As a sequel to yesterday's video link, we have a clip of Sam Levine performing as The Banana Man. The video isn't very good and again, it's only a small piece of a much longer act…in this case, about five minutes. This is from a live broadcast of Babes in Toyland that NBC did in 1954. Somehow, they worked him into a plot that had nothing to do with a guy coming out and pulling bananas from his pants.
The main thing to notice here is the odd sound of The Banana Man as Levine successfully imitates the lilting voice of A. Robins before him. Several of you have written since yesterday's clip to ask if it could be true that Curly Howard of the Three Stooges got his not-dissimilar stage voice by imitating A. Robins. Beats me. But it's highly probable that when the Stooges worked in vaudeville with Ted Healy, they shared a bill with A. Robins at some point…so make of that what you will.
One of these days, someone's going to turn up a good, clear video of The Banana Man doing his entire act. For now, we have to settle for blurry, abbreviated footage like this…
