ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ...

The clothes are a curious blend of circus clowns and minstrels. Images of
standard minstrel shows largely suggest formal dress, and the blackface puppets of the
Royal Marionettes were dressed in tuxedos, slacks and work shirts, or the D’Arc’s
American flag costume. Lano’s puppet wears a costume reflecting neither of these.
However, nineteenth-century clowns, such as Dan Rice, routinely performed in both
blackface and whiteface. 112 Lano may have gotten the idea for this puppet’s costume
from his father, who worked with the Dan Rice Circus, or from any of the several
circuses with which David himself worked. 113 The costume is not precisely that of a
nineteenth-century clown, though it does incorporate the colorful “flounce” collar fringe
and loose-fitting material. Instead of decorative “pom poms,” the puppet wears two large
white buttons and one large white flower. The belt serves to separate the two halves of
the clown’s costume and suggest the more formal garb of the minstrel player. Most
obviously, the garments, including the gloves, shoes, and suit are all black, suggesting
both the formal costume of minstrelsy and the racial identity of the icon. Lano has
creatively combined the aesthetics of both outfits, producing an object dressed
simultaneously as clown and minstrel player.
The final, most ambiguous component of the puppet is the massive wooden mallet
in its hand. Lano may have used this object in multiple plays, perhaps both Robinson
Crusoe and Punch and Judy. For Crusoe, the mallet provides an exotic tool for the native
black male. It is similar to the bead and cowry shell decorations of the Congolese Kuba
112
See: David Carlyon, Dan Rice: The Most Famous Man You’ve Never Heard of (New York:
Public Affairs, 2001).
113 David Lano, A Wandering Showman, I (East Lansing, MI: Michigan University Press, 1957), 7.
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