Another Side of Minstrelsy: Germanface, Jewface, and Irishface
New Times, New Prejudices
Blackface comedy can be viewed as just one manifestation of white America's reaction to and anxieties about the many changes in society that were occuring in the late 19th-early 20th centuries. With new immigrant groups--including the Irish, German, Italians, and Jews--came new anxieties among poor white Americans who feared losing their jobs to these new workers, along with the upper class fearing the "dilution" of American (white) culture. A cast of new characters carried forward key elements of Blackface comedy--costume, dialect, and stereotyped characters and situations--in new forms that we might call Germanface, Jewface, and Irishface.
Germanface
Joe Weber and Lew Fields were first generation Eastern European Jews who grew up on New York's lower eastside. They became successful comedians on vaudeville portraying two comic Germans--essentially adopting "Germanface" in their use of dialect, costumes, and even comic situations. Listen to a part of this routine recorded in 1912. How is their humor similar to that of Blackface comics like Miller and Lyles?
Jewface
Under the stage names of "Mike and Meyer," Weber and Fields appeared as stage Jews. Listen to this recording also made in 1912 showing their other personas. Many describe this comedy as "Jewface"--as it clearly relates to Blackface and reinforces stereotypes about lower-class Jews in the same way that Blackface appropriated and ridiculed Black culture.
Irishface
Finally, listen to this stereotyped comic routine portraying two Irish characters--"Sweet" Peggy Magee and her farmer/boyfriend--recorded in 1909. Although more sentimental than the other examples we've heard, it nonetheless promotes the idea of the Irish as being simple country folks more devoted to their cows than each other. The two performers--Ada Jones and Len Spencer--were not Irish in "real life" and were better known for singing the pop hits of the day on stage and on record.