Ethan, thank you for sharing this post. I am interested to know more about Sophie Tucker’s anti-black racism — you mentioned twice that she almost passed over Some of The Days on account of the composer’s race. How does her racism play a role in her career as a black-faced performer, singing black music & dancing alongside black dancers? Thanks
Hey Peter -- honestly, I'm not so sure. I was approaching this via my interest in Patton; Tucker is new to me. I think she dropped the black face act early-ish in her career, and I think this was less about her being less racist than it was about black face going out of style. Certainly, she expropriated black culture, presenting herself as African American both aurally and visually.
Ethan - thanks for this excellent article. I've treasure my Yazoo records double album of Charley Patton songs, bought decades ago when i was deep into acoustic blues. Peter G - regarding your question on racism, I googled around a little and found this - check it out - https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/arts/06alsmail-SOPHIETUCKER_LETTERS.html
Ethan, thank you for sharing this post. I am interested to know more about Sophie Tucker’s anti-black racism — you mentioned twice that she almost passed over Some of The Days on account of the composer’s race. How does her racism play a role in her career as a black-faced performer, singing black music & dancing alongside black dancers? Thanks
Hey Peter -- honestly, I'm not so sure. I was approaching this via my interest in Patton; Tucker is new to me. I think she dropped the black face act early-ish in her career, and I think this was less about her being less racist than it was about black face going out of style. Certainly, she expropriated black culture, presenting herself as African American both aurally and visually.
Ethan - thanks for this excellent article. I've treasure my Yazoo records double album of Charley Patton songs, bought decades ago when i was deep into acoustic blues. Peter G - regarding your question on racism, I googled around a little and found this - check it out - https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/arts/06alsmail-SOPHIETUCKER_LETTERS.html