Page 11 - Robeson Living Spring 2022

Pictured Left: Julie Duncan,
John ‘Dusty’ King, and Toones
in Haunted Ranch (1943)

Pictured Below: Snowflake’
Toones and Cordell Hickman

Life (1947) with Bob Hope, and the Preston Sturges comedies
Christmas in July (1940), and The Palm Beach Story (1942).

His first comedy shorts were for Mack Sennett: Who’s Who in
the Zoo (1931) with Billy Bevan, Dream House (1932) with
Bing Crosby, Shopping with Wifie (1932) with Andy Clyde,
and The Loud Mouth (1932) with Matt McHugh. After Sennett
went out of business he made shorts at other studios, mostly
Columbia. With The Three Stooges he appeared in Woman
Haters (1934) and Sock-a-Bye Baby (1942); with Andy Clyde,
The Peppery Salt (1936) and Jump, Chump, Jump (1938); with
Harry Langdon, Love Honor and Obey (the Law) (1935), and
Here Comes Mr. Zerk (1943). There was also Good Morning,
Eve (1934) with Leon Errol and June MacCloy, Romance in
the Air (1936) with Wini Shaw and Phil Regan, Pardon My
Berth Marks (1940) with Buster Keaton, Groom and Board
(1942) with Johnny Downs, Who’s Hugh (1943) with Hugh
Herbert, A Rookie’s Cookie (1943) with El Brendel, and Hec-
tic Honeymoon (1947) with Sterling Holloway.

Toones was also in some classic musicals: Gold Diggers of
1933, Dames (1934), Go Into Your Dance (1935), The Big
Broadcast of 1936 and Gold Diggers of 1937. Other impor-
tant pictures you can see him include: I Am a Fugitive from
a Chain Gang (1932), Cabin in the Cotton (1932), American
Madness (1932), Gabriel Over the White House (1933), Imi-
tation of Life (1934), Green Pastures (1936), A Star is Born
(1937), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Remember the
Night (1940), and The Lost Weekend (1945). Racket Squad.

He ended his movie career in 1947 but he come out of retire- On November 2, 1935, in Los Angeles County 25-year-old
ment once for an appearance in a 1951 television episode of Toones married 19-year-old Theodosia Ophelia Butler. They

Robeson Living ~ Spring 2022 Page 11