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Clip description
George (George Wallace) has to mind the grocery store while his boss is out. He has no training for the task and almost destroys the shop with a succession of demanding customers, starting with Mrs Doyle (Marie La Varre).
Curator’s notes
This is likely to be based on a routine that Wallace had used in one of his stage shows in the 1920s. It appears to have been filmed entirely through twice from slightly different angles, to allow room for editing (of which there is little). Younger viewers may find it hard to believe that butter was once bought this way, from a bulk supply ladled and shaped with paddles. Indeed, the whole concept of the shop is so different to modern food vending as to be slightly surreal to our eyes.
This film was shot in late 1933, at the height of the Depression, when almost a third of the country was out of work. Seeing good food ruined by George’s clumsiness might have made audiences laugh even more at the time, when many people could not afford eggs, butter or flour. Note the thick make-up that Wallace is wearing – his eyebrows have been blackened for emphasis and his lips coloured. This is a leftover from the kind of make-up he would have used on stage.
