Memories of the very Jewish Sid & the "Show of Shows"….
Sid Caesar and his Merry Lantzman arrived on the "Radio w/Pictures Machine" just as it was debuting in 1948/49….They were like a speeding comet of comedy and by the late1950's they were over….the audience was getting "dumber" and talking mules were more to their taste!
With all the obituaries on line I've been thinking a lot about Sid Caesar lately. Being an early TV baby with a 12" B/W Silvertone in 1948…I was lucky enough to experience first hand the meteoric rise and later fall of Sid. The Caesar Family had so much high energy and comedy creativity it was almost surprising they lasted as long as they did.
His first show "The Admiral Broadway Review" ran from January 28 to June 3, 1949…barely 5 months. In those days one sponsor would pay for the entire show. Admiral put this show on promote their new TV line…after a few short months of the Caesar show they were so overloaded with orders they dropped the show in favor of building a new factory. If he wasn't so good he would have stayed on longer.
Out of those ashes Max Leibman, the "Paterfamilias"/Producer/Director of the show created "Your Show of Shows" or as we called it "Three Jews & a Shiksa"! It wasn't just the genius of Sid alone..he was surrounded with 3 great second bananas plus the best staff of comedy writers ever corralled onto one show....Imagine 90 minutes "Live" of non-stop skits and mini-movies…with Sid, Carl Reiner, Howie Morris & Imogene Coca. Some of the (Jewish blogs) in their obituaries criticized "Your Show of Shows" & the later "Caesars Hour" for being too WASPish.
There were many Jewish Headliners in early TV from Milton Berle to Jack Benny to Jerry Lewis (Colgate Comedy Hour), to Burns & Allen to Groucho Marx to Red Buttons to Phil Silvers, etc. all but Phil Silvers & Red Buttons pretty much passed as non-ethnic.
Max Leibman wanted a class show so he hired Opera Singers & Shakespearean Actors instead of Borscht Belt Comics for guest stars. It was said all Yiddish (words, speech,) was banned from the show by Max... who wanted to appeal to the widest possible audience. But that was a hard request to honor with a writing staff of Mel Tolkin, Lucille Kallen, Danny & Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart, Mel Brooks & Tony Webster….only Webster was a non Jew….plus 3 of the 4 stars & Max were all Jews. Everything they said or wrote felt Jewish!
Imogene Coca was Margaret Dumont to Sid's Groucho…she never had a clue to what was going on!
Carl & Howie always came off as WASP's or non-ethnics…but how could you hide the Jewish persona of Sid Caesar? He oozed it…his face screamed it... every accent he did reeked of Yiddish. When Sid as any character, especially with an accent, would scream …"I want…I NEED ...a Pickle" to wife Imogene…you could smell the "Schmaltz" pouring out of his pores.
All Hail…Isaac Sidney Caesar…RIP.
For a taste of what it was like….find a copy of the video "Laughter on the 23rd floor" with the inimitable Nathan Lane as Sid or the movie "My Favorite Year" with Joe Bologna as Sid.
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