... which were recorded between 1926 and 1930 using the sound on disc VItaphone system by Warner Brothers. It is a good record of the basic framework of George and Gracie's act for decades. In fact, George and Gracie performed this exact skit on their TV show in the 1950s and it was still funny.
George and Gracie basically reproduce the act that had made them successful in vaudeville, which is George playing straight man to Gracie's dizzy statements. But then every now and then she outsmarts him, such as when he tells a series of jokes and she steals the punchlines. Burns always said he was a failure as a vaudevillian until he got Gracie as a partner and then everything began to fall into place.
George and Gracie "got" performing before the camera - this was their first appearance on screen just three years after they married. For that matter, it seemed most comedians got the knack of it too. I guess being a comedian before tough live audiences made doing their act before a Vitaphone camera booth a breeze.
This short is not hard to find today. Strangely enough, quite a few of Warner Brothers' Vitaphone shorts survive while many of their feature films were either accidentally lost or deliberately destroyed in the 1940s.
George and Gracie basically reproduce the act that had made them successful in vaudeville, which is George playing straight man to Gracie's dizzy statements. But then every now and then she outsmarts him, such as when he tells a series of jokes and she steals the punchlines. Burns always said he was a failure as a vaudevillian until he got Gracie as a partner and then everything began to fall into place.
George and Gracie "got" performing before the camera - this was their first appearance on screen just three years after they married. For that matter, it seemed most comedians got the knack of it too. I guess being a comedian before tough live audiences made doing their act before a Vitaphone camera booth a breeze.
This short is not hard to find today. Strangely enough, quite a few of Warner Brothers' Vitaphone shorts survive while many of their feature films were either accidentally lost or deliberately destroyed in the 1940s.