Legends of the Broadway Musical: Eddie Cantor

This is the first article in a series on some of the well known and forgotten stars and creators of the Broadway Musical. First up Ziegfeld Follies and early film star Eddie Cantor.

Once the greatest stage star of his generation, Cantor triumphed in every entertainment medium of the 20th Century. Cantor's trademark was both his out-sized eye expressions and his energetic acting style. Born Israel Iskowitz on New York's lower East side, home to so many other entertainment figures of the 20th Century (including George Gershwin, Al Jolson and The Marx Brothers) Cantor in his youth starred in many talent contests and sang at several New York restaurants as a singing waiter (where his pianists included Irving Berlin and Jimmy Durante) Entering Vaudeville in the middle years of the first decade of the Century he eventually joined the famed Gus Edwards minstrels where here he refined his acting and singing style appearing in blackface, which would be his trademark for the next 25 years.