148: “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,” Minstrels in Hollywood and The Oscars (Six Degrees of Song of the South, Episode 3)
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Black Face - The First Black Movie Star
Lead crow in dumbo was played by cliff edwards, the white actor who also played jimminy cricket in pinocchio. Some black actors built entire careers on embodying minstrel stereotypes within films with otherwise mostly white casts. Stepin fetchet's persona on screen and off was an embodiment of the coon stereotype. Black film historian donald bogle wrote a whole book on hollywood's recycling of minstREL stereotypes. In much other writng about song of the south, remus is referred to as an uncle tom type.
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