Funny

elvagreen123

Bea Arthur, small blond movie star – Bea Arthur, daydreaming again

In her own words:  “My dream was to become a very small blonde movie star like Ida Lupino and those other women I saw up there on the screen.” Bea must have had this dream at an early age because by the time she was 12 years old, she towered over her classmates and had very dark hair. Feeling awkward in school she became the class clown. At this time in her life she was not planning on being a comedian, however, she did like to sing. Bea attended Blackstone College, a private religious school, at age 18 where she received intellectual and spiritual training. She was serious and intelligent, but not yet sure of where her future would take her. In later life some would say that Bea was a very private, introverted person. Which I can understand after hearing about her early life. She did not really start out as a funny, outgoing girl.

At the beginning of her entertainment career, Bea tried to become a “Lounge Singer”. But her overbearing presence really did not fit the mold. However, by 1947 she had begun to get parts while in a workshop and made her theater debut as a member of the speaking chorus in ‘The Dog Beneath the Skin’ at the ‘Cherry Lane Theatre, with JeSrry Stiller. She was on her way folks, on her way to becoming a tall, dark-haired, deep-voiced, beauty on Broadway, off-Broadway, into starring roles on Television.

There is so much more to Bea’s life as an entertainer. I am trying to write bits about her here on this site, but not too much, as I am writing a book on the TV sitcom, Maude. Plus that I am also trying to catch up with the changes made at WordPress. Today I wound up with four separate “boxes” as paragraphs! How I got there, I do not know. Thank goodness I enjoy posting and sharing about my book writing journey.

Next post will be all about my first book signing for my book titled The Jeffersons A fresh look back featuring episodic insights, interviews, a peek behind-the-scenes, and photos.

Thanks, for stopping by 🙂

Don’t forget to get your Christmas gifts – both of these can be found on Amazon:

elvagreen123

Laughter is SO Much Better

Too tired of US politics. Going to talk about my father. Hello good people. Maybe I would have done a blog about something scary for Halloween, but I had my trick yesterday-someone egged my car. Right in front of my abode. The freaks were out last night! You ever had to clean egg off of your car? I didn’t even get angry. Another thing that is just not worth the energy. Focusing on my father feels good to my soul, so I post a lot on Social Media about Eddie. Then I forget what I put online. Someone found this photo I posted with an article about 2 years ago on Twitter and they Retweeted it!. They liked it that much. And that made me feel good. It really made me LOL.

Eddie Green & Co in Sending A Wire

In 1929 Eddie was in a musical called “Hot Chocolates”. He wrote a couple of songs and he wrote the comedy sketches. One sketch was “Sending a Wire”. A newspaper article read: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle said “The whole town is talking about Eddie Green, prime colored comic, who will put on one of the funniest skits on the stage. He will dash from the Hudson Theater immediately after the final curtain to the National Broadcasting Company where he will re-enact his side-splitting “Telegraph Office” skit for Commander Byrd and his crew.” (Brooklyn Daily Eagle July 18, 1929).

Seeing this photo again made me wonder why a skit about a telegraph office would be funny. Eddie was trying to send the wire and James Baskette was the clerk. Sending a telegraph or “wire” was the thing in 1929, it was fast and you could communicate with people across the world. It led to the telephone, the fax machine and now the internet, losing favor after the 1929 stock market crash. However Eddie kept up with the times in his comedic sketches, and the telegraph would have been of interest to him as he was already a ham radio operator (had his own station) and he loved to communicate with people all over the world. The internet would have been right up his alley.

Well, Warner Bros. certainly liked the sketch as they produced a film for their Vitaphone Varieties series. The skit from “Connie’s Hot Chocolates”, “Sending A Wire”, became a Warner Brother’s Vitaphone film that was said to be the funniest Vitaphone comedy act “which has yet been produced”, and that it “kept thousands shaking with laughter.” The film is registered in the Library of Congress as Sending A Wire, Eddie Green and Co. (Warner Bros. (as The Vitaphone Corporation) 1929 Sending a Wire © September 28, 1929 Murray Roth (director); Eddie Green with Jimmy Baskett & (NYC) (vitaphone varieties – Cinematop). There is just the one film in existence and I will probably never get to view it, but just knowing it exists helps me know my father as an entertainer.

This was all so long ago. Even before my mother met my father. As a matter of fact she was only six in 1929. Eddie was 30 years older. Chronicling my father’s life has been deeply satisfying. I know my own positivity comes through Eddie. (My inner sarcasm comes from Mom.) My ability to laugh out loud comes through him. I used to tell her I was funny because Eddie was (she didn’t think I was funny). It’s good to be able to keep Eddie’s name and face in the fore of people’s memories. I feel much better now. I love you, Eddie.

Friends and family, stay safe, love each other and thanks, for stopping by. 🙂

elvagreen123

And Then There’s Maude!

Anything but tranquilizing, Right On, Maude! Hi there, well folks, I have begun writing my third book. I am awe struck that I have come this far as I only wanted to write one little book. I knew I could write one book. Today I am finishing my second book on The Jeffersons and I have started researching a third. I imagine that some of you beautiful people out there remember the 1970s tv sitcom, Maude. Maybe you watched it back then or you have seen reruns. I watched it, I liked Bea Arthur as Maude and Bill Macy as her husband, Walter. The reality of my life in the 70s though was that I was “doing my thing”. Remember “It’s Your Thing, Do What You Wanna Do”? Well I was partying hardy so even though I watched tv I barely remember most of the Maude episodes so I will be watching a lot of videos and I get to interview people who worked with the show.  I do remember the theme song which, I just found out about a month ago, was recorded by the famous Donnie Hathaway!

I know this is too interesting, but I just want to go back a bit to the beginning of my book writing online journey. I think it is amazing and right that the biography that I wrote about my father has a continuous connection to my second and third books. As if I am supposed to be writing these books. I started out by writing about my father who found his fame appearing as Eddie the waiter on the Duffy’s Tavern Radio Program from 1941-1950. They began taping in New York, moved to L. A. and then to Puerto Rico during these years. Duffy’s Tavern was a comedy and each episode (almost every one of them) a different guest appeared and became a part of the shenanigans. Way too many to list here, but a few were Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, Billie Burke, Adolph Monjou, Charles Coburn, Boris Karloff, Larry Storch, Peggy Lee, Mickey Rooney, Ed Wynn and on and on. Ed Gardner, Jr. was the Bartender and Charles Cantor was the resident oddball guy who hung out at Duffy’s, by the name of Finnegan.

In 1945 Duffy’s Tavern with made into a movie by Paramount. In the movie they used almost every star on the Paramount lot, plus Ed, Eddie and Charlie. Bing Crosby was in this movie as you can see from this poster. Eddie’s picture is no where on this poster. Maybe he wasn’t famous enough yet. But after being in the entertainment business since about 1901 he was gettin’ there. Anywho, since I have written the book I have received pictures from fans of Eddie. Pictures that are treasures of theirs and now of mine.

 

Sometime in the early 40s this picture was taken. This is an old copy from the internet. I now have an original in hand. This is typed on the back of the picture: Produced by the Armed Forces Radio Service. Program: Jubilee. Bing Crosby and Eddie Green  “All Armed Forces Radio Service programs are stamped on flexible plastic transcription discs. In addition the the land-based broadcasting outlets ships of the United States Navy and Coast Guard in all oceans will receive the transcription of this show, which is not heard in the United States except in Army and Navy hospitals serving returned casualties.” Need I say more?

Going on to my second book. While writing The Jeffersons I discovered that a friend of Eddie’s, Lillian Randolph, had appeared in a Jeffersons episode as Mother Jefferson’s sister. Lillian and Eddie had appeared together on The Great Gildersleeves Radio Program and also on the Amos n Andy Radio Program. Lillian’s real life sister was Amanda Randolph who had stared in Eddie’s third movie Comes Midnight. Lillian is the woman who donated her dee-vorce money in It’s a Wonderful Life.

Back to Maude. I started researching my third book about the Maude tv sitcom about a month ago. I have had the great benefit of being able to call on writers who wrote for Maude and who also wrote  for The Jeffersons. (Mr. Moriarty was one writer who wrote 68 episodes according to Fandom). I’ve posted about this before but Mr. Bob Schiller and Mr. Bob Weiskopf not only wrote for Maude, they also wrote for All In The Family of which The Jeffersons was a spin-off and they wrote for Duffy’s Tavern Radio Show where it is quite possible they knew my father. It is all connected.

I was watching one of the Maude episodes, “The Kiss” when I realized Maude and Walter were so loud! I had found a newspaper article where the complaint about The Jeffersons in 1975 was that they were too loud. Well, this must have been a Norman Lear thing (I read that somewhere) because the characters in Maude talked really loud also. In “The Kiss” Walter tried to BS Maude about why she found him kissing the next door neighbor, Maude’s best friend. I wonder what I get to say about these episodes in my book? You’ll notice I said BS.

There is no set in stone title at this point. I’m wavering. Maybe God’ll get you for that, Walter or Right On Maude! (the 70s babee). I’ve got a year to figure it out. I love what I am doing. I love writing and research. I can get totally involved in it. My experience in this writing journey has far exceeded my imaginings.

I got an itch to do something and I did it and it has blossomed. I suggest to anyone else if you have something you think you can do or you have something you want to say, do it, put it down on paper, the sky’s is the limit but you gotta start the flight. And help will find you along the way.

Hey, thanks, for stopping by 🙂

elvagreen123

But Was it Funny?

eddies laugh jamboree - green goodHello out there! What a lucky girl am I. I have started researching a third book. Just writing those words down makes me have to stop and ponder. I’ve never considered writing 3 books. Just the one-about my father- a rags-to-riches biography about the legendary Eddie Green, Old Time Radio icon (Duffy’s Tavern once a week radio show and others), composer, filmmaker, singer, dancer magician, TV star. A Black American who made it big despite the travails of Blacks in the early 1900s.

I never thought I would write a second book about a 70s TV sitcom, The Jeffersons, which I am working on finishing as I begin work on my new book about another 70s TV sitcom, Maude. Remarkable.

The first choice was mine, the next 2 were my publisher’s idea. Imagine that. And, it’s been a blast. I love research. I love reading. I started reading when I was four years old. My father left me a set of classics and a set of encyclopedias. I love words. Also, I have met the nicest people, period.

What these books have in common is that they are about Comedians and comedy. My father was into producing, he owned a string of restaurants, he wrote music, but he was first and foremost a comedian, he made his fame as Eddie the waiter, on the Duffy’s Tavern radio program in the 40s. The TV programs, The Jeffersons and Maude were comedic, while managing to focus on social controversial issues, such as abortion, politics and racism. But they made people laugh.

I was struck by a thought one day (probably because of the civil unrest these days) that most of the writers on each of these shows were White. Even on the almost all Black show The Jeffersons. One of the White writers on the Jeffersons was once asked by a Black person how he, a White man, could write for Black people. Basically his answer was a question: Did you laugh?

duffyscastonstageDuffy’s Tavern was on the air for ten years. It was funny. Especially Eddie the waiter’s lines. Apart from a very few, the weekly guests were White. The cast was White. The announcer was White. Eddie was the only Black cast member on that show. And he was hilarious.

The Jeffersons had very few Black writers. But the show was funny. It ran from 1975-1985.

I thought Maude was funny. Most of the writers were White. And I’m Black.

I think it sucks that Black writers, good Black writers, have to work at getting into script writing. Or that when they do get in, the public does not hear about it. I’ve spoken with a Black writer that wrote for a White TV show (had one Black cast member that I can think of) and that TV show made a mint for everybody thanks to that Black writer. Because people thought it was funny.

Maybe its just about being funny.

7109066004r (2)My father made a movie titled Mr. Adam’s Bomb (1949).  His idea was to show the world how regular every day Black people reacted to the use of the Atom Bomb. It was a horrible episode in our country. Eddie, as an ex vaudevillian and as a comedian chose to include humor and singing and dancing as in this movie as he had in his first four movies.

From the reviews I have read over the past ten years, some Black people don’t get it. They don’t get the dancing. The audience singing. And of course the comedy is way old time. But it was the only way Eddie knew to express himself as an entertainer. A Black comedic filmmaker, who liked using chorus girls in his movies, taking on the aftermath of the Atom Bomb through his people for his people and by his people.  But like I said above, some Black people today don’t get a Black man’s sense of humor from 1949. Eddie always wanted to look at the “up” side of life.

Anywho, maybe it doesn’t matter the color of the comedy writer. Maybe it’s just about being funny. Or silly. Some of the Walter and Maude lines cracked me up. Florence playing a old timey Black maid and shouting “Oh lawd” and throwing her hands up was too funny. Eddie in Duffy’s Tavern laughing out loud because someone called to make a reservation was hilarious.

The bobsSchillerandWeiskophNow here’s a Fun fact: Mr. Bob Schiller and Mr. Bob Weiskoph (both gone now) wrote for Maude. The two Bobs also wrote for Duffy’s Tavern and probably knew my father. I love their picture.

I hope you can find something to make you laugh out loud or to make you smile.

Thanks, for stopping by.

 

 

 

elvagreen123

2020 – New Year, New Hairdo

Every now and then I like to write about random stuff. Stuff not connected to my father’s biography or my latest writing venture. Sometimes I ache to write about politics, however, I would probably burn up my laptop with my furious typing. But today I am going to share with you the conversation I had with myself while “doing” my hair this morning. My daughter says I spend way too much time worrying about how my hair looks. But I have always placed a lot of emphasis on how my hair looks. As I was combing it today I remembered the old childhood story about Rapunzel- “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair”. I loved that story as a young girl. But I did not have long hair like Rapunzel, I had frizzy hair, when my mom put my hair up in a rubber band I looked like I had a bunny’s tail.

I said to myself, I wonder why my childhood books were all about girls with long blond hair. Goldilocks, Raggedy Ann (no, she had red hair), anyhow –  then my brain reminded me that I did have some books about Black people. My favorite was “The Talking Yam”.

“This yam will make a nice dinner, said the farmer. Put me down! Put me down!” said the yam
“I want to stay in the dirt, I don’t want to be your dinner. Now, everybody knows yams can’t talk
The farmer didn’t know what to do. He ran off to tell the king. On the way, he met a woman and her goat “Stop! Stop!” said the woman, Why are you running like that?”There’s a talking yam in my garden! said the farmer. It said, ‘Put me down!Well, did you put it down?” asked the goat.Now, everybody knows goats can’t talk The woman and the farmer didn’t know what to do. They ran off to tell the king.”

Those long blond locks made an impression on me, though. One summer when I was eight my mom sent me off to summer camp. I discovered swimming. I also discovered that if I tilted my head back into the water when I came back up my hair flowed out behind me. Ahhh. Unfortunately, it was our last day at camp and by the time I got home my hair had dried into a huge bunny tail-my mom had a fit because guess who had to comb all the knots out? But I never forgot that camp visit.

Then my brain reminded me about the Natural. I had a serious natural. Like Angela Davis except mine was perfectly round. And I had a lot of it. Took a lot of work keeping it “together”. You needed the right comb, the right hair product. And I didn’t have to “press” it. You know, straighten it. It was my natural hair and I looked good.

Now going into the new year I have come to grips with my new hair look. My hair is thinning. I cut it short a long time ago because I like not having to “press” it in order to have a cute hair style. Those days are long gone. Short hair is cool.  I’ve already dyed it blonde to cover the grey/brown look, and though thin it grows in cute little curls. This year I don’t have White hair (like Rapunzel) or Black hair (which can help you have a bangin’ natural), I have Cute Hair. I have Hair, still. I still look good. So Happy New Year to you all and may you too discover a cool fact about yourself to celebrate.

Thanx ever so much, for stopping by 🙂

elvagreen123

Happy Holiday Surprise!!

SURPRISE!!!! About two weeks ago it Snowed in the Antelope Valley in Sunny Southern California! Real Snow. In Lancaster, where it was hot as the blazes a couple of months ago. Snow in the Valley. I’ve seen snow before, in Manassas, Va. Not here. So all the neighbors were out taking pics and some of them made snowmen and snowwomen (guess how you could tell the difference). All I could think of when I went outside was “Merry Christmas!!!!” So I shouted it out. An early White Christmas. I love it! It hung around for about 3 days before it melted away. I took this pic with my old “free” government phone.

I have since bought a brand new Moto phone mainly because I could and also because I needed to be caught up with technology. I am now freelancing as a book marketer because of the fact that I am a published author. For anyone new to this Blog, I began it to post about my 1st book Eddie Green, The Rise of an Early 1900s Black American Entertainment Pioneer. A book about my father. (this pic was a table set up by my daughter at a book presentation). Which led to my publisher asking me to finish a book writing project about The Jeffersons.

I began researching and interviewing last December 2018. I am THIS close to having a rough draft for my publisher. I’ve spoken to cast and crew members, writers, directors and guests. I’ve spoken to those who cannot be done without – Administrative Assistants (I’ve been one so I know their importance). My self-imposed timeline to finish a rough for my publisher was the end of December 2019. It’s quite possible I may go a tad bit over. But everything about this book writing process is fun, except the proofing (:() Rather tedious, but necessary.

Don Coyote 1934 w/Reginald Denny

My new marketing project is about me posting information for others on Social Media sites. In 2014 when I bought my first laptop to write my first book I had no thought of what will I do after I write this book. None. In wanting this site to be inspirational I hoped others could begin their own books (you know the one you’ve been putting off for years). I really had no thought of where writing would lead me. I’m learning more now about the silent movie industry, aviation, race car driving and new phone technology. (Look for the new Reginald Denny book.)

So I’ve left my OG phone behind (now that I can afford an upgrade). I’m working hard on a new book about a TV sitcom that I loved and I’m looking way back into those yesteryears when you had to read what was on the screen. Which somehow seems to meld in to what we are doing today. Reading our screens. Anybody out there remember telephone party lines? Wishing you all a bunch of good Holiday Surprises!

Thanx, for stopping by and I’ll see you in the funny pages! (I don’t know what that means but my mom used to say it).

 

elvagreen123

ACTORS: Remembering and Appreciating

Hello friends. The fact that I have begun the process of writing a book about The Jeffersons tv sitcom is beginning to make it clear just how diligent I am going to have to be in getting my facts straight. Somehow it seems a lot more involved than corroborating the information I learned about my father when writing his biography. In researching the actors and their participation in their various shows, I have found out that one person will say what they think things were like, some will say what they heard, and some will assume. Getting the actor’s stories in their own words is difficult, especially if those actors are no longer with us.

The three actors pictured, Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford and Mike Evans have all died. Sherman in 2012, Isabel in 2004 and Mike in 2006. Sharing this writing process here on WordPress is so important in helping me with this book-writing learning experience. I am not using this forum to write the book from the beginning but to have some kind of clarity of where I am going.

Today I decided to write about actor Mike Evans who played the character Lionel Jefferson, the son of the Bunker’s new Black neighbors. The Bunkers were the family from “All In The Family” or AITF, with Carroll O’Conner, as Archie and Jean Stapleton, as Edith. Mike Evans began portraying Lionel in this AITF in 1971 through 1975 before moving on up to “The Jeffersons”.

As a child, Mike was “short, and fat, and funny-looking”. His parents divorced when he was a baby. As a young man he used his talent for art by making sculptures out of clothes hangers and selling them to hippies in Hollywood. By 18 he had enrolled in City College and was studying Psychology, then switched to an Acting major. He learned one day that a studio was looking for young, Black actors and so he went to audition and eventually got the part of Lionel. The one downside to this was that his father had died 3 months earlier so Mike was not able to share this with him.

In 1975 AITF produced the spin-off The Jeffersons and Mike continued to play his character. But after one season, Mike left the sitcom. According to The Las Vegas Sun-TV Scene. Sunday, February 20, 1977: He left because he “wasn’t having a good time on the show.” He did, however, return for the sixth through the eighth season. Mike had married in 1976 and his marriage lasted until 2002 when his wife died. Mike would die of throat cancer in 2006.

There is such an upside to writing this type of non-fiction book. The actors, writers, producers that I am able to be in contact with are given a boost just knowing that people are actually interested in them as artists and still remember them. And the relatives of those who have left us are pleased, also. They’ve told me so, and I can hear it in their voices.

I thank you so much for stopping by and for “clicking” on my posts.

🙂

 

 

elvagreen123

Interview: Guest “Staras” – Willie Tyler and Lester

Hi there you all. Well, I’ve spoken to my first person who guest starred on the tv sitcom, The Jeffersons. Mr. Willie Tyler, ventriloquist. Lester, his dummy, was not available.  I spoke with Willie for about 20 minutes via cell phone regarding this appearance. I got a big kick out of talking with him.  Willie told me he thinks of Lester as real, that way it’s easier to make him real to the audience. About Lester, according to a newspaper article I found on Fulton Postcards: “You would never know that the little fellow is not human once Willie Tyler sets the flashy little man on his knee and commences an act that has been applauded all over the world.”

Writing a book about The Jeffersons is going to give me the opportunity to talk with many more “staras” as my brother would say, and I’m loving it. I get to research these people and bring back an awareness of their works in the entertainment world. A lot of the people who worked on The Jeffersons are gone now. But not all of them.  Some are still doing their gigs to appreciative audiences. As is Willie Tyler and his buddy, Lester. Mr. Tyler is currently preparing to perform on a Cruise Ship. It’s amazing to me how this gentleman has done his ventriloquist act for more than 40 years. And he still loves doing it.

Willie Tyler and Lester appeared on The Jeffersons in 1978. I intend to share more in my book but I will tell you I found an old tv ad that reads: “George’s stockbroker is a ventriloquist, but is he a dummy? Only Louise knows the answer to that one.” Starring Isabel Sanford and Sherman Hemsley. Tarrytown NY Daily News (1978)

Willie Tyler and Lester appeared on the David Letterman show during “Ventriloquist Week” – take a gander, and, please, keep coming back.

 

elvagreen123

Smiling & Twirling & Laughing & Caring

I like to think I am like my father. He was a happy man. He had a great smile. He loved to make people laugh. He was a good friend, with a helpful attitude. And he liked people, period. He was a family man, too. He was married 4 times. Had two daughters, one in 1911 and then me in the 40s. He told the Brooklyn Eagle in 1939 that “the depression doesn’t worry him. He’s happily married (3rd wife), Daughter Hilda is grown up and starting to follow him in show business. He’s got his work, his radio to tinker with and he’s the proud possessor of the first television set in Harlem.” At the time of this interview he was appearing in Mike Todd’s Hot Mikado. As Koko he sang “Titwillow” (Stars Over Broadway, Star Tone (M) ST 214 (Eddie Green with orchestra conducted by William Parson) The Brooklyn Eagle article said he had a “perpetual beaming smile.”

In a 1939 Press Sheet it was said that “Eddie Green still remains one of the greatest of all funny men. He has an irresistible sense of humor and he can squeeze a laugh from the sourest puss in the country!” When making his movies Eddie said that he builds his stories around incidents that are interesting, never offensive. He also said that when working on the radio show Duffy’s Tavern, “It’s grand, working with this show. The informality of it, the tavern setting and the lines which I never have to worry about, turns work into play.”

The Billboard spoke about him in a 1920 article in regard to having a helpful attitude: Eddie sent a note to The Billboard letting them know that if “the boys playing this town (New York) and having a hard time getting rooms they could stop at the Hotel Francis directly opposite the New York City Depot.” The Billboard said his not was an illustration of the many services to one another that actors may accomplish through their news page.

He and my mother were only married for five years and of that marriage I never heard any bad things about my father from my mother. She seemed to have been proud to have been married to him. Eddie was a comedian and as I grew up I always told my mother (whenever I thought I had said something funny) that I was my father’s daughter.  I find that most people  just want to be happy.  And they want to be acknowledged. I like to acknowledge people. It makes me smile to see another person realize they have been heard.

I am a family person, also. My siblings are like parts of my person. This past week I had the chance to see a nephew that I had not seen in over 10 years. He’s not little anymore. He’s grown up (about 6′ 5″, maybe more-so tall!!!). He’s a grown man. I cannot believe how happy it made me to see him. He visited from New Mexico. I have family all over the United States. Some of us have never met in person. I am “working on” putting together a family calendar. I wish I could hug them all at the same time. I LOVE my family. They totally make me smile.

I am working very hard on paying attention to what makes my happy, what makes me smile. There are so many unhappy people in the world today. So many reasons to be unhappy. So much unrest. I am going to try and take how I felt about seeing my nephew (I felt like twirling around in the restaurant!!!) and spread it around.

Thanx for stopping by and for helping to keep a smile on my face. 🙂

 

elvagreen123

“The Whole Town is Talking About Eddie Green”

According to today’s news, a new Black female movie director who has just finished directing Madeleine L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle In Time”, has been chosen to direct Jack Kirby’s “New Gods” for Warner Bros. I have been following her rise, and when I read the words Warner Bros., my father flashed into my mind because he did a Warner Bros. Vitaphone Film.

The film is titled Sending A Wire. I felt that here is a connection (if somewhat remote) I can use to help make Eddie relevant to today. You know, Eddie was Black, he was a director, he worked with Warner Bros. and he was a Trailblazer.

I also communicate via Twitter. So I tweeted this information to the female director, yes, hoping for some type of acknowledgement. I am still in the process of promoting the biography I have written about my father and I am trying every way I can think of to get his story seen. I read somewhere that I should “do the same thing everyone else does, but do it differently”. Huh?? So I’m just doing what I think this advice is saying. I want to bring Eddie back to the fore of people’s minds. Because he was a trailblazer who was the best at what he did. His story can provide that pin-in-the-tush type of motivation for others.

Sending A Wire started out as a skit in a play titled Hot Chocolates and went on to become quite popular. From my book:

There was also “Sending A Wire”, written by Eddie, featuring Eddie and Jimmy Baskette, as a customer and clerk, respectively, in a telegraph office. The New York Age called Sending A Wire “riotously funny”. Evidently, Eddie was “knocking them ga-ga” in his telegraph skit at the Hudson.

James “Jimmie” Baskette, born February 16, 1904, would later become best known as “Uncle Remus” singing the song “Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah” in the 1946 Disney feature film, Song of the South.
Connie’s Hot Chocolates was hailed by critics and was touted as being fast, funny and frank. Hot Chocolates would go on to have 219 performances. The closing date was December 14, 1929.

The skit from “Connie’s Hot Chocolates”, “Sending A Wire”, became a Warner Brother’s Vitaphone film that was said to be the funniest Vitaphone comedy act “which has yet been produced”, and that it “kept thousands shaking with laughter.” The film is registered in the Library of Congress as Sending A Wire, Eddie Green and Co. New York Age February 1, 1930.

“Sending A Wire”, would go on to be shown at Loew’s Main St. New Rochelle Theater, December 7, 8 and 9, billed as “Eddie Green & Co.”, featured between the Hearst Metrotone News and Irene Franklin, and, at the Strand Theater on the same program with a Mickey Mouse cartoon called The Jazz Fool.

Okeh Records would record the song “Sending A Wire” with Eddie Green and Company (which can be found at the Library of Congress under Black Films: Paper Print Collection.)


At the time, Commander Richard E. Byrd, an America Naval Officer had started an expedition to the Antarctic, and had set up a base camp named “Little America” in the Antarctic on the Ross Ice Shelf. The Gannet Newspapers, which at the time included the Albany News and The Knickerbocker Press, decided to put together a stellar list of entertainers to perform over radio stations WGY and WHAM to be broadcast to “Little America”, for the enjoyment of the explorers. Commander Byrd would receive the short wave and the broadcast wave lengths to all broadcast listeners in the United States. Amsterdam Evening Recorder: “Tonight’s radio program for Commander Byrd-Radio entertainment, originating in three different cities will be broadcast by WGY and its short wave stations to Commander Richard Byrd and his men in Little America.

Eddie was added to the program specifically to do his “Telegraph Skit” which was said to be “one of the funniest skits on the stage.” Eddie would perform along with Ralph Rainger, the composer of “Moanin’ Low”, who was also invited. Some of the other stellar performers included Rudy Vallee, Fred Allen and comedian Ted Healy. At the end of the program letters and messages from the men’s families were read over the air.

Regarding Eddie Green’s performance on the radio program, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle said “The whole town is talking about Eddie Green, prime colored comic, who will put on one of the funniest skits on the stage. He will dash from the Hudson Theater immediately after the final curtain to the National Broadcasting Company where he will re-enact his side-splitting “Telegraph Office” skit for Commander Byrd and his crew.”  (Brooklyn Daily Eagle July 18, 1929).

“The whole town is talking about Eddie Green.” What a wonderful line to read about one’s father in the newspaper.

Thank you so much, for stopping by.

Eddie Green The Rise of an Early 1900s Black American Entertainment Pioneer-BearManor Media publisher