Ye Olde Minstrels

In its heyday MGM was the Tiffany of studios, and the place where film comedy went to die. In the 1920s it took Buster Keaton, robbed him of control, and made him do musicals and use stuntmen. In the 1930s it took the Marx Brothers and, after a good start, made them the zany hosts of increasingly shoddy musicals. in the 1940s it took Laurel and Hardy and simply told them what to do, removing any creative comic spark, sanded Abbott and Costello until they were smooth and shiny, and made Red Skelton a utility comic relief player. In between all that it took over Our Gang and turned them into minstrels, forcing what once had been a group of real kids into a road company Mickey-and-Judy act obsessed with putting on a show. "Ye Olde Minstrels" is the classic example of that. Even as a kid, watching this on TV, I realized how awful it was. If you really must see a white performer in blackface singing "Lazy Moon," watch Oliver Hardy's rendition in 1931's "Pardon Us," where the blackface at least has story motivation. And Ollie could sing.

...what would you do with them? Well, if you said put them on a stage with about a hundred other children so they could completely get lost in a crowd and do syncopated tambourine playing, you should have been writing for MGM in the forties! Back in the thirties, Hal Roach would make FUN of people who put kids up and made them perform like little shiny automatons. Now MGM's doing it as a matter of course. The concept behind this is a Red Cross benefit being orchestrated by some guy named Walter Wills, who's a household name even now, ha ha. The show culminates in a choreographed tap dance routine where the dancers suddenly sprout blackface as if by magic. And despite that the whole thing's still as memorable as a dog puddle in the middle of the street.

Poor Spanky. Poor Darla. And especially, poor Buckwheat.

This M-G-M musical short, Ye Olde Minstrels, is the one hundred ninety-eighth entry in the "Our Gang" series and the one hundred tenth talkie. Despite Spanky's reluctance to stage another musical show since the last one for Waldo's lemonade stand was a flop, he and the gang do want to raise money for the Red Cross. So Froggy enlists his uncle, Walter Wills, to stage a minstrel show. Okay, when there previously were revues in the OG series, it would either be a makeshift operation with all the amateurishness that would imply or, in the case of Our Gang Follies of 1938, the professionalism would be easily explained as a dream. Well, even with Froggy's uncle involved, this was too much professionalism for the series. Besides, having Froggy have a solo singing spot is a bit painful to watch and almost makes one miss Alfalfa who at least was usually funny when he sang off-key! Good thing Darla sounds better than ever singing "Auld Lang Syne" near the end. Oh, and Walter Wills isn't too bad warbling "Lazy Moon" though, of course, the blackface is out of the question in today's world. I was a little amused, however, when Buckwheat temporarily looked white during that sequence. So on that note, Ye Olde Minstrels is worth a look.

Wow. I hope the neighbors didn't see me watching this episode. I get the fact that it was a different time. And yes by putting Buckwheat in White Face they were making fun of it. But still this Black Face thing. I never understood even as a child why someone thought that was the thing to do. It makes no sense. I can't say it hurts my feelings. I just think it is stupid. They look ridiculous. Of course these days they just try to act black. Which in my opinion is just as stupid. I won't even say act black as much as I should say ghetto. I know a lot of blacks that I know speak better than I do and than all of a sudden they start talking like their from the streets. They look just as ridiculous. I've always been a firm believer in being my self. Maybe that's why I don't go out much. Too many phony people out there.