Harry Steppe (born Abraham Stepner), March 16, 1888 – November 22, 1934Abe Stepner's obituary, "Feature News," Billboard magazine, Dec. 1, 1934, pg 5. was a Russian Jewish"Variety Opener Has Cast of 40: Red Hot Gets Under Way Sunday Night," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Newspaper), Aug 25, 1934, pg.78. Excerpt:"...Joe DeRita and Harry Steppe, one of the few remaining old-time Jewish comedians in burlesque, lead the contingent of funmakers."-American actor,Image of actor Harry Steppe, Billy Rose Theatre Collection photograph file, on file with The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts: Billy Rose Theatre Division musical comedy performer, headliner comedian, writer, librettist,Bloom, Ken. American Song: The Complete Musical Theatre Companion, Vol. 1: A-S. Second Edition. Schirmer Books, 1996, Pg. 203. Notes: Citation for J.B. Earley, Composer and Harry Steppe, Librettist. Songs: Blinky Winky Chinatown; Girls from the Follies, He's My Kiddo, I'm the Broadway Kid; Joyous Love; Let's Sing, Sing, Sing; Love me or Leave Me Alone; My Southern Queen. director and producer, who toured North America working in Vaudeville and Burlesque.Theatre Magazine, edited by Arthur Hornblow, Stewart Beach, W. J. Thorold, et al., 1930, v.51-52, pg. 36. Excerpt: "In fact, Harry Steppe, one of the leading burlesque comedians, remarked to me the other day that there is more to be seen on the streets today than there...""Old Actors Attend Dave Marion Rites; Former Associates in World of Burlesque Pay Tribute to 'Snuffy the Cabman', New York Times, September 19, 1934, Page 20. Excerpt: "More than 200 old-time burlesque players and theatre associates gathered yesterday in Campbell's Funeral Parlor, Broadway and Sixty-sixth Street, at a funeral service for Dave Marion, the comedian...(attendees included) Dave Altman, Agnes Buckley, William H. Leyden, William Armstrong, Bob Travers, Inez DiVider, Biff Clark, Sam Dawson, Nalter McManus and Harry Steppe"Reedy's Mirror. St. Louis, Mo. Vol. 25, 1916, pg. 204. William Marion Reedy, Editor and Proprietor. Excerpt: "The Girls from the Follies" With Harry Steppe in the Two-Act Musical Burlesque "Cohen on the East Side." Steppe performed at several well-known theaters on the Columbia, Mutual and Orpheum circuits. Steppe was one of Bud Abbott's first partners."Abbott and Costello in Hollywood," by Bob Furmanek and Ron Palumbo, 1991, Page 18. Excerpt: "Bud was now working with comedian Harry Steppe, who originated the famous 'Lemon Bit'...It was the 'Lemon Bit' that Bud had done with Harry Steppe. When Bud and Lou crossed paths in burlesque in the mid-1930s, Bud staged the routine for Lou. After the boys teamed up, they reprised the 'Lemon Bit'...""Lou's on First: The Tragic Life of Hollywood's Greatest Clown Warmly Recounted by His Youngest Child," by Chris Costello, St. Martin's Griffin, 1982, pg.23. . Excerpt: "Backstage between shows Bud would do skits with Dad (Lou) that he had done with Harry Steppe -- a very clever Jewish comedian who was the creator of the famous "Lemon Bit," which was to be so successful for Bud and Dad (Lou) as a team."Seguine, Brent. "Slowly I Turned / Niagara Falls / Pokomoko", Abbott & Costello January 2017 Newsletter. Abbott & Costello Collectibles, Jan. 2017. Web. 05 July 2017. Excerpt: "Steppe was also an early stage partner for Bud Abbott, and is among the names mentioned as bringing Bud and Lou together in 1935 before their initial team-up in 1936."American national biography, Volume 1, edited by John Arthur Garraty, Mark Christopher Carnes, American Council of Learned Societies, Oxford University Press, 1999, Page 18. Excerpt: (Costello played) "opposite a variety of comics, including Harry Steppe..."International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers - Volume IV - Actors and Actresses, by Christopher Lyon, St. James Press, 1987, , Page 7. Excerpt: "...while manager at the National Theater in Detroit, Abbott worked Vaudeville as straight man to such performers as Harry Steppe and Harry Evanson."
Early life Born in Russia to Orthodox Jewish parents, Steppe and his family emigrated from Moscow to the U.S. through Ellis Island in 1892.Port of New York Passenger Record Search, Ellis Island Foundation. Retrieved: 16 Jan 2008. In 1899, Steppe became a naturalized citizen of the United States.New York Petitions for Naturalization Index 1792-1906 and 1907-1989
Steppe's father was a tailor;Twelfth Census of the United States: New Jersey, Schedule I - Population, Year 1900. Retrieved March 20, 2010 from HeritageQuest Online. his brother Michael was a vocalist. Another of Steppe's brothers was named Harry, but it is not known if this inspired part of Steppe's stage name.
Steppe lived in Newark, New JerseyWorld War I Draft Registration Card 1917-1918, retrieved from Ancestry.com. Notes: Lists his occupation as Actor, employed by the Gayety Theater in Chicago, Illinois. and in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania."News of the Theater," The Pittsburgh Press, May 2, 1915, Page 41. At age 29, Steppe claimed an exemption from the World War I draft on the grounds that he supported his widowed mother.
Relationships Steppe married twice. His first wife Beatrice, an actress in "Razzle Dazzle of 1918," died at the age of 25 from the Spanish flu, the same year they were married. This sudden loss may have contributed to speculation about Harry's personal struggles with depression.Thomas, Bob. Bud & Lou: the Abbott & Costello story. 1977. Page. 33 & 37. Excerpt: "Bud joined with Harry Steppe, a funny Jewish comic but one subject to spells of melancholia."
Other paramours of Harry Steppe included Vaudeville performers Victoria "Vic" Dayton, whom he married in 1920,Photo of Harry Steppe and his wife Vic Dayton (Cover), The New York Clipper: The National Theatrical Weekly, December 1, 1920.Dramatic Index for 1920 (Volumes I and II), Periodical Index, edited by Anne C. Sutherland, Frederick Winthrop Faxon, Mary Estella Bates, Published 1921, F.W. Faxon Co., Boston, MA. Excerpt: "Steppe, Harry, actor. Portrait (with Vic Dayton). NY Clipper 68: DI, '20, 1. Steppe, Mrs. Harry. See Dayton, Vic." Edna Raymond and Leona St. Clair. Steppe was often billed with actress Lola Pierce, to whom he was also reportedly linked romantically.
Career Known to theater patrons as "The Hebrew Gent,""The Stage," Toronto Sunday World, Mar 15, 1914, page 29. Steppe was billed as a Hebrew,"Burlesque Season On; The Columbia and the Murray Hill Are at It Again," The New York Times, Section: Summer Resorts, Sunday, August 16, 1914, pg. X7. Excerpt: "The Murray Hill Theater opened last night with a brand-new burlesque show called "The Girls from the Follies," and this attraction will be continued through the present week. A large company of entertainers, headed by Harry Steppe, a Hebrew comedian of more than ordinary ability, succeeds in keeping the spectators in a happy frame of mind throughout the performance." Jewish-dialect or Yiddish-dialect character comedian. "Ignatz Cohen," one of Steppe's alter egos, became a recurring and popular character based on an ethnic Jewish stereotype. Many of Steppe's variety shows featured musical revues and olios with dancing girls, comedy sketches and specialty acts. One performance of Steppe's "Girls from the Follies" featured "eight cycling models with thrilling stunts on wheels," operatic songs, ballroom dancing and chorus girls.
Phil Silvers"About:Bananas," by John Wilcock. New York Times, March 30, 1958, Page SM53. and others"Bananas: An American History," by Virginia Scott Jenkins, Page 150. Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000. Excerpt: "The term "top banana" was introduced into show business jargon by burlesque comedian Harry Steppe in 1927 as a synonym for the top comic on the bill." credited Steppe with "introducing the phrase 'top banana' into show business jargon in 1927 as a synonym for the top comic on the bill. It rose out of a routine, full of doubletalk, in which three comics tried to share two bananas." Silvers further popularized the term "Top Banana" in his 1951 Broadway musical and 1954 film of the same name. Steppe also claimed to have coined the phrase "Second Banana."
Steppe had a version of a shell game routine called "The Lemon Bit," that used lemons instead of peas. He performed it with Bud Abbott in burlesque, and Abbott later performed it with Costello in burlesque; in the Broadway musical "Streets of Paris"; in their movie "In the Navy"; live on the "Colgate Comedy Hour"; and in their television program "The Abbott & Costello Show."
Agents and management Harry Steppe was represented by several theatrical agencies during his career, including Cain & Davenport and Chamberlain and Lyman Brown. Some of his shows were produced by Sam N. Reichblum and well-known burlesque producer I.H. Herk. Steppe also secured theater bookings through the support of entertainment circuits, or "wheels" such as the B.F. Keith Vaudeville Exchange, the Columbia Amusement Company (so-called "clean" burlesque) and the Mutual Burlesque Association."In the City's Playhouses: Harry Steppe - Orpheum" Reading Eagle, Sep 27, 1930, page 14. Excerpt: "That irresistible comedian, Harry Steppe, will hold forth at the Orpheum Theatre for the last time tonight, appearing at the head of his own one that is ...
Death
When Steppe became gravely ill and unable to work, his friends in show business staged a fundraiser on his behalf.The American Burlesque Show, by Irving Zeidman, Hawthorn Books, 1967. Excerpts: "The chief comic effects by Harry Steppe, it was noted, consisted in hitting other characters across the face with celery stalks. (Page 96)" "The most prominent of the later "Hebe" comics was Harry Steppe, who, ill and destitute in 1935, was the beneficiary of the Harry Steppe Fund, to which many famous stage personalities contributed. (Page 102)" "Harry Steppe had to be the recipient of a public benefit. (Page 215)" However, Steppe died in poverty. Pulmonary edema contributed to Steppe's death, according to his death certificate. He was at Bellevue Hospital in New York, New York for two days and had been ill for a month,"Stage and Screen," by Harold W. Cohen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Newspaper), Oct 17, 1934. Excerpt: "Harry Steppe, burlesque comedian...was taken to the Mountain Sinai Hospital in New York the other day for observation." according to a story in Variety magazine, Nov. 27, 1934. He is buried in New Jersey.
Stage productions Here is an ever-expanding table of documented theatrical productions.