जीवनी

Taking his show on a national tour, he was preparing to open one night at a theater in Minneapolis, in which every seat had been sold. Shortly before the show was to begin that night, a terrific snowstorm hit Minneapolis, effectively shutting the city down, and of the hundreds of people who had bought tickets to see the show, only seven managed to make it to the theater. When the management wanted to cancel the show and refund the patrons' money, Cantor refused, saying, "These people have paid their money to come and see me, and that's what they're going to get". So he put on the full show--elaborate musical numbers, sketches, dancing girls, comics, etc.--for an audience of just seven people.

He invented the name "March of Dimes" for the donation campaigns of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (polio), a play on the "March of Time" newsreels. He began the first campaign on his own radio show in January 1938, asking people to mail a dime to the nation's most famous polio victim, President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Other entertainers joined in the appeal via their own shows, and the White House mail room was deluged with 2,680,000 dimes.

Cantor reportedly received 3200 write-in votes for President in 1928 in an election won by Herbert Hoover. In another year he received over 1000 write-ins for Governor of New Jersey.

At one time, when the rights to The Wizard of Oz (1939) were owned by Samuel Goldwyn, Cantor was considered for the role of the Scarecrow. Goldwyn eventually sold the rights to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Often ate the breakfast staple cornflakes and milk for dinner at fancy restaurants. It had been the foodstuff he could afford as an up-and-coming comedian, and due to some personal quirk, he preferred it even after he was rich and famous.

[after attending the premiere of the film The Eddie Cantor Story (1953)] If that was my life, I didn't live.

[commenting about losing most of his money in the 1929 stock market crash] Well, folks, they got me in the market just like they got everybody else. In fact, they're not calling it the stock market any more. They're calling it the stuck market.

[on Al Jolson] He was more than just a singer or an actor. He was an experience.

It takes twenty years to make an overnight success.

We call our relatives the kin we love to touch.