Mammy Two Shoes
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- For the Tom and Jerry Tales character inspired by Mammy Two Shoes, see Mrs. Two Shoes.
| Mammy Two Shoes | |
|---|---|
 THOMAS! What in the world is going on in here? | |
| Species | Human |
| Gender | Male |
| Affiliation | Tom Cat Spike |
| Occupation | Maid |
| Goals | Taking care of the house |
| Father | Not mentioned |
| Mother | Not mentioned |
| Marital status | Single |
| First appearance | T&J: Puss Gets the Boot (1940) |
| Played by | Lillian Randolph (1940-52, original) June Foray (1960s redubbed shorts) Thea Vidale (1990s redubbed shorts) |
Mammy Two Shoes is a reoccurring character of the Tom and Jerry animated theatrical shorts. She appeared in 19 shorts of the series, with her first appearance in 1940's Puss Gets the Boot, and continued appearing as a character until Push-Button Kitty in 1952. She is a middle-aged African American woman who takes care of the house in which Tom and Jerry reside. Whether she is a housemaid or the owner of the house is never made clear, but the fact that she has her own bedroom in Sleepy-Time Tom raises the possibility of her being the owner of the house, as no other human is present in the house in shorts she appears. Her voice was originated by Lilian Randolph.
She is based on the "Mammy" archetype that was prevalent throughout the US in the 19th and early 20th century, during which Tom and Jerry gained popularity. Due to the modern-day controversy of the archetype, beginning in the 1960s, Two Shoes has been dubbed, censored, re-animated, or edited out in television broadcasts of the shorts.
Character description
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Appearances
Shorts
Comics
History
Running the household
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Development
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Censorship
By the 1960s, Mammy Two Shoes was finally deemed a stereotype by the television censors, to the point where scenes involving the character were reanimated to a white woman and redubbed with actress June Foray. By the 1990s, however, they restored the original animation but with a less stereotypical Black voice from Thea Vidale. Consequently, both the Foray and Vidale portrayals are largely forgotten, and it is the original version with Lillian Randolph that prevails, despite its stereotypes. The DVD and Blu-ray Disc's justification of the original edits was that it was better to preserve it as lesson of what not to do than to outright ignore the mistakes of the past, with the former being presented by African American actress Whoopi Goldberg.
Gallery
- Main article: Mammy Two Shoes/Gallery
Behind the scenes
In popular culture
- In the 1995 special TV's All Time Favorites, clips of the short Sleepy-Time Tom are included with the Thea Vidale version of Mammy.
