Comedy-Variety (1931-49)
Before
Jack Benny, Al
Jolson, Ed Wynn,
Bob Hope, Bing
Crosby, and Fred Allen,
there was Eddie Cantor. It was this banjo-eyed singer
that stole the hearts of many audiences in the early
1930s. It was his expertise in vaudeville and things
that were in the burlesque that catapulted Eddie's career
into the radio stratosphere.
 Eddie Cantor was born Edward Israel Iskowitz to
Russian immigrants. His mother died soon after his
birth and his father died of pneumonia a week after
his mother's death. Little orphan Edward, grew up
in the tenement houses in New York with his grandmother.
He was placed in the lowly public schools, where the
school register misspelled his last name, and put
down, "Kanter." It was later on that Edward
changed it to "Cantor." A frequent truant,
hooligan, and cart napper, Edward befriended his future
wife, Ida Tobias, who gave him the nickname "Eddie."
It was during this time that little Eddie discovered
his talent for singing. During school, he sang in
the cafeteria. He admitted that performing was his
version of "heat and food." It was here
that Eddie decided that going into show business was
his future.
During his late teens, Eddie got a job as a singing
waiter on Coney Island, where he met Jimmy
Durante, who was the restaurant's pianist. While
working at the restaurant, Gus Edwards decided to
have Eddie appear in one of his play. After his role
in the play, a slew of jobs opened up for Eddie.
 Eddie's air career took off when he appeared on
Rudy Vallee's "Fleischmann Hour," which
led to a four-week long tryout with Chase and Sanborn,
who were looking to replace one of their actors. It
wasn't long before Eddie's extreme talent took over
the show, thus changing the name from the "Chase
and Sanborn Show" to "The Eddy Cantor Show."
During it height of popularity, the show pulled
off many publicity stunts, one being announcing Eddie
Cantor for president, while people in the background
chanted "We want Cantor! We want Cantor!"
The stunt proved effective when Eddie received a ton
of write-in votes for president.
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