Ted Lewis was one of those show business people when I was growing up, always at the edge of our consciousness, yet we had no clear idea who he was besides his catchphrase: "Is Everybody Happy?" He was a master of ceremonies and singer who sustained a career that lasted until his death in Las Vegas forty years after he appeared in this short.
It's not a particularly good short, as Ted Lewis does a medicine show act -- another form of entertainment that had vanished about the time my father was born but lurked in our cultural background. Lewis does a spiel, croons a couple of songs and that's it.
What makes this more than just another bizarre act that might have been popular in its day but of no real value, is the presence of a couple of jazz greats in the band: Jack Teagarden and Red Nichols. They don't get to do more than background, but see if you can spot them.
It's not a particularly good short, as Ted Lewis does a medicine show act -- another form of entertainment that had vanished about the time my father was born but lurked in our cultural background. Lewis does a spiel, croons a couple of songs and that's it.
What makes this more than just another bizarre act that might have been popular in its day but of no real value, is the presence of a couple of jazz greats in the band: Jack Teagarden and Red Nichols. They don't get to do more than background, but see if you can spot them.
