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Absolutely,
Mr. Gallagher
Two men who became famous overnight and whose patter became a national byword have come to the films. You may not think their humor is suited to the screen — but a lot of wise guys who are poor to-day felt that way about the Gallagher and Shean stuff on the stage.
By Helen Klumph
THIS is the story of two great comedians, but it isn't funny. It is grotesque. They have been on the stage since you and I were children, playing vaudeville and musical comedy, sometimes in good theaters, sometimes in ramshackle barns out in the "sticks." They have done acts together and they have played individual engagements — no better and no worse than a thousand other comedians.
They have worked hard — this Ed Gallagher and Al Shean have — and like good old stagers they have studied their audiences and calculated the Jff value of sure-fire gags. They fjft painstakingly built up an act that looked like great stuff, and like many other such acts it got over pretty well, and that was all.
And' then one night Ed Gallagher began to take notice of the men back-stage. They were always saving, "Oh, Mr. Gallagher," or "Absolutely, Mr. Gallagher," with a funny little emphasis on the first syllable of his name. He couldn't see why that was so funny but it always got a laugh from the bystanders. It gave him an idea. He took the patter songs that he and his partner were singing and put their names into it. "Absolutely, Mr. Gallagher?" "Positively, Mr. Shean." concluded each verse. And soon the)' had every one in the theaters doing it. There were a lot of good jokes in his act. there were a lot of comic effects that only a veteran comedian can put over. But these two men were made bv
the catchy swing of that "Oh, Mr. Gallagher," that
defies analysis.
Flo Ziegfeld put them in the "Follies." The first night after the audience had seen dancing and singing (seen singing is right in a Ziegfeld show), had been convulsed by Will Rogers' comments and edified by gorgeous pageants, out came two stagy-looking comedians, and' as soon as the little one sang "Oh, Mr. Gallagher," the audience roared.
Why, not even experts know
the any
Shean is the short one. You can tell Gallagher by the Harold Lloyd spectacles.
, more than they can jBHwy jeKBfMr explain our recent zfflfMg JfimSfi^ nation-wide furore con^Hr cerning the shortage of r bananas.
Within a short time the phonograph records of their song scored a sale of a hundred thousand1 — and still kept going. Imitations of them sprang up in shows everywhere and orchestras in restaurants and in vaudeville offered as a novelty act an imitation of their patter on saxophones.
They had achieved what every actor dreams of; their patter was the talk of Broadway as much as "Skidoo" or "Every Little Movement" ever was.
Another .theatrical manager who had allowed them to slip out of his grasp claimed that he had them under contract. They claimed the right to go on working for Continued on page 88