Caught Short! A Saga of Wailing Wall Street

by Eddie Cantor

Amazon.com:

This booklet is a humorous rendering of being caught short and losing everything on Wall Street, except your sense of humor. Written by Eddie Cantor, the comedian, author, statistician and victim, in a delightful style that will keep you giggling at his failure at investing. Profusely illustrated.

Genres: Humor

53 pages

First published January 1, 1929

About the author

Edward "Eddie" Cantor born Isidore Itzkowitz; January 31, 1892 – October 10, 1964 was an American comedian, actor, dancer, singer, songwriter, film producer, screenwriter and author.

Cantor was one of the prominent entertainers of his era and was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1956 for distinguished service to the film industry.

Reviews

[Alessandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comedian Eddie Cantor was wiped out in the great stock market Crash of October 1929 and wrote this little joke book about it so fast it was for sale before 1929 was over. He did a pretty good job of making money again, apparently, but it must have been a terrible shock.

The book has no particular plot. It's just one joke strung after another, with some cartoony illustrations. There is a small amount of jarring racial humor.

It's amusing reading (apart from that racial humor), but it's more like a transcript of someone's stand-up routine than the humorous essays of, say, Robert Benchley or James Thurber.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eddie Cantor writing this book in 1929 would be the equivalent of George Clooney writing a book about how he has lost EVERYTHING in the stock market today: house, cars, money in the bank, everything. Very scary.

[James R Ellison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic Crash of '29 Humor

Old-school slapstick humor about the stock market crash of '29, from a successful comic who lost everything in it. If you like The Three Stooges and The Wall Street Journal both, this might be for you.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cantor’s dark humor -- and gallow’s humor -- has a relatable tone for those of us who have lived through the Great Recession and the pandemic’s economic fallout. Cantor presents himself as one of the “victims” who wrote this little book of jokes as a form of catharsis. In reality, he really did lose a great deal in the crash, but at the height of his fame, he wasn’t exactly in the red. The jokes here aren’t as sharp as in his later Depression book, Yoo Hoo Prosperity!, but it does include one that would become a classic (paraphrasing): A guy walks into a hotel and asks for a room on the nineteenth floor. The clerk replies, “For sleeping or jumping?”

Definitely a product of its time, but an interesting historical document of American humor.

[Jeffrey Thouron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this at a charming book store in McGregor, IA. Many parts were still funny, some were beyond me in 2021.

[Phillip Hardy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very short collection of paragraphs, jokes, and puns about the stock market crash of 1929. Unimpressive.

[Charles Northey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet bit of history obviously dated, but does work as a reminder and cautionary tale.

[zoë · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating piece of history!