Some Genteel Pre-July 4 Comedy

For all you Noel Coward fans out there, Moe, Larry and Shemp in Goof On The Roof, directed by the infamous Jules White.

And, for the handful of comedy fetishists who fancy only the most obscure trivia, the little guy who shows up with his big, beautiful, blushing bride (Maxine Gates) in the last minute of this opus is Frank Mitchell, formerly of the knockabout comedy team Mitchell and Durant. . . you know, the two boxers-turned-comedians who beat the crap out of each other on stage and screen in the 20's and 30's.

Just about finished with January 2021 - HALLELUJAH - and, as the robot on our kitchen table keeps incessantly mentioning "The Birthday Roundup," we shall spotlight luminaries born on January 31 today, starting by listening to the swingin' Isham Jones Orchestra.



After raising a nod to birthday boy Franz Schubert, since the last blog post was devoted to Ziegfeld Follies star W.C. Fields, we will start with another Ziegfeld Follies headliner, Eddie Cantor, born on this day in 1892.

Cantor's life and career, fortunately, have been covered at length in David Weinstein's excellent book, The Eddie Cantor Story: A Jewish Life in Performance and Politics.

First and foremost in today's tribute, here's the ultimate classic comedy aficionado Joe Franklin (1926-2015), much-missed expert on all things old school showbiz - and Eddie's #1 fan - remembering his favorite comedian.



Cantor a.k.a. "Banjo Eyes," a first half of the 20th century entertainment powerhouse, starred in burlesque, vaudeville, Broadway, radio, motion pictures and television. Cantor even received the ultimate Hollywood tribute: he was caricatured in animated cartoons.

After years on stage, first appearing with Gus Edwards, then as star of the the Ziegfeld Follies, but before entering talking pictures via short subjects, Eddie Cantor starred in silent features.

One, Special Delivery, was directed by none other than Roscoe Arbuckle and another, Kid Boots co-starred the one, the only Clara Bow, the "It" girl who the cameras adored.



Eddie Cantor first made sound films as early as 1923.



Cantor would re-enter talkies in Paramount 1-reel short subjects.





This pre-Code movie aficionado finds Mr. Cantor's movies, especially the Samuel Goldwyn musical comedies of the 1930's: Palmy Days, The Kid From Spain, Roman Scandals, Kid Millions and Strike Me Pink (the last two co-starring Ethel Merman) very enjoyable. Love the 1932 opus The Kid From Spain, directed by Leo McCarey, as much due to Eddie's hilarious co-star, Lyda Roberti, one of the great comediennes of 1930's stage and screen, as from the Busby Berkeley musical numbers and the wacky comedy of Cantor.




Kid Millions (1934) is a particularly spectacular Eddie Cantor flick.



Also in Kid Millions (1934): the extremely goofy comedienne Eva Sully from Block & Sully, in one of her few silver screen appearances. She is funny, unhinged and way over-the-top, making Cass Daley, Betty Hutton, Judy Canova, Martha Raye, Mabel Todd and fellow Eddie Cantor co-star Joan Davis look shy, retiring and demure by comparison.





A frequent Cantor co-star was Ethel Merman.



When it comes to Eddie Cantor's movies, the elephant in the room remains the preponderance of blackface. Even with historical perspective regarding the first three decades of the 20th century, this stage makeup and staple of entertainment looks indefensible on all levels. Everybody in show business blacked up. Even Bert Williams, the Trinidad-born comedy star of the Ziegfeld Follies, used the burnt cork for his silent film appearances.

His show business career stretched from the Gus Edwards kiddie review shows in 1910 to The Colgate Comedy Hour in the 1950's: Eddie Cantor.




Shifting from classic movies to sports, the greatness of the recently passed Baseball Hall Of Famer Hank Aaron is still heavily on our minds - and it just happens that today, January 31 is also the birthday of several baseball greats.



A particularly stalwart member of the Baseball Hall Of Fame was Ernie Banks (January 31, 1931 – January 23, 2015), a.k.a. Mr. Chicago Cub. Let's play two!





Still with us on January 31, 2021 is Nolan Ryan, born January 31, 1947 and inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.



Nolan Ryan, who this blogger saw, in a Giants-Astros game, have one of his extremely rare off days and give up 8 runs at San Francisco's windy Candlestick Park, was termed the Von Ryan Express for throwing unhittable 100 MPH fastballs and knee-buckling curveballs, baffling hitters in both the National and American Leagues.