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Harry Steppe
Promotional image of Harry, dressed as a sailor and snacking on bananas
Born	March 16, 1888
Died	November 22, 1934 New York, NY
Occupation	Actor, Comedian
Years active	1911 – 1934
Spouse(s)	Beatrice (1918) Victoria Dayton (1920-1922)(separated)

Promotional image for Harry Steppe and His Big Show - note the oversized clown shoes

Harry Steppe (born Abraham Stepner, March 16, 1888^[1] – November 22, 1934^[2] was a Jewish^[3][4]-American actor^[5], musical comedy performer^[6], headliner comedian^[7][8], writer^[9], director and producer ^[10], who toured North America working in Vaudeville^[11] and Burlesque^[7][12]. Steppe performed at several well-known theaters on the Orpheum Circuit^[13]. As one of Bud Abbott's first partners^{[9][14][15][16]}, Harry introduced Bud to Lou Costello in 1934.

Early Life

Born in Russia to Orthodox Jewish parents, Steppe emigrated from Moscow to the United States through Ellis Island with his family in 1892^[17]. Steppe became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1899.^[18] His brother Michael was a vocalist.^[18]

Steppe lived in Newark, New Jersey^[1] and in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.^[10][19][20] At the age of 29, Steppe claimed an exemption from the draft for World War I on the grounds that he supported his widowed mother.^[1]

Relationships

Steppe married twice. His first wife Beatrice, an actress in "Razzle Dazzle of 1918," died at the age of 25 from the Spanish flu, the same year they were married. Other paramours of Harry Steppe included Vaudeville performers Victoria "Vic" Dayton, whom he married in 1920^[21][22], Edna Raymond and Leona St. Clair. Steppe was often billed with actress Lola Pierce^[23], to whom he was also reportedly linked romantically.

Career

Known to theater patrons as "The Hebrew Gent,"^[24] Steppe was billed as a Hebrew^[25][26], Jewish-dialect or Yiddish-dialect^[15] character comedian. One of Steppe's alter egos Ignatz Cohen^[19] became a recurring and popular character based on an ethnic Jewish stereotype. Many of Steppe's variety shows featured musical revues with dancing girls and comedy sketches. Steppe's "Girls from the Follies" featured "eight cycling models with thrilling stunts on wheels," operatic songs, ballroom dancing and chorus girls.^[8]

Phil Silvers^[27] and others^[28] credited Steppe with "introducing the phrase "top banana" into show business jargon in 1927 as a synonym for the top comic on the bill. It rose out of a routine, full of doubletalk, in which three comics tried to share two bananas." Silvers further popularized the term "Top Banana" in his 1951 Broadway musical and 1954 film of the same name. Steppe also claimed to have coined the phrase "Second Banana."

Steppe's sketches were performed by such well-known comedians as Phil Silvers, The Three Stooges^[29], and Abbott and Costello^[9][14]. Although Steppe had penned the "Pokomoko" (aka Niagara Falls) Routine ("Slowly I Turned, step by step, inch by inch...")" and performed it with The Three Stooges, other writers, including fellow Vaudevillians Joey Faye and Samuel Goldman each laid claim to the skit, too. "Lifting" routines from another performer was standard operating procedure^[9] in the early-to-mid 20th century, and the famed routine was performed, without originator credit, by...

• The Three Stooges in the movie Gents Without Cents (1944)
• Abbott and Costello in the movie Lost in a Harem (1944)
• Lucille Ball in the TV show I Love Lucy (1951), Season #1, Episode #19 ("The Ballet")
• Abbott and Costello on TV in The Abbott and Costello Show (1952-1953)

Agents and Management

Harry Steppe was represented by several theatrical agencies during his career, including Cain & Davenport^[30] and Chamberlain and Lyman Brown. Steppe also secured theater bookings through the support of entertainment circuits, or "wheels," like the Columbia Amusement Company (so-called "clean" burlesque)^[31] and the Mutual Burlesque Association^[32][13]. Steppe worked under well-known burlesque producer I.H. Herk while employed by the Gayety Theater in Chicago, Illinois.^[1][31].

Death

When Steppe became gravely ill and unable to work, his friends in show business staged a fundraiser on his behalf^[3], however Steppe died in poverty.

Pulmonary edema contributed to Steppe's death, according to his death certificate. He was at Bellevue Hospital in New York, New York for two days and had been ill for a month^[33], according to a story in Variety magazine, Nov. 27, 1934. He is buried in New Jersey.

Stage Productions

References

Sources

• "Really The Blues," by Mezz Mezzrow and Bernard Wolfe, Citadel Press (Trade Paper), 1990, pg.27. ISBN 0-8065-1205-9. Excerpt: "You could see most of the celebrities of the day, colored and white, hanging around the De Luxe. Bill Robinson, the burlesque comedian Harry Steppe, comedian Benny Davis, Joe Frisco, Al Jolson, Sophie Tucker, Blossom Seeley, a lot of Ziegfeld Follies actors..."
• American song: the complete musical theatre companion‎, by Ken Bloom, 1985, Page 130

External links

• "The Prime Minister of Mirth" A publicity photo of Harry Steppe on the front page of short-lived Montreal tabloid, The Axe, in 1924.
• Bananas in Entertainment, cites Harry as originator of "Top Banana." Citation derived from newspapers and playbills in the Harvard Theater Collection.