Eddie Cantor was one of the most popular entertainers in the first half of 20th century. Cantor originally played in vaudeville and became one of the lead stars of The Ziegfield Follies from 1917 to 1927. His performances built a bridge between the vaudeville days and the growing development of radio and television variety shows. The Internet Archive’s 78rpm collection offers a entertaining group of single recordings and radio transcriptions by the irrepressible Cantor.

The 78rpm recordings varies from very scratchy (1923’s “He Loves It”) to amazingly good (”Ain’t She Sweet”). There’s a lot of old standards of which Cantor gives his unique renditions. The classic tracks include “If You Knew Susie”, “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” and Cantor’s trademark “Ma, He’s Making Eyes At Me”.

But the real treats are two half hour transcriptions of Cantor’s radio show called “It’s Time To Smile”. One features Jack Benny and it is a riot. Benny, in my humble opinion, was the greatest comedian of radio’s golden era. He is often called the father of modern stand-up comedy. He was a master in getting maximum laughs out of the minimum of words and only Benny could get a big laugh out of a moment of silence. Cantor manages to keep up with the comedian’s perfect timing. The show also features a very young Dinah Shore. The other radio session has Al Jolson as a special guest. Also included is a very funny public service announcement with Cantor, Benny, Shore, and Burns & Allen extolling the virtues of gas rationing during World War II.

You can download these tracks separately or in a full album zip. The format is MP3 but the bitrates varies per track from 32kbps to 160kbps. These are delightful glimpses of entertainment from the golden age of radio.

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