Dec 6, 2007
It's Jack Sparrow getting into trouble big time. No, we don't mean
Johnny Depp (although Zephyr gives a big nod to him in his
performance of the character); the folks at Disney have a habit of
borrowing from older sources, and it's quite likely that the name
Jack Sparrow came from this African-American tale related by noted
author Joel Chandler Harris. A simple fable about the dangers of
gossiping and meddling in other peoples' affairs, this story is
included among Harris' writings about the fictional character Uncle
Remus, a sort of African-American version of Aesop. An accomplished
folklorist who heard these charming animal yarns from slaves when
he was a teenager working on a plantation, Harris has come under
fire in more recent times for the racist overtones in his heavy
usage of southern black dialect and also for the very name Uncle
Remus -- "uncle" was a demeaning term sometimes applied to slaves
by their owners. But hey, he lived in racist times; and in view of
that, his tone was perhaps far less insulting than it might have
been.
Harris was born in 1848 in Eatonton, GA., which we just happened to pass through on a Sunday morning in December, so we couldn't pass up the Uncle Remus Museum, with its statue of Brother Rabbit ("Br'er" Rabbit) in the yard. The museum, which features mementos from the life, times and work of Harris, is housed in a building comprised of two former slave cabins joined together. (You can see the seams on the sides.) It's on the property once occupied by the family of Joseph Sidney Turner, the "Little Boy" in the "Tales of Uncle Remus".
We also dropped in at the Laurel and Hardy Museum in the hometown of Norvell "Oliver" Hardy, Harlem, GA. This town is so proud of its celebrated native son that the water tower sports a picture of him and his skinny partner, Stanley Jefferson -- who gave himself the shorter name of Stan Laurel so it would fit on signs better. This pair of comedy titans made over 100 films together of varying lengths over a period of about 30 years, and were also the best of friends. And they had a major influence on virtually every comic performer to come afterward -- including, no doubt, us.
Happy listening,
Dennis (Narrator and Fox), Kimberly (Rabbit) and Zephyr (Jack Sparrow, natch)
Harris was born in 1848 in Eatonton, GA., which we just happened to pass through on a Sunday morning in December, so we couldn't pass up the Uncle Remus Museum, with its statue of Brother Rabbit ("Br'er" Rabbit) in the yard. The museum, which features mementos from the life, times and work of Harris, is housed in a building comprised of two former slave cabins joined together. (You can see the seams on the sides.) It's on the property once occupied by the family of Joseph Sidney Turner, the "Little Boy" in the "Tales of Uncle Remus".
We also dropped in at the Laurel and Hardy Museum in the hometown of Norvell "Oliver" Hardy, Harlem, GA. This town is so proud of its celebrated native son that the water tower sports a picture of him and his skinny partner, Stanley Jefferson -- who gave himself the shorter name of Stan Laurel so it would fit on signs better. This pair of comedy titans made over 100 films together of varying lengths over a period of about 30 years, and were also the best of friends. And they had a major influence on virtually every comic performer to come afterward -- including, no doubt, us.
Happy listening,
Dennis (Narrator and Fox), Kimberly (Rabbit) and Zephyr (Jack Sparrow, natch)