stage character on Fay. He formed several partnerships, including with Lieutenant Gitz Rice and appearing as Dyer & Fay and Fay Fay & Co. During the 1920s, Fay was vaudeville's highest-paid headliner, earning $17,500 a week. He often played the Palace Theatre in New York City, sometimes once a month. Later, he was successful as a revue and nightclub comedian and master of ceremonies, arguably originating the form, and also appeared frequently on radio shows. He was cast in a bit part as master of ceremonies in the night club sequence of Nothing Sacred (1937). One of his most enduring routines, which he performed as late as the 1950s, was taking a popular song and analysing the "senseless" lyrics. It did not endear him to songwriters. For example, "Tea for Two": "Picture you, upon my knee." (This guy just owns one chair?) "Just tea for two and two for tea, me for you, and you for me, alone" So, here's the situation: the guy just has one chair, but enough tea for two, so he has two for tea. If anyone else shows up, he shoots 'em! "Nobody near us, to see us or hear us." Who'd want to listen to a couple of people drinking tea? "We won't have it known, dear, that we own a telephone." So, this guy's too cheap to get another chair, he has a telephone, but won't tell anyone about it! "Dawn will break, and you'll awake, and start to bake a sugar cake." Oh, this poor woman's life, I can see it now. Dawn breaks, and she's got to start baking, can't even run a brush through her hair, down in the dark, feeling around for the flour... "For me to take for all the guys to see." I can see that! "Hey, guys, I've got something the wife gave me!" Is it a new tie? Is it a set of tires? Nahhh - it's a sugar cake! Three layers, with a coconut cream filling! "Oh, that's just ducky!," they all say, and they crown him with it. Film When talkies arrived, Warner Bros. studio was eager to put him under contract along with a host of other famous stage personalities. Fay was cast as master of ceremonies in Warner Bros.' most expensive production of 1929, the all-star, all-talking revue The Show of Shows (1929). Based on the success of that film, Fay