Behind the screen tap dance, race, and invisibility during Hollywood's golden age Tap dance, race, and invisibility during Hollywood's golden age Shiovitz, Brynn Wein creator author. text bibliography Electronic books. Criticism, interpretation, etc. History nyu 2023 2023 monographic eng remote 1 online resource (xviii, 375 pages) : illustrations. "Introducing a new theory of covert minstrelsy this book illumines Hollywood's practice of capitalizing on the Africanist aesthetic at the expense of Black lived experience. Behind the Screen: Tap Dance, Race, and Invisibility During Hollywood's Golden Age looks at how and why outdated racial content, and specifically blackface minstrelsy, was not only permitted, but in fact thrived during the 1930s and 1940s, despite the rigid motion picture censorship laws which were enforced during this time. Upon close examination of the musicals made during this period, we learn that Hollywood utilized a series of covert "guises" or subterfuges-complicated and further masked by a film's narrative framing and novel technology-to distract both censors and audiences from seeing the ways in which they were being fed a nineteenth-century White narrative of Blackness. Drawing on the annals of Hollywood's most popular and its extremely rare films, Behind the Screen uncovers a half century of blackface application by delicately removing the individual layers of disguise through close analyses of films which paint tap dance, swing, and other predominantly Africanist forms in a negative light. This book goes beneath the image of recognizable White performers including Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Fred Astaire, and Eleanor Powell, exploring the high cost of their onscreen representational politic. The book also recuperates the stories of several of the Black artists whose labor was abused during the choreographic and filming process. Some of the many newly documented stories include those of The Three Chocolateers, The Three Eddies, The Three Gobs, The Peters Sisters, Jeni Le Gon, and Cora La Redd. In stripping away the various disguises involved during Hollywood's Golden Age, Behind the Screen recovers the visibility of Black artists whose names Hollywood omitted from the credits and whose identities America has written out of the national narrative"-- Introduction : Masks in Disguise -- Integrating the Screen : Sound Synchronization, Sonic Guises, and Pre-Code Blackface, 1927-1930 -- Sing-along : Dinah, a Fleischer Screen Song -- Optical Illusion and Design : Exposure Values, Protean Guises, and Eddie Cantor's Blackface, 1930-1933 -- Cartoon short : The Three Little Pigs, an excerpted Walt Disney Silly Symphony -- Public Works and Accolades : Race Film, Southern Repossession, and the Rise of Bill Robinson, 1929-1935 -- Dance break : Have You Got Any Castles, Featuring Buck and Bubbles -- Bon Homage : Female Figures, the Tribute Guise, and Pre-War Departures, 1934-1939 -- Travel ad : Skirting Censorship : Brownface and Technology in Transit -- With a Glory Be : The Gabriel Variation, Jazz, and Everything In-Between, 1934-1942 -- War bond ad : Any Bonds Today? Produced in Cooperation with Warner Bros, and U.S. Treasury Dept. Defense Savings Staff -- Hays Is for Horses : Cartoons' Crossover Appeal, Dis-figuration, and the Animated Bestiary, 1934-1942 -- Coda : Enlisting the Tropes : Covert Minstrelsy in Action, 1942-1954 -- Appendix : Excerpts from the Production Code (1934-1954). Brynn W. Shiovitz. Includes bibliographical references and index. n-us--- Musical films United States History and criticism African Americans in motion pictures Race in motion pictures Stereotypes (Social psychology) in motion pictures Dance in motion pictures, television, etc United States History Motion pictures United States History 20th century Films musicaux États-Unis Histoire et critique Noirs américains au cinéma Race au cinéma Stéréotypes au cinéma Cinéma États-Unis Histoire 20e siècle PERFORMING ARTS Dance African Americans in motion pictures Dance in motion pictures, television, etc Motion pictures Musical films Race in motion pictures Stereotypes (Social psychology) in motion pictures United States Films, cinema Performing Arts 1900-1999 fast PN1995.9.M86 S45 2023 791.436 Behind the screen Shiovitz, Brynn Wein. New York : Oxford University Press, [2023] (DLC) 2023004936 (OCoLC) 1356020711 (DLC) 2023004936 9780197553121 0197553125 0197553117 9780197553138 0197553133 9780197553114 9780197553107 9780197553091 0197553095 0197553109 2023004937 http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login?url=https://academic.oup.com/book/45746 DLC 230201 20260318165135.1 in00005698040 eng