Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

“The World's Greatest Minstrel Show Under the Stars”: Blackface Minstrels, Community Identity, and the Lowell Showboat, 1932–1977

2018; Volume: 44; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5342/michhistrevi.44.2.0001

2327-9672

Matthew Daley, Scott L. Stabler,

Race, History, and American Society

The Michigan Historical Review 44:2 (Fall 2018): 1-36©2018 Central Michigan University. ISSN 0890-1686 All Rights Reserved “The World’s Greatest Minstrel Show Under the Stars”: Blackface Minstrels, Community Identity, and the Lowell Showboat, 1932-1977 By Matthew Lawrence Daley and Scott L. Stabler Driving into Lowell, Michigan, along route M-21 where it joins Main Street provides the sense that it is the quintessential Midwestern town. Victorian buildings line the thoroughfare next to new businesses, including a microbrewery. The Flat River runs under the road, joining the larger Grand River—Michigan’s longest river—just to the south. It is here, above the M-21 bridge next to a little park, where the Lowell Showboat sat moored for many years. The sternwheel Showboat catches the eye because of its name: though far from the South, it bears the name Robert E. Lee—the general and hero of the Confederacy. As a further irony, the Showboat sits not half a mile from a large Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) statue erected in 1900 “in honor of the soldiers and sailors who fought in the war of rebellion.” The grounds of the Oakwood Cemetery are strewn with GAR badges and American flags to honor Lowell residents who sought to preserve the Union and fought the Showboat’s namesake. From 1932 to 1997, the Mississippi paddle wheeler came around the river’s bend each summer, from late July to early August, for a three- to six-night performance. With music blaring and the cast waving, each night the Lowell Showboat entertained audiences from a few thousand to over six thousand. Debuting in July 1932, the Showboat would blow its whistle from its dock near the home of Lowell resident Carlton Runciman (who was also the interlocutor, or main dialogue leader, for the Showboat’s entertainment) before sailing down the Flat River with scores of cars and people lining Riverside Drive. Finally, the boat docked on the riverbank in front of a stage and bleachers.1 It was a highly anticipated affair; “All 1 “All Ready for Showboat Days,” Lowell Ledger, 4 August 1932. 2 The Michigan Historical Review Ready for Showboat Days,” announced the Lowell Ledger’s front page: Three days of happiness for all who are here and for all who come to the Old Town—the dynamic town of Lowell. The Showboat bringing to these modern times the happy minstrelsy of antebellum days below the Mason-Dixon line . . . Troup of 50 Minstrels and Band of 25 pieces to reproduce old time showboat days. And everybody, old and young, rich and poor, loves a minstrel show. They’re for the sole purpose of making old hearts young again and to keep young hearts young.2 Except for a few years, blackface entertainment was a key component of the event from 1932 to 1977, alongside national acts from prominent white and black performers—such as Dinah Shore, Pearl Bailey, Milton Berle, and Louis Armstrong. Pausing only during World War II, the Showboat finally shut down in 1997. Therein, blackface entertainment on the Robert E. Lee underlies the tangled matter of the meaning and significance of the Lowell Showboat’s importance to a rural and overwhelmingly white community in West Michigan. The Showboat still features prominently in advertising, community motifs, and even the Google search for the town. It provided an economic catalyst from its origins during the depths of the Great Depression, helping pay for community improvements, infrastructure, and inducements to lure new industries to Lowell. The Showboat reflects how communities far outside the South embraced plantation-themed entertainments steeped in Lost Cause mythology as transmitted by mass media entities. It further informs how minstrel-show blackface performance indicated the racial attitudes of Midwestern communities well into the civil rights era. Yet the show also featured national performers alongside local blackface actors performing to a regional audience. Only when confronted by outside forces and changes in attitudes by national acts did it finally, albeit reluctantly, give up blackface. The Lowell Showboat’s use of this mélange of images demonstrates the popularity and longevity of blackface performance and its reliance on a constructed set of cultural factors in...