Comedian Wonderful Smith, whose edgy routines helped break racial stereotypes, dies at 97
Wonderful Smith, whose boundary-pushing comedy routine in Duke Ellington's satirical revue "Jump for Joy" -- staged in Los Angeles in 1941 -- helped the black cast counter against racial stereotypes in entertainment, has died. He was 97.
Smith died Aug. 28 of natural causes at an assisted-living facility in Northridge, said his niece Lois Johnson.
His “Hello, Mr. President?” monologue lampooned the New Deal and World War II preparations -- from which blacks were generally excluded -- and it invariably stopped the show at the Mayan Theatre downtown.
Pretending to talk on the telephone, he would ask an operator to get the president on the line, telling her to "just charge it to the New Deal."
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