Morton and Mayo

Morton and Mayo were a Vaudeville dance and comedy duo from approximately the 1920s to the 1940s who were predominately 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.

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 called Noah's Lark. Noah's Lark toured the United States for the last half of 1930 beginning in New York, NY. In New York, a rising Ethel Merman performed with the show in Brooklyn, NY 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. The Pansy the horse act earned as much as $550/week in 1931.

In 1931 Andy Mayo recruited Nonnie Mayo out of high school to continue the Pansy the Horse act with him and his wife, Florence Mayo. Nonnie took the place of Al Morton in the front of the horse and Florence acted as the horse's trainer. Morton and Mayo toured Europe in 1937 and in 1942 starred in Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe club in New York, NY.

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