We’re headlining at the Palace Theater in New York, and Jack Benny is on second.

Eddie Rio, 81, has been in show business for 65 years. He starred in vaudeville, ran the American Guild of Variety Artists and produced shows for Las Vegas and television. For many years he has been Bob Hope’s manager for concert dates. Rio got his start in Brooklyn. He now lives in North Hollywood.

My father migrated in about 1895. He was a barber. He came over first and raised enough money to bring my mother and two other brothers. One of them died on the ship. They slept on the deck, and he caught pneumonia.

My right name was Enrico Rotunno. When I was 10 years old, I wanted to be in show business. I used to clown all the time. When I was 13, I was in public schools, and Harry Ritz of the Ritz Brothers was in my class. I was clowning with Harry, and the teacher caught me and whacked me on the knuckle with the sharp edge of the ruler. When I saw blood, I hit him a shot in the mouth. I’m telling you, they threw me out of school.

It was the best thing that happened to me, because I didn’t have enough money to go to college or anything, so I learned the hard way, from actual experience.

I was fascinated by vaudeville. I used to watch these vaudeville people when I was 13 years old, and I would go home and practice, practice all the time.

When I was 15, I started going to dance halls. In those days Cagney, Raft, those guys used to go dancing every night. That’s how we got into show business. I used to win two or three contests a week. You’d win $20, and you’d take all the guys out and have “coffee and.”

We were very poor, with five brothers and three sisters. I decided, “I’ve got to make some money.” I needed a partner. I didn’t want to go by myself, so I got this kid and taught him how to dance. When I was 16, I was ready to go into show business.

We went up to the producer’s office, a guy with a big cigar. “What can I do for you kids?” We go in there and do the routines for him. He gets on the phone, “Hey Sam, I got an act called the Rotunno Brothers. Class act, Sam. Give us about a week and we’ll be ready.”

We opened at a little theater in Brooklyn, then we went on tour for 28 weeks. That’s where we broke in. I would rehearse when I was out of town, at night in front of the store windows, making up steps. I made up an eccentric dance that nobody was doing.

I changed my name to Eddie Rio and got a new partner, and we auditioned for this man, and he said, “I’m going to build an act around you.” He got eight chorus girls. By that time I had comedy in the act and everything. We got $80 a week apiece, and that was a lot of money in 1925. We’re headlining at the Palace Theater in New York, and Jack Benny is on second.

The whole circuit is two shows a day, that’s the big time. We get to Chicago and I get a call from Max Turner with the William Morris Agency. He says the Paramount picture houses want to build a show around us with a magic act, a dancing team and a girl named Ginger Rogers who does a little dance. They did four shows a day.

“Four,” I said. “We’re doing two a day now. I don’t think I’ll be interested.” He said, “We’ll start you off at $600 a week.” I said, “What did you say?” “Well, $700, but that’s just to start with.”

I got out of that office, and I ran all the way to the theater, about five blocks away. I got up to the dressing room, and I told my partner. He said, “Come on, are you crazy? $700?” I said, “That’s what we’re going to get.”

After four or five weeks, we bought two Auburns, the first sports car ever made in America, for $350 apiece. Honest to God. We used to drive around in those cars on that tour, and the girls, ohhh. From then on, I was a big-timer.

That was 1926. I was 20 years old. My father, he was going crazy.

I’ve had a great life. I’ve been every place. I did everything: Broadway shows, I did it all.

And I loved the business I was in. You’ve got to love it to get as far as I did with nothing. I never took a lesson in anything in my life, not even golf.