As far as the grueling vaudeville circuit went, Ernest “Brownie” Brown had a much easier road to stardom than most.
As half of the comedy act Cook and Brown, Mr. Brown was used to being shuttled across the country in trains and autos to perform with stars Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Lena Horne.
Known for its slapstick comedy and high-energy dancing and acrobatic numbers, Mr. Brown was the diminutive mischief-maker to Charles “Cookie” Cook’s lanky straight-man from London’s Palladium to New York’s Apollo Theater. Last year, the duo was inducted into the American Tap Dance Foundation’s Tap Dance Hall of Fame.
In 1949, Mr. Brown and 20 of the country’s best tap dancers formed the traveling Copasetics dance troupe, created to keep alive the tap dancing art form.
Mr. Brown, 93, died Friday, Aug. 21, at the Exceptional Care nursing home in southwest suburban Burbank, according to Scott Stearns, who is completing a documentary on the tap dancer.
Stearns, whose documentary will chronicle Mr. Brown’s later work with a younger tap dancing partner, said he was shocked by the vitality shown by the dancer known for his trademark cane dance.
“He was such a buoyant, irrepressible spirit. He just lit up whatever space he was in,” Stearns said.
Standing 4 foot 9, Mr. Brown learned at an early age how to stand out in a crowd. Born in 1916, the South Side native showed a flair for dancing at an early age, performing on street corners. After winning a youth talent show, Mr. Brown was recruited into the vaudeville circuit and at age 12 began touring the country, Stearns said.
In the early 1930s, Mr. Brown teamed with Cook to form Cook and Brown, which combined comedy with a highly stylized dance routines and acrobatics.
They headlined clubs all over the world, Radio City Music Hall, the Latin Casino in Paris and, perhaps the world’s most famous jazz venue, the Cotton Club. While many acts suffered indignities of performing on the vaudeville’s “chitlin circuit,” Mr. Brown never complained, happy to live his dream of performing before crowds. The duo continued to perform into the 1970s. Cook died in 1991.
Mr. Brown helped found the Copasetics following the death of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson.
Though he lived many years in New York City, Mr. Brown settled back in Chicago in the 1990s, where he continued to perform. In recent years, he continued working with a tap dancer, Reggio McLaughlin.
Mr. Brown is survived by a daughter; Barbara Junkins; a sister, Marie Arrington; three grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
Funeral services are set for Wednesday in Cage Memorial Chapel, 7651 S. Jeffery Blvd., Chicago.
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