Al Kelly

Al Kelly was the stage name of Abraham Kalish[1][2] (18 December 1896[nb 1][1] – 7 September 1966),[1] a U.S. vaudeville comedian. Kelly was known as a double-talk artist,[1] and went on to stooge for other comedians such as Willie Howard and Ernie Kovacs.[1] Near the end of his life, he made occasional appearances on The Soupy Sales Show when it was based in New York.

Biography

Kelly started in an act called Nine Crazy Kids, then started performing comic monologues.[1] Early in his career, he performed largely in the Borscht Belt.[3] When he was performing this stand-up comedy in the 1930s, he fluffed a joke so that it came out as nonsense: this got a good laugh so he made such double-talk the focus of his act and became especially known for this.[1]

On TV, Kelly was featured among others in The Ed Sullivan Show (then Toast of the Town, in 1949, 1961, 1962) and the game show Back That Fact (1953). He was also an actor with supporting roles, such as in the film Singing in the Dark (1956) and in the TV series Mack & Myer for Hire (1963).

Kelly died at age 69[nb 1] in the early hours of 7 September 1966 of a heart attack[4] while sitting in the audience in the dining room at one of his favorite venues, The Friars' Club, during a roast. On 8 September 1966, a crowded memorial service was conducted at Riverside Memorial Chapel (Amsterdam Avenue and 76th Street), New York City.

Legacy

Further reading

Books

Notices

Articles

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Kelly's birthdate was eventually found to be in 1896; before that, he was believed to be born in 1899 (it is common in the show-biz to bill oneself younger), hence the "1899" found in older reference books, and titles such as "Dies in N.Y. at 67" in newspapers (he actually died at 69).
  2. ↑ Alexander Rose doesn't seem to be a pen name for Kelly: this person has many other books in the 1940s-1960s listed at WorldCat.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Vaudeville, Old & New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America 1, Routledge, 2007, p. 621, ISBN 978-0-415-93853-2, ... Al Kelly was synonymous with double-talk.
  2. 1 2 "Books: Shmegegis of old, shmegegis of gold", by Hank Rosenfeld (interviewing Irving Brecher about Drew Friedman's book Old Jewish Comedians), in The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, 14 December 2006:
    "
    [Hank Rosenfeld:] -- Abraham Kalish?
    [Irving Brecher:] "Al Kelly. Al did double talk. That was his style. He spoke gibberish in vaudeville sketches and all the people would try to be polite.
    [Hank Rosenfeld:] -- While he mocked them?
    [Irving Brecher:] "No, not mocking them. The audience would laugh. But people in the real world he dealt with would be taken in."
    [Hank Rosenfeld:] -- Sounds like what Borat does!
    [Irving Brecher:] "Haven't seen it. But most comedians couldn't do it like Al Kelly could. He was unique."
    "
  3. ↑ Al Kelly Is Dead; Famed Comedian. Sept. 7, 1966. New York Times. Page 47.
  4. ↑ "Al Kelly Is Dead; Famed Comedian; Double-Talk Expert Was in Show Business 52 Years", in The New York Times, 7 September 1966, first paragraph of pay article: "Al Kelly, double-talking comedian, died early this morning after suffering a heart attack at the Friars Club. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital."
  5. ↑ Ben Katchor, "The Double-Talk Artist", collected in Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer: Stories, 1996, ISBN 0-316-48294-3, panel 1, p. 62.

External links

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