Customer Reviews

Banjo Eyes: Eddie Cantor and the Birth of Modern Stardom

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Herbert G. Goldman, author of biographies on Eddie Cantor's contemporaries Al Jolson and Fannie Brice, can only be commended for reviving the memory of a great star, now sadly and unfairly forgotten. "Banjo Eyes" remembers Cantor, but fails almost completely at presenting a portrait of the life and career of this star of stage, screen, radio and television. Instead, Goldman offers a mundane laundry list of performance dates and far too much of his own armchair psychology. The book is poorly researched, badly written and atrociously edited (factual errors, typographical errors and misspellings abound). Goldman repeatedly takes a step down biographical roads, only to detour. For example: near the end of the book, he refers to Cantor as a serial philanderer. Yet, previously he has written about only one possible but unconfirmed affair (with comedian Joan Davis). Since Cantor's public image was that of a devoted husband and father, a proper biographer would have devoted considerable time to the topic of the star's fidelity, or lack thereof. But Goldman seems more interested in endless lists of Cantor's public appearances. When he does offer some intriguing nugget, Goldman's poor scholarship doesn't properly back it up with sources(Footnotes, Mr. Goldman. Footnotes). It's impossible to believe much of anything the author has to say. For instance, a reference to poor ratings for Cantor's radio show, will be followed up a couple pages later with a statement about how popular the show is. Did something happen in between? Goldman doesn't say. He meticulously records the large sums of money Cantor makes from various enterprises, but says he left only a modest estate after his death in 1964. Goldman half-heartedly guesses at where the money went, but offers no facts. This book is important only because Cantor was important and this is the only serious (!) biography of him to date. Hopefully, something better will come along.

There is little doubt that Eddie Cantor was among the towering giants of the 20th-century entertainment industry. It is difficult to imagine a book about Cantor being boring, but Goldman has done it. Goldman likes to engage in armchair psychology and seeks to apply it to Cantor, with little success. Although Goldman's thesis -- that Cantor created modern stardom by cross-selling himself in different media -- is interesting, Goldman fails to articulate or support what is undoubtedly a very defensible thesis. Instead, he becomes mired in largely meaningless details of Cantor's life and does not capture the enormous impact Cantor had on American society.

The pictures in the book are poorly chosen, sometimes inaccurately described and abominably reproduced. Cantor's later life is given short shrift, and we get little sense of the poignancy of Cantor's final years.

Some of the complaints made against this book by other reviewers have a certain amount of validity. It is way too long, indulgss a passion for research that knows no bounds, so you feel that you know what Eddie Cantor had for breakfast every day, and some of the photographs are oddly captioned--one shows a picture of Eddie with Gary Cooper, only the caption says, "Cary Grant."

And yet in the long run Goldman really unveils layers and layers of a great star's numerous personae, in a way that seems to bring the subject up this-close. You feel you know how he would react if he walked into your own home today and took a dismissive glance around. Cantor's basic act, of the virginal yet eager young man caught in a world of Gentile femininity, served him well for fifteen years or so, and he had a nervous energy that made people think of him as a superb dancer even though he couldn't dance a lick. That febrile energy (press agents called him the "Apostle of Pep" stood him in good stead during the Depression, and a determined activism on behalf of Jewish, labor, race and pro-Israel causes gave him some street cred, I guess.

He cultivated a reputation (which Goldman firmly disputes) as a star-maker, and among his discoveries were Deanne Durbin, Dinah Shore, Eddie Fisher, Billy Gray ("Bud" on the longrunning sitcom FATHER KNOWS BEST), Joel Grey (from CABARET) and the bizarrely talented boy soprano Bobby Breen. His radio audience loved him as the little common man with the devoted wife, Ida, and five unmarried daughters who he begged men in the audience to marry. As Goldman reveals, this constant harping on the expense of raising a family led to unexpected schisms within the family, and several of the girls, at least, grew to be believe they were as homely, fat, and unattractive as their dad made them seem.

Not a pretty picture! I think Goldman errs in describing Cantor's movie work, in general underrating it considerably (except for the silent KID BOOTS, and a wee bit of the MGM wartime weeper FORTY LITTLE MOTHERS, both of which he overrates). Certainly the seven Goldwyn features of the early 30s, and the amazing ALI BABA GOES TO TOWN, which Cantor made for Fox ater a dispute with Goldwyn, are among the greatest movies ever made. And the two Joan Davis features are also fine. However, they are not to everybody's taste and, personal opinion aside, Goldman is often very insightful about Cantor's films, particularly about his work in two roles in THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS, the Warners all-star musical.

What to say about a man who cheated constantly, and who made passes everywhere, but turned down Ziegfeld beauties for the likes of Jacqueline Susann, and then, Joan Davis? He must have very complicated sexually, and Goldman has the sense to work through intuition towards probing an age-old mystery.

PS, I didn't mean to say that Susann and Davis weren't sexually attractive, far from it, only that they didn't fit the mold of the day in which Cantor ruled the world.

Well-written, entertaining look at Eddie Cantor, which really brings the performer to life. Unlike in so many biographies, the reader here really gets to know Cantor as a (not always likeable) person and performer. We feel his growth, which is a difficult thing for a biographer to achieve. My only caveat is that there are very, very few photos, and those are badly reproduced. Having said that, I must add that is probably the fault of the publisher, rather than the author.

Cantor had a fascinating life but Goldman seems unable to capture the man in words. The book is somewhat burdened with too many minute details that bog it down at points, and oddly enough skims quickly past events such as Cantor's involvement with the inception of The Screen Actors' Guild. Refrences are vague- the phrase "old timers say" is not exactly a reliable source. Proper footnotes would be a great addition. Also the book appears to have been proofed by a spell-check - words are often spelled correctly but not used correctly- such as a governor being titled government. There is a big historic goof on the first page of the first chapter. Here the reader is informed that Czar Nicholas II was assinated by nihilist revolutionaries in 1881. How reliable are Mr. Goldman's other facts? Occasionally the author indulges in amateur psychoanalysis, again without much factual evidence. My only other gripe is that Goldman almost apologizes for writing the book in his introduction. He seems to feel that because his subject isn't 1) as well-remembered as some other entertainers and 2) had faults ( what a surprise-no one else has them?) that he has to justify writing this book. Why write a book on Cantor? The answer is easy. He was a great entertainer, humanitarian, and a doer. However, this is the book to read about the man folks, until another, better one, is written.

For years I've been looking for a good book on the great Eddie Cantor. Finally there is one! This book does a fine job of introducing us to Eddie Cantor the man. After reading this book, I feel like I know who he was. The books only fault is that it seems to be lacking details in some parts and has an excess of them in others. But that's to be expected when writing a book about a man who has been dead for over 30 years. It's a great book about a great man.

Goldman wrote a book on Jolson years ago, which received great reviews, and that book is dry exposition compared to this book. His writing has improved. This book is well researched like his Jolson book, but it goes way beyond that. Eddie Cantor literally stepped out of the pages somewhere in the middle and stood before me!