Vaudeville

Vaudeville killed Armond Fields' grandfather. Of that, the poor man's wife was certain. If Max Fields had remained a tailor, he might have lived. But his younger brother, Lew, one of America's most famous stage comedians before the talkies came in, persuaded Max to give up the shmattas and go on the road.

A documentary about a legendarily filthy joke, "The Aristocrats" consists of 87 minutes of riffing, joke analysis and reminiscences by a hundred or so well-known comedians, plus dozens of versions of the joke itself.

Jackie Paris, 79, a jazz vocalist for seven decades who toured with Charlie Parker and other luminaries but never achieved great fame, died Thursday in New York City of complications from bone cancer. Born Carlo Jackie Paris in Nutley, N.J., he began his show business career in vaudeville as a child. In the late 1940s, after spending two years in the Army at the end of World War II, he worked as a singer and guitarist in the jazz clubs of 52nd Street.

Sylvia Froos, 89, a child star of radio and vaudeville who appeared with Shirley Temple in the film "Stand Up and Cheer," died March 28 in her native New York City of a stroke. First billed as Baby Sylvia and later as the Little Princess of Song, Froos began her career at 7 when her mother signed her up for Kid's Cabaret, a children's vaudeville troupe. Too young to appear in their first booking in Baltimore, however, she began singing solo at New York's Palace Theater.

Irving Foy, the youngest and last survivor of the famed "Seven Little Foys" vaudeville act, has died. He was 94. Foy fell March 31 and broke his collarbone. He died April 20 at an assisted living center in Albuquerque. Foy joined his parents, brothers and sisters in the act "Eddie Foy Sr. and the Seven Little Foys," which crisscrossed the country from 1912 to 1928. His father had been a famous solo entertainer for years before bringing his family into the act.

Fritzi Burr, 78, veteran vaudeville comedian and actress of stage, television and film remembered as the formidable secretary trying to bar Jack Nicholson's access to officials in the movie "Chinatown," died Friday in Fort Myers, Fla., of unspecified causes. Born in Philadelphia, Burr performed in little theater and in skits with the vaudeville comedy team of Smith and Dale.

These days, it's just not enough for a nightclub to hire a DJ, play a few records and sell some drinks. Oh, no. That's far too one-dimensional for the sophisticated sensibilities of L.A.'s cutting-edge club-crawlers. Our attention spans demand more. We need a hook, a draw. Enter Luxe, L.A.'s latest "hybrid nightclub."

Like errant tankers and small planes drawn inexorably into the Bermuda Triangle, the famous, the lovely and the powerful still feel the centrifugal pull at the intersection of Beverly and Doheny, home of the original Chasen's restaurant. L.A.'s ultimate celebrity watering hole is today a Bristol Farms market in West Hollywood, but the old glamour lives on in the Bristol Cafe, a small eatery between the deli and the sushi bar where customers can slide into an original Chasen's booth and order the famous Chasen's chili, a household word since 1962, when Elizabeth Taylor had 10 quarts shipped to Rome during the filming of "Cleopatra."