Dust jacket for Newhall resident Charles E. "Charley" Mack's novel, "Two Black Crows in the A.E.F.," New York: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, 1928.

Paramount turned the story into the 1930 film, "Anybody's War," starring Mack and his Two Black Crows partner, George Moran.

Dust jacket flap reads:

"Old Uncle Sam's callin' on Amos to jump in an' help him out with de war. You heard about the Draft Ack, maybe? Well, I see de sheriff today an' he invites me to come into de Court House an' get registered for de army. Dat's how bad dy needin' men like me. 'Fore long I may be over in France peelin' Germans wid my razor."

When war was declared the Kaiser had never heard of two obscure citizens in Buford, Tenn., the heroes of Two Black Crows in the A.E.F.

That made it fifty-fifty. The Crows had never heard of him either. And thereby hangs this tale — a tale of dice, war and a wonderful A.W.O.L. which lasted three weeks and included a glorious bust with a Senegalese soldier. It is also the story of a romance aided by the two Black Crows and the righting of a great wrong.

Charles Mack was born Charles E. Selders in White Cloud, Kansas, on Nov. 22, 1887, but he grew up in Tacoma, Washington. He was half of the "Two Black Crows" blackface vaudeville team with George Moran, and he built a compound of three houses in Newhall where he lived in the 1920s and '30s.

By his own account, Mack played professional baseball as a young man in Olympia, Wash., where he was known as "the man in the iron mask" (he was a catcher). "The street car company owned the ball club," he writes, "and in my spare time I was a conductor on the cars. This so electrified me that I got a job as an electrician in a Tacoma theatre, my first experience in show business."

"Sometimes the actors ran out of juice," he continues, "and I supplied it to them in the shape of new acts. After a while I thought that as long as the actors liked my stuff I might as well write an act for myself and be an actor. So I scraped some black off the kitchen stove and went on the stage. I didn't have nerve enough to do it whiteface."

Mack — who signed his name "Charley Mack" — hired John Swor as his first partner and eventually hired Moran to replace him when Swor left.

"Since then I have called my act Moran & Mack — The Two Black Crows. Vaudeville audiences both here and in England seemed to like it," he writes.

Among their notable appearances were with W.C. Fields in vaudeville, and in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1920 and Earl Carroll's Vanities on Broadway.

"Phonograph records, based on my acts, made noises in about 7,000,000 homes," he writes. "I also got into a lot more million living rooms through the radio."

"The Two Black Crows" became a weekly radio show in 1928 and centered around corny (and usually non-racial) jokes and gags. Like their 1929 Paramount comedy of the same name, one of their catch phrases was "Why bring that up?" It was Mack's retort when Moran would remind him of something better left forgotten. Another was, "Who wants a worm, anyhow?" — Mack's retort when Moran would tell a parable ending in the admontion, "The early bird catches the worm."

Mack also wrote a novel in 1928, "The Two Black Crows in the A.E.F.," which Paramount turned into the 1930 Mack & Moran picture, "Anybody's War."

Meanwhile, Newhall was close enough to Hollywood yet remote enough to serve as a getaway. Mack built himself a unique gingerbread home in the French Norman style on 8th Street, west of Market Street, around 1924, and added two smaller cottages at the end (top) of 8th Street. Collectively the compound was known as Crowland. Mack entertained the likes of William S. Hart, Noah Beery, his partner Moran, and many other celebrities.

Moran and Mack's entry into movies at the height of their popularity caused a rupture. Moran reportedly sued Mack in a salary dispute over 1929's "Why Bring That Up?"; the court ruled that Mack owned the act and could set the salaries. Moran left and Mack replaced him with John Swor's brother, Bert Swor, who became the new "Moran." George Moran sued in January 1930 to block the new duo from using "his" name, but court documents showed that Moran wasn't George Moran's real name; it was George Searcy.

The turmoil in the partnership was short-lived. Charles Mack and George Moran appeared together in at least four more films from 1930 to 1933, and Moran was in the car when Mack died in a crash in Mesa, Ariz., on Jan. 11, 1934.

Also in the car was film pioneer Mack Sennett, who had attempted a comeback in 1932 when he directed a Mack and Moran picture, "Hypnotized." The group, which included Mack's wife Myrtle and daughter Mary Jane, was reportedly en route back from signing a contract with Columbia in New York. The others weren't seriously injured.

Following Mack's death, W.C. Fields lived in Mack's main 8th Street house for a short time (circa 1935-36). Moran tried to revive the Two Black Crows with different partners, without success; he did appear in two later W.C. Fields films: "The Bank Dick" and "My Little Chickadee" (both 1940); "Chickadee" is said to have filmed in a house at Monogram Ranch, later called Melody Ranch, in Placerita Canyon. That same year, Monogram exec Ray Johnston purchased Mack's main house on 8th Street. He sold it in 1943.

"Our" Charles Mack should not be confused with 1920s actor Charles Emmett Mack, who died in a 1927 car crash.

Further reading: 8th Street Home Popular with Vaudeville Greats.

Further reading: Architect Sues Mack for False Claims About 8th Street House Designs, 1931.

The ideas, terminology and/or image(s) presented here are not condoned by SCVHistory.com or its affiliates. They do represent the attitudes of the dominant culture at the time they were created, and as such it is hoped they will aid students and scholars to be aware and learn of racial stereotypes in the 19th and 20th centuries.