Fifty Gags About Kangaroos In His Card Index System

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 36, 17 February 1939, Page 4

Fifty Gags About Kangaroos In His Card Index System

~ Vaudeville Artist Whitey Roberts Is A Methodical Comedian

By

J. GIFFORD

MALE

ONE thing | like about Whitey Roberts, the comic juagler, gat dancer and patter man with the Frank Neil show now touring New Zealand-there’s no unnecessary "side" to him. He admitted to me quite cheerfully that years ago, before he settled down into his present quite profiteble niche in yaudeville, there were times he walked the streets of Los Angeles and tightened up his belt another hole instead of taking a meal. Also that he worked as an extra in Hollywood for seven dollars a week, three days a week, and lived well at that. 4,

| HAVE met very few American show people who have been honest enough to admit they worked in Hollywood as extras. By the time they arrive in New Zealand they have usually been in feature parts at least. It was in the good old silent days when Whitey Robérts commenced his career as an extra in Hollywood. He appeared in a good many college shorts for Universal, including, when the football season came round, the usual football pictures. In that red-biooded thriller "The Black Pirate" (in which, you may remember, Douglas Fairbanks was at his super-acrobatic best), Whitey had 2 fairly important part. Tense Scene NE of the most spectacular scenes was a battle at sea, and Mr. Roberts, in suitably colourful garb, was fighting desperately a long way up in the shrouds. At the erucial moment a battery of cameras was turned on him: while he dispatched one of the enemy with his trusty musket and himself received a ball through the shoulder and toppled headlong into the sea. Whitey did his job according to schedule without a re-take being necessary, though, he says, he began to wonder when he was going to hit the water. For falling from trees, masts, precipices and such-like, extras used to receive a dollar a foot in those days, with a minimum price of ten dollars. Whitey received 60 dollars for his fall, and he’s worked it out since that he must have fallen 60 feet. Lots of well-known Hollywood players have done extra. work with Whitey Roberts-Nat Pendleton, Richard Arien and Charlie Farrell, to mention only three. Arlen, says Whitey, was always one of the luckier extras. He had a private income, didn’t have to worry about his jobs, and always arrived at work in an automobile, . "He was a nice guy," says Whitey. "So was Charlie Farrell." "Pretty Clever" WHILE waiting for calls on the set, Whitey used to amuse himself and the other players with his juggling, dancing and comic patter. Most of the other extras thought his act pretty clever, and Arlen used to tell him he was sure to get a big break in pictures some day. A little later on, he was working in vaudeville with Edward Arnold, and Arnold used to tell him the same thing. The fact that he didn’t get his big break in pictures, while Arlen and Arnold did, doesn’t worry Whitey in the least. Working as an extra wasn’t Whitey’s only experience in Hollywood, however. One time he eouldn’t see any extra jobs in the offing, so he took off his coat and started in as a plaster helper at the M-G-M studios.

A plaster helper is one of those highly skilled people who ; build up vast ballrooms jand = ‘y sumptuous bedrooms with * just q a little plaster and lathe. Let Whitey loose in a plaster factory now, and the chances are he could rattle you up a first-class ocean liner in no time. Another job he had was with Hal Roach, in close contact with Mr. Roach’s gag department. This was to prove a very bene ficial experience, for it gave him’ the idea for his present very elaborate card index system for gags. Gag System EVERYWHERE he goes, front magazines and periodicals all over the world, Whitey clipggam

gags, cartoons and suggestions for jokes. The uses of such a system argeie obvious. For instance, Mr. Roberts is playing to an Australian audience which has obviously come # in from the outback. A gag or two about kangaroos is suv to go over well. He just turns to "Animals;"™-sub-section "Kangaroos," and there le is. Without checking up; Whitey reckons it would take him no more than 10 seconds to locate approximately 50 gags about kangaroos. On the rather more abstruse subject of "Cannibals" he thinks he must have from 50 to 100 cartoons and suggestions for gags. Still another job Whitey had in Hollywood was assistant dance director, under Leroy Prinz, on the film Paramount made at the conclusion of th "Search for Beauty" contest. He remembers Colin Tapley well for his fine diction and "English" appearance; Vaudeville Whitey Roberts finds very much to his liking, since it gives him a comfortable living and, above all, travel. He was recently signed up to go to England in September with Will Mahoney. ¥ forgot, by the way, to ask him why he’s called" Whitey.