Wonderful Smith: "Hello, Mr. President" . . . a reminder why we feel so good about Obama

[EffieBlack]

Wonderful Smith died this week.

Who is Wonderful Smith?

He was a comedian of ages long ago, a black comedian (he was "colored" then) who, among other things, did a cutting edge and highly controversial monologue in which he acted out talking to President Franklin Roosevelt on the phone.

That might not seem so controversial or cutting edge today. But, as the LA Times reported:

His "Hello, Mr. President?" monologue lampooned the New Deal and World War II preparations -- from which blacks were generally excluded -- and it invariably stopped the show at the Mayan Theatre downtown.

Pretending to talk on the telephone, he would ask an operator to get the president on the line, telling her to "just charge it to the New Deal."

...
Tame by today's standards, Smith's comedy was audacious for its time. The routine was controversial partly because it imagined a phone conversation between the president, then Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and a black man, "an unthinkable scenario for the day." .
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-smith15-2008sep15,0,3409100.story

Just think about it. 70 years ago, in the lifetime of many people still alive - my father remembers this routine - it was considered outrageous for a black man to pretend to have a phone conversation with the President of the United States. And today, we are just a couple of months shy of possibly electing a black man to the presidency.

This kind of thing makes me smile.

Thank you and rest in peace, Mr. Wonderful Smith.

[Captain Hilts]

1. Actually, blacks were not "excluded" from New Deal projects. Wrong verb.

The majority of black voters voted for Hoover in 1932 and shifted to FDR in 1936. The book, "Farewell to the Party of Lincoln" is about this shift. State localities often tried to exclude them, but it was NEVER New Deal policy to do so. Harold Ickes, head of the PWA had been head of the NAACP chapter in Chicago. Then, there's Eleanor shown here at a New Deal day care center in Des Moines, Iowa:



I would LOVE to hear some of this fellow's comedy routines.

[EffieBlack]

3. I think the obit was referring to the war preparations, not the New Deal - but it was poorly worded

[Captain Hilts]

4. I would LOVE to hear some of his routines. I'll have to scout Youtube or something.

Keep up the Good Fight!

Eleanor and Jackie:

[EffieBlack]

5. LOVE that picture!

[Captain Hilts]

6. Eleanor and Jackie rock. Stay carbonated about the election! nt

[Cooley Hurd]

2. Also known to fans of "This is Spinal Tap" as the backstage hand...

...who gives the band directions to the stage (and they proceed to get lost). A small part in a memorable movie.


Rest in peace, Mr Smith.:(