Movie based on Smith and Dale vaudeville team
Neil Simon took his idea for the Sunshine Boys from the old time vaudeville team of Smith and Dale. Not only did they not talk to each other except on stage, their doctor sketch was the inspiration for the burlesque sketch Burns and Matthau do with Lee Meredith. Smith and Dale's sketch was called "Dr. Kronkeit and his patient." There evidently was a recording made of it for Victor because I have heard it recorded on one of those Best Comedy Skits of the Century. Ironically, Abbott and Costello and Martin and Lewis came to the same abrupt end in their relationship where they couldn't work with each other. Personally, I would have liked to have seen Milton Berle play Matthau's part if Jack Benmy was unavailable. Berle like Burns had been in early vaudeville and would have been able to play the part with some authenticity. I particularly liked the scene where Burns has gone to visit Matthau in his rest bed and they reminisce over people that they worked with vaudeville. George Burns had an incredible memory of these acts and could have adlibbed his part with someone like Berle.
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