Melvin Edward "Slappy" White

 Melvin Edward "Slappy" White (September 27, 1921 – November 7, 1995)

White worked with Redd Foxx on the Chitlin' Circuit of stand-up comedy during the 1950s and 1960s. He appeared on the television shows Sanford and Son, That's My Mama, Blossom, and Cybill and in the films Mr. Saturday Night and Amazon Women on the Moon. He received his nickname from the manager of a local theater where he entered a talent contest with a friend; the manager billed them as "Slap and Happy". He began his career as a dancer and did not turn to comedy until 1940 when he joined with a fellow hoofer and labeled his act the "Two Zephyrs". White and his partner, Clarence Schelle, had appeared on The Major Bowes Amateur Hour. The "Two Zephyrs" made the circuits together for over four years appearing with such notables as Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and many others. With his team "Slappy" was first introduced to Californians, making his West Coast debut in Los Angeles at the Orpheum Theatre along with Louis Armstrong. After "Two Zephyrs" came "Lewis and White" his second successful comedy team. The team with which he is best known is "Redd Foxx and 'Slappy' White". Foxx and White met in Harlem in 1947 and formed a comedy team. White was a performer in Las Vegas for many years. In the 1950s while he was on the bill with Dinah Washington, White performed his routine which made the nightclub's manager the target of his jokes. White performed the routine many times during the civil rights movement in America, and President John F. Kennedy once gave it a personal commendation.

He was well known as a comedian who eschewed offensive material in his nightclub act. In 1969, he formed a new comedy team called Rossi and White with Steve Rossi, who formerly worked with Marty Allen. White was best known in later years for the Friars' Club roasts, where he routinely appeared along with other comedians, including Milton Berle, Jackie Vernon, Pat Buttram and Dick Shawn. White died of a heart attack at his home in Brigantine, New Jersey, he was 74 years old. He was married twice, to Pearl Bailey and LaVern Baker, and had no children. White is interred at King Memorial Park in Windsor Mill Manor, Maryland.