laughter

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.

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. 🙂

I am a writer. I am writing a book. I have begun to think of myself as a writer. A writer spends an enormous amount of time writing, and editing. Writers spend a huge amount of time editing, one would hope. Then re-writing.

It’s addicting. Sitting at a desk can get really comfortable if you have the right cushions. I have to pull myself away from the desk in order to get some exercise, and I have to pull myself away from the book in order to post to my blog. It’s bad enough I have to leave my desk to shop for food (not really). But when I am at my desk, I want to finish polishing my book, period. When I remember that I have a blog to post to, and posts to read, I tell myself, ok, I’ll just finish proofing these next two pages, and before I know it, it’s an hour later. I absolutely love what I am doing, though. Love it.

Today, I want to veer slightly away from my normal subject. my father, star of stage, screen and radio, Eddie Green, to talk about a Mr. Joe Cook. I found a blurb in a newspaper that said something like, “this week Eddie Green will appear on the Joe Cook show.” Who the heck is Joe Cook? I found out that Mr. Cook is another person, like Eddie, who became quite famous in the 1920s and 1930s, but, due to “circumstances”, is not widely remembered today.

I, myself, am not really a big fan of old time stuff, necessarily, like vaudeville, or burlesque. My focus is basically on the fact that society tends to remember, and talk about, the same people, over and over. Take Marilyn Monroe, for instance.

Sure, she was gorgeous. And men still wait for the wind to blow up some ladies dress. My mom was sitting on the bus stop one day, next to a little old guy, mom was about 76 at the time, and she was dressed, as usual, in a skirt, and the wind started to blow. Mom told me that the old man next to her started saying, out loud, “blow wind, blow.”

I mean, can we find someone else to talk about, for Heaven’s sake?

Like Joe Cook.

joe Cook 1930 cameo_thumb[2] — Joe Cook-Courtesy Google Advanced Search

Mr. Joe Cook was born in 1890 as Joe Lopez. Joe was orphaned at the age of three, and grew up an adoptee. In 1909, Joe left home and joined the circus.

Joe became a fantastic juggler, he could walk the tightrope, he was a mime, as a matter of fact, he became a major star in the circus.

Joe went on to prosper in Vaudeville, working the stage for fifteen years. Joe’s nickname at the time was “one man vaudeville,” because he was so versatile. He could play the piano, the ukulele and the violin. He told hilarious stories. The audiences loved him.

In the 1930s Joe became a Broadway musical comedy star. And in the late 1930s, Joe had his own radio shows, one on which he chose Eddie to make an appearance, and, he was also constantly receiving requests to be a guest on shows other than his own. He was quite popular. Let’s not forget Joe Cook.

Neither Joe, nor Eddie, were beautiful girls with their skirts flying up in the air, but they did provide laughter, and that is something that is always welcome.

Thank you, for stopping by.