You will be redirected to OpenEdition Search. The All-Technicolor Whoopee! This practice, inherited from the 19 th century minstrel show, testifies to a larger system of ethnic and character types on the variety stage that functioned as an easily recognizable, and frequently parodied, comic shorthand. A delight in artificiality, in contradictory layers of characterization, generally outstripped any pretense of authenticity.
Edward Sutherland, Samuel Goldwyn, Whether serenading radio auditors with a nonsensical ode to potato pancakes latkes or slipping into Yiddish with George Jessel on the vaudeville stage, there was little risk that he pass for a gentile.
Celebrity in the era of mass media. Radio Mirror , February Cantor and his entertainer double; Whoopee! Samuel Goldwyn, advertisement detail. Variety , October 1, In a strategy that will return in the musicals of the s, burnt cork does not cue imitation; it cues Eddie Cantor, professional comedian and entertainer.
Blackface does nonetheless have an effect on his means of expression. While Eddie Cantor was equally capable of sentimental ballads, often in serio-comic mode, or of the wholesome Depression era cheer-up tunes that became one of his specialties [CLIP 5] , the double entendre-laden novelty song would long remain his most identifiable act.
While singing, he bobbed up and down, jumped, and shuffled his feet. With the exception of Strike Me Pink , they each contain a blackface specialty number that gives Cantor the opportunity to shift from his character back into the celebrity singing clown of A Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic β albeit now without the in-jokes about his ethnicity. True to the post- Whoopee! Pursued through a nightclub by two stereotypical Mexican bandits both played by Midwestern-born character actors , Eddie finds refuge under the table where they begin to argue.
