Jump ahead to 3:33 in Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal video, and you'll see him leaning at impossible angles, using an exclusive system he claimed to have invented-- and patented!-- himself.
But in this excerpt from Bob Hope’s autobiography Have Tux, Will Tavel, Hope describes using the exact same system in 1936:
In the same show, Jimmy (Durante) and I had a scene in which we leaned out over the orchestra pit at an impossible angle without falling. This gimmick is especially effective for drunk acts. You wear a cleat in your heel with a slot in it. There's a screw in the stage, you slip the slot over the head over the screw, and after that you can lean at any angle you like.
I suppose he just considered it a marketing ploy, but I wish he had just admitted he resurrected a forgotten vaudeville trick. That's pretty cool, too.
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