ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ...

typical minstrel puppet, although he shared many of its qualities. In several productions,
Mr. Julius Caesar did appear in the guise of a minstrelsy interlocutor. But Mr. Julius
Caesar was a puppet frontality in flux. Sometimes he was dressed in the umbrella and
wing-toed finery of the title character illustrations for Helen Bannerman’s Little Black
Sambo. He was a sort of intersection of the various types of blackface puppetry.
Whether for a serious drama or such variety pieces as Julius Caesar’s Circus (1929), the
object provided a “droll, friendly” introduction to Bufano’s artistic endeavors. 203
For the most part, Bufano used blackface puppets as a frame for his larger
productions. There exist only two records of productions featuring blackface characters
in the central narrative. Bufano may have included a tribal figure for his WPA
production of Treasure Island (1935) and a publicity photograph preserves his “Voodoo
Doctor” puppet. In general, he seems to have relegated his blackface marionettes to the
status of a lowbrow frame for his elaborate productions.
Mr. Julius Caesar was the beginning, but he was not the end, apparently. Another
Bufano production drawing shows a blackface piccolo player standing next to a third
variation on Mr. Julius Caesar (see figure 34). This time, Caesar wears tightly knotted
locks suggesting the ethnic features of the Caribbean. His musical partner is a typically
exaggerated depiction of an African American instrumentalist, with his thick plume of
what is likely, on the actual marionette, tightly curled hair, dark black features, and
contrasting white eyes and mouth.
For Bufano, the minstrel marionette served to frame his productions, structuring
them as complete entertainment events. His production at the Morningside Country
203 Ibid., 2.
155