https://youtu.be/L6JwFqbhCbI
I’ve seen this show (above) a few times – it was a Father’s Day special from 1965 (I think) broadcast from St. Louis. The comedy routines with Sammy were typical of their shows. I think they are mostly indicative of the time, when racial and ethnic stereotypes were still a fixture of public discourse, even in polite company. People may still think the same nowadays, but there is a big difference in what is considered to be polite.
Random thought roundup:
• The pratfall that Dean Martin takes at 1:20 in that clip is perhaps ultimate proof of his flawless comic timing. Jerry Lewis always said Dean was the truly, naturally funny one (as opposed to the crazy monkey), and if you’ve ever seen clips of Martin and Lewis on live TV from the 50s (don’t even bother with the movies), it’s Dean who provokes the biggest laughs—at least in the spontaneous unscripted stuff (which is the only stuff worth seeing).
• I’m afraid I can’t see Johnny Carson in the same light after reading Henry Bushkin’s book. Unmissable and sad.
• To bring it back to football, in a weird bit of EPB timing, turns out, according to Bushkin, that Frank Gifford had an affair with Carson’s second wife, leading to a memorable scene in his book.
– Tom Fredrickson is the proprietor of the unparalleled music blog, Lost Wax Method.
Jerry Lewis commented in a Fresh Air interview on Dean’s timing, saying that he “knew when to breathe.” I also read somewhere that Frank was frustrated with Dean getting all the laughs in their routines and asked Joey Bishop once to give him all the funny lines and Dean the straight ones. Bishop did so, but Dean still got all of the laughs. Some people just have it and some don’t.
Bushkin’s tome on Johnny Carson is a good read. I had forgotten about Gifford’s role in it. Wasn’t totally surprised by the portrayal of Carson. Most of what I had heard about him, from Dick Cavett among others, suggested that he was very guarded in his personal relationships, even by celebrity standards. One of the more memorable lines in the book was Carson’s way of dismissing people in conversation when he wanted to move on to someone else. He would say, “We’re done here, right?”
Interesting item about Gifford. Jane Leavy, in her Mickey Mantle book, mentioned Gifford’s dislike of Mantle for the way he treated women. Seems a bit curious in retrospect since Gifford obviously played a bit off the field, too. I guess there’s honor among philanderers as well as thieves.
