Joe Frisco

Joe Frisco in the 1910s

Joe Frisco (born Louis Wilson Joseph; November 4, 1889 – February 12, 1958) was an American vaudeville performer who first made his name on stage as a jazz dancer, but later incorporated his stuttering voice to his act and became a popular comedian.

Life and career

He was born Louis Wilson Joseph in Milan, Illinois on November 4, 1889.

In the mid and late 1910s he performed with some of the first jazz bands in Chicago and New York City, including Tom Brown's Band from Dixieland, the Original Dixieland Jass Band, and the Louisiana Five. He made his Broadway debut in the Florenz Ziegfeld Follies in 1918. Frisco was a mainstay on the vaudeville circuit in the 1920s and 1930s.

His popular jazz dance act, called by some the "Jewish Charleston", was a choreographed series of shuffles, camel walks and turns. It was usually performed to Darktown Strutters' Ball. It, or at least a minute or so of it, can be seen in the film Atlantic City (1944). He typically wore a derby hat, and had a king-sized cigar in his mouth as he danced. He often performed in front of a backing danceline of beautiful women wearing leotards, short jackets and bowler hats—and "puffing" on big prop cigars.

Frisco, The American Apache

Frisco was a compulsive gambler and spent many afternoons while in New York City at the track with actor Jay C. Flippen, playwright Jerry Devine, actor Martin Gabel (husband of Arlene Francis) and Danny Lavezzo (owner of P. J. Clarke's), and when he began to incorporate stand-up comedy into his act, his humor revolved on tales about his bad luck gambling, speakeasies, and his constant state of debt. Bing Crosby was a friend of Frisco's, and was constantly lending hm money/

Frisco stuttered, but could recite scripted dialogue without impairment, although he was illiterate. His 1930 comedy short The Happy Hottentots shows Frisco as a snappy vaudevillian, without any speech impediment at all. He soon became known for his witty off-stage remarks, made in a stammering voice: "After they made that guy, th-th-they threw away the sh-sh-shovel!"

Many vaudevillians traveled with animals that were included in their routines. While in New York, Frisco called down to the front desk of a hotel and said, "The smell in my room is t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e, my g-g-goat can't s-s-sleep." The concierge replied, "Try opening the window." Frisco answered, "What? And let my p-p-pigeons out?"

Perhaps his most famous line was uttered while in a New York hotel. The room clerk called and said, "Mr. Frisco, we understand you have a young lady in your room." Frisco replied, "T-t-t-then send up another G-g-gideon B-b-bible, please."

In the 1940s, he moved to Hollywood, made appearances in several low-budget and otherwise forgettable movies. According to the American Vaudeville Museum, later in Frisco's career, bookies and IRS agents lined up outside the paymaster's door at theaters where Frisco was performing in order to collect on his debts to them.\

Joe Frisco died of cancer, virtually penniless, on February 12, 1958, in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1930	The Benefit	Himself	Short
1930	The Song Plugger	Himself	Short
1930	The Happy Hottentots	Joe / Reese Brother	Short
1930	The Gorilla	Garrity
1930	The Border Patrol	Himself	Short
1933	Mr. Broadway	Himself
1938	Western Jamboree	Himself
1940	Ride, Tenderfoot, Ride	Haberdasher
1944	Atlantic City	Himself
1945	Shady Lady	Tramp
1947	That's My Man	Willie Wagonstatter
1950	Riding High	Himself
1957	Sweet Smell of Success	Herbie Temple	(final film role)

In popular culture

• Frisco was so well known for his jazz dance that writer F. Scott Fitzgerald makes reference to him in The Great Gatsby when he describes how an actress at one of Gatsby's parties starts the revelry: "Suddenly one of the gypsies, in trembling opal, seizes a cocktail out of the air, dumps it down for courage and, moving her hands like Frisco, dances out alone on the canvas platform." The Great Gatsby, chapter 3.
• The Marx Brothers referred to Frisco in an early version of their "Theatrical Agency" sketch in On the Balcony. The Frisco reference was replaced by Maurice Chevalier when they filmed the sequence in Monkey Business.

References

Notes

Further reading

• Lowry, Ed; Foy, Charlie; and Levitt, Paul M. (1999) Joe Frisco: Comic, Jazz Dancer, and Railbird (ISBN 978-0-8093-2241-1)

External links

• Joe Frisco at IMDb
• Joe Frisco at Find a Grave