Smith & Dale
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
duo. The two performed together for more than 70 years.
Early life and work
Joe Smith (born Joseph Sultzer on February 16, 1884 - February 22, 1981) and Charlie Dale (born Charles Marks on September 6, 1885 - November 16, 1971) grew up in the Jewish ghettos of New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Many of the famous comic performers of vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
, radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and movies
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
came from the same place and the same era, including Gallagher and Shean
Gallagher and Shean
Gallagher & Shean was a highly successful double act on vaudeville and Broadway in the 1910s and 1920s, consisting of Edward Gallagher and Al Shean .-Career:...
, George Burns
George Burns
George Burns , born Nathan Birnbaum, was an American comedian, actor, and writer.He was one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, film, radio, television and movies, with and without his wife, Gracie Allen. His arched eyebrow and cigar smoke punctuation became...
, Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor was an American "illustrated song" performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor and songwriter...
, George Jessel
George Jessel (actor)
George Albert Jessel was an American illustrated song "model," actor, singer, songwriter, and Academy Award-winning movie producer. He was famous in his lifetime as a multitalented comedic entertainer, achieving a level of recognition that transcended his limited roles in movies...
and The Marx Brothers. Sultzer and Marks met as teenagers in 1898 and formed a partnership. They named their act "Smith and Dale" because a local printer gave them a good deal on business cards reading "Smith and Dale" (intended for a vaudeville team that had dissolved). Joe Sultzer became Joe Smith, and Charlie Marks became Charlie Dale.
By 1902 they joined two singing comedians, Irving Kaufman (later a popular singer) and Harry Godwin in a team known as The Avon Comedy Four. The act became one of the most successful comedy turns in vaudeville. For over 15 years they were top-of-the-bill performers on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
and appeared in a 1916 show, Why Worry? The foursome made commercial recordings replicating their stage act, as in a 1917 restaurant sketch:
SMITH: One cheese sandwich! The cheese should be neutral.
DALE: One sandwich, with American cheese.
SMITH: Where's the manager?
DALE: He's not here, he went across the street to a good restaurant.
By 1919, the act had run its course, and the Avon Comedy Four broke up. Smith and Dale took up where the foursome left off, playing Broadway and vaudeville (including the Palace Theatre
Palace Theatre, New York
The Palace Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 1564 Broadway in midtown-Manhattan.-History:Designed by architects Kirchoff & Rose, the theatre was built by Martin Beck a California vaudeville entrepreneur and Broadway impresario. The project experienced a number of business problems before...
, considered the pinnacle of stage venues). Both used a heavy Jewish dialect, with Smith speaking in a deep, pessimistic voice and Dale in a high, wheedling tenor.
"Dr. Kronkheit and His Only Living Patient"
During the 1920s, they became famous for their signature sketch "Doctor Kronkheit and His Only Living Patient," which like "Who's on First?Who's on First?
Who's on First? is a vaudeville comedy routine made most famous by Abbott and Costello. In Abbott and Costello's version, the premise of the routine is that Abbott is identifying the players on a baseball team to Costello, but their names and nicknames can be interpreted as non-responsive answers...
" for Abbott and Costello
Abbott and Costello
William "Bud" Abbott and Lou Costello performed together as Abbott and Costello, an American comedy duo whose work on stage, radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and 1950s...
, became one of the famous comedy sketches of the 20th century. The name of the doctor is an inside joke: Smith and Dale, both being Jewish, named the physician Kronkheit, which is Yiddish
Yiddish language
Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...
and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
for "sickness". Thus we have a doctor named "Dr. Sickness". Indeed a hospital in German is called a Krankenhaus, or literally "sick house".
Dr. Kronkheit (played by Dale, not Smith as is sometimes reported) is greeted by skeptical patient Smith:
SMITH: Are you a doctor?
DALE: I'm a doctor.
SMITH: I'm dubious.
DALE: I'm glad to know you, Mr. Dubious.
Most of the sketch has Dr. Kronkheit trying to determine the patient's problem:
SMITH: It's terrible. I walk around all night.
DALE: Ah! You're a somnambulist!
SMITH: No, I'm a night watchman.
SMITH: I got rheumatism on the back of my neck.
DALE: Ah, where would you want a better place than on the back of your neck?
SMITH: On the back of your neck.
SMITH: Doctor, it hurts when I do this.
DALE: Don't do that.
The patient explains that he has already seen a doctor:
SMITH: He told me I had snew in my blood.
DALE: What did he told you?
SMITH: He told me I had snew in my blood.
DALE: Snew? What's snew?
SMITH: Nothing. What's new with you?
SMITH (reacting to Dale spitting on his stethoscope:) Doctor, what is that you're doing?
DALE: Sterilization.
DALE: The whole trouble with you is, you need eyeglasses.
SMITH: Eyeglasses?! I suppose if I had a headache, I'd need an umbrella.
Dr. Kronkheit's fee is ten dollars.
SMITH: Ten dollars! For what?!?
DALE: For my advice.
SMITH: Doctor, here is two dollars, take it. That's my advice!
In 1951 the "Dr. Kronkheit" routine was filmed for posterity (in color) for the RKO Radio Pictures musical Two Tickets to Broadway.
Other film appearances
Smith and Dale made several short comedy films in the late 1920s during the talkie boom. Their comedy relied on verbal interplay and timing, however and they typically made changes to their act slowly. As a consequence, their material was quickly exhausted by the medium of the short film, and they never became big film stars.Their act can be seen (to excellent advantage) in the feature film The Heart of New York (1932). Based on David Freedman
David Freedman
David Freedman was a Romanian-born American playwright and biographer who became known as the "King of the Gag-writers" in the early days of radio....
's stage success "Mendel, Inc.," they play a pair of professional matchmakers, constantly bickering back and forth, They also ran through some of their sketches in Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
and Vitaphone
Vitaphone
Vitaphone was a sound film process used on feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects produced by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1930. Vitaphone was the last, but most successful, of the sound-on-disc processes...
short subjects. Their "firemen" sketch, in which Joe and Charlie are lazy firemen who hardly pay attention when someone reports a fire, was filmed as The False Alarm Fire Company.
In 1938 Smith and Dale starred in a pair of two-reel comedies for Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
, both produced and directed by comedian Charley Chase
Charley Chase
Charley Chase was an American comedian, actor, screenwriter and film director, best known for his work in Hal Roach short film comedies...
. Smith and Dale adapted surprisingly well to Columbia's fast-paced format, but they made no further films for the studio; executive producer Jules White
Jules White
Jules White born Julius Weiss was a film director and producer best known for his short-subject comedies starring the Three Stooges.-Early years:...
didn't care for their dialect shtick and didn't renew their contract.
Smith and Dale also made three Soundies
Soundies
Soundies were an early version of the music video: three-minute musical films, produced in New York City, Chicago, and Hollywood between 1940 and 1946, often including short dance sequences. The completed Soundies were generally released within a few months of their filming; the last group was...
in 1941. In a rare exception to Soundies' all-musical policy, Smith and Dale did spoken-comedy routines.
Longevity
Smith and Dale continued working as a team in stage, radio, nightclub, film, and televisionTelevision
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
productions. They were frequent guests on New York-based variety shows like Cavalcade of Stars
The Jackie Gleason Show
The Jackie Gleason Show is the name of a series of popular American network television shows that starred Jackie Gleason, which ran from 1952 to 1970.-Cavalcade of Stars:...
(doing the "firemen" sketch on live television
Live television
Live television refers to a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. From the early days of television until about 1958, live television was used heavily, except for filmed shows such as I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke. Video tape did not exist until 1957...
, with Art Carney
Art Carney
Arthur William Matthew “Art” Carney was an American actor in film, stage, television and radio. He is best known for playing Ed Norton, opposite Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden in the situation comedy The Honeymooners....
as the frantic fire victim) and The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....
. They were still performing in the 1960s, including an appearance at New York's Donnell Library Center
Donnell Library Center
The Donnell Library Center was a branch of the New York City Library at 20 West 53rd Street just north of Rockefeller Center. It closed as of August 30, 2008....
.
The partnership, known among entertainers as the longest in show-business history, endured until Charlie Marks's death at age 89, on November 16, 1971. Sultzer continued to perform, mainly in guest appearances on television sitcoms, until his death on February 22, 1981, at the age of 97.
The comedy team in Neil Simon
Neil Simon
Neil Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has written numerous Broadway plays, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and The Odd Couple. He won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Lost In Yonkers. He has written the screenplays for several of his plays that...
's play and film The Sunshine Boys
The Sunshine Boys
The Sunshine Boys is a play by Neil Simon that was produced on Broadway in 1972 and later adapted for film and television.-Plot:The play focuses on aging Al Lewis and Willy Clark, a one-time vaudevillian team known as "Lewis and Clark" who, over the course of forty-odd years, not only grew to hate...
may be inspired by Smith and Dale. or on another team, Weber and Fields: Joe Weber
Joe Weber (vaudevillian)
Joe Weber born Joseph Morris Weber was a vaudevillian who, along with Lew Fields, formed the comedy team of Weber and Fields....
and Lew Fields
Lew Fields
Lew Fields , born as Moses Schoenfeld, was an American actor, comedian, vaudeville star, theatre manager and producer....
.
Smith and Dale were actually very fond of each other. Late in their lives both men wound up in the Lillian Booth Actors Home
Lillian Booth Actors Home
The Lillian Booth Actors Home of The Actors Fund is an assisted living facility in Englewood, New Jersey operated by the Actors Fund. The facility was the subject of the 2000 film Curtain Call. The facility was established in 1928 at the former mansion of Hetty Green.-History:On May 8, 1902, the...
in Englewood, New Jersey
Englewood, New Jersey
Englewood is a city located in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 27,147.Englewood was incorporated as a city by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township and the remaining portions of...
, an assisted living and nursing care facility available to those who have dedicated the major portion of their professional lives to the theatrical industry. Such persons, be they performers, technicians, or whatever are eligible for admission without regard for their ability to pay. The home's website specifically mentions that among its most famous residents have been Joseph Sultzer and Charles Marks, better known as Smith & Dale.
So close were Smith and Dale that they are buried in the same plot, with a common headstone. The gravestone notes the name of the three people buried there, Dale and his wife Mollie and the unmarried Smith. Smith is identified only by his show business name of Joe Smith, while his partner is listed as Charles Dale Marks and Dale's wife is listed as Mollie Dale Marks. The larger printing higher on the stone says SMITH & DALE, to which Smith had added the words BOOKED SOLID. So even in death there is still seen their cleverness and humor.
Book
Gordon LishGordon Lish
Gordon Jay Lish is an American writer. As a literary editor, he championed many American authors, particularly Raymond Carver, Barry Hannah, Amy Hempel, and Richard Ford.-Early life and family:...
's Extravaganza: A Joke Book (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1989) is an avant-garde novel inspired by Smith and Dale's act. Using Smith and Dale's style of dialogue delivery in a manner similar to Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
's Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's...
, Lish added surreal twists to expand their routines beyond the confines of comedy, as noted in a 1989 review by Robert F. Moss:
- The gags themselves are mostly gross-out humor, with dead animals, blasphemy, bodily excretions and anal preoccupations figuring prominently as subject matter.
- But that's not all. A few pages into the book, the curtain goes up not only on Smith and Dale but on a trunkful of post-modern literary props as well: abrupt juxtapositions of the grotesque and the mundane, arbitrary outbursts of obscenity, non sequiturs and opaque vignettes, a fragmentary structure and a solipsistic point of view. Gradually the tone darkens, as horrors pile up, identities dissolve into one another and death approaches. The authorial voice regresses into shards of nursery rhymes, like Hal, the lobotomized computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Jokes may abound in Extravaganza, but Mr. Lish makes sure that existential despair keeps whistling through the cracks.
- Gordon Lish seems to dream of creating mysterious and profound works of art and slipping into the ranks of literary celebrities. In Extravaganza, he grabs at Samuel Beckett's coattails (Smith and Dale are made to evoke Estragon and Vladimir), just as he tried to lash himself to Capote and Norman Mailer in his first book. Throughout Mr. Lish's work, however, the reader consistently encounters more mystification than mystery, more artifice than art.