ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ...

Chapter V: The Majors
The major puppeteers of the 1910s, 20s, and 30s contribute to the eidos
articulated by Paul McPharlin. Tony Sarg, arguably the most important American
puppeteer of the twentieth century prior to Jim Henson, applied his high work ethic to
blackface puppetry, and produced more aesthetically rich exotic portraits of black life
than those of Lano or McPharlin. His puppet frontalities were detailed, nearly realistic
images of tribal blacks. They were fantasies of “negroes” based vaguely in the
anthropological artifacts of foreign cultures. Sue Hastings produced blackface clowns in
the tradition of the Royal Marionettes and, curiously, segregated them from the more
“realistic” images of her other plays. Remo Bufano created radically nonrealistic
abstractions for shows that are emceed by one Mr. Julius Caesar, a virtual classic of
minstrelsy. Forman Brown published more plays with blackface characters than any
other puppeteer in the period under investigation. While his dramas depicted simple-
minded characters in the tradition of the Topsy or Uncle Tom stereotypes, Brown’s
puppets remain the most humanlike of the four puppeteers surveyed in this chapter.
Together, they show how artists in the most visible areas of the puppetry field interpreted
McPharlin’s categorical distinction that exotic images are appropriate to more
sophisticated plays featuring blackface puppets, and that local images drawn from
minstrel plays are appropriate to less cultivated productions.
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