Wow. I didn’t think anything like this existed. Understood only a few pre-1970 Tonight Shows survived. This must be one of em. It conveys the improvy (im-Pervy?) flavor of the rat pack just about better than anything I’ve seen. Dean still makes me laugh out loud, even when it’s Schtick I should’ve seen coming for miles. Joey even gets in a few quiet zingers. (His deadpan wouldn’t be cool for decades and doesn’t really mesh with the surrounding Vegasesque antics. He just seems sad.) And Frank sings, beautifully, in another enacted cognitive dissonance.
Also, you’d never know from watching, but Frank was engaged to the woman next to him (Juliet Prowse) five years earlier.
When giants strode the earth.
– Tom Fredrickson is the proprietor of the unparalleled music blog, Lost Wax Method.
