True Burlesque Buddy Hackett

True Burlesque Buddy Hackett.  For decades the funniest man in America, Buddy Hackett AKA Leonard Hacker didn't just drift into burlesque, he started in it.  Some sources say his first professional gigs weren't in the Catskills but with strippers on Coney Island.  He was working at age 16, and according to a performance on the Carson show, at some point he called himself Butch Hackett.   

I can't PROVE Buddy was the funniest comic ever, as much of his material was blue and doesn't appear on Youtube.  He was as filthy as Lenny Bruce, but harmless.  Lovable and lewd.  Buddy earned a Hollywood star, but he has never really received the acclaim he deserves.  He was successful enough to eventually purchase the mansion of murdered mobster and Gambino family head Albert Anastasia.    

This photograph, which ran in Titter Magazine in 1949, shows a young Mr. Hackett working a gag with a burlesque queen.  Neither are named or credited…so it is a pleasure to identify him and share.  It's Buddy all right, and he's killing them.

He could sing too!  Listen here as Buddy does Bikini!


Buddy Hackett and model Titter Magazine 1949 No photographer credit, models unnamed.

Books and Ebooks by Jim Linderman are HERE.