Ritz Brothers
The Ritz Brothers were an American family comedy act consisting of brothers Al, Jimmy, and Harry Ritz who performed extensively on stage, in nightclubs and in films from 1925 to the late 1970s. A fourth brother, George, acted as their manager.
Early life
The four brothers were born in Newark, New Jersey to Austrian Jewish haberdasher Max Joachim and his wife Pauline. They also had a sister Gertrude.Harry explained on a Joe Franklin TV interview that the family name was pronounced "joe-ACK-him", and that eldest brother Al, a vaudeville dancer, adopted a new professional name after he saw the name "Ritz" on the side of a laundry truck. Jimmy and Harry followed suit when the brothers formed a team. The Ritzes emphasized precision dancing in their act, and added comedy material as they went along. By the early 1930s they were stage headliners.
Movie career
In 1934 Educational Pictures, producers of short subjects, hired "The Three Ritz Brothers" to make a series of six two-reel comedies in New York. The first, Hotel Anchovy, did well enough for the film's distributor, 20th Century-Fox, to void the Educational contract and hire the team as a specialty act for feature-length musicals, to be filmed in Hollywood. From 1935 to 1937 the brothers barged in on the action in several musical comedies, including Sing, Baby, Sing, One in a Million, and the Irving Berlin musical On the Avenue. In 1937 Fox gave the Ritz Brothers their own starring series, beginning with Life Begins in College.The Ritz Brothers gained a large following, with many fans comparing them to the Marx Brothers but the Ritzes did not play three different, contrasting characters like the Marxes did; instead, the three Ritzes adopted the same boisterous behavior, making it harder for audiences to tell them apart. The ringleader was always rubber-faced, mouthy Harry, with Jimmy and Al enthusiastically following his lead. They frequently broke into songs and dances during their feature comedies, and often did celebrity impersonations |Ted Lewis], Peter Lorre, Warner Bros. short [A Sunbonnet Blue">Warner Bros. Pictures">Warner Bros. short [A Sunbonnet Blue and the 1939 Walt Disney short The Autograph Hound.
The Ritzes talent was also noted by Samuel Goldwyn, who borrowed them from Fox for his Technicolor variety show, The Goldwyn Follies, where they appeared with other headliners of the day including Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Perhaps their most successful film during this period was Fox's 1939 musical-comedy version of The Three Musketeers, co-starring Don Ameche.
Fox chief Darryl F. Zanuck always viewed Harry Ritz as the true star of the act, with Al and Jimmy as excess baggage. Zanuck's handwritten notes on Ritz scripts insisted that Harry's roles and dialogue should be built up. Zanuck even told Harry what a big star he could be if he only got rid of his brothers. Harry ended the conversation immediately, refusing to consider splitting the act. Zanuck bought an old Ralph Spence play, The Gorilla, and forced the Ritzes into a 1939 film version co-starring Bela Lugosi and Patsy Kelly. The Ritzes complained about the low quality of the script and staged a highly publicized walkout. Zanuck responded by completing The Gorilla anyway and terminating the Ritzes' starring series. Zanuck then punished the brothers by casting them in a B picture: Pack Up Your Troubles were they were billed below Jane Withers. Zanuck then arranged to loan the Ritzes out to Republic Pictures, a minor-league studio, best known for low-budget westerns and serials. The Ritz Brothers refused the deal and left Fox for good in late 1939.
In 1940, the Ritzes moved to Universal Pictures, where they were scheduled to star in The Boys from Syracuse but were dropped from that production and reassigned to make brash B musical comedies. Their final film as a trio was Never a Dull Moment.
Nightclubs and television
The Ritz Brothers left Hollywood in 1943 to concentrate on their nightclub act and personal appearances. In the 1950s they made guest appearances on network television. They soon became a top Las Vegas attraction. In 1958 Harry participated in a sketch-comedy LP, Hilarity in Hollywood.The Ritzes were appearing at the New Orleans Roosevelt Hotel in December of 1965 when Al died of a sudden heart attack. Harry and Jimmy were devastated, as the trio had always been close. The two surviving brothers continued the act and appeared together in several films. The last appearances of the Ritz Brothers as a team were in the mid-1970s films Blazing Stewardesses and Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood, a spoof of the old Rin Tin Tin and Lassie movies. In Blazing Stewardesses the Ritzes replaced The Three Stooges, who dropped out when Moe Howard's declining health forced the trio to withdraw. Harry and Jimmy made semi-regular appearances on the 1970 television revival of the comedy-themed game show, Can You Top This? and made a lively encore appearance on television, as guests on Dick Cavett's PBS talk show.
In 1979, television producer Garry Marshall prepared an American version of the British sitcom Are You Being Served? The British series was set in the venerable Grace Bros. department store, owned by the elderly Mr. Grace. The American adaptation, retitled Beane's of Boston, cast Harry Ritz as the owner, Mr. Beane. In the pilot, which did not sell, Tom Poston plays the role and Harry Ritz does not appear.
Harry's final months were plagued by Alzheimer's disease; Jimmy Ritz died in 1985 shortly before Harry, but Harry's health was so delicate that he was never told of his brother's death. Harry died five months later.
The brothers were entombed in Hollywood Cemetery, now called the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California. They are entombed near each other in the Hall of David Mausoleum.
Tributes
The influence of the Ritz Brothers was greater than their film career, in part because of their long career as nightclub entertainers. They influenced actors including Danny Kaye, Jerry Lewis, and Sid Caesar. In his 1976 film Silent Movie, Mel Brooks paid tribute to the Ritz Brothers by casting Harry in a cameo. It was the actor's last role.In a 1976 Esquire article, Harry Stein makes the case that many top comedians were influenced by, and even borrowed bits from, Harry Ritz. In an interview in Playboy magazine, George Carlin said Harry Ritz "invented the moves for a whole generation" of comedians.
Other tributes to them include mentions in The Simpsons, M*A*S*H, Soap , and the films Pretty Woman, Mr. Saturday Night and My Favorite Year: "On the funny side, there's the Marx Brothers, except Zeppo, the Ritz Brothers, no exceptions, both Laurel and Hardy, and Woody Woodpecker." Another tribute to The Ritz Brothers appeared in Leave It to Beaver, where Beaver writes a book report about 'The Three Musketeers' based on the Ritz Brothers movie of the same name.
They received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1987, in response to a campaign led by comedians Jan Murray, Red Buttons, Milton Berle, and Phyllis Diller. In 1996, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to them.
They were the favorite musical clowns of the German-Jewish poet Else Lasker-Schüler, and they appear as characters in her last play, I and I.
Norman Lear has said of Harry Ritz and the Ritz Brothers, "Harry Ritz was as funny as any human being, in or out of comedy, I have ever ... he was a jewel, in a glorious setting, and his brothers were the setting."
Filmography
The Ritz Brothers films
;Harry, Jimmy and Al Ritz| Year | Movie |
| 1934 | Hotel Anchovy |
| 1936 | Sing, Baby, Sing |
| 1937 | Cinema Circus |
| 1937 | One in a Million |
| 1937 | On the Avenue |
| 1937 | You [Can't Have Everything] |
| 1937 | Life Begins in College |
| 1937 | Ali Baba Goes to Town |
| 1938 | The Goldwyn Follies |
| 1938 | Kentucky Moonshine |
| 1938 | Straight, Place and Show |
| 1939 | The Three Musketeers |
| 1939 | The Gorilla |
| 1939 | Pack Up Your Troubles starring Jane Withers |
| 1940 | Argentine Nights co-starring The Andrews Sisters |
| 1942 | Behind [the Eight Ball |Behind the Eight Ball] |
| 1943 | Hi'ya, Chum |
| 1943 | Show-Business at War |
| 1943 | Never a Dull Moment |
| 1956 | Brooklyn Goes to Las Vegas |
;Harry and Jimmy Ritz
| 1975 | Blazing Stewardesses |
| 1976 | Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood |