Wheeler & Woolsey: The Vaudeville Comic Duo and Their Films, 1929-1937 (McFarland Classics) [Paperback]

Edward Watz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2001 | Series: McFarland Classics

During the Depression years, the comedy team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey were second only to Laurel and Hardy at the box office. Each of their over 20 comedies are analyzed in detail here; full filmographic data, production notes, plot synopses, and critical commentary are provided. The research is supplemented by an interview with Bert Wheeler.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Detailed analyses and perceptive comments...definitive" -- -Film Quarterly

"Filled with great information and photos" -- -Intra-Tent Journal

"First-rate combination of research and criticism...well chronicled...a delight" -- -Past Times

"The most extensive and exhaustive work ever done on these two very different personalities...first-rate job" -- -Big Reel

About the Author

Edward Watz, of Glendale, New York, has written a number of film magazine articles.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Mcfarland & Co Inc Pub (March 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786411414
• ISBN-13: 978-0786411412
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,249,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Edward Watz (born 1958) is an American film historian whose primary field of expertise is the silent movie era, and with a special interest in the lives and careers of the classic silent and early sound movie comedians. He is the author of several books and articles, under his own name and in collaboration with others.

His well-received book The Columbia Comedy Shorts (McFarland, 1986, with Ted Okuda) is a historical overview of Columbia Pictures' short-subject department, detailing that studio's two-reel comedies starring The Three Stooges, Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, and Charley Chase, among others, from the unit's inception in 1933 until its demise in 1958.

Watz's book Wheeler & Woolsey (McFarland, 1994), about the once-popular 1930's comedy team that starred in 21 features at RKO and Columbia, received great acclaim from reviewers for its copious research and numerous interviews with various associates of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, including the team's leading lady, Dorothy Lee.

Watz also functioned as research associate on two-reel comedy director Edward Bernds' autobiography, Mr. Bernds Goes to Hollywood (Scarecrow Press, 1999).

Watz's recent work includes audio commentary tracks on DVD sets, including The Buster Keaton Collection (Sony Pictures, 2006), and The Harry Langdon Collection: Lost and Found (Facets, 2007).

In other film-related work, Watz preserved the only known existing negative of a rare Mack Sennett comedy short, Plain Clothes (1925), starring Harry Langdon and Vernon Dent. Watz also assisted film archivist Brian Anthony in a privately funded restoration of the 1927 Hal Roach comedy The Second 100 Years, one of the earliest films to star the team of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

Most recently Watz has contributed the foreward to author Bill Cassara's outstanding biography of a classic supporting comedian, Vernon Dent: Stooge Heavy (Bear Manor Books, 2010).

(Photo of Ed Watz taken on the famous staircase from the Laurel & Hardy classic, The Music Box, Vendome Street, Los Angeles, California)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a book about Wheeler and Woolsey!, December 21, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Wheeler & Woolsey: The Vaudeville Comic Duo and Their Films, 1929-1937 (Hardcover)

Wheeler and Woolsey were second to Laurel and Hardy in the heart's of movie going audiences of the 1930's. Since then, however, their star has faded and their acomplishments have been relegated to footnote status in the history of the golden age of comedy. Thanks to Edward Watz, Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey are alive and kicking again in a definitive history of the lovable pair and their films. Exhaustingly researched and lovingly executed, the book chronicles the career ups and downs of the most unjustifiably forgotten comedians in the history of show business. Personal biographies are included, as well as detailed accounts of all of their features and short subjects. Long time leading lady Dorothy Lee lends her first hand account of the way things happend with a refreshingly candid foreward. She also shares her memories of each of the films that she participated in with a fascinating view that only an insider could relate. The later years are chronicled in the final chapter, featuring accounts of Bert Wheeler's career after the untimely death of his partner. All in all, this book ranks along side the superlative Laurel and Hardy, The Magic Behind The Movies, and Abbott and Costello in Hollywood, as one of the most enjoyable and informative demonstration's of film history as can be expected. If you love film comedy, you should not be without this book.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book on a fascinating comedy duo, February 20, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Wheeler & Woolsey: The Vaudeville Comic Duo and Their Films, 1929-1937 (Hardcover)

This "sleeper" book, which I picked up because of my curiosity about the subjects (they are appearing regularly on the Turner Classic Movies station) is a revelation. Positively one of the best researched and entertaining books about a comedy team from the movies' golden age, the 1930s. To watch Wheeler & Woolsey is to understand what vaudeville-type comedy is (was) all about. Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey have been overlooked in favor of teams like the Marx Bros. or the 3 Stooges. This book corrects that oversight. It is also a highly readable accounts of Hollywood politics behind the scenes at some of the major studios. If you're a fan of vintage movie comedy, get this book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb, film history book on a great comedy team, April 12, 2002

By 

Ralph Schiller (Winfield, IL, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wheeler & Woolsey: The Vaudeville Comic Duo and Their Films, 1929-1937 (McFarland Classics) (Paperback)

Ed Watz's book 'Wheeler & Woolsey' is a superb film history of a great and sadly forgotten movie comedy team. This volume evokes the golden days of both Vaudeville and Hollywood, as we follow the rise and sad fall of Wheeler & Woolsey. Mr. Watz also sets straight the historical record in that the boys were second only to the great Laurel & Hardy in the 1930's and certainly ahead of their rivals the Marx Bros., the Ritz Bros., and the Three Stooges! Readers of this book will want to go out and see the films of Wheeler & Woolsey. Watz's book is a lost treasure.