That's Enough Folks: Black Images in Animated Cartoons, 1900-1960

by Henry T. Sampson

Overview

An authoritative and valuable resource for students and scholars of film animation and African-American history, film buffs, and casual readers. It is the first and only book to detail the history of black images in animated cartoons. Using advertisements, quotes from producers, newspaper reviews, and other sources, Sampson traces stereotypical black images through their transition from the first newspaper comic strips in the late 1890s, to their inclusion in the first silent theatrical cartoons, through the peak of their popularity in 1930s musical cartoons, to their gradual decline in the 1960s. He provides detailed storylines with dialogue, revealing the extensive use of negative caricatures of African Americans. Sampson devotes chapters to cartoon series starring black characters; cartoons burlesquing life on the old slave plantation with "happy" slaves Uncle Tom and Topsy; depictions of the African safari that include the white hunter, his devoted servant, and bloodthirsty black cannibals; and cartoons featuring the music and the widely popular entertainment style of famous 1930s black stars including Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, and Fats Waller.

That's Enough Folks includes many rare, previously unpublished illustrations and original animation stills and an appendix listing cartoon titles with black characters along with brief descriptions of gags in these cartoons.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810832503
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	06/25/1998
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	8.72(w) x 11.28(h) x 0.86(d)

About the Author

Henry T. Sampson has written a number of books including Blacks in Black and White: Source Book on Black Films (Scarecrow, 1995, 1977) and Blacks in Blackface: A Source Book on Black Musical Shows (Scarecrow, 1980). He is currently Director of Mission Development and Operations, Space Test Program, Aerospace Corp.

Editorial Reviews

...an invaluable reference source of visual art and racial stereotyping in the popular culture...Its coverage is prodigious and the commentary and anaysis balanced and insightful.

J. Boskin

...a powerful book which puts the spotlight on the entertainment world...a scholarly and well researched book...illustrations...are important...a very complete index. Mr. Sampson has given U.S. History teachers some long neglected areas of study and an important book for all of us.

Paper Pile Quarterly

His brief introductions to the series stars alone are worth the price of the book...an essential work...

American Reference Books Annual

...informative and enlightening. A great reference book. Excellent.

Mark Mayfield

...a major work of reference, important in the fields of both animation history and black American studies. It cannot be improved upon and certainly cannot be recommended enough.

Classic Images

...a stellar reference book, exhaustively covering black cartoon characters and themes (the safari, the minstrel show) through very full synopses and all available reviews of the period.

Past Times

...informative and enlightening. A great reference book. Excellent.--Mark Mayfield, Animation Research, Inc.

...an invaluable reference source of visual art and racial stereotyping in the popular culture...Its coverage is prodigious and the commentary and anaysis balanced and insightful.--J. Boskin, Boston University

...a powerful book which puts the spotlight on the entertainment world...a scholarly and well researched book...illustrations...are important...a very complete index. Mr. Sampson has given U.S. History teachers some long neglected areas of study and an important book for all of us.--Paper Pile Quarterly

From the Publisher

His brief introductions to the series stars alone are worth the price of the book...an essential work...

American Reference Books Annual (ARBA)

His brief introductions to the series stars alone are worth the price of the book...an essential work....

ARBA

With looks at characters such as Mammy Two-Shoes, Buzzy the Crow, Uncle Tom and Topsy, and Jasper, the author explores the historical use of black stereotypes in animation. The information is formatted in separate treatments of each cartoon or series with extensive plot notes and excerpted dialogue to show the many stereotypes used by animators to propel their humor. The book also includes a number of black and white cels and drawings as well as a brief historical overview of black portrayals in cartoons. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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