Blackface Billerica

I wrote about being in blackface in a minstrel show around 1960. My father was often emcee of whatever variety show the town or the church was doing, and that included some minstrel shows. My younger brother tells me he was in blackface at a party in highschool, he and his friends pretending to be the Pointer Sisters, but he was on the end and got cropped out of the photo.  He was irritated for a long time, but now thinks maybe that was the better end of the deal.

My dad did blackface in other venues for a few years as well, and not with a lot of social awareness, it seems.  It is something of a Wyman characteristic to play for the laugh first and think about whether that was a good idea later. In the last instance that we know of, he did a show in blackface at Billerica prison - and the people helping him set up the stage beforehand were all black.