Youngman, The King Of One-Liners, Dies At 91

Henny Youngman, the Borscht Belt comic dubbed the king of one-liners for cracks like the immortal “Take my wife - please,” died Tuesday. He was 91.

Youngman died of complications from the flu at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, said friend Jackie Green.

Youngman became the quintessential Catskills comedian, developing a schtick unvaried through seven decades in show business: snappy one-liners and rapid-fire jokes as likely to bring a groan as a guffaw from his audience.

But his act played. Youngman appeared in countless clubs - from the Catskills to the Palladium in London, from Atlantic City to Las Vegas and most points in between - while working more than 200 shows per year into his 70s.

His quick, near-mechanical delivery became Youngman’s trademark; in 60 seconds, he could unleash a half-dozen zingers. A typical Youngman joke: “A man says to another man, ‘Can you tell me how to get to Central Park?’ ‘No.’ ‘All right, I’ll mug you right here.”’ Columnist Walter Winchell, impressed with Youngman, dubbed Henny “the king of the one-liners” in the 1930s. Youngman’s most famous one-liner - “Take my wife, please” - was actually delivered by accident before an appearance on radio’s “Kate Smith Show.”

A frazzled Youngman was getting ready minutes before air time when his wife, Sadie, showed up with several friends to see the show. Youngman grabbed an usher and told him, “Take my wife, please.” The comic was still using the line after his wife died in 1987 at age 82.

The comedian who became an American institution was born in England on March 16, 1906. “I was so ugly when I was born, the doctor slapped my mother,” Youngman once said.

He arrived in New York six months later. The family settled in Brooklyn, and he grew up there, learning to play the violin at his father’s urging, attending the Brooklyn Vocational Trade School, and becoming a printer.

But he was bitten by the show biz bug while working in his Manhattan print shop. Milton Berle, who was performing in a club nearby, would stop by the shop between shows to hang out with Henny, Youngman recalled in a 1991 interview with The Associated Press.

“I was a groupie for Berle,” says Youngman. “I picked up a lot of stuff from him. Learned a lot.”

His first shot at stardom came as a bandleader, the head of a 1920s group called Henny Youngman and the Swanee Syncopaters. Youngman’s comedy career was the result of a tightwad club owner at the Swan Lake Inn in the Catskills.

Youngman was telling jokes between songs at the club. The owner fired the band and hired Henny as a comic, and the rest was hysteria.

“My whole life’s an accident,” he said. “I’ve never planned anything. It’s just all happened.”

What happened next was several years of doing the comedy circuit before Youngman’s big break: a two-year stint with Smith’s popular CBS network radio show.

He left the “Kate Smith Show” in 1938 with an eye on the movies, but the offers never came. He went back out as a comedian, averaging more than 200 dates per year over the next 40 years.

His father had hoped that Youngman might some day play violin with the Metropolitan Opera orchestra. That never happened, but he used the fiddle as a prop in his act, playing a few bars to break up the gags.

His career - always steady - received a boost in the 1960s from “Laugh-In,” the weekly television program of one-liners that introduced the catch-phrase, “Oh, that Henny Youngman!”

And the Youngman style was perfect in 1974 when New York Telephone instituted its new Dial-A-Joke service, where callers heard six of Henny’s gags in a one-minute call.

Youngman drew 3 million calls in a month with material like, “Fellow walks into a doctor. Doctor says, ‘You’re gonna live to be 80.’ Fellow says, ‘I am 80.’ Doctor says, ‘What did I tell you?”’

The peripatetic comedian continued working through his 85th birthday, appearing briefly in the Martin Scorsese gangster epic “GoodFellas” and working with Steven Spielberg on his “Tiny Toons” cartoon series.

At age 90, he attended a ceremony where a Manhattan street corner was named for him. On his 91st birthday, he summoned reporters to a Manhattan restaurant for a reading of his “Last Will and Testament.”

“To my nephew Irving, who still keeps asking me to mention him in my will: ‘Hello, Irving!”’ it read.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: A Youngman sampler Associated Press Ten typical Henny Youngman jokes: “A guy comes up to me and says, ‘I haven’t eaten in two days.’ I told him, ‘Force yourself.”’ “I didn’t sleep well last night. I dreamed Dolly Parton was my mother, and I was a bottle baby.” “A guy calls his lawyer. He says, ‘Can I ask you two questions?’ Lawyer says, ‘What’s the second one?”’ “This guy asked his doctor, ‘Will I be able to play the piano after my operation?’ And the doctor says ‘Sure.’ And the guy says, ‘Funny, I couldn’t do it before.”’ “I just came from a pleasure trip - took my mother-in-law to the airport.” “Two guys in a gym, one putting on a girdle. One guys says, ‘Since when have you been wearing a girdle?’ Other guy says, ‘Since my wife found it in the glove compartment of our car.”’ “My doctor told me I was fat. I said I wanted a second opinion. He said, ‘OK, you’re ugly, too.”’ “I live about four muggings from Central Park.” “I flew on an airplane, the food was fit for a king. Here, King!” “Take my wife, please.”