Avon Comedy Four

The Avon Comedy Four was the musical quartet that enveloped the popular comedy duo of Smith & Dale, or Joe Smith and Charlie Dale. Born Joe Selzer and Charlie Marks, the most reliable story has the two Jewish lads first meeting as childhood friends in the East Side of New York City. By 1902 or 1903, they were already performing as the Avon Comedy Four, and although the membership roster is unclear for their first decade, singer Harry Goodwin became an early mainstay of the group. Though they started their act on the Bowery, within a year they were playing some of the top house...