Everyone from Vaudeville is now gone. The only reason I remember it is from the memories of performers like W C Fields, George Burns & Gracie Allen, Henny Youngman, Jack Benny and others I saw in movies when I was a kid and the film Yankee Doodle Dandy. Still, the Vaudeville entertainers I saw when I was a child made me realize what a golden era it was.
Bob Hope playing Eddie Foy here gives a warm memory to that era. Vaudeville is very well portrayed here and Hope has one of his better roles. Hope, known more for punch lines than acting proved a few times in his career that he could act. This is one of them.
While Vaudeville is gone the memories of it live on in films like this one. While You Tube might become the Vaudeville of the electronic era as home videos create a new frontier of entertainment, Vaudeville which lived from the post Civil War era until the 1930's will always be the most fruitful ground of entertainment in that era.
Movies took over when Vaudeville died, then came radio and music on records where some vaudevillians took over and dominated early on. Then came Television and now the Internet. With each progression we get farther from the roots of theater which date back to Shakespeare. This film recreates one of these important steps. Without, we would not understand how we got here.
This movie is a nostalgic trip worth taking with Cagney & Hope together in one number a major bonus.
Bob Hope playing Eddie Foy here gives a warm memory to that era. Vaudeville is very well portrayed here and Hope has one of his better roles. Hope, known more for punch lines than acting proved a few times in his career that he could act. This is one of them.
While Vaudeville is gone the memories of it live on in films like this one. While You Tube might become the Vaudeville of the electronic era as home videos create a new frontier of entertainment, Vaudeville which lived from the post Civil War era until the 1930's will always be the most fruitful ground of entertainment in that era.
Movies took over when Vaudeville died, then came radio and music on records where some vaudevillians took over and dominated early on. Then came Television and now the Internet. With each progression we get farther from the roots of theater which date back to Shakespeare. This film recreates one of these important steps. Without, we would not understand how we got here.
This movie is a nostalgic trip worth taking with Cagney & Hope together in one number a major bonus.