In the late 1920s and '30s Lincoln Perry, aka Stepin Fetchit, was both renowned and reviled for his surrealistic portrayals of the era s most popular comic stereotype the lazy, shiftless Negro. Perry was hailed by critic Robert Benchley as the best actor that the talking movies have produced, and Mel Watkins s meticulously researched and sensitive biography reveals the paradoxes of this pioneering actor s life, from Perry s tremendous popularity to his money troubles and rowdy offscreen antics. As later generations come to recognize Perry s prodigious talent and achievements, in Stepin...

This comprehensive history of black humor sets it in the context of American popular culture. Blackface minstrelsy, Stepin Fetchit, and the Amos n Andy show presented a distorted picture of African Americans; this book contrasts this image with the authentic underground humor of African Americans found in folktales, race records, and all-black shows and films. After generations of stereotypes, the underground humor finally emerged before the American public with Richard Pryor in the 1970s. But Pryor was not the first popular comic to present authentically black humor. Watkins offers...