Fancy Dress

A found photo. My guess is that it's from the 1950s. More charming than curious, I think, but the child in black make-up makes it a curiosity today.

It's strange and rather shocking to think that this kind of 'blackface' make-up was seen on TV all through the 1970s in the Black & White Minstrel Show. Why on earth were they so popular? My family always used to watch it. Mind you, watching as a child, I don't think I really made any connection between those bizarrely-dressed, painted white singers, and real black people. But really, the grown-ups at the BBC should have known better.