Mickey's Mellerdrammer

Mickey's Mellerdrammer

Directed by	Wilfred Jackson
Produced by	Walt Disney
Written by	Wilfred Jackson Walt Disney
Starring	Pinto Colvig Walt Disney Marcellite Garner Billy Bletcher
Music by	Oliver Wallace
Cinematography	Wilfred Jackson Walt Disney
Edited by	Wilfred Jackson Walt Disney
Production company	Walt Disney Productions
Distributed by	United Artists
Release dates	March 18, 1933 (1933-03-18) (U.S.)
Running time	8 Minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Mickey's Mellerdrammer is a 1933 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by United Artists. The title is a corruption of "melodrama", thought to harken back to the earliest minstrel shows, as a film short based on Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin and stars Mickey Mouse and his friends who stage their own production of the novel.

The cartoon shows Mickey Mouse and some of the other characters dressed in blackface with exaggerated, orange lips; bushy, white sidewhiskers made out of cotton; and his now trademark white gloves.

Plot

In Mickey's Mellerdrammer, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy (known then as Dippy Dawg) and others present their own low budget light-hearted rendition of the 19th century Tom Shows for a crowd in a barn converted into a theater for the occasion.

Horace Horsecollar plays the white slave owner Simon Legree. Minnie plays the young white girl Eva. Mickey plays old Uncle Tom with cotton around his ears and chin, and the young slave girl Topsy. Clarabelle Cow plays the slave woman Eliza. Goofy plays the production stage hand.

The cartoon opens with Mickey and Clarabelle Cow in their dressing rooms applying blackface makeup for their roles. The cartoon is much more focused on the Disney characters' efforts to put on the play, than an animated version of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The cartoon contains many images of Mickey and the other characters using makeshift props as sight gags.

The cartoon closes with the characters coming out for a bow, and Horace Horsecollar's character is pelted with rotten tomatoes. When Goofy shows his face from behind the stage, he is hit with a chocolate pie, leaving him in what appears to be blackface.

Ethnic stereotyping

Stereotyped characterizations of black people were then common, and 'revealed a hostility to emancipation.'^[1] Mickey's Mellerdrammer was one of many films and cartoons of its era that referenced Uncle Tom's Cabin, and has been cited as 'particularly notable.'^[2] Henry Louis Gates Jr., wondered how the cartoon evaded censorship of miscegenation, given that Mickey and Minnie portray Tom and Eva, and are "as they say, an item, and unmistakably so." (Additionally, Mickey is seen cross-dressing in the role of Topsy.)^[3]

In the beginning of this short, Clarabelle Cow appears in her dressing room applying lantern soot to her face and leaving an exaggerated area around her lips white. Mickey Mouse then takes a more “comical” approach to applying the makeup: He puts a firecracker in his mouth and lights it, which explodes, causing the ashes to paint his face black while leaving a large area around his lips white.^[4] Mickey’s bushy side whiskers and white gloves are also a representation of the use of blackface.^[5]

References

External links

Mickey's Mellerdrammer at the Internet Movie Database

Mickey Mouse in animation

Short films	Steamboat Willie The Barn Dance The Gallopin' Gaucho Plane Crazy The Opry House When the Cat's Away The Barnyard Battle The Karnival Kid Mickey's Choo-Choo Mickey's Follies The Plow Boy The Jazz Fool Wild Waves Jungle Rhythm The Haunted House The Barnyard Concert Just Mickey The Cactus Kid The Fire Fighters The Shindig The Chain Gang The Gorilla Mystery The Picnic Pioneer Days The Birthday Party Traffic Troubles The Castaway The Moose Hunt The Delivery Boy Mickey Steps Out Blue Rhythm Fishin' Around The Barnyard Broadcast The Beach Party Mickey Cuts Up Mickey's Orphans The Duck Hunt The Grocery Boy The Mad Dog The Barnyard Olympics Mickey's Revue Musical Farmer Mickey in Arabia Mickey's Nightmare Trader Mickey The Whoopee Party Touchdown Mickey The Klondike Kid The Wayward Canary Mickey's Good Deed Building a Building The Mad Doctor Mickey's Pal Pluto Mickey's Mellerdrammer Ye Olden Days The Mail Pilot Mickey's Mechanical Man Mickey's Gala Premier Puppy Love The Steeple Chase The Pet Store Giantland Shanghaied Camping Out Playful Pluto Gulliver Mickey Mickey's Steam Roller Orphan's Benefit Mickey Plays Papa The Dognapper Two-Gun Mickey Mickey's Man Friday The Band Concert Mickey's Service Station Mickey's Kangaroo Mickey's Garden Mickey's Fire Brigade Pluto's Judgement Day On Ice Mickey's Polo Team Orphan's Picnic Mickey's Grand Opera Thru the Mirror Mickey's Rival Moving Day Alpine Climbers Mickey's Circus Mickey's Elephant The Worm Turns Magician Mickey Moose Hunters Mickey's Amateurs Hawaiian Holiday Clock Cleaners Lonesome Ghosts Boat Builders Mickey's Trailer The Whalers Mickey's Parrot Brave Little Tailor Society Dog Show Mickey's Surprise Party The Pointer Tugboat Mickey Pluto's Dream House Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip The Little Whirlwind A Gentleman's Gentleman Canine Caddy The Nifty Nineties Lend a Paw Mickey's Birthday Party Symphony Hour Pluto and the Armadillo Squatter's Rights Mickey's Delayed Date Mickey Down Under Mickey and the Seal R'coon Dawg Pluto's Party Pluto's Christmas Tree The Simple Things Mickey's Christmas Carol The Prince and the Pauper Runaway Brain Get a Horse!

Feature films	Fantasia Fun and Fancy Free Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas Fantasia 2000 Mickey's Magical Christmas Mickey's House of Villains Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas

TV series	The Mickey Mouse Club The Mouse Factory Good Morning, Mickey! Mickey's Mouse Tracks Mickey Mouse and Friends Mickey Mouse Works Disney's House of Mouse (episodes) Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Mickey Mouse Mickey and the Roadster Racers

Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin

Characters	Uncle Tom

Film adaptations	Uncle Tom's Cabin (1910) Uncle Tom's Cabin (1918) Uncle Tom's Cabin (1927) Uncle Tom's Cabin (1965)

Related works	A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin Tom show

Animation	Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land (1931) Mickey's Mellerdrammer (1933) Uncle Tom's Bungalow (1937) Uncle Tom's Cabaña (1947) Southern Fried Rabbit (1953)

Anti-Tom literature	Aunt Phillis's Cabin The Planter's Northern Bride Little Eva: The Flower of the South Uncle Tom's Cabin As It Is Uncle Robin's Cabin "Uncle Tom's Cabin" Contrasted with Buckingham Hall, the Planter's Home Ellen; or, The Fanatic's Daughter The Ebony Idol Frank Freeman's Barber Shop The North and the South; or, Slavery and Its Contrasts Mr. Frank, the Underground Mail-Agent The Cabin and Parlor; or, Slaves and Masters The Black Gauntlet White Acre vs. Black Acre Antifanaticism: A Tale of the South The Lofty and the Lowly, or Good in All and None All Good

Related	Josiah Henson 1849 autobiography Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site The Birth of a Nation Dimples Tit for Tat Uncle Tom syndrome Underground Railroad The National Era

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