It was on this date in 1937 that George Gershwin died after undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumor. The composer collapsed on July 9, when he tried to stand up, and slipped into a coma. Needless to say, it was an abrupt and shocking end to one of the most vital figures in American music.
Here’s footage of Gerswhin playing “I Got Rhythm:”
Gershwin speaks (a comparative rarity) and plays “Strike Up the Band.”
The comedians are Clark and McCullough. Bobby Clark was the fast-talking wisecracker and Paul McCullough his laid-back sidekick. Like so many other comedy teams that graced stage and screen in the ‘20s and ‘30s, Clark and McCullough came up through vaudeville, and before that the circus(!).
The cigar-smoking wise-acre was a real thing back then. Without the titles, I would have pegged the duo for Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey. More enduring examples of the stogie-wielding funnyman include George Burns, Milton Berle, and of course Groucho Marx. Groucho had his greasepaint mustache, and Clark had his painted-on glasses.
Clark and McCullough made about three dozen film shorts and appeared in at least two features (one, “Two Flaming Youths,” with W.C. Fields). Their Broadway hit “The Ramblers” was filmed for Hollywood by Wheeler and Woolsey and released as “The Cuckoos.” Today, they are virtually forgotten.
Clark and McCullough in “Odor in the Court:”