Woman Haters Cast
RDW
The cast of this Columbia first is:
Marjorie White, A.R. Haysel, Monte Collins, Bud Jamison, "Snowflake",
Jack Norton, Don Roberts, Tiny Sanford, Dorothy Vernon, Les Goodwin,
Charles Richman, George Gray, Gilbert C. Emery, Walter Brennen.
Does anyone know who or what "Snowflake" is?
Hal Erickson
RDW <rd...@swbell.net> wrote:
"Snowflake" was the demeaning professional name of black character
actor Fred H. Toones, who played the pullman porter in WOMAN HATERS.
He "earned" this cognomen by playing a dimwitted character named
Snowflake in several B westerns of the 1930s (and also in Al Jolson's
1936 musical GO INTO YOUR DANCE). He can also be seen as the janitor
who discards the still-lit cigar in Laurel and Hardy's WAY OUT WEST
and in several Preston Sturges films of the 1940s (notably THE PALM
BEACH STORY).
I used to think that Mr. Toones was saddled with the most racist
nickname in all of filmdom until I saw "G. Howe Black" in the 1925
Larry Semon version of WIZARD OF OZ. However, I think G. Howe Black
was a white man in blackface. Mr. Toones wasn't able to remove his
skin at the end of the shooting day; goodness only knows how he really
felt about his "funny" stage moniker.
At least Dudley Dickerson was permitted to keep HIS original name.
--Hal Erickson
JimNeibaur
a stooge fan asked:
Does anyone know who or what "Snowflake" is?
------------
Snowflake was Fred Toomes (1906-1962), a black actor who had small roles
in several films during the thirties and forties. I believe he plays a
porter in "Woman Haters."
JimN
JimNeibaur
I once read that Snowflake, Stepin Fetchit, Mantan Moreland, and Sleep N
Eat all created their own names. But Hal's mentioning G. Howe Black in
Semon's painfully bad "Wizard of Oz" was indeed played by a white actor in
blackface, and that is racism (it may not have been perceived as such back
then).
Many black performers -- Dudley, Clarence Muse, and the black actor who
appeared in some Larry Semon shorts (I cant remember his name) -- did
indeed use their own names. And although there were limitations as to the
roles they could play in mainstream productions, the comic moments hold up
better today than white liberals like me tend to usually believe.
JimN
Hardyboy01
>I used to think that Mr. Toones was saddled with the most racist nickname
Let's not forget Sleep 'n Eat (Willy Best) or Steppen Fetchit.
Hardyboy01
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No Snowflake -- Kingfisher!