Curtis “Snowball” McHenry a.k.a. “G. Howe Black”

April 4 is the birthday of pathbreaking black comedian Curtis McHenry (1889-1934). Originally from Ruston, Louisiana, McHenry started out in circuses before breaking into pictures in 1920, mostly supporting Larry Semon but also to be found in movies starring Jimmie Adams,Will Rogers,Our Gang, and others. His best known picture nowadays is Semon’s notorious 1925 version of The Wizard of Oz.

McHenry’s (real) name (along with contemporary Spencer Bell, with whom he is often confused) deserves to be better known. He was one of the first African Americans to make his way in the film industry — a decade before the likes of Stepin Fetchit came to the fore, for example. His parts were almost invariably egregious stereotypes and one-off sight gags. His billing in many films was “G. Howe Black”, his parts were usually servants or menials or some sort (named Snowball or the like), and the gags often revolved around his superstitious fear, or the fact that he’d fallen into a white substance (flour, talcum powder) making him resemble a Caucasian (at least in the film’s twisted world). But this didn’t stop him from being pretty darned funny, which is undoubtedly why he was hired and frequently employed in the first place. (His running-in-place-while-terrified routine is a showstopper). His last picture was the western The Last Frontier (1932) with Lon Chaney Jr. 

For more on classic comedy films please check out: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube — now also available on audiobook.