Morton and Mayo
American Vaudeville dance and comedy duo
Morton and Mayo were a Vaudeville dance and comedy duo from approximately the 1920s to the 1940s who were predominantly known for an artificial horse act known as Pansy the Horse. "Mayo" was Andy Mayo and "Morton" was portrayed by both Al Morton from 1923 to 1931 and by Nonnie Morton from 1931 to 1942.
First Morton and Mayo (1918-1930)
Al Morton and Andy Mayo toured the United States on a variety of Vaudeville stages including the Orpheum Circuit in various singing, dancing and comedy shows. These shows would typically include a feature film presentation and several other live Vaudeville acts including dancing girls and a band. In 1925 they were featured in Chicago's Frolics cafe's Frivolous Frolics and toured the US as Two Nuts left over from xmas. In 1926 they traveled to Hawaii as the featured act in Maurice Kusel's Melody Maid Revue at Hawaii Theatre in Honolulu, HI. In 1930 they began acting as a three-person act with Al Morton (front) and Andy Mayo (rear) performing in a two-person artificial horse costume and a third female performer acting as the horse's trainer. The peak of the first Morton and Mayo's career was a Paramount Publix Theaters production that was devised and directed by Boris Petroff modeled after Noah's Ark and called Noah's Lark. Noah's Lark toured the United States for the last half of 1930 beginning in New York City. In New York, a rising Ethel Merman performed with the show in Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater.
After Noah's Lark, it appears Morton and Mayo appeared together as Pansy into early 1931 travelling to various US cities as a single act.
“Morton and Mayo” enters the record as american Vaudeville dance and comedy duo. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Morton, Mayo and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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