Talk:Fats Waller

Cartoons

I notice that Fats Waller is caricatured in many cartoons of the 40's (specifically WB's "Tin Pan Alley Cats", "Clean Pastures" and MGM's "Little Ol' Bosko" cartoons). In all of these cartoons the character inevitable yells out to the audience "What's the matter with him?" (sometimes it sounds like "Wot's de moto wid him?" in dialect).

Was this a staple in Waller's stage routine? What did this routine involve?

Thanks, Jeff schiller

This patter can be heard on some of Waller's recordings. -- Infrogmation 21:28, 19 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Be Kind Rewind

Should Fats Waller's presence in Gondry's Be Kind Rewind be included on this page? redlion (talk) 05:47, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

Done. Maikel (talk) 15:30, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Wildcat Blues

Is "Wildcat Blues" also composed by Waller? -- 172.158.151.96 11:22, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

his son?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhhVnQssTJQ

it's art tatum documentary and fats waller son talk there.when he was born?in the 7 minute hes talking maybe some information about him? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pentagonshark666 (talk • contribs) 14:19, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Be Kind, Rewind vandalism

We might need to lock off the Fats article because it seems Be Kind, Rewind folks are trying to alter the article with bogus facts from the film. I just removed vandalism that states his birthplace is Passaic, New Jersey - which is a key point in the Be Kind movie.Supertheman ^(talk) 06:22, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

Filmography

O.K. It is undeniable that he appeared in at least four movies: Stormy Weather 1943, Hooray for Love 1935, Ain't Misbehavin' 1941, and Be Kind Rewind 2008. Although he also supposedly was in Honeysuckle Rose 1941 and King of Burlesque 1936.--Morahman7vn (talk) 19:29, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Childhood and youth?

Could someone please add info about Fats' childhood and youth? Right now it seems as if he was born a professional performer. Thanks, Maikel (talk) 15:30, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

"The Black Ace"

I would like to raise a serious doubt about the stated fact that Fats's ashes were spread from the air by "The Black Ace".

A Web search shows that all websites reporting this supposed fact contain variants of the same sentence: "His ashes were flown and spread over Harlem by the famous World War I aviator known as 'The Black Ace'." If this were a famous person, wouldn't there be a Web reference for him?

A further Web search for "The Black Ace" turns up only fiction: stories, a play, and several movies.

Many of us would like Wikipedia to contain facts rather than repeating popular myth. I would suggest removing this sentence until we can find an actual authoritative source. David spector (talk) 00:59, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

• I agree completely. I tried to question this in the past. I've gone ahead and removed the sentence. (The reference is very non-specific; more reporting a rumor; for all I know may have been taken from an earlier version of the Wikipedia article. If we can get something resembling a primary reference (eg, period news coverage), fine. If we can get enough secondary detail to make it plausible, fine. At present we only have a vague description of some unknown but supposedly famous pilot who at present we can't even confirm existed. Removed text copied below. Infrogmation (talk) 02:26, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

His ashes were flown and spread over Harlem by the famous World War I aviator known as "The Black Ace".

vipe/viper

just curious, did waller coin the term "viper" to refer to a user of marijuana?