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 Isham Jones & His Orchestra.
After raising a toast 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.
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 vaudeville, Broadway, radio, motion pictures and television. After appearing on stage with the juggling team of Bedini and Arthur in 1911, then as a featured player in the popular "kiddie kabaret" troupe led by songwriter and impresario Gus Edwards, and after that as Ziegfeld Follies headliner in 1917-1919, Eddie Cantor starred in silent feature films.
Eddie Cantor first made sound films as early as 1923.
Cantor even received the ultimate Hollywood tribute: he was caricatured in animated cartoons.
When it comes to the 21st century view of Eddie Cantor's career, the elephant in the room remains the preponderance of blackface in his movies. It remains very difficult for baby boomers who saw Eddie Cantor flicks on television in the 1960's to comprehend why anyone thought blackface was funny, and utterly impossible to explain the ubiquitous stage makeup to anyone under the age of 40. Weren't African-Americans at least part of the paying vaudeville and moviegoing audiences back then (one would assume they were not)?
There are moments of blackface in the movies of his contemporaries, but it is not a staple of every film, as the burnt cork routine is in Whoopee, Palmy Days, The Kid From Spain and Roman Scandals. His first talkie, the Paramount short subject A Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic (1929), is ALL blackface.
Even with historical perspective regarding the first three decades of the 20th century, this staple of entertainment, presented for what would be assumed to be segregated audiences, looks indefensible on all levels. Yet, everybody in show business blacked up - it was standard stage makeup at the turn of the 20th century. Even the legendary Bert Williams, the Nassau-born sensation of Broadway, recordings and the Ziegfeld Follies, used the burnt cork for his stage and silent film appearances.
Eddie's act at first featured a variety of different characters, but the theatre audiences of the WW1 era favored Eddie in blackface. They went bananas over burnt cork Eddie. Is this difficult for us to grasp in 2021? Yes.
Eddie starred in WHOOPEE both on Broadway and as his first sound feature.
In addition, Eddie performed favorite songs in a series of Paramount 1-reel short subjects, including Getting A Ticket and Insurance.
This pre-Code movie aficionado finds Mr. Cantor's movies, especially the Samuel Goldwyn musical comedies of 1931-1937, very enjoyable. The unabashed and unapologetic silliness that permeates Cantor's Goldwyn pictures (and the Busby Berkeley production numbers), has considerable charms. Love Eddie's singing and that quality of cheerful lechery also seen in the starring vehicles of RKO Radio Pictures comedy team Bert Wheeler & Robert Woolsey. The casts feature terrific co-stars (Charlotte Greenwood, Lyda Roberti, Ethel Merman) and plenty of Bert Kalmar - Harry Ruby songs, which, as usual, are a hoot.
Love the 1932 opus The Kid From Spain, directed by Leo McCarey, as much due to the hilarious Lyda Roberti, one of the great comediennes of 1930's stage and screen, as to the way-out Busby Berkeley musical numbers and the wacky pre-Code comedy of Cantor.
Kid Millions (1934) is a particularly zany and fun Eddie Cantor flick.
Among the supporting players in Kid Millions (1934): the extremely, wildly 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.
Of the Cantor co-stars, Ethel Merman in particular has terrific chemistry with Eddie. They riff off each other quite well in Kid Millions and Strike Me Pink.
Cantor’s many decades in show business stretched from the Gus Edwards kiddie review shows in the teens to The Colgate Comedy Hour in the 1950's.
The life and career of Mr. Cantor, fortunately, have been covered at length in David Weinstein's excellent book, The Eddie Cantor Story: A Jewish Life in Performance and Politics.
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 multi-position player Ernie Banks (January 31, 1931 – January 23, 2015) A.K.A. Mr. Chicago Cub.
Ernie's motto was "let's play two!"
The former San Francisco Giant players and the team's announcers have spoken glowingly of Ernie, an ambassador for the sport and the most likable, upbeat, energetic, positive guy ever.
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 Ryan Express for throwing unhittable fastballs and knee-buckling curveballs, baffling hitters in both the National and American Leagues.
Lots of Nuke LaLoosh types hit 105 MPH on the radar gun, but very few of them can throw smoke and paint the corners, a.k.a. pitch, as Nolan Ryan did, let alone still be on the hill in the big leagues at the age of 46. Happy Birthday, Nolan - Mr. Von Ryan Express!
No comments:
Post a Comment