Peach-O-Reno a great intro to Wheeler and Woolsey

By Doug Gibson

Until a few years ago, I hadn't had much experience watching the old-time vaudeville/film comedian team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, but I'm glad I was introduced in full to the pair in "Peach-O-Reno," released by RKO Radio Pictures on Christmas Day 1931. This pre-code musical comedy with the team is simply marvelous. I tag it as a lower-brow (and that's not an insult) Marx Brothers-type film. It's very fast-paced, extremely witty, and has many fun musical numbers as well.

The plot involves Wheeler and Woolsey as Reno divorce lawyers Wattles and Swift. They have snagged all the divorce business in Reno, the divorce capital of the world because they keep it cheap and, let's face it, they're the wittiest divorce lawyers in town. They're also the coolest. The pair turns their divorce factory into a swinging casino at night. Wattles is the young attorney who more ladies swoon over. Swift, with his wit and fast moves, probably gets more action with the women.

One day, Joe and Aggie Bruno head to Reno -- in separate train seats -- to divorce. They squabbled on their 25th anniversary. Not far behind them are daughters Prudence and Pansy, trying to stop the divorce. The four naturally end up at Wattles and Swift, who have a full house, which includes a rich cowboy type who intends to murder Wattles and Swift for trying to give his wife a divorce.

I'm not going to give away the entire plot. Just sit back and enjoy the hour and three minutes. Things move from the divorce office to the casino, where young Wattles (Wheeler) dresses in drag to avoid the jealous husband. This pre-code sequence is absolutely hilarious, especially while Swift swiftly tries to gain lip time with one of the Bruno daughters. Eventually, everything gets settled in divorce court the next morning, which changes to a marriage court.

There's beautiful women, who change from their usher duties in the divorce office to more scantily clad duties in the casino at night. There's lots of gunfire but no one really gets injured. There's excellent Groucho Marx-type banter from Swift (Woolsey) with more than a few customers, including the matronly Aggie Bruno (Cora Witherspoon), and of course, there's several excellent musical numbers.

I'm glad we have Turner Classic Movies to show these films, and remind us of the many comedy talents that were out there besides the most famous, such as Chaplin, The Marx Brothers, etc. Viewers will enjoy "Preach-O-Reno," and like myself, start looking for more Wheeler and Woolsey to enjoy. It was directed by William A. Seiter. The imdb page is here. To learn more about the comedy team, go to this interview with W&W historian Ed Watz.

Ed Watz on Wheeler and Woolsey

Interview by Doug Gibson

Ed Watz is the author of the above book, "Wheeler and Woolsey: The Vaudeville Comic Duo and Their Films, 1927-1937," (McFarland). It's a successful genre book logging more than 3,000 sales. Another book of Ed's I enjoy is "The Columbia Comedy Shorts," (McFarland) that he co-authored with Ted Okuda.

Ed's written a lot on vintage comedy the past several decades, and later this year his newest book, "Buster Keaton in the Talkies: Laughter Louder Than Words," is being published by BearManor Media. It will deal with Keaton's films from 1929 to 1941.

I owe my enjoyment of Wheeler and Woolsey to Ed's book, and I asked him recently to talk about the famous comedy duo, which made a lot of films, and money, for RKO. He agreed and here's our chat.

Plan9Crunch: Tell us a little about Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey's success in vaudeville in the 1920s and how they came to RKO's eye.

Watz: Bert Wheeler was a major star of vaudeville for about a decade, from the mid-teens until 1926. In 1923 Bert and his first wife and stage partner, Betty, were chosen by the legendary showman Florenz Ziegfeld to appear in that year's Ziegfeld Follies revue. Robert Woolsey only briefly worked in vaudeville; he appeared in numerous touring companies of famous plays, eventually landing on Broadway and appearing in a major show almost every season. In 1926 Ziegfeld hired Wheeler and Woolsey as the comedy relief in his latest extravaganza, RIO RITA. Their parts were loosely sketched but both comedians were expected to furnish their own material. By the time the show opened in New York the following February, they perfected a series of routines together that practically stole the show. When Ziegfeld sold the movie rights of RIO RITA to RKO, Wheeler and Woolsey were the show's only stage players who were hired to repeat their performances on film.

The subtitle of my W and W book, "The Vaudeville Comedy Team and Their Films," is actually somewhat of a misnomer as they were never a team in vaudeville. My original title for the book was "Forgotten Laughter," but my publisher decided to change it.

Plan9Crunch: Some call W and W small-town knock offs of the Marx Brothers but their films sometimes were more successful than the Marx Brothers.Whom played off whom, or did both teams have their own unique styles?

Watz: Actually I doubt that any of the W&W starring films outgrossed any of the Marx Brothers films, but because the W&Ws were usually modestly budgeted -- what you might call a "lazy 'A'" picture -- costing on average of $250,000 to $300,000. their films usually returned a decent profit of around $100,000 to $150,000. Whereas the Marx Brothers at Paramount and later MGM had budgets ranging first from around $600,000 and later over $1 million, their films tended to return a much smaller profit, or in the cast of three of their MGM films, no profit at all.

The Marx Brothers' films grossed more money, but their higher budgets meant that the profits -- if there were any to be had -- were lower than Wheeler & Woolsey's. The films of Laurel & Hardy and Abbott & Costello likewise had lower budgets and their films, like W&W's, usually returned a solid profit.

Wheeler & Woolsey, like Laurel & Hardy, were both star comedians in their own right; while they played off each other, neither was the straight man. If there is any team similar to them it certainly isn't Stan and Ollie, or Abbott &Costello; but the repartee and rivalry over a girl in the W&W films anticipates the Hope & Crosby pairings in the "Road" pictures.

Plan9Crunch: How important was Dorothy Lee (seen above with the pair} to the team's success? Is she comparable to a Margaret Dumont or Christine McIntyre as a valued cast player with a great comedy team?

Watz: Dorothy Lee is a charming asset to the W&W films, especially in those moments when she gets to sing and dance a duet with Bert Wheeler. She's not really a comedy character, and she rarely acts as a straight woman for the team. Dorothy herself usually dismissed her performances but she remains a fan favorite. Wheeler & Woolsey films are often populated by terrific supporting casts who do indulge in comic banter. The Marx Brothers' Margaret Dumont appeared with the team in two of their films. Others who contributed great support include Betty Grable, Lupe Velez, Edgar Kennedy, Marjorie White, Warren Hymer, Louis Calhern, Billy Gilbert and Noah Beery Sr., among others.

Plan9Crunch: What's your favorite Wheeler and Woolsey film and why?

Watz: I have two favorites: PEACH-O-RENO, in which Bert contributes a brilliant comedy performance in drag that matches for perfection Jack Lemmon's work in SOME LIKE IT HOT; and COCKEYED CAVALIERS, a period picture set in Restoration England where Bob Woolsey romances beautiful Thelma Todd and the team becomes involved in court intrigue when a jealous Baron (Noah Beery) mistakes the pair of the King's royal physicians. CAVALIERS is very much a blueprint for the "Road" comedies of the next decade. It has a solid plot with their best individual comedy scenes, plus it never meanders, moving swiftly and logically to a hilarious chase climax.

Plan9Crunch: They had a breakneck pace of making films in the 1930s. Was that a reflection of their popularity, and did it have an impact of wearing Robert down to an early death?

Watz: Wheeler & Woolsey were among RKO's biggest box office attractions from 1930 through 1935. Once the studio realized that big profits were to be made on their inexpensively produced films, they wasted no time in churning them out. Five W&W films were produced in 1930 alone. Ten years later, Universal put its new comedy team Abbott & Costello through a similar assembly-line production schedule. Bert and Bob, like Bud and Lou later on, finally rebelled and within a few years would restrict their output to two films a year.

Bob Woolsey was never a healthy person, and the tough filmmaking schedules (and later, personal appearance tours) doubtless wore him out. On top of that, he was an insomniac, and drank to put himself to sleep. Although Bob's death at age 50 was announced as due to kidney failure, Bert Wheeler attested that Woolsey died from cirrhosis of the liver.

Plan9Crunch: The pair seem mismatched but they click very well. Bert's lovesick charm with Robert's wisecracks and schemes. Why does it work and does it compare with other comedy teams? What can we learn about comedy from watching them today? They play often on Turner Classic Movies.

Watz: I think the takeaway one can get from watching Wheeler & Woolsey in their best films is that the world of 1930s comedy was much more diverse than just Laurel & Hardy, W.C. Fields, and The Marx Brothers. Besides W&W, there are many great comedians like Harry Langdon, Charley Chase, Joe E. Brown, Edgar Kennedy, and Leon Errol, to name a few, waiting to be rediscovered. Harry Langdon's work in talkies is a revelation; I know of some people who prefer his sound films to his more celebrated silents. In Wheeler & Woolsey's case, they provide us with a time capsule representing some of the best (and most delightful) of 1930s Musical Comedy. I'm pleased that Turner Classic Movies continues to show their films, and the success of my W&W book (over 3,000 copies sold) tells me that people do want to know and see more of Wheeler and Woolsey.

Plan9Crunch: Bert had a rough career after Woolsey's death and the end of the films. He did stay active, including in summer stock. Was he typecast from the earlier films, or was he a comedian who needed a partner?

Watz: There's one thing I'd like to address now. To be honest, Bert was disenchanted with film work towards the end of the Wheeler & Woolsey cycle. He preferred the live stage and returned to it as often as he could, the late films he did appear in where basically done when it was convenient and/or for quick cash. Like Abbott & Costello, Keaton, Langdon, John Barrymore, Chico Marx and other performers of that time, he had little regard for money and enjoyed spending it as quickly as it came in. What Wheeler did not take into account was that his absence from a mass media outlet like film, radio and later television basically ensured that he was overlooked by the public at large. When the film careers of other popular 1930s comedians stalled (Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor, Burns & Allen), they had already made inroads into radio and easily adapted to television, ensuring their popularity into the 1950s and beyond.

That said, it doesn't seem to have fazed Bert when in the latter half of the 1950s the major stage opportunities were few and the television work became an ever-rarer opportunity. "I make as much as I need," he replied when Jack O'Brian inquired about his well-being in the 1960s. I truly believe that he looked back on his career content and with great satisfaction, not bitterness.

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We really appreciate Ed sharing his insights on Wheeler and Woolsey with Plan9Crunch and its readers and we look forward to his new book on Buster Keaton.

Book thoroughly details the film career of funnymen Wheeler and Woolsey

Review by Doug Gibson

As the '30s approached, and the "talkies" gained momentum and the Great Depression became the norm for a while, a shift occurred in screen comedy. The subtle, pathos-driven comedy of the silent era faded, and more broad comedy, with an emphasis on witty dialogue and even musical numbers, gained in popularity. One example of this shift was The Marx Brothers. Another lesser-known example is a distressingly forgotten pair -- except to genre buffs and film historians, of course -- named (Bert) Wheeler and (Robert) Woolsey. The duo, long vets of the stagecraft of vaudeville, had been together several years when RKO Radio Pictures, a studio that cranked out B features, signed the duo. It turned out to be a profitable venture for the comics and the studio. Over the course of nearly a decade, until the older Woolsey died, more than a score of films were produced. They were funny, fast-paced romps, with lots of laughs, pretty women and pleasant music for Depression-era audiences. The pair were mismatched well; Wheeler with the softer edges, a more pathos comedian who caught most of the girls' eyes, and Woolsey, the angular, homely but wisecracking schemer who had his share of the girls too.

There isn't much out there on Bert and Robert, so we can be grateful that film historian Ed Watz wrote a while back the book "Wheeler & Woolsey: The Vaudeville Comic Duo and Their Films, 1929 to 1937," McFarland Press. The RKO films are analyzed in detail, all of them, including my personal favorites "The Cuckoos," "Peach O Reno," "Hold 'Em Jail," "The Nitwits" and even the much-lamented "Mummy's Boys," which I kind of liked, darn it! As it is with genre books that are written for extreme fans and historians, much of the action behind the scenes is detailed, including the duo's dealings with a very boorish studio exec David O. Selznick, as well as RKO's shabby treatment of Woolsey at the genesis of his tenure. The studio planned to dump him relatively early but the duo's success prevented that, and Woolsey was able to get his "revenge" in the form of a fat paycheck later.

Ed Watz, when he wrote the book, was able to include the reminisces of frequent co-star Dorothy Lee, and recollections from her and others on the scene add to the value of the screen biographies. Another co-star to the duo included Betty Grable, as well "the Mexican Spitfire" Lupe Velez. Directors of the comedies included future great George Stevens. In "The Nitwits," directed by Stevens, there is a wonderful song and dance number, up and down a staircase, with Wheeler and the gorgeous Grable, who play young lovers in the film.

Peach O Reno is an interesting film, as it presents the comedy team as successful at the outset. The pair are the top divorce team in Reno by day, and successful casino operators by night. Nevertheless, the duo soon get into trouble. More typical scenarios have the boys as foils who outsmart the heavies. Examples include Hold 'Em Jail, where they are patsies put in jail and Mummy's Boys, where they are low-wage workers signed for a dig. As Watz notes, the latter film was similar to an Abbott & Costello feature 20 years later.

Prior to the story of their film career together, Watz offers concise updates on their earlier lives. Wheeler enjoyed fame on vaudeville with his wife Betty, until she dumped him -- both in love and art -- for a competitor. After a short period of doldrums, Wheeler hooked up with Woolsey, a veteran of vaudeville, and the pair were a big success in the mid to late 1920s. (Betty's career faded, by the way, and she ended up divorced.) Woolsey, not uncommon for future vaudeville stars, grew up in extreme poverty with most of his siblings dying as a children. Later, it was affectionately noted, writes Watz, that his wife Minnie was both perfect for him, and as homely.

The pair had a long movies run. As Watz recounts, the frailer Woolsey's body just gave out. In his final film, long shots of him are another actor. He died, in 1938 of, as Watz notes, of either kidney or liver problems, or perhaps both. With death at the cusp of his success, his funeral was a big deal in Hollywood.

As Watz recalls, Wheeler outlived his partner by three decades, but his death received far less fanfare. In fact, he was buried in "an area for impoverished actors," writes Watz. Wheeler's first film sans Woolsey, in which he played a Midwestern quarterback in a Warner's film, was a flop. I have seen the film, "Cowboy Quarterback," and it isn't much. Watz is correct to note it was a poor rip off of Joe E. Brown material.Wheeler's film career continued downward. He had small parts in TV and even a short stint doing comedy shorts at Columbia's factory. It wasn't all bad, though. The actor, although grown more cynical over the years, maintained success on the stage, and that kept the bills paid for the rest of his life. He died in 1968. In an event that shows Wheeler's humanity, Watz relates a one-day reunion Bert had with his long wife/partner Betty. Because she was down on her luck, it's likely Bert gave his New York stage salary to her.

I have compared Wheeler and Woolsey to the Marx Brothers, albeit a more meat and potatoes version. There's music and wisecracks from Woolsey and a more subdued but still very funny Wheeler. There's also love, although it's tongue is often in its cheek. However, it's worth noting the pair often outgrossed Groucho, Harpo and Chico. Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey saved RKO Studios from probable ruin. They used their vaudeville experience and comic timing to create original characters who made audiences laugh, enjoy music, and feel good in tough times. It's been sheer bad luck -- too many comedy brews out there -- that the pair have faded from most memories.

Watz' book is a treasure, and his detailed research, done for love and not money, is appreciated. The book is well worth the $35 asking price from McFarland (here). Thanks to DVD and stations such as Turner Classic Movies, the comedy pair can be watched. As soon as I finish this review, I'm sitting down to enjoy "The Nitwits,' DVD-rd just a few days ago via TCM.

'Peach-O-Reno' is Wheeler and Woolsey at their best

By Doug Gibson

To be honest, I hadn't had much experience watching the old-time vaudeville/film comedian team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, but I'm glad I was introduced in full to the pair in "Peach-O-Reno," released by RKO Radio Pictures on Christmas Day 1931. This pre-code musical comedy with the team is simply marvelous. To my inexperienced eye with the two Ws, I tag it as a lower-brow (and that's not an insult) Marx Brothers-type film. It's very fast-paced, extremely witty, and has many fun musical numbers as well.

The plot involves Wheeler and Woolsey as Reno divorce lawyers Wattles and Swift. They have snagged all the divorce business in Reno, the divorce capital of the world because they keep it cheap and, let's face it, they're the wittiest divorce lawyers in town. They're also the coolest. The pair turns their divorce factory into a swinging casino at night. Wattles is the young attorney who more ladies swoon over. Swift, with his wit and fast moves, probably gets more action with the women.

One day, Joe and Aggie Bruno head to Reno -- in separate train seats -- to divorce. They squabbled on their 25th anniversary. Not far behind them are daughters Prudence and Pansy, trying to stop the divorce. The four naturally end up at Wattles & Swift, who have a full house, which includes a rich cowboy type who intends to murder Wattles and Swift for trying to give his wife a divorce.

I'm not going to give away the entire plot. Just sit back and enjoy the hour and three minutes. Things move from the divorce office to the casino, where young Wattles (Wheeler) dresses in drag to avoid the jealous husband. This pre-code sequence is absolutely hilarious, especially while Swift swiftly tries to gain lip time with one of the Bruno daughters. Eventually, everything gets settled in divorce court the next morning, which changes to a marriage court.

There's beautiful women, who change from their usher duties in the divorce office to more scantily clad duties in the casino at night. There's lots of gunfire but no one really gets injured. There's excellent Groucho Marx-type banter from Swift (Woolsey) with more than a few customers, including the matronly Aggie Bruno (Cora Witherspoon), and of course, there's several excellent musical numbers.

I'm glad we have Turner Classic Movies to show these films, and remind us of the many comedy talents that were out there besides the most famous, such as Chaplin, The Marx Brothers, etc. Viewers will enjoy "Preach-O-Reno," and like myself, start looking for more Wheeler and Woolsey to enjoy. It was directed by William A. Seiter. The imdb page is here.