In one of the earliest experiments with synchronized sound, Eddie Cantor does his vaudeville act (stand-up comedy and songs) against a plain backdrop.
If you'd like to get a taste of what old-time Vaudeville was like, take a look at this fascinating and amusing talkie short. Headliner Eddie Cantor delivers a six-minute routine consisting of several jokes, two songs, and one comic poem, performed before a black backdrop in an empty studio. It's too bad the filmmakers couldn't have captured him in front of a live audience-- as it is, Eddie's jokes are met with eerie silence --but at least George Olsen's terrific dance band was present (off-camera) to provide jaunty jazz accompaniment. This short captures Cantor's act at the point when his career was really taking off, when he was starring in the Broadway musical comedy "Kid Boots," produced by legendary showman Flo Ziegfeld. The film was made at the midtown Manhattan studio of Lee De Forest, pioneer of the sound-on-film process known as 'Phonofilm.' Between 1922 and 1926 De Forest made dozens of talkie shorts featuring prominent performers such as Cantor, DeWolf Hopper, Weber & Fields, Eubie Blake, etc., films that are invaluable records of the great stage stars of the day.
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Thumbs up if you're here because of Boardwalk Empire.
cthuluforever 4 months ago
Awesome. I've been watching Boardwalk Empire, and Eddie Cantor is a minor character in the show. He does some of this routine in an episode, and it's amazing what a great job the actor does. Looks and acts just like Cantor.
compactdisk2 1 year ago
love the sexism. haha
raidernumber42 1 year ago
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha I love it grate film!!!!!!
Wow 1923 87 years ago.
MrDeCorey 1 year ago