Julius Tannen

Stories and jokes.

The performance was about 65 per cent laugh-bearing with a plus percentage going for the Salvation Army drive ; that because of the presence of the star worker, Julius Tannen. They had Tannen eating doughnuts at five dollars per donation. He'd be chewing yet if they made him keep to his promises. They gave Julius the wrong steer about going into business (someone said his commercial venture bad something to do with furs). He should have gone out as a specialist in the art of filching dollars from theatre audiences, working on a percentage. That has the fur game skinned to death the way he goes to it Lightning fast with his comments, he couldn't fall to shoot the collecting over for a hit number in itself. Making "folks" kick in and really like it is an expert sort of trade. Anyone can do it by simply handing out laughs, but few can actually deliver while grabbing the dough. Julius therefore is a rare exception. During one of the spasms of chewing, one of the "home-made" doughnuts the near-Army lassies carried he mentioned it reminded him of a guy who took a job in a museum, said job being to eat 80 eggs a day, but the guy only took the job with the understanding that he could have half an hour off for lunch. Tannen tickled them with his own 15 minutes of chatter, but it is a matter of pleasant record that he really went over the top right along with the collection and his accompanying bit.

Variety, 54:13 (05/23/1919)