The Great Jewish Entertainers: Bert Parks - "There She is...Miss America"

We were vacationing in Atlantic City, New Jersey a couple of weeks ago, and couldn't help noticing a bronze statue at the entrance to the Sheraton Convention Center Hotel. The statue, on a pedestal, showed a man in a tuxedo holding an outstretched crown. 

Of course, it could only be Bert Parks, who was synonymous with Atlantic City for 24 years when he hosted the annual Miss America Pageant each September.

Parks was born Bertram Jacobson in Atlanta, Georgia in 1914 to Aaron Jacobson, a Jewish merchant who had immigrated to the United States in 1900 from Latvia and his wife Hattie (Spiegel) Jacobson, the daughter of immigrants from Austria-Hungary.

Bess Myerson was the first and only Jewish-American and the first Miss New York to win the Miss America Pageant as Miss America 1945. This year the 97th Miss America Competition will return to Atlantic City's historic Boardwalk Hall on Sunday, September 10 from 9:00 PM - 11:00 PM on the ABC Television Network. 

Parks, who died in 1992, hosted his last Miss America Pageant in 1979. He was fired and replaced by a succession of 17 other hosts because the pageant organizers wanted to appeal to a younger audience. But he will always be associated with the pageant and remembered for his song There She is, Miss America, that he sang each year as the newly crowned beauty queen walked down the runway. Here is a video from the 1977 pageant to bring back memories of his performances.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO IS NOT VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Mal Z. Lawrence on Atlantic City, Florida, and the Catskills

Mal Z. Lawrence probably holds the record for most stand-up comedy routines performed in Catskills hotels. When the hotels started to disappear, Mal simply moved his shtick to the casino hotels of Atlantic City and the playhouses of Century Village and other residential communities in Florida.

And as old as the jokes are, and no matter how many times the audiences heard them, they still laugh their heads off when Mal strides onto the stage and starts his delivery.

We featured Mal back in 2010 doing a few minutes of his routine on a stage in Florida and in a 2013 performance in Los Angeles. We think it's time to bring him back in a longer version of his act for our readers who have been asking for more of him and for our newer and younger readers who are not familiar with his humor. This video is a 25 minute performance on stage in Atlantic City. 

The secret of Mal's popularity is his uncanny sense of timing, irony, and exaggeration. The subjects covered in this routine include hotels and buses in Atlantic City, and the bountiful food of the Catskill hotels.

Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)


 
#Throwback Thursday #TBT