Arkansas Traveler

[Al Smitley]

I'm curious as to what venue the "Arkansas Traveler" skit/song/tune originated.

Although it's included in the Converse and Buckley tutorials, for some reason it doesn't strike me as being done as a minstrel show comedic skit but perhaps so.  Any insights?

[Joel Hooks]

It is perfect for the Minstrel stage format... play a tune--tell a joke--play a tune--tell a joke.  Pretty standard stuff for all variety shows.

The jokes would vary.  This same format works with lots of tunes and songs.

Hee Haw corn field.

Just the other week SNL (in a pretty rare good bit) used the same format.  All sing a chorus-- tell a joke-- repeat.

[Al Smitley]

I agree that AT would fit the comedic nature of the minstrel show but I was not picturing "Arkansas Traveler" done in "black face".   In the early sheet music, I do not see the supposed negro dialect, etc.  Was any portion of the minstrel show performed "uncorked", stereotypically portraying white rubes, for example?  I really should read one of the books on the topic.....if I didn't fall asleep within 10 minutes of trying to read anything!

[Joel Hooks]

They even did Irish and German gags in cork.

All of those "irish jigs" in the tutors... those were for "Paddy" to dance around in a green suit and red beard (still in cork).

My favorite are the "Irish" jigs composed by a music teacher's son who was born in Elmira, NY.

Just as genuine as the "real southern plantation melodies" I suppose.

The Arkansas Traveler skit seems to hit the scene around the same time as Minstrelsy. The music and actual dialog show up in several minstrel era banjo tutors.  It continues to be a mainstay in instruction manuals through the rest of the century.  I've never cared enough to make it a project, but I'd read it if you did.

There was an article written in 1971 called Arkansas Traveler—A Multi-Parented Wayfarer.  My attempts to read it have been prevented by the copyright.  Even then, research has come a very long way from the 1970s.

 

[Al Smitley]

Thanks, Joel.  I didn't realize that "Paddys" were also depicted in minstrel shows.  While the comedic nature of AT would seem to fit with the minstrel show venue, so to would the stereotyping of certain people whose 19th C lack of political and economic power might prevent them from gererating a significant backlash......and would probably prevent them from even attending a minstrel show.  Thus, those attending were not personally offended....unless by a seemingly-rare, inner philosophical voice.

[Joel Hooks]

We are presuming that the majority of the "targets" of this humor were offended by it.  We look at things with our modern minds and it only makes sense that most African Americans of that era were sickened by the minstrel show-- that the people who played in them on stage were forced there because that was the only way that they were accepted and allowed to take the stage.

This is another project that I would like to see.  Using actually letters and journals from the era, how did African Americans (free or slave) really feel about the minstrel stage?  This project would be very difficult and sensitive.  It would be extremely hard for the author to distance their own personal emotions about the era.

Let us also consider modern times.  Do you see red when you watch these? Think it is funny?  Don't care?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUjE29rmqIg

http://youtu.be/dIw9waVI-m8

http://youtu.be/5S2z8rDL9Hg

[Tim Twiss]

What do we do today, that is tomorrow's taboo???

 

 

[Strumelia]

Has anyone here seen Spike Lee's film "Bamboozled"?  Seems relevant to this conversation.

[Nicholas A Bechtel]

None of that is offensive. I grew up in Chattanooga Tn. I now live in California...my whole experience throughout life and living in other parts of the United states has been to endure over and over again the same o'l cliche's about people from the South. But what do they know, especially those that have never lived there. So knowing that..who cares. Seriously..., until someone is really in your space,.. where does the energy come form to be offended about things that don't personally effect someone in the hear and now.

I find it fascinating from a physiological  point of view as to how we have evolved in the manner we treat each other and the mixing of cultures from a 150 + years ago. At times it seems we, as a society, have came a long way, then other times it's almost like we went backwards instead of forward.  I think the old Minstrel show's are a great snap shot on how this country thought about the minority along with everything else that was subject matter of the time. Pretty fascinating, a whole lot more to all this than just playing Banjo.

Again this is my observation from the surface, I am new to this and have not done a tremendous amount of research for myself yet on the Minstrel Shows.

Interesting stuff.

Joel Hooks said:

We are presuming that the majority of the "targets" of this humor were offended by it.  We look at things with our modern minds and it only makes sense that most African Americans of that era were sickened by the minstrel show-- that the people who played in them on stage were forced there because that was the only way that they were accepted and allowed to take the stage.

This is another project that I would like to see.  Using actually letters and journals from the era, how did African Americans (free or slave) really feel about the minstrel stage?  This project would be very difficult and sensitive.  It would be extremely hard for the author to distance their own personal emotions about the era.

Let us also consider modern times.  Do you see red when you watch these? Think it is funny?  Don't care?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUjE29rmqIg

http://youtu.be/dIw9waVI-m8

http://youtu.be/5S2z8rDL9Hg

[Ian Bell]

I think basic template for the Arkansas Traveller schtick seems existed long before the minstrel era. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, when shadow puppets were a popular entertainment in pubs and assembly rooms on on the street (at night I guess) there was a famous shadow puppet play from the called "The Broken Bridge". The premise was that a posh gent is on one side of the broken bridge and is chatting with a worker who is fixing the bridge from the other side. The palaver between the two is pretty much the same as the traveller and the rube in A.T. and in some versions has exactly the same gags. Years and years ago I did a receation of one of these for a living history site in Toronto. I found a period script in the library to work from. I'll look around for it.

There are a number of YouTube videos of different people performing versions of the Broken Bridge. (Who - knew. I haven't even thought about it for 25 years)

[Joel Hooks]

Yep, pretty standard comedy/music routine.  

AT just happens to show up around the same time as minstrelsy.  Not to mention the music for banjo being pretty common.

[Ian Bell]

Strumelia: I loved that movie. (Bamboozled) It made me very uneasy but it made me think about a lot of things. I remember having an interesting conversation about it afterwards with a friend, who is a Scottish folksinger but who has lived in Canada for many years. We decided that when it came to "blacking up", we both did our own version of it as performers of traditional/old-fashioned musical forms. He admitted that when he hit the stage he always became "just a little more Scottish" - likewise,  I had to confess that I turn into a more exaggerated "old-time rural Ontario guy"  than perhaps I am. I have to admit though, as I get older I'm definitely growing into the role. (move over Grandpa Jones)