Summary of Kliph Nesteroff's The Comedians

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 In the early twentieth century, the United States had around 5,000 vaudeville theaters. They were controlled by a small group of moguls who were extremely wealthy and sought only to maximize profit. They intimidated their competitors into submission.
#2 The Orpheum circuit had been Keith-Albee’s largest competitor, with theaters in Calgary, Champaign, Davenport, Decatur, Denver, Des Moines, Duluth, Fresno, Kansas City, Lincoln, Los Angeles, Madison, Memphis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Oakland, Omaha, Portland, Rockford, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Seattle and Sioux City.
#3 Vaudeville was a rough life, and many of the acts lived in boardinghouses or did odd jobs to subsidize their meager incomes. Some comics were in demand not for their act, but for their connections.
#4 The burlesque and vaudeville comedy scenes were completely separate from each other, and burlesque relied on stock routines and characters. The most common burlesque comedy conventions were racial caricature and rampaging husbands.

Sujets

• Comedy

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 08 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669351689
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Kliph Nesteroff's The Comedians
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10 Insights from Chapter 11 Insights from Chapter 12 Insights from Chapter 13
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

In the early twentieth century, the United States had around 5,000 vaudeville theaters. They were controlled by a small group of moguls who were extremely wealthy and sought only to maximize profit. They intimidated their competitors into submission.

#2

The Orpheum circuit had been Keith-Albee’s largest competitor, with theaters in Calgary, Champaign, Davenport, Decatur, Denver, Des Moines, Duluth, Fresno, Kansas City, Lincoln, Los Angeles, Madison, Memphis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Oakland, Omaha, Portland, Rockford, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Seattle and Sioux City.

#3

Vaudeville was a rough life, and many of the acts lived in boardinghouses or did odd jobs to subsidize their meager incomes. Some comics were in demand not for their act, but for their connections.

#4

The burlesque and vaudeville comedy scenes were completely separate from each other, and burlesque relied on stock routines and characters. The most common burlesque comedy conventions were racial caricature and rampaging husbands.

#5

Burlesque comedy was risqué, while vaudeville had pathological sanctimony. Vaudeville houses posted warnings about verboten subject matter. The phrase working blue came into usage at the time.

#6

The attraction of rotten food was matched by the attraction of so-rotten-they’re-good performers. Child acts featuring Groucho Marx, Phil Silvers, and Buster Keaton were among the most popular forms of vaudeville comedy.

#7

The Three Keatons were an original stand out compared to the majority of vaudeville comedy featuring children. The schoolroom sketch was the most popular type of comedy in vaudeville from 1905 to 1920, and many comedians made their careers out of racial caricature.

#8

The protests against racial caricature in vaudeville led to changes, but not nearly enough.

#9

The Stooges were first billed as Ted Healy and His Three Southern Gentlemen, but when the act broke up in the early 1930s, the Stooges started getting offers for films.

#10

The first great comic emcee was San Francisco native Frank Fay. He not only became a celebrity, but developed the idea of an emcee, which was the first step in stand-up comedy.

#11

The Marx Brothers were the most famous family of comedians, and their influence can be seen today in the art form of stand-up comedy. They were also the first comedians to use egomaniacal monikers, like The Great Fay, The King and Broadway’s Favorite Son.

#12

The Marx Brothers had a very fast, manic act that was hard to follow. They had kicked themselves off the pinnacle of vaudeville when they went to Broadway and opened in a legitimate show called I’ll Say She Is in 1924.

#13

The Marx Brothers were relegated to a B circuit and no longer encountered Jack Benny. Benny knew he wasn’t capable of the madcap pace of the Marxes, so he took cues from low-key, post-Fay monologists like Julius Tannen.

#14

The Boasberg persona was a wild group of carousing, drunken party animals. It was a persona that was later adapted for the Phil Harris Orchestra on The Jack Benny Program.

#15

Cantor’s biggest fame came from the Ziegfeld Follies, a series of lavish Broadway revues. He was teamed up with Bert Williams, considered by some historians to be the greatest African American comedian who ever lived.

#16

Vaudeville was a big part of Black entertainment in the early 20th century. It was a time when the only fame the Friars Club had was death itself.

#17

The vaudeville era was dominated by comedians, and they were able to get huge paychecks because of it. However, radio became popular, and the vaudeville moguls panicked.

#18

The Great Depression was no help to vaudeville, which was dying anyway. The stock market crashed, people lost their disposable income, and new genres like the endurance contest lured away vaudeville patrons.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

Radio’s golden age was from the 1930s through the early 1950s, when it made some of the biggest comedians millionaires. However, radio critics treated Cantor’s show harshly, and he was sensitive to their scorn.

#2

Radio was a huge success, and soon advertising agencies were controlling the content and packaged the talent. The success of comedian Joe Penner was such a creation.

#3

The radio personality Rudy Vallee, who was extremely popular in the 1920s and 1930s, gave comedian George Carlin his first radio gig in the 1940s. While Carlin got the credit for introducing many future comedy greats, the actual booking process had very little to do with him.

#4

The Kate Smith Hour was a radio show that featured different guests, including a comedian named Henny Youngman. He was offered a contract based on his appearances on the show. Youngman then recommended Abbott and Costello to the show’s manager.

#5

The most prominent African American comedian in radio was Eddie Anderson, who played Benny’s valet, Rochester Van Jones. His raspy voice and sarcastic comments frequently upstaged the star.

#6

During his time on The Jack Benny Program, Benny was sponsored by Canada Dry, Chevrolet, and European fascism changed American comedy in World War II, as Benny refused to play any segregated venues.

#7

Many Jewish comedians were influenced by Jack Benny, and he was a popular figure in the Los Angeles social scene. When he was charged with international jewel smuggling, many were shocked. However, the sentence was suspended and the comedians were only fined $15,000 and $10,000, respectively.

#8

The American government was a neutral observer of the German situation, and did not mind giving a Nazi a generous check. radio writers were not allowed to criticize Hitler before 1941.

#9

World War II had a major impact on nightclub comedy, as many top comedians were in the military or performing on military bases.