Popular in the theaters with vaudeville acts, ‘Smoky’ Chicken and his ventriloquist puppet
companion ‘Hambone’ would do a mockery of the new and upcoming contraption called ‘film projection’ being displayed at some parlors.

However, it would never work.

Their famous high point in the act was to imitate a projectionist as the film breaks.
Hambone would pretend to fix the film while Smoky told jokes as he worked.

Hambone’s consistent famous line in each show was “You know where your hand is? You better wash it when the act is over. You have no idea how many others have been there before you!”