Patterson and Jackson: Two Tons of Song and Mirth

This post is one of a series honoring Black History Month.

Patterson and Jackson were a plus sized African American comedy duo who billed themselves as “Two Tons of Song and Mirth” at black vaudeville theatres and nightclubs in the 1940s and 1950s. The clip below, in which they comically impersonate the Ink Spots doing “If I Didn’t Care”, is from the 1948 film Killer Diller.

To find out more about the variety artspast and present, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold. And don’t missChain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, to be released by Bear Manor Media in 2013.