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Ritz Brothers
The Ritz Brothers were an American family comedy act consisting of brothers Al (1901–1965), Jimmy (1904–1985), and Harry Ritz (1907–1986) who performed extensively on stage, in nightclubs and in films from 1925 to the late 1970s. A fourth brother, George, acted as their manager.
The four brothers were born in Newark, New Jersey to Austrian Jewish haberdasher Max Joachim and his wife Pauline. They also had a sister Gertrude.
Harry explained on a Joe Franklin TV interview that the family name was pronounced "joe-ACK-him", and that eldest brother Al, a vaudeville dancer, adopted a new professional name after he saw the name "Ritz" on the side of a laundry truck. Jimmy and Harry followed suit when the brothers formed a team. The Ritzes emphasized precision dancing in their act, and added comedy material as they went along. By the early 1930s they were stage headliners.
In 1934 Educational Pictures, producers of short subjects, hired "The Three Ritz Brothers" to make a series of six two-reel comedies in New York. The first, Hotel Anchovy, did well enough for the film's distributor, 20th Century-Fox, to void the Educational contract and hire the team as a specialty act for feature-length musicals, to be filmed in Hollywood. From 1935 to 1937 the brothers barged in on the action in several musical comedies, including Sing, Baby, Sing, One in a Million, and the Irving Berlin musical On the Avenue. In 1937 Fox gave the Ritz Brothers their own starring series, beginning with Life Begins in College.
The brothers had a large following, and some fans compared them to the Marx Brothers, but the Ritzes did not play contrasting characters like the Marxes did, instead adopting the same boisterous behavior, making it harder for audiences to tell them apart. The ringleader was always rubber-faced, mouthy Harry, with Jimmy and Al enthusiastically following his lead. They frequently broke into songs and dances during their feature comedies, and often did celebrity impersonations (among them Ted Lewis, Peter Lorre, Tony Martin, and even Alice Faye and Katharine Hepburn). The brothers were caricatured in animated cartoons, including the 1937 Warner Bros. short A Sunbonnet Blue and the 1939 Walt Disney short The Autograph Hound.
Their talent was also noted by Samuel Goldwyn, who borrowed them from Fox for his Technicolor variety show, The Goldwyn Follies, where they appeared with other headliners of the day including Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Perhaps their most successful film during this period was Fox's 1939 musical-comedy version of The Three Musketeers, co-starring Don Ameche.
Fox chief Darryl F. Zanuck always viewed Harry Ritz as the star of the act, with Al and Jimmy as excess baggage. Zanuck's handwritten notes on Ritz scripts insisted that Harry's roles and dialogue should be built up. Zanuck even told Harry what a big star he could be if he only got rid of his brothers. Harry ended the conversation immediately, refusing to consider splitting the act. Zanuck bought an old Ralph Spence play, The Gorilla (staged in 1925), and pushed the Ritzes into a 1939 film version. The Ritzes complained about the low quality of the script and staged a highly publicized walkout. Zanuck responded by completing The Gorilla anyway, terminating the Ritzes' starring series, and casting them in a B picture: Pack Up Your Troubles starring Jane Withers. Zanuck then arranged to loan the brothers out to Republic Pictures, a minor-league "budget" studio known for westerns and serials. The Ritz Brothers refused the deal and left Fox for good in late 1939.
In 1940 they moved to Universal Pictures, where they were scheduled to star in The Boys from Syracuse but were removed from that production and reassigned to make brash B comedies with music. Their final film as a trio was Never a Dull Moment (1943).
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Ritz Brothers
The Ritz Brothers were an American family comedy act consisting of brothers Al (1901–1965), Jimmy (1904–1985), and Harry Ritz (1907–1986) who performed extensively on stage, in nightclubs and in films from 1925 to the late 1970s. A fourth brother, George, acted as their manager.
The four brothers were born in Newark, New Jersey to Austrian Jewish haberdasher Max Joachim and his wife Pauline. They also had a sister Gertrude.
Harry explained on a Joe Franklin TV interview that the family name was pronounced "joe-ACK-him", and that eldest brother Al, a vaudeville dancer, adopted a new professional name after he saw the name "Ritz" on the side of a laundry truck. Jimmy and Harry followed suit when the brothers formed a team. The Ritzes emphasized precision dancing in their act, and added comedy material as they went along. By the early 1930s they were stage headliners.
In 1934 Educational Pictures, producers of short subjects, hired "The Three Ritz Brothers" to make a series of six two-reel comedies in New York. The first, Hotel Anchovy, did well enough for the film's distributor, 20th Century-Fox, to void the Educational contract and hire the team as a specialty act for feature-length musicals, to be filmed in Hollywood. From 1935 to 1937 the brothers barged in on the action in several musical comedies, including Sing, Baby, Sing, One in a Million, and the Irving Berlin musical On the Avenue. In 1937 Fox gave the Ritz Brothers their own starring series, beginning with Life Begins in College.
The brothers had a large following, and some fans compared them to the Marx Brothers, but the Ritzes did not play contrasting characters like the Marxes did, instead adopting the same boisterous behavior, making it harder for audiences to tell them apart. The ringleader was always rubber-faced, mouthy Harry, with Jimmy and Al enthusiastically following his lead. They frequently broke into songs and dances during their feature comedies, and often did celebrity impersonations (among them Ted Lewis, Peter Lorre, Tony Martin, and even Alice Faye and Katharine Hepburn). The brothers were caricatured in animated cartoons, including the 1937 Warner Bros. short A Sunbonnet Blue and the 1939 Walt Disney short The Autograph Hound.
Their talent was also noted by Samuel Goldwyn, who borrowed them from Fox for his Technicolor variety show, The Goldwyn Follies, where they appeared with other headliners of the day including Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Perhaps their most successful film during this period was Fox's 1939 musical-comedy version of The Three Musketeers, co-starring Don Ameche.
Fox chief Darryl F. Zanuck always viewed Harry Ritz as the star of the act, with Al and Jimmy as excess baggage. Zanuck's handwritten notes on Ritz scripts insisted that Harry's roles and dialogue should be built up. Zanuck even told Harry what a big star he could be if he only got rid of his brothers. Harry ended the conversation immediately, refusing to consider splitting the act. Zanuck bought an old Ralph Spence play, The Gorilla (staged in 1925), and pushed the Ritzes into a 1939 film version. The Ritzes complained about the low quality of the script and staged a highly publicized walkout. Zanuck responded by completing The Gorilla anyway, terminating the Ritzes' starring series, and casting them in a B picture: Pack Up Your Troubles starring Jane Withers. Zanuck then arranged to loan the brothers out to Republic Pictures, a minor-league "budget" studio known for westerns and serials. The Ritz Brothers refused the deal and left Fox for good in late 1939.
In 1940 they moved to Universal Pictures, where they were scheduled to star in The Boys from Syracuse but were removed from that production and reassigned to make brash B comedies with music. Their final film as a trio was Never a Dull Moment (1943).