ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ...

program continued with a pair of negro entertainers-an Uncle Tom sort of gentleman with
a banjo, and a decidely Topsyish gal with many lace petticoats. They were frankly low-
brow, but, Barton assured everyone, ‘in the genuine puppet tradition.’” 216 Brown would
later revise his objection for the second history, Small Wonder (1980), stating that “by
present standards [they] would have been unthinkable.” 217 In both cases, Brown tolerates
the minstrel puppets only because they are part of a historical tradition of performance.
Brown’s objection to minstrel puppets may have discouraged the company from
participating in such fare. Certainly, with Brown as their main playwright, the company
would not have been likely to experiment with true minstrel shows or their descendents.
Many of the plays the company did produce are founded on minstrel stereotypes
and their descendents, but they adapt those stereotypes to more profound themes. Mister
Noah (1931) was a parody of the ancient Judeo/Christian tale of Noah and the great
flood. 218 It included wisecracking pairs of animals, Albert Einstein as a stowaway, and a
final destination of Ellis Island. It proved a very popular production on tour, on
Broadway, and even in a private showing for the great scientist it satirized.
The first incident in the play suggested a surprising connection between
peripheral mythology, which developed around scripture, and racial hierarchies. Brown
represented the great crowds of wicked human beings, suggested by Genesis 6:5, as “a
216 Forman George Brown, Punch’s Progress (New York: MacMillan, 1936), 11.
217
Forman Brown, Small Wonder: The Story of the Yale Puppeteers (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow
Press, 1980), 9.
218 Since the three plays premiered within a two year period, I have chosen to follow the order in
Brown’s published collection, The Pie-eyed Piper and Other Impertinent Puppet Plays (New York:
Greenberg Press, 1933), rather than their historical chronology. I believe Brown intended his public to
think of the plays in this order.
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