themakeupgallery | character | blackface

updated: 28/02/2008

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blackface & yellowface: minstrels

Lady Caroline Lamb
L’Eclisse
Torch Song
I’ll See You in My Dreams
The Dolly Sisters
Holiday Inn
Show Boat
others

These are at best described as non-realistic blackface makeups, but most of them are demeaning caricatures. Even black actresses and singers have appeared in blackface. Thankfully, their day is pretty well past, and where they have turned up recently it is mostly either in movies with a period setting (eg the ‘Moor’ at a 1930s fiesta in Belle Epoque) or to make a deliberate statement (eg Manderlay).

These are makeups where the character is intended to be seen as a white person in blackface: the minstrel show or vaudeville, or a character in fancy-dress would be typical examples.