Dear list members
I'm posting this in the hope that someone might help me recall an elusive
citation.    Somewhere in the acres of reading I have done on blackface in
the last few months, I remember seeing mention of a early-to-mid
20th-century African-American actor explaining why (in an all-black musical)
some numbers were staged using blackface and some were not.  He said "We
used blackface when we had something crazy to say."  Does anyone recognise
this quote, or maybe even the text in which it is quoted?

with grateful thanks in advance
Laurie

Dr Laurie Stras
Music Department
University of Southampton
Southampton SO17 1RG
UK

tel:  +44 (0)23 8059 3425
fax:  +44 (0)23 8059 3197
http://www.soton.ac.uk/~lastras

Musica Secreta are on Linn Records www.linnrecords.com
"Were Botticelli's Primavera to burst into song, she would probably sound
like this." - Independent on Sunday

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