Some years back I read an article--in Vanity Fair I think--about Mr Bojangles and Shirley Temple. They actually liked each other and remained friends through the years. There was no mention of any sex abuse on Bojangles part. A shocking revelation if true, but I believed it..........I am making my peace with Downton Abbey. It's a mistake to look upon it as a historical drama that is anyway reflective of life as it was lived in that period. Rather it should be viewed a fairy tale where kindly people prevail and happy endings are the common lot of humanity. The show presents the class divisions but the edges are not serrated but covered with rubber tips. I thought the show was corny and contrived on first viewing, but perhaps it's something more. It's a way of saying that the British did survive all those bad experiences and came through together. It's said that Dickens presented pro-human propaganda. Downton Abbey was sentimental but in the best tradition of Dickens....,,,I wonder how long before we can present the relations between black servants and their white superiors in such a way. At one time, the blacks were portrayed as good natured simpletons who loved nothing more than serving their masters. Nowadays, the plantation house is no longer such an idyllic place. Oppression, rape, and brutality are what puts the mint in the julep......I wonder if some time in the future we will ever be able to present Tarra as a place like Downton Abbey.
So, that's the guy behind the urban myth about the song "Mr Bojangles" being about a poor black man when in fact the song's author says he was a white guy: link.
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I think I saw an envelope.
Some years back I read an article--in Vanity Fair I think--about Mr Bojangles and Shirley Temple. They actually liked each other and remained friends through the years. There was no mention of any sex abuse on Bojangles part. A shocking revelation if true, but I believed it..........I am making my peace with Downton Abbey. It's a mistake to look upon it as a historical drama that is anyway reflective of life as it was lived in that period. Rather it should be viewed a fairy tale where kindly people prevail and happy endings are the common lot of humanity. The show presents the class divisions but the edges are not serrated but covered with rubber tips. I thought the show was corny and contrived on first viewing, but perhaps it's something more. It's a way of saying that the British did survive all those bad experiences and came through together. It's said that Dickens presented pro-human propaganda. Downton Abbey was sentimental but in the best tradition of Dickens....,,,I wonder how long before we can present the relations between black servants and their white superiors in such a way. At one time, the blacks were portrayed as good natured simpletons who loved nothing more than serving their masters. Nowadays, the plantation house is no longer such an idyllic place. Oppression, rape, and brutality are what puts the mint in the julep......I wonder if some time in the future we will ever be able to present Tarra as a place like Downton Abbey.
So, that's the guy behind the urban myth about the song "Mr Bojangles" being about a poor black man when in fact the song's author says he was a white guy: link.
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