Joe Weber (vaudevillian)
| Joe Weber | |
|---|---|
Weber and Fields (c. 1899)
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| Born |
August 11, 1867 New York City, United States |
| Died | May 10, 1942 (aged 74) Los Angeles, United States |
| Occupation | Vaudevillian |
Joe Weber (11 August 1867 - 10 May 1942), born Joseph Morris Weber, was a vaudevillian who, along with Lew Fields, formed the comedy team of Weber and Fields.
Fields and Weber formed their partnership while still children, the two appeared at Bowery saloons, museums, circuses, and in 1885 made their first stage appearance at Miner's Bowery Theater, New York. Their slapstick, rough-house, English-garbling antics soon caught on and they were a sensation in San Francisco where they appeared for 10 weeks for $250 per week, an unusually high salary at that time. The young men had a "Dutch act" in which both portrayed German immigrants. They returned to New York, appearing at Tony Pastor's theater on 14th Street, and in 1894 made their Broadway debut in Hammerstein's Olympia. They had three companines on the road and in 1895, the partners opened the Weber and Fields Broadway Music Hall where they produced very successful burlesques of popular Broadway shows. In the music hall's casts were some of the greatest performers and comics on the American stage at that time including Lillian Russell, Fay Templeton, Ross and Fenton and DeWolf Hopper, David Warfield, Peter F. Daily, Mabel Fenton, Marie Dressler, Willie Collier and Sam Bernard. They were forced to close the Broadway Music Hall when the fire at the Iroquois Theater, Chicago, caused strict enforcement of the fire laws in New York. The partners were told that they would have to remodel or close the Music Hall and this caused a disagreement which temporarily split their partnership. The team broke up in 1904, but collaborated anew in 1912, producing the unsuccessful Hokey Pokey.
In 1923, Weber and Fields partnered yet again for a Lee DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film short, where the team recreated their famous pool hall routine. This film premiered at the Rivoli Theater in New York City on 15 April 1923. Three years later, the duo were among those supporting Will Rogers and Mary Garden on the NBC Radio Network's November 15, 1926 debut broadcast. Their own NBC series followed in 1931.
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