Ritz Brothers

The Ritz Brothers were hired for a New York-filmed short subject, Hotel Anchovy (1934), produced by Educational Pictures. This did well enough for the film's distributor, Twentieth Century-Fox, to sign the Ritzes as a specialty act for feature-length musicals. During this period they appeared in On the Avenue, a 1937 Irving Berlin musical. That same year Fox gave the Ritz Brothers their own starring series, beginning with Life Begins in College.

The brothers had a large following, and some fans compared them to the Marx Brothers, but the Ritzes did not play contrasting characters like the Marxes did; the boisterous Ritzes frequently behaved identically, making it harder for audiences to tell them apart. The ringleader was always rubber-faced, mouthy Harry, with Jimmy and Al enthusiastically following his lead. They frequently broke into songs and dances during their feature comedies, and often did celebrity impersonations (among them Ted Lewis, Peter Lorre, Tony Martin, even Alice Faye and Katharine Hepburn).

Their talent was also noted by Samuel Goldwyn, who borrowed them from Fox for his Technicolor variety show, The Goldwyn Follies, where they appeared with other headliners of the day including Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Perhaps their most successful film during this period was Fox's 1939 musical-comedy version of The Three Musketeers, co-starring Don Ameche. Later in 1939 the Ritzes staged a highly publicized walkout (complaining about the low quality of their latest script, The Gorilla). Fox responded by completing The Gorilla anyway, terminating the Ritzes' starring series, and casting them in a B picture: Pack Up Your Troubles starring Jane Withers. The Ritz Brothers left Fox for good in 1939.

The Ritz Brothers were also caricatured, along with several other then-popular Hollywood celebrities, in the 1939 Donald Duck short The Autograph Hound.

In 1940 they moved to Universal Pictures, where they were scheduled to star in The Boys from Syracuse but were removed from that production and reassigned to make brash B comedies with music. Their final film as a trio was Never a Dull Moment (1943). Al died in 1965. Harry and Jimmy worked occasionally in films in the 1970s, most prominently in the low-budget feature Blazing Stewardesses.

The Ritz Brothers continued to appear on stage and in nightclubs, and made guest appearances on network television in the 1950s. They soon became a top Las Vegas attraction. In 1958 Harry participated in a sketch-comedy LP, "Hilarity in Hollywood" (also known as "Hilarity in Hi-Fi").

The Ritzes were appearing at New Orleans Roosevelt Hotel in December 1965 when Al died of a sudden heart attack. Harry and Jimmy were devastated, as the trio had always been very close. The two surviving brothers continued the act, and appeared together in a couple of films. The last appearances of the Ritz Brothers as a team (minus Al) were in the mid-1970s films Blazing Stewardesses and Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood, a spoof of the old Rin Tin Tin and Lassie movies. In Blazing Stewardesses the Ritzes were cast as replacements for The Three Stooges, who dropped out of the film when Moe Howard's declining health forced the trio to cancel. (Contrary to many accounts, Moe was still alive when Blazing Stewardesses filmed in March 1975; he was simply too ill to work. Moe died in early May of that year; Blazing Stewardesses opened a month later in June 1975.) Harry and Jimmy made semi-regular appearances on the 1970 television revival of the comedy-themed game show, Can You Top This? and made a lively encore appearance on television, as guests on Dick Cavett's PBS talk show.

Harry's final months were plagued by Alzheimer's Disease; Jimmy Ritz died in 1985 shortly before Harry, but Harry's health was so delicate that he was never told of his brother's death. Harry died five months later.

The brothers were entombed in Hollywood Cemetery, now called the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.[3] They are entombed near each other in the Hall of David Mausoleum.

The influence of the Ritz Brothers was greater than their film career, in part because of their long career as nightclub entertainers. They influenced actors including Danny Kaye, Jerry Lewis, and Sid Caesar. In his 1976 film Silent Movie, Mel Brooks paid tribute to the Ritz Brothers by casting Harry in a cameo (he is the fellow leaving a tailor's shop).[4] It was the actor's last role.

In a 1976 Esquire article, Harry Stein makes the case that many top comedians were influenced by, and even borrowed bits from, Harry Ritz.[5] In an interview in Playboy magazine, George Carlin said Harry Ritz "invented the moves for a whole generation" of comedians.[6]

Other tributes to them include mentions in The Simpsons (episode "Mountain of Madness"), M*A*S*H (episode "Aid Station"), Soap (TV series) (episode 48), and the films Pretty Woman, Mr. Saturday Night and My Favorite Year: "On the funny side, there's the Marx Brothers, except Zeppo, the Ritz Brothers, no exceptions, both Laurel and Hardy, and Woody Woodpecker."

They received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1987, in response to a campaign led by comedians Jan Murray, Red Buttons, Milton Berle, and Phyllis Diller.[7] In 1996, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to them.[8]

They were the favorite musical clowns of the German-Jewish poet Else Lasker-Schüler, and they appear as characters in her last play, I and I (Ich und Ich).[9]

Norman Lear has said of Harry Ritz and the Ritz Brothers, "Harry Ritz was as funny as any human being, in or out of comedy, I have ever [met]... he was a jewel, in a glorious setting, and his brothers were the setting."[10]

• Maltin, Leonard (1985). Movie Comedy Teams. New American Library. ISBN 978-0-452-25694-1.

• Al Ritz at IMDb
• Harry Ritz at IMDb
• Jimmy Ritz at IMDb
• Mel Brooks Says This Is the Funniest Man On Earth Harry Stein's article from Esquire Magazine, June 1976.
• The Clipping File: The Ritz Brothers Richard Brody's article from The New Yorker, March 2012.