Frankie and Johnny: Race, Gender, and the Work of African American Folklore in 1930s America

Stacy I. Morgan

Published by University of Texas Press 2017

Frankie and Johnny

Race, Gender, and the Work of African American Folklore in 1930s America

Stacy I. Morgan

https://doi.org/10.7560/312070

Overview
Contents

About this book

Winner, Wayland D. Hand Prize, American Folklore Society, 2018

Originating in a homicide in St. Louis in 1899, the ballad of “Frankie and Johnny” became one of America’s most familiar songs during the first half of the twentieth century. It crossed lines of race, class, and artistic genres, taking form in such varied expressions as a folk song performed by Huddie Ledbetter (Lead Belly); a ballet choreographed by Ruth Page and Bentley Stone under New Deal sponsorship; a mural in the Missouri State Capitol by Thomas Hart Benton; a play by John Huston; a motion picture, She Done Him Wrong, that made Mae West a national celebrity; and an anti-lynching poem by Sterling Brown.

In this innovative book, Stacy I. Morgan explores why African American folklore—and “Frankie and Johnny” in particular—became prized source material for artists of diverse political and aesthetic sensibilities. He looks at a confluence of factors, including the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Depression, and resurgent nationalism, that led those creators to engage with this ubiquitous song. Morgan’s research uncovers the wide range of work that artists called upon African American folklore to perform in the 1930s, as it alternately reinforced and challenged norms of race, gender, and appropriate subjects for artistic expression. He demonstrates that the folklorists and creative artists of that generation forged a new national culture in which African American folk songs featured centrally not only in folk and popular culture but in the fine arts as well.

Author / Editor information

Stacy I. Morgan is an associate professor of American studies at the University of Alabama. He is the author of Rethinking Social Realism: African American Art and Literature, 1930–1953.

Reviews

Morgan's brilliant examination of race and gender in creative appropriations of the 'Frankie and Johnny' ballad furthers the discourse on how African American folk culture contributed to the unique characteristics of American modernism during the 1930s.

— Journal of Southern History

A well-researched analysis of the complex intersections between African American culture and folklore and mainstream popular music and film culture of the 1930s.

— Journal of American Folklore

[A] masterpiece...Frankie and Johnny showcases the talents of performers, entertainers, composers, and artists while simultaneously telegraphing the tormented rawness of unrequited fidelity...Morgan’s tireless, copious research yields rich rewards, allowing the reader an emotionally vicarious experience of a 'somebody done somebody wrong' theme.

— Journal of African American History

I am extremely impressed by this book. I think it will be a valuable addition to African American studies, American studies, cultural studies, and popular culture studies.

— James Smethurst, University of Massachusetts Amherst, author of The African American Roots of Modernism: From Reconstruction to the Harlem Renaissance

A remarkable book. I was floored by the stories and connections that Morgan unearthed by following ‘Frankie and Johnny’ from its ambiguous origins to its use by everyone from Thomas Hart Benton to Ethel Waters. I was further impressed by the skill and sophistication with which Morgan made larger arguments about the complexity and flexibility of popular culture within larger political and social dynamics. This is important work that should be embraced by a variety of readers.

— Charles L. Hughes, The Memphis Center at Rhodes College, author of Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Chapter One. Frankie and Johnny Take Center Stage: African American Folk Culture in 1930s America Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter Two. Lead Belly’s Ninth Symphony: Huddie Ledbetter and the Changing Contours of American Folk Music Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
Chapter Three. Pistol Packin’ Mama: Imperiled Masculinity in Thomas Hart Benton’s A Social History of the State of Missouri Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
Chapter Four. Whiteface Marionettes: John Huston’s Comic Melodrama Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
Chapter Five. The Finest Woman Ever to Walk the Streets: Mae West’s Outlaw Exploits in She Done Him Wrong Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	138
Chapter Six. The Lynching of Johnny: Sterling Brown’s Social Realist Critique Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	172
Epilogue. African American Women’s Voices and the Tightrope of Respectability Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255

Language: English
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 261
Keywords: popular culture; African American studies; race and popular culture; ballad studies

eBook

Published: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 9781477312094