Dave Barry

"For nearly a decade in Vegas, Dave Barry provided opening act laughs for legendary "Midnight Idol" Wayne Newton working in the early 1970's at all of the Howard Hughes owned hotels including The Sands, The Desert Inn and The Frontier. He was also a founding member of the Friars Club in Beverly Hills, and for decades roasted longtime showbiz pals like Phyllis Diller, George Jessel, Phil Silvers, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Milton Berle.

The show was a smash, and when "Hello America" closed at the Crystal Room in March of 1967, it had entertained over a million people. "I'm the kind of comic who fits here," he told The New York Times about his decades in Vegas. "My jokes are short and punchy. I give the audience no time to think. They've been saturated with free drinks in the casino - to give them cerebral comedy would be deadly. I think the people from Keokuk Iowa want to hear something they don't hear there - something a little risqué, a little salty, but not too much.

In 1966 Barry also made a brief cameo appearance with the legendary Elvis Presley as his manager Harry in the movie Spinout (1966).

In 1966 Barry became the comedy headliner for the Desert Inn's lavish musical revue "Hello America. " Highlights of the Donn Arden produced Vegas show included the sinking of the Titanic, a recreation of the San Francisco earthquake, and a mid-air butterfly ballet. One of the newly hired showgirls was a young unknown actress by the name of Goldie Hawn, who was apparently fired by producer Arden after only three weeks on the show.

Dave Barry opened for Judy Garland for a two week engagement from Nov 30-Dec 13, 1965 at the Sahara Las Vegas. Garland received standing ovations, many of the shows attended by celebs like Lee Marvin and Buddy Hackett. Barry at the time was quoted saying "It's a real status symbol (to play Vegas). In fact Judy likes it so much that she signed a new contract for next year - NO shows!".

He was also heard in Roger Corman film "The Raven (1963)," making sounds for the title character and dubbing voices for Peter Lorre and Vincent Price.

Barry also began to get some serious roles for a variety of TV series - playing a gangster kingpin on death row in 87th Precinct (1961), a bookie in a barbershop Going My Way (1962), or as a jewel thief in M Squad (1957).

But Dave Barry's most iconic movie role landed by happenstance in 1959 with Billy Wilder's hilarious romp Some Like It Hot (1959) where he played the bespectacled "Bienstock," the manager of the all-girl band with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon. It was this role that marked the pinnacle of all his work in a movie widely called one of the funniest comedies of all time,"What is this part?" Barry asked his agent, trying out initially for a minor part in the film. "It will be four days in a great movie," the agent promised. However at the audition, director Billy Wilder watched Barry's performance and took a moment, then looked at writer I. A. L. Diamond and announced, "Its Bienstock!" Diamond agreed, "Bienstock!" Barry looked at his agent and quizzically asked, "What the hell is a Bienstock?""Dave that's four paid weeks in the movie!" his agent explained.

He also voiced Elmer Fuddstone in Pre-Hysterical Hare (1958), standing in for Arthur Q. Bryan when he was taken ill and was not able to voice him.

Barry morphed into his hilarious role of the pianist Señor Palumbo in the popular Bowery Boys High Society (1955). For this more physically comedic role, Barry played a cross-eyed candelabra impression of Liberace, which he had been using to great effect as a stage gag.

Other movies followed, including Playgirl (1954) with Shelley Winters where Barry played the sneezing Photographer Jonathan Hughes.

Barry also did a series of distinctive radio announcer voices for the famous "Marilyn Monroe Is Getting Married" radio episode on the Edgar Bergen show, aired October 26th 1952 with Marilyn Monroe and Bergen's ventriloquist dummy Charlie McCarthy.

He appeared in 1952 with Eddie Cantor in a Colgate Comedy Hour Maxie The Taxi sketch with the immensely popular Eddie Cantor at the time.

In the 1950s he performed his impressions and fast-paced gags at the El Cortez and newly opened Flamingo opened by the infamous mobster Bugsy Siegel (no relation to Barry). While at The Flamingo, Barry performed comedy opening for soprano Tony Martin and Rose Marie. Dave Barry also appeared regularly in comedy clubs across the USA: Chicago (Chez Paree), San Francisco (Bimbo 365), New York (The Paramount), Austin TX (The Paramount), Florida (The Americana) and Los Angeles (Billy Grays Band Box. The Moulin Rouge, The Chi Chi, Cocoanut Grove and Ciros). Nightclub work in these glamorous cigarette smoke-filled showrooms paired Barry with top names of the period including Sammy Davis Jr. , Judy Garland, Della Reese, Frank Sinatra, Liberace, The Four Step Brothers and Tommy Dorsey.

In the early 1950's Barry pivoted from stage and radio to the new medium of television and garnered appearances during TV's golden age including The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950), The Jackie Gleason Show (1952), Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall (1948) and appearing eight separate times on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) - including the third highly anticipated USA appearance by The Beatles in February 1964 in a prerecorded segment.

From there he appeared as himself in numerous shows including "All Star Revue (1950)," and "The Jackie Gleason Show (1952). "As Dave Barry's reputation and confidence grew, he was offered film roles. His first cameo role was as the smartly dressed but oddly voiced interior decorator "Mr.

In June 1949 Barry was flown in for a one month engagement at the London Palladium paired with The Marx Brothers (Harpo Marx and Chico Marx). Voice-over work, inevitably, came second to his growing vocation as a busy Vegas comedian and entertainer.

Ripple" in Marilyn Monroe's third feature film, Ladies of the Chorus (1948) using his distinctive gurgle voice that he was using on Durante's radio show.

Jimmy Durante became Barry's mentor, bringing him under his wings for his 1947-1948 radio broadcasts, with Barry regularly appearing in cameos doing gags and sounds, and as "Mr Ripple," the Commissioner of Waterways. On some episodes, his six year old son Alan Barry would chime in as his youthful cherub "Trickle.

For Looney Tunes, Dave Barry became best known for numerous appearances of Humphrey Bogart and other classic celebrities in cartoons such as "Bacall to Arms (1946)," "8 Ball Bunny (1950)" and the star studded "Hollywood Steps Out (1941). " He also voiced many nameless background characters.

In 1945 he came to Hollywood landing a spot at Billy Gray's Band Box, a popular comedy club and dinner bistro on Fairfax Blvd. His drawl humor and smart impersonations scored immediately with the Band Box crowd, and Barry was held over for months. It was here that his work attracted the attention of local radio and film execs, bringing the lad plenty of radio appearances and finally a permanent berth on the Jimmy Durante radio show.

Stand-up stage work in Las Vegas started around 1945, just as the dessert town became a magnet for top entertainment. Starting at the newly opened El Rancho and Dessert Inn Hotels, Barry became a fixture in Vegas for over 4 decades. In these early Vegas days before the strip (with junket buses bringing in gamblers from nearby Los Angeles), Barry performed in luxurious showrooms with singers Marilyn Maxwell, Sunny Skylar, Betty Grable, Ethel Smith, Frank Sinatra, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Peggy Lee, Lena Horne, Nat 'King' Cole, Liberace and Jane Powell. During his many years in Vegas he played at nearly every resort including The Dunes, The Stardust, and what was known as The Last Frontier.

Barry built up a reputation as a dependable stand-up comedian and impersonator, entertaining troops during his military service in World War II while serving at Camp Roberts CA where he became an army sergeant in 1944. He performed on radio (Command Performance) and while attached to the army's Special Services Unit he spent his short stint in the war doing what he did best - entertaining servicemen and women at home & overseas with luminaries such as Red Skelton, Eddie Cantor, Mary Pickford, Jimmy Durante, The Mills Brothers, Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope.

Barry got the Miami job starting with the patriotic Seein' Red, White 'n' Blue (1943).

During a 1942 Miami stand-up performance, he was doing his stand-up act at a hotel when a man from the audience (who worked for the Miami based Famous Studios) approached him at the bar after the show. He said they needed a deeply baritone voice for Popeye's arch nemesis Bluto in a series of Popeye features.

Barry provided the swaggering voice for Bluto between 1942 and 1944. Barry's work in cartoons grew as animation gained popularity, voicing more than 50 credited (and mostly uncredited) features. His most sought-after skill was uncannily impersonating celebrities of the period including Groucho Marx, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, James Cagney and Clark Gable, which he did with gusto in countless Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons.

The young comedic talent (known initially as Dave Siegel and then changing to Dave Barry in the early 1940's) was the son of a furniture store owner in Brooklyn, calling himself a "sign painter" when he made his debut in 1935 on the radio talent show "Major Edward Bowes and the Original Amateur Hour. " Bowes radio show encouraged listeners to vote for favorite acts either by calling the station in New York or sending in a postcard. The act that gained the most votes won the opportunity to go on a road tour with one of Major Bowes' touring "units," making $50 weekly plus meals. Barry was a big hit with listeners, winning several contests and Major Bowes signed him to a contract for live shows. Barry cut his comedic chops touring with a Major Bowes touring unit for nearly six years, handling emcee chores and was featured in a nightly comedy slot. Stints and constant work followed during which he toured nationwide on vaudeville variety shows with Glen Gray, Jimmy Dorsey, and Charlie Barnet.

The two married while touring in 1940, garnering a standing rousing ovation from their fellow performers during a ceremony in between shows.

" Guest stars on Durante's popular show included Bob Hope, Van Johnson, Rose Marie, and Frank Morgan - the well known Wizard in The Wizard of Oz (1939). Since Barry excelled at mimicry and mastered an endless stream of accents/dialects and offbeat sounds. When Barry moved to Hollywood, he sought out more cartoon voice work with Columbia, Warner Brothers, Disney, Republic Pictures, and Screen Gems.

Dave Barry was a trail blazing stand-up comedian who began his comedy, acting and voice-over career at the age of 17. He played his first professional gig at New York's old Palace Theater in April of 1935.

It was around this time in September 1935 when a guy group from Hoboken calling themselves "The 3 Flashes" also auditioned for the Major Bowes Amateur Hour, with an unknown singer by the name of Frank Sinatra. After winning the contest, Sinatra and his band also began touring with Major Bowes and other cast members, doing 35 shows a week in 39 states. Dave Barry was given a headline spot in unit #1, opening in Houston Texas and learning the showbiz ropes surrounded by many future luminaries. It was on the road that he met a beautiful singer named Ginny Wayne (Ginger Seiden), who was also working the same unit.

He became sought after as an animation voice actor in the mid 1930's at the age of just 18, hired by the legendary Warner Bothers (Merrie Melodies) mogul Leon Schlesinger with the Hollywood themed The CooCoo Nut Grove (1936) where he voiced actor Ned Sparks, Porky's Road Race (1937) and then a year later with Disney with the celebrity filled Mother Goose Goes Hollywood (1938). Barry partnered with many of the most creative minds of early animation, and animated voice work (especially celebrities) became a lucrative side gig supplementing his comedy résumé and income.