The Black and White Minstrel Show
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The Black and White Minstrel Show was a British television series that ran from 1958 until 1978. It was a weekly light entertainment and variety show presenting traditional American 'Deep South' and Country songs, as well as show and music hall numbers, usually performed in blackface, and with lavish costumes.
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[edit] History
The show was first broadcast on the BBC on June 14, 1958. It began as a one-off special featuring the male Mitchell Minstrels (after George Mitchell, the Musical Director) and the female Television Toppers dancers in 1957. It was popular and soon developed into a regular 45 minute show on Saturday evenings, featuring both solo and minstrel pieces (often with extended segueing) as well as "comedy interludes". It was produced by George Inns with George Mitchell.
[edit] Popularity
Audiences regularly exceeded 18 million. The Minstrels also had a theatrical show which ran for 6,477 performances from 1960–1972 and established itself in The Guinness Book of Records as the stage show seen by the largest number of people. At this time, the creation had gained considerable international respect and kudos. The show won a Golden Rose at Montreux in 1961 for best light entertainment programme and the first three albums of songs (1960–1962) all did extremely well, the first two being long-running number ones in the British album chart.
While the show started off being broadcast in (genuine) black-and-white, the show was one of the very first to be moved to colour by the BBC in 1967.
[edit] Criticism
The show was attacked as racist, a "cultural obscenity", by some, from the early 1960s. However the programme was not generally perceived as racist at the time by people outside the United States, and it was sold to many parts of the world, including Australia and many African countries. Under increasing pressure the show tried a 'whiteface' variant in the late 1960s, titled Masquerade and swapping the black faces with masks (based on a Masquerade ball), with a resulting loss in viewing figures. Towards the end of the run the black British comedian Lenny Henry, just starting his career, appeared in the stand-up comedy slots. Other comedians who found their feet on the show include Don Maclean, Leslie Crowther and Keith Harris. The last show was on July 1, 1978. Its cancellation was part of a wider reduction in variety programming on British television.
[edit] Resilience
The stage show continued though. After leaving the Victoria Palace in 1972, the show toured almost every year to various big city and seaside resort theatres around the UK, including The Futurist in Scarborough, The Festival Hall in Paignton and The Pavilion Theatre in Bournemouth. This continued each summer until 1987, when a final tour of three Butlins resorts (Minehead, Bognor Regis and Barry Island) saw the last official Black and White Minstrel Show on stage.
Stars of the Minstrel stage and TV shows can still be seen in theatres today across the UK in nostalgia shows which prove more popular than traditional dramas or farces.
[edit] Cultural impact
The reduction in viewing figures experienced by the experimental Masquerade series was spoofed by The Goodies as implying that any programme could double its viewing figures by being performed in blackface.
When a revival of the Black And White Minstrel Show was proposed by fictional television presenter Roger Mellie, Tom states "Television bade good riddance to that racist rubbish decades ago".
[edit] External links
See more in The Encyclopedia of Television entry by Sarita Malik:
