If you are a Jolson fan like me you'll especially enjoy it. Jolson plays E. P. Christy in "Black Face".
Jolson was billed as the "Worlds Greatest Entertainer". And he doesn't dissappoint.
..
Posted on 03/25/2007 7:43:17 AM PDT by Ellesu
ORLANDO, Fla. - Walt Disney Co.'s 1946 film "Song of the South" was historic. It was Disney's first big live-action picture and produced one of the company's most famous songs _ the Oscar-winning "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah." It also carries the story line of the Splash Mountain rides at its theme parks.
But the movie remains hidden in the Disney archives _ never released on video in the United States and criticized as racist for its depiction of Southern plantation blacks. The film's 60th anniversary passed last year without a whisper of official rerelease, which is unusual for Disney, but President and CEO Bob Iger recently said the company was reconsidering.
The film's reissue would surely spark debate, but it could also sell big. Nearly 115,000 people have signed an online petition urging Disney to make the movie available, and out-of-print international copies routinely sell online for $50-$90, some even more than $100.
Iger was answering a shareholder's inquiry about the movie for the second year in a row at Disney's annual meeting in New Orleans. This month the Disney chief made a rerelease sound more possible.
"The question of 'Song of the South' comes up periodically, in fact it was raised at last year's annual meeting ..." Iger said. "And since that time, we've decided to take a look at it again because we've had numerous requests about bringing it out. Our concern was that a film that was made so many decades ago being brought out today perhaps could be either misinterpreted or that it would be somewhat challenging in terms of providing the appropriate context."
"Song of the South" was re-shown in theaters in 1956, 1972 and 1986. Both animated and live-action, it tells the story of a young white boy, Johnny, who goes to live on his grandparents' Georgia plantation when his parents split up. Johnny is charmed by Uncle Remus _ a popular black servant _ and his fables of Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear and Brer Fox, which are actual black folk tales.
Remus' stories include the famous "tar baby," a phrase Republican presidential hopefuls John McCain and Mitt Romney were recently criticized for using to describe difficult situations. In "Song of the South," it was a trick Brer Fox and Brer Bear used to catch the rabbit _ dressing a lump of hot tar as a person to ensnare their prey. To some, it is now a derogatory term for blacks, regardless of context.
The movie doesn't reveal whether it takes place before or after the Civil War, and never refers to blacks on the plantation as slaves. It makes clear they work for the family, living down dirt roads in wood shacks while the white characters stay in a mansion. Remus and other black characters' dialogue is full of "ain't nevers," "ain't nobodys," "you tells," and "dem days's."
"In today's environment, 'Song of the South' probably doesn't have a lot of meaning, especially to the younger audiences," said James Pappas, associate professor of African-American Studies at the University of New York at Buffalo. "Older audiences probably would have more of a connection with the stereotypes, which were considered harmless at the time."
Pappas said it's not clear that the movie is intentionally racist, but it inappropriately projects Remus as a happy, laughing storyteller even though he's a plantation worker.
"Gone with the Wind," produced seven years earlier, endured the same criticism and even shares a common actress (Hattie McDaniel, who won an Oscar for "Gone" for playing the house slave "Mammy").
However, Pappas said he thinks the movie should be rereleased because of its historical significance. He said it should be prefaced, and closed, with present-day statements.
"I think it's important that these images are shown today so that especially young people can understand this historical context for some of the blatant stereotyping that's done today," Pappas said.
From a financial standpoint, Iger acknowledged last year that Disney stood to gain from rereleasing "Song." The company's movies are popular with collectors, and Disney has kept sales strong by tightly controlling when they're available.
Christian Willis, a 26-year-old IT administrator in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., started a "Song" fan site in 1999 to showcase memorabilia. He soon expanded it into a clearinghouse for information on the movie that now averages more than 800 hits a day and manages the online petition.
Willis said he doesn't think the movie is racist, just from a different time.
"Stereotypes did exist on the screen," he said. "But if you look at other films of that time period, I think 'Song of the South' was really quite tame in that regard. I think Disney did make an effort to show African Americans in a more positive light."
Though Willis is hopeful, there's still no telling when _ or if _ the movie could come out (beyond its copyright lapsing decades from now).
For this story, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Disney's distribution arm, issued a statement: "Song of the South is one of a handful of titles that has not seen a home distribution window. To this point, we have not discounted nor committed to any distribution window concerning this title."
On the Net:
"Song of the South" fan page: http://www.songofthesouth.net
A service of the Associated Press(AP)
"In today's environment, 'Song of the South' probably doesn't have a lot of meaning, especially to the younger audiences," said James Pappas, associate professor of African-American Studies at the University of New York at Buffalo. "Older audiences probably would have more of a connection with the stereotypes, which were considered harmless at the time."
BTW, I have met very few Yankees who had anything even approaching "parlor manners". Their children were routinely saying "Yeah" to their elders while we were being taught to say "Yes Sir" and "Yes M'am", regardless of the race of the elder we addressed. YMMV
"Ironically, Gone with the Wind is one of the most anti-poor Southern white movies ever made. There are frequent references to "white trash" "
In "Song of the South" there are two white families, the wealthy family, and then the poor family of the two "white trash" boy villains that are maybe 8 and ten years old.
The movie itself is too sweet and wholesome to call the boys white trash, but we know our movie reviewers will use that language to describe the working class whites if the film is re released.
Even in our "sensitive" age, poor white people are openly called white trash, or crackers, or rednecks, even "trailer trash", etc.
So "plantation workers" can be happy laughing storytellers? As the article said, they're not unnecessarily slaves. Today the modern equivalent might be migrant workers. Migrant workers can't be happy, laughing or storytellers either??
If you are a Jolson fan like me you'll especially enjoy it. Jolson plays E. P. Christy in "Black Face".
Jolson was billed as the "Worlds Greatest Entertainer". And he doesn't dissappoint.
..
I loved this movie as a kid ,as I got older and learned about US history I came to to see there was a lot of hidden satire in the tar baby story
The movie itself is too sweet and wholesome to call the boys white trash, but we know our movie reviewers will use that language to describe the working class whites if the film is re released.
Even in our "sensitive" age, poor white people are openly called white trash, or crackers, or rednecks, even "trailer trash", etc.
Thank you for reminding me. I had completely forgotten the "white trash" villains of SOTS.
Unfortunately, the poorer the whites, the most hostile they are to Blacks. This is for two reasons: 1)they have always been played against one another, and 2)it is poor whites who have to compete against Blacks in the marketplace (jobs etc.), and they perceive that the plight of Blacks receives a lot of attention and sympathy while they never get any. This leads to the perennial poor white explanation for every failure to get a job or government help: "Our skin wasn't the right color."
In plantation days Ole Massa taught his slaves to hate and despise poor whites. He also told poor whites to hate and despise Blacks (since they are obviously "not like us"). Then he armed poor whites as slave patrollers ("patter-rollers") to punish any slave caught off his plantation without papers. You can imagine how the frustrations of impoverished Southern whites were taken out on such unfortunate persons, who were symbols of the slave system that locked out and impoverished poor whites. Notice that it wasn't Ole Massa who received the brutal beatings but the unfortunate slaves.
Then when the slave made it back to the plantation (assuming he was still alive) Ole Massa told him that he must remain on the plantation for his own safety, since it's the only place where he will be safe from those savage, murderous, barely-human poor whites. You can imagine how grateful the slave was for protection against such monsters.
Poor Whites and Blacks have always deflected their anger onto each other, while the establishment takes the side of first one and then the other. But the basic hostility has not ceased and I begin to despair that it ever will.
"I have always wished to hear actual spoken Gullah..."
Audio clips - readings from the Gullah translation of the New Testament:
http://linguafranka.net/gullahbible/
(Links are at the bottom of the page.)
Thanks.
Daniel Decatur Emmett, who wrote the song Dixie as a minstrel song, later regretted writing it because it had become "an anthem of treason."
Larry Parks, who played Jolson in The Jolson Story, was a blacklisted Communist. Looks like he's been blacklisted again!
Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (working title: So White and de Sebben Dwarfs) is a Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Bob Clampett, produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, and released to theatres on January 16, 1943 by Warner Bros. Pictures and The Vitaphone Corporation.
The film is notable for being an all-black parody of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Snow-White, known to its audience from the popular 1937 Walt Disney animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The stylistic portrayals of the characters, however, is an example of classic racist darky iconography (see blackface), which was widely accepted in white American society at the time. As such, it is one of the most controversial cartoons in the classic Warner Bros. library, has been rarely seen on television, and has never been officially released on home video. However, it is often named as one of the best cartoons ever made, in part for its African-American-inspired jazz and swing music, and is considered one of Clampett's masterpieces.
HOLY CRAP LOOK WHAT I FOUND!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8124667171424771222&q=physics+game+ageia
His last stint in Korea was blamed for his untimely death. He was in his 60s at the time and the stress of the trip was said to have been the cause of his death.
A true patriot.
FWIW Parks and Jolson didn't get along.
As a poor white I disagree with much of that clichéd, neatly packaged, belief.
Anyway the two poor boys respected the black mans authority, it was the effeminately dressed, rich, white boy that drew their hostility, not the blacks.
They need to release "Dr Syn Alias the Scarecrow" on DVD
Nice. Larger screen size than YouTube. It's good to know we can still see this stuff, even if the powers that be refuse to release it and make money.
Disney, in their cowardly political correctness, has also edited many of the old comic book stories, refusing to reprint them, or changing them so they are no longer "offensive" (read "funny"). As far back as the 40's, Donald Duck had a dog named "Bolivar", whose name had to be changed because some South Americans claimed this was an insult to Bolivar., the liberator.
Ping to the Phillip Man.
And no, though I was born and raised in the Deep South, I never saw the movie in racist terms. To me, it was just a beautifully-told tale.
Well thanks! See? Whatt'd I tell ya?
I've never seen the movie myself (the PC people have denied me this pleasure), but I did happen to come across some very grainy clips on YouTube. It looks like it may have been one of Disney's best movies. I'd love to see the whole thing...if only...
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