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Eddie Cantor
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Eddie Cantor was born Isador Iskowitz on January 31, 1892, in the Lower East Side of New York City. His parents died before he reached the age of two, and he was raised by his maternal grandmother, Esther. Due to his poverty, Cantor was forced to drop out of school before he reached the sixth grade. He took on a variety of odd jobs - delivery boy, shooting gallery attendant, and, finally, performing in the streets for small change. At the age of 16 Cantor was in an amateur singing contest in which he won $5.00. He subsequently became a singing waiter in a saloon in Coney Island in which Jimmy Durante played the piano.
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Eddie Cantor was a radio personality who gave speeches and tailored programs to give informative information to the listeners. His show was transmitted from different locations and had a variety of subject matters. He had an ongoing correspondence with Mr. Hoover and Mr. Hoover approved many of the programs that he suggested doing on the air. Mr. Cantor received several extortion and kidnap threats. He was the father of five children, and they threatened to kidnap them and even kill them unless they were paid money. He received many threats during his career from different people.
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Eddie Cantor progressed during his long career successively through vaudeville, Broadway, film, radio, and television, with some overlap. Cantor's work in the recording studio should be understood as a complementary adjunct to his efforts in his main areas of performing rather than an equal part of that career. His biographer, Herbert G. Goldman, lists recording sessions stretching from 1917 to 1960, and Pop Memories, Joel Whitburn's book of chart recreations, lists 24 hits for him between 1917 and 1950, including three, "Margie," "No, No, Nora," and "If You Knew Susie," that peaked at number one. But this is deceptive. Cantor first went into a commercial recording studio shortly after his transition from vaudeville to Broadway in order to produce a disc version of two songs he was singing in the Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic, and that set a pattern for his recorded work. At a time when records didn't sell all that well, his recordings tended to shadow his stage, film, and radio triumphs, not to serve as an independent source of expression.
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Autograph hound Al Babson (Eddie Cantor) accidentally disrupts the filming of a movie about Ali Baba, and is injured in the process. The filmmakers try to buy him off, but nurse Dinah (Virginia Field) suggests he be hired as an extra. He takes an overdose of painkillers, and his Arabian Nights dreams combine with the plot of the movie. His name leads the populace to think he's the son of Ali Baba, and he's taken to the palace of Sultan Abdullah (Roland Young), who's so impressed by Al that he makes him prime minister. Princess Miriam (June Lang) is in love with Yusuf (Tony Martin), the leader of the peasants, while Al has fallen for Deenah (... Virginia Field), whose father Omar (Maurice Cass) is trying to make a carpet fly. Meanwhile, the evil Prince Musah (Douglas Dumbrille) is conspiring with Sultana (Louise Hovick), one of Abdullah's many wives, to capture the princess, take over Bagdad, and kill Abdullah and Al as well.
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Similar to many stars of that period, Eddie Cantor was born into humble circumstances on New York's Lower East Side. The son of Jewish immigrants from Russia, he was orphaned at the age of three and sent to live with his nearby grandmother. While working odd jobs for local merchants, Cantor began singing and juggling in the streets for money, and soon moved to talent contests early in his teens. His first professional spot was on Gus Edwards' vaudeville youth act, Kid Kabaret, where he began doing an impression of Eddie Leonard singing "Ida, Sweet as Apple Cider" (he later revived the standard continually as a tribute to his wife, Ida Tobias). Cantor began working the vaudeville circuit and while in Los Angeles, he caught the eye of songwriter Earl Carroll, who found a job for him with his theater show Canary Cottage.
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Eddie Cantor was born in New York City in 1892. After becoming a smash hit in vaudeville, Ziegfeld signed him for his Midnight Frolics and then the Follies of 1917, 1918, 1919 and 1923.
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Eddie Cantor