Smith and Dale
They consisted of Joe Smith (born Joseph Sultzer[1][2] on February 17, 1884 – February 22, 1981)[3] and Charlie Dale (born Charles Marks[4] on September 6, 1881 – November 16, 1971),[5] who both grew up in the Lower East Side of New York City at the end of the 19th century.
Beginning in their adolescence, their career spanned the majority of their lives, with the two performing together continuously for more than seventy years.
The duo were one of several famous comic performers of vaudeville, radio and movies that collectively originated from the same place and era.
[3][5] Beginning in 1902, Smith and Dale partnered with singing comedians Will Lester and Jack Coleman to form a group called The Avon Comedy Four.
Initially booked for a series of appearances in the Catskills region, the act was so successful that performances were continued in many other clubs for years after.
The foursome made commercial recordings replicating their stage act, as in a 1917 restaurant sketch: SMITH: One cheese sandwich!
While they continued to perform throughout the 1920s, this only resulted in a single record being published during this decade, and they proved unable to secure many lucrative contracts or gigs.
By 1930, Smith and Dale had grown tired of the act, and so, after 28 years of performing, dissolved the Avon Comedy Four to focus exclusively on their career as a duo.
[6] Smith and Dale took up where the foursome left off, playing Broadway and vaudeville (including the Palace Theatre, considered the pinnacle of stage venues) while also beginning their movie career.
Both used a heavy Jewish dialect, with Smith speaking in a deep, pessimistic voice and Dale in a high, wheedling tenor.
In 1951, the Dr. Kronkheit routine was filmed for posterity (in color) for the RKO Radio Pictures musical Two Tickets to Broadway.
Their comedy relied on verbal interplay and timing, and they typically made changes to their act slowly.
As a consequence, their material quickly was exhausted by the medium of the short film, and they never became big movie stars.
Based on David Freedman's stage success Mendel, Inc., they play a pair of professional matchmakers, constantly bickering back and forth.
Another routine was "The Gypsy National Bank," in which fly-by-night banker Joe is questioned by prospective depositor Charlie; this was included in the vaudeville-revue short Vitaphone Diversions (1937).
In 1938, Smith and Dale starred in a pair of two-reel comedies for Columbia Pictures, both produced and directed by comedian Charley Chase: A Nag in the Bag (they operate a drive-in restaurant and gamble on a horse race) and Mutiny on the Body (they visit a shady sanitarium for a rest cure).
In a throwback to the Avon Comedy Four's restaurant sketch, Smith and Dale rib each other continuously as they serve their patrons.
Smith and Dale continued working as a team in stage, radio, nightclub, film, and television productions.
They were frequent guests on New York-based variety shows like Cavalcade of Stars (doing the "firemen" sketch on live television, with Art Carney as the frantic fire victim) and "The Steve Allen Show" of September 2, 1956, with Louis Nye as the fire victim.
The partnership, known among entertainers as the longest in show-business history, endured until Charlie Dale's death at age 89, on November 16, 1971.
Smith continued to perform, mainly in guest appearances on television sitcoms, until his death on February 22, 1981, at the age of 97.
The gravestone notes the name of the three people buried there, Dale and his wife Mollie and the widowed Smith.
[8] The longevity of the comedy team in Neil Simon's play and film The Sunshine Boys is said to be inspired by Smith and Dale.
