Sid Silvers on AllMovie

Skinny, diminutive (4'10") comic actor Sid Silvers started out in vaudeville as a stooge for monologist Phil Baker. As Baker would play his accordion and crack jokes, the adenoidal Silvers would heckle him from the audience (this chapter in Silvers' career was later fictionalized in the 1951 Martin and Lewis comedy The Stooge). He remained with Baker until the end of the 1920s, graduating to such Broadway revues as Artists and Models (1925) and A Night in Venice (1929). An accomplished writer, Silvers contributed lyrics and librettos to several Broadway musicals, all the while remaining an active performer. He made his film debut in 1929's The Show of Shows, then went on to play supporting parts in such productions as Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round (1934), Born to Dance (1936), and Broadway Melody of 1936; he also collaborated on the scripts of the last two films. He often contributed special comedy material, sans screen credit, to some of the larger MGM productions; one such assignment was 1939's Wizard of Oz. Concentrating on his stage and radio work in the 1940s, Sid Silvers made one final film appearance in 1946, playing a comic featured role in Mr. Ace.