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The Haunted Smile: The Story Of Jewish Comedians In America

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This is one of only a few books which, after having read it, I wish I had written it. Of course, I am wholly unqualified to undertake such a task. However, I would have thoroughly enjoyed completing the research required and taken full advantage of every opportunity to interview, personally, as many of the Jewish comedians as possible. Also, as many as possible of the (non-performing) Jewish writers of comedy such as Larry David, Larry Gelbart, and Neil Simon. In a brilliant Introduction, Epstein observes: "The story of Jewish comedians in America is one of triumph and success. But their stage smile is tinged with sadness. It is haunted by the Jewish past, by the deep stains in American Jewish life -- the desire to be accepted and the concern for a culture disappearing -- by the centuries of Jewish life too frequently interrupted by hate, and by the knowledge that too often for Jewish audiences, a laugh masked a shudder. The comedians' story in America includes bitter encounters with anti-Semitism and the lures of an attractive culture along the way. The jokes these comedians told, their gags, and their nervous patter need to be set alongside the obstacles they overcame."

In this volume, Epstein combines the skills of a disciplined historian and cultural anthropologist with a writing style which has Snap! Crackle! and Pop! Obviously, he also delights in the comic art of so many who "exemplified two great themes of American Jewish life: assimilation and the search for an American Jewish identity....Also, they made Jews proud" while entertaining them as well as ever-increasing numbers of others who also went to the movies, turned on radios and then television sets, sat in nightclubs of various sizes, and bought albums. I am so grateful to Epstein for providing throughout the book an abundance of comic material from scripts, films, published interviews, recordings, and other primary sources. He covers a period from 1890 until the present, organizing his material within four sections:

The Golden Door and the Velvet Curtain (1890-1930)

NOTE: Epstein creates a context frame-of-reference within which to begin to examine "the two great themes" as countless immigrants arrived in "the land of hope and tears." He then shifts his attention to The Age of Vaudeville.

The Years of Fear (1930-1950)

NOTE: This was a period during which there were many fears (e.g. poverty, world war, nuclear weapons, Communism) shared by most Americans. Epstein examines what he calls radio's "finest hour" as well as films which had their audiences "laughing in the dark." He then shifts his attention to the rise of the Borscht Belt.

The Years of Acceptance (1950-1965)

NOTE: Epstein examines the American Television Revolution and then the emergence of stand-up comedy, devoting special attention to Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, and Jack Benny as well as to Lenny Bruce, Myron Cohen, Jack E. Leonard, Buddy Hackett, Alan King, Jackie Mason, Shelley Berman, and Woody Allen.

The Years of Triumph (1965-Present)

NOTE: In this final section, Epstein traces the further development and refinement of "the two great themes" of American Jewish life (i.e. assimilation and the search for an American Jewish identity) and I enjoyed reading this section more than any of its three predecessors. In it, Epstein takes a close look at the films of Woody Allen and Mel Brooks (among several discussed) and then shifts his attention to Rodney Dangerfield, Don Rickles, Andy Kaufman, Howard Stern, various Jewish comediennes, Jerry Seinferld, and (in the final chapter) an emerging generation of young Jewish comedians.

In the Appendix, "Schlemiels and Nudnicks," Epstein shares his final thoughts which help the reader to re-establish an overall perspective on material which covers a period of more than 100 years. (It could reasonably be claimed that Epstein has examined certain themes and forces which have been active within Jewish culture for several thousand years.) He concludes that "the comics who emerged from this Jewish background were not aware of psychological or sociological theories. As George Burns noted, they were not hungry for recognition, "they were hungry for food. They did not question their humor but rather just recognized and used it. Nevertheless, the roles comedians played and most particularly the contributions of Eastern European Jewish culture shaped the personalities of these comedians and lay, either hidden or not, in their minds."

For me, a Gentile, it is impossible to determine to what extent Jewish comedy became assimilated within American society, and, to what extent Jewish comedy helped American society became assimilated with Jewish values. Let's all call it a tie and consider ourselves that much the better for it.

This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the complete history of Jewish comedians in America. It is both funny and perceptive. What struck me most was Epstein's assertion that America's Jewish comedians have from the very beginning used their wonderful comic skills to help themselves -- and all Americans -- through difficult times. It's a lesson that holds true even now. Especially now. Epstein's scholarship is impressive, and the great comic routines and one-liners kept me laughing and wanting more, more, more. I highly recommend it.

This book is full of history, anecdotes, personal stories, samples from comedians' stand-up material and movie dialog, and immigrant sociology and circumstances. He even gives details tying Yiddish language to Jewish American humor. He tells of vaudeville artists adapting to radio, then tv. So many details provided! At first I was not going to buy it (I am a frugal African American who buys paperbacks), but I am glad I did. Also, at first, I thought it was going to be too scholarly and dry, but once I got INTO IT -- I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN!! BUY IT, BUY IT, BUY IT! And share it with your friends.

This book is masterfully written and sheer joy to read : a truly remarkable blend of laughter and insight. Just in time for the Holiday season, Dr. Epstein has given us all an evergreen gift: I've read this treasure trove three times over and keep finding golden nuggets of delight. And believe me, it will be as welcome under the Christmas tree as alongside the Chanukah menorah as this Season's perfect present!

I just finished reading "The Haunted Smile" and I loved it! I thought it was a perfect combination of history, story telling and wonderfully applicable joke excerpts. Not only did I laugh but I learned a great deal about the history of Jewish comedians in America and about the Jews who immigrated here as well. As a 30-year-old Jew living in America, I've never experienced the same issues which my great grandmother experienced upon immigrating to the United States. I remember her speaking Yiddish but I never could fully appreciate her sacrifices. This made me understand her background a little better and made me proud to be part of a people who took adversity and turned it into laughs. What a beautiful weapon!

I loved the jokes and stories in the book. I thought I knew a lot about comedians, but there was an incredible amount of new information and interesting explanations in this book. It's a great pleasure to read, too. What struck me most, though, was how the emotional struggles the comedians went through and how they used humor to cope with their fear and anger seems similar to the emotional struggles we're going through as Americans right now.

Learn who's Jewish and who's not, who pretended not to be Jewish and who led with Jewishness. Learn who had it really, really tough and who had it relatively easy. Discover who could work together and who couldn't. Get the skinny on some really poor, skinny comedians. Rodney Dangerfield's true story seemed stranger than fiction. Find out who whacked Sinatra with a pie and got away with it. Find out how Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis really got together. Be privy to literally dozens of stories about famous people and get the history of radio, movies and television as a bonus.

I ended up liking some people I didn't know well enough to like. Some overt dishonesty shocked me. All the stories were at least interesting, many exciting and a few really disgusting.

What more could you possibly ask of one book?

The Haunted Smile, The Story of Jewish Comedians in America, Lawrence Epstein; PublicAffairs ([Perseus Books Group] 2001)

An unprepared student at exam time, in panic, might resort to plagiarism - not long after having read The Haunted Smile.

Well, the possibilities of resolution are intriguing - since the quality of writing exhibited in THS is so awful, the odds in favor of detection are quite good. An alert test grader, having already read it, may well remember the unmistakable work of Larry Epstein.

But even if the author remains known to only to the test-taker, the quality of the material submitted will result in exactly the same grade that would be received had a blank piece of paper been handed in when time ran out.

Trouble arrived at dawn (p. 8): "Between 1865 & 1900, the population of the United States doubled in large part because of immigration & despite the losses from the Civil War."

If A) Something ("the population...doubled") had occurred within a certain period of time ("between 1865 & 1900"), & -

B) And this had happened in spite of an adverse event ("Civil War," 1861-65) having occurred, then -

Then C): The adverse event ("B") has to happen or occur within or during that "certain period of time" ("A").

The issue, re-stated, should be the rate of population increase between 1861-1900 (not "between 1865 & 1900").

Thoughtless writing continued. "Jewish comedians...did not attempt to subvert [the conventional standards of show business] in an obvious way..." (p. 24). Nothing can be "subverted" in an "obvious" manner (for the same reason that you've never heard of an "obvious subterfuge").

And where can an EXACT count be obtained - "300" - of the performers who had "quit the [vaudeville] circuit" in 1929 (p. 66) - a line of work that had attracted talented but irrepressible spirits who vanished & re-appeared at whim?

Woeful writers, unresourceful bores that they are, repetitively use identical words. Going along, you'll begin to notice that "subvert" & "subversive" appear on an almost unlimited basis (pp. 24, 31, 46 - & possibly sub rosa, elsewhere).

Also brace yourself for "needed," "needed," & "need," promiscuously employed in the barren dimensions of two short sentences (p. 33) & the chirps of "cheap... cheap... cheapness" & "cheapness" (cacophony, p. 59).

All of the above was forgotten when one word (or variation thereof) appeared SEVEN times in a classically dreadful paragraph (p. 40; caps are mine):

"White immigrants...were anxious about their status as `real' Americans...relatively few of those performers who put on BLACKFACE were Jewish...Al Jolson was the most famous of those who used BLACKFACE...Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker, George Burns, & George Jessel also less famously BLACKENED their FACES....the fear of being discovered as...foreign gave BLACKFACE comedy a psychological dimension. The BLACKFACE comedian...appeared to be black but was really white. This was exactly the message immigrants wished to convey to [other] white Americans. Laughing at a BLACKFACE comedian allowed immigrant white audiences simultaneously to convey that message & to laugh at their own fears & anxieties...African [-] American audiences...must have been far more troubled by such BLACKFACE antics."

(An eighth repetition - "Besides his BLACKFACE act..." - is at the start of the first sentence of the next paragraph.)

After this tour de force of unintentional farce, the list ends with THS's lesser but unlimited liabilities:

Verbosity (p. 27, "glimpsed at the moment" can be replaced with "foreseen");

Over-Elaboration (p. 31, "They wanted an escape, in a crucial sense, from the arc of their own lives." Also, the word "crucial" - elsewhere & everywhere - is self-indulgently over-employed);

Amateurish & Clumsy Juxtapositions of Words ("Incremental, small drops were more dangerous..." --- "Small, incremental drops were more dangerous" restores the narrative flow);

Clichés ("and Burns & Allen never looked back"; the two last misdemeanors, p. 69);

Redundant Themes (an example):

"Jews felt a sense of their own Jewishness, but they weren't quite sure how to define the content of that identity...popular culture became the most crucial bond, uniting...the Jewish community. In particular it was the comedians who helped Jews deal with the world..." --- has already been stated in earlier rambling flights of rhetoric, lucky you, you're still only on page 50;

And Plodding Pedantry ("But the social roles defined...") intertwined with pop psychological piffle ( "blackface," above; comedians as "emotional pioneers" & - my favorite - Jack Benny "giving his listeners emotional permission" [!!!]).

Towel thrown in, page 78. THS was pulped on January 12, 2011.

Which was a shame. Whenever Epstein did paid attention to the lives & personalities of the comedians he was ostensibly profiling - the actual reason for writing such a book, instead of their being cheaply used as secondary props for the author's tiresome & threadbare search for Significance - THS momentarily did become the book that I had anticipated reading.

It's been a rough month for those of us who mistakenly paid to read the work of some of the Ph.D.'s - first, a truly pathetic "history" of Saratoga Springs, "See & Be Seen" (by Hollis Palmer; fortunately, it's not for sale by Amazon)...& now this.

May I recommend, instead, John Lahr's compassionate & exquisitely well-written biography of his father, Notes On A Cowardly Lion (Alfred A. Knopf; 1969)?

On the back of I believe the first paperback edition of Salinger's 'The Catcher in the Rye' it is written, "It will make you laugh. It will make you cry. And you will never forget it." So I feel about that remarkable list of American Jewish comedians who gave so much pleasure so much joy to millions of people. From the time of vaudeville, the Marx brothers, Gallagher and Shean, Ed Wynn up to the golden age of Television, its real beginning with Uncle Milty and Sid Caesar's 'Show of Shows' with that amazing gang of writers Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Woody Allen, Neil Simon. And then down to more recent times with Gary Shandling and Seinfeld, Andy Kaufman and the late Gila Radner. -these wonderful people made America happy.
In this richly informative work Lawrence J. Epstein tells the stories of many of the true greats, Jack Benny, George Burns, the Marx brothers. He too provides some explanation of why the Jews became America's principal comic entertainers.
In an interview about the book Epstein says "The Jewish immigrant's child came from a family that had to confront hatred, persecution and attack. This made the Jews anxious and fearful," Epstein explains. "They needed a way to cope. This way had to be portable because the Jews kept being kicked out of places and had to be rooted in language because Jews so prized words over physical activity. Humor could be taken from place to place and was based on language. The humor also was useful in dealing with anti-Semites. If Jews could deflect hatred with laughter, people wouldn't hurt them."
This to my mind makes some sense but is certainly not the whole story. True a good share of Jewish humor is self- reflexive and self- critical, but there is also the explosively abusive humor of a Lenny Bruce or a Don Rickles, humor in which the language becomes a weapon to injure and win laughs.
Yet to tell the truth the great gift of this book is in the particular stories and anecdotes it gives, and less in the 'theory'.
The truth is each of these comics is a great 'character'. And I believe the real strength of these comics as a whole , is that each one of them is so much of an individual, so much of a 'character'. And each has a particular humor and style all his own.
This is a wonderful book, and I recommend it highly. I cannot really capture its spirit in this review, and certainly cannot capture the spirit of each of the great comedians it is about.
But I am thinking of one most famous radio humor story. It is the one in which for the first time in the history of commercial radio there is a period of silence of several minutes. It is when the robber comes to the skinflint of all skinflints , Jack Benny and says, 'Your money, or your life". There is silence and then more silence. And then after several minutes, comes the plaintive voice of Jack Benny, " I 'm thinking, I'm thinking."
We love you guys . You were the greatest.

This book shows what a diverse writer Dr. Epstein is- from books on converting to Judaism to a book on Jewish Comedians. He writes about a vocation for Jews who never lost their ability to laugh despite constant prejudice and sadness. How appropriate for today's world. Barbara Shair