GREETINGS & SALUTATIONS! "Swing High," (1930) is about a circus aerialist who fights to keep her lover out of the hands of a scheming woman. It stars Chester Conklin, Stepin Fetchit, Helen Twelvetrees, and Ben Turpin. However, it is Stepin Fetchit who breathes life into this musical. Stepin Fetchit was born Lincoln Theodore Monroe Albert Perry in Key West, Florida sometime between 1892 and 1902; the son of a cigar maker. He left home in 1914 to pursue a show business career, joining the Royal American Shows plantation revues. Years later he is said to have taken his stage name from a Baltimore racehorse that had inspired him to write a routine for himself and his stage partner of the time, Ed Lee. They billed themselves as "Step 'n' Fetchit: Two Dancing Fools from Dixie." After splitting with his partner, Fetchit kept the name for himself as he spent long, arduous years in the vaudeville circuit. He provided comic relief in many films during the Depression years. Respectfully yours, Sarge Booker
Review of Swing High
