Gentlemen, be Seated! : a Parade of the American Minstrels

New York: Clarkson N. Potter. Very Good+ in Very Good- dust jacket. 1976. Revised Edition. Hardcover. 0517525879 . Dustjacket has a couple of tiny closed tears on edge of front panel and a small chip to the lower edge of front panel - see image. ; Both book and dustjacket are in Very Good condition. "offers scores of anecdotes, a sparkling you-are-there description of the brassy minstrel parade from the railroad station to the local hotel, the script for a complete minstrel show, and the most durable jokes in the history of show business. Originally written in 1928, this revised edition has been updated to include Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, Scott Joplin, and even Broadway's Ben Vereen. "[goodreads] NOTE: "Blackface minstrelsy is a troublesome topic in popular culture studies. Because burn-cork comedy originated and thrived in a racist society, many scholars and most nonscholars believe that minstrelsy's primary purpose was the creation and perpetuation of demeaning caricatures or untruthful portraits of African-Americans. Most studies published since the early 1960s emphasize the negative effects of blackface comedy or focus on the development of the principal stereotypes (the urban dandy and the shiftless plantation hand) rather than on the interpretive significance of blackface comedy within the broader context of American ethnic humor. While it is essential that minstrelsy's negative characteristics be explored and explained as overt manifestations of the racist attitudes many Americans shared, the narrow focus on race and/or racism as the primary feature of blackface entertainment limits the application of the interdisciplinary methods and interpretive strategies needed to understand the content and context of one of the most popular forms of American comedy." [william h. Mahar] ; 4to 11" - 13" tall; 253 pages .