Suspenders worn by Billie Thomas as Buckwheat in the Our Gang short Unexpected Riches: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Suspenders worn by Billie Thomas as Buckwheat in the Our Gang short Unexpected Riches. Green, yellow, and white elastic suspenders with brass-colored hardware. Hardware has art deco stripe and square decorative patterns.

Buckwheat, portrayed by William “Billie” Thomas Jr, first appeared in the 1935 short Mama’s Little Pirate. In early appearances, Buckwheat’s sex was not clearly established, and Thomas was often costumed in pigtails and oversized sweater and boots, recalling the attire of Topsy in productions of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and other “pickaninny” stereotypes. However, Thomas quickly established the character as a loveable, rough-and-tumble boy undaunted by a speech impairment responsible for some of his memorable catch phrases (“O-tay!”). Thomas remained with the series for ten years, becoming the only Our Gang cast member to appear in all 52 MGM Our Gang shorts, and the only holdover from the Hal Roach era to remain in the series until its end in 1944.

The 1942 short Unexpected Riches, in which this object was featured, is of particular significance due to its inclusion of many racial caricatures and stereotypes depicting the Black community. The short features a dream sequence where Buckwheat imagines his life after discovering buried treasure. In what scholar Julia Lee describes as “an orgy of caricature,” Buckwheat is dressed to the nines in what the script calls “an exaggerated English walking-suit made of loud, checkerboard-effect material, a silk hat, his ‘Our Gang’ shoes, off-white spats, white gloves and…walking stick. His shirt studs, cuff links, rings and the head of his walking stick are huge diamond-like rhinestones.” He is chauffeured in a fancy motorcade driving through a Black neighborhood, led by a band of six Black jazz musicians in minstrel costume called “MR. BUCKWHEAT’S DIXIE TOOTERS.” When his limousine pulls over, Buckwheat orders his servants to distribute watermelon and fried chicken to the assembled throngs. Buckwheat’s characterization as naively ostentatious, musical, and beloved of these stereotypical foods speak to the long history of racial caricature and diminishment of Black achievement and culture. Such themes were frequent obstacles faced by Black actors of the Jim Crow era, and still plague performers today. Though Thomas retired from acting in 1944 following the end of the series, the Buckwheat character lives on as a symbol, the name used to denigrate Black politicians and leaders in political debates and to represent the indignities of the Jim Crow era in entertainment.

The Our Gang film series numbers over 200 short comedies produced by Hal Roach, at his own production studio from 1922-1938 and from 1938-1944 at Metro Goldwyn Mayer. The series, highlighting the adventures and daily hijinks of a group of impoverished children, was a popular and sustained success, bridging the silent to sound era of film production and reaching from the early 1920s through World War II. The series was notable and influential for its always-evolving cast of talented young actors who were directed to act naturally rather than imitating adult acting styles.

The film series was also significant for its racially integrated cast, with Black characters Stymie, Buckwheat, and Farina represented as equal and valued members of the gang, highly unusual for movies in the Jim Crow era. Black life was often depicted with unusual compassion and empathy and Black actors Billie Thomas (Buckwheat), Matthew Beard (Stymie), Allen Hoskins (Farina), and Ernie Morrison (Sunshine Sammy) earned fame and success co-equal to their co-stars. Morrison was, in fact, the first black actor signed to a long-term contract in Hollywood history. This costume, however, demonstrates the series’ later entries' reliance on stereotypical imagery, dialect, and elements of blackface minstrel performance, which increasingly over the course of the series undercut its early racial progressivism and egalitarian spirit.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: before 1942
• wearer: Thomas, Billie Buckwheat
• Object Name: suspenders
• Physical Description: elastic (overall material)
• Physical Description: metal (overall material)
• Measurements: overall, flat: 28 1/4 in x 5 in; 71.755 cm x 12.7 cm
• associated subject: Children
• associated subject: Ethnic Stereotype
• associated subject: Motion Pictures
• ID Number: 2023.0146.01.03
• catalog number: 2023.0146.01.03
• accession number: 2023.0146
• Credit Line: Gift of James and Amber Comisar
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.