Old Time Radio Downloads > Comedy > Eddie Cantor
Before Jack Benny, Al Jolson, Ed Wynn, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Fred Allen. 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 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.
