The 1930s: the Servants

1
The 1930s the Servants

• The Depression Era
• Aleya Crable
• William McCord
• Chris Miller

2
High Steppin Fletchit

• Born as Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry
• From Key West, Florida
• Born in 1902

3
High Steppin Fletchit

• Appearance
• Fletchit was classified as a Coon.
• His name fits his image a plantation darky who
  must step in (the big house), and fetch it.
• Fetchit was known to be tall and skinny. He wore
  clothes that were too large possibly passed down
  from his master. His hair was shaved completely
  bald, with a big grin, white teeth, big eyes,
  large feet, slow walk, and broken dialect.

4
High Steppin Fletchit

• In the early 1930s Fetchit was best known as the
  most successful black actor in the business.
• 1934 Steppin Fetchit was already a legend.
• Classified as being lanky, slow-witted,
  simple-minded, obtuse, synthetic, and confused.

5
High Steppin Fletchit

• From 1929-1935 Fetchit had appeared in at least
  26 films.
• Personal Life
• Six houses
• Sixteen Chinese servants
• 2,000 cashmere suits imported from
• India
• Through lavish parties
• Twelve cars

6
High Steppin FletchitEarly Films

• 1927 In Old Kentucky
• 1929 The Ghost Talk
• 1929 Show Boat
• 1929 Fox Movietone Follies
• 1934 Stand Up and Cheer
• 1934 The World Moves On
• 1934 David Harum

7
High Steppin Fletchit More Films

• 1934 Judge Priest
• 1934 Carolina
• 1935 The County Chairman
• 1935 Steamboat Round the Bend
• 1935 Hellodorado
• 1935 One More Spring
• 1936 36 Hours to Kill
• 1936 Dimples
• 1937 On the Avenue
• 1939 Zenobia

8
High Steppin Fletchit

• Fletchit was demeaned and racially degraded.
• In his early years, his antics made him a star,
  but over time they eventually destroyed him.
• Civil Rights organizations heavily criticized
  Fletchit, and the quality of his performances
  decreased over time.

9
Mae West

• Mae West is classified as a whore.
• Mae West had a different connection with her
  black maids. Since whores and blacks were on the
  same status level, She was able to have a
  stronger relationship with blacks more than her
  white counterparts.
• Blacks were represented in a new light in Mae
  West films. They were still considered as
  servants yet West trusted them and thought of her
  servants as good friends.

10
Mae West Films

• 1933 I'm No Angel
• 1933 She Done Him Wrong
• 1934 Belle of the Nineties

11
Shirley Temple

• Shirley Temple had a very unique correlation
  with Negro films.
• Blacks appeared so frequently in Temples
  pictures that her films became ridiculed for not
  being able to be complete without including a
  darky.

12
Shirley Temple Films

• 1934 Stand Up and Cheer
• 1935 The Little Colonel
• 1935 The Littlest Rebel
• 1936 Dimples
• 1944 Since You Went Away

13
Bill Bojangles Robinson

• Bojangles was classified as a Tom.
• Bojangles and Shirley temple were closely
  associated with each other.
• Their biggest hit together was The Littlest Rebel
  Bojangles played her guardian, it was the first
  time in the history of motion pictures that a
  black servant was responsible for a white life.

14
Bojangles

• Bojangles had a career as a tap dancer before he
  started doing films. People would say he never
  took a dance lesson in his life.
• Bojagles ran away from home when he was eight and
  started making a living dancing on the streets
  and in saloons for pennies.

15
Bojangles Films

• 1930 Dixiana
• 1935 Horray for love
• The little colonel
• 1935 In old Kentucky
• David Butlers the littlest rebel

• 1937 One Mile from Heaven
• 1938 Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
• 1938 Road Demon
• 1939 Mike Todds hot Mikado
• 1943 Stormy Weather

16
Clarence Muse (1889-1979)

• Muse was classified as a Coon/Tom.
• A short stocky man with a large echoing voice.
• Born in Baltimore in 1889
• A Graduate of the Dickinson School of Law in
  Pennsylvania

17
Clarence Muse

• Muse realized in 1935 that perhaps the most
  effective way for a black actor to come up with
  solid role was to write the role for himself.
• In 1940 he co-wrote the script for Broken Strings.

18
Clarence Muse

• Muse played a coon in what was considered a bad
  film called Minister in Maryland.
• So from then on he only played in films that he
  was categorized as the Tom.

• Films
• 1940 Zanzibar
• 1940 Tales of Manhattan
• 1943 Shadow of a Doubt
• 1943 Heaven Can Wait

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Clarence Muse films

• 1934 Broadway Bill
• 1930 rain or shine
• 1931 Dirigible
• 1931 Last parade
• 1931 Secret Witness
• 1932 woman from Monte Carlo

• 1932 Cabin in the Cotton
• 1933 Winner Take All
• 1933 Washington Merry Go Round
• 1933 From Hell to Heaven
• 1934 The Count of Monte Cristo

20
Imitation of Life

• 1934 Imitation of Life
• Considered the first important black film of
  the 1930s
• This movie is a representation of the black
  woman. Still a servant now with a little added
  dignity and character.

21
Imitation of Life

• Imitation of Life covered the lives of two
  widowed women, one white and black, who met
  randomly and decided to join forces to make ends
  meet.
• Characters
• The black widow Aunt Delilah who is a
  combination of aunt jemima and tom.
• The white widow Miss Bea
• Peola, who is Aunt Delilahs daughter. Shes
  regarded as the tragic mulatto. A beautiful girl
  who is condemned for being mixed with a drop of
  Negra blood.

22
Fredi Washington

• Born in Savannah, Georgia in 1903
• Known as the great black hope.
• Considered to be the black girl that looks white.
• Classified as the tragic mulatto.
• Died 1994

23
Fredi Washington

• Washingtons career started on stage with a
  touring company Shuffle Along.
• Singin the Blues
• Porgy

24
Fredi Washington

• Fredi Washington always had a problem with
  casting. She was either the black girl playing a
  white role, or a black girl playing a black role
  trying to past for a white girl.
• Washington was light (could past for white), with
  green eyes, and long straight black hair.

25
Fredi Washington

• 1933 The Emperor Jones
• 1934 Imitation of Life
• 1935 Drums of the Jungle
• 1935 One Mile from Heaven
• 1939 Mambas Daughter

26
Louise Beavers

• Born in Cincinnati
• Was once the most important black actress in the
  film industry.
• Classified as a mammy- aunt jemima.
• Played many different maid roles in Hollywood
  pictures.

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Louise Beavers

• Big- boned, healthy woman with smooth dark skin,
  large bright eyes, and a naïve mindset.

28
Louise Beavers Films

• 1931 Annabelles
• Affairs
• 1931 Girls Around
• Town
• 1931 Sundown
• 1932 What Price
• Hollywood

• 1932 Divorce in the
• Family
• 1932 She Done Him
• Wrong
• 1932 Bombshell
• 1934 Imitation of
• Life

29
The Green Pastures

• The Green Pastures was a successful Broadway
  play. Directed by Connelly and William Keighley
  and Released by Warner Brothers.
• This film is one of Warner Brothers biggest hits,
  and one of the most successful negro movies of
  all time.

30
The Green Pastures

• This film was about Connellys conception of
  unlearned days and beliefs of heaven and the
  bible.
• Audiences found the green pastures a great
  cinematic treat.
• There was not one disagreeable or unpleasant type
  of performer in this film.

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The Green Pastures

• Ernest Whitman, was also classified as a coon in
  the film.
• Reed and Whitman worked in a number of Hollywood
  films after The Green Pastures.

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The Green Pastures Key Characters

• Edna Mae Harris role- Zeba
• Frank Wilsons- Moses
• Oscar Polk- Gabriel
• Eddie Anderson- Noah
• George Reed- Reverend Deshee
• Ernest Whitman-loud-mouthing Pharoah

33
Ernest Whitman Films

• 1936 White Hunter
• 1937 Daughter of Shanghai
• 1940 Congo Maisie
• 1940 Maryland
• 1940 Return of frank James
• 1942 Drums of the Congo
• Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather

34
Rex Ingram

• Graduate from Northwestern Universitys Medical
  school in 1919.
• The first black man to receive a Phi Beta Kappa
  Key from NU.

35
Rex Ingram

• Greatly recognized in The Green Pastures out of
  all actors.
• Casted as a servant, but never had to tom or
  coon.
• Was portrayed as an Uncle Remus character comic
  wisdom.

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Rex Ingram On stage on Screen

• Stage
• Stevedore
• Porgy
• Once in a Lifetime

• 1939 The Adventures of the Town
• 1940 The Thief of Bagdad
• 1943 Cabin in the Sky
• 1943 Sahara
• 1943 Fired Wife
• 1948 A Thousand and One Nights
• Moonrise

37
Stepins Step-Chillun

• Was a lively set of coon figures who picked up
  Fetchits mantle, and by borrowing, stealing, or
  elaborating on his techniques were able to find
  employment at a time when he was on his way out.
• The most prominent of Stepins step-Chillun were
  Willie Best, Mantan Moreland, and Louis
  Armstrong.

38
Willie Best

• Best was born in Mississippi and came to
  Hollywood in the late 1920s.
• He was certainly the closest in style, technique,
  and physical appearance to the master.
• He was known as Eat n sleep.

39
Willie Best

• Willie Best Specialized in dense, dim-witted
  characters who walked about half awake, half
  asleep.
• In the film The Ghost Breakers 1940, he was the
  butt of crude of racial jokes.

40
Willie Best Films

• 1936 Two in Revolt
• 1936 Murder on a
• Bridle Path
• 1936 General
• Spanky
• 1937 Breezing Home
• 1937 Racing Lady

• 1937 Super Sleuth
• 1937 Vivacious Lady
• Nancy Drew
• 1938 Merrily We
• Live
• 1939 Trouble
• Shooter

41
Mantan Moreland

• 2nd to Willie Best was Moreland he was a
  round-faced, wide-eyed, Cherubic coon.
• Mantan Moreland was born in Monroe, Louisiana in
  1902.

42
Mantan Moreland

• Moreland was notorious for his perfectly timed
  double-takes. No other actor could widen his eyes
  like Moreland.
• Nor could any manage his trick of appearing to
  run without actually moving at all.

43
Some Moreland Films

• 1943 Cabin in the sky
• 1943 Revenge of the Zombies
• 1943 Melody Parade
• 1944 South of Dixie
• 1939 One Dark Night

44
Louise Armstrong

• Was the third of the important Fetchit imitators
• He sang a number that derived from the old racial
  stereotype of Negro fear and superstition titled
  skeleton in the Closet
• He was a reliable servant figure in the 1930s
  and also a great entertainer in the 1940s and
  1950s.

45
Louise Armstrong Films

• 1937 Artists and Models
• 1944 Cabin in the Sky, Jam Session
• 1945 Atlantic City
• 1945 Pillow to Post
• 1950 Young Man with a Horn

• 1952 Glory Alley
• 1956 High Society
• 1961 Paris Blues

46
Eddie Rochester Anderson

• A gravelly voice was his most distinct quality.
• His greatest success came when teamed with Jack
  Benny.
• In these films Anderson brought a new element to
  the servant figure, where the servant had full
  run of the house.

47
Eddie Rochester Anderson

• Movies featuring Anderson and Jack Benny
• 1939 Man About Town
• 1940 Buck Benny Rides Again
• 1940 Love Thy Neighbor
• 1943 The Meanest Man in the World

48
Eddie Rochester Anderson

• Critics believed the first two and last two films
  had a father-son relationship between Anderson
  and Benny.
• In situations, though, the master-servant or
  father-son relationship was almost reversed, with
  Anderson rescuing Benny.
• Anderson addressed Benny as Boss rather than
  Sir which indicated an equal footing. Boss
  and Sir may not differ today, but in the 1930s
  it was a step forward.

49
Eddie Rochester Anderson

• Rochester was allowed a privilege previously
  denied to black actors cinematic love.
• Theresa Harris appeared with Rochester in films
  such as Jezebel (1938) and Whats Buzzin Cousin
  (1943).

50
Eddie Rochester Anderson

• Rochesters best display of his uniqueness came
  with Cabin in the Sky (1943) with critics
  ultimately commending his performance which was
  an accomplishment previously never approachedhe
  touched his audience.

51
Hattie McDaniel

• Rochester's female counterpart described as "a
  massive, high-strung mammy figure."
• Emerged as the one servant of the 1930's who
  didn't hold much back.
• Characterized as the servant who became the
  social equal in some of her earlier films in 1934
  and 1935 such as Judge Priest, Operator 13, Lost
  in the Stratosphere, Little Men (all 1934), and
  Music Is Magic, Another Face, and The Little
  Colonel (all 1935).

52
Hattie McDaniel

• Director George Stevens unleashed McDaniels
  unique talents and encouraged her to let them
  shine in Alice Adams (1935).
• McDaniel remained the servant but turned the
  tables by putting whites into their place, doing
  so without being offensive.
• Her movies with Clark Gable had audiences losing
  sight of their usual "master-servant" roles.
• Undoubtedly, her previous parts in films led to
  the peak of her career in the movie Gone With the
  Wind (1939).

53
Gone With the Wind (1939)

• Film that showed black slaves becoming complex
  human beings previously films had dehumanized
  and humiliated them far beyond what the script
  was calling for.
• McDaniels's performance undoubtedly had an
  impact.
• Her character was free of the burden that slavery
  had inflicted on blacks - the sense of innate
  inferiority.

54
Gone With the Wind (1939)

• Her presence and voice showed an actress larger
  than her lines and larger than her role.
• For her role in Gone With the Wind, McDaniel
  became the first black actor to win an Academy
  Award as Best Supporting Actress.
• Gone With the Wind was seen as the peak and
  ultimate end of the era of the servant tradition.

55
Paul Robeson

• Very accomplished as a young adult
• Honor student given a scholarship to Rutgers
  University, a rarity for black students.
• All American football player believed by some to
  be the best ever at his position at the time.
• Graduated with honors at Rutgers and attended
  Columbia University Law School.

56
Paul Robeson

• Only black star of the 1930's to work in foreign
  pictures.
• Some features include Borderline (1928) and
  Sanders of the River (1935) which was initially
  thought to be made out of a "passionate concern
  with African culture" but essentially glorified
  British colonial rule.
• Scenes without Robeson had been rewritten without
  his knowledge, and he stormed out of the movie
  house where a special preview was shown.

57
Paul Robeson

• His greatest contribution in black film history
  was in The Emperor Jones (1933) where he
  symbolized black confidence and self-fulfillment.
• His on camera presence and personality drew
  audiences to him.
• But it was his outspokenness and strong political
  beliefs that eventually doomed him.
• Robeson became associated with the Communist
  Party and spoke out against discrimination and
  segregation, and eventually he was singled out
  and silenced.

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Work Cited Photographs

• www.all-pictures.com
• www.imdb.com
• www.myspace.com
• www.reelclassic.com
• www.hollywoodclassic.com
• www.jennybenny.org
• www.barnesnoble.com