Manutan moreland biography of michael

In the 1930's and 40's, Mantan Moreland was perhaps the most popular actor and comedian in the movies, both with black and with white audiences - but in today's world of often misguided political correctness an actor/comedian like Mantan Moreland could - quite simply put - not exist anymore.

Mantan's roles were primarily servile characters like a chauffeur, a butler or a shoeshine boy, and his most popular routine was him going all jittery and wide-eyed in the eye of danger.

Now I admit that all that can be seen as a racial stereotype, however if white comedians like Lou Costello or even Bob Hope did similar routines of breaking up in the eye of danger, nobody would raise an eyebrow over their depiction of white men ...

and fact is that Moreland did these routines so much better. And when Mantan played a racial stereotype, one could always see the parody (of the stereotype, not of the race) shine through.

By and large, it is a mistake to reduce Mantan Moreland to his race, fact is