 Based on the lives and careers of vaudeville comics  Joe Smith (II) (qv) and Charles Dale (I) (qv) (né Sultzer and  Marks). Unlike the characters in the Broadway play and later film,  Smith and Dale were almost inseparable friends. In fact, when Dale  died in 1971, Smith commissioned a single tombstone to be prepared  for them both, ordering that the inscription read "Smith and Dale."