Feets, Don't Fail Me Now (disambiguation)

Origin: Catch-phrase that possibly originated during the vaudeville and chitlin' circuit days. Spoken by several Afro-American actors in motion pictures of the 1920s to 1940s, usually when scared by a ghost or such, whereupon the character scooted. Delivered by actor Willie Best (1913–1962) in the 1940 Bob Hope film "The Ghost Breakers"; delivered by actor Stepin Fetchit (1902–1985) in several films; often attributed to actor Mantan Moreland (1902–1973)..

Dispute: In the Yale Book Of Quotations (2006) by Fred Shapiro, is it noted (pg 537) that no credible citation can be given to any film, serial or short where the aforementioned actors actually utter the phrase. Often The Ghost Breakers is mentioned as a particular instance in film - however upon review of the film the phrase is never uttered by Willie Best. Thus, although likely a vaudevillian catchphrase of some lineage - the line as spoken in film and attributed to either Best, Perry or Moreland is urban myth.

Feets, Don't Fail Me Now as titles

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/6/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.