Sunshine Sammy Morrison

Ernest Fredric Morrison (December 20, 1912 – July 24, 1989) was an American child actor, comedian, vaudevillian, and dancer who also performed under the stage-name Sunshine Sammy Morrison. He was the only black member of the East Side Kids and was an original performer in Our Gang, a 1920s silent film franchise.

Early life

Born in 1912 in New Orleans, Morrison was the brother of Florence Morrison and stage- and screen-actress Dorothy Morrison. He entered show-business as a replacement for another infant actor who constantly cried. A crew member asked Morrison's father, Ernest Morrison Sr., to bring in his newborn son. Because Morrison sat perfectly and didn't cry during filming, the crew christened him with the name "Sunshine". Morrison's father added "Sammy" to his son's stage name to create the iconic character Sunshine Sammy.

Biography

Morrison ultimately appeared in two-reel silent comedies opposite both Harold Lloyd and Snub Pollard, two of the era's biggest comedians. He was the first African-American actor to be signed to a long-term contract, signing with studio executive and comedy producer Hal Roach in 1919. When Roach conceived his Our Gang series, featuring child actors in a natural juvenile setting in 1921, Sammy was the first child recruited. Morrison left the series in January 1925; the young actor was then making $225 a week (equal to about $4,000 weekly in 2025), and his father demanded a pay raise of $75 a week, which Roach refused. Ernie Morrison's last Roach credits were Jimmie Parrott comedies; these had been filmed in 1923 but were not released to theatres until 1926.

Ernie Morrison went to make personal appearances in vaudeville, where his talents were featured on the same bills with such up-and-coming acts as Abbott and Costello and Jack Benny.

After touring in Australia with partner Sleepy Williams, Morrison returned to the United States and was chosen by producer Sam Katzman to be one of the East Side Kids. From the beginning, Morrison tapped into his experiences growing up on the East Side of New York City to shape the character of "Scruno." He spent three years with the gang before leaving to pursue other opportunities, often doing promotional stints with Huntz Hall and Bobby Jordan. Morrison left the series when he was offered an opportunity to work with the Step Brothers act, a prominent black stage-and-film dance act. He was drafted into the army during World War II. After being discharged, he was offered a part in The Bowery Boys, the successor to the East Side Kids that was just being launched, but he declined the offer. Morrison "didn't like the setup": Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall were now the stars of the troupe, and Bobby Jordan and the other gang members were now incidental players and paid much less.

Morrison later worked as a quality control inspector for an aerospace company in Compton, California. In later years, Morrison appeared in a guest spot on the sitcom Good Times airing in 1974.

Morrison died of cancer in Lynwood aged 76, on July 24, 1989. He is interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California, where later Our Gang cast member Buckwheat Thomas is also buried.

Selected filmography

Bibliography

• Holmstrom, John. The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995, Norwich, Michael Russell, 1996, pp. 56–58.
• Dye, David. Child and Youth Actors: Filmography of Their Entire Careers, 1914-1985. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1988, p. 165.

External links

• at IMDb Retrieved on 2009-05-18
• . Find a Grave.