Tubby boots

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Charles "Tubby" Boots (born around 1926 in Baltimore , Maryland ; † August 1, 1993 ibid) was an American comedian who was particularly noticeable because of his body and weight of around 170 kilograms and who appeared as a comedian in night clubs. During this time he worked with Woody Woodbury and his mentor Lord Buckley , among others , and released various records.

life and career

Charles Boots was born in Baltimore, the largest city in the US state of Maryland, around 1926 as the son of a vaudeville dance couple who performed under the name Boots and Barton . At the age of seven, Boots weighed 200 pounds (around 90 kilograms), making him a constantly bullied and mocked child during his school days in Baltimore. He began his career as a comedian during his childhood after seeing a performance by Lord Buckley . Shortly before Tubby Boot's death, the latter mentioned that Lord Buckley would have been like a father to him when he first saw him in the now listed Hippodrome Theater in Baltimore. Boots was seven years old at the time and was already working at the Hippodrome Theater while he was still in school. One of his other idols was Jack E. Leonard , through whom he was encouraged to put on weight, too, in order to become as popular as Leonard. In addition to his school career, he spent most of his free time in the hippodrome before he skipped school altogether. Lord Buckley and his parents introduced him to show business , and from the age of eleven he appeared in nightclubs for the first time. At the time, he weighed around 250 pounds (around 113 kilograms) and was posing as a 21-year-old. During this time he was arrested by the police in a strip club, but not locked up due to his age, but received the warning that he should never perform again in Baltimore, as he was already too notorious. According to an interview with Tubby Boots, the police put him on a train and asked where he would like to go. Boots decided in favor of New York and left his hometown at a young age, always asserting himself that he had not run away from home, but had been forced to leave the city. When he got to New York, he called Lord Buckley and sobbed into the phone that his mother had been killed in a traffic accident and that his father was in the car with her. What Boots didn't know at the time, however, was that Buckley called his mother and told her that he was now on his way.

Buckley subsequently got him a job at the Three Deuces , a jazz club on 52nd Street , and passed him off again as a 21-year-old. The Three Deuces was one of Manhattan's great jazz temples of the 1930s and 1940s, where greats like Dizzy Gillespie or Charlie Parker performed regularly . Gillespie and Parker had their first combo here in 1944 and 1945. In the course of his career, Lord Buckley was constantly connected to the world of jazz and appeared regularly in jazz clubs and regularly included the colloquial language of the black hipsters in his programs . Thus he also introduced Tubby Boots to the world of jazz, which subsequently got a job as emcee at burlesque shows and often also at traveling carnival shows. In the course of time he received an offer from Lord Buckley, who was now back in Hollywood , to work on a film production. After coming to California , Boots found no film production and continued to appear as a comedian. During this time he received the affectionately used nickname Princess Lily from Lord Buckley , although he considered Prince Charles of Booth as his title. In 1959 a bizarre accident destroyed the friendship between Tubby Boots and Lord Buckley, who both lived together at the time. Boots took a bath in this accident, with the controls for the cold and hot water in a different room. Lord Buckley operated this control and mistakenly turned on hot water, scalding Boots so badly that he had to spend a week in the hospital. After recovering, Tubby Boots continued his successful career in Miami Beach . Here he performed mainly in motel lounges for several years and released some comedy albums that had become fashionable during this time . One of his first works was Thin My Be "In", but Fat's where it's "At" . The albums were mainly sold at his shows, which was said to have no copies that were not signed by Tubby Boots. In his heyday, Boots also appeared on the Tonight Show with Jack Paar and on Broadway alongside Phil Silvers .

But especially his time in Miami Beach, where he performed at the luxurious and famous Fontainebleau and where he spent much of his time between the early 1960s and the late 1970s, is seen as his heyday. In addition, he not only appeared in clubs in Miami Beach and New York City, but was also often represented in the Bahamas , Las Vegas or the Catskills . He had one of his longest programs in the now defunct The Dunes in Las Vegas, where the Bellagio Hotel now stands, where he stayed for 16 years. Even in the 1980s Boots appeared regularly in comedy clubs, including supper clubs on Long Island , although he did not have a hard time with the suddenly increasing number of comedy clubs and always found engagements. In the 1970s he also traveled across the country, including in Atlanta , Georgia , where he performed in December 1974 in The Cove nightclub, which was demolished in the late 1990s . On August 1, 1993, Tubby Boots, who was extremely overweight, bleached blonde hair and often appeared without outer clothing, died in his hometown of Baltimore, with numerous newspapers reporting that he was 59 years old at the time of his death, which corresponds to a year of birth around 1934 would. When he appeared without outer clothing, he mostly wore pasties that he could swirl around in different directions at the same time. He performed publicly in clubs until shortly before his death. He was also seen at State Fairs , Traveling Road Shows , cruise ships , race tracks and on Coney Island throughout his life .

Web links

Footnotes & individual references

  1. ↑ a b According to other sources, he was 59 years old when he died, which means he should have been born around 1934
  2. ↑ Notice of death in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune of August 3, 1993 (English), accessed on August 29, 2016
  3. ↑ Death notice in the Orlando Sentinel of August 3, 1993 (English), accessed August 29, 2016
  4. ^ They come for the laughs Comedy clubs delight audiences looking for something different , accessed on August 29, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Boots, Tubby
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Boots, Charles (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American comedian
DATE OF BIRTH around 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Baltimore , Maryland, United States
DATE OF DEATH August 1, 1993
Place of death Baltimore , Maryland, United States