Al Kelly

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Al Kelly
Born
Abraham Kalish

December 18, 1896
Kreva, Russian Empire (now Belarus)
DiedSeptember 7, 1966, aged 69
New York City, U.S.
OccupationComedian
Known forDouble-talk routines

Al Kelly was the stage name of Abraham Kalish

The Soupy Sales Show
when it was based in New York.

Biography

Born in Kreva, Russia, now Belarus, Kelly started in an act called Nine Crazy Kids, then started performing comic monologues.[1] Early in his career, he performed largely in the Borscht Belt.[3] When he was performing this stand-up comedy in the 1930s, he fluffed a joke so that it came out as nonsense: this got a good laugh so he made such double-talk the focus of his act and became especially known for this.[1]

On television , Kelly was featured on

The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson and the game show Back That Fact (1953). He was also an actor with supporting roles, such as in the film Singing in the Dark (1956) and in the TV series Mack & Myer for Hire
(1963).

Kelly died at age 69

The Friars' Club, in New York City, during a roast. On 8 September 1966, a crowded memorial service was conducted at Riverside Memorial Chapel
(Amsterdam Avenue and 76th Street), New York City.

Legacy

Further reading

Books

  • Al Kelly's Double Life, "Unscrambled by" Alexander Rose (biographer
    OCLC 1523679) (GBOOK KTGbGQAACAAJ
    )

Notices

  • "Al Kelly", in Billy H. Doyle (ed. Anthony Slide), The Ultimate Directory of Silent and Sound Era Performers: A Necrology of Actors and Actresses, Scarecrow Press, 1999, p. 296.
  • "Kelly, Al V.", in Eugene Michael Vazzana, Silent Film Necrology (2nd ed.), McFarland, 2001, p. 280.
  • "Al Kelly", in Frank Cullen, Vaudeville, Old & New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America, Vol. 1, Routledge, 2007, p. 621.

Articles

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Kelly's birthdate was eventually found to be in 1896; before that, he was believed to be born in 1899 (it is common in the show-biz to bill oneself younger), hence the "1899" found in older reference books, and titles such as "Dies in N.Y. at 67" in newspapers (he actually died at 69).
  2. ^ Alexander Rose doesn't seem to be a pen name for Kelly: this person has many other books in the 1940s-1960s listed at WorldCat.

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-415-93853-2
    , ... Al Kelly was synonymous with double-talk.
  2. ^ a b "Books: Shmegegis of old, shmegegis of gold", by Hank Rosenfeld (interviewing Irving Brecher about Drew Friedman's book Old Jewish Comedians), in The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, 14 December 2006:
    "
    [Hank Rosenfeld:] -- Abraham Kalish?
    [Irving Brecher:] "Al Kelly. Al did double talk. That was his style. He spoke gibberish in vaudeville sketches and all the people would try to be polite.
    [Hank Rosenfeld:] -- While he mocked them?
    [Irving Brecher:] "No, not mocking them. The audience would laugh. But people in the real world he dealt with would be taken in."
    [Hank Rosenfeld:] -- Sounds like what Borat does!
    [Irving Brecher:] "Haven't seen it. But most comedians couldn't do it like Al Kelly could. He was unique."
    "
  3. ^ a b "Al Kelly Is Dead; Famed Comedian; Double-Talk Expert Was in Show Business 52 Years", in The New York Times, 7 September 1966, first paragraph of pay article: "Al Kelly, double-talking comedian, died early this morning after suffering a heart attack at the Friars Club. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital."
  4. ISBN 0-316-48294-3
    , panel 1, p. 62.

External links

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