Although I'd rarely missed a Saturday matinée at the local Tuxedo Theatre during the late 1940s, I first saw WHO KILLED DOC ROBBIN? a few evenings ago on a DVD from The Dollar Store. Unquestionably, the blatant racism in it horrified me. The real parents of "Dis" and "Dat" should've been sterilized for allowing their boys to undergo such humiliating abuse. From the 'nightglow" to the "scared white," the stereotypical routines are offensive, to say the least. After recovering from the shock, though, I began to view the film from a historical perspective. In 1948, Indianapolis was definitely earning its reputation as "the northernmost southern city in the country." Restaurants, schools, and even orphanages operated under the separate-but-equal" concept, which meant that those serving whites and those serving "coloreds" were different entities, and that difference was rigidly maintained. Growing up in an all-white neighborhood, I'd encountered only real black person, an aged ex-slave who totally lacked Uncle Remus's wit and warmth. Otherwise, all that I knew about "Negroes" had come from radio programs like AMOS 'N' ANDY, THE JACK BENNY SHOW, TOM MIX, THE GREAT GILDERSLEEVE, and the extremely racist BEULAH. Television was just emerging as a popular medium, but the number of black performers appearing on the screen was almost zero. And those few who did get on the air were Stepin Fetchit clones. Even the audiences at such kiddie shows as HOWDY DOODY were completely WASPish. Extremely few films at that time made any effort to depict black Americans as other than lazy, slick sub-humans with ultra-severe mental deficiencies. They all danced and sang, as well as cooked and cleaned, but none of them had jobs requiring competence or generating ambition. Of course, African-Americans were hardly the only minority to suffer from media stereotyping. Indians were depicted as superstitious savages; Asians, as cunning cutthroats; and Latinos as oversexed "banditos." Senior citizens had to endure the less-than-flattering stereotype of being crabby geezers, meddlesome matriarchs, inept relics, or simple biddies, not unlike the characters played by Gabby Hayes, Marjorie Main, Tom London, and Zazu Pitts. Though numerically a majority, even white women were usually portrayed as supportive stay-at-homes whose careers were rearing their children and surviving dress sales. So, in 1948, like most of the boys in my neighborhood, I spent my quarter every Saturday afternoon to watch the matinée at the Tuxedo Theatre. And for that twenty-five cents, I saw three boring previews (trailers), five color cartoons, one serial episode, and two Republic B-westerns. The theater manager frequently filled the second slot with Hoppy's and Gene's oaters and Tarzan's adventures. By today's standards, frankly, none of them were "politically correct" or historically accurate. (By the mid-1940s, for example, quite a number of native Africans were residing in cities and not with tribes. Moreover, contrary to Hollywood's image, the lower half of "The Dark Continent" consists of grasslands rather than jungles.) In other words, if WHO KILLED DOC ROBBIN? had appeared at the Tuxedo -- and it never did! -- I, like everyone else in that audience, would've laughed at the racist jokes, screamed at the horror routines, and not once thought about the blatant bigotry. Would I let young children today see it? NO! Should some film studio like Disney make a modernized, sanitized version of it? In view of how wretched many of the updated movies have been, NO! Probably the best use for it now would be to provide media students in college with an actual insight into the realities of post-war America.
Review of Who Killed 'Doc' Robbin?
