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The World's Daffiest Xylophonist!

"Paul", a seller of Broadway Playbills on eBay,
passed on this information regarding one of
Professor Lamberti's stage appearances;

April 11, 1943 playbill for the MICHAEL TODD production
"STAR AND GARTER" at the Music Box Theatre in New York.
The lavish production starred GYPSY ROSE LEE and BOBBY CLARK and featured PROF. LAMBERTI, JOE LYONS, GIL MASON, PAT HARRINGTON, GERALDINE HUDSON, GLORIA ANDERSON, GEORGIA SOTHERN, EPPY (Tiny) PEARSON, GLORIA GILBERT, FRANK PRICE, MARJORIE KNAPP and THE STAR AND GARTER GIRLS.

Features the song "Blues in the Night" with music by HAROLD ARLEN and lyrics by JOHNNY MERCER. The production was staged by MICHAEL TODD.

The bio for PROF. LAMBERTI reads ...

"Prof. Lamberti has been recorded by the bureau of vital statistics at Valparaiso, Indiana, under the name of Basil Lambert. Today "Prof. Lamberti" is such an obviously phony moniker that it's as important an ingredient in the act as the misfit evening clothes and the swiveling eyeballs. Last year the Prof. was the star of "Right This Way," the big circus floor show at Mr. Todd's Theatre Cafe."

Mr. Joel Cohen was kind enough to send the following Lamberti reference:
This is from a book on the Paradise Theater, in Chicago. The Paradise was one of the largest and most ornate neighborhood movie "palaces" in Chicago.

"Paradise Theatre Program Score Sheet Week of June 12, 1931.
Live stage show in 9 sections.
#8. Comedian. Lamberti comes on stage in a comic tuxedo, red underwear, etc. and puts on his comedy xylaphone (sic) act, after which he plays "Stars and Stripes Forever" and "Humoresque". 12 minutes."

For these appearances, Lamberti's act was part of a live stage show which was 45 minutes long. His performance was the longest part of the stage show, and in vaudeville tradition, had the next to closing spot, which is where the best acts performed. After the stage show, a movie was shown, and then the whole sequence started again.

(Please note...the information in italics is from the book on the Paradise...the other stuff in regular font is my addition.) Joel Cohen

Click HERE to see the Professor's listing on the Internet Movie Database!

Herald for a movie the Professor appeared in.

Could this Leedy-endorsing Vaudevillian be Basil Lambert? Billed in the Leedy catalogue under "Celebrated Artists" as; "LAMBERTI Orpheum and Keith Vaudeville." Click HERE for a partial Lamberti discography.