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"And they still come..."

Irene Dunne (here still spelt "Dunn") and Barbara Stanwyck doing schtick in their pre-Hollywood days, with Leon Errol, Hal Skelly and Frank Fay:

... Droll Charles Butterworth had a much more successful career as comic relief in numerous films of the 1930s. Here it's nice to see Keane ... fun of the hokey material used in these "Broadway" comic strips. Dec 10 1929 NYDN.jpg Nov 7 1929 NYDN.jpg

Eddie Cantor during the height of his Broadway fame, while appearing in Ziegfeld's WHOOPEE. In the first strip he's seen with his daughters Marjorie, Natalie, and Edna; and he's with Ruth Etting in the second strip:

Before John Grant became Abbott & Costello's go-to writer for revamping old burlesque routines, he was a successful comedian on Broadway, appearing in the hit musical comedy GOOD NEWS for its entire New York run (Sep 06, 1927 - Jan 05, 1929):

... Ziegfeld and was a connecting link between various sketches. In these comic strips Tombes is wearing a silver-mane toupee and is dressed similarly to Ziegfeld's own sartorial ...

These quips sound like things Ted Healy's character would actually say, and the first gag here ended up in the Stooges' joke collection. The more you see of Ted in action, the more you realize how much The Boys' were indebted to Healy, as far as verbal material was concerned. Oct 22 1929 NYDN.jpg Ju...