The Happy Hottentots is one of the few filmed records of the artistry of Joe Frisco, the famed stuttering comedian who took one lemon of a handicap and made it lemonade. We were lucky that Bryan Foy, son of another vaudeville legend produced this Vitagraph short for Warner Brothers.
What you see in The Happy Hottentots is what happened to vaudeville when sound motion pictures came in. Guys like Frisco and his partner Bob Callahan in these shorts were performing between films while the projectionist was changing films.
So when Billy Gilbert the stage manager tells them to go on with their act on they go, ad infinitum, getting worse and worse each time and emptying the theater gradually. It's funny, but also quite sad.
Frisco himself was a notorious gambler, a lot of his comedy monologue was concerned with his bad luck, but his addiction to the bet. He was like that other wit Will Rogers who started out as a trick rope artist who told funny stories. After a while Rogers didn't need the rope.
So it was with Frisco who didn't need the song and dance. He was a great favorite of Bing Crosby who had him on his radio show a lot and admired the man's wit. I only wish we had more of it in this short.
What you see in The Happy Hottentots is what happened to vaudeville when sound motion pictures came in. Guys like Frisco and his partner Bob Callahan in these shorts were performing between films while the projectionist was changing films.
So when Billy Gilbert the stage manager tells them to go on with their act on they go, ad infinitum, getting worse and worse each time and emptying the theater gradually. It's funny, but also quite sad.
Frisco himself was a notorious gambler, a lot of his comedy monologue was concerned with his bad luck, but his addiction to the bet. He was like that other wit Will Rogers who started out as a trick rope artist who told funny stories. After a while Rogers didn't need the rope.
So it was with Frisco who didn't need the song and dance. He was a great favorite of Bing Crosby who had him on his radio show a lot and admired the man's wit. I only wish we had more of it in this short.