Two Black Crows

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The Two Black Crows was a blackface comedy act popular in the 1920s and 30s. The duo appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, on radio, comedy records and in film features and shorts.

The act, also known as Moran and Mack, was started by Charles Mack (1888-1934). He had many partners, including John Swor, his brother Bert Swor and George Moran (1881-1949). John Swor left the act, at that time called Swor & Mack and was replaced by Moran and the name of the act changed. Later, after a business dispute with Moran, Moran left and was replaced by Bert Swor, who took the name Moran. The duo was most successful when it included the "real" Moran.

Their greatest success was on phonograph records. Although their gags were mostly corny (and very often non-racial) and the characters were stereotypical (one practical but naive, the other seemingly slow and lazy yet quick with a quip and a certain skewed logic), the relationship depicted plus their laconic delivery made them one of the most successful of comedy teams.

Typical corny joke:

"On our farm, we had a thousand chickens, and 999 of 'em laid eggs."

"What was wrong with the other one?"

"Uh, he was the Head Man."

Once Moran played a blast on his kazoo. "Mmmm... Even if that was good, I wouldn't like it!" Mack commented dourly. Moran said, "I can play anything on this!" Mack retorted, "You can't play piano on that!" And on it went.

And this shows at least how old the following joke is:

• "I'll meet you down by the pig-pen. You keep your hat on so I'll know ya!"

Even a watermelon joke, the essence of racial stereotyping, took on a certain surrealist air in their hands:

"Wish I had an ice-cold watermelon."

"Oh lawdy," says Moran, "Me too."

"Wish I had a thousand ice-cold watermelons."

"Glory be. I bet if you had a thousand ice cold watermelons you'd give me one."

"No, no siree! If you are too lazy to wish for your own watermelons, you ain't gonna get none of mine."

One extended routine was so well-known in that era that it was referenced in a 1936 MGM cartoon called The Early Bird and the Worm, featuring two actual black crows, who are introduced lying back in a lazy posture, reciting part of this bit including the key phrase noted below.

Dog-gone it, seems like every time there's a [train] excursion, I'm always broke.

You wouldn't be broke if you'd go to work.

I would work, if I could find any pleasure in it.

I don't know anything about pleasure, but always remember it's the early bird that catches the worm!

Uh, the early bird catches what worm?

Why, any worm!

Well, what of it, what about it?

He catches it, that's all!

Well, what's the worm's idea in being there?

(They go on and on with this as Moran gets ever more exasperated, and Mack finally sighs):

Who wants a worm, anyhow?

That tag line was also used in the 1941 Warner Brothers entry, The Wacky Worm, uttered again by a crow, as he gives up trying to catch the worm in question.

The team was known for two catch-phrases. Moran would remind Mack of some unfortunate event, causing Mack to say, "Why bring that up?" Mack frequently would interrupt Moran's description of something with a drawling "What causes that?"

The duo of Moran and Mack appeared in vaudeville with W.C. Fields, on Broadway in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1920 and in Earl Carroll's Vanities in the mid-1920s. When sound movies arrived, Moran and Mack starred in a couple of feature films for Paramount, but soon wound up at the low-budget Educational Pictures studio for a series of "Two Black Crows" short subjects.

Charles Mack died in an automobile accident in 1934, effectively ending the act (although George Moran did try to revive it with other partners).