Black Images in Classical Hollywood Cinema Until the Advent of the Civil Rights Era

Black Images in Classical Hollywood Cinema until the advent of the Civil Rights Era

The word “Hollywood” must not be confused with the place in Los Angeles, where the movie industry was established around 1920, but it can be understood as a state of mind, regarding production techniques, themes and its sociology. As we know there was a movie industry set in New Jersey’s Fort Lee well before the companies moved over to Hollywood, with its better movie-making conditions regarding weather and backdrop. Since then there was a kind of ethnic code that was used and not violated in order to produce movies. The code was either adopted by the theatre as the first movies were more a kind of stage-play documentary which simply filmed the action on stage, or simply being used as it was following the success of other film productions. Therefore, even at the beginnings, movie-making was based on long traditions, despite its novelty for the audience. As a new mass medium it was not to present innovative themes but rather rely upon well established traditions right from the start, because the movies were a moneymaking business. Consequently, with successfully including old traditions, came the movie industry’s rise. One of such tradition was minstrelsy. Minstrelsy became the standard procedure in how to depict the black men on screen. It was well established especially within the classical Hollywood period, from the first days of movie industries during the silent era, to the advent of the sound period.

2.1. America’s Blackface tradition
According to Eileen Southern blackface minstrelsy emerged as a form of theatrical performance during the 1820s and became for much of the 19th century “the most popular form of theatrical entertainment in the United States and, to the rest of the world, America 's unique contribution to the stage.” (Southern, p. 7) Blackface arose during the days of slavery, so the songs, dances and jokes performed by white entertainers who blackened their

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