Morey Amsterdam: Played the Cello in Vaudeville

It probably won’t shock you a bit to know that Buddy the gag-writer from The Dick Van Dyke Show got his start in vaudeville.Morey Amsterdam (1908-1996) began performing as a teenager in a two act with his brother (a piano player and comedian) in their native Chicago. In addition to his comic abilities, Amsterdam also played the cello, a skill which he integrated into his turns on TV variety programs in later years.

A shoot-out in one the speakeasies where Amsterdam was performing convinced him to leave the Windy City. He moved to Hollywood where he became a gagwriter and then a performer, on radio, and later TV. From 1933 to 1945 he was married to singer/comedienne Mabel Todd, with whom he appeared on Al Pearce and His Gangand other radio programs. From 1949 to 1950 he hosted his own TV variety show.

Amsterdam’s old vaudeville chum Rose Marie suggested him for the cast of The Dick Van Dyke Show in 1961, and the rest, as they say is history. You can also see Amsterdam in a bunch of Frankie and Annette’s Beach Party movies in the mid-60s, and many other movies and tv shows over the next three decades.

Perhaps the most notorious was his own starring vehicle, a spy spoof called Don’t Worry, We’ll Think of a Title, which co-starred Amsterdam and Rose Marie, along with Dick Van Dyke co-star Richard Deacon, and the original January Jones (not the one from Mad Men), with a whole compliment of cameos by show biz-all stars including Carl Reiner, Danny Thomas, Milton Berle, Steve Allen,Moe Howard of The Three Stooges, Irene “Granny” Ryan, Charley Weaver, Forrest Tucker, Joey Adams, Tim Herbert, et al. The film is notoriously hard to see, and universally panned by those who have. Which means of course that I love it! I found it over on Daily Motion.

Amsterdam never did retire:  his last appearance was on Caroline in the City in 1995, one year before he died.

To find out more about vaudeville and stars like Morey Amsterdam, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

And don’t missmy new bookChain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc