- Born
- Died
- Birth nameRobert Edwin Clark
- Famed vaudeville comedian Bobby Clark was born in Springfield, Ohio on June 16, 1888. When he was 12 years old, Bobby and his classmate Paul McCullough created a tumbling act that they took on the road. The duo toured with a traveling minstrel troupe before joining a circus as clowns. The clown act eventually matured to the point where it was time to graduate from the circus to the more sophisticated vaudeville circuit.
Clark & McCullough debuted as a vaudeville comedy team at the Opera House in New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1912. Their popularity increased, and after the First World War, they began appearing in London, where they made a great success in musical-comedy. After seeing them in London, composer Irving Berlin signed them for his own Broadway show, the "Music Box Revue". It was a smash hit, and by the time taking pictures debuted, they signed with Fox for a series of one-reel recreations of their act. However, both comedians were uncomfortable with the new medium and soon returned to Broadway. In 1930, RKO-Radio Pictures signed them up to make shorts, and the deal allowed them to continue making Broadway appearances. From 1930 to 1935, from A Peep on the Deep (1930) to Alibi Bye Bye (1935), Clark & McCullough appeared in 22 shorts for RKO, many of which were scripted by Clark himself, with Clark nominally the dominant one closely shadowed by the less talkative McCullough, who was known for his reactive, raucous laugh.
In 1935, after they had finished their vigorous slate of short films for RKO, Clark & McCullough went on tour with "The George White's Scandals". However, McCullough experienced a nervous breakdown from overwork and was committed to a sanitarium for depression and extreme exhaustion. Shortly after being released in early-to-mid March 1936, the comedian visited a barbershop (on March 23rd), and attempted suicide by slicing his neck and wrists with the barber's own razor. Paul McCullough died two days later.
Bobby Clark was devastated. Aside from a bit part in The Goldwyn Follies (1938), he never again appeared in movies. He spent several months in seclusion after his partner's death, but finally returned to Broadway in "The Ziegfeld Follies of 1936". His appearances on Broadway continued, and his fame grew again as he appeared in legitimate plays such as Sheridan's "The Rivals" as well as musical comedies and revues. Begining in 1942, producer Mike Todd cast him in five Broadway shows, all of them smash hits: the musical revue "Stars & Garters" with Gypsy Rose Lee (1942-43); the Cole Porter musical "Mexican Hayride"(1944-45); a production of Molière's "The Would-Be Gentleman"(1946); and the musical revues "As the Girls Go"(1950) and "Michael Todd's Peep Show" (1951).
Bobby Clark also hosted segments of the TV show The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950) produced by Todd. He then bid showbiz adieu, although he emerged from retirement in 1956 to tour with the road show of "Damn Yankees!". Clark died on February 12, 1960, having outlived the minstrel show, vaudeville and burlesque eras. He was 71 years old. The duo of Clark & McCullough is lesser known today than their comedy contemporaries (Three Stooges, Laurel & Hardy", etc.) primarily because their many short films were considered too risqué to be replayed on TV.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C. Hopwood
- SpouseAngele Gaignat(1923 - February 12, 1960) (his death)
- His "eyeglasses" were painted on
- Painted-on greasepaint glasses, a pork pie hat, a cane and a leer
- In 1935, having completed their last short for R.K.O., Clark and his partner Paul McCullough went on tour in a version of "George White's Scandals." The frenetic pace of touring emotionally discombobulated McCullough and, suffering from nervous exhaustion, he entered a sanitarium in Medford, Massachusetts. In March 1936, he was released. As he was driving home with a friend, he decided to have a shave. They stopped at a local barber shop where McCullough struck up a friendly conversation with the barber. Without warning, as the barber's back was turned, McCullough grabbed a straight razor and slashed his own throat and wrists. In critical condition, he was taken to a nearby hospital where he died several days later. Clark was emotionally devastated by the loss of his old friend.
- Vaudeville comedian with Paul McCullough as Clark and McCullough.
- He appeared in five Broadway shows for producer Mike Todd, all of them successes: the musical revue "Star & Garter" with Todd's paramour Gypsy Rose Lee in 1942-1943; the Cole Porter musical "Mexican Hayride" in 1944-1945; a production of Molière's play "The Would-Be Gentleman" in 1946); the musical "As the Girls Go" in 1950; and the musical revue "Michael Todd's Peep Show" in 1951, which he wrote the book for and directed. Clark, the "master of high dames and low comedy, was such a lucky charm for the profligate Todd that in the 1950s, he had to stage two Clark shows to pay off his considerable debts and reestablish himself financially and professionally, as a Clark revue featuring comedy and statuesque showgirls was such a sure thing on Broadway. Clark, whose career was revitalized by Todd's "Star & Garter" and "Mexican Hayride" at the beginning of World War II, was grateful to the producer, and obliged him by appearing in his shows though he didn't need the money. He also hosted Todd's segments of the TV show The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950).
- The great comedy team of Clark & McCullough are little known in the 21st century, despite their great popularity in the first half of the 20th Century. One of the reasons likely is the fact that their short films were not packaged and sold to television in the 1950s, unlike The Three Stooges and Laurel & Hardy, who then went on to entertain new generations of fans. Bobby Clark wrote much of the dialogue, and it was very risqué and was considered borderline in the more liberal 1930s. Clark & McCullough shorts were geared towards adults, and thus would have been inappropriate on television in the 1950s as the comedy shorts of the Stooges and Laurel & Hardy were programmed for children. The short films of the equally famous-in-the-1930s and now-almost-forgotten comedy team Wheeler & Woolsey were never released to commercial television either as they were considered too vulgar.
- Clark coined the motto of the Clark & McCullough comedy duo: "Omnia Cafeteria Rex" ("We Eat All We Can Carry").
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