Joe Laurie

Joe Laurie Jr. was an American vaudeville monologist born in New York City on February 24, 1892. His career spanned vaudeville, radio, and Broadway, with his Broadway appearances running from 1917 to 1936.

Laurie's stage career began in vaudeville, where he performed alongside his first wife, Aleen Bronson, in a double act billed as Laurie & Bronson. His Broadway credits included the musical Over the Top, the musical Plain Jane, the play If I Was Rich, the play Weather Clear-Track Fast, and Swing Your Lady. Beyond the stage, he became a recognizable presence on radio as one of the comedic panelists on Can You Top This?, a joke-telling series featuring Edward Hastings Ford. He also took on the role of Sniffy in We Were Always Young, a daytime drama broadcast on the Mutual network.

Laurie was also a prolific writer on the subject of show business. His jokes appeared in Cream of the Crop, published by Grosset and Dunlap in 1947, alongside contributions from other members of the Can You Top This? panel. He co-authored Show Biz: From Vaude to Video with Abel Green in 1951, a history of the entertainment industry, and followed that with his memoir Vaudeville: From the Honky-Tonks to the Palace in 1953.

During the 1940s, Laurie lived in Manhattan with his second wife, Nellie Butcher, who performed under the stage name June Tempest and was born in 1922. He was survived by his son, Joseph Bryant Hughes Laurie. Laurie died in New York City on April 29, 1954, at the age of 63. His papers, spanning 1877 to 1954, are held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, as is a separate collection of his drawings dating from 1914 to 1952.