Stepin Fetchit: The Life and Times of Lincoln Perry

by Mel Watkins

The first African American movie star, Lincoln Perry, a.k.a. Stepin Fetchit, is an iconic figure in the history of American popular culture. In the late 1920s and ’30s he was both renowned and reviled for his surrealistic portrayals of the era’s most popular comic stereotype—the lazy, shiftless Negro. After his breakthrough role in the 1929 film Hearts in Dixie, Perry was hailed as “the best actor that the talking pictures have produced” by the critic Robert Benchley.

Having run away from his Key West home in his early teens, Perry found success as a vaude-
villian before making his way to California. The tall, lanky actor became the first millionaire black movie star when he appeared in a string of hit movies as the whiny, ever-perplexed, slow-talking comic sidekick. Perry was the highest paid and most popular black comedian in America during Hollywood’s Golden Age, but his ongoing battles with movie executives, his rowdy offscreen behavior, and his extravagant spending kept him in gossip-column headlines. Perry’s spendthrift ways and exorbitant lifestyle hastened his decline and, in 1947, having squandered or given away his fortune, he was forced to declare bankruptcy.

In 1964 Perry was discovered in the charity ward of Chicago’s Cook County Hospital; he later turned up in Muhammad Ali’s entourage. In 1972 he unsuccessfully sued CBS for defamation because of a television program that ridiculed the type of characters he had portrayed. But his achievements were eventually in 1976 the Hollywood chapter of the NAACP gave him its Special Image Award for having opened the door for many a succeeding African American film star, and in 1978 he was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. In Stepin Fetchit, Mel Watkins has given us the first definitive, full-scale biography of an entertainment legend.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, African American, History

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Demetria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most biographies, this one dragged in places (hence 4 stars instead of 5 stars), but what a great read! I had no idea how handsome and intelligent Lincoln Perry (Stepin' Fethit) was. Look at the picture on the cover. That is a million dollar smile. Perry also wrote articlec for the Chicago Defender and at times was downright eloquent. I love old movies and I also love to read about the actors in those old movies. I sit around looking at movies on TCM with my laptop, so I can Google the actors. There's always something interesting to learn and this bio of Lincoln Perry is no exception. If you are a movie buff or you just like interesting bios, this is a good book to read.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific read

Lincoln Perry was apparently an excellent actor. I've never seen any of his movies, but Lionel Barrymore and Will Rogers both called him a gifted actor. He played a part that went out of favor rapidly and he didn't want to update it.

The result is that he was forever identified with the character he played. He was difficult to get along with, profligate, perhaps manic depressive. Anyway, a well written book of a man who led an interesting life.

[Malcolm Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent depiction of an age when America was a racially divided nation.I did not realise the effect that Perry had on Afro Americans in the thirties and beyond.An absorbing book.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

One can't help but be more sympathetic towards Lincoln Perry after reading this book. Perhaps born in another time he would have been lauded and celebrated. But time moved on and he unfortunately did not. Once thought of by both Black and White as the nations best comic actor, his name became synonymous with docile, backwards, Black servitude. But that was Lincoln Perry's character. As the story of his life unfolds in these pages the man was far from that. He was at times militant even radical in his dealings with a racist Hollywood power structure. He was flamboyant in the Jack Johnson mold (one of his best friends) and wealthy beyond most Black peoples dreams at the turn of the century.
I have a very hazy recollection of Stepin Fetchit movies. I would really like to see one or two to see if he is unfairly maligned and a comic genius as the author posits or is his character truly offensive as most came to believe. But I don't think any reader will come away without a new understanding of the man and not just what his name has come to represent.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm trying to get through this one, but the writing style is pretty dry.

The subject matter, however is great. Stepin Fetchit was a bold African American movie star at the dawn of Hollywood. An over the top character, he made a lot of enemies and entertained a lot of people. I'm going to finish this because I want to know his whole story, but I feel like there is a lot of padding in there, like this was originally a 50 page book.

[Jon]

Some errors here--the Marx Brothers were never "Fox stars" (they worked for Paramount, MGM, RKO, and UA) and Louis Armstrong could not have visited an ailing Perry in 1976 (Armstrong died in 1971)--but never mind that, this well-written, insightful biography of Stepin Fetchit a/k/a Lincoln Perry is definitive and makes for compulsive reading. The title of the Bill Cosby-narrated, Andy-Rooney(!!)-written TV feature that Perry blamed for destroying his hopes for a comeback, "Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed?" is ironically appropriate for this biography--Fetchit's story was indeed "lost" before Watkins recovered it. Well...Perry got some posthumous revenge on Cosby, at least....

[Ruppert Baird · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful and eye-opening biography of THE pioneer for today's black stars of screen and TV. Stepin Fetchit was a mercurial and intense talent that cleared the way for many other performers all the way to Will Smith. There was so much that has been swept away, ignored, and minimized about this man, and Mel Watkins brings out the truths and tragedies of the man.
I learned so much about a man whose name I had heard of when I was much younger.
My only criticism is the obvious stumble in the final chapter of the editor who allowed in a number of typos, and the minimal pictures.

[Brad Mariano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-researched and convincing argument for the artistry and autonomy of probably the most maligned figure in film history