Mantan Moreland


Mantan Moreland was an American actor and comedian most popular in the 1930s and 1940s. He starred in numerous films. His daughter Marcella Moreland appeared as a child actor in several films.

Early years

He was born in Monroe, Louisiana, to Frank, an old-time Dixieland bandleader, and Marcella. Moreland began acting by the time he was an adolescent; some sources say he ran away to join a minstrel show in 1910, at age eight, but his daughter told Moreland's biographer she doubts this date is correct. She and other sources agree it is more likely he left home when he was fourteen.

Career

After "nearly ten years of working the small, small time", Moreland gained an opportunity in 1927 when he was hired as a comedian in Connie's Inn Frolics in Harlem. He next worked in the musical revue Blackbirds of 1928, which ran for 518 performances. By the late 1920s, Moreland had made his way through vaudeville, working with various shows and revues, performing on Broadway and touring Europe.
Following the death of Aubrey Lyles, one half of African American vaudeville act Miller and Lyles, in 1932, Flournoy Miller asked Moreland to team up with him for personal appearances. With Moreland, Miller performed comedy routines he had done with Lyles. The pair performed together in the one-reel short film That's the Spirit as a pair of night watchmen and for stage productions by Miller, Dixie Goes High Hat and Hollywood Revue. Moreland appeared in low-budget "race movies" aimed at African American audiences, including One Dark Night with Bette Treadville, Lucky Ghost, Mr. Washington Goes to Town and Mantan Runs for Mayor, again with Miller.
As his comedic talents became recognized, Moreland appeared in larger productions. At the height of his career, Moreland received steady work from major film studios, as well as from independent producers who starred Moreland in low-budget, all-African American-cast comedies. Monogram Pictures signed Moreland to appear opposite Frankie Darro in the studio's popular action pictures. Moreland, with his bulging eyes and cackling laugh, quickly became a favorite supporting player in Hollywood movies. In 1940's Drums of the Desert, Moreland played a more serious role as the sergeant in charge of a squad of Senegalese Tirailleurs in French colonial Algeria alongside Ralph Byrd, known for appearing in Republic Pictures' Dick Tracy serials. He is perhaps best known for his role as chauffeur Birmingham Brown in Monogram's Charlie Chan series.
During the 1940s, he teamed up with Ben Carter as his straight man, touring America in vaudeville and making personal appearances in the nation's movie theaters. Moreland and Carter performed comedy routines the former learned when he became Flournoy Miller's understudy in the 1930s, including the famous "indefinite talk" routine, in which they would speak to one another, start a sentence only to be interrupted by the other, yet they understand each other perfectly. Moreland and Carter had developed an excellent rapport and impeccable timing. During World War II, they performed at the then segregated USOs such as one in Riverside, California. Their version of "indefinite talk" can be seen in two Charlie Chan pictures, The Scarlet Clue and Dark Alibi, as well as in the big-budget Universal musical Bowery to Broadway. The partnership lasted until Carter died in 1946. Moreland and Nipsey Russell performed this routine in two all-black variety films in 1955.
During the second half of the 1940s, the public attitudes toward the portrayals of African Americans in the cinema had changed. When filmmakers began to reassess roles given to black actors, Moreland's characterization in his film appearances was considered demeaning to the African-American community, resulting in his being offered fewer roles in the 1950s. Financial difficulties forced Moreland to tour making personal appearances during the late 1940s and the early 1950s with Bud Harris, Tim Moore, Redd Foxx and Nipsey Russell as his straight men.
Mantan's biographer, Michael Price, states Moreland was briefly considered as a possible addition to the Three Stooges. After Shemp Howard died of a sudden heart attack on November 22, 1955, at age 60, Moe Howard was said had been observing Moreland's act for years and offered Moreland a chance to join the act as the new "third stooge" at the behest of his late brother Shemp. Moreland was reported to be enthusiastic about the offer, but Columbia Pictures insisted on a comedian already under contract. Joe Besser, one of a few comedians still making comedy shorts at the studio, was eventually recruited to join the act in 1956.

Later career and death

Moreland's last featured role was in the darkly humorous horror film Spider Baby, which was patterned after Universal's thrillers of the 1940s. After suffering a stroke in the early 1960s, Moreland took on a few minor comedic roles, working with Bill Cosby, Moms Mabley and Carl Reiner. He later partnered with Roosevelt Livingood to form the comedic team of Mantan and Livingood, which produced a number of recorded albums on Laff Records.
Moreland died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1973 in Hollywood, aged 71, and is interred at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.

Recognition

In 2004, Moreland was inducted into the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum Hall of Fame.

Selected filmography

That's the Spirit as Night WatchmanThe Green Pastures as Angel Removing Hat Harlem on the Prairie as MistletoeSpirit of Youth as Creighton 'Crickie' FitzgibbonsTwo-Gun Man from Harlem as Bill BlakeFrontier Scout as Norris Family ButlerNext Time I Marry as TilbyGang Smashers as GloomyThere's Always a Woman as Porter Tell No Tales as Sport Black at the Wake Riders of the Frontier as Chappie Irish Luck as JeffersonOne Dark Night as Samson BrownThe Man Who Wouldn't Talk as Robbins City of Chance as Anxious Man Chasing Trouble as Thomas H. JeffersonMillionaire Playboy as BellhopViva Cisco Kid as Memphis - The Cook Star Dust as George, Dining Car Steward Girl in 313 as PorterOn the Spot as Jefferson WhiteMaryland Pier 13 as Sam - Elevator Operator Laughing at Danger as JeffersonUp in the Air as JeffWhile Thousands Cheer as NashDrums of the Desert as Sergeant 'Blue' WilliamsFour Shall Die as Beefus - Touissant's ChauffeurLady from Louisiana as Servant You're Out of Luck as Jeff JeffersonSleepers West as Porter Footlight Fever as Willie Hamsure - Elevator Operator Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery as RoySign of the Wolf as BenMr. Washington Goes to Town as Schenectady JonesKing of the Zombies as JeffHello, Sucker as Elevator BoyBachelor Daddy as Club Janitor The Gang's All Here as Jefferson 'Jeff' SmithCracked Nuts as BurgessAccent on Love as Prisoner in Courtroom Dressed to Kill as RustyWorld Premiere as Train Porter Let's Go Collegiate as JeffIt Started with Eve as Railway Porter Birth of the Blues as Black Trumpet Player Marry the Boss's Daughter as Cook Up Jumped the Devil as WashingtonFreckles Comes Home as Jeff - the Hotel PorterTreat 'Em Rough as 'Snake-Eyes'Four Jacks and a Jill as Cicero - Wash Room Attendant Law of the Jungle as Jefferson 'Jeff' JonesLucky Ghost as WashingtonProfessor Creeps as WashingtonThe Strange Case of Doctor Rx as Horatio B.Fitz WashingtonTarzan's New York Adventure as Sam, the Nightclub Janitor Mexican Spitfire Sees a Ghost as Lightnin'Footlight Serenade as Amos. Tommy's DresserA-Haunting We Will Go as Porter Phantom Killer as Nicodemus Girl Trouble as EdwardEyes in the Night as AlistairThe Palm Beach Story as Diner Waiter Andy Hardy's Double Life as Prentiss the Benedict Butler It Comes Up Love as Janitor The Crime Smasher as Eustace SmithCabin in the Sky as First Idea ManSlightly Dangerous as Waiter at Swade's He Hired the Boss as Shoeshine Man Sarong Girl as MaxwellHit the Ice as Porter with Snowshoes We've Never Been Licked as WillieMelody Parade as SkidmoreRevenge of the Zombies as JeffHi'ya, Sailor as SamYou're a Lucky Fellow, Mr. Smith as PorterMy Kingdom for a Cook as Train Porter Swing Fever as Woody, Nick's Valet She's for Me as SamChip Off the Old Block as PorterCharlie Chan in the Secret Service as Birmingham BrownSee Here, Private Hargrove as Porter on Train Moon Over Las Vegas as PorterPin-Up Girl as Red Cap #2 This Is the Life as Porter The Chinese Cat as Birmingham BrownSouth of Dixie as The PorterBlack Magic as Birmingham BrownMystery of the River Boat as Napoleon the ship steererBowery to Broadway as AlabamThe Jade Mask as Birmingham BrownThe Scarlet Clue as Birmingham BrownThe Shanghai Cobra as Birmingham BrownCaptain Tugboat Annie as PintoShe Wouldn't Say Yes as porter The Spider as HenryMantan Messes Up as MantanRiverboat Rhythm as MantanDark Alibi as Birmingham BrownShadows Over Chinatown as Birmingham BrownThe Trap as Birmingham BrownTall, Tan, and Terrific as Mantan MorelandMantan Runs for Mayor The Chinese Ring as Birmingham BrownEbony Parade as MantanWhat a Guy
;Television

Recordings

  • That Ain't My Finger
  • Elsie's Sportin' House
  • ''Tribute to the Man''

Cultural references

Robert B. Parker makes allusions to Moreland in A Catskill Eagle and Hush Money, both being part of his long-running series of Spenser novels.
Bamboozled, a 2000 film directed by Spike Lee, centers around a fictional television show called Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show featuring stereotypes of minstrel theater and starring a tap dancing character, played by Savion Glover, named Mantan. Clips of Moreland are featured during a montage at the end of the film.
"B-Boys Makin with the Freak Freak", a song by Beastie Boys featured on their 1994 album Ill Communication, samples a line from Mantan's comedy album That Ain't My Finger, referencing a bit about a party and mashed potatoes.