According to Ossie Davis what is ooftah?

Answer 1

I forget which documentary--it may have been Burns' "Jazz"--but Ossie Davis, during an account of Louis Armstrong's performance gestures and on screen personality, said, "We used to call that ooftah." He was referring to an overdone kind of acting, super smiley and very minstrel like, which some black performers affected to put white audiences at ease, and entertain them utilizing subtly or blatantly clown-like gestures. In Mr. Davis estimation, Mr. Armstrong was especially guilty of this. The implication was that Mr. Armstrong's entire stage identity was some form of masking, in the tradition of the simple, happy but super talented, exotic Negro. Ooftah was the sort of cultural currency that such exotic Negroes dealt in when showcasing their god given talents for Whites. So Mr. Davis asserted during said interview/documentary.