Variety show Stan Laurel revisited his music hall days when he performed at the "Royal Variety" show. In the United States, former vaudeville performers such as the Marx Brothers, George Burns and Gracie Allen, W. C. Fields, and Jack Benny honed their skills in the Borscht Belt before moving to talkies, to radio shows, and then to television shows, including variety shows. Variety shows were among the first programs to be featured on television during the experimental mechanical television era. Variety shows hosted by Helen Haynes and Harriet Lee are recorded in contemporary newspapers in 1931 and 1932; because of technical limits
Goodnight, Irene #1 on September 2, 1950, and lasted at #1 for 13 weeks. The song was the basis for the 1950 parody called "Please Say Goodnight to the Guy, Irene" by Ziggy Talent. It also inspired the 1954 "answer" record "Wake Up, Irene" by Hank Thompson, a #1 on Billboard's country chart. Television host Jack Narz recorded his version of "Goodnight, Irene" for his album "Sing the Folk Hits With Jack Narz" in 1959. Roots musician Ry Cooder performed a version of the song on his album "Chicken Skin Music" in 1976, which was released as a single in the Netherlands