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Chuck and Chuckles [biography]
Chuck and Chuckles, Charles "Chuck" Green and James Walker, are considered to be one of the most famous two-man comedy teams of 1930s and 1940s. In 1910, at the age of nine, Green was spotted by a talent agent and taken to New York to study tap dance. Nat Nazzaro, known as the "monster agent" by those who knew of his practice of signing vulnerable young performers to ironclad contracts, signed Green to his own contract when he was twelve years old. A few years later, Green formed the team of Shorty and Slim with childhood friend James Walker, a talented comic dancer. They studied the great comedians of the day, picking up lines of patter from such shows on the black vaudeville circuit as Pigmeat Crack Shot and Hunter Pete and Repeate. Their act was hilarious. They did what was called "dumb talk comedy," a rapid rhythmic banter that was interspersed between the songs and dances. As Walker played a broken-down vibraphone that looked as if it were falling apart, Green sang, "Some people was born to be doctors . . . some people were born to be kings . . . I fortunately was born to swing." Then they tap danced, with Green making graceful turns and Walker excelling in legomania. Nazarro at the time also managed Buck and Bubbles (Ford Lee "Buck" Washington and John Sublett Bubbles). He suggested that Green and Walker study the singing-dancing-comedy team that had bypassed the black vaudeville Theatre Owners Booking Association (TOB.A) circuit to become headliners on the white vaudeville circuit; by 1922 they had played New York's prestigious Palace Theatre. Changing the name of their act to Chuck and Chuckles, Green and Walker were groomed as a "juvenile act" to Buck and Bubbles.
Through the 1930s and early 1940s, Chuck and Chuckles toured Europe, Australia, and the United States, performing in such venues as Radio City Music Hall, the Paramount, Apollo, Lafayette Theatre, Harlem Opera House, and Capital theatres. They also toured with Duke Ellington, and in 1943 and 1944 toured on the Victory Circuit with a total of 168 entertainers, this being the first Negro Overseas circuit that was organized in September 1943 when Willie Bryant and others made an 11-week tour of the Caribbean area. Jobs were plentiful and their manager had the team doubling up on performances. They averaged five stage shows a day, played nightclubs until early morning, and toured nonstop with big bands across the country and abroad. By 1944, the strain and wear of performing had taken its toll. The team of Chuck and Chuckles broke up.