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Charlie Case (August 27, 1858 –1916) was a blackface comedian in America who wrote and sang vaudeville parodies of the 19th century ballad style. He influenced F. Gregory Hartswick, who wrote similar songs. Case is thought to be mulatto. Little official documentation of his personal history is available, but there are reports that he was mixed and sought to "pass". It was also not uncommon for African-Americans to perform in black-face as a loophole into the entertainment business in those days.〔http://travsd.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/stars-of-vaudeville-361-charley-case/ 〕 In 1910, after recovering from a nervous breakdown, he went on tour in England, where for the first time he performed the song "There was once a poor young man who left his country home." The 1933 film, ''The Fatal Glass of Beer'' is based on this song, and comedian W.C. Fields performs it at the onset. Critic Harold Bloom remarked several years later that Fields', "croaking his ghastly dirge to the uncertain sound of his dulcimer, is a parodic version of the Bard of Sensibility, a figure out of the primitivism of Thomas Gray or William Blake." ==Style== According to Sigmund Spaeth, in his 1926 book, ''Read 'Em and Weep: The Songs You Forgot to Remember,'' the interpreter of a Case song would sing in a "very matter-of-fact voice, with little or no expression, letting the words speak for themselves." Case is also sometimes credited for being one of the first to employ the stand-up style when in the 1880s and 90s he began to do comedic monologues without props or costumes, something that had never been done before. In 1906, The Indianapolis Star wrote that, "He is of a quiet and retiring disposition when off the stage, and to see him on the street or at his hotel one would never take him for a comedian who makes thousands laugh every season." That year the Toledo Blade called him "one of the funniest monologue comedians in the business." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Charlie Case」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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