Biography

Father of Alan Kirschenbaum.

For years he was the dean of the Friars Club.

His father sold shoes and his mother was a homemaker.

Relatives owned the Crystal Spring Hotel in the Catskills. When Freddie was 15, he asked his uncle to let him out of some busboy shifts so he could try emceeing for the nightly entertainers. He continued his emcee gigs during his summer breaks from New York University, where he met his future wife, Ethel Harris. After graduation, he opened a shoe store, and he and Ethel raised two children. On weekends, he did stand-up in the Borscht Belt, eventually selling the shoe store to focus on comedy full-time. He got his big break in the early 1970s, when he landed a gig at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas. He wound up spending 18 years in Vegas, performing 12 weeks a year at Caesars Palace and the Riviera Hotel.

[about Jules Podell] He was an absolute tyrant. I did a joke in my act opening night. Fella goes to the doctor. He says, "Doctor, I have a problem. I can't pee anymore." Doctor says, "How old are you?" "Ninety-four." The doctor says, "You've peed enough." Innocuous, cute joke. After the show the maitre'd comes over to me. He says, "Mr. Podell wants to see you." I said, "Oh my God! He's going to offer me a lifetime contract I was such a big hit!" I walked over and he looked up at me and he said, "Nobody pees at the Copacabana! People are eating here! Take that joke out!" I turned around and walked away and that was the last words he ever said to me. It was a little frightening. He was an imposing figure.

[about Gene Baylos] Three or four comics were standing in front of the Stage Deli on 7th Avenue. Across the street they were digging out the foundation of what was going to become The Americana Hotel. Gene Baylos ran over to them after they had dug 40-foot holes. He ran over to the foreman and he yelled, "I told you 43rd Street--not 53rd Street!!!"