David Gerstein
06-24-2001, 01:46 PM
Hey, guys!
I note with respect to the recent "most racist cartoon" poll that the cartoon retitled (in the 1950s) UNCLE TOM AND LITTLE EVA is one of the choices. It is listed under the title, PICKANINNY BLUES, under which it's usually believed that it originally went.
I'm not sure where the belief that one cartoon is the other actually began, but I think it comes from some well-circulated videotape in the late 1980s making a mistaken guess.
Since I've got video copies with the original titles, let me clarify stuff:
1930's DIXIE DAYS = UNCLE TOM AND LITTLE EVA.
1932's PICKANINNY BLUES... er, may never have been retitled as a Jungle Jinks (and if it was, I don't know its alternate name).
The real PICKANINNY BLUES shows a runty little Southern farmboy (shown as a humanized cat; not a very racist depiction) sick of his farm work and dreaming of traveling to Egypt, where mummies dance about and a beautiful Arab girl romances him. Not a very racist cartoon, unless you assume that the farmboy is a slave because he's black (no other evidence of that is given).
David Gerstein
dge@ecn.egmont.com
I note with respect to the recent "most racist cartoon" poll that the cartoon retitled (in the 1950s) UNCLE TOM AND LITTLE EVA is one of the choices. It is listed under the title, PICKANINNY BLUES, under which it's usually believed that it originally went.
I'm not sure where the belief that one cartoon is the other actually began, but I think it comes from some well-circulated videotape in the late 1980s making a mistaken guess.
Since I've got video copies with the original titles, let me clarify stuff:
1930's DIXIE DAYS = UNCLE TOM AND LITTLE EVA.
1932's PICKANINNY BLUES... er, may never have been retitled as a Jungle Jinks (and if it was, I don't know its alternate name).
The real PICKANINNY BLUES shows a runty little Southern farmboy (shown as a humanized cat; not a very racist depiction) sick of his farm work and dreaming of traveling to Egypt, where mummies dance about and a beautiful Arab girl romances him. Not a very racist cartoon, unless you assume that the farmboy is a slave because he's black (no other evidence of that is given).
David Gerstein
dge@ecn.egmont.com