A GREAT COMIC ACTOR IS ABUSED, AGAIN

Of Stepen Fetchit and Willie Best....

You may have read the piece in Slate about Stepen Fetchit, and I'll bet all the money I have that the writer of the piece has never seen a single one of Fetchit's movies. The piece uses the politically correct 2005 racial morality of the day to condemn Fetchit for earning a living playing a dopey butler or servant during the depths of the Great Depression.

Fetchit (Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry) was hysterically funny, like so funny you couldn't believe it. Sometimes, rarely, TCM will screen one of the movies in which he appeared (he plied his trade in around 35 movies and wrote the music for another), and if you ever get a chance to watch one of his older movies, do it. He was tall and lanky and initially had a shaved head, a whiney, slow-talking voice and a sad looking, perplexed demeanor. It was this early character, one which started his career in movies, that has caused the derision that is heaped upon him today.

Several of today's Black stars get away with doing a dead on impersonation of Fetchit (or is it Willie Best they are imitating?) but since nobody has ever seen any of either man's work, they get away with it. Whenever you see Marlon Wynans do the "whiny, slow-talking" character, he is playing Stepen Fetchet to a tee.

Fetchit stopped doing the original character sometime in the mid thirties, a partial list would include: "In Old Kentucky" (1927) as Highpockets, his film debut; "The Devil's Skipper" (1928) as Slave's Husband; "The Tragedy of Youth" (1928) as Porter; "The Ghost Talks" (1929) as Christopher Lee; "Thru Different Eyes" (1929) as Janitor; "Show Boat" (1929) as Joe; "Hearts in Dixie" as Gummy; "The Big Fight" (1930) as Spot; "Wild Horse" (1931) as Stepin; "The Prodigal" (1931) as Hokey; "Stand Up and Cheer" (1934) as George Bernard Shaw; "The World Moves On" (1934) as Dixie; "Marie Galante" (1934) as Bartender; "Judge Priest" (1934) as Jeff Poindexter; "Carolina" (1934) with Janet Gaynor and Robert Young, as Scipio; "Bachelor of Arts" (1934) as Dulga; "One More Spring" (1935) as Zoo Attendant; "Charlie Chan in Egypt" (1935) as Snowshoes; "Steamboat 'Round the Bend" (1935) as Jonah; "Helldorado" (1935) with Richard Arlen and Ralph Bellamy, as Ulysses; "The County Chairman" (1935) as Sass/Sassafrass; "Dimples" (1936) with Shirley Temple, uncredited as Cicero; "36 Hours to Kill" (1936) as Flash; "On the Avenue" (1937) as Herman 'Step'; "Fifty Races to Town" (1937) as Percy; "His Exciting Night" (1938) as Casper; "Zenobia" (1939) with Oliver Hardy and Harry Langdon, as Zero; "Miracle in Harlem" (1948) as Swifty, the Handyman; "Bend of the River" (1952) with James Stewart, as Adam; "The Sun Shines Bright" (1953) as Jeff Poindexter; "Cutter" (1972) as Shoeshine Man; "Amazing Grace" (1974) as Cousin Lincoln; "Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood" (1976) as Dancing Butler. And that is just a partial list. See the very early talkies to get how funny he was.

Stepen Fetchet was a great artist, a hell of a lot better than the ignorant PC sycophants like Spike Lee that heap abuse upon him now. As an aside here, Fetchit was so good he spawned imitations, the absolute best being Willie Best, who was the guy who said the great line, "Feet don't fail me now," in a Harold Lloyd movie called, Feet First. It's on TCM once in a while and, again, that character is hysterical. That line became a jazz music monster sometimes called "Feets Don't Fail Me Now;" latest version by Bonnie Rait. Willie was in 127 movies, and even though the genius, Spike Lee, thinks he's an Uncle Tom, Best was great in every one of 127.