Bert Gordon "The Mad Russian" in Old Time Radio

Bert Gordon
(1895 – 1974)

Old Time Radio largely pre-dates the concept of "Political Correctness". Whether "ethnic humor" was indeed culturally insensitive is a debate for another forum. Ethnic humor was simply part of what vaudeville audiences expected, and by extension, it became a part of radio humor as well. Rather than being seen as cultural insensitivity, many instances of ethnic humor were actually a celebration of cultural diversity, even if they do not seem so to the modern ear.

There is a case of political correctness which occurred to a beloved radio figure decades before PC was a common part of the lexicon, and it occurred more for political than cultural reasons. The episode involved vaudevillian turned radio personality Bert Gordon, a.k.a. "The Mad Russian".

Born Barney Gorodetsky in New York City, 1895, like so many vaudeville funnymen he grew up in an ethnic neighborhood where he developed an ear for accents and dialects. Perhaps not as sensitive an ear as other comedians. Gordon's Mad Russian sounded less Russian and more like a funny voice than other ethnic comics, like his good friend Harry "Parkyakarkus" Einstein's Greek accent.

Gordon joined the vaudeville circuit in 1914 as a dialect comedian and worked with several Yiddish theater companies. During the early Twenties, he became a regular player in George White's annual Scandals revues on Broadway. Primarily appearing as the company stooge, he became good friends with former singing waiter Eddie Cantor, who was performing much the same role in the competing Ziegfeld Follies.

Jack Benny gave Gordon his first shot at radio in his first programs in the early thirties. Working for Benny, Gordon developed several catch phrases like "How DOOoo you do?" and "Do you mean it?" The catchphrases were popular enough that several of them were co-opted by the writers at Warner Bros animation and today they are more familiar coming from the Looney Tunes gang than from the Mad Russian.

When Cantor made his big splash in radio he brought along several of his friends from the vaudeville era, including Parkyakarkus and the Mad Russian. Cantor became so popular on the radio that he was tapped as a guest star for other variety programs, and whenever he did he was sure to bring his Mad Russian friend along. Gordon's label was rethought after the USA became one of the Allied powers during WWII. After 1942, Gordon was referred to as "Our Russian Friend" to avoid the possibility of offending Joseph Stalin. There is evidence that when Cantor's programs were decommercialized for AFRS broadcasting, Gordon was cut completely to avoid raising the anger of any Soviet soldiers listening in on American entertainment.

With the dawning of the Cold War, the Mad Russian was dropped completely from Cantor's lineup, but he found a home delivering one-liners one Duffy's Tavern.

Bert Gordon succumbed to cancer at his home in Los Angeles on November 30, 1974. He was 79.