Tributes
The influence of the Ritz Brothers was greater than their film career, in part because of their long career as nightclub entertainers. They influenced actors including Danny Kaye, Jerry Lewis, and Sid Caesar. In his 1976 film Silent Movie, Mel Brooks paid tribute to the Ritz Brothers by casting Harry in a cameo (he's the fellow leaving a tailor's shop). It was the actor's last role.
An article in Esquire Magazine by Harry Stein (June 1976), "Mel Brooks Says This is the Funniest Man in the World", makes a strong case that many top comedians were influenced by, and even borrowed bits from, Harry Ritz. In an interview in Playboy magazine, George Carlin said Harry Ritz "invented the moves for a whole generation" of comedians. Extensive discussions of the brothers in print are in Frank Cullen & Donald McNeilly's "Vaudeville, Old & New: an Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America" (2006) and Leonard Maltin's Movie Comedy Teams (1970).
Enduring tributes to them include a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and mentions in The Simpsons (episode "Mountain of Madness"), M*A*S*H (episode "Aid Station") and the films My Favorite Year, Mr. Saturday Night and Pretty Woman.
In 1996, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to them.
They were the favorite musical clowns of the great German-Jewish Poet Else Lasker-Schüler, who lets them appear in her last play, "I and I" ("Ich und Ich").
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“The fame of heroes owes little to the extent of their conquests and all to the success of the tributes paid to them.”
—Jean Genet (1910–1986)