Moved with his family to Harlem when he was young; learned to dance on the streets and then went west to Chicago where he was part of a dance troupe called the The Three Brown Spots (1934). He subsequently joined up with Josephine Pearson and for several years they performed together as "Dancing Comedians" in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego (at the Creole Palace) and Denver, Colorado, USA. During World War II he served in the United States Army and after the war's end secured a position with the United States Postal Service as a clerk.
