The Black And White Minstrel Show

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Earlier criticism had been voiced in Flamingo , a magazine aimed at Black and Asian readers, which argued in 1961 that the show was trading in harmful stereotypes. Regardless of country of origin all tracks are sung in English, unless otherwise stated in our description. In July 2009, Henry explained that he was contractually obliged to perform and regretted his part in the show, [7] telling The Times in 2015 that his appearance on the show led to a profound "wormhole of depression", and that he regretted his family not intervening to prevent him from continuing in the show. The Black and White Minstrel Show was created by BBC producer George Inns, working with George Mitchell. An episode of the BBC comedy series The Goodies (" Alternative Roots"), spoofed the positive reception of The Black and White Minstrel Show, suggesting that any programme could double its viewing figures by being performed in blackface, and mentioning that a series of The Black and White Minstrel Show had been tried without make up.

The BBC says that the Black and White Minstrels is "a traditional show enjoyed by millions for what it offers in good-hearted family entertainment". White British film and television producers, as well as audiences, were unable and unwilling to see blacking up as racist at that point. Since its cancellation in 1978, The Black and White Minstrel Show has come to be regarded with disdain. the quality of the recording was not on par with other reissued music from that era- still no regrets. For the "Vinyl Lovers" series the association presents a journey through music on the rediscovery of 45 rpm gems.

Thorne raised the issue again in 1967 with Oliver Whitley, Chief Assistant to the BBC's director general, Sir Hugh Greene.

Within five years of the show's premiere on UK television, its portrayal of blacked-up characters behaving with stereotypical African American manners was already being observed by some as offensive and racist.In the two decades of its existence, it’s hard to dispute the sheer popularity of The Black and White Minstrel Show – in numerical terms at least. This recording sounds as if someone had merely put an old well worn record on to disc, crackles included. In part, this was simply because by the late-1970s variety shows in general were proving to be less popular with television audiences than they had been in the 1950s and ‘60s.

The result was a number that parodied The Black and White Minstrel Show by having the male performers in blackface, while the females (excluding Mrs. citation needed] At this time, the creation gained considerable international regard and was sold to over thirty countries; [ citation needed] in 1961, the show won a Golden Rose at Montreux for best light entertainment programme, and the first three albums of recordings (1960–1962) were all hits, the first two being long-running number 1 albums in the UK Albums Chart. While it started off being broadcast in black and white, the show was first shown in colour on BBC2 in 1967. From 1958 to 1978, British audiences became used to a familiar sight on their television screens: white singers and actors performing in blackface on the BBC’s variety programme, The Black and White Minstrel Show . The Minstrels sang and danced as a group, often on sets styled like the Southern United States, and always with a smile.

The Corporation’s Chief Accountant, Barrie Thorne – who, significantly, had spent some time in the BBC’s New York office and so had seen something of the Civil Rights movement – argued vociferously for the show to be pulled from the schedule. Bill Cotton told them firmly that the “racist implication” of its minstrelsy was now obvious to all.

The show included comedy interludes performed by Leslie Crowther, George Chisholm and Stan Stennett. Adam’s reply came back accusing Thorne of “arrant nonsense”: the show, Adam argued, belonged to that “perfectly honourable theatrical tradition of the British music hall”. The CD remaster is pretty much the same quality as older vinyl anyway and has a fair amount of surface noise from the original vinyl, so you may as well just enjoy the original vinyl with pops and crackles and all - on a record like this it just adds to the charm.

We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. In it, he told the Director of Television, Kenneth Adam, that “The Uncle Tom attitude of the show in this day and age is a disgrace and an insult to coloured people everywhere”. Evidence of minstrelsy and blackface can be located across film and television in 20th century Britain.