...and then there was the Automatic

Cultural Decadence: New Orleans Mardi Gras, with its roots in Pagan fertility festivals

The celebration of Mardi Gras came to North America from France where it had been celebrated since the Middle Ages. French explorer Iberville and his men stopped to rest for a day beside a small bayou about twelve miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River, On Shrove Tuesday, 1699. Knowing that the day, March 3, was being celebrated as a major holiday in Paris, they christened the site Point du Mardi Gras, as the weary, homesick men must have recalled that back home in France maskers were filling the streets. The tradition of the New Orleans Mardi Gras is undoubtedly French, as during the first years of existence, it heavily resembled the one held in Paris more than it did any other. 

However, outside of New Orleans, Mardi Gras's roots predate that of the French. There is a striking similarity between the ancient tribal rituals of fertility that welcomed the arrival of Spring. A possible ancestor of the celebration was the "Lupercalia", a circus-like orgy held in mid-February in Rome. In this ancient fertility festival, the worship of Lupercus involved cross-dressing and masquerading, promoting sexual orgies among the Romans. Steeped in Egyptian, Grecian and Roman fertility rites, half of the parades celebrate and honor ancient pagan gods.

Ancient Greeks would sacrifice a goat, cut its hide into strips, and run naked through the fields while their pagan priests lashed them with with the goat-hide strips. This was a symbolic part of their Spring fertility rite to ensure a productive harvest for their fields and increase the fertility of their flocks and women. The custom was degenerate even by pagan standards, being a time of sacrifice, lewdness, immortality, drunkenness and revelry, and was associated with the worship of the Greek god "Pan". 

Pan originates with the Ancient Greek language, from the word paein, meaning "to pasture." Besides being the Greek god of fields and pastures, he was even more closely associated with cattle, flocks, and herds, than with agriculture. He was a fertility god and therefore was always represented as crude, wanton, and lustful. He took the form of a half-goat and half-man, having the legs, ears, and horns of a goat, in the same manner as a faun or satyr (the goat is the ancient symbol of Satan), but the torso, arms, and face of a man. Being a rustic god, Pan was not worshipped in temples or other built edifices, but in natural settings. The playful and lecherous Pan is also the Greek god of lust and the masculine generative power. According to Thelemic standards, "Pan is both the giver and the taker of life, and his Night is that time of symbolic death where the adept experiences unification with the All through the ecstatic destruction of the ego-self. In a more general sense, it is the state where one transcends all limitations and experiences oneness with the universe. 

Pagan priests accompanied by the idol, showered the crowds with Spring flowers, herbs, grains and coins. Good fortunes, spells and curses were shouted, including calls to the idol god to grant favor and blessing. The early Church fathers, realizing that it was impossible to break away from pagan customs, decided instead to direct their new converts into Christian channels. Thus Carnival was created as a period of merriment that would serve as a prelude to the penitential season of Lent, providing a balance between the Christian Church and its early pagan celebrations. 

By 1766, when Don Antonio de Ulloa took possession of the colony of Louisiana for Spain, Mardi Gras, though sketchy and crude, was an established custom. The Spanish permitted it to continue for a time, with pre-Lenten balls and fetes commonly held in New Orleans during the late 1700s, but within a few years street masking and masked balls were banned. Even before the Spanish had taken control many travelers had written home of the wickedness and the general licentiousness of the young city, reporting a number of gambling houses, rough ballrooms of a sort, and loose women in numbers out of all proportion to the settlement's population. All of this, together with an increasing number of free people of color, had made Mardi Gras masking a rowdy, even murderous, affair. 

The balls continued, and the character of these has been much debated. There were already some private affairs, to which none but a certain circle and a few distinguished visitors were admitted. This all helped to give New Orleans a reputation as a city as evil and as dangerous as Marseille, a city which was in time to earn the denomination of "hell on earth." 

It is true that New Orleans was then a wicked place, a haven of much human scum from the brothels and prisons and slums of Europe. Every sort of vice was rampant and murder was so common that it has been said that the natives would step over a corpse on the way to a ball or the opera and think nothing of it. 

The prohibition of masked affairs continued when New Orleans became an American city in 1803, as street masking was revived in New Orleans in the years between Spanish suppression and the American acquisition of the colony, when the French ruled again, and the American authorities permitted it to continue until 1806. This time Mardi Gras almost died, and for years it existed only in the memory of the Creole population. By 1823, the Creole populace prevailed upon the American governor, and balls were allowed once again, and in 1827 street masking was once more permitted and officially made legal. 

The balls were soon more numerous and more brilliant than they ever had been before. Orleanians of every race and social stratum donned costumes and masked and gathered to dance all night long, and on Mardi Gras they marched through the streets in costume, rowdy and happy as they had ever been, despite the wrinkled noses of the city's fathers-- wrinkled most perhaps at the number of Americans who now joined in the frivolity, but disapproving heartily of it all. "What crimes, what sins might be committed under a mask," reflected these Anglo-Saxons. And Ash Wednesday always proved them right, for the jails were always filled, and more than one corpse, still dressed in a ridiculous costume, lay in a gutter or sprawled across a banquette. No lady ever masked in the streets, or if she did she took the utmost precaution never to be recognized. 

It was the Americans who gave Mardi Gras its present pattern. It was they who, at least to some extant, took it away from the people and changed what had been an unorganized and informal street revel into an entire social season, a highly stylized program of balls and pageants. The Americans kept alive and increased the whole concept of imitation aristocracy and the present-day snobbery that still characterizes some of the Mardi Gras krewes. Only street masking remained a delightful custom as ever, although many people, both Creole and American, considered it bad taste to mingle in the streets in a costume. 

The first formal parade took place in 1838. Until then maskers had formed lines and chains and walked and run through the streets on Mardi Gras to the amusement or disgust of the spectators, but without real organization or plan. They romped and shouted and behaved as foolishly as possible, but those taking part were usually considered wild men at best. As time went on more and more persons took part in the street pageants. During the 1840s the throwing of flour or pellets of flour, which broke and dissolved, became popular, as it has long been in European carnivals. In 1843 a newspaper writer said that so much flour was thrown on Mardi Gras that on Ash Wednesday the streets looked as if they had been covered in snow. 

In the early 19th century, the public celebration of Mardi Gras consisted mainly of maskers on foot, in carriages, and on horseback. In 1837, a costumed group of revelers walked in the first documented "parade," but the violent behavior of maskers during the next two decades caused the press to call for an end to Mardi Gras. The festivities were becoming more and more rowdy, as there was much drunkenness and fighting and subsequent filling of jails. Most of the newspapers began to campaign for a complete abandonment of the custom, citing two major reasons. One was the constant brawling between white men and boys and Negroes. The other was the vast amount of prostitutes that poured into the streets and into the best neighborhoods on that day, some with their men, sometimes in groups wearing the most daring costumes, and behaving in the most brazen fashions. Some would dress as men, particularly as sailors, as this was considered shocking. They would shout gay and obscene remarks from their carriages, or stroll along the streets, mocking the ladies, as Mardi Gras was a paradise for whores. 

These things, together with a continued throwing of lime and bricks, were threatening to bring about the end of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Fortunately, six New Orleanians saved the New Orleans Mardi Gras by forming the Comus organization in 1857. Rumors spread during the day that a new Mardi Gras organization intended to parade that night, and after dark the streets began to fill with Orleanians who stood waiting; and at nine o'clock, Comus arrived, for this was a pageant such as the city had never seen before. Comus coined the word "krewe" and established several Mardi Gras traditions by forming a secret Carnival society, choosing a mythological namesake, presenting a themed parade with floats and costumed maskers, and staging a tableau ball following its parade. Comus is the son of the necromancer Circeand reveler Bacchus. 

Mardi Gras organizations are non-profit clubs, in the fashion of secret society's, called krewes. Many are named after mythological figures such as Aphrodite, Eros, Hermes, Pegasus and Thor. Each krewe is completely autonomous and there is no overall coordinator of Carnival activities. The secrecy which  some of the older krewes cloak themselves is part of the "mystique" of Mardi Gras. Several do not reveal the name of the parade until the night of the event, and the identity of their royalty is never publicized. 

After the Civil War, Comus returned to the parade scene in 1866. Four years later, the Twelfth Night Revelers debuted. This unique group made Carnival history at its 1871 ball when a young woman was presented with a golden bean hidden inside a giant cake, thus becoming Mardi Gras's first queen and starting the "king cake" tradition. In New Orleans, popular custom holds that whoever receives the slice that contains the baby must purchase the next cake and throw a party. A visit by Russian Grand Duke Alexis Romanoff was the partial inspiration for the first appearance of Rex in 1872. The King of the Carnival immediately became the international symbol of Mardi Gras. Rex presented Mardi Gras's first organized daytime parade, selecting Carnival's colors-- green, purple, and yellow, producing its flag, and introduced its anthem, "If Ever I Cease To Love." 

The popular Krewe of Proteus debuted in 1882 with a glittering parade that saluted Egyptian mythology. The first black Mardi Gras organization, the Original Louisiana Club, was launched in 1894. Two years later, Les Mysterieuses, Carnival's first female group, was founded and presented a spectacular Leap Year ball. One of the first and most beloved krewes to make its appearance in the 20th century was Zulu. 

The 20th century brought with it some difficult years. World War I cancelled Carnival in 1918-1919, but Mardi Gras survived this struggle, along with the Prohibition of the Twenties and the Great Depression of the Thirties. As New Orleans entered the new century its population was approaching 300,000, and every year at least 100,000 visitors came to see a Mardi Gras that was both the same in all its fundamentals yet vastly different from the Mardi Gras of earlier decades, and like New Orleans, seemed very old, but was also very young. The city was prosperous, with no more yellow fever epidemics or cholera to wipe out half its population. 

Girls Playing Cards, Storyville, circa 1911-13

There was still vice, but even it was more civilized, and the regulated red-light district known as Storyville was considered more of an asset than anything else. On Mardi Gras the women of Storyville did not often mingle with the maskers but remained in their own neighborhood, which now was spreading into the French Quarter, as they took over the houses left by the vanishing Creoles, who once had also possessed Mardi Gras. Now, on that day, visitors would wander through Storyville in the hours between parades, to gasp at the luxury of the gaudy apartments. They could peep through shutters into the cheap cribs, where naked girls sat around awaiting patrons. They heard remarkable stories, such as the one about the new kind of music being played in Storyville called "jass," which was being introduced in other parts of the city but was considered rather indecent. 

Mardi Gras masking underwent much change. Formerly great papier-mâché giants had been everywhere on Mardi Gras, monsters with huge and grotesque heads wobbling about their necks. After 1900 they began to vanish, unfortunately, and no longer did two or three men appear in the street as a gigantic, realistic elephant, or a dozen forming a writhing serpent half a city block long. The interests of the day are always reflected in Mardi Gras costumes. Now minstrels in blackface, straw hats, and loud suits and ties became popular. (By World War I bitterness had returned and effigies of the Kaiser were carried through the streets suspended from a gallows. A generation later his piece was replaced by Adolf Hitler.)

Throughout its years, masks have always symbolized a way of being anonymous, and by wearing a mask, you "take on a different persona." Among the early tribes, men who wore masks were considered crueler towards their enemies than those who did not. Like the masquerade balls of the 17th and 18th centuries, the wearing of masks was sometimes set as a game among the guests. The masked guests were dressed as to be unidentifiable, adding a humorous effect, enabling a more enjoyable version of typical balls. Less formal "costume parties" may be a descendant of this tradition. The earliest mention of a Carnival celebration is recorded in the 12th century Roman account of the pope and upper-class Roman citizens watching a parade through the city, followed by the killing of steers and other animals. The purpose was to play and eat meat before Ash Wednesday, which marked the beginning of Catholic Lent-- the forty-day fast leading up to Easter. The Latin term carnem-levare is to remove oneself from flesh or meat-- was used to refer to the festival. 

Marching clubs were numerous in the 1900s, some of which, such as the Jefferson City Buzzards and the Garden District Club, will probably live as long as there is Mardi Gras. Then there were others-- the Broadway Swells, the Jasey kids, the St. Roch Carnival Club, the Jan Jans, the Sons of Rest, the Vampy Vamps, and the Chrysantheum Social Club. But it was the stately and the elegant krewes that endured, and with so little change in the types of floats used and the styles of costumes that to-day they are almost exactly as they were a half-century ago. 

Beads and other trinkets, known as "throws," have been tossed from floats since at least 1910-- transforming parades into a participatory experience, as spectators beg and scramble for treasure. Beads became part of an exchange ritual involving flashes of bare flesh-- a phenomenon that stoked the market for more eye-catching, fancily designed necklaces. Contrary to popular belief, "flashes" are rarely experienced myths, derived from mass-marketing soft-core pornography, and is not a tradition of New Orleans Mardi Gras. The flashing for beads or primary ritual paradigm or worship of the gods is a form of "ceremonial exchange" that is not simply unstructured hedonism, but rather a "ritualized enactment."

Occultural Decadence: Ventriloquism as a form of Necromancy

The Church does not deny that, with a special permission of God, the souls of the departed may appear to the living, and even manifest things unknown to the latter. But, understood as the art or science of evoking the dead, necromancy is held by the theologians to be due to the agency of evil sprits...

The Catholic Encyclopedia

A practice that has endured through the years is Necromancy, or divination by communication with the head. Necromancy means literally 'divination of the dead' and one of its principal aims is to discover the future. The belief that dead increases a man's powers, especially his prophetic faculties, is the basis of necromancy. The Old Necromancer would invoke or claim to possess the spirit from the dead within him, and through the spirit is able to tell the future. It is from the practice of necromancy that ventriloquism finds its origins. 

The beginnings of ventriloquism can be traced back to the magical practices of ancient priests, as magic was a form of prayer to the ancient people; a way of communicating and gaining power from the gods, like necromancy. The name is derived from the Latin for to speak from the stomach i.e. venter (belly) and loqui (speak). 

This imposture of speaking in the belly hath been often practiced in these latter days, in many places, and namely in this island of England, and they that practice it do it commonly to this end, to draw many silly people to them, to stand wondering at them, that so by the concourse of people money may be given to them, for they by this imposture do make the people believe that they are possessed by the devil speaking within them and tormenting them, and do by that pretense move the people to charity, to be liberal to them. 

The illusion of the talking figure relies upon the basic movement of the mouth, which when moved in conjunction with the ventriloquial voices gives the appearance of speaking. Mimicry is the root of the practice. Based upon the fact that the ear experiences great difficulty determining the exact source of sound that it hears. the ventriloquist takes advantage by mimicking near and distant sounds, while misdirecting the auditor.  

Magic depends heavily on mimicry. Campanella and Urban VIII constructed an imitation sky in their sealed room. The magician tortures or kills an animal in a ceremony of hatred as an imitation of the action of the force he is trying to arouse. When a magician musters the full power of his will and acts in a certain way, he believes that he causes the forces of the universe outside him to act in the same way. This is an extension of the rule of 'as below, so above'. As the magician behaves 'below' so will the forces of the universe behave 'above'. 

Mimicry alone is not enough. Imitating the action of a force arouses it to act in the way which it was imitated, but to direct it at a particular victim there must be a link between the spell and the victim, otherwise the force will not hit the intended target. The link may be created simply by words, by saying that the grain is the victim's bones and the bay-leaves his flesh, or by making a doll which is a miniature replica of him, or by working on a part of his body or his clothes or something which has been closely connected with him.

In Outside the Circles of Time, Kenneth Grant explores the idea of 'magical mannikins', as he calls them. "The magical mannikans, or dwarf dreamers, are identical with the 'wee folk', the little men of fairy lore, who were the projections of mediaeval magicians essaying the Great Work, i.e., the interpretation and exploration of the aethyrs... Being unversed in modes of magical interpretation, they describe their experiences in terms reminiscent of those were 'taken by the faeries', or who experienced intercourse with diabolical entities, including the Devil himself. Innumerable well testified accounts of physical possession by demons, erotic encounters with the devil, and sexual intercourse with incubi and succubi are extant. The reason is not far to seek. The sexual trance is the basis of certain kinds of perichoresis which occur when other worlds, other dimensions interpenetrate each other, often causing a disruption or hiatus in the consciousness that experiences them.

This form of magick involves the use of the mouth and the tongue, the two eyes of the waking state and their complimentary dream eye. The mouth is dual as the uterus of the Mother, and the utterer of the Word (logos) of the Father. Their fusion engenders the magical child (the Daughter, who represents the reified yet original Nothing) in the particular form desired by the magician." 

A grim Scottish method of finding out whether someone who is ill will recover or not establishes a magical link by the force of words alone. Dog two holes in the ground. Call one 'the living grave' and the other 'the dead grave'. Fetch the sick man and put him on the ground between the holes, without telling him which is which. If he turns his face to the living grave he will recover, if to the dead grave he will die. The sensations of the sick man who believes in this test can be imagined. It may have worked efficiently in many cases because of the psychological effect on the patient who discovere that he was bound to get well or doomed to die. Because of the very nature of magic, trickery was inevitable and clever magicians took advantage of the superstitions of ignorant people. 

In the reign of Augustus Ceaser, emerged Christianity, a religion that showed no tolerance for occult practices or divination. However, somehow the magical practices continued to thrive. St. Clement wrote "the ventriloquists are still held in honor by many," and he placed them in high regard alongside other religious peoples. Not all shared in this opinion, however, as St. Gregory believed that ventriloquist diviners were possessed by demons, whether or not it was a mere vocal deception.

"it is foolish and childish, to think that God, as the ventriloquists formerly called Eurycleans, and now Pythonists, should hide himself in the bodies of the prophets, using their mouths and voices as instruments to speak with, for this was done by turning their voices down their throats.

The first of this sort was one Eurycles, of whom Aristophanes (g) makes mention; and the Scholiast upon him says, that he was a ventriloquist, and was said by the Athenians to prophesy by a "demon" that was in him, when it was only an artificial way of speaking; Tertullian affirms he had seen such women that were ventriloquists, from whose secret parts a small voice was heard, as they sat and gave answers to things asked: Caelius Rhodiginus writes, that he often saw a woman a ventriloquist, at Rhodes, and in a city of Italy his own country; from whose secrets, he had often heard a very slender voice of an unclean spirit, but very intelligible, tell strangely of things past or present, but of things to come, for the most part uncertain, and also often vain and lying; and Wierus relates of one Peter Brabantius, who as often as he would, could speak from the lower part of his body, his mouth being open, but his lips not moved, whereby he deceived many by this cunning; and there was a man at court in King James the First's time here in England, who could act this imposture in a very lively manner (h): but now whether the spirit that was in this maid was a cheat, an imposture of this kind, is not so easy to say; it seems by the dispossession that follows, that it was a real spirit that possessed her; though some think it was no other than a deluding, devilish, imposture:"

This continued on until the 13th and 17th centuries, and all records were released of divine ventriloquism during this time. In the late 16th century ventriloquism made a turn around in England and emerged as a form of entertainment. In Austria, in 1750, a new dimension was added as Baron von Mengen began using a small doll figure in which he installed a moving mouth. By moving the mouth and synchronizing these movements with the ventriloquial voice, he gave the effect that the doll itself was talking. 

In the 18th and 19th centuries, ventriloquism and magicians began to make a comeback, as ventriloquism became a popular form of entertainment. At the turn of the 20th century, many still misunderstood ventriloquism as a supernatural gift that enabled the ventriloquist to "throw his voice". Many definitions of this term are put out into the discourse of the modern era. Ventriloquism is defined as "not merely making one's voice appear from nowhere-- he means the word to designate all forms which may be taken by sourceless, or disassociated or displaced voices, along with the various explications of such voices." So not only is ventriloquist the popular form of entertainment once seen on the small stages of vaudeville, but also any other form of disembodied voice. An academic definition used to-day of ventriloquism is a general term for "any variety of speaking for or through a represented other." So, in other words, a secretary for a large company would, in modern times, be a form of ventriloquism. President Obama, speaking on behalf of America, would also be a ventriloquist in terms of this definition.

The arch-sorcerer begins his final conjuration. They hack off the goat's head, slash a gaping cavity in the belly of the corpse and thrust the head of the goat onto it. Other parts of the goat are pushed into the corpse's mouth. This is the identification of the corpse and goat. Suddenly, one of the assistants flings himself on to the two carcasses, tearing them with his teeth and lapping the blood. He is the weakest of the group and it is through his mouth that the dead man's spirit, now demon-inspired, will speak. He sits up, his face beaming with delight, and answers their questions rapidly and commandingly. 

Cultural Decadence: Variety & Minstrel Shows, Precursors to Vaudeville

In contemporary society, plays and musicals have been revived; even silent film has endured. However, vaudeville, once America's most popular and beloved entertainment, has escaped and disappeared altogether.

Vaudeville was a descendant of what was originally called "variety," which had its roots in Europe, where itinerant performers trouped from town to town and village to village. Variety appeared in America as early as colonial times in spite of Puritan dogmas and it became ever more popular in the early years of the Republic. It flourished in the 1880s under Tony Pastor of New York City. It was not until Benjamin Franklin Keith appeared on the scene a decade later that "variety" became "vaudeville" as we know it. The roots of the name itself are not known for certain, but the term "vaudeville" may originate from two French phrases: the French phrase vaux-de-Vire, which meant popular satirical songs, or "drinking song" that were composed and presented during the fifteenth century in the valleys (or vaux) near the French town of Vire in the providence of Normandy, or voix de ville, which means "songs of the street." In this country, several people have claimed to have coined the word "vaudeville." In 1871, Sargent's Great Vaudeville Company claimed to be the first to use "vaudeville." Showman M. S. Leavitt, as well as John W. Ransone, also claimed to be the first.

Vaudeville may be traced back to minstrel singers in medieval Europe, to short comic acts performed between the parts of a serious opera or play, and even to troubadours who performed alone at European royal courts. However, vaudeville is most closely linked to the variety show.

One cannot easily discern the differences between "variety" and "vaudeville" in the definitions provided by Noah Webster. Variety is defined as "Intermixture or succession of different things, Variety, Diversity, Change"; while vaudeville is defined as "a light, gay or topical song, a short drama with songs." In order the understand their differences, one must examine the distinctions in a close manner.

Reflecting both the era and the environment in which it was performed, variety tended to be crude and often vulgar; the jokes being crude and slapstick, comedy characterized by wild action, such as throwing a pie in the actor's face, or horseplay. Vaudeville was of a more polished and refined nature.

Variety thrived in saloons and ordinary beer halls often called "concert saloons" in an effort to convey an aura of respectability to its patrons. Vaudeville, on the other hand, appeared in regular theatres that were nearly always clean and in which no liquor was served. Variety aimed its appeal at the working class; vaudeville, while it did likewise in the beginning, broadened its appeal to include both the middle and upper classes in American society. As American society became more industrialized toward the close of the nineteenth-century, the average American workingman sought entertainment and relaxation of a nature different from that offered by saloons and beer halls. Members of the intelligentsia often became partisans of vaudeville, as well as the president Woodrow Wilson, rarely missing a performance during World War I.

In order to understand vaudeville, one must first examine its precursor, the variety show. During the mid-1800s, these shows tended to be heavy-handed, obvious and frequently obscene, and as most beer halls were rowdy and vulgar, and not considered places for respectable women and children, early variety shows were usually seen by an audience made up almost entirely of men. Endless combinations of performers appeared on stage-- singles doubles, trios, quartets, monologue comedians, ventriloquists with wooden dummies, freak and odd acts, magicians, and big acts with fifteen or more performers. The vast majority of variety actors were also male, as the female characters were almost always played by men pretending to be women. In the days when variety was variety, actors and actresses were poorly paid and salaries were uncertain. Their hours were long and tedious. They had few, if any, dressing rooms, and had to change their acts once a week and sometimes oftener. To hold one's place on the program in the days of what was termed "slapstick" and "knockabout", an actor or actress had to be able to sing a bit, dance a bit, do dialect, be a part of the grand finale which usually closed a show, and also be able to do brass, (that is, toot a horn)-- not to mention strum a piano or fiddle and sometimes beat a drum. Contemporary vaudeville circuits have little, if anything, to complain of, contrary to the earliest variety troupes. There were no booking agents, brightly lighted and mirrored dressing rooms, call boys, or bountiful salaries.

The very heart of the variety show was comedy. In the nineteenth-century the comedy was often of a cruel nature. Many variety acts depended on ridiculing or making fun of certain groups of people in ways that are now considered bigoted, racist and sexist. The standard characters of a variety show included the dumb wife, the shrewish mother-in-law, the ugly girlfriend, the slow-witted black man, the stingy Jewish man, the German blockhead, and the Irish drunk. These shows drew upon popular stereotypes of certain groups of people and even made the stereotypes stronger.

Perhaps the cruelest type of variety show was the minstrel show. These shows featured white actors with blackface, wearing striped trousers and straw hats. Blackface minstrelsy was the first distinctly American theatrical form. The main character of a minstrel performance was known as the "ignorant Negro" and demonstrated a slowness to understand and think, as the actors performed racist imitations, walking slowly around the stage and speaking in an uneducated manner, which would no doubt cause an outrage in contemporary society. The practice gained popularity during the nineteenth-century and contributed to well-known stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky on the plantation" or the dandified coon". Early in the 20th century, blackface branched off from the minstrel show and became its own until its demise with the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. To-day blackface is rarely performed, if at all, even in historical presentations. From 1840 through 1880, however, minstrel shows were the most popular form of variety entertainment in the United States, with blackface minstrel shows being the national art of the time, translating such formality's as opera into more popular terms with the general audience.

Typical blackface acts of the period were short burlesques (before becoming the female striptease show it has become to-day), often with mock Shakespearean titles. Many minstrel shows featured sentimental ballads, soft-shoe dances (tap dances performed without taps on the shows, creating a sort of shuffling sound), and tunes played on the banjo, an instrument introduced by African American folk music. The first minstrel show may have been performed by Thomas Daddy Rice in 1830. Rice toured the South playing old folk songs he learned from slaves on his family's plantation, as well as created the character known as "Jim Crow," the character which was based on offensive stereotypes of African Americans. His song, "Jump, Jim Crow," gave rise to the character of the "ignorant Negro" and may have given us the name for laws that discriminated against African Americans after the Civil War. These laws, known as the Jim Crow laws, were struck down by the Supreme Court in the 1960s. Although no footage from minstrel shows performed in America exists, scripts were recreated during the Jim Crow era.

The Original Christy Minstrels was one of the most popular minstrel troupes

Even though blackface was most commonly linked with the minstrel show tradition, it predates that tradition, surviving long past the heyday or the minstrel show. By 1840, black performers also were performing in blackface makeup. All-black minstrel shows were billed as "authentic" recently-free slaves, however the extent of the black influence remains a topic of debate. These "colored troupes"-- many using the name "Georgia Minstrels"-- focused on plantation material, as it was through blackface  minstrelsy that African American performers first entered the mainstream of American show business, "providing the lens through which white America saw black America."

Supposedly, the first minstrel act seen in New York was performed in 1843 by the Virginia Minstrels. The Kentucky Minstrels opened in New York that same year, followed by Christy's Minstrels in 1846.

Christy's Minstrels were instrumental in the solidification of the minstrel show into a fixed three-act form. Besides Christy himself, the troupe originally included Christy's stepson George Christy, often considered the greatest blackface comic of the era.

A style developed by the Original Christy's Minstrels, a typical minstrel performance followed a three-act structure introduced by the forementioned troupe. The first troupe danced onto stage and then exchanged wisecracks or sang songs. The second part featured a variety of entertainments, including the pun-filled stump speech, an important precursor to modern stand-up comedy. Lastly, the third troupe acted out a slapstick plantation skit or delivered a parody of a popular play.

The entrance of a minstrel troupe meant a parade and a sidewalk concert, for which the entire town turned out. Sometimes, however, they left more quietly, especially if the profit from the show was unsuccessful. Entertainers were occasionally known to sneak out a hotel window to avoid paying their bills, and some cautious hotel owners would even place bars on their windows to avoid such an escape.

Before the Civil War, minstrel shows were owned, operated, and performed by white people. By 1863, however, several minstrel shows were owned and operated by African Americans, such as the Ira Aldridge Troupe of Philadelphia, which was owned by a man who worked for the abolition of slavery. These troupes presented their traditional music, as it was originally played and sung on the Southern plantations, but they did not mimic the speech and body movements of former slaves. Most of the troupe's audience consisted of black people, as they were generally unfriendly to white people who attended.

The rowdy beer hall atmosphere, the obscene humor, and the vulgar sound effects were not considered appropriate for respectable women, as variety shows during the mid-1880s attracted audiences almost entirely made up of men. In the 1880s, Tony Pastor of New York "cleaned up" the variety show in an effort to produce a show that would appeal to men and women and their families, which led the way into traditional vaudeville, as it is known to-day. It is also interesting to mention that in 1905, vaudeville began its own publication-- the magazine Variety, which is still being published to-day.

Cultural Decadence: The Victor Phonograph

Thomas Edison with the phonograph

As so the story begins, when entrepreneur Emile Berliner invented the mass-producible phonograph record. Thomas Edison's phonograph was invented in 1877, as was the first invention capable of both recording and playing sound. Despite this, and the fact that there was no rational way to mass-duplicate cylinders, the Victor Talking Machine Company abandoned Edison's tin cylinder and became the largest producers of the forerunners of modern-day records. After Berliner and Eldridge Johnson, the owner of a small machine shop in Camden, New Jersey collaborated in developing a low-cost spring motor for the disc phonograph, a vendetta of lawsuits followed, and eventually Berliner was restricted to selling his products in Canada, but not the U.S. In 1901 the Victor Talking Machine Company was founded by Johnson.

The Victor Talking Machine Company logo

Soon enough, the Victor Talking Machine Company focused on the manufacture of musical recordings, by promoting its victrola, (a phonograph with its main mechanical parts concealed in a cabinet) by selling its products nationwide. Contrary to popular misdefinition, the victrola thus only applies to the internal horn phonographs made by the Victor Talking Machine Company, and is not a term applied to every antique phonograph. This is a common belief, as I personally have heard many people label just any old phonograph the "victrola". The very first internal horn phonograph, called the Victor-Victrola was marketed in 1906.

The Victor-Victrola phonographs were made into elegant pieces of furniture, so that the machine would not only be pleasing to the ear, but to the eye as well. Thus the invention of the victrola was more of an aesthetic decision more than any other reason. The original flat-top victrola design was problematic, as the user would have to reach deep down inside the cabinet to lift the needle or change the record. This flaw was resolved through the use of the "domed lid, which allowed the turntable and tone arm to sit nearly flush on the top of the cabinet."

As approximately 15,000 victrolas were sold by the middle of 1909, the tabletop Victrola XXI was introduced into the market, and so on. Many more models with slight alterations were subsequently  manufactured, with Victor introducing smaller low-priced models, floor models, and eventually in 1931, the first electric motor option became available on the Victrola XVI, doing away with the old-school method of cranking after every few records were played. The vast expansion of the radio market also called for other alterations, such as the horn being replaced by a small paper-cone speaker, as well as some models even having sophisticated record changers. By the late 20s, Johnson retired, and in 1929, RCA purchased The Victor Talking Machine Company, becoming what was to be known as "RCA Victor".

Cultural Decadence: Barbershop Quartets

Contrary to prevalent misdefinitions, barbershop quartets originally began in actual barbershops, by African American men waiting their turn in the late 19th century. The men would simply sit around, converse, and sing in four-person harmonies while enjoying each other's company-- the barbershops serving as a sort of social center for African American men.

Reaching back even further, historians believe barbershop music itself-- in its simplest original form-- began with sacred music sang in primeval European monasteries, which is more than likely, considering barbershop music consists of simple harmonized vocals. There no doubt existed religious chants sung by monks in unison, eventually creating harmonized chord structures in its simplest form. It has also been said that the term 'barbershop music' is found in early records during the English Elizabeth era, as in those days, barbershops had more of a significant role in the community, not only cutting hair, but filling in as dentists, as well as performing minor surgeries. The folk songs that immigrants brought to America typically consisted of four-part harmonies as well, so the barbershop style of music may also evolve from traditional close-harmony quartets of the 1800s.

Like the musical saw, the beginnings of barbershop music remains a topic of debate, however barbershop music in its current form began reaching popularity in the latter half of the 1800s. Both the musical saw and barbershop music will forever remain symbols of authentic folk art.

Once the African American men introduced barbershop music to the world, it rapidly gained popularity by white male performers as well. The invention of Thomas Edison's phonogram aided the popularity of barbershop quartets in America. With the creation of the phonorecord, barbershop music could be recorded, reproduced and communicated with the aid of a machine, from which then the sounds could be perceived. Barbershop quartets were easily accessible to the recording studio, as compared to a full orchestra, making the recording of barbershop music an easy task. With that said, barbershop music wasn't simply limited to barbershops, as quartets would congregate singing four-part harmonies at parties, street corners, or anywhere an audience would listen.

Once barbershop music began gaining popularity, quartets began appearing in traveling minstrel and vaudeville shows. as the harmonies were generally improvised in this early form. Vocalized sheet music   was seldom used, so the singers would vocalize their melodies "by ear". By the end of the 19th century, barbershop quartet music was performed almost entirely by white male performers. Barbershop quartets were the perfect intermission act for minstrel shows and vaudeville, as no props or instruments were needed, so the singers entertained audiences while the next act prepared.

The first written use of the word "barbershop" came in 1910, with the publication of the song, "Play That Barbershop Chord," evidence of common parlance at the time. The Norman Rockwell painting Sharp Harmony, which appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post magazine issue dated September 26, 1936, featuring a barber and three of his clients enjoying an a capella song, remains a staple of the barbershop quartet image.

An unfashionable genre in modern times, barbershop music remained extremely popular until the 1930s, when the demand for public performances disintegrated, the radio became the common form of musical entertainment, and the jazz era took over. Barbershop melodies remain intact in the a capella music of the black church.

Concerned perhaps that barbershop music would be lost forever to history, barbershop music aficionados began working on ways to promote and preserve the genre, hence the advent of the Barbershop Harmony Society, whose focus is strictly to promote barbershop music nationwide, teaching its methods to interested students. According to the BHS, "Barbershop music features songs with understandable lyrics and easily singable melodies, whose tones clearly define a tonal center and imply major and minor chords and barbershop (dominant and secondary dominant) seventh chords that resolve primarily around the circle of fifths, while making frequent use of other resolutions." 

What is barbershop music exactly?

Barbershop music is unaccompanied vocal music sung in a capella characterized by its consonant four-part chords for every melody note in a predominately homophonic texture. The distinctive four-part harmony is made up of the tenor (which harmonizes above the melody), the lead (singing the melody), baritone (typically between the lead the bass, completing the chord), and bass (the lowest harmonizing notes). Unlike a chorus, the quartet needs to have equal numbers singing each voice part. Barbershop music uses predominately simple sentimental lyrics which could be easily harmonized with four-part chords.

To-day, barbershop singing is performed by both men's and women's groups, as well as choruses, which may have as few as 12 or as many as 150 members singing. Despite its new additions and modern day organizations, the original barbershop quartet, or "four act," remains a beloved decadent genre for antiquarian music lovers alike, especially those that collect old 78rpm records such as myself.

Cultural Decadence: The Musical Saw

Marlene Dietrich, the "first lady of the musical saw"

The originator of the musical saw, also known as the "singing saw" remains embedded in tales of American folklore, however it allegedly began with nineteenth-century roots in the Ozark mountains of the U.S., while others claim that it was somewhere in the Appalachian mountains, and still others suggest possibly Scandinavian or South American woodcutters, African slaves, and so on. What is known is that it's very probable that the first note manipulating the bent blade of the saw was purely accidental, by a worker or toolmaker dropping or tossing the saw. A saw player knows that even by repeatedly waving a saw in the air like a sword, an audible note is produced, therefore the history of the beginnings of the musical saw may be left to one's own imaginative possibilities. It is also said that the saw could have been discovered as early as the 17th century when carpentry saws began to be mass-produced with receptive blades. What probably began as a mistake, or perhaps a fit of rage by a disgruntled toolmaker, soon caught the attention of others and within short time "mountain music" bands throughout incorporated the musical saw into their orchestra of sound. As early as the 19th century, priests played musical saws during church services as well.

Regardless of its true beginnings, its popularity soared in the early 1900s, as the Weaver Brothers and Elviry, a trio of musicians from the Ozarks, used the saw in their popular vaudeville act while touring the U.S. and Europe. It was not uncommon to be entertained by the musical saw in the musical hall stage of the 20s and 30s, or in between acts on the vaudeville stage. Its increasing popularity can be attributed to Clarence Mussehl, who began perfecting the manufacture and development of the instrument after witnessing an act by the Weaver Brothers. In 1921, Muusehl & Westphal became the world's first established professional saw company as sales of approximately 25,000 musical saws per year were common in the 20s and 30s during the saw's peak in popularity. With experimentation, the company improved and replaced the typical carpenter's saw with thinner steel for the blade, creating more distinctive tones and a saw capable of producing approximately 16 to 20 notes.

By the mid-1930s, however, music hall performances and vaudeville was replaced by recorded music, and the sales of musical saws plummeted to virtually none in the years of the Depression. Vaudeville disintegrated into history, and with the shortage of steel during World War II, the company had to finally close its doors and disappear along with the aging vaudevillians.

Nearly 35 years later, Dan Wallace contacted Clarence Mussehl before his death and retained the original name of Muusehl & Westphal and took over the business in a respectable fashion with the same purpose of creating the best musical saw possible. In October of 1982, Dan Wallace died in a tragic crash of his aircraft, however his wife Mary Kay has continued preserving the musical heritage of the saw well into the 21st century. In addition, other companies manufacture musical saws, such as Charlie Blacklock in California, Sandvik in Sweden, Parkstone in England, Feldmann in Germany, as well as the toothless blade la lame sonore, in France.

Instructions on exactly how to play the saw vary from person to person. The saw is generally played seated with the handle tightened between the legs, and with the tip of the saw held with the hand that is not holding the bow. Sound is typically created by drawing a violin or cello bow across the back edge of the saw (not the side with the teeth), and upon striking a sweet spot, a magical tone like that of a screaming siren or banshee should carry through several notes, controlled by the bending of the saw. It is a rather arduous task at first, however like anything else, practice makes perfect. These are the instructions given to me by my friend Dame Darcy, graphic illustrator and artist, and adept musical saw player.

Tips on playing the saw:

Rosin the bow hairs and the saw A LOT while sitting down, hold the handle between your knees tightly and with your thumb gripping the top firmly, bend it into an S shape. 
Hold the bow so that the hairs are pointing towards you. 
Brush the bow accross the saw on the outside of the blade. (duh)
Then find the "sweet spot" on the bend of the S until you hear the saw make a sound. At first it will sound like an out of control aquatic creature. But once you have perfected the sound you can actually play a tune. 


To-day the musical saw isn't only regulated to folk music, rather it has also been used to perform all types of music such as classical movie scores, as its glissando pitch creates an ethereal tone very similar to the sound of a theremin; a sound most familiar to science-fiction soundtracks of the 60s and 70s. It should also be noted that music saw players may use any standard wood-cutting saw, therefore saw playing is also an experiment at designing the perfect saw for playing. Also, instead of using typical violin or cello bows, a mallet or wooden dowel may also be used.