Jackson Jambalaya

My jaw dropped when the " ladies" didn't know flag etiquette and let Old Glory touch the ground!

The " merry" stuff was jaw dropping as well.

I felt pretty bad for the blacks in this video. White folks are parading around in finery while the blacks are in a shack playing dice while an ex-slave is featured.

romantic, if you had white skin and the right pedigree.

if you had my skin, you were likely playing step n fetchit, and hamming it up for massa and lady.

i'm a black conservative, but seeing this s##t makes me want to burn the south to the ground. sorry.

So none of this happened? I'm just curious. I'm from the North and the culture was not offensive to me. You might as well have made a film in any enclave in NYC - or more closely, the Bronx. Don't care about color, i was pretty impressed with the depiction of close family. Hmmmm.

And, I'm not trying to start some racial argument. I'm just sick and tired of everyone being sick and tired.

RE: if you had my skin, you were likely playing step n fetchit, and hamming it up for massa and lady.

Sadly, this scenario was many positive steps above the harsh and savage realities faced by the brothers and sisters who were still in the mother land...who did not have the "good fortune" of ancestors that were thrown on the boats to America.

Thankfully things have changed GREATLY in the South. Life is good for the most part and the South is not a bad place for white, black, brown, yellow, red or purple folks these days. (As for the mother land...things are still largely very harsh and savage for folks.)

In fairness, this is a Metro Goldwyn Meyer feature; thus, it is Hollywood's version of the old South and it looks like the wardrobe department at MGM had a field day.

Note, also.. the date of this feature film is 1939, the year "Gone With the Wind" came out. This short feature was, no doubt, part of the roll-out for GWTW or other period movies that were similar. While there's some truth in all the corn and frippery, Hollywood is still in the business of creating hype.

i think i'd prefer starving as a free man than eating quail and truffles in a mansion as a slave (or a second-class citizen). You can't justify great evils by saying "oh, but now they're better off".

On Africa (which I love): If you have money, you can live well in Africa, just like EVERYWHERE else, even here. That is the way its always been wherever you go.

Full disclosure: I do like the south, now, having lived there, but the past can't just be swept under the rug.

1:15 You say "it" can't be swept under the rug. Most people I know are not trying to sweep it under the rug. However, we are not going to pay for something we did not do either...

Though I won't argue that the clip isn't accurate for the time depicted, as others here have noted, I do think MGM poured it on pretty thick. They would stop at little to generate ticket sales.

For those of you who've never ran across it, take a moment to read this letter from a former slave to his ex-master (having been contacted by said master to rejoin his "employment"). I'm sure there were some letters sent in distress to ex-owners by former charges, but knowing some weren't of that nature is good to know. I especially love his P.S., "Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me."

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6369/

The "South" will always be enslaved to its past.
Those who suffered will never forgive,as the post above stated:

"I want to burn the south to the ground".

What you really want is to punish today's white's race perpetually, for something we had no part in. Sorry, we've also had enough so let's call it a draw and move forward.

Whoa, now, 1:50. He's not going to burn YOUR house down. Instead, he will slip some poisonous snakes into it while you're sleeping. (Sorry for the sarcasm.)

Good grief, neighbor, he had a normal reaction to a travesty. You must have little or no imagination if you cannot put yourself in his place. But that doesn't mean he sees any value in punishing people alive today.

Wow, I was enthralled by the pagentry. I lived in Natchez in the 70's & never saw anything like that at The Pilgrimage.
As for the racial acrimony displayed in some of the post, I think most of us have gone past it, and we need to look at that time in same way we view any time in history. It shaped us, but it doesn't have to define us.

--RE: i think i'd prefer starving as a free man than eating quail and truffles in a mansion as a slave (or a second-class citizen).

Perhaps. But I am going to guess you would have been more than happy to take the truffles and mansion after you learned the savageries that slaves in the mother land were/are subjected to.

--RE:You can't justify great evils by saying "oh, but now they're better off".

True, and no one here is suggesting otherwise. However, there does come a point when we all must count our blessings.

Ah yes, another comical debate. Just what the leaders of our fine American Plutocracy love and understand; human nature! Play on ignorance and keep politics a team sport so the sheep are too busy fighting among themselves defending their team.

In this corner we have a black man/woman who wants to burn today’s south down for crimes against dead people, by dead people, a century and a half after the civil war, a half century after the civil rights era and GOD only knows how many trillions of dollars spent on government social programs.

In the other corner we have a white man/woman making the case slavery was much better than staying in the mother land with the blacks who sold them to Americans.

Comical indeed!!!

P. S. Kingfish, we need some LMAO faces to install with these comments! Please, pretty please???

I care less about the historical travesties and more about the fact this is Natchez in '39 in technicolor.

I'll skip the antique notions about race.

7:55 your point is well taken.
It'd be convenient if we could identify crooks and charlatans and con artists by race or religion or political affliation, but we can't.
And,living in the past is not only unproductive but what crazy people do.
Racists might as well just tattoo " stupid" on their forehead. Just because people think you're too hopelss to bother with confronting doesn't mean that's not what we're thinking.

Agree with Ironghost. The fact that this is 70-year old color film of Natchez is far more interesting to me than the 19th century racial stereotypes that are getting you people bent out of shape. I'll save my conniption fits for issues that matter.

This film is interesting on several levels, one of which is indeed the fact it is 70 years old and in color.

Turner colorized all the B&W films he gained the rights to. It was originally in B&W.

This was not a MGM production. This tableau was produced by the ladies of Natchez at the time who opened up their homes for tourists to come see "where the old south still lives". This has become a tradition in Natchez for 75+ years and the tableau is still performed by great grandchildren of those filmed here. Come see the Historic Confederate Pagent performed every March - April and our beautiful antebellum homes.

In the beginning the credits say
"Photographed in Technicolor"!

It is jaw dropping to see a non-Southern production depicting the revisionist attitude of many Southerners in the 30's. As noted, this was the year GWTW was released, not exactly the best example of racial equality. But keep in mind that in 1939 "separate by equal" was the Supreme Court endorsed law of the land, and it would be another 8 years before the United States governmnet desegregated the military forces of the country. 1939 was another time, another era, and it should be viewd as such.

Excuse my typing, but that should have been "separate but equal".

In answer to 11:11 AM: Contrary to what you wrote, this overblown shuck of Hollywood corn is indeed an MGM production. Play it again, anonymous, and see the roaring MGM lion and the production credits.

I've been going on about this being a Hollywood production. Although it was produced by MGM, boy, was I wrong about it being cast with contract players and performers dancing around in MGM wardrobe duds!

After posting my last comment, I did the smart thing and did a little research. Poster 11:11 is correct and absolutely knowledgeable on the subject. As 11:11 stated, this is an accurate recording of the 1939 Natchez pilgrimage event and tableaux.

I discovered a site describing the 1939 production. It provides a history and background information about the annual event and names many of the black and white citizens performing in these old scenes.. the dancers are named.. even the gentleman that owned the hunting dogs.

Over time, some of the tableaux have changed or been removed, but innocuous scenes, such as the Maypole dance, are still performed. The savvy garden club ladies actually contacted MGM; not the other way around.

It would be interesting to watch the 2010 version and see how it has changed. Maybe on YouTube..

do me a favor and send this over to JFP. It ould be like throwing hot oil on a cat.

not to harm the cat you understand.

Kingfish...you are too liberal!!! Open your eyes....They are not parading around in nice stuff.....they worked for it!! Just like today in your beloved Belhaven/Fondren area! While whites are at Work on West street 20-30 year olds on welfare are drinking beer! Was that way then and is that way now....so pull up your jaw and deal with it!

if you look closely at the flag around the three minute mark, you will see, although you have to play and pause frequently, there are only 15 stars on the flag when there should have been 48 in 1939. Of course there were 13 Confederate States, however, the Confederacy officially recognized Kentucky and Missouri as CSA states thus the fifteen.

Sorry, math was off a bit. Eleven original CSA states. However, the did officially recognize KY and MO. Still, wonder why there are only 15 stars.

because there were only 15 states at the time depicted in the segment. Connelys Tavern and the fellow sent to survey the Spanish Line when there were only 15 states. That's my stab.....

But really what are all those fine antebellum ladies doing coming and going from a tavern?