Stepin Fetchit

Stepin Fetchit (c. 1902–1985), actor. His name now nearly synonymous with slow-witted, shuffling servility, Stepin Fetchit was a talented comic actor and the first African American movie star. Born Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry in Key West, Florida, Fetchit was by 1914 performing in stage revues and vaudeville shows, largely for African American audiences. Fetchit's early work in Hollywood as a lazy, whining clown in films such as In Old Kentucky (1927) and Salute (1929) got him noticed, but it was Hearts in Dixie (1929), an all-black talking picture, that first highlighted his comic gifts. Bald, lanky, and shambling, Fetchit sometimes transcended his persona's stereotypical outlines through impeccable timing and projection of personality. Crafted in African American settings, Fetchit's character was not served well by the white contexts of the movies that made him an international star. He is little more than comic relief in films such as John Ford's The World Moves On (1934), the Shirley Temple vehicle Stand Up and Cheer (1934), and Helldorado (1935); he is whipping-boy and lackey to Will Rogers in David Harum (1934), The County Chairman (1935), and Ford's Judge Priest (1934) and Steamboat 'Round the Bend (1935); he is downright foolish in Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935). Yet even in the harshest surroundings Fetchit armors himself with a detachment that seems almost wise. His great success pointed the way toward more substantial African American film roles, and his legendary off-screen high life (including spending binges, car accidents, and brawls) only increased his allure. By the end of the 1930s, Fetchit's recklessness and the criticism of civil rights groups brought his stardom to an end; he appeared on film only occasionally in the following decades. In the late 1960s Fetchit was a member of Muhammad Ali's entourage and in 1968 filed a lawsuit against CBS for broadcasting a documentary that villainized him, the man who opened Hollywood's doors to African Americans.

Bibliography

• Donald Bogle, Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films, 1973.
• Thomas Cripps, Slow Fade to Black: The Negro in American Film, 1900–1942, 1977

—Eric Lott

actor

Personal Information

Born Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry, on May 30, 1892, in Key West, Florida; died November 19, 1985, in Woodland Hills, California; married Winifred Johnson (deceased); children, Donald (deceased 1969), Jemajo.
Religion: Adopted Black Muslim faith in 1960s.

Career

Vaudeville performer, actor. Films: The Mysterious Stranger, 1925; In Old Kentucky, 1927; The Tragedy of Youth, 1928; Kid's Clever, 1929; Show Boat, 1929; Hearts of Dixie, 1929; The Prodigal, 1931; Carolina, 1934; Charlie Chan in Egypt, 1935; Dimples, 1936; Zenobia, 1939; Miracle in Harlem, 1948; Amazing Grace, 1974; Won Ton Ton, The Dog Who Saved Hollywood, 1976.

Life's Work

Comedic actor Stepin Fetchit is considered to be the first major black movie star. He starred in over 50 movies, and is remembered for playing controversial characters that many claim are still around in this day. Many have criticized Lincoln Perry, Fetchit's given name, and others like him for playing negative characters that helped perpetuate the racist attitudes that ran rampant in the 20th Century.

Fetchit was born Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry in Key West, Florida. He left home at the age of fourteen, and joined medicine shows, minstrel shows, and carnivals. Later he performed in vaudeville shows as a dancer, singer, and comedian. Perry claimed that he took the name "Stepin Fetchit" from a racehorse that had brought him some cash, but he also told a reporter that he had been a member of a comedy team known as "Step and Fetch It." Another version is that Perry performed a song about a racehorse name Stepin Fetchit. The performer became associated with the song, due to its popularity, so he took on the name. Either story, the man that the public knows as Stepin Fetchit came to be a rather controversial figure.

Perry arrived in Hollywood in the late 1920s where he made a big impression. The first movie that he made using the name Stepin Fetchit was MGM's In Old Kentucky, filmed in 1929. After making a few films, Stepin Fetchit had earned the reputation of one of the best screen comedians. He has shared top-billing status with actors such as, Will Rogers and Shirley Temple and he was the first African-American actor to become a millionaire and maintained an extremely expensive life style. Perry lived in a large house, had 12 automobiles, including a pink Rolls Royce, and kept a staff of 16 Chinese servants.

As Stepin Fetchit, Perry's sense of comedic timing was considered brilliant, and had won the admiration of the era's best known white comedic actors including Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Stepin Fetchit was never criticized for his talent, he was criticized for the type of character he played, the "arch-coon." Critic Daniel J. Leab explained in From Sambo to Superspade: The Black Experience in Motion Pictures, "Fetchit became identified in the popular imagination as a dialect-speaking, slump shouldered, slack-jawed character who walked, talked, and apparently thought in slow motion. The Fetchit character overcame this lethargy only when he thought that a ghost or some nameless terror might be present; and then he moved very quickly indeed." According to film historian Donald Bogle, author of Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films, Fetchit's physical appearance also added to the caricature. Fetchit wore clothes that were too large, had a perpetual grin, kept his eyes wide open, and shuffled when he walked.

Many actors have used their "schtick" to further their popularity and to make money. Perry did just that, he used his "schtick" and developed a character that so many people loved and hated. Perry was continuing a performing tradition that had started in the early 19th century--the minstrel show. Originally minstrel shows featured white actors who blackened their faces to portray slaves, but after the Civil War, black actors entered the minstrel tradition and continued the stereotyped characters. While much of the minstrel tradition reflected comical life situations, some shows and movies portrayed violent and degrading themes. For example, in D.W. Griffith's film A Birth Of A Nation, the audience watched black-faced actors raping and stealing from Southern white people. Stepin Fetchit was traded, along with a horse, to Will Rogers in David Harum, (1934) and then afterward traded twice more. In Judge Priest, Fetchit was repeatedly berated and pushed around. What separated Perry's character aside from other traditional "coon" characters was the fact that Stepin Fetchit was featured in many very popular movies. The Stepin Fetchit character not only reached millions of people by way of movie theaters, but also on the television set.

During the 1970s when most television networks offered black-themed shows, the public was still fed watered-down Stepin Fetchit characters. Not only has the stereotype character been perpetuated, but the words, "Stepin Fetchit" have become incorporated into our vocabulary. A "Stepin Fechit" is synonymous with a lazy, slow-witted manner. In addition, other actors imitated Stepin Fetchit such as Willie Best and Mantan Moreland.

African-American communities have remained critical and resentful of the Stepin Fetchit character because of the lowly character that Fetchit perpetuated. As the American cultural climate became more politically correct, the Stepin Fetchit characters became less popular, indeed less tolerated. Fetchit essentially drifted into obscurity during the 1940s and 1950s. He squandered his fortune and by 1947, he was forced to go into bankruptcy and in 1960, Perry was a charity patient at Chicago's Cook County Hospital. During the 1960s, Stepin Fetchit re-entered the limelight however, becoming one of Muhammed Ali's followers. He also became a Black Muslim.

Even though Fetchit was well regarded and some critics assert that he opened doors for other black actors, he will always be remembered as the lazy "coon." In 1970, Perry sued CBS, unsuccessfully, for defamation of character for the way he was portrayed in the 1968 documentary Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed. Stepin Fetchit made two last films in the 1970s, Amazing Grace and Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood. Perry died on November 19, 1985 in California. In all, Fetchit made nearly fifty films during his career. Whether the public finds Stepin Fetchit offensive or loveable, there is one thing that can be agreed upon, the image is indelible.

Awards

Special Image Award, Hollywood Chapter of NAACP, 1976; Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, 1978.

Works

Selected filmography

• Old Kentucky, 1929.
• David Harum, 1934.
• Judge Priest, 1934.
• Amazing Grace, 1974.
• Won Ton Ton, The Dog Who Saved Hollywood, 1976.

Further Reading

Books

• Bogle, Donald. Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films, 1994.
• Leab, Daniel J. From Sambo to Superspade: The Black Experience in Motion Pictures.

Online

• http://www.africanpubs.com/Apps/bios.
• http://www.bamboozledmovie.com/minstrelshow/briefhistory.html.
• http://www.dougmacaulay.com/kingspud/sel-by-actor-index-2.
• http://www.ferris.edu/news/jimcrow/coon/.
• http://geocities.com/Area51/Crater/1908/movies/essay.

— Christine Miner Minderovic

• Born: May 30, 1902 in Key West, Florida
• Died: Nov 19, 1985 in Woodland Hills, California
• Occupation: Actor
• Active: '20s-'30s
• Major Genres: Drama, Comedy
• Career Highlights: The Sun Shines Bright, David Harum, Fox Movietone Follies of 1929
• First Major Screen Credit: Big Time (1929)

Biography

African American comedic character actor Stepin Fetchit, born Lincoln Perry, left his home in 1914 to pursue a show-business career. He first joined the Royal American Shows plantation revues adopting the stage name "Stepin Fetchit." He went on to spend several years on the vaudeville circuit. In the late '20s, he arrived in Hollywood where he made an immediate impact; by the time he appeared in Hearts in Dixie (1929) he was being hailed by some as one of the greatest screen comedians. In the more politically correct 1990s, Fetchit's screen persona of the lazy, inarticulate, and easily frightened Negro is considered extremely racist and offensive, but back in the unenlightened '30s, audiences found him hysterically funny, and he was the most celebrated black comic actor in Hollywood. He made few films after 1940, drifting into obscurity before resurfacing in the late '60s as a member of boxer Muhammad Ali's entourage (he had converted to the Black Muslim faith); he was also the litigant in a suit against CBS, whom he felt had negatively represented him in a 1968 TV documentary. He made two more films in the '70s, Amazing Grace (1974) and Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976). ~ All Movie Guide

The Sun Shines Bright Buy this Movie	Bend of the River Buy this Movie	Zenobia Buy this Movie	On the Avenue Buy this Movie
Dimples Buy this Movie	The Littlest Rebel Buy this Movie	Judge Priest Buy this Movie	Stand up and Cheer Buy this Movie

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