Stepin Fetchit

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Lincoln Theodore Monroe Perry (May 30, 1902 – November 19, 1985), better known as Stepin Fetchit, was an American vaudevillian, comedian, and film actor of Jamaican and Bahamian descent, who was considered the first black actor to have a successful film career.

When Stepin Fetchit's persona was dubbed "the Laziest Man in the World" in films and on stage in the 1930s, his highest success was during the 1930s. Perry converted the Fetchit persona into a movie career, becoming the first black actor to make more than a million dollars.

Perry's film career slowed after 1939 but almost stopped completely after 1953.

Around the same time, black Americans began to see his Stepin Fetchit persona as an embarrassing and harmful anachronism, echoing negative stereotypes.

However, the Stepin Fetchit character has undergone a re-evaluation by some scholars in recent years, who see him as a representative of the trickster archetype.

Early life

Perry's other information about him is unknown, other than that he was born in Key West, Florida, to West Indian immigrants. He was Joseph Perry, a cigar maker from Jamaica (although some sources point to the Bahamas), and Dora Monroe, a seamstress from Nassau, The Bahamas. Both of his parents immigrated to the United States in the 1890s, where they married. The family had migrated north to Tampa, Florida, by 1910. According to another source, he was adopted when he was 11 years old and moved to Montgomery, Alabama, Alabama.

Perry's mother wanted him to be a dentist, so a quack dentist, for whom he blacked boots, was able to join a carnival at age 12. He made his living as a performer and tap dancer for a few years.

Personal life

Perry married Dorothy Stevenson in 1929. Jemajo, the family's son, was born on September 12, 1930. Dorothy, a 1931 widow, applied for divorce, claiming that Perry's nose, jaw, and arm had been broken with "his fists and a broomstick." Dorothy told a reporter that she wished someone would "just beat the devil out of him" as she had to her a few weeks after his divorce was approved. Perry moved Dorothy to Arizona for treatment when she contracted tuberculosis in 1933. She died in September 1934.

Perry is said to have married Winifred Johnson in 1937, but no evidence of their union has been found. Winifred gave birth to Donald Martin Perry, his son, on May 21, 1938. Soon after Donald's birth, their friendship came to an end. According to Winifred's brother, Stretch Johnson, their father intervened after Perry knocked Winifred down the stairs and broke her nose. Perry was arrested in 1941 after Winifred filed a complaint for child care. "Winnie and I never married" when he was released from jail, he told reporters. This was all a publicity stunt. I want you and everybody else to know that this is not my baby. Winnie knows the baby isn't mine, but she's trying to be smart." Winifred admitted that they were not legally married, but she insisted Perry was her son's father. The court ruled in her favour and ordered Perry to pay $12 per week (roughly $220 in 2020 dollars) for the child's care. Lambright became Donald's stepfather's surname later in life.

Bernice Sims was Perry's first marriage since May 15, 1951. Although they separated in the mid-1950s, the couple remained married for the remainder of their lives. Bernice died on January 9, 1985.

Perry was mainly a devout Catholic for the majority of his life, but he later became a member of the Nation of Islam in the early 1960s, following Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X's footsteps, including appearing in the 1977 film Muhammad Ali. (Other accounts have said he was a lifelong Catholic).

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Vaudeville career

Perry became a comedic character actor in his teens. Perry, a teen artist and the director of a traveling carnival show, by the age of 20, had become a vaudeville artist and show manager. His stage name was a diminution of "step and fetch it." He credited the name with a variety of ways, but it came from when he performed a vaping act with a spouse, as he said. Perry won money betting on "Step and Fetch It" and his partner and he decided to use the letters "Step" and "Fetchit" for their act. When Perry became a solo artist, he combined the two names, which later became his professional name.

Film career

Perry appeared in a number of films, all based on his character as the "Laziest Man in the World." He was literate in his personal life and had a long career writing for The Chicago Defender. Following his success in the film In Old Kentucky (1927), he signed a five-year studio contract. A romantic relationship was present in the film's plot, which was a rarity for black actors to appear in a white film during this period. Perry appeared in Hearts in Dixie (1929), one of the first studio plays to feature mainly black actors.

In the 1929 version of Show Boat, Jules Bledsoe provided Perry with his singing voice. In the film, Fetchit did not sing "Ol' Man River," but he did sing "The Lonesome Road." Hal Roach, a 1930 film actor, committed him to a film role in nine Our Gang episodes between 1930 and 1931. However, he was in A Tough Winter, his only appearance in the series. Since its inception, Perry's deal was terminated for unknown reasons.

Perry was a good friend with Will Rogers, a fellow comedian. They appeared together in David Harum (1934), Judge Priest (1934), Steamboat Round the Bend (1935), and The County Chairman (1935).

Perry was the first black actor to become a millionaire by the mid-1930s. Between 1927 and 1939, he appeared in 44 films. Perry, who had been irritened by his inability to get equal compensation and billing for his white costars in 1940, stopped appearing in films for a short time. He returned in 1945, partially due to financial hardship, although he appeared in eight films between 1945 and 1953. He declared bankruptcy in 1947, owing to $146 (equal to about $1,772) today. he returned to vaindeville in 1949, with the Anderson Free Fair as his companions. In the 1960s, he became a mentor of heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, who is reportedly converted to Islam shortly before. (Other accounts have said he was a lifelong Catholic)

Perry appeared in cameos in the made-for-television film Cutter (1972) and the feature films The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976). He found himself in conflict throughout his career with civil rights activists who chastised him specifically for the film roles he played. In 1968, CBS aired "Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed, an Andy Rooney script that criticized the representation of black people in American cinema, and in particular singled out Stepin Fetchit for criticism. Perry unsuccessfully filed a lawsuit against CBS and the documentary's makers for defamation of character after the show aired.

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