Jerry Colonna (entertainer)

Gerardo Luigi Colonna (September 17, 1904 – November 21, 1986), better known as Jerry Colonna, was an American musician, actor, comedian, singer, songwriter and trombonist who played the zaniest of Bob Hope's sidekicks in Hope's popular radio shows and films of the 1940s and 1950s.

Colonna started his career as a trombonist, in orchestras and dance bands in and around his native Boston; he can be heard with Joe Herlihy's Orchestra on discs recorded for Edison Records in the late 1920s.

During the 1930s, Colonna played with the CBS house orchestra and the Columbia Symphony Orchestra, where he developed a reputation for prankishness and tomfoolery.

During his tenure at CBS, he occasionally worked under bandleader Raymond Scott, and made several recordings with Scott's famous Quintette, which typically involved Colonna mouthing nonsense syllables over Scott's band.

His off-stage antics were so calamitous that CBS nearly fired him, on more than one occasion.

Fred Allen (then on CBS) gave Colonna periodic guest slots, and, a decade later, he joined the John Scott Trotter band on Bing Crosby's Kraft Music Hall.

In one opera parody, Colonna ‘hollered’ an aria in a “deadpan screech that became his trademark” on Bob Hope's show, Nachman noted.

• Command Performance (1937)

• 52nd Street (1937) as Specialty Vocalist

• Rosalie (1937) as Joseph

The others were pianist-comedian Victor Borge and Trotter's drummer, music "depreciationist" Spike Jones; it should be noted, however, that Colonna performed on two songs for the 1938 Warner Bros. film Garden of the Moon, to memorable effect—"Girlfriend of the Whirling Dervish" and "Lady on the Three Cent Stamp", respectively.

Colonna had the ability to stretch a syllable to extreme lengths, such as "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall, or nothing at aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall...".

In addition to musical numbers, he worked this bit into Road to Rio, along with another of his catchphrases—the film’s action periodically cuts to a cavalry riding to the rescue of Bing and Bob, when he exhorts his riders, "Chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarge!"

At the end of the film, when all is resolved and he is still "charging," he pulls-up and asks the audience, "Well, what do you know... we never quite made it. Exciting, though... wasn't it?!"

According to radio historian Arthur Frank Wertheim, in Radio Comedy, Colonna was responsible for many of the catchphrases on Hope's show, notably, "Give me a drag on that before you throw it away", a crack the cast came to use to lance any bragging.

Colonna's usual salutation to Hope was, "Greetings, Gate!", something fans and listeners soon began repeating.

• College Swing (1938) as Prof. Yascha Koloski (uncredited)

• Port of Seven Seas (1938) as Arab Rug Dealer (uncredited)

• Little Miss Broadway (1938) as Member of Band #3

• Valley of the Giants (1938) as Saloon Singer

• Garden of the Moon (1938) as Musician

• Swingtime in the Movies (1938) as The Texas Tornado

• Sweepstakes Winner (1939) as Nick, the Chef

• Naughty but Nice (1939) as Allie Gray

Colonna was one of three memorable 1940s Kraft Music Hall discoveries.

Colonna was took part in several of Hope's early USO tours during the 1940s.

Jack Benny's singing sidekick Dennis Day, a talented impressionist as well as a singer, did an effective imitation of Colonna's manic style and expressions.

Colonna featured in three of the popular Hope-Crosby Road films: Road to Singapore (1940) as Achilles Bombassa, Road to Rio (1947) as a Cavalry captain and The Road to Hong Kong (1962) in a cameo role.

• Road to Singapore (1940) as Achilles Bombanassa

• Comin' Round the Mountain (1940) as Argyle Phifft

• Ice-Capades (1940) as Colonna

He can also be seen in the Fred Allen vehicle, It's in the Bag! (1945), as psychiatrist Dr. Greenglass, and he made a brief appearance with Hope in the "Wife, Husband and Wolf" sketch in Star Spangled Rhythm. In 1956 he performed the featured song "My Lucky Charm" in the film Meet Me in Las Vegas, starring Dan Dailey and Cyd Charisse.

In the 1950s, he released two LPs: ''Music?

for Screaming!!! (Decca DL 5540) and He Sings and Swings'' (Mercury-Wing MGW 12153).

He also voiced the March Hare in Walt Disney's 1951 animated feature film Alice in Wonderland.

With his pop-eyed facial expressions and large handlebar moustache, Colonna was known for singing loudly in what Gerald Nachman called a "comic caterwaul", and for his catchphrase, "Who's Yehudi?", uttered after many an old joke, though it usually had nothing to do with the joke itself.

The line was believed to be named for violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin, and "the search for Yehudi" became a running gag on Hope's show.

Colonna played a range of nitwitted characters, the best-remembered of which was a moronic professor, of which Nachman wrote:

He provided the voice of the March Hare in the Walt Disney Animated Feature Film Version of Alice in Wonderland (1951) (another radio star, Ed Wynn, voiced the March Hare's companion, the Mad Hatter) and also lent his zany narration style to several Disney shorts, including Casey at the Bat Segment of Make Mine Music (1946) and The Brave Engineer (1950).

Colonna joined ASCAP in 1956; his songwriting credits include "At Dusk", "I Came to Say Goodbye", "Sleighbells in the Sky" and "Take Your Time."