Frank Fay (comedian)

Frank Fay was an American vaudeville comedian, film actor, and stage actor. Considered an important pioneer in comedy, he has been referred to as "the first stand-up". For a time he was a well known and influential star, vaudeville's highest-paid headliner, earning $17,500 a week in the 1920s, but he later fell into obscurity, in part because of his abrasive personality and rightwing political views. He played the role of Elwood P. Dowd in the 1944 Broadway play Harvey by the American playwright Mary Coyle Chase. He is best known as the first husband of actress Barbara Stanwyck.