Harry Rose ( 1893 – December 10, 1962) was an American

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

comedian, singer and songwriter. There is some uncertainty over his origins.

Anthony Slide Anthony Slide (born 7 November 1944) is an English writer who has produced more than seventy books and edited a further 150 on the history of popular entertainment. He wrote a "letter from Hollywood" for the British ''Film Review'' magazine from ...

's ''The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville'' states that he was born in Leeds, England, on December 2, 1893, moving to

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

as a child in 1905;Anthony Slide, "Harry Rose", ''The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville'', University Press of Mississippi, 2012, p.436 but official records and a newspaper obituary give his birth name as Henry Arthur Rosenthal, born in Milwaukee on July 13, 1892. Rose claimed to be a nephew of the vaudeville comedian Joe Weber.Obituaries, ''Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle'', December 28, 1962, p.8
/ref> He made his stage debut as a comedian and singer in Milwaukee in 1910, and then served in the military in France during the First World War. After his return he became established on Broadway in shows such as ''

George White's Scandals ''George White's Scandals'' were a long-running string of Broadway revues produced by George White that ran from 1919–1939, modeled after the ''Ziegfeld Follies''. The "Scandals" launched the careers of many entertainers, including W. C. Fie ...

'' (1921), ''The O'Brien Girl'' (1921), and ''The Merry Malones'' (1927). He was a popular master of ceremonies, known as "The Broadway Jester". "Harry Rose: The Broadway Jester", ''Travalanche'', December 2, 2010
Retrieved November 9, 2023 According to Slide, Rose "was a comedian who worked in the same somewhat effeminate style of

Jack Benny Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky, February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974) was an American entertainer who evolved from a modest success playing violin on the vaudeville circuit to one of the leading entertainers of the twentieth century with ...

and

Lou Holtz Louis Leo Holtz (born January 6, 1937) is an American former football player, coach, and analyst. He served as the head football coach at The College of William & Mary (1969–1971), North Carolina State University (1972–1975), the New York ...

." In 1929 he appeared in the early talkie

short Short may refer to: Places * Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon * Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place People * Short (surname) * List of people known as ...

, ''Metro Movietone Revue'', performing the risqué novelty song "Frankfurter Sandwiches". Rose was also a lyricist, his most successful song being "

Kitty from Kansas City ''"Kitty from Kansas City"'' is a "comedy fox trot song" with lyrics by Harry Rose and music by Jesse Greer, popularized in 1930 by the singer, Rudy Vallée. Photos of sheet music, apparently from 1921, provide the names of Rose and Greer, as do ...

", recorded by Rudy Vallée. In

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he served in entertainment divisions, before making cameo movie appearances in such films as ''

An Angel Comes to Brooklyn ''An Angel Comes to Brooklyn'' is a 1945 American comedy film directed by Leslie Goodwins and written by June Carroll and Stanley Paley. The film stars Kaye Dowd, Robert Duke, David Street, Barbara Perry, Charles Kemper and Marguerite d'Alvare ...

'' (1945), '' Varieties on Parade'' (1951), and ''Naughty New Orleans'' (1954). Rose was a board member of the American Guild of Vaudeville Artists. He died in Los Angeles in 1962.

References

External links

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1929 performance
in ''Metro Movietone Revue'' 1890s births 1962 deaths Vaudeville performers Jewish American comedians Jewish male comedians {{US-entertainer-stub