Greatest Comedians Of The 60's #2
Brother Theodore, Nichols and May, Dean Martin (includes full Rat Pack performance), Tommy Cooper and Bob Hope
Elaine May and Mike Nichols
Nichols and May Take Two
Great documentary
Nichols and May Playlist their best bits:
Nichols and May was an American improvisational comedy duo act developed by Mike Nichols (1931–2014) and Elaine May (born 1932). Their three comedy albums reached the Billboard Top 40 between 1959 and 1962. Many comedians have cited them as key influences in modern comedy. Woody Allen declared, “the two of them came along and elevated comedy to a brand-new level".
Nichols and May met as students at the University of Chicago in the early 1950s. They began their career together at The Compass Players, a predecessor to Chicago's Second City which included Paul Sills, Del Close, Loretta Chiljian, and Nancy Ponder.[4] Nichols dropped out of college in 1953 and moved to New York in 1954 to study acting with Lee Strasberg. May remained in Chicago at Compass, and Nichols returned in 1955. For a short time they worked as a trio with Shelley Berman, but Nichols felt a duo worked better for their style.
Both Nichols and May held various jobs and pursued their craft until 1957, when Compass began an expansion to St. Louis, Missouri. Nichols rejoined the company but was fired in 1958, because May objected to Nichols's treatment of Close, and because the producer suspected Nichols and May were honing an act they planned to take with them. They soon auditioned for agent Jack Rollins in New York, and within weeks they were booked on The Steve Allen Show and Omnibus. Soon they were touring the country and doing voiceover work for ads.
The duo discontinued the act in 1961, with each pursuing different careers. Nichols worked as a film and theatre director, and directed such films as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Graduate, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director. May appears in an uncredited cameo in "The Graduate." May primarily worked as a screenwriter, writing such films as A New Leaf, which she also directed and played the lead role, and Heaven Can Wait. - Wikipedia
Dean Martin
The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Man of the Hour Dean Martin
Roasters: Muhammad Ali, Joey Bishop, Foster Brooks, Ruth Buzzi, Charlie Callas, Howard Cosell, Angie Dickinson, Georgia Engel, Barry Goldwater, Bob Hope, Hubert Humphrey, Gabe Kaplan, Gene Kelly, Rich Little, Paul Lynde, Dick Martin, Joe Namath, Tony Orlando, Don Rickles (Roastmaster), Dan Rowan, Nipsey Russell, James Stewart, John Wayne, Orson Welles
The Rat Pack Live
This is a recently discovered kinescope of the Rat Pack performing live. shows the cool of Frank, Dean, Sammy in 1964.It was broadcast on closed circuit TV to theaters across the country to benefit the Father Dismas Clark's Halfway House for ex-cons.Performers include Johnny Carson, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Trini Lopez, Kaye Stevens, The Count Basie Orchestra conducted by a young Quincy Jones.
A Psychotronic Night Tribute To 2 Legends: THE MAYHEM OF DEAN MARTIN AND JERRY LEWIS
Episodes of their TV show, an incredible clip of a near riot as masses of people descend on their hotel and more! Click this link:
Click this link to understand how big Martin & Lewis were click here
The Dean Martin Show - 09/29/1966
Starring: The Andrew Sisters, Tim Conway, Duke Ellington, Frank Gorshin and Lainie Kazan.
Dean Paul Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor, and comedian. One of the most popular entertainers of the mid-20th century, he was nicknamed "The King of Cool." Martin gained his career breakthrough together with comedian Jerry Lewis, billed as Martin and Lewis, in 1946. They performed in nightclubs and later had numerous appearances on radio and television and in films.
Following an acrimonious ending of the partnership in 1956, Martin pursued a solo career as a performer and actor. He established himself as a singer, recording numerous contemporary songs as well as standards from the Great American Songbook. He became one of the most popular acts in Las Vegas and was known for his friendship with fellow artists Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr., who together with several others formed the Rat Pack.
Starting in 1965, Martin was the host of the television variety program The Dean Martin Show, which centered on Martin's singing and comedic talents and was characterized by his relaxed, easy-going demeanor. From 1974 to 1984, he was roastmaster on the popular Dean Martin Celebrity Roast, which drew celebrities, comedians and politicians. Throughout his career, Martin performed in concert stages, nightclubs, audio recordings and appeared in 85 film and television productions. - Wikipedia
Tommy Cooper
The Tommy Cooper Hour
Tommy tracks down a murderer which results in him getting mixed into a television production of Doctor Frankenstein. Lena Martell performs one of her songs and Tommy attempts to remove the shirt from boxing champ Henry Cooper.
Tommy Cooper: In His Own Words | Comedy Legends
Great documentary
Comedic Magician Tommy Cooper Isn't Much Of A Juggler |
The Ed Sullivan Show- 1963
The Plank
Tommy Cooper & Eric Sykes in this classic short Movie
Thomas Frederick Cooper (19 March 1921 – 15 April 1984) was a Welsh prop comedian and magician. As an entertainer, his appearance was large and lumbering at 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m), and he habitually wore a red fez when performing. He served in the British Army for seven years, before developing his conjuring skills and becoming a member of The Magic Circle. Although he spent time on tour performing his magical act, which specialized on magic tricks that appeared to fail, he rose to international prominence when his career moved into television, with programmes for London Weekend Television and Thames Television.
By the end of the 1970s, Cooper was smoking and drinking heavily, which affected his career and his health, effectively ending offers to front new programmes and relegating him to performing as a guest star on other entertainment shows. On 15 April 1984, Cooper died at the age of 63 after suffering a heart attack on live television. - Wikipedia
Bob Hope
Bob Hope & Shirley Ross - Thanks for the Memory (1938)
Bob Hope used this song as his theme for his entire career- few ever heard the lyrics. Here he sings them in 1938 with Shirley Ross.
To say the song is devastating would be an understatement. The song is about 2 people divorcing, who are telling each other all the great times they had together.
THE GHOST BREAKERS For my money this is the best film Bob Hope ever made, and this haunted house story would even influence GHOST BUSTERS. Pop some popcorn, grab a brew and click this link:
Click this link for GHOST BREAKERS
Bob Hope - Biography
Great documentary
Bob Hope Christmas Special (1967)
Presents Bob Hope's annual USO tour of Southeast Asian military bases. Features Raquel Welch, Elaine Dunn, Phil Crosby,
Barbara McNair, and Miss World, Madeleine Hartog Bell.
Bob Hope 85th Birthday Special
Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was an American comedian, actor, entertainer, and producer with a career that spanned nearly 80 years and achievements in vaudeville, network radio, television, and USO Tours. He appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, starring in 54. These included a series of seven Road to ... musical comedy films with long-time friend Bing Crosby as his partner.
Hope hosted the Academy Awards show 19 times, more than any other host. He also appeared in many stage productions and television roles and wrote 14 books. The song "Thanks for the Memory" was his signature tune.
Hope was born in the Eltham district of southeast London. He arrived in the United States with his family at the age of four, and grew up near Cleveland, Ohio. He became a boxer in the 1910s but moved into show business in the early 1920s, initially as a comedian and dancer on the vaudeville circuit before acting on Broadway. He began appearing on radio and in films starting in 1934. He was praised for his comedic timing, specializing in one-liners and rapid-fire delivery of jokes that were often self-deprecating.
Between 1941 and 1991, Hope made 57 tours for the United Service Organizations (USO), entertaining military personnel around the world. In 1997, Congress passed a bill that made him an honorary veteran of the Armed Forces.
Hope retired from public life in 1998 and died in 2003, at 100. - Wikipedia
Brother Theodore Brother Theodore Complete Collection on Letterman, 1982-89
Brother Theodore & Jerry Lewis- Interview/Argument 1966
David Letterman's Christmas Shows, 1984 & 1987
Theodore Isidore Gottlieb (November 11, 1906 – April 5, 2001), mostly known as Brother Theodore, was a German-born American actor and comedian known for rambling, stream-of-consciousness monologues which he called "stand-up tragedy". He was described as "Boris Karloff, surrealist Salvador Dalí, Nijinsky and Red Skelton…simultaneously".
He worked as a janitor at Stanford University, where he demonstrated his prowess at chess by beating 30 professors simultaneously, and later became a dockworker in San Francisco. He played a bit part in Orson Welles' 1946 movie The Stranger. This was one of the several movie appearances he made beginning in the 1940s and continuing into the 1990s. These were mostly small parts in B-movies, although he did provide the voice of Gollum in the 1977 made-for-television animated version of The Hobbit and the follow-up adaptation of The Return of the King (1980). He also voiced Ruhk, Mommy Fortuna's assistant and carnival barker in The Last Unicorn (1982).
Theodore's career as a monologuist began in California in the late 1940s, with dramatic Poe recitals. He moved to New York City, and by the 1950s, his monologues, now darkly humorous, had attracted a cult following. In 1958, he presented a one-man show that promoted "quadrupedism", the idea that human beings should walk on all fours. Jay Landesman booked him at St. Louis' Crystal Palace during the 1960s. In the early 1960s, he frequently performed at the Café Bizarre in New York's Greenwich Village (106 W 3rd Street). He reached a wider audience through television, with 36 appearances on The Merv Griffin Show in the 1960s and '70s, and was also a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Dick Cavett Show, and The Joey Bishop Show. After his nightclub and TV appearances in the 1950s and '60s waned, he retired in the mid-1970s.
He was pulled out of retirement and booked by magician Dorothy Dietrich and Dick Brooks in the Magic Towne House on the affluent Upper East Side of Manhattan for special weekend midnight performances. Years earlier, Brooks had remembered seeing Brother Theodore drawing large crowds at small, eclectic clubs across the Lower East Side (Greenwich and the East Village) and sought him out to appear at his new club. This resulted in a resurgence of interest in Brother Theodore that brought him success in his later years starting with Tom Snyder's Tomorrow Show in 1977 followed by more TV appearances and movies. According to Brooks, it took multiple calls to Theodore to convince him to make a comeback. Theodore's attitude was very bleak, and he felt his career was over. Brooks wanted to charge ten or more dollars, but Theodore insisted on four dollars, so as not to scare people away. The show was a success and ran for three years. A picture of the Magic Towne House ad appeared in local New York newspapers such as the Village Voice and The New York Post.
Theodore made 16 appearances on NBC's Late Night with David Letterman in the 1980s; Letterman introduced him as “a noted philosopher, metaphysician, and podiatrist”. In the early 1980s, he was a regular on the Billy Crystal Comedy Hour. He also did voice work, including the voice-over to the American trailer for Lucio Fulci's The House by the Cemetery in 1981. In 1989 he appeared in the Joe Dante comedy film The 'Burbs. Up until the late 1990s, he was a guest actor in several episodes of Joe Frank: Work in Progress radio show on National Public Radio (NPR). Beginning in 1982, Theodore took up residence on Saturday nights for a nearly two-decade run at the 13th Street Repertory Theatre in Greenwich Village. - Wikipedia