ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ...

titled Eastern Market, a host of ethnic stereotypes in puppet form, including a Chinaman,
an Italian, and a blackface father and son, meet at the market. The boy, upon seeing the
fruit vendor’s wares, proclaims: “Um-m-m! Does I love watermelon! And I hasn’t
tasted none for a coon’s age.” 252 This combination of the most egregious stereotypes of
African American taste and references to racially pejorative terminology is a marked
example of theatrical degredation. It demonstrates the co-presence of the most appalling
heritage of minstrelsy in amateur blackface performance.
Lenore Hetrick’s plays showcase the standard form of lowbrow comedy, within
the general blackface puppetry categories. In her Henry’s Old Schoolmate, she set Mr.
Punch loose on a farming family’s household. She introduced the Topsy stereotype as
the family’s domestic, describing her as “a Negro puppet. She has frizzled black hair and
a big, red mouth. For her eyes use dark brown buttons that shine. She wears a bright
purple dress and a yellow turban. Also, a little yellow apron.” 253 Topsy uses minstrelsy
language in less exaggerated form than most productions, but contradicts the Topsy
stereotype by behaving more like the Mammy or Aunt Jemima. “Now I got a lot of
cleanin’ to do. Yes, ma’am! I’se got plenty of cleanin’ to do” (33). Like any domestic,
she has control over the children and the household, but it is the white characters, Henry
and Mrs. Gunderson, who hold dominion over her.
She provides a useful comic straight woman for Hetrick’s Punch, but lacks the
spirit of the Stowe-derived Topsy role. Punch steals her groceries prompting her
252 Ibid.
253 Lenore Hetrick, Puppet Plays and Peephole Shows (Dayton, OH: Paine Publications, 1938),
32. From this point on, I will use parenthentical documentation for the lengthy selections from this source.
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