Henry Lewis

Comic routine involving jokes and references to drop.

"Stop, Go Ahead" Henry Lewis back with "The Laugh Shop" at the Palace within two months of his opening there just "cleaned up," in fact really stopped the show. In clearing the stage in back of his drop a clearer dropped a prop, making a loud noise, but Hen merely turned that to a laugh by suggesting that it wasn't in his shop at all. The signs and figures on the clever cash register device brought the first laughs, and when one of his gags went over but fairly, he rung "BK" and then "No Sale" after that. He started something by addressing the house as "Ladies and gentlemen of both sexes." Something came out, too, when he announced that now that the leading hotels are substituting bell hops for girls it looked like a big season for ice water. Among his songs was "How Are You Going to Wet Your Whistle," the latter written by two boys from the West who were going further West if the number didn't get over.

Variety, 53:13 (02/21/1919)