Joe Frisco

Joe Frisco (born Louis Wilson Joseph; November 4, 1889 – February 18, 1958) was an American vaudeville performer who first made his name on stage as a jazz dancer, but later incorporated his stuttering voice to his act and became a popular comedian.

Life and career He was born Louis Wilson Joseph in Milan, Illinois on November 4, 1889. In the mid and late 1910s, he performed with some of the first jazz bands in Chicago and New York City, including Tom Brown's Band from Dixieland, the Original Dixieland Jass Band, and the Louisiana Five. He made his Broadway debut in the Ziegfeld Follies in 1918. Frisco was a mainstay on the vaudeville circuit in the 1920s and 1930s. His popular jazz dance act, called by some the "Jewish Charleston", was a choreographed series of shuffles, camel walks and turns. It was usually performed to Darktown Strutters' Ball. It, or at least a minute or so of it, can be seen in the film Atlantic City (1944). He typically wore a derby hat, and had a king-sized cigar in his mouth as he danced. He often performed in front of a backing danceline of beautiful women wearing leotards, short jackets and bowler hats—and "puffing" on big prop cigars.

Joe Frisco died of cancer at the age of 68 on February 18, 1958, at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California. "Joe Frisco Dead; Comedian Was 88", The New York Times, February 18, 1958, p. 27 ("HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Feb. 17 (AP), Joe Frisco, comedian, died of cancer last night in the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital. His age was 68.")

Filmography Year Title Role Notes1930 The Benefit Himself Short1930 The Song Plugger Himself Short1930 The Happy Hottentots Joe / Reese Brother Short1930 The Gorilla Garrity 1930 The Border Patrol Himself Short1933 Mr. Broadway Himself 1938 Western Jamboree Himself 1940 Ride, Tenderfoot, Ride Haberdasher 1944 Atlantic City Himself 1945 Shady Lady Tramp 1947 That's My Man Willie Wagonstatter 1950 Riding High Himself 1957 Sweet Smell of Success Herbie Temple (final film role)

In popular culture

Frisco was so well known for his jazz dance that writer F. Scott Fitzgerald makes reference to him in his 1925 novel The Great Gatsby when he describes how an actress at one of Gatsby's parties starts the revelry: "Suddenly one of the gypsies, in trembling opal, seizes a cocktail out of the air, dumps it down for courage and, moving her hands like Frisco, dances out alone on the canvas platform." The Great Gatsby, chapter 3. The Marx Brothers referred to Frisco in an early version of their "Theatrical Agency" sketch in On the Balcony. The Frisco reference was replaced by Maurice Chevalier when they filmed the sequence in Monkey Business.

Joe Frisco

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