. In the 1830s and 1840s, it was at the core of the rise of an American music industry , and for several decades it provided the lens through which white America saw black America. On the one hand, it had strong racist aspects; on the other, it resulted in the first broad awareness by white Americans of aspects of black folk culture.

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These items are genuine. They were used in the minstrel shows at the turn of the century.

Any questions please email me via ebay and I will happily answer any I can. Buyer pays shipping, insurance available, will ship worldwide.

Thanks for looking and please take a look at my other ebay auctions.