Wally Brown: Genius at Work

Today is the birthday of Wally Brown (1904-1961). A Massachusetts native, Brown had been a monologist in vaudeville and finally made it to pictures at RKO in 1943. Initially appearing in a Leon Errol short and a Lupe Velez“Mexican Spitfire” feature, he was next teamed with Alan Carneyas the studio’s answer to Abbott and Costello. The team appeared in a few features together as Brown and Carney, starting with Adventures of a Rookie (1943) and ending with (1946), Throughout, Brown continued to act on his own, and had a flourishing career in films and television until he passed away. He had his own series of comedy shorts at RKO from 1949 to 1951, and appeared in such a diverse array of films as Alfred Hitchcock’sNotorious (1956), to Mamie Van Doren’s(1957) to Disney’sThe Absent-Minded Professor (1961).

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

my 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