BLACKFACE, WHITE NOISE

Over-argued, under-organized examination of the cultural significance of blackface in American film. Blackface is one of those phenomena that time has made almost utterly incomprehensible. What was there about the sight of a white man, ``all corked up,'' performing as a black minstrel, that appealed to audiences? Certainly, there was a transgressive thrill in this carnivalesque appropriation of identity, but how to explain its phenomenal popularity, not only in vaudeville but in movies right through WW II? Rogin's (Ronald Reagan, The Movie, 1987, etc.) answer is that blackface was a way for new Americans—particularly Jewish immigrants—to join the mainstream: ``Blackface flourished in the transitional period when immigrants and their children were leaving behind Old World identities and trying on new ones.'' Rogin may be on to something. From its very beginnings Hollywood was run largely by Jewish businessmen. Again, the first ``talkie,'' The Jazz Singer, was all about a Jewish blackface performer. This is tantalizing evidence, but Rogin goes too far when he tries to make blackface into a great Archimedean lever of American culture: ``The view through burnt cork places race relations at the center of mass politics and culture in the United States.'' This kind of sweeping overstatement is typical of Rogin's style. He also refuses to quit when he's ahead. Rogin tries unsuccessfully to extend his argument up to the period when real black acvtors began appearing in films by taking it to absurd extremes. For example, Singin' in the Rain reflects ``anxiety about black dance influence.'' In comparison to his analysis of blackface, his treatment of Jewish assimilation also seems insufficient. An intelligent but sometimes too clever deconstruction of this strange, disquieting aspect of early cinema. (61 b&w photos, not seen)