Trinidad & Tobago Carnival in the 1950s and 1960s (videos, comments, & excerpt about bandleader George Bailey)

mintourism, Oct 13, 2009

Part One of Ole Time Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago in 1959

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post presents five film clips that were published as YouTube videos of Trinidad & Tobago Carnival in the 1950s and 1960s. These YouTube videos are given according to the carnival 
decade that they represent.

Selected comments from four of these videos' discussion threads are also included in this post. An article excerpt about carnival bandleader George Bailey is given after Video #4 instead of discussion thread comments. 

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and educational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are associated with these film clips and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
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Click  http://www.tntisland.com/carnivalcharacters.html "Traditional Carnival Characters" for a list of Traditional Trinidad and Tobago characters. At least one entry in that list is incorrect it indicates that the Baby Doll character has been retired. That character was revived by at least 2008.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/05/traditional-trinidad-and-tobago-baby.html the pancocojams post entitled "Traditional Trinidad and Tobago "Baby Doll" Carnival Character (information and videos)".

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SELECTED COMMENTS FROM SHOWCASE VIDEO #1 (with numbers added for referencing purposes only)

1. Dav McLeod, 2010
"thank you so much for posting this. i wish I could get a copy. I am a Trinivalist- a person who love Trin-bago carnival."

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2. Dav McLeod,2010
"You hear what I'm saying.... TRINIDAD DOES NOT WANT THEIR CARNIVAL THIS WAY ANYMORE... so those of us who are of Trini descent, we are going to bring it back, and help it evolve into an aesthetic that doesn't mock Brazil. Mark my words. Soon people will be leaving Trinidad to go to a Carnival that's better than theirs, if they don't go back to this kind of creativity. It's the mas makers fault. People will play what they have... so all they have to do is make something worth playing."

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Domitilla, 2015
"It is difficult to watch this with dry eyes.  The art form of costume design by George Bailey and Harold Saldenah have been lost.  The people knew how to enjoy themselves back then.  They are having so much fun."

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Reply
dale stuart, 2019
"unfortunately those days will never come back."

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Savanah Smiles, 2019
"Wow love this.. They made face mask of the foreigners that came to the island long ago Just like they did in mexico. Now such a mixed culture. Its nice they incorporated the new people in their culture. They were making egyptian crowns and harder and stuff"

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SHOWCASE #2 - 1950s - Port of Spain - Trinidad and Tobago - Carnival - 1950er - Karneval - 8mm

visualhistoryaustria, Nov 27, 2021 

The Trinidad and Tobago Carnival is a massive annual event held on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday in Trinidad and Tobago. The event is known for participants' colorful costumes and exuberant celebrations. There are cultural events such as band launch fetes running in the lead up to the street parade on Carnival Monday and Tuesday. It is said that if the islanders are not celebrating it, then they are preparing for it, while reminiscing about the past year's festival.

Traditionally, the festival is associated with calypso music, with its origins formulated in the midst of hardship for enslaved West and Central Africans; recently Soca music has replaced calypso as the most celebrated type of music. Costumes, stick-fighting and limbo competitions are also important components of the festival. This film shows us the carnival in Port of Spain in the year 1953 or 1954.

The carnival groups we can see were called: Chinese Mandorins, Golden Eagle Warriors, Dog Patch, Saigon, Greatest Show on Earth, The Carnival Queen, Broken Teapot, Martinique, 40 Thieves of Baghdad, Seminoles, Ivanhoe, Black Velvet, Conquerors of Kiska, British Monarchy and Olympus. There was also a band called Harold Saldinah’s band, spotted by a viewer of visualhistory.tv.
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Here are some comments from that video's discussion thread, with numbers added for referencing purposes only:

1. Jason Ramsingh, 2022
"Incredible....they had more clothes on back then! Sad to see the degeneration into what is called Carnival today!"

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2. Jason Phillips, 2022
"wondering when whining started in trinidad carnival?"

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Reply
3. Sheldon Salazar, 2022
"Probably around 1974 during the advent of soca 😉"

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Reply
4. G Y H D, 2022
""Whining" has always been part of the cultural landscape of Trinidad and Tobago: these images here are but a slice of the T&T carnival which encompassed then as now elements of African, European, etc.. masquerade and cultural traditions."

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Reply
5. islandgirl3330, 2022
" @G Y H D  Not what they do today.  That would have been considered vulgar and classless.  I know because I am not a young spring chicken."

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6. Monica Barrow, 2022
"Beautiful  footage  would have loved to hear the original music people jumping up lol"

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7. wazeed ali, 2022
"So beautiful; I am from this era. Notice how the masqueraders are well costumed and dancing and chipping along so decently. Not like today with basically naked, badly shaped, disgusting looking men and women shamelessly prancing around. Carnival in those days was truly a magnificent spectacle."

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8. islandgirl3330, 2022
"In those days and until the early 70s there was a Carnival Queen beauty contest, but only the white girls or the so-called Trinidad whites were queens.  Peter Minshall's adopted sister, portraying Washer Woman, I think, was was the first black queen.  A few years later, they stopped having it."

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SHOWCASE #3 - Carnival Story Aka Trinidad Carnival (1957)

British Pathé, Apr 13, 2014

London Airport (Heathrow).

L/S of an air hostess walking towards the steps of a plane.  Passengers board the plane.  Another air hostess stands at the door and welcomes the passengers. The stairs are taken away.  It is a B.O.A.C. aircraft.

Trinidad, West Indies.  High angle shot of the island then M/S of a tropical beach.  Various shots of costumes being prepared for the annual Carnival.  Woman pin costumes onto a man, another woman stitches a brightly coloured costume.  L/S of an ornate head-dress being tried on by a young boy.  Various shots of steel drums being made and played. 

L/S of passengers disembarking from a plane - they are inhabitants of neighbouring islands and are all dressed up.  Staff of the plane walk across the runway.  Two stewardesses greet each other, they are going to the carnival too.  Trinidad Airport exterior - the two air hostesses walk into the building.

High angle shot of a steel band moving through the streets. Various shots of musicians and dancers parading in the streets.  Our two air hostesses Betty Lou and Margaret dance along with them.  Lots of good costumes are seen including Roman Centurions, dragons, strange animals, bull fighters etc.  Shots of the crowd are intercut with shots of the "bands" and their costumes….
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Here are some comments from that video's discussion thread, with numbers added for referencing purposes only:

1. Evelyn Applewhite, 2014
"So nostalgic.  Too bad carnival time in TnT  and abroad has become so vile.  Shame.  Please! let us go back to the past.  Bring back the tourist."

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Reply
2. Evans Parris, 2020
"Nope some things still remain in T&T carnival ,creativity come with change"

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Reply
3. Dilalala, 2020
"Yes! The carnival today is very immoral"

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 4. Dulala, 2015
"oh wow how carnival has changed..."

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SHOWCASE #4 -Scenes from Trinidad Carnival 1962

Rawle Hernandez-Ramdwar films curated bySimone H-R, Jan 2, 2023

Trinidad Carnival 1962 part 2 filmed in 8mm by Rawle Hernandez-Ramdwar

-George Bailey's -"Somewhere in New Guinea" was band of the year
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George Bailey was a very popular, award wining Trinidad & Tobago carnival band leader. Quoting from an article* about Caribbean carnival terms "Bands are run by section leaders who every year come up with new themes and then design and create elaborate costumes for people to purchase" * This article is excerpted in this pancocojams post's comment section below.

Here's an excerpt about George Bailey from https://www.caribbean-beat.com/issue-65/monarch#axzz80kcYq0Sw "George Bailey, 1935–1970"

"But the true African king was George Bailey, the man many masqueraders, designers, commentators, and ordinary spectators consider the greatest bandleader Trinidad Carnival has yet known.

He was certainly a prodigy — he produced his first independent band in 1956, a few months shy of his 21st birthday. In only his second year as a bandleader and designer, he presented Back to Africa, perhaps the most celebrated band in the history of modern Carnival, winning the 1957 band of the year award. With this single presentation, Bailey changed popular perceptions of Africa, history, and Carnival itself.

Traditional African masquerade, dating back to the era before emancipation, used rags, paint, and spears to portray an image of a miserable, uncivilised past. Bailey flaunted this stereotype by drawing on the elaborate pomp usually associated with bands depicting the history of Europe. His magnificent, meticulously researched African costumes asked masqueraders to think instead of a regal heritage. Before Bailey, the crowds did not believe any African mas could match the grandeur of Roman or Greek themes. He proved them wrong. It was a watershed moment, both for Carnival and for Trinidad society.

[...]

George Bailey: Band of the Year Titles

1957    Back to Africa

1959    Relics of Egypt

1960    Ye Saga of Merrie England

1961     Byzantine Glory

1962    Somewhere in New Guinea

1969    Bright Africa"

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SHOWCASE #5 - Trinidad Carnival Circa 1969

Gregory Bryan, Oct 12, 2011

Some 50mm film of Carnival in Trinidad sometime around 1967 shot by my father,  Adrian Bryan.
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Here are some comments from that video's discussion thread, with numbers added for referencing purposes only:

1. Domitilla, 2018
"This is carnival.  You cannot sit still while Kitch is singing.  Costumes back then made sense."

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2. Domitilla, 2019
"Costumes with  themes.  Band leaders back then were brimming with ideas."

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3. Trini Soca, 2020
"Papa o look at mas.... this was mas for soooo made in Trinidad and not in China"

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4. Angela Lum Wai, 2021
"Thank you so much for sharing this video.  I am so grateful to see Trinidad of old, when carnival was at its best . Nowadays, it is a spectacle to show skin and (to be absolutely outspoken)  mastibate in public.

I feel sad for our young children growing up, to see their parents, teachers, politicians and all those who should be positive role models, act without shame, social or moral  responsibility towards the young and impressionable."

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5. Cuthbert Jolly, 2021
"Throw a little waist and everybody think you rude."

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6. Andrew Hovell, 2021
"DAYS TO REMEMBER THAT YEAR 1967 I PLAYED FLOURBAG SAILOR WITH A NEW SUNLAND STELLBAND FORM.IN 1965 WAS THE END OF THE ORIGINAL SUNLAND WITH EDDIE BOM(MR.EDDIE)THE LEADER.BELMONT DAYS.KITCHENER WON ROAD MARCH THAT YEAR WITH 67 IS THE SEASON."

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Reply
7. Patrick Enoe, 2023
"Those were the days, Play mas! play mas!"

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8. Andrew Hovell, 2022
"KITCHNER WON ROAD MARCH WITH THIS KAISO IN 1967.67 IS THE SEASON.I PLAYED FLOUR BAG SAILOR WITH SUNLAND STEELBAND.(FLOUR USE TO BE IN A COTTON CLOTH BAG.)IN THEM TIME.RIBBET.WRIGHT."

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Reply
9. Gregory Bryan, 2022
"Can you confirm that this was indeed 1967?"

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Reply
10. Sheldon Salazar, 2022
"@Gregory Bryan  The year was 1969…It said so on one of the banners;you have to look very carefully at the 2:26 mark"

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Traditional Trinidad and Tobago "Baby Doll" Carnival Character (information and videos)

TTT Live Online, Feb 6, 2020

This masquerader usually stops male passers-by and accuses them of fathering her child. She embarrasses them into giving her money for milk, clothing and other needs or so that she stops the accusations. Can you guess who this is?
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TTT Limited, is a state owned national television broadcaster in Trinidad and Tobago with its headquarters located at 11 A Maraval Road, Port of Spain.[2] [Wikipedia]

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post presents information about Trinidad and Tobago's traditional Baby Doll carnival character.

This post also showcases five videos of Trinidad and Tobago's carnival Baby Doll character.

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, entertainment purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those past and present Trinidad and Tobago Baby Doll maskers. Thanks to all those who are featured in these videos and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
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New Orleans, Louisiana also has a Baby Doll carnival masking tradition and a contemporary Baby Doll masking custom. However, the historical and the contemporary New Orleans Baby Doll character is very different from the Trinidad and Tobago Baby Doll character. 

Among other significant differences, the fact that the Trinidad and Tobago Baby Doll character carries a toy baby doll is central to that character's portrayal. However, the New Orleans Baby Doll character doesn't carry or otherwise have any toy baby doll. Also, the Trinidad and Tobago Baby Doll carnival character focuses on comedic questioning random males in her audience and/or other dramatic, comedic monologues. In contrast, the New Orleans' Baby Doll character is non-verbal and focuses on dancing routines (including performing group line dances) and parade, second line strutting.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-new-orleans-louisiana-baby-dolls.html for the pancocojams post entitled "The (New Orleans, Louisiana) Baby Dolls Masking Traditions & Contemporary Adaptations (information & videos)".

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO (CARIBBEAN) BABY DOLL CARNIVAL CHARACTER
Excerpt #1
From http://www.tntisland.com/carnivalcharacters.html "Traditional Carnival Characters" [No publishing date is given in this article. This description is obsolete as the Trinidad and Tobago Baby Doll carnival character has been revived since at least 2008 [Video #2 below.]

"Baby Dolls
The baby doll character, which is now extinct, was played up to the 1930s. The masquerader portrays a gaily dressed doll, decked out in a frilled dress and bonnet. In her arms she carries a doll which symbolises an illegitimate baby. The masquerader portraying the baby doll, stops male passers-by and accuses them of being the baby's father."
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This article lists other Trinidad and Tobago carnival characters, including "Fancy Indians" characters which may have been modeled after the New Orleans, Louisiana Mardi Gras Indians.

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Excerpt  #2
From https://www.caribbean-beat.com/issue-161/the-return-of-the-baby-doll-backstory#axzz80ea9qSEh

The return of the baby doll | Backstory

With a frilly dress and bonnet, carrying a replica of an infant, the traditional Baby Doll is a playful Carnival character with a serious message about the social roles of women and men. A new generation of activists have adopted the Baby Doll as form of feminist intervention,
by Amanda T. McIntyre and Jarula M.I. Wegner, issue 161 (January/February 2020)

...."The Baby Doll masquerade is not unique to Trinidad. As early as 1888, it was documented by the journalist and writer Lafcadio Hearn at the Carnival of Saint-Pierre in Martinique. And possibly the Baby Doll masquerade travelled from one of the islands to New Orleans. The city near the mouth of the Mississippi delta in the southern United States is often described as part of the Caribbean in terms of its migrations, cultures and, of course, Carnival. The historian and Carnival expert Samuel Kinser argued that, apart from the queens on floats, Baby Dolls were the first women to march in New Orleans Mardi Gras. These performers often came from the city’s racially mixed and black creole French Quarter. Throughout the year, many Baby Doll performers earned a livelihood with sex work, but for Mardi Gras they dressed in “tight, scanty trunks, silk blouses, and poke bonnets with ribbons.” Around the year 1910, these performers took to the streets, for instance, as Million-Dollar Baby Dolls, lighting their cigars with dollar bills.

Baby Dolls were first recorded in Port of Spain as part of working-class jammette culture in the late nineteenth century. By 1972, Hill reported that the Baby Doll “is now extinct” in Trinidad and Tobago, but since then the character has once more become a regular sight in traditional mas presentations. And in recent years, the Baby Doll character has also become an important figure for the Caribbean feminist justice movement — deployed by the Network of NGOs for the Advancement of Women, the Single Mothers Association, the Family Planning Association, and independent activists, for feminist interventions that negotiate performances of sex, gender, and sexuality.

The Baby Doll can be interpreted as either a parody of a toy doll, a young girl, or a woman who is dressed in a young girl’s fashion, with all three performing feminine behavioural codes. The doll, the girl, and the woman become a triad in a discourse of Caribbean femininities which is influenced by and builds on patterns of movement, speech, dress, and viewer expectations. And for the women — and, occasionally, men — who portray contemporary Baby Dolls, the performance addresses the historically gendered disenfranchisement of women and girls in the area of sexual and reproductive health and rights.

On the street during Carnival 2019, the Belmont Baby Dolls met diverse reactions. Some small children ran away, while others were curious and engaging. Women generally responded positively, with mixed reactions from men. Confusions were outnumbered by signs of surprise, laughter, and exhilaration.

Our performance had as its sonic backdrop the wildly popular soca hit “Famalay” by Skinny Fabulous, Machel Montano, and Bunji Garlin, winner of the 2019 Road March title. The toy doll we shared “parenting” duties for was called Rambo. On Carnival Monday, a vendor on Charlotte Street asked the doll’s name and burst out laughing. On Carnival Tuesday, this same vendor greeted our Baby Doll family again “Look, Rambo! Look! Is yuh auntie!”

Our performance transgressed gender stereotypes and advocated inclusion. We returned a traditional Carnival character to widespread attention, yes, but our You are worthy intervention also sought to include and acknowledge people and communities on the margins of Carnival — to draw them into the family. “

About the Belmont Baby Dolls mas band

The Belmont Baby Dolls mas band, which made its debut during Carnival 2019, is a project of New Waves! MAS, which is a programme of the Dance & Performance Institute, founded by Makeda Thomas. New Waves! MAS made its inaugural Carnival presentation at Brooklyn’s West Indian American Day Carnival in 2017 with Whitewash, and presented Blue Blue in 2018. Belmont Baby Dolls was its first presentation for Trinidad Carnival.

[…]

The Belmont Baby Dolls’ 2020 presentation, Spirit Dolls, is a collaboration with Trinidadian artist Brianna McCarthy. As the band explains, “Materials are a mix of authentic African textiles, European lace, and fabrics commonly found in Caribbean homes — florals and cotton prints. In this way, we are interested in a ‘Caribbean’ Doll, with all those respective cultural influences, and moving towards something that is truly unique; self-defined. And while the aesthetic is strong, this mas is less about what a Baby Doll looks like, and more about what Baby Doll mas can do.

“Spirit Dolls act as vessels for beings of powerful spirits — spirits of the dead, familiar-spirits, Divine-beings, a spirit-of-divination, and even spiritual entities which have never had an earthly incarnation. Spirit dolls hold intention — for reasons that can include healing, honouring ancestors, divine connection, and expressing love . . . The making of the Spirit Doll is a deeply personal ritual to bring to form a part of oneself that is emerging from the unconscious. Carnival is the performance ritual to invoke the spirit of the Doll; to open a path to the impossible.”

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SHOWCASE VIDEO #2 - Victoria Square Mas 2008 - Baby Doll

NALISTT, Feb 17, 2010

Victoria Square Mas 29th January 2008: Baby Doll

The baby doll character was portrayed mainly in the 1930's, but is still seen every year at Ole Mas competitions. The masquerader portrays a gaily dressed woman, decked out in a frilled dress and bonnet. In her arms she carries a doll which symbolizes an illegitimate baby. The masquerader usually stops male passers-by and accuses them of being the baby's father. She would then demand money to buy milk for the baby. This character was sometimes portrayed by a man who would speak in a high-pitched voice.

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SHOWCASE VIDEO #3 -Baby doll 3 - Orchid

 

CarnivalOnTheNet, Feb 16, 2012

All in black and white

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SHOWCASE VIDEO #4 - Traditional Carnival Characters, baby doll

Christopher Mahabir, Feb 4, 2016

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SHOWCASE VIDEO #5 - Traditional Carnival Character Baby Doll Portrayal

 

Austin Legacy, Jan 14, 2022  

In Trinidad & Tobago Carnival is the main event that brings all cultures together within our little twin island republic. Throughout this period there's a lot of skits or I should say portrayals of this said (BabyDoll) character among many others. I hope you all enjoyed this little skit!!
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This performance was at a secondary school in Trinidad and Tobago.

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