Eddie Cantor

During the 1920s and 1930s, Eddie Cantor's achievements spanned more entertainment domains than any other performer. He earned the monikers "Banjo Eyes" and "the Apostle of Pep" due to his boundless vitality and flair, often leaping across the stage during beloved routines. His path started with vaudeville tours, advanced to Florenz Ziegfeld's Follies on legitimate stages, yielded numerous Columbia recordings, extended to late-1920s cinema, peaked on 1930s radio via the Chase & Sanborn Hour, and eventually reached television.

Like countless stars of the era, Eddie Cantor entered the world amid modest means on New York's Lower East Side. Born to Jewish immigrants from Russia, he lost both parents by age three and was raised by his grandmother nearby. While taking on various tasks for neighborhood shopkeepers, he began performing songs and juggling acts on the streets to earn coins, then entered talent contests as a young teenager. His initial professional break came with Gus Edwards' vaudeville youth revue Kid Kabaret, where he imitated Eddie Leonard on "Ida, Sweet as Apple Cider" (a number he would later revive repeatedly in honor of his wife, Ida Tobias). Cantor continued on the vaudeville circuit until, in Los Angeles, songwriter Earl Carroll spotted him and secured a role in the stage production Canary Cottage.

Cantor's subsequent ascent proved substantial when Florenz Ziegfeld, among America's leading stage producers, persuaded him to return to New York for a role in Midnight Frolic (where the energetic performer followed each evening's show with an additional vaudeville appearance elsewhere). After advancing to the Ziegfeld Follies of 1917, he rapidly emerged as one of the nation's foremost actors, with his Victor recording of "That's the Kind of Baby for Me" from the Follies gaining traction late that year. He also featured in the Follies editions of 1918 and 1919; although Ziegfeld dismissed him abruptly in 1920 over his involvement in the Actor's Equity Association strike that shuttered Broadway theaters, Cantor demonstrated he could thrive independently. Between 1920 and 1922 on Emerson Records, he maintained visibility through several well-received songs, among them the major 1921 hit "Margie" along with "Palesteena" and "Snoops, The Lawyer," while headlining two Shuberts productions. These accomplishments prompted the steadfast Ziegfeld to rehire him by 1923. Throughout the remainder of the Roaring Twenties, Cantor solidified his stature with multiple Columbia Records successes ("No, No, Nora," "If You Knew Susie," "Makin' Whoopee") and lead roles in his own Kid Boots (adapted into his debut silent film by 1927) plus the Ziegfeld shows Follies of 1927 and Whoopee!

His stage work generated millionaire status (chiefly via Whoopee!), yet the 1929 stock market crash nearly wiped out his fortune. (He recovered substantial earnings by recounting the ordeal in the memoir Caught Short.) Early in the 1930s, Cantor entered radio and quickly ranked among the decade's top broadcast personalities. His screen career advanced simultaneously after he contracted with Samuel Goldwyn to adapt Whoopee! for the 1930 screen version (initiating a series of early-1930s Cantor-Goldwyn collaborations featuring Busby Berkeley's elaborate dance sequences), and he appeared in no fewer than one film annually across the decade. Cantor also backed the wartime effort energetically by performing for troops in Europe and co-founding the March of Dimes alongside President Franklin Roosevelt. In addition, he presided over both the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Radio Artists.

Cantor's shift from radio to television met with short-term success when he served as guest host on NBC's Colgate Comedy Hour, yet a 1952 heart attack struck the same year Hollywood released The Eddie Cantor Story. A subsequent heart attack prompted his retirement, though occasional guest spots followed. Cantor passed away in 1964 from a third heart attack.