They don't make talent like this any more!!! This is REAL talent!!!

Nobody else could have played the Cowardly Lion but him. His genius shined in that role.

This is actualy a combination of several lines from popular songs of the time..... very unique!

Bert Lahr is best known for playing The Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz. That's my favorite movie character of all time.

yeah, it's good on stage, but when I talk to myself like this at bus stops, people look at me funny :(

never realized how many Bert Lahrisms there were in Bugs Bunny until I saw this

This Lahr routine gives credence to the theory that "The Jitterbug" number in "Wizard of Oz" was deleted because Bert Lahr upstaged Judy Garland with his bigger-than-life personality (one of several theories, another being that the song's topicality detracted from the timeless quality of the film). This is spectacular!

He was so unique. I loved him.

I hope this serves as warning to young people who are thinking of experimenting with drugs.

Bert Lahr was incredible.

GOLD!!! there just isnt art like this any more!

I'd like to see somebody try that bit on America's Got Talent. I'm hearing the buzzers go off. lol.

The guy was way ahead of his time.

So many of the old-time funny men could do it all. Sing, play music, dance and make you laugh. Thank you Mr. Lahr.

It was said that if you were on stage with Burt Lahr, you might as well have been in the theater across the street. He commanded a stage like no one else.

WOW! This guy was incredible! As they say..."They don't make em like that anymore"...;}

I can't for the life of me decide whether he's extremely talented or totally fucking batshit crazy! It's like an insane person's medley of old 1930s songs, because he quotes "Mississippi Mud", "Minnie the Moocher" and a shitload of other songs - just one line from each one. If you did an entire 8-ball yourself and got up onstage to sing, this is probably what would come out of your mouth.

I love Bert Lahr! Mainly when he did The "Coward lion"!

All I see is the cowardly lion when I look at him lol

This was actually a sequence from a 1937 film that Lahr appeared in [I believe it was "Love and Hisses"]. However, this particular number, "The Announcer's Song" (inspired by the fact that radio announcers in those days often "tested" their microphones before going on the air by saying things like, "Hello, testing, testing, one-two-three, woof-woof, hello..."), was deleted before the film's official release.

I wonder if Lahr ever inspired Robin Williams

and ill WOOOOFFF and ill WOOOOOOOFFFFFF and ill WOOOOOFFFFFFF!!!

A great comic talent and a brilliant and uniquely accomplished comedy dancer.

This medley is composed of then current Jazz lingo, Comedian's tag lines, Radio show dialogue and other sayings the audience was familiar with. Today it might be "where's the beef?", "It's Grrrreat", and "on no you didn't."

I don't know what this is but I do know that it is the greatest thing in the world.

Mr. Lahr in top form here. Wish I knew from what film. Well-restored, too. I've been reading a bio of Mr. Lahr, written by his son John from early 1970's called "Notes On A Cowardly Lion". Have learned so much about his dad's pre-OZ life and entry into show biz, long before he gained fame as the Lion. His movie career peaked with Oz("There aren't too many parts for lions", he wryly commented once) but went on to appear in many stage productions, both on and off Broadway, as both headliner and in supporting roles, for years thereafter. Also made numerous TV appearances, hosting and guesting on specials and participating as the "Mystery Guest" on the game show "What's My Line" at least a couple of times. Featured on cover of Time & Life magazines, as well, in 50's & 60's. In mid-60's he filmed some very amusing commercials for Lay's potato chips, which I recall. As demonstrated in this clip, Mr. Lahr went "all-in" with total confidence in his unique personality and zany style of comedy. In his later career, he showed he could do drama equally effectively, often quite touchingly. Great entertainer, great life!!

I saw that routine in that movie a few years ago-I had never seen anything like it! I showed it to my sister, who couldn't believe it--now--years have passed and she doesn't remember it--thinks I made the whole thing up! Now, I can finally show her that I wasn't high when I saw this!!

HIs old Lays potato chip commercials still crack me up

Bert Lahr: Makes the Marx Bros. or the Three Stooges seem rather sedate. Zany BEYOND zany!

Primitive Rap. And, his Tiger Rag scat here is a preview of The Cowardly Lion. Could've used us some Bert Lahr during this GD pandemic. We miss you, Buddy!

Bert Lahr is frickin very funny here! This video cracked me up ! LMFAO !!!!! I had tears going down my face !!! Really !!!!

Greetings, Gate! Solid, Jackson! Bert Lahr, one of the greatest. RIP.

Thank you for posting this. It's amazing how many spectacular sequences (such as this) were deleted from issued prints, including the elegant dance Bill Robinson did in "Café Metropole" (released 1937) the only time he wore white tie and tails in a film. It is viewable here on KZfaq, until the studio bean counters realize it's copyrighted material!

Only in HollyWood could this be a job.

(This is Tom, not Sandra.) No wonder they wanted Bert to play the "Cowardly Lion", he had those growls down pat......even long before the movie was made. Bert was an American jewel!!!! I'm so glad he was picked to be the 'Lion' !!!! An American treasure!!!!

This deleted number is from a 1938 film, Love And Hisses. It can also be seen in Treasures From The 20th Century Vaults. This is Bert Lahr ( Cowardly Lion) who is showing in a medlely of popular music and scat, some old traditions of grotesque comedy and eccentric dance from early Vaudeville. It is a great lesson of vintage comedy business.

this guys awesome!

I didn't realize this guy was nuts! OMG!

Wow, and he was someones father. What a wild time it must have been when your dad was pumped with enegy and did fear having a good time with a song and dance. Today we see a product after it's gone through a filter to correct the flaws and make people song better than they are. I'll take a live Stage-show any day with a guy that belts out tunes and can make me laugh.

for its time . its really funny.thanks for puttin on the tube.

This is amazing!!!

Mental illness is so amusing when done professionally.

That's why it was left on the cutting room floor for several decades.

This sequence was originally deleted from the final release print of a 1937 feature film {"Love and Hisses'} Bert played a supporting role in...

This is amazing...WOW!

The problem was when you were on screen or stage with Burt Lahr, every eye and ear was on HIM! You weren't simply in his shadow, you were in total darkness! You might just as welll have been next door!

Bert Lahr was just a guy that was extremely funny. He got started in Vaudeville and was born to Jewish parents. After the Wizard of Oz, Lahr starred in The Three Stooges' STop Look and Laugh as a small role which was a party clerk. He died of a heart attack in 1968 after filming The Night They Raided Minsky's

Very funny and talented guy. Creative and modern.

What...the...heck?! I feel like I missed the beginning of this--or something that would make the whole thing make sense. Like, there should be an introduction where he's like, "So, one time, I smoked a joint before a performance, and when I went on stage, I thought I was singing, but it really sounded like this (insert clip)."

I did some research and found out that this musical number, "The Woof Song", was filmed for the movie "Love and Hisses" (1937), but was cut from the film because the studio brass couldn't make heads or tails of it. It's available on the DVD "Hidden Hollywood - Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults".

It may appear spontaneous, but, given that the band is perfectly in synch with Lahr, they did some work on it prior to showtime. He's like a live-action Warner Bros. cartoon character. I can see Daffy Duck doing a routine like this.

Yes it is.

lol haha brilliant! Thanks for sharing this dear.

I take it back. He not on the crack, this was enjoyable.

He's the cowardly lion hes soo great

Wow. That was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before!

He's either satirizing the jazz-based popular entertanment of his day or burlesquing some "amateur-night" pretender who thinks he's hip (or both). I can see and hear various elements of Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, and Al Jolson in his rouitine, among others.

Whoa Burt. Take it down a notch.

Heavily Cab Calloway influence, then itself became the inspiration for Comden and Green's similarly styled number "Swing" in 'Wonderful Town' 1953.

Ill have what hes having!

The "Woof Song" from the 1937 film "Love and Hisses." This entire bit was left on the editing room floor before the movie's release..

I seen this guy in an old movie where h plays piano as he sings a duet with buddy ebsen but i can't recall the film two geniuses in top form.

Indeed it was a nicer time.

lol " right eye tick" I can't stop laughing. I don't recall it either, but now I will need to watch the Wizard again and see if I can catch it. I guess what is making me laugh so much is the way you phrased the question. Still laughing. woof-woof goo-goo back to you-you :)! P.S. the great Louie Nye.

This is GREAT

Hey folks..Imagine Bert in a time-warp "Twilight Zone" style....Rod Serling is as Ryan Seacrest intrducing him to THOSE JUDGES. on today's "American Idol." After the crtique, Bert goes over and bites Simon's head off at the shoulders. "Rod" quips. "Well, I guess he showed him 'who's King of the chorus." Tim Killer Beez Beasley .

best actor

Burt will always be remembered as ‘The Cowardly Lion’ I guess!

Happy birthday.

gotta sing woof woof gotta dance meooow YEAH go daddie go!

I love Bert Lahr

you see the lion in him all the time no matter what

You just can't get classic comedy these days... Oh. Before the Wizard of Oz. That Collar is before the depression.

Brilliant!

Step One of the NOTs Valence Technique, "What are you?", is a listing question. It is asked to find the valence the BT or cluster is stuck in (obsessively being), thereby shifting the BT or cluster out of that valence. Sometimes a BT or cluster will answer at first with a wrong item or items. Then there wont be any valence shift, nor will there be any blow.

He's definitely got the nerve.

Put em up put em up

Like a stream of conciousness rant with big band background. They had some good drugs in 1938.

0:49 - "Hold that Tiger" - wouldn't hold that LION be more appropriate?

Burt Lahr would later say that he was "typecast" as the Cowardly Lion. Take that anyway you want.

thnx now i understand

Exellent

just shows why they couldn't use him in most films, he was way too intense for any other actors, but perfect for the lion.

never mind i just saw the description. my bad. HAHA!!

Oh Thank You so much. What a trip. Agree with you Maya! And to think about all of those Warner Bros. characters with "Sthppppeeech Impediments"...(had to remember the Roger Rabbit epiphany here...so true). This nut RULES!!! (And he could have done some great cartoon voice overs...unless there are some that I am unaware of... (From another "nut" that does her own impression of the Cowardly Lion whenever the moment hits her)

Underrated comedic actor. I heard that Curly Howard was considered for the part of the Lion, but I don't think he would have done as well.

Loki unleashed! I sincerely hope that someone records me going similarly insane on camera for future generations!

HAHAHA! I Love it, he parodies these all brilliantly! And you just try to tell me this doesn't make you want to have a couple belts of scotch! hahaha,

Could also be I's a-muggin' ... I am mugging ... showing off ... mugging for the audience, and in this case, the cameras. These are snippets from song and dance routines he performed on burlesque and vaudeville stages before coming to Hollywood around 1930.

I like the bit at 1:29 the best! "ShoeSHINE-a-boy . . ." They used to call this kind of comic a "tummler" (loosely translated: "troublemaker"), like Danny Kaye and more recently Nathan Lane. I "can't eat just one clip", so please upload more Lahr!

The lion!!!!

he's havin a fit!

this makes me feel weird and happy...I fucking love it

If that's not playing to the back row, I don't know what is.

Bert lahr.. the first guy who created this thing they call nowadays: Rap

I wonder if this performance was the reason he cast as the lion

@styod17 He's doing riffs on the routines of the jazz vocalists of the era. Pretty much the way kids in the future will be scratching their heads over all the jewelry rappers wear now.

Might be because of this that he got the role of the Cowardly Lion.

Somebody discovered cocaine...

It's the cowardly lion without the suit.