Anthea Kraut
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199360369
- eISBN:
- 9780199360390
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199360369.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
This chapter asks how notions of property infused the practices of African American vernacular dancers in the 1930s and 1940s. While a number of scholars have argued that Western ideas of singular ...
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This chapter asks how notions of property infused the practices of African American vernacular dancers in the 1930s and 1940s. While a number of scholars have argued that Western ideas of singular authorship and fixity embedded in US copyright law are ill suited to collective black expressive forms, published oral histories of tap and jazz dancers reveal that many of them worked to protect dance steps they considered their property via extra-legal means. The chapter analyzes these alternative methods, from the spreading of rumors about Alberta Hunter’s alleged copyright on the Black Bottom; to the vigilant surveillance and public shaming of copycats who appeared at Harlem’s Lincoln Theater; to the “trademarking” of “signature” moves, like Bill “Bojangles” Robinson’s stair dance and Josephine Baker’s eye-crossing. Because these methods of protection among black vernacular dancers bear directly on questions of dance’s (non)reproducibility, unpacking them reanimates debates about the ontological status of performance.Less
This chapter asks how notions of property infused the practices of African American vernacular dancers in the 1930s and 1940s. While a number of scholars have argued that Western ideas of singular authorship and fixity embedded in US copyright law are ill suited to collective black expressive forms, published oral histories of tap and jazz dancers reveal that many of them worked to protect dance steps they considered their property via extra-legal means. The chapter analyzes these alternative methods, from the spreading of rumors about Alberta Hunter’s alleged copyright on the Black Bottom; to the vigilant surveillance and public shaming of copycats who appeared at Harlem’s Lincoln Theater; to the “trademarking” of “signature” moves, like Bill “Bojangles” Robinson’s stair dance and Josephine Baker’s eye-crossing. Because these methods of protection among black vernacular dancers bear directly on questions of dance’s (non)reproducibility, unpacking them reanimates debates about the ontological status of performance.
Todd Decker
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199759378
- eISBN:
- 9780199979554
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199759378.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, History, American, Popular
Paul Robeson played Joe for just over a decade, appearing in the first London production in 1928, the 1932 Broadway revival, the 1936 Universal Pictures film, and a 1940 Los Angeles production. All ...
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Paul Robeson played Joe for just over a decade, appearing in the first London production in 1928, the 1932 Broadway revival, the 1936 Universal Pictures film, and a 1940 Los Angeles production. All these versions altered Show Boat to accommodate Robeson's presence. He was particularly important to Show Boat's success in London. Morgan remained the show's signature personality in the United States. The role of Queenie was definitively passed to black performers with the casting of Alberta Hunter in the part. In addition to the above versions, the 1929 Universal film is also discussed in this chapter, which focuses more generally on how the show's presentation of black performance and performers was adjusted in its first decade of remaking and how individual performers used Show Boat to further their larger careers.Less
Paul Robeson played Joe for just over a decade, appearing in the first London production in 1928, the 1932 Broadway revival, the 1936 Universal Pictures film, and a 1940 Los Angeles production. All these versions altered Show Boat to accommodate Robeson's presence. He was particularly important to Show Boat's success in London. Morgan remained the show's signature personality in the United States. The role of Queenie was definitively passed to black performers with the casting of Alberta Hunter in the part. In addition to the above versions, the 1929 Universal film is also discussed in this chapter, which focuses more generally on how the show's presentation of black performance and performers was adjusted in its first decade of remaking and how individual performers used Show Boat to further their larger careers.
