WHOLESOME COMEDY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 424, 15 November 1930, Page 15 (Supplement)

WHOLESOME COMEDY

“THE CUCKOOS” COMPELS LAUGHTER GRAND’S SPLENDID FEATURE Work in front of a camera or behind the footlights is not the most difficult performed by comedians. Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, featured comedians in R.K.O.’s production of “The Cuckoos” now at the Grand Theatre arc responsible for this statement. The success of fun-makers depends more on how well they work up their gags and wisecracks, they say. Jt is easy to walk out in front of an audience or camera and “act funny,” they contend. The brain work beforehand is what counts. Wheeler and Woolsey go on the theory that two heads are better than one. Although they had known each other for some time they never considered combining as a comedy team until Ziegfield brought them together in his stage show “Rio Rita.” A producer usually permits comedians to work out their own lines. Wheeler and Woolsey worked together as a team. Following their successful three-year run on Broadway, they ¥vrotc their own act for a vaudeville tour. Their route took them to Los Angeles, and they were signed by Radio Pictures to duplicate their-“ Rio Rita” roles on the screen. The same chance came again in “The Cuckoos,” the deliriously mad screen musical now playing here.