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Abbott and Costello (Bud Abbott 1897-1974 Born: William Alexander Abbott) (Lou Costello 1906-1959 Born: Louis Francis Cristillo) Bud Abbott had been knocking around vaudeville and burlesque for 20 years as a straight man and a theatre accountant when in 1931 he stepped in for Lou Costello's sick partner, and a comedy legend was born. The honed their act through the 30's and got their biggest break on The Kate Smith Radio Show in 1938. They went to Hollywood in 1939 and made a splash with the release of "One Night In The Tropics". This film marked the first time they performed their famous routine "Who's On First?" on film. That routine had been knocking around burlesque longer that either of them had. It was a direct descendant of sketches like "Watt Street" and "Izzy and Wuzzy". But A & C were the first to put "Who's On First?" on film, and without a doubt theirs is the definitive version. |
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Burt Lahr ( Born: Irving Lahrheim 1895-1967) This master of the clowning arts began his burlesque career as a member of a child act, "The Seven Frolics". But he really made his mark in 1910 with an act he did with his first wife. "Lahr and Mercedes" had Burt as a drunken cop trying to arrest a Hootchie-Coochie dancer. He "went legit" and debuted on Broadway in 1927 in "Harry Delmar's Revels". The height of his stage career was in 1956 in "Waiting for Godot". But he will always be best remembered as the Cowardly Lion in the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz". |
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Joe E. Brown ( Born: Joseph Evan Brown 1892-1973) This satchel mouthed comedian, known for always working clean, left home at the age of ten to join the circus. His acrobatic skills, ear-piercing yell and mastery of the double take, made him a favorite with audiences in both Burlesque and Vaudeville. When the moving pictures discovered him in the 1920's he found a new home on the screenand had a career that spanned radio, television and the silver screen and that lasted till his death. But he never forgot his days in Burlesque. In his autobiography "Laughter is a Wonderful Thing" he said "The public's low opinion of burlesque today has caused more than one prominent star to soft-pedal his (or her) humble beginnings in this field. I am much too grateful for the things I learned in burlesque to belittle its importance…". Of Course he also once said, "You can lead a horse to water, but if you can get him to lay down on his back and float in it, then you have something." ZOWIE! |
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W.C. Fields ( Born: William Claude Dukenfield 1880-1946) While accounts, including his own, vary on the earliest part of this great entertainer's history, one thing is certain. He was the greatest juggler ever to play Burlesque. Juggler?.. you say...Don't you mean guzzler? Yes, that too. This gravel-voiced, child and dog hating, razor witted souse started out in Vaudeville and Burlesque as a comic tramp juggler. By the year 1904 he was a headliner, touring Europe and performing before the Crowned Heads of England. More and more as comedy intertwined with the juggling, he went on to star in the Zigfeld Follies from 1915 till 1921 and on to the legitimate Broadway stage. When films called in 1925 he took to them with a vengeance. With a range that took him from early Mack Sennet silents to the major studio classics like David Copperfield (1935) to his own starring films such as My Little Chickadee (1940), and The Bank Dick (1940). An icon of American comedy with his roots in Burly-Q! |
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Ed Wynn ( Born: Isaiah Edwin Leopold 1886-1966) When this blustery voiced prince of clowns left home at 16 to join show business, his father begged him to change his name so as not to embarrass the family. But the elder Mr. Leopold had nothing to worry about. His son always worked clean. But change his name he did by taking his middle name and splitting it in half. Edwin became Ed Wynn…don't ya see.. it's so silly! Then Ed Wynn became "The Perfect Fool". A master of pantomime and props, and the bigger the better he starred in burlesque and vaudeville and later television and movies. It was he who said," A comedian is not a man who says funny things, A comedian is a man who says things funny." And this comedian was also a great tragedian, as he was hailed on many occasions for his dramatic work as well. As a testament to his talent and longevity how many comics can say that their last picture was released a year after they were dead. This one can...or could…or could have if he wasn't dead… you see…it's all so silly! |
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Phil Silvers ( Born: Philip Silversmith 1911-1985) When you saw the black glasses, the pearly white smile, and the glad-hand shake coming at ya, you could bet you would be cheated as fast as he could say "Glad ta see ya!" The King of Chutzpah entered the biz at age 11, singing in movie houses when the projector broke down. And soon he graduated to playing the stooge in burlesque houses like Minsky's Oriental in NYC around 1934. But it would take a luke warm stint in the movies with a return to Broadway stage to make him "Top Banana", the role he starred in in 1951. And it was in 1954 that all the years of playing the fast talking sharpie came to fruition and St. Bilko was born. |
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Jackie Gleason ( Born: Herbert John Gleason 1916-1987 ) The Great One entered show biz at the age of 15 by winning an amature night contest at Brooklyn's Halsey Theater. He was hired that same night to work as emcee for three dollars a week. As word spread of the young brash kid who billed himself as "Jumpin' Jackie Gleason" and could devastate any heckler, he became much in demand at theatres all around New York. When he was old enough to lie about his age, he started working at night clubs and it was there he was discovered by Hollywood mogul Jack Warner who signed him to a contract. The movies weren't too welcoming to the handsome young comic so he returned to New York and worked legit theatre in such inspired shows as "Hellzapopin" and "Along Fifth Avenue". But it was in the night clubs that his star shone brightest. Something about the proximity to booze is my guess. In 1959 he made his TV debut on Ed Sullivan's "Talk of The Town" and the young media found it's "biggest" star. From there to the series "The Life of Riley" then to "Cavalcade of Stars" where, back to his burlesque quick sketch roots he created all the characters America would fall in love with. Especially a round blustering bus driver named Ralph. |
| Sophie Tucker (Born: Sophie Kalish 1884-1966 ) At the tender age of 13 Sophie was 145 pounds of pure talent. In an age where a gal her size was deemed "too big and too ugly" to go on stage, she was relegated to perform in blackface minstrel shows. But her big voice and brash manor was a big hit with the crowds. And when she was hired into a burlesque company and her costumes and make-up failed to arrive on time, she strode on stage and "wowed 'em" as her own big beautiful self. She stayed on the stage, working up until only months before she died. It was a fifty-year career that redefined the role of a woman on stage. In a time where women comics had to rely on such devices as playing children i.e., the great Fanny Brice or hide their intelligence i.e., the beloved Gracie Allen, Sophie's act emphasized her big gal image. With songs like "I Don't Want to be Thin" and "Nobody Loves a Fat Girl, But Oh How a Fat Girl Can Love", And especially with her greatest hit and theme song "Some of These Days", She stood there to tell you that she was a force to be reckoned with. Paving the way for sexually strong women from Mae West, to Madonna, Sophie Tucker wore her title well, The Last of the Red Hot Mamas. |
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Danny Thomas (Born: Amos Muzyad Jahoob (Amos Jacobs) 1914-1991) The son of Lebanese immigrants, this accomplished singer, actor and dancer got his start selling candy in Burlesque houses. Quickly graduating to comic bits and then on to vaudeville and nightclubs. He won Emmy awards for his starring role as Danny Williams the night club singer in "Make Room for Daddy", later called "The Danny Thomas Show. Turning to producing, he was one of the creative brains behind "The Andy Griffith Show" and "The Dick Van Dyke Show." He made a series of all star television tributes to Burlesque in the 1960's called "The Wonderful World of Burlesque." He also founded the St. Jude Foundation, a charity for sick children, that has helped thousands of kids. He once said, "Success has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It's what you do for others." This comic was a success! |
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Mike Sachs Comic, musician, philanthropist, Mike Sachs was always entertaining and helping people. Entering show business with his folks in the 1910's, he was a talented kid with funny crossed eyes and could make a crowd laugh by just staring at them. Born with one good eye and one "lazy eye", Mike could do a take and wiggle just the good eye. His home base was the Old Howard Theatre in Boston. He played there for many years and toured the country as well. Around 1945 he lost sight in both eyes, but still continued working! How'd he do dat!?...For many years he had toured with an assistant, Alice Kennedy, as his talking woman. With her at his side to guide him through the wings, and knowing his routines so well he could do them in his sleep, once he hit the boards he knew the stages of the nations Burlesque houses so well, most audiences didn't even know he was completely blind! |
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Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham ( Born: Dewey Markham 1904-1981) One of the only African-American performers to break the color barrier and perform in the then segregated world of Big Time Burlesque. And of course it was in the Minsky's show that he led the way. Prior to that he was a big star on the black vaudeville for the Theatre Owners and Bookers Association, which was called the TOBA circuit. It had only black entertainers and played to black audiences. It was mainly through the Deep South but there were also TOBA houses in Chicago, Baltimore, Washington DC, St. Louis and Kansas City. The world-famous Apollo Theatre in Harlem was a member of the chain. Mr. Markham was king of the comics at the Apollo. He was a big raucous comedian who'sspeciality was courtroom scenes. As a matter of fact his "Here Come The Judge" was a national phenomenon, when made famous by Sammy Davis Jr. on "Laugh In" during the 1960's. |
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Joe E. Ross ( Born: Joseph Roszawikz 1914-1982) Born in Manhattan, this dough faced comic started as a singing waiter in a speakeasy. Graduating to announcer and MC at burlesque clubs and night spots, doing stand up and impressions all around town. He worked in Burlesque on the Circuit out of Chicago, usually playing a hapless good natured guy who could never get ahead. His classic take was "Oooh Oooh Jumpin' Jehosephat!" which he made most popular in his later television roles in "The Sgt. Bilko Show" and in his biggest hit, as Officer Gunther Tootie in "Car 54 Where are you?". He died doing his act at the age of 68 and on his tombstone are the words "This Man Had A Ball". |
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Billy "Cheese and Crackers" Hagan ( Born: William Hagandorn 1888-1986) Billy started out as a prizefighter and he carried the nose and ears to prove it. But when he substituted for his brother's straight man one day he found a home in burlesque. His classic moniker "Cheese and Crackers" came from his dad's habit of using the phrase as a substitute for taking the Lord's name in vain. So any time Billy saw a dame with lots to offer or was confounded by a straight man, out the phrase would come, taking it's time to roll around inside his prodigious beezer. An institution at the Trocadero in Philadelphia he influenced may a performer and scholar. Jack Klugman once said Billy was the best ever. Ralph Allen used many of Billy's collected sketches as a basis for his seminal Burlesque revival show, "Sugar Babies". |
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Pinky Lee ( Born: Pincus Leff 1907-1993) Hailing from Minnesota, and believe me it is hailing in Minnesota, this diminutive lisping little comic always played a character that seemed a little light in his loafers. He started his career as a kid star in Gus Edward's "School Days" sketch in vaudeville. A natural for the burlesque stage he played around the country in Burly-Q and night clubs during the thirties landing in Hollywood at Earl Carroll's Theatre. The forties were a bit lean, and he kicked around playing Army shows and even The Palladium in London. But it was in the fifties he made his biggest splash after a mild success in an early Television show "Those Two" he finally found big time success as of all things, a kiddie show host. Kids loved the silly antics of the funny little man, but critics and parents hated him. The critics said they had seen it all before and the parents thought he was over stimulating the kiddies with his fast paced insanity. But it all came to a crashing halt, when in 1955 he collapsed live on the air. Not a heart attack but a bizarre sinus condition put his career on hold for about two years. Once back up to speed he hosted "The Gumby Show" in 1957, played Las Vegas in 1958, reprised his kiddie show "The Pinky Lee Show" for local Los Angeles television from 1964 to 1966. When the Burlesque nostalgia movement began percolating in the 1980's he toured with Roy Radin and Ann Corio, and in "Sugar Babies". In 1989 he had a heart attack that would sideline him for good, but in that same year he remarked, "My kind of humor was broad and slapstick. That's what this country wants and needs right now. The last thing we need is more filthy humor." Truer words were never lisped! |
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Joey Faye ( Born: Joseph Palladino 1909-1997) While his most high profile role was that of the talking grapes in the "Fruit Of The Loom" commercials in the 1980's, Burlesque was the home of this classic Second Banana. Born in New York this son of a barber played in small time vaudeville and in "Borscht Circuit" of the Catskills until he made his Burly-Q Debut in the Minsky's show. He made Broadway appearance with Phil Silvers in "Top Banana" and "High Button Shoes". Known as "The Fastest Sneeze in the West" for his ability to sneeze rapidly and on cue, he was also a master collector of Burlesque routines. It is said that he collected more than 18,000 different skits and sketches of which " were stolen, were in the public domain, and the other third are originals." It is Faye who took credit for originating the sketches "Slowly I Turned" and "Flugle Street". |
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Red Buttons (Born: Aaron Chwatt 1919 - 2006) In 1939, Red went to work for Minsky, the youngest burlesque comedian in the business. He billed himself as the "Only Burlesque Comedian With All His Own Teeth." In 1942 Red appeared in "Wine, Woman and Song" for Minsky. This was the last burlesque show in New York City, because diminutive Mayor Fieorello La Guardia was determined rid the city of the scourge of Burlesque. Red was on stage when the place was raided. After burlesque he starred on Broadway, in the Movies: winning an Oscar in 1957 for "Sayonara", and on Television. |