Potash and Perlmutter Settle Things (1919)

Potash and Perlmutter Settle Things is like The Daily Show of its time, 1919. Business partners Abe Potash and Morris Perlmutter trade zingers about the news of the day. And such news! – the end of World War I, peace talks, and wartime President Woodrow Wilson’s idea of the League of Nations. But not for Abe and Mawruss are the affairs of state. They’re in the cloak and suit trade, and all they want is to find out the latest hemlines from Paris. It’s just their luck, they wind up with nothing to do in the City of Lights but read the newspaper and hash out Wilson’s efforts make peace. The comical commentators get little introduction here from humorist Montague Glass: They didn’t need it. Glass spun their observations into decades of stories, plays, and even movies. Potash and Perlmutter offer a painless way to learn history. The surprise is how contemporary they sound about international crooks, and press conferences where nobody learns anything. Perlmutter can’t remember the French president’s name. Call him Lefkowitz, Potash says. I’ll know who you mean.