A Double Birthday

                                              A happy birthday to two Roach players, The Taxi Boys!

                                          

The Montréal-born Ben Blue (1901-1975) came out of the the nightclub world where he made the rounds as a dancer, dance teacher, and even a stage manager. By the 1920s, he had landed a slot in the band Jack White and His Montrealers as a wiseguy drummer. Ben went solo during the Great Depression, establishing himself as a Vaudeville nitwit with oddball reactions to the world around him. 

In fact, his act at the time was so odd that modern viewers often find it off-putting. Nevertheless, Hal Roach saw talent in Blue, and hired him for The Taxi Boys - an experimental 'all stars' series. Ben's wild energy, strange catchphrases ("Well, I'm a tippetywitchet!"), and general scene-hogging suggest an insecure comic who was trying to figure out how to translate his talents into a memorable movie character.

 After The Taxi Boys crashed, Ben continued to hone his act and evolved into a more likable comic relief player in Paramount features. His physical comedy was flawless, and at times breathtaking (watch Ben take a simultaneously graceful and painful pratfall in 1937's Thrill of a Lifetime).

Ben became a favorite on television in the 1950s, and had small parts in two 1960's comedy classics - It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! 

 

                                             

                                 We recommend checking out Ben's delightful ice skating routine, 

                                                    performed here on the Hollywood Palace.

 

Billy Gilbert (1894-1971) was born in a trunk to Metropolitan opera singers during a stay in Louisville, Kentucky. His parents' showbiz bug bit Billy, who had quit school to become a Vaudevillian by age 12. Billy was a natural comedian who could play anything from browbeating baddies to blustering buffoons. He also developed a lifelong shtick - a powerful sneeze that would come up at even the slightest moment of flustering.

Stan Laurel certainly saw Gilbert's talent after catching one of his stage performances. After meeting the performer backstage, Stan was even more delighted to learn that Billy wrote his own material.

Laurel brought Gilbert to Hal Roach, who signed the comic on as a supporting player and gag writer. Gilbert stole the show from Laurel & Hardy, the Our Gang kids, Charley Chase, and Pitts & Todd. After his brief stint opposite Ben Blue in The Taxi Boys, Billy was teamed with the diminutive, baritone-voiced Billy Bletcher for a series of Laurel-and-Hardy-esque musical comedies (The Schmaltz Brothers). Additionally, Gilbert directed the first two of the three Schmaltz entries.

Billy's writing credits at Roach aren't all currently known, but we are aware that he contributed gags to the Our Gang short Hi'-Neighbor! He also co-wrote the song "Here Comes the Ice Cream Man" with Marvin Hatley (featured in Charley Chase's I'll Take Vanilla and later in Our Gang's Shrimps for a Day).

Billy freelanced in short comedies throughout the 1930s, bumbling (and sneezing) his way into roles opposite The Three Stooges, Harry Langdon, and even a young Lucille Ball. In 1936, he talked Walt Disney into giving him the role of Sneezy in Disney's debut feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Billy would reunite with Disney a decade later as the voice of Willie the Giant in Fun and Fancy Free

After signing with the William Morris agency in 1944, Billy was given more prominent roles in notable feature films - The Great Dictator, Seven Sinners, A Little Bit of Heaven, Tin Pan Alley just to name a few. He really got a chance to shine in 1940's His Girl Friday, for which director Howard Hawks told the other actors to stand back and let Billy do what he did best.

Attempts were made at giving Billy lead roles, and even making him part of a few comedy teams. At various points, he was paired off with Frank Fay, Vince Barnett, Cliff Nazzaro, and Shemp Howard. 

One of Billy's final roles was opposite the great stone-faced Buster Keaton on television. For a performance on The Ken Murray Show, Keaton recreated an old comedy bit that he had originally performed with his lifelong friend Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Billy comfortably stepped into the Fatty role in a way that even impressed the legendary Keaton. 

                                        

                                                     Gilbert as Joe Pettibone in His Girl Friday.

                                         

 

Blog post by Matthew Lydick