George Givot

George Givot (February 18, 1903 – June 7, 1984) was an American comedian and actor on Broadway and in vaudeville, movies, television and radio. He was known for speaking in a comedic fake Greek dialect and was styled the "Greek Ambassador of Good Will". His best known movie role may be as the voice of Tony in the Disney film Lady and the Tramp.

Givot was born either on February 18, 1903, in Omaha, Nebraska, or circa 1901 in Russia. According to Givot, he was adopted by a French family when he was three. The family later moved to Chicago, where he went to high school and college. His night school journalism instructor became fed up with the class clown and sent him to see the man in charge of the midnight to 3 am broadcasts at a radio station, who hired him.Paul Ash heard Givot perform and gave him his start in vaudeville.

Givot was one of the earliest, perhaps the earliest,Greek dialect comedians, working in vaudeville, nightclubs, film and radio from the 1920s on. He had learned some Greek working in a Greek candy store in Omaha as a soda jerk. In 1949, Billboard magazine reviewer Bill Smith panned his performance in one East Side venue ("saw him take the prize for dullness"), but praised him for the same routines in "Billy Rose's mauve decade nitery":

Givot's act is made up of tolerable singing and corn. The latter, dressed up with his Greek dialect, takes on a certain kind of freshness. That, plus Givot's appearance and salesmanship, won him yocks upon yocks. … Givot is a natural with his Greek malaprops and situation gags.

In 1926, 16-year-old student Helen Britt was taken into custody for trying to blackmail the vaudeville entertainer, but was released when police were satisfied she was just joking.

When Mae West wrote the play The Constant Sinner, she wanted to cast African-American Oscar Micheaux as her character's black lover. This would have been extremely controversial in the segregation-era United States of the 1930s, so she reluctantly agreed to have Givot perform in blackface instead. The producers insisted that Givot remove his wig at the end of every performance to show the audience he was white.The Constant Sinner ran on Broadway for 64 performances from September to November 1931.

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