Comments on: How Carnival Games Cheat Customers

By: Gutie

Gutie — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:42:47 +0000

I found this reference, but I beleive Firebrand38 is correct about “woodpile,” as far as could find until now. It looks like I will have to fall on my sword about his alleged bigotry. The quotes I’ve read would seem to be the opposite if anything. He may have been ahead of his time in this respect. I’m glad if this is so since I’ve always been a fan.

â€œAn Octoroon in the Kindlingâ€: American Vernacular & Blackface Minstrelsy in 1930s Hollywood

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PETER STANFIELD Lecturer in the Media Arts Faculty a1
a1 Media Arts Faculty, Southampton Institute, East Park Terrace, Southampton, SO14 0YN, England

Abstract

For close on to a hundred years discourses on national identity, European ethnic assimilation and the problem of class division within the Republic had been principally addressed in the popular arts through the agency of the black mask. During the 1930s, blackface in American films shifted from the idea implied in the racial slur, â€œnigger in the woodpile,â€ to the rather less visible, but no less derogatory, â€œoctoroon in the kindling,â€ a phrase used in Her Man (PathÃ©, Tay Garnett, 1930) to suggest something is amiss, but which is used here to suggest the cultural miscegenation that informs much of the material discussed in this article.

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By: BobOran

BobOran — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:09:21 +0000

Yeah using the ‘n’ word here is pretty nasty. But the general idea was also one used by Black culture – as implicit in the songs “Backdoor Man” by Willie Dixon, and “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man” by Chuck Berry.

By: Firebrand38

Firebrand38 — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:56:51 +0000

I wouldn’t say obsessive, but when you use quotation marks it should mean something. Maybe he did use a variant with kindling, but again unless you know the movie don’t go there. I’ll take this as an excuse to have a W.C. Field film festival and let you know what I find out. “Well know bigot”? Got a source for that? Or are we using our values to judge someone born in 1880?

By: Gutie

Gutie — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:16:18 +0000

OOPS! Should say “Glad to see that someone’s paying attention.” However, he must have used the expression more than once because I’m sure that I wouldn’t have just made “kindling” up by myself. It’s far too clever for that. Any other obsessives out there to comment?

By: Gutie

Gutie — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:12:46 +0000

Glad to see someone’s pa

By: Firebrand38

Firebrand38 — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:57:09 +0000

Please! Let’s pay attention to quotes! It was an “Ethiopian in the fuel supply” in My Little Chickadee.

By: Gutie

Gutie — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:56:24 +0000

The N in the woodpile is not only racist, but refers to the insulting notion that someone’s wife has a lover hiding from the husband. Meaning not only is he a cockold, but she prefers a black man to him! In those days racism was so ingrained in America that litle thought was given to such remarks. I suspect that black Americans thought avoiding lynchings was a higher priority than mere insults. W.C. Fields a well known bigot, used the euphemism “An Ethiopian in the kindling” in one of his movies.

By: Ric

Ric — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:32:36 +0000

Wow. He uses the N-word TWICE in that article!

By: Meredith

Meredith — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:24:39 +0000

Nigger in the woodpile – ha! I’d be indignant, but I don’t know what it means.