Uncle Cyp and Aunt Sap Brasfield
Encyclopedia
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
to network television. Laurence played on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
, and the married couple had leading roles in hundreds of dramatic and comedic performances on Southern and Midwestern tent repertory
Repertory
Repertory or rep, also called stock in the United States, is a term used in Western theatre and opera.A repertory theatre can be a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation...
show circuits before joining ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee
Ozark Jubilee
Ozark Jubilee is the first U.S. network television program to feature country music's top stars, and was the centerpiece of a strategy for Springfield, Missouri to challenge Nashville, Tennessee as America's country music capital...
from 1955–1960.
Laurence "Boob" Brasfield
Smithville, Mississippi
Smithville is a town in Monroe County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 882 at the 2000 census. Smithville is the birthplace of Rod Brasfield, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.-Geography:...
and cited his mother Nonnie's humor as a major influence in becoming a comedian. In 1912, at age 14, he joined the Mighty Haag Circus as a roustabout. The next year he did blackface
Blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...
comedy with a horse-and-wagon show and later joined a New Orleans, Louisiana stock company. Soon he was traveling with the Redpath Chautauqua
Chautauqua
Chautauqua was an adult education movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Chautauqua brought entertainment and culture for the whole community, with...
tent circuit which often featured William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan was an American politician in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. He was a dominant force in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, standing three times as its candidate for President of the United States...
. Early in his career, he adopted the nickname Boob.
For the next ten years, Brasfield appeared on Broadway and in the road companies of hit shows. In 1920, he had a part in Miss Lulu Bett
Miss Lulu Bett (play)
Miss Lulu Bett is a 1920 play adapted by American author Zona Gale from her novel of the same title. The Broadway debut starred Carroll McComas....
, and was stage manager for Enter Madame
Enter Madame
Enter Madame is an American romantic comedy film directed by Elliott Nugent, starring Elissa Landi and Cary Grant, and released by Paramount Pictures....
which had a two-year Broadway run. In 1922, he became stage manager for the smash hit Abie’s Irish Rose at the Republic Theatre.
Neva Brasfield
Neva I. F. Greevi was born in Luther, MichiganLuther, Michigan
Luther is a village in Lake County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the village population was 339. The village is on the boundary between Newkirk Township on the west and Ellsworth Township on the east, with about half of the village in each. It is the site of Hillsdale...
and attended Ouachita Baptist College
Ouachita Baptist University
Ouachita Baptist University is a private, liberal arts, undergraduate institution located in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, which is about 65 miles southwest of Little Rock. The university's name is taken from the Ouachita River, which forms the eastern campus boundary. It is affiliated with the Arkansas...
in Arkadelphia, Arkansas for three years. She worked as a cashier before marrying Brasfield, nine years her junior, in 1919; and was a leading lady with the W. I. Swain tent show.
Career together
Beginning in the mid-1920s, the Brasfields were featured players with (Jess) Bisbee's Comedians, a popular touring tent repertory troupe based in Memphis, TennesseeMemphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
which was part of Bisbee's Dramatic Shows. Boob played the requisite "Toby" character as a hillbilly
Hillbilly
Hillbilly is a term referring to certain people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas of the United States, primarily Appalachia but also the Ozarks. Owing to its strongly stereotypical connotations, the term is frequently considered derogatory, and so is usually offensive to those Americans of...
, and was known as the King of Tobys for his quick ad-libbing ability and comic facial contortions. Brasfield was the highest-paid of the Bisbee troupe; he wrote, directed and appeared in most of its plays. His younger brother, comedian Rod Brasfield
Rod Brasfield
Rodney Leon Brasfield was an American comedian who was prominently featured on the Grand Ole Opry from 1947 until his death in 1958. In 1987, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.-Biography:...
, joined him and they performed with the troupe with Rod as Boob's straight man.
In 1933, after a tent show folded in Lewisburg, Kentucky
Lewisburg, Kentucky
Lewisburg is a city in Logan County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 903 at the 2000 census. It is not to be confused with Lewisburg in Mason County.NASA astronaut Timothy L. Kopra, a U.S...
, where he was the headliner, Brasfield organized the performers into his own troupe, the Century Players. They were based out of Centerville, Tennessee
Centerville, Tennessee
Centerville is a town in Hickman County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 3,793 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Hickman County. It is probably best known for being the hometown of country comedian Minnie Pearl...
during the winter of 1933–34 and appeared at schoolhouses in surrounding towns including Little Lot, Bon Aqua and Hohenwald
Hohenwald, Tennessee
Hohenwald is a city in and the county seat of Lewis County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 3,754 at the 2000 census. The name "Hohenwald" is a German word that means "High Forest". The town was founded in 1878 and later merged with a town named "New Switzerland" to the south. New...
. On their nights in Centerville, native Minnie Pearl
Minnie Pearl
Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon , known professionally as Minnie Pearl, was an American country comedienne who appeared at the Grand Ole Opry for more than 50 years and on the television show Hee Haw from 1969 to 1991.-Early life:Sarah Colley was born in Centerville, in Hickman County, Tennessee,...
would perform. Boob also owned a circle stock company from 1939–42 that played in the Gadsden Theatre in Gadsden, Alabama
Gadsden, Alabama
The city of Gadsden is the county seat of Etowah County in the U.S. state of Alabama, and it is located about 65 miles northeast of Birmingham, Alabama. It is the primary city of the Gadsden Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of 103,459. Gadsden is closely associated with the...
.
Uncle Cyp and Aunt Sap
Brasfield adopted the Uncle Cyprus character, shortened to Cyp, when he began performing on radio programs with his brother Rod in the mid-1940s. Neva became his frequent stage partner as Aunt Sap. The characters were created by Rod for his routines about fictional residents in his adopted hometown of Hohenwald, Tennessee. Cyp and Sap were an older married couple who quibbled over everyday matters, with Cyp often coming off as a henpecked husband. They continued touring the country through the 1940s, doing tent shows and sketch comedySketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
. Boob also wrote Grand Ole Opry
Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM...
skits for Rod and Minnie Pearl, among others. By the early 1950s, they retired to their ranch called Rancho Pocito in the Rio Grande Valley near Edinburg, Texas
Edinburg, Texas
Edinburg is a city in and the county seat of Hidalgo County, Texas, United States. The population was 77,100 at the 2010 census. The University of Texas–Pan American, the only fully accredited four-year university in the Rio Grande Valley, is located in Edinburg.Edinburg is part of the...
. Both were made Kentucky colonel
Kentucky colonel
Kentucky colonel is the highest title of honor bestowed by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Commissions for Kentucky colonels are given by the Governor and the Secretary of State to individuals in recognition of noteworthy accomplishments and outstanding service to a community, state or the nation...
s, an honorary title bestowed by the governor of the state.
In 1955, long-time friend Red Foley
Red Foley
Clyde Julian Foley , better known as Red Foley, was an American singer, musician, and radio and TV personality who made a major contribution to the growth of country music after World War II....
convinced them to return to show business on ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee in Springfield, Missouri
Springfield, Missouri
Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. According to the 2010 census data, the population was 159,498, an increase of 5.2% since the 2000 census. The Springfield Metropolitan Area, population 436,712, includes the counties of...
. They became mainstays and were among the few performers with the show for its entire run. The couple, often introduced with the opening bars of "Turkey In The Straw"
Turkey in the Straw
"Turkey in the Straw" is a well-known American folk song dating from the early 19th century.The song's tune was first popularized in the late 1820s and early 1830s by blackface performers, notably George Washington Dixon, Bob Farrell and George Nichols. Another song, "Zip Coon", was sung to the...
, usually performed small-town domestic sketch comedy together, sometimes involving others on the show. Uncle Cyp also performed solo; or with Foley, Bill Ring, announcer Joe Slattery or even Brenda Lee
Brenda Lee
Brenda Mae Tarpley , known as Brenda Lee, is an American performer who sang rockabilly, pop and country music, and had 37 US chart hits during the 1960s, a number surpassed only by Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Ray Charles and Connie Francis...
. They had one daughter, Bonnie Inez Brasfield, who occasionally appeared in their routines. Rod also once appeared on the show with Cyp in 1957. Boob appeared on other TV programs as well, including The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....
in 1956.
In January 1958, The Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
reported the Brasfields and Rod had begun filming a series of 52 fifteen-minute comedy programs for syndicated distribution
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
. During the summer of 1958, the couple toured with Bisbee's Comedians in Kentucky and Tennessee and flew to Springfield on alternate Saturdays to appear on the Jubilee. On August 29, 1959, Uncle Cyp was a fill-in host on the show; and in October 1959, Boob sustained minor injuries from a backstage fall during a Cotton Bowl
Cotton Bowl (stadium)
The Cotton Bowl is a stadium which opened in 1929 and became known as "The House That Doak Built" due to the immense crowds that former SMU running back Doak Walker drew to the stadium during his college career in the late 1940s. Originally known as Fair Park Stadium, it is located in Fair Park,...
performance with Foley and a Jubilee touring unit at the Texas State Fair.
After the Jubilee was canceled in 1960, the Brasfields appeared on its spin-off, Five Star Jubilee
Five Star Jubilee
Five Star Jubilee was an American country music variety show carried by NBC-TV from March 17–September 22, 1961. The live program, a spin-off of ABC-TV's Jubilee USA, was the first network color television series to originate outside New York City or Hollywood.From March 17 to May 5, the...
, in 1961; and Boob toured with Foley through 22 states that summer. The couple then retired from show business for the final time and returned to Texas. Uncle Cyp appeared on the 1963 Decca LP, The Red Foley Show (DL-4341).
Deaths
Boob Brasfield died in Raymondville, TexasRaymondville, Texas
Raymondville is a city in and the county seat of Willacy County, Texas, United States. The population was 9,733 at the 2000 census. It may be included as part of the Brownsville–Harlingen–Raymondville and the Matamoros–Brownsville metropolitan areas....
on September 9, 1966 at age 68 from lung cancer; his widow Neva died March 19, 1980 in Raymondville at 91. The couple were buried next to each other in Raymondville Cemetery.