“I consider a good laugh the best gift this life has to offer.”
HIGHLIGHTS OF CAREER OF HERMAN TIMBERG
Producer, Composer, Writer, Lyricist, Director, Dancer, Comedian, Musician and All-Round Performer
SCHOOL DAYS (Musical) – Performer – 1908
THE SHOW OF WONDERS (Musical Revue) Composer/Performer – 1916
DOING OUT BIT (Musical Revue) Composer/Performer – 1917
OVER THE TOP (Musical Revue), Additional Composer – 1917
TIC-TAC-TOE (Musical Revue), Producer,Writer, Directer, Performer – 1920
ON THE MESSANINE FLOOR, in England: ON THE BALCONY, (Musical Revue)
One of MARX BROTHERS first shows, Written by Herman Timberg -1921
SCHEMERS (Play), Producer – 1924
YOU’LL SEE STARS (Musical), Composer, Writer, Directer – 1942
(Since I only have bits and pieces about Herman, I will publish here what I have and what I know at this point)
“Herman Timberg, author-comedian and star, will appear himself and furnish the entire vaudeville entertainment at the E. F. Albee Theater this week, with his new unit show, called, “The Laugh Factory”, a show full of singers, dancers, comedians and beautiful girls. It is a variety show with a love story running through it and is done in five highly amusing acts. This entire production was written and staged by Herman Timberg with music by his brother Sammy, who also appears in the offering.”
This was my uncle, Herman Timberg. He did it all. Starting in show business in Gus Edwards’ SCHOOL DAYS. He could sing, dance, play the violin and write hilariously funny stories and quips. “My wife’s an artist. She drew a knife on me once”, was one of his better lines.
He was in several film shorts. I had a chance to see one – I CAME FIRST. Aside from playing the violin, writing the script and performing in it, he ends with one of the most unusual, funny and difficult dances ever seen. He dances out on his hands and feet.
The “look”, that was instrumental to Eddie Cantor’s fame seems an awful lot like the one Herman perfected years before. Below you will see an article, printed in Brooklyn in 1916. It basically says Herman discovered the Marx Brothers and wrote some of their best original material, launching them on their careers.
Herman had two sons – Irwin and Tim. They both performed with him when they were young. Tim continued in show business. To distinguish himself from his father, he called himself, Tim Herbert. There are some very funny bits of Tim on archival film. Herman’s routines and comedic style are reflected in some of Tim’s performances. Ones that are very funny to watch are the appearances Tim and Don Saxon did on the Ed Sullivan show in the fifties.
Here is the article referred to above:
TIMBERG ‘FOUND’ THE FOUR MARX BROTHERS The Citizen (Brooklyn newspaper), October 16th, 1927.
“One of vaudeville’s keenest comedy noses, not a bad looking one at that, arrives with the person of Herman Timberg, music hall impresario, at the E. F. Albee Theatre this week. Herman and his brother Sammy, two of the smartest young Jewish boys from New York’s East Side has produced, which is saying something, are offering a sportive and diverting concoction which they have named, appropriately enough,
‘The Laugh Factory’. Tracking and capturing laughs in this hard-hearted world is Herman Timberg’s specialty, and he’s more than efficient at it. For instance, it was his dependable sleuthing that unearthed the Four Marx Brothers, who lately starred in :The Cocoanuts (written by Herman Timberg) and supplied them with much of the comedy
material which brought them recognition, first in a Timberg production in vaudeville, later as…”
Here this part of the story ends because the page is ripped off.
The same article continues about two other famed comedians: Clark and McCullough and Herman’s contribution to their careers:
“They (Clark and McCullough) broke into vaudeville in a skit called, ‘The Bath Between’, conceived and written by Herman Timberg. It was considered by many to be one of the six funniest pieces of vaudeville writing extent…Many a passing show at the Winter Garden Theatre, New York, has been much the merrier for the contributions, in the way of skits, dialogues, gags, of Mr. Timberg. Many a vaudeville patrol will remember having laughed at “The Rebellion”, “The Schemers,” “Four Queens and a Joker,” “Chicken Chow Mein,: Timberg presentations of other years. Mr. Timberg says that he considers a good laugh the best gift this life has to offer.”
Finally, here’s a little story written by Georgie Price, famed vaudevillian himself, about meeting Herman and his mother.
Georgie is telling how he became a professional actor in an autobiography, possibly never published and found on the web. One day he tagged along after school with a friend named Alex, as he made stops delivering clothes for a tailor.
“Alex assured the tailor’s customers that they were in for a real treat, if they could get Georgie to sing and give him a nickel. This is where Georgie received his first break – at one of these nickel conerts in the home, Mother Timberg (Herman & Sammy’s mother)
“She was alone when I sang for her and she was so impressed that she called in her neighbors to hear me. ‘He’s got talent like my Herman’, she said. That was quite a compliment because Herman was her son and the star of Gus Edwards’ ‘School Days’ playing at the Circle Theater. Mother Timberg arranged for Gus Edwards to hear me. They were to celebrate Herman’s eighteenth birthday with a party at her home. Many celebrities had been invited, including Gus and Mrs. Edwards. Mother Timberg told me to come and to bring my Mother. When Pop heard we were going to a party, he wanted to go too and when Mom said no, he demanded to know, ‘What kind of party is it, that starts at midnight ’? We arrived at the party and after Mother Timberg introduced me to the guests: Enrico Caruso, who was also a good singer…Lillian Lorraine, appearing in ‘School Days’ and later to be the sweetheart of Florenze Ziegfeld and the featured girl of the Follies; Lillian Walker, the dimpled beauty, who became famous in the silent movies and Joe Keno and Rosie Green, the parents of Mitzi Green, who was also appearing in ‘School Days’… and after meeting many more, Herman took me across the room to meet Gus and Ms. Edwards saying, ‘Mr. Edwards, I want you to hear this little boy sing. I never heard him myself but Mamma has been raving about him’. I stood in the center of the room without accompaniment, I sang. What an audience. What a receptions. Caruso said, ‘The leetla boy is only sixa year olda and evena now, he singsa better as me’. I got hugs and kisses from the ladies and Mr. Edwards sat me on his lap. He asked me how I would like to sing with Mr. Caruso and himself? I said I would and I did.”