Mickey's Mellerdrammer

Mickey's Mellerdrammer is a United Artists film released in 1933. The title is a corruption of "melodrama", thought to harken back to the earliest minstrel shows, as a film short based on a production of Uncle Tom's Cabin by the Disney characters. In Mickey's Mellerdrammer Mickey Mouse and friends stage their own production of Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. During the 19th century Uncle Tom's Cabin was a best sellin... more

Mickey's Mellerdrammer is a United Artists film released in 1933. The title is a corruption of "melodrama", thought to harken back to the earliest minstrel shows, as a film short based on a production of Uncle Tom's Cabin by the Disney characters. In Mickey's Mellerdrammer Mickey Mouse and friends stage their own production of Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. During the 19th century Uncle Tom's Cabin was a best selling novel, but most Americans became familiar with the story through stage plays or musicals known as Tom Shows. Mickey's Mellerdrammer is an early 20th century animated version of the 19th century Tom Shows. Mickey Mouse, of course, was already black, but the advertising poster for the film shows Mickey dressed in blackface with exaggerated, orange lips; bushy, white sidewhiskers made out of cotton; and his now trademark white gloves. In Mickey's Mellerdrammer Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy (known then as Dippy Dawg), and the rest of the... less