Bert Wheeler

Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey were a famous American film comedy team of the 1930s who are almost totally unknown by today's public, although vintage-film buffs have rediscovered the team via cable television and home video.

The former Broadway stars re-created their stage roles in the 1929 movie musical Rio Rita. This established them as movie comedians, and they went on to make very popular comedy features through 1937, all for RKO Radio Pictures except the 1933 Columbia release So This Is Africa. Curly-haired Bert Wheeler played the ever-smiling innocent, and bespectacled Robert Woolsey played the genially leering “big idea” man that often got the pair in trouble. The vivacious Dorothy Lee usually played Bert's romantic interest.