Stepin Fetchit

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