An Ice Cream War In Brooklyn

Gus Shy in Vitaphone's I Scream (1934)

I understand Gus Shy was a hit on Broadway in Good News and later did the part for movies. None of my vaudeville books mention him, but surely he put years in that as well. What Gus gave posterity was two Vitaphone comedies included in a latest Warners Archive set, Paul Revere Jr. and I Scream, both unearthed because Shemp Howard is in them; that a slight, if unintended, to Shy, who did little else but die young afterward (in 1945 at age 42). Gus, or at least his character, was the timid sort, a little prissy and prone to cowardice. He's an ice cream man sent to make peace among mobsters so they'll not kill each other and collect insurance (was this a story prior, or later, used in other two-reelers?). Shemp is among heavies (along with Lionel Stander), not with a lot to do, but making most of what's there. Gang warfare is routed via ice cream toss, a gooey finish that ruins some nice suits. I Scream and others of Vitaphone lineage were shot in Brooklyn, so shabby is an appearance byword, their being live action counterparts to streetwise Fleischer cartoons.