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Just a Buncha Clowns: Comedic-Anarchy and Racialized Performance in Black Vaudeville, the Chop Suey Circuit, and Las Carpas

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Just a Buncha Clowns: Comedic-Anarchy and Racialized Performance in Black Vaudeville, the Chop Suey Circuit, and Las Carpas City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 5-2019 Just a Buncha Clowns: Comedic-Anarchy and Racialized Performance in Black Vaudeville, the Chop Suey Circuit, and las Carpas Michael Shane Breaux The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3099 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] JUST A BUNCHA CLOWNS: COMEDIC-ANARCHY AND RACIALIZED PERFORMANCE IN BLACK VAUDEVILLE, THE CHOP SUEY CIRCUIT, AND LAS CARPAS by MICHAEL SHANE BREAUX A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Theatre and Performance in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2019 © 2019 MICHAEL SHANE BREAUX All Rights Reserved ii Just a Buncha Clowns: Comedic-Anarchy and RacialiZed Performance in Black Vaudeville, the Chop Suey Circuit, and las Carpas by Michael Shane Breaux This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Theatre and Performance in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date James F. Wilson Chair of Examining Committee Date Peter Eckersall Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Jean Graham-Jones David Savran THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT JUST A BUNCHA CLOWNS: COMEDIC-ANARCHY AND RACIALIZED PERFORMANCE IN BLACK VAUDEVILLE, THE CHOP SUEY CIRCUIT, AND LAS CARPAS by Michael Shane Breaux Advisor: James F. Wilson While the practice of white musical variety clowns embodying stereotypes of African, Chinese, and Mexican Americans has been widely documented and theoriZed in scholarship on US American popular performance, it has been done largely in segregated studies that maintain the idea that racial impersonations in musical variety is a privilege of white performers. For instance, no study exists that focuses on more than one stereotype at a time, and the performer’s body is always either white or of the same “color” as the type being played. In addition, very little has been written about the tours and circuits run by the three groups under consideration and how the clowns on those stages also participated in such racialiZed and class-based comedy. What studies do exist on those tours certainly do not consider them in context of each other. As a result, the wide world of musical variety is often reduced to the domain of just white performers, and the presence of the large number of clowns and show managers who were not of European descent has been neglected. This dissertation sets out to address that process of “invisibiliZation,” to use Brenda Dixon Gottschild’s term, by focusing on the Black Vaudeville circuits, the Chinese American Chop Suey Circuit, and the Mexican American las carpas tours of the early twentieth century. In distinct chapters devoted to each circuit, I demonstrate some contemporary socio-political challenges (and victories) the comedians and their managers faced outside the theatre on tour throughout the United States. This establishes the historical contexts in which they existed and thrived despite the hostility they often met on the road, as well as the experiences these clowns often responded to on stage in their performances. In addition, I provide case studies of performers on those circuits and highlight their racial and class impersonations, which always included impersonations of blackness, Asianness, Mexicanness, and US Americanness, complicating the notion of who gets to ridicule whom in the name of comedy. In order to accomplish this, I use archival materials, such as business records, handwritten scripts, publicity and personal photographs, newspaper reviews, playbills, and personal oral accounts documented by historians and ethnographers. Provided together in one study, the research presented in this dissertation belies the myth that such performances and business management in the United States were the privileged domain of a so-called white culture. It also shows how the performers and managers on these three circuits productively worked to challenge dominant notions of Americanness, whiteness, and cultural belonging. This dissertation demonstrates that in the United States, racial and ethnic impersonations of and by people of African, Chinese, and Mexican descent coincided with those by comedians of European descent, and even pre-dated them in some cases. Ultimately, I argue for serious reconsideration of the notion that musical comedy is an entirely “white” art form as well as reconsidering questions regarding who belongs in US musical comedy history. iv This work is lovingly dedicated to Sue and T-Boy Breaux, my mom and dad Acknowledgements In the old days, I would daydream about making a Tony Award acceptance speech. Then a few years ago, I started daydreaming about writing these acknowledgements. Now, at long last, the latter dream gloriously becomes a reality. I’d like to begin by thanking my colleagues in the PhD Program in Theatre and Performance at the Graduate Center for their encouragement, friendship, and mentorship. I thank my dissertation committee, whose reliable support and enthusiasm for this project aided its smooth completion. David Savran’s keen observations about the state of the field of musical theatre and his high standards for contributions to it provided useful guideposts throughout this process. Jean Graham- Jones’s remarkable editing eye and ear for turns of phrase, translations, and cultural hybridity have greatly enhanced this project. I must also acknowledge the extraordinary support of my dissertation director James F. Wilson, otherwise known as the Dissertation Goddess, whom I’ve had the great fortune of working with since way back when I was a Masters student at Brooklyn College, before I entered the Graduate Center. Jim has guided me through every milestone of the PhD program with his characteristic expertise, caring, and humor. He also has a knack for calling me out on the proverbial hand-wringing in my writing and the many tangents I had no business following. Jim read nearly everything I wrote, regardless of its state of completion, and he provided such concise and precise feedback that it always challenged me to grow and stretch my thinking, ultimately shaping this study into its current iteration. I’d also like to acknowledge the other faculty of the program, both past and present, who greatly influenced me. Marvin Carlson, Daniel Gerould, whose absence I still acutely feel, and Judith Milhous all helped shape my scholarly life and work. Peter Eckersall and Erika T. Lin joined the faculty after I completed course work, yet they still made themselves available for guidance and mentoring despite that timing. Melinda Powers, Annette J. Saddik, Maurya Wickstrom, and Elizabeth Wollman have all been significantly influential on my thinking about theatre and performance, and I am grateful to them all. I have also been inspired by working alongside the fantastic students in our program, especially those in my cohort who made the first years of PhD work doable. For their camaraderie and intellects, I thank Jordan Cohen, Ryan Donovan, Ben Gillespie, Anna Harb, Erin Kaplan, Dan Poston, Bess Rowen, Stephanie Vella, and Kalle Westerling. I would also like to thank those in my “Cohort de Dos”—Brooke Christensen, Heather Denyer, Alosha Grinenko, and Pamela Thielman— for that time we all made the leap toward the next phases of our professionalization together. I would like to acknowledge those who provided assistance behind the scenes. The late Lynette Gibson was a fierce advocate for our program and its students, and I am deeply sorry she was not there the day I defended this dissertation. Patricia Goodson has seamlessly taken up Lynette’s mantle and provided me much needed guidance with a calm demeanor as I completed this project and all the final paperwork required to make it official. Anne Ellis also helped make sure I had funding in the last years of my research and writing. The librarians at the Mina Rees Library have also always been helpful and pleasant to work with. v This project relies heavily on archival research, and I would like to acknowledge all those librarians and archivists who assisted me in this part of my work. Eric Colleary and Michael Gilmore at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas were especially generous with their time and expertise, as were the staffs of the California State Library, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. I would also like to thank Yvonne Dutchover and Nathan Stull, Stephanie Zanonie Hebert, Laura Caslin, Nate Jacobs, Bryan Hebert and Denise Rose, Chad Wolbrink and Toby Clark, and Melissa Perry for giving me a place to stay, cooking me meals, or taking me out to explore their cities on my many research trips. Generous funding provided by the Enhanced Chancellor’s Fellowship, the Dr. Martin S. Tackel American Theatre Research Fund, and a Doctoral Student Research Grant have all helped me complete the PhD. In addition, Molly Hardy at the American Antiquarian Society, Melinda Powers, Amy E. Hughes, and Naomi J. Stubbs all offered me research assistance positions, which also provided necessary funding, not to mention impressive lines for my CV. I would also like to acknowledge my professors at Brooklyn College where I first began thinking and writing about comedy and race as a Masters student. Lynn M. Thomson, Helen E. Richardson, Margaret Araneo, and Amy E. Hughes made my introduction to graduate study remarkably satisfying. Amy deserves special mention for her amaZing mentorship, for being the first to introduce me to archival research, and now, lucky for me, for her and Scott Dexter’s friendship.
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