User Reviews

. . . than "pennant winners," and I'm talking about the Astro's of today (2013) and not the 'stros from the Killer B's glory days, either. Baritone Van's attempts at Ebonics-styled dialect "humor" may have played well in the Jim Crow era, but it is cringe-inducing today. (Al Jolson nails this sort of thing ten times better, with a pathos in his voice which nearly excuses the Black face.) High tenor Schneck, who also performs the piano parts, perhaps got the best of the deal, seeing as how he passed away in 1930, leaving Van to soldier on alone as a solo act for another 38 long years. Perhaps Van's biggest regret was that he was not on the west coast when Boris Karloff stole the Frankenstein movie franchise from him (for which he appears so naturally suited). Van's busy hands are such a distraction during the singing that one feels he should have been given cymbals or a tambourine. Of the four songs included on the 1927 Vitaphone short, VAN AND SCHNENCK: THE PENNANT WINNING BATTERY OF SONGLAND, my vote goes to "She Knows Her Onions," for the title, if nothing else.