The greatest knockabout comedy act in the history of vaudeville, Willie, West & McGinty in their Paramount short PLASTERED from 1930.
Irvin Feld missed a very narrow window of opportunity in the late 60s to recreate this act when the Ringling circus featured three clowns who would have been dead ringers for WW&M, Michael Karp, Doug Ashton and Freddie Freeman.
2 comments:
This was mind-boggling. I just watched it three times in a row, and not one bit of business looks rehearsed. I can't get over how many bits there are, how rapid-fire they progress, yet, as Lou would say, the was no "spaghetti", (except the bit on the plate). I wonder how many years it took these guys to make the whole routine look natural and unrehearsed. Pity the poor stage managers who had to get the whole stage set while some person sang a song in front of the olio. Then have to clean up all the dirt and bricks. I imagine this was one of those legendary acts that nobody wanted to follow. What kind of salary did these guys command?
Elmo
Irvin may have missed the boat, but he definatly knew of Willie West & Co. When we were producing the construction gag on ringling a few years back, they were the inspiration and when Kenneth Feld saw the final version, he remarked how much it reminded him of of them, which he saw open for Danny kaye at the Sands in Vegas in the late 50's.
-Greg
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