The Three Freshmen were an American Vaudeville acrobatic team active during the 1930s and 1940s. The performers were Freddie Reid, Louis Regan, and Ken Carter. [1] The trio sometimes performed as “Regan, Carter & Reid.” [2]
The Three Freshmen were an American Vaudeville acrobatic team active during the 1930s and 1940s. The performers were Freddie Reid, Louis Regan, and Ken Carter. [1] The trio sometimes performed as “Regan, Carter & Reid.” [2]
The members of the Three Freshmen began practicing acrobatics recreationally together in Cleveland, Ohio. They impressed a coach at a Cleveland YMCA, who suggested that they develop a professional act. Reid responded enthusiastically: “That’s like drawing a salary for eating candy.” [1] The Freshmen initially performed straight acrobatics, but transitioned to comedic acrobatics after a positive audience reaction to a performance accident when “Ken jumped for Louis’ shoulders, missed, and landed on the rear of his lap.” [3]
The Freshmen performed as “comedy acrobats.” [4] Their act was described as a “knockabout comedy routine,” featuring “unusual hand-balancing feats and acrobatics performed with an easy grace that ma[de] the hard stunts look easy,” “season[ing] their turn with just enough nonsense to give it distinction.” [5] One journalist described the Three Freshmen's performance as follows: The performers “fell all over the stage, bounced and did it again with never an interruption in their patter.” [6] The act included slapstick elements, “knockabout antics, with many falls and face slappings.” [7]
The Freshmen toured widely, not merely across the United States but also in Canada, Europe, [8] and South America. [9] Their performances had various titles, including “Never a Dull Moment” [10] and "Bored of Education." [11] They often performed as the top-billed act in revues. [12] [13] Freshman Freddie Reid sometimes doubled as emcee for the larger performance. [14]
The Freshmen performed with a wide range of celebrities, including Sally Rand, [15] Ronald Reagan, and Red Skelton. [16]
The Freshmen also toured with Benny Davis as part of his “Stardust Revue.” [17] In 1938, they appeared with Davis in the Vitaphone short “Stardust,” one of the movie shorts in the Broadway Brevities series. [18]
The Three Freshmen were favorably received by critics of the period. In 1942, Billboard Magazine reported that the Freshmen “[a]ll but stopped the show” with their “top acro routines” combined with “a lot of clowning and mugging.” [19] Other reviewers opined that the Freshmen’s act was “loaded with thrills and laughs” and “[s]ome of the finest tumbling ever witnessed”; [20] “[s]ide-splitting”; [21] and “st[ole] the show.” [22]
One Billboard reviewer opined that “[t]heir straight acrobatics [we]re very good, and the comedy [wa]s interspersed in just the right proportion to make a well-balanced offering.” [23] The team presented “acro and hand-balancing patterns that [we]re neat, fast, and pretty entertaining. Bring in several bits of comedy which serve as good relief for their straight and stock tricks.” [24]
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