Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor | |
---|---|
Born | Isidore Itzkowitz January 31, 1892 New York City, U.S. |
Died | October 10, 1964 | (aged 72)
Resting place | Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1907–1962 |
Spouse |
Ida Tobias
(m. 1914; died 1962) |
Children | 5 |
2nd President of the Screen Actors Guild | |
In office 1933–1935 | |
Preceded by | Ralph Morgan |
Succeeded by | Robert Montgomery |
Eddie Cantor (born Isidore Itzkowitz;[1][2] January 31, 1892 – October 10, 1964) was an American comedian, actor, dancer, singer, songwriter, film producer, screenwriter and author.[3] Cantor was one of the prominent entertainers of his era.
Some of his hits include "Makin' Whoopee", "Ida (Sweet as Apple Cider)", "If You Knew Susie", "Ma! He's Making Eyes at Me", “Mandy”, "My Baby Just Cares for Me”, "Margie", and "How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree)?" He also wrote a few songs, including "Merrily We Roll Along", the Merrie Melodies Warner Bros. cartoon theme.
His eye-rolling song-and-dance routines eventually led to his nickname "Banjo Eyes". In 1933, artist Frederick J. Garner caricatured Cantor with large round eyes resembling the drum-like pot of a banjo. Cantor's eyes became his trademark, often exaggerated in illustrations, and leading to his appearance on Broadway in the musical Banjo Eyes (1941).
His charity and humanitarian work was extensive.[citation needed] He helped to develop the March of Dimes[citation needed] and is credited with coining its name. Cantor was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1956 for distinguished service to the film industry.
Early life
Reports and accounts of Cantor's early life often conflict with one another. What is known is that he was born in New York City, the son of Mechel Iskowitz (also Michael), an amateur violinist, and his wife Meta Kantrowitz Iskowitz (also Maite), a young Jewish couple from Russia.[4] It is generally accepted that he was born in 1892, though the day is subject to debate, with either January 31 or Rosh Hashanah, which was on September 10 or September 11, being reported.[5][6][7] Although it was reported Cantor was an orphan, his mother dying in childbirth and his father of pneumonia, official records say otherwise; Meta died from complications of tuberculosis in July 1894 and the fate of Mechel is unclear, as no death certificate exists for him. There is also discrepancy as to his name; both his 1957 autobiography and The New York Times obituary for Cantor report his birth name as Isidore Iskowitch, although some articles published after the 20th century give his birth name as Edward (a nickname given him by his future wife, Ida, in 1913) or Israel Itzkowitz.[8][5] His grandmother, Esther Kantrowitz (died January 29, 1917), took custody of him, and referred to him as Izzy and Itchik, both diminutives for Isidor, and his last name, due to a clerical error, was thought to be Kantrowitz and shortened to Kanter.[5] No birth certificate existed for him, though this is not unusual for someone born in New York in the 19th century.
Stage
Saloon songs to vaudeville
By his early teens, Cantor began winning talent contests at local theaters and started appearing on stage. One of his earliest paying jobs was doubling as a waiter and performer, singing for tips at Carey Walsh's
Broadway
A year later, Cantor made his Broadway debut in the
Steel Pier, Atlantic City
Cantor was a headliner at the
- Ziegfeld Follies of 1917 – revue – performer
- Ziegfeld Follies of 1918 – revue – performer, co-composer and co-lyricist for "Broadway's Not a Bad Place After All" with Harry Ruby
- Ziegfeld Follies of 1919 – revue – performer, lyricist for "(Oh! She's the) Last Rose of Summer"
- Ziegfeld Follies of 1920 – revue – composer for "Green River", composer and lyricist for "Every Blossom I See Reminds Me of You" and "I Found a Baby on My Door Step"
- The Midnight Rounders of 1920 – revue – performer
- Broadway Brevities of 1920 – revue – performer
- Make It Snappy (1922) – revue – performer, co-bookwriter
- Ziegfeld Follies of 1923 – revue – sketch writer
- Kid Boots (1923) – musical comedy – actor in the role of "Kid Boots" (the Caddie Master)
- Ziegfeld Follies of 1927 – revue – performer, co-bookwriter
- Whoopee! (1928) – musical comedy – actor in the role of "Henry Williams"
- Eddie Cantor at the Palace (1931) – solo performance
- Banjo Eyes (1941) – musical comedy – actor in the role of "Erwin Trowbridge"
- Nellie Bly (1946) – musical comedy – co-producer
Radio and recordings
Radio
Cantor appeared on radio as early as February 3, 1922, as indicated by this news item from Connecticut's
Local radio operators listened to one of the finest programs yet produced over the radiophone last night. The program of entertainment which included some of the stars of Broadway musical comedy and vaudeville was broadcast from the Newark, New Jersey station
Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. The Newark entertainment started at 7 o'clock: a children's half-hour of music and fairy stories; 7:[35?], Hawaiian airs and violin solo; 8:00, news of the day; and at 8:20, a radio party with nationally known comedians participating; 9:55, Arlington time signals and 10:01, a government weather report. G.E. Nothnagle, who conducts a radiophone station at his home 176 Waldemere Avenue said last night that he was delighted with the program, especially with the numbers sung by Eddie Cantor. The weather conditions are excellent for receiving, he continued, the tone and the quality of the messages was fine.[11]
Cantor's appearance with
Indicative of his effect on the mass audience, he agreed in November 1934 to introduce a new song by the songwriters
His NBC radio show Time to Smile was broadcast from 1940 to 1946,[citation needed] followed by his Pabst Blue Ribbon Show from 1946 through 1949. The Pabst program ended when the sponsor wanted Cantor to add a weekly television program. Cantor refused to take on the additional broadcast. The trade publication Billboard reported that Cantor and Pabst "parted friends" after "several months of negotiation."[13] He also served as emcee of Take It or Leave It during 1949–1950, and hosted a weekly disc jockey program for Philip Morris during the 1952–1953 season. In addition to film and radio, Cantor recorded for Hit of the Week Records, then again for Columbia, for Banner and Decca and various small labels.
In the early 1960s, he syndicated the short radio segment "Ask Eddie Cantor".[14]
His heavy political involvement began early in his career, including his participation in the strike to form Actors Equity in 1919, provoking the anger of father figure and producer,
Recordings
Cantor began making
A 1922 recording by Cantor | |
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Sophie, from Make It Snappy, recorded in 1922 |
Cantor was one of the era's most successful entertainers, but the
Cantor was also a composer, with his most famous song seldom attributed to him. In 1935, along with Charles Tobias (Ida's brother) and Murray Mencher, Cantor wrote "Merrily We Roll Along". It was adapted as the theme song for the Merrie Melodies series of animated cartoons, distributed by
Film and television
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2021) |
Cantor also made numerous film appearances. He had previously appeared in a number of short films, performing his Follies songs and comedy routines, and two silent features (Special Delivery and Kid Boots) in the 1920s. He was offered the lead in The Jazz Singer after it was turned down by George Jessel. Cantor also turned the role down (so it went to Al Jolson), but he became a leading Hollywood star in 1930 with the film version of Whoopee!, shot in two-color Technicolor. He continued making films over the next two decades until his last starring role in If You Knew Susie (1948). From 1950 to 1954, Cantor was a regular guest host on the television variety series The Colgate Comedy Hour.
On May 25, 1944, pioneer television station WPTZ (now KYW-TV) in Philadelphia presented a special, all-star telecast which was also seen in New York over WNBT (now WNBC) and featured cut-ins from their Rockefeller Center studios. Cantor, one of the first major stars to agree to appear on television, was to sing "We're Havin' a Baby, My Baby and Me". Arriving shortly before airtime at the New York studios, Cantor was reportedly told to cut the song because the NBC New York censors considered some of the lyrics too risqué. Cantor refused, claiming no time to prepare an alternative number. NBC relented, but the sound was cut and the picture blurred on certain lines in the song. This is considered the first instance of television censorship.[17]
In 1950, he became the first of several hosts alternating on the NBC television variety show
Animation
Cantor appears in caricature form in numerous
Books and merchandising
Cantor's popularity led to merchandising of such products as Eddie Cantor's Tell It to the Judge game from Parker Brothers. In 1933, Brown and Bigelow published a set of 12 Eddie Cantor caricatures by Frederick J. Garner. The advertising cards were purchased in bulk as a direct-mail item by such businesses as auto body shops, funeral directors, dental laboratories, and vegetable wholesale dealers. With the full set, companies could mail a single Cantor card each month for a year to their selected special customers as an ongoing promotion. Cantor was often caricatured on the covers of sheet music and in magazines and newspapers. Cantor was depicted as a balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade,[19] one of the very few balloons based on a real person.
In addition to Caught Short!, Cantor wrote or co-wrote at least seven other books, including booklets released by the then-fledgling firm of
Activism and philanthropy
Cantor was the second president of the Screen Actors Guild, serving from 1933 to 1935.
He invented the title "The March of
Cantor also recorded a spoken introduction on a 1938 Decca recording of Alexander's Ragtime Band by Bing Crosby and Connee Boswell in which he thanks the listener for buying the record, which supported the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. That record hit No. 1 on the charts, though Cantor did not sing on it. A lifelong Democrat, Cantor supported Adlai Stevenson during the 1952 presidential election.[20]
Tributes
Cantor was profiled on This Is Your Life, a program in which an unsuspecting person (usually a celebrity) would be surprised on live television by host Ralph Edwards, with a half-hour tribute. Cantor was the only subject who was told of the "surprise" in advance; he was recovering from a heart attack, and it was felt that the shock might harm him.[citation needed]
In 1951 he received an honorary doctorate from Temple University.[21]
On October 29, 1995, as part of a nationwide celebration of the 75th anniversary of radio, Cantor was posthumously inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame at Chicago's Museum of Broadcasting Communication.[citation needed]
There was an Eddie Cantor caricature featured in Comedy Store, and flashing lights on it marked the end of auditions for comedians. [22]
Warner Bros., in an attempt to duplicate the box-office success of The Jolson Story, filmed a big-budget Technicolor feature film The Eddie Cantor Story (1953). The film found an audience but might have done better with someone else in the leading role. Actor Keefe Brasselle played Cantor as a caricature with high-pressure dialogue and bulging eyes wide open; the fact that Brasselle was considerably taller than Cantor did not lend realism. Eddie and Ida Cantor were seen in a brief prologue and epilogue set in a projection room, where they are watching Brasselle in action; at the end of the film, Eddie tells Ida "I never looked better in my life"... and gives the audience a knowing, incredulous look.[citation needed] George Burns, in his memoir All My Best Friends, claimed that Warner Bros. created a miracle producing the movie in that "it made Eddie Cantor's life boring".[23]
Something closer to the real Eddie Cantor story is his self-produced feature Show Business (1944), a valentine to vaudeville and show folks, which was
Probably the best summary of Cantor's career is on one of the
Cantor appears as a recurring character, played by Stephen DeRosa, on the series Boardwalk Empire.
Personal life and family
Cantor adopted the first name "Eddie" when he met his future wife Ida Tobias in 1913, because she felt that "Izzy" was not the right name for an actor. Cantor and Ida (1892–1962) were married on June 6, 1914. They had five daughters – Marjorie (1915–1959),
Natalie's first husband was Joseph Louis Metzger,[28] a businessman from Boston; they married in 1937.[29] Her second husband was the French-born American actor Robert Clary, who was best known for his role as Corporal Louis LeBeau on Hogan's Heroes.[30] Edna married James Francis McHugh, Jr., in 1938. McHugh Sr. was a somgwriter who was close friends with Eddie Cantor.[29][31] Janet married the actor Roberto Gari.[32] Marilyn married a Canadian, Michael Baker, in 1960. She was the only child in the family to follow her father into show business.
Following the death of their daughter Marjorie at the age of 44, Eddie's and Ida's health declined rapidly. She had been her father's secretary and a magazine writer.[33] Ida died on August 9, 1962, at age 70 of "cardiac insufficiency",[5][34] and Eddie died on October 10, 1964, in Beverly Hills, California, after suffering his second heart attack at age 72.[35] He is interred in Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery in Culver City, California.
Cantor was a Freemason via Munn Lodge No. 190 in New York City.[36][37]
Filmography
- A Few Moments With Eddie Cantor, Star of "Kid Boots" (1923, DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film short film) as Himself
- Kid Boots (1926) as Samuel (Kid) Boots
- Special Delivery (1927) as Eddie Beagle – the Mail Carrier
- That Party in Person (1929, Short) as Eddie Cantor
- A Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic (1929, Short) as Himself
- Glorifying the American Girl (1929) as Eddie Cantor – Appearance in Revue Scenes
- Insurance (1930, Short) as Sidney B. Zwieback
- Getting a Ticket (1930, Short) as Himself
- Whoopee! (1930) as Henry Williams
- Palmy Days (1931) as Eddie Simpson
- Talking Screen Snapshots (1932, Documentary short) as Himself
- The Kid from Spain (1932) as Eddie Williams
- Roman Scandals (1933) as Eddie / Oedipus
- The Hollywood Gad-About (1934, Documentary short) as Himself (uncredited)
- Kid Millions (1934) as Eddie Wilson Jr.
- Strike Me Pink (1936) as Eddie Pink
- Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937) as Ali Baba
- The March of Time Volume IV, Issue 5 (1937, Documentary short) as Himself
- Forty Little Mothers (1940) as Gilbert Jordan Thompson
- Thank Your Lucky Stars(1943) as Eddie Cantor / Joe Simpson
- Show Business (1944, also producer) as Eddie Martin
- Hollywood Canteen(1944) as Himself
- Screen Snapshots: Radio Shows (1945, Short) as Eddie – The Eddie Cantor Program
- American Creed (1946, Short) as Self
- Meet Mr. Mischief (1947, Short, appears on poster) as Face on Station Program Poster (uncredited)
- If You Knew Susie (1948) as Sam Parker
- Screen Snapshots: Hollywood's Happy Homes (1949, Documentary short) as Himself
- The Story of Will Rogers (1952) as Himself
- Screen Snapshots: Memorial to Al Jolson (1952, Documentary short) as Himself
- The Eddie Cantor Story (1953) cameo appearance and singing voice dubbing for Keefe Brasselle
Bibliography
- My Life Is in Your Hands by Eddie Cantor (1928) with David Freedman; Harper & Bros.
- Caught Short!: A Saga of Wailing Wall Street by Eddie Cantor (1929) Simon & Schuster
- Between the Acts by Eddie Cantor (1930) Simon & Schuster
- Yoo-Hoo, Prosperity!: The Eddie Cantor Five-Year Plan by Eddie Cantor (1931) with David Freedman; Simon & Schuster
- The Rise of the Goldbergs by Gertrude Berg (1931) Foreword by Eddie Cantor; Barse & Co.
- Your Next President! by Eddie Cantor (1932) with David Freedman, Illus. by S.L. Hydeman; Ray Long & Richard R. Smith, Inc.
- Eddie Cantor in An Hour with You: A Big Little Book (1934) Whitman
- Eddie Cantor Song and Joke Book (1934) Illus. by Ben Harris; M. Witmark & Sons
- Ziegfeld: The Great Glorifier by Eddie Cantor (1934) with David Freedman; Alfred H. King
- World's Book of Best Jokes by Eddie Cantor (1943) World Publishing Co.
- Hello, Momma by George Jessel (1946) Foreword by Eddie Cantor, Illus. by Carl Rose; World Publishing Co.
- Take My Life by Eddie Cantor (1957) with Jane Kesner Ardmore; Doubleday
- No Man Stands Alone by Barney Ross (1957) Foreword by Eddie Cantor; B. Lippincott Co.
- The Way I See It by Eddie Cantor (1959) with Phyllis Rosenteur, ed.; Prentice-Hall
- As I Remember Them by Eddie Cantor (1963) Duell, Sloan & Pearce
- Yoo-Hoo, Prosperity! and Caught Short! by Eddie Cantor (1969) Greenwood Press
- "The Eddie Cantor Story: A Jewish Life in Performance and Politics" by David Weinstein (2017) UPNE/Brandeis University Press
- The Golden Age of Sound Comedy: Comic Films and Comedians of the Thirties by Donald W. McCaffrey (1973) A.S. Barnes
- Radio Comedy by Arthur Frank Wertheim (1979) Oxford University Press
- The Vaudevillians: A Dictionary of Vaudeville Performers by Anthony Slide (1981) Arlington House
- American Vaudeville as Seen by Its Contemporaries by Charles W. Stein, ed. (1984) Alfred A. Knopf
- Eddie Cantor: A Life in Show Business by Gregory Koseluk (1995) McFarland
- Eddie Cantor: A Bio-Bibliography by James Fisher (1997) Greenwood Press
- Banjo Eyes: Eddie Cantor and the Birth of Modern Stardom by Herbert G. Goldman (1997) Oxford University Press
- The Great American Broadcast: A Celebration of Radio's Golden Age by Leonard Maltin (1997) Dutton
- My Life Is in Your Hands and Take My Life by Eddie Cantor (2000) Cooper Square Press
- Film Clowns of the Depression: Twelve Defining Comic Performances by Wes D. Gehring (2007) McFarland
- Eddie Cantor in Laugh Land by Harold Sherman (2008) Kessinger Publishing
- Angels We Have Heard: The Christmas Song Stories by James Adam Richliano (2002) Star Of Bethlehem Books (Includes a chapter on Cantor's involvement in the history of "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town").
- The Eddie Cantor Story: A Jewish Life in Performance and Politics by David Weinstein (2018) UPNE/Brandeis University Press
References
- ^ Eddie Cantor, with Jane Kesner Ardmore, Take My Life, Mr. Cantor's second autobiography, 1957.
- ^ Kenrick, John.Who's Who in Musicals: Ca-Cl Musicals101.com, accessed September 5, 2011.
- ^ Obituary Variety, October 14, 1964.
- ISBN 978-1-5126-0134-3.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
- ^ "Banjo Eyes". movies2.nytimes.com. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
- ^ "The Eddie Cantor Story". Eddie Cantor Official Website. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
- ^ "Whoopee!". Baltimore Jewish Times. January 3, 2018. Archived from the original on August 18, 2020. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
- ^ a b "Eddie Cantor Broadway Credits" Internet Broadway database listing, retrieved December 24, 2009.
- ISBN 0-415-93853-8, p. 193.
- ^ "Radio Operators Hear a Good Concert", Bridgeport Telegram, February 4, 1922.
- ISBN 978-0310327950. Retrieved August 20, 2014.
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.
- ^ "Cantor & Pabst Break; 'Riley' For AM-TV Deal". Billboard. June 4, 1949. p. 5. Retrieved March 27, 2024.
- ISBN 978-1-5126-0134-3.
- ^ "'Caught short! A saga of wailing Wall street', OCLC Number: 381325" worldcat.org, accessed September 5, 2011.
- ^ "The Merrie Melodies Theme: "Merrily We Roll Along" |". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
- ^ "Cantor Censored in Televised Act". The New York Times. May 27, 1944.
- ^ "From The Warner Bros. Cartoon Companion, E.O. Costello, ed". Archived from the original on October 7, 2011.
- ^ New York Daily News (November 28, 2008). "Floating back in time with Macy's balloons, 1940, photo No.11". New York Daily News. Retrieved November 28, 2008.
- ^ Motion Picture and Television Magazine, November 1952, page 33, Ideal Publishers.
- ISBN 978-1-5255-4060-8.
- ^ Louis CK On David Letterman Full Interview, retrieved March 1, 2022
- ^ All My Best Friends, by George Burns and David Fisher, Putnam, 1989, p. 162.
- S2CID 192199749.
- ^ a b "Cantor's Daughter Killed By Cancer". The Lexington Herald. May 18, 1959. p. 2. Retrieved February 6, 2024.
- ^ "Obituary for Marjorie Cantor". Chicago Tribune. May 18, 1959. p. 46. Retrieved February 6, 2024.
- ^ "Obituary for Marjorie Cantors". Progress-Bulletin. May 19, 1959. p. 17. Retrieved February 6, 2024.
- ^ "First of Cantor Daughters to Wed". The Vernon Daily Record. May 7, 1937. p. 7. Retrieved February 6, 2024.
- ^ a b "Marjorie Cantor Names 4 Sisters (in will)". Birmingham Post-Herald. May 27, 1959. p. 8. Retrieved February 6, 2024.
- ^ "Robert Clary, 'Hogan's Heroes' actor, dies at 96". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 7, 2023.
- ^ "Honeymoon - Cantor's Third Daughter Weds". The Fresno Bee. September 18, 1938. p. 8. Retrieved February 6, 2024.
- ^ The Children of Eddie Cantor blog article by David Lobosco.
- ^ "Obituary for Marjorie Cantor". The Roberts News. May 21, 1959. p. 6. Retrieved February 6, 2024.
- ^ "Deaths", The New York Times, August 10, 1962, p. 14.
- ^ "Eddie Cantor Dead. Comedy Star Was 72". The New York Times. October 11, 1964. Retrieved August 9, 2012.
Eddie Cantor, banjo-eyed vaudevillian whose dancing feet and double-takes brought him stardom in movies, radio and television, died of a coronary occlusion today at the age of 72.
- ^ "Famous Freemasons (A – Z) Continued – Freemasons Community". freemasonscommunity.life. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
- ^ "Today in Masonic History - Edward Israel Iskowitz (a.k.a. Eddie Cantor) Passes Away". www.masonrytoday.com. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
Further reading
- Goldman, Herbert G. (1997). Banjo Eyes: Eddie Cantor and the Birth of Modern Stardom. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Weinstein, David (2018). The Eddie Cantor Story: A Jewish Life in Performance and Politics. Hanover, NH: UPNE/Brandeis University Press.
- A Few Moments with Eddie Cantor, Star of "Kid Boots" (1923) A six-minute film made in Lee De Forestfeaturing Cantor telling monologues and singing two songs in one of the earliest surviving sound motion pictures.
- OTR Network Library: The Eddie Cantor Show (11 1936 – 52 episodes)
External links
- Eddie Cantor at IMDb
- Eddie Cantor at the Internet Broadway Database
- Cantor's Sidekick: Bert 'The Mad Russian' Gordon @WFMU
- Eddie Cantor at Virtual History
- FBI file on Eddie Cantor