Eddie Cantor in "Strike Me Pink"  Part One

In the January 1936 Musical Comedy, actor Eddie Cantor as Eddie Pink is joined by Ethel Merman who plays Joyce Lennox. Cantor does his own miraculous and death-defying stunts. The film was directed by Norman Taurog and produced by Samuel Goldwyn who had an especially good eye for discovering talent.  The movie, distributed by United Artists was shot in Long Beach, California at a park called, "The Pike." 

Cantor first appeared publicly in Vaudeville at New York's Clinton Music Hall in 1907. Ten years later he joined as a member of the Ziegfield Follies. With the advent of film, he acted in six movies for Goldwyn over seven years. Busy comic. "Pink" was the sixth and final appearance for him in Samuel Goldwyn Productions. This film was based on a novel and Saturday Evening Post story series, Dreamland, by Clarence Budington. Dreamland appeared on stage in 1933. Upon the release of the movie, a review in The Spectator, a popular magazine of the time, urged viewers to go to the theater to see this film as "one will have to wait a very long time for any film funnier that this one."

In the movie, Eddie, mild mannered and nervous, works at a college laundry, washing clothes, shining shoes and ironing trousers. He is bullied by a number of college boys except for one who takes him under his wing. He studies a book to become more assertive.

Eventually, Eddie finds himself inolved with cut throat, slot-machine swindlers. He gets himself into all kinds of trouble, including running from the hoodlums through the large crowd of park attendees and over and under a roller coaster. He finally is chased into a tethered hot-air balloon where he takes refuge. The orb is operated by a gentleman who oversees those who would like to ascend to see the sights. When Eddie scrambles in for safety, the ballon becomes untethered: 

 

And up and up and up it floats, higher and higher! 

 

Now what??? 

  

The gangsters, who stole uniforms right off the cops as it turns out, 

are waitng way down below to get their hands on Eddie!  

With a tilt of the balloon, Eddie finds himself on the outside of the thing, 

evenually dangling from the legs of the operator... 

 

 ....whose pants began to slip down and down. 

 

 

 Eddie slips from the suspendered pants and plummets to the ground, somehow landing on a trapese bar! 

He unwittingly becomes an integral part of the show. 

 

The trapese artists incorporate Eddie seemlessly into their act. In doing so, 

Eddie's coat is pulled off by the "flying" men in one of the exchanges.

 

Then they grab his legs but then Eddie is unceremonously stripped of his pants! 

The trapese men let go of this arms and legs....

 

Eddie and the crowd below are surprised to see him balancing high up on the support bar reduced to just his shirt and union suit...

 

 He soon loses his balance, falling back down, but thankfully he's caught by his escape hatch at the rear of his long underwear just as his shirt is pulled off his arms! 

 

Back and forth Eddie swings by the seat of his union suit...

 

...until, predictably, his flap gives way, plummeting him to the trampoline down below where he is quickly sought by the police. 

Will they get their hands on their "underwear fugitive?"  Is he hand cuffed and led away in his union suit? To find out watch for the continuation of Eddie Pink's exploits next week.

A special thanks to Samuel Goldwyn Productions and United Artists for making this most interesting and entertaining filme for us to enjoy ninety years later!  Streaming on several services.