Eddie Cantor - You'd Be Surprised (1919)

Performed by: Eddie Cantor
Full Song Title: You'd Be Surprised
Recorded in: 1919
Eddie Cantor was a singing comedian star of Broadway theater, film, and radio (and later, television) Eddie Cantor was one of the foremost figures of the 1920's and 30's mass media. Breaking up his theater tours with film projects and radio show broadcasts, he maintained star status in both the major media. He was the male lead in the top musical comedies of the 1930s: Whoopee! (1930), Palmy Days (1931), The Kid from Spain (1932), Roman Scandals (1933), and Strike Me Pink (1936), and the host of one of the most popular radio shows.
Cantor was born in New York City, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Meta and Mechel Iskowitz. The precise date of his birth is unknown. His mother died in childbirth one year after his birth, and his father died of pneumonia when Eddie was two, leaving him to be raised by his beloved grandmother, Esther Kantrowitz. As a child, he attended Surprise Lake Camp. A misunderstanding when signing her grandson for school gave him her last name of Kantrowitz (shortened by the clerk to Kanter). Esther died on January 29, 1917, two days before he signed a long-term contract with Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. to appear in his Follies.
He had adopted the first name "Eddie" when he met his future wife Ida Tobias in 1913, because she felt that "Izzy" wasn't the right name for an actor. Cantor married Ida in 1914. They had five daughters, Marjorie, Natalie, Edna, Marilyn and Janet, who provided comic fodder for Cantor's longtime running gag, especially on radio, about his five unmarriageable daughters. Several radio historians, including Gerald Nachman (Raised on Radio), have said that this gag did not always sit well with the girls.
He was known more for his public image than his past, though. In fact, Herbert Goldman writes that Cantor "single-handedly" developed the concept of a modern celebrity. Gerald Nachman describes how "Cantor proclaimed his lovability, patriotism, and cozy family life." He entertained troops, led Actors Equity and the Screen Actors Guild, helped to found the radio actors union, the American Federation of Radio Artist, and "made weekly charity appeals" on his show. He encouraged listeners to "give generously to the March of Dimes, the Heart Fund, the Boy Scouts of America, the National Myopia Society, or whatever charity tugged at his heart that week." One of his writers, Bob Weislopf wrote that, "all the mothers loved him."
Unlike Charlie Chaplin and Mae West, Cantor did not write his own films or his own jokes independently. He was sometimes a contributing writer, though. Moreover, he was one of the biggest stars of the 1920's and 1930's, "earning eventually twenty thousand dollars per show, an enormous amount then, even for a star," which gave him a great deal of discretion over what parts he acted and what jokes he told. From this, we can assume that Cantor's on-screen and on-air persona was at least partially what he wanted it to be.
Not all of Cantor's popularity was due to his jokes. Nachman argues that "ninety percent of Cantor's appeal [on the radio], like Jolson's, was his singing." Many popular radio programs, Cantor's included, were variety shows, featuring both patter (humorous chatting) and music. Many popular musical comedies were, also, musical. Still, the jokes were there -- sometimes in the songs themselves -- and they tell us a good deal about the comedic sensibilities of the 1920's and 30's.
He was also the second president of the Screen Actors Guild, serving from 1933 to 1935. He invented the title "The March of Dimes" for the donation campaigns of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which was organized to combat polio. It was a play on the The March of Time newsreels popular at the time. He began the first campaign on his own radio show in January 1938, asking people to mail a dime to the nation's most famous assumed polio victim, President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Other entertainers joined in the appeal via their own shows, and the White House mail room was deluged with 2,680,000 dimes.
Following the death of daughter Marjorie at the age of 44, both Eddie's and Ida's health declined rapidly. Ida died in August 1962 of "cardiac insufficiency." On October 10, 1964 in Beverly Hills, California, Eddie Cantor suffered another heart attack and died, aged 72. He was buried in Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery. Cantor was awarded an honorary Academy Award the year of his death, for distinguished service to the film industry.
I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.
Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

[@Mike-nt9sx]

I love the dawn of photography and movies so I can see how beautiful the elders were when they were younger... like us. They are us and we are them.

[@Arkelk2010]

Thank you for including the biography of Eddie Cantor in your notes.

[@avamogal55]

Love Wings and love the song. Eddie Cantor is great. Excellent job sir.

[@the1920sand30s]

Thanks dear, much appreciated!

[@kalebecunha276]

Eddie Cantor is great. love him

[@zeldafan1942]

I love his music and Al Jolson's!

[@teddycuthbert]

Anybody who finds themselves enjoying this somewhat ‘naughty’ tune for its time: I recommend that you find Al Jolson’s 1919 recordings of ‘I Gave Her That’, ‘You Ain’t Heard Nothing Yet’ and ‘Tonight’s My Night with Baby’ - they’re all here on KZbin. Jolson’s early recordings have always been my favourite; less crooner-influenced and more vaudeville/music hall!

[@glennriquito381]

Yes, thank you for noticing that. This is how singers sounded in the music halls. That is because these records were made before the advent of electrical recording. There were no microphones. The recordings were made mechanically, and so the singer had to use his voice full-force in the recording studio just like on the vaudeville stage. By 1925 that all started to change.

[@trilbyoferal3705]

I love Eddie Cantor, his singing style is the best. I listen to his radio shows on the Internet Archive site. I enjoyed reading your commentary on him. I visited your channel and was delighted to find Sophie Tucker singing "Some of These Days". Wonderful videos! Thank you!

[@the1920sand30s]

You're welcome and I'm so happy that you found my channel! I suppose this is one of the few positive aspects of the internet. Every now and then; while you sift through this vast, impersonal and oversaturated digital ocean, where you are just a left mouse click away to quit, you stumble across a kindred spirit that makes it all seem worthwhile :-) .

[@trilbyoferal3705]

@@the1920sand30s _You're_ happy? Me too! LOL I enjoy your writing as well, your descriptive use of words. I'm glad to add a positive reaction to your channel. It's very well-done and reflects your love for, and dedication to, a great time in history. A time I also find quite alluring. You've helped to make my days a little brighter. :)

[@rjmcallister1888]

Though somewhat 'canceled' by the Woke Club for his blackface portrayals and some of his songs in an earlier time, Cantor often helped black songwriters by performing their songs in a time when they couldn't get other white artists to even look at it. A poll done some years ago named Cantor the greatest entertainer of the first half of the 20th Century. He deserved it.