Bobby 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.