OLD VAUDEVILLIANS READY FOR A COMEBACK.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
They are national treasures, these old guys throwing around one-liners and causing heads to turn in the coffee shop at Sportsmen's Lodge The Sportsmen's Lodge in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles, California is something of a kitsch landmark but remains a popular spot for celebrations, dinners and public events. . ``Who are they?'' a young couple asks, as people having lunch at other tables lean in to hear the answer. They want to know, too. Old vaudevillians, I tell them. No fooling, they say. They're still around? Yeah, they're still around, still kicking. Some of them, like 85-year-old Jack Spoons over there, are still even picking up TV gigs once in awhile. Spoons, who worked in vaudeville vaudeville (vôd`vĭl), originally a light song, derived from the drinking and love songs formerly attributed to Olivier Basselin and called Vau, or Vaux, de Vire. with Billy Rose and later on the road with Kate Smith Noun 1. Kate Smith - United States singer noted for her rendition of patriotic songs (1909-1986) Kathryn Elizabeth Smith, Smith , has just been booked for an appearance on the ``Howie Mandel'' show, where he's going to be playing ``When the Saints Go Marching In'' with - what else? - his spoons against this mouth. He beat out his old pal Mike Grayson for the gig. Grayson plays harmonica harmonica. 1 The simplest of the musical instruments employing free reeds, known also as the mouth organ or French harp. It was probably invented in 1829 by Friedrich Buschmann of Berlin, who called his instrument the Mundäoline. with musical gloves that have miniature harmonicas attached to each finger. He and his gloves made the old Johnny Carson
Grayson's the one sitting next to Happy Hall, who used to tap dance in roller skates roller skates npl → patines mpl de rueda roller skates roll npl → patins mpl à roulettes roller skates roll npl . On the other side of Hall is Al DeCrescent de·cres·cent adj. Becoming gradually less; waning. [Latin d  cr , Rudy Vallee's old pianist. The rest of the guys rounding out the table - Lew Bregen, Jack Stanley, Dewey Lynch, Jimmy Bays and Nick Moreno - are musicians, dancers and singers from an era when television wasn't even a glimmer in Milton Berle's eye. An era when you went one-on-one with a live audience three or four times a day, then came back the next day to do it all over again - seven days a week. ``We'd hit a town, do a matinee mat·i·nee or mat·i·née n. An entertainment, such as a dramatic performance or movie, presented in the daytime, usually in the afternoon. , check into the hotel and come back for two or three more shows at night,'' says Hall. ``If entertainers tried to do that today, it would kill 'em. But, back then, it's all we had, these variety shows, moving from town to town. If you couldn't do it, you didn't work.'' Hall, who still tap dances and performs at local senior shows, says he learned to dance as a kid at a roller rink. ``After awhile, I started using the roller skates in my act, and it went over big, especially when I'd jump up on a table and start tap dancing in those skates,'' he says. ``It was crazy. The audience went wild.'' While Hall was learning to dance in skates, Jack (Spoons) Waxman was driving his grandmother crazy, playing with her spoons at the dinner table. ``I used to play her favorite song, `Somebody Stole My Gal,' with the spoons, and later on a washboard,'' Spoons says. ``When I got into vaudeville, I changed my last name legally to Spoons.'' These days, one of Spoons' most popular gigs is at the Shriner's Hospital, where he plays his spoons for sick kids. ``I love it,'' he says. ``You should see the look on their faces when I play the spoons on my mouth. They just laugh and laugh. You don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. how good it feels to make a sick kid smile. ``It's wonderful,'' says Spoons. Yeah, I bet it is. Singers Jimmy Bays and Lew Bregen, two longtime mainstays of the Hollywood Comedy Club, where these vaudevillians get together once in a while for shows, have been working hard to keep the group together. ``It gets tougher every year, with members passing away and not enough money coming in anymore, but we're still kicking,'' Bregen says. For many years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time club depended heavily on a slice of the royalties from actress Mae West's estate to keep going, he says. ``She set it up where 14 different entertainment organizations shared the royalties, and we were one of them,'' Bregen says. ``But the royalties have been dwindling dwin·dle v. dwin·dled, dwin·dling, dwin·dles v.intr. To become gradually less until little remains. v.tr. To cause to dwindle. See Synonyms at decrease. every year, along with our membership.'' Nearby, DeCrescent, who broke into vaudeville playing the piano at silent movies and later worked with Jimmy Durante, is listening to Happy Hall tell everyone that it seems to him the time may be ripe for a comeback. ``What do you say we bring vaudeville back and show people what real entertainers are?'' Hall says. Not these TV sitcom geeks who work a couple of days a week, or hotshot movie stars who make a picture a year. Not the rock stars who do one show a night a couple of weeks a year and call it hard work. No, real entertainers. Going one-on-one with a live audience three or four times a day, then come back the next day to do it all over again - seven days a week. It was called vaudeville, and it was grand. CAPTION(S): 2 Photos PHOTO (1) From left, front row, are: Al DeCrescent and Happy Hall; second row, Michael Grayson, Lew Bregen, Louis Burg and Jack Stanley; third row, Nick Moreno, Dewey Lynch, Jack Lynch, Jack (John Mary Lynch), 1917–99, Irish statesman. Before he embarked on his political career, he gained nationwide fame as an athlete, captaining several winning hurling teams in the 1930s and 40s. Spoons and Jimmy Bays. They still perform from time to time at the Hollywood Comedy Club. Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Daily News (2) Happy Hall says when he jumped up on the table and started tap dancing in roller skates, ``It was crazy. The audience went wild.'' Photo courtesy of Happy Hall |
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