Ritz Brothers

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A publicity still from the 1938 feature Straight, Place and Show. The brothers, from left to right, are Jimmy, Harry (who was typically in the middle of group shots), and Al. Not pictured is fourth brother George, their manager.

The Ritz Brothers were a comedy team who appeared in 1930s films, and as live performers from 1925 to the late 1960s. Brothers in reality, their last name was originally Joachim.

Although there were four brothers, only three of them performed together. The fourth brother, George, acted as their manager. The performers were:

Al Ritz, (August 27, 1901 - December 22, 1965)
Jimmy Ritz, (October 4, 1904 - November 17, 1985)
Harry Ritz, (May 22, 1907 - March 29, 1986)

The brothers began using the name "Ritz" for their nightclub act after Al saw the name on the side of a laundry truck.

Seasoned vaudevillians, the Ritzes emphasized precision dancing in their act, and added comedy material as they went along. By 1934 they were stage headliners, and were hired for a New York-filmed short subject, Hotel Anchovy (1934). This did well enough for the film's distributor, Twentieth Century-Fox, to sign the Ritzes as a specialty act for feature-length musicals. Their best film from this period is probably On the Avenue, a 1937 Irving Berlin musical. That same year Fox gave the Ritz Brothers their own starring series, beginning with Life Begins in College.

Their talent was also noted by Samuel Goldwyn, who borrowed them from Fox for his Technicolor variety show, The Goldwyn Follies (1938), wherein they appeared with other headliners of the day including Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Perhaps their most successful film during this period was a musical-comedy version of The Three Musketeers (1939), co-starring Don Ameche. In late 1939 the Ritzes staged a highly publicized walkout (complaining about the low quality of their last Fox script, The Gorilla) culminating in the termination of their Fox contract.

They were also caricatured, along with several other then-popular Hollywood celebrities, in the 1939 Donald Duck short, The Autograph Hound.

The brothers had a large following, and some fans compare them to the Marx Brothers. But the Ritzes didn't play contrasting characters like the Marxes did; the boisterous Ritzes all behaved identically, and sometimes it was hard for audiences to tell them apart. The ringleader was always rubber-faced, mouthy Harry, with Jimmy and Al enthusiastically following his lead. They frequently broke into songs and dances during their feature comedies.

In 1940, they moved to Universal Studios where they were scheduled to star in The Boys from Syracuse, but were removed from that production and reassigned to make brash B comedies with music. Their final film together was Never a Dull Moment (1943), although they continued to appear on stage. They soon became a top Las Vegas attraction. After Al's death, Harry and Jimmy appeared together in a couple of films. Harry's final months were plagued by Alzheimer's Disease. The brothers were buried in Hollywood Cemetery, now called the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Enduring tributes to them include a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and mentions in the films My Favorite Year and Mr. Saturday Night.

The influence of the Ritz Brothers was greater than their film career, in part because of their long career as nightclub entertainers. They influenced actors including Danny Kaye, Jerry Lewis, and Sid Caesar. In his 1976 film Silent Movie, Mel Brooks paid tribute to the Ritz Brothers by casting Harry in a cameo (he's the nutty fellow leaving a tailor's shop). It was the actor's last role.

An article in Esquire Magazine by Harry Stein (June 1976), "Mel Brooks Says This [Harry Ritz] is the Funniest Man in the World", makes a strong case that many top comedians were influenced by, and even borrowed bits from, Harry Ritz.

The last appearance of the Ritz Brothers as a group (sans Al) was the mid-1970s film Blazing Stewardesses. The Ritzes were cast as replacements for The Three Stooges who dropped out of the film following the death of Moe Howard.