The Eddie Cantor Story is a 1953 American musical drama film directed by Alfred E. Green and starring Keefe Brasselle, Marilyn Erskine and Aline MacMahon. It is a biopic based on the life of Eddie Cantor featuring Brasselle as Cantor. It was produced and distributed by Warner Brothers. Cantor himself appeared briefly in the film in a cameo role.
Plot
Raised by his grandmother on New York's East Side, 13-year-old Eddie sings while another neighborhood kid, Rocky Kramer, and his gang pick pockets. Eddie is sent by Grandma Esther to a boys' camp, where he entertains the others with his songs and routines.
Ida Tobias, daughter of a local merchant, elopes with Eddie a few years later. Rocky is now a local politician and gets Eddie a job in a nightclub. Eddie tells the family he's the star performer there, but he's actually a singing waiter. But piano player Jimmy Durante helps land him a job in a California show.
A headline performer envious of Eddie's popularity pulls a prank, telling him Flo Ziegfeld wants him for the Follies show in New York. It turns out Ziegfeld has never heard of Eddie when he arrives at the theater, but an audition by Eddie is so good, Ziegfeld does indeed hire him.
Ida gives birth to several children while Eddie becomes a big success. She's upset that his family doesn't seem to come first, and matters are complicated when Eddie's fortune is lost in the 1929 stock-market crash. A heart attack slows Eddie, as well, but he prospers on the radio as his health improves, and soon he is happy at work and at home.
Cast
Keefe Brasselle as Eddie Cantor
Marilyn Erskine as Ida
Aline MacMahon as Grandma Esther
Gerald Mohr as Rocky
Arthur Franz as Harry Harris
Alex Gerry as David Tobias
Greta Granstedt as Rachel Tobias
Jackie Barnett as Jimmy Durante
Dick Monda as Eddie Cantor Eddie - aged 13
Marie Windsor as Cleo Abbott
Douglas Evans as Leo Raymond
Ann Doran as Lillian Edwards
Hal March as Gus Edwards
Susan Odin as Ida - age 11
Owen Pritchard as Harry Harris - as a Boy
Will Rogers Jr. as Will Rogers
William Forrest as Flo Ziegfeld
Nedrick Young as Jack
James Craven as Bert Glenville
Kathleen Case as Francey
Chick Chandler as Lesser
Kermit Maynard as Willie
James Flavin as Kelly - Policeman
Julie Newmar as Showgirl
Barbara Pepper as Patron
Eddie Cantor as Audience Member
Production
The film was announced in 1948 with a budget of $3 million.
