For the 1929 movie, see The Show of Shows.

Your Show of Shows
Imogene Coca and Sid Caesar in a 1952 skit.
Genre	Variety show
Created by	Sylvester L. Weaver Jr.
Directed by	Nat Hiken Max Liebman
Starring	Sid Caesar Imogene Coca Howard Morris Carl Reiner James Starbuck
Narrated by	Ed Herlihy (announcer)
Theme music composer	Mel Tolkin Clay Warnick Max Liebman
Opening theme	"Stars Over Broadway"
Composer(s)	Irwin Kostal Johnny Mandel Alex North
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	160
Production
Producer(s)	Max Liebman
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	90 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Picture format	Black-and-white
Audio format	Monaural
Original run	February 25, 1950 (1950-02-25) – June 5, 1954 (1954-06-05)
Chronology
Followed by	Caesar's Hour

Your Show of Shows is a live 90-minute variety show that appeared weekly in the United States on NBC (Saturdays, 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time), from February 25, 1950, until June 5, 1954, featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca.

Other featured performers were Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Nanette Fabray, Bill Hayes, Judy Johnson, The Hamilton Trio and the soprano Marguerite Piazza. José Ferrer made several guest appearances on the show. The show was telecast from the now-demolished International Theatre (also known as the Park Theatre) at 5 Columbus Circle and the Century Theater now demolished in New York.^[1]

In 2002, Your Show of Shows was ranked #30 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.^[2]

Production notes[link]

The show was brought to television by Sylvester "Pat" Weaver and directed by Max Liebman who had been producing musical revues at the Taminant resort in the Poconos for many years prior. Caesar, Coca, and Liebman had worked on The Admiral Broadway Revue from January to June 1949. Writers for the show included Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Danny Simon, Mel Tolkin, and Carl Reiner who, though a cast member, always sat in with the writers. Originating from vaudeville, the show is historically significant for the evolution of the variety genre, by incorporating sitcoms like The Hickenloopers; this added a narrative element to the traditional multi-act structure.^[3]

A common misconception is that Larry Gelbart wrote for Your Show of Shows; he in fact wrote for its successor program, Caesar's Hour, which ran from 1954 to 1957.^[4] Likewise, Woody Allen did not write for Your Show of Shows, as he only worked on several Sid Caesar TV specials that debuted after it.^[5]

Carl Reiner has stated that the time he spent on Your Show of Shows was the inspiration for The Dick Van Dyke Show. Your Show of Shows also inspired the 1982 film My Favorite Year, produced by Mel Brooks, and the play Laughter on the 23rd Floor written by Neil Simon.

Ratings[link]

• 1950-1951: #4
• 1951-1952: #8
• 1952-1953: #19

Episode status[link]

Most of the kinescopes of the show were discarded by NBC, and so few copies of the show survive. A 1973 theatrical film titled Ten from Your Show of Shows featured ten sketches from the show edited together.

In 2000, original scripts from the show were found in a closet belonging to producer Max Liebman in the City Center building in New York City. The find made the front page of the New York Times. It is believed they were left there upon the death of Max Liebman in 1981.

After the program ended Imogene Coca starred in her own one-year NBC comedy and variety show, The Imogene Coca Show. Thereafter, Sid Caesar changed his format and launched Caesar's Hour.

Syndication and DVD release[link]

Reruns of surviving kinescopes aired on Comedy Central in the early 1990s. Sketches from the show which are from Sid Caesar's personal collection are available on The Sid Caesar Collection DVD set.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Your Show of Shows at the Internet Movie Database
• Your Show of Shows at TV.com
• Ten From Your Show of Shows (1973) at IMDB
• The Sid Caesar Collection

The Show of Shows (1929) is a lavish all talking Vitaphone musical revue film that cost $850,000 to make. The Show of Shows was Warner Bros.' fifth color movie; the first four were The Desert Song (1929), On With the Show (1929), Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929) and Paris (1929). This movie featured most of the contemporary Warner Bros. film stars.

The movie was styled in the same format as the earlier MGM film The Hollywood Revue of 1929. The Show of Shows was photographed almost entirely in Technicolor; the cost of the film meant that although it performed well at the box office, it did not return as much profit as the MGM film. The Show of Shows was originally meant and advertised as being in all color-talking movie, however, twenty-one minutes was in black and white, the first part, seventeen minutes and the first four minutes of part two.

Seen today in incomplete black-and-white duplicate prints, it remains of historical interest, showing the talent working at Warner Bros. in the early talkie period. The film features all the stars then working at Warner Bros. except for Dorothy Mackaill and Al Jolson. Virtually all the performers shown would vanish from the studio by 1931, after tastes had shifted due to the effects of the Great Depression, which began to be felt late in 1930.

At that time, the sophisticated and musical talent that had characterized the 1920s was replaced by a new set of stars, more in tune with the common man and with more sober times, headed by the likes of Warren William, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Glenda Farrell, William Powell, Kay Francis, Lee Tracy, Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Clark Gable, and James Cagney. In 1929 however, these were as yet unknown names in the movie world, with the exception of Powell, who was a well-known villain in Paramount silents. In The Show of Shows we see many of the performers who were popular in silent movies mixed in with hand-picked stage stars and novelty acts.

The emcee of the film was Frank Fay, who had an unusual style of barbed sarcasm. In an era of almost naive optimism, he stands out as a witty devil's advocate. Fay's unique style appears to have been often misunderstood by reviewers and audiences and interpreted as bad technique, but Fay is clearly sending up the film, albeit slyly. He uses this technique to good effect in introducing each act and has a running joke about doing his own song, which he eventually performs near the end of the film.

Scenes[link]

What follows here is a detailed description of the existing prints. Most of the scenes were originally in color, but only black and white television prints survive, except for The Chinese Fantasy scene and The Meet My Sister scene. The Meet My Sister scene is available only in black and white on most prints, as the color print is held private.

• Prologue—In a scene set in the French Revolution, Hobart Bosworth as an executioner and H.B. Warner as an aristocrat who is executed on a guillotine. This strange and morbid opening serves to show that traditional stage shows are finished. Up until 1929, most big cities had added stage acts before silent movies. These were costly, and sound films would make them mostly obsolete. As the aristocrat tries to speak he is interrupted by the executioner, who rants that they have heard his remarks too often and it is time for him to be gone. After the blade falls the executioner joyously shouts: "Prologue is Dead! On with the Show of Shows!".

• Military March—lead by Monte Blue and Pasadena American Legion Fife and Drum Corps. A very static pageant set entirely on a huge set of steps with the cadets changing formation to provide a series of color effects in a manner that would be popularized much later by Busby Berkeley.

• What's Become of the Florodora Boys?—Myrna Loy, Marian Nixon, Ben Turpin, Lupino Lane, and many others in a partial parody of the now largely forgotten 'Florodora' Edwardian stage show. This was the first of its kind — a lavish show featuring girls in a chorus, and it would attract a generation of male admirers before passing into history. Thus, the production was still a living memory among many in 1929, prompting this gentle parody.

• Motion Picture Pirates—featuring Ted Lewis with a fantasy number set of a pirate ship headed by cut-throat Noah Beery and Tully Marshall with Wheeler Oakman, Kala Pasha and other well-known movie villains of the era. A group of beautiful girls are captured and saved from an awful fate (almost) by light comedian Johnny Arthur sending up Douglas Fairbanks. The pirates literally blow him overboard. Finally the day is saved by Ted Lewis, a well-known bandleader at that time who had recently appeared in his own starring vehicle for Warner Bros., Is Everybody Happy? (1929), a film now deemed lost. His trademark was a battered top hat and his signature tune was "Me and My Shadow".

• Dear Little Pup—sung by Frank Fay.

• The Only Song I Know—Nick Lucas

• Pingo-Pongo—sung by Winnie Lightner

• If I Could Learn to Love—In a brief introductory sequence, missing from circulating prints, Georges Carpentier is introduced by Frank Fay, who provokes Carpentier into lightly tapping him with his formidable hands, to which Fay comically overreacts and then beats a hasty retreat. Georges Carpentier was a French lightweight boxer who was briefly adopted as a star in the Maurice Chevalier mold. He sings here against an Eiffel Tower backdrop, accompanied by Patsy Ruth Miller and Alice White and later, a singing and dancing chorus of girls. Ultimately, everyone removes their street clothes to reveal athletic togs underneath, and a precision dance routine follows, with the participants positioned on an upright series of geometric struts.

• Recitations—Beatrice Lillie, Louise Fazenda, Lloyd Hamilton and Frank Fay. A series of stark limerick recitations that are first performed by each performer whole and then line by line, until when mixed up they form a bizarre and suggestive product. The sequence also includes a parody of the MGM song "Your Mother and Mine" and a series of purposely lame and pointless practical jokes.

• Meet My Sister—Introduced by a deliberately nervous Richard Barthelmess, followed by 'Hollywood' sisters including Dolores Costello and Helene Costello singing "Meet My Sister", along with Loretta Young and Sally Blane, Sally O'Neil and Molly O'Day, Alice Day and Marceline Day, Marion Byron and Harriette Lake (later better known as Ann Sothern), Viola Dana and Shirley Mason, Lola Vendrell and Armida Vendrell, and Alberta Vaughn and Adamae Vaughn. All of the pairs were sisters in real life except for Marion Byron and Harriette Lake, who were not related. The song is partly compromised by having each set of 'twins' representing a different country against a backdrop serving to illustrate each in a display of international stereotypes (this number exists in color in a faded private print, which has the start and end partly removed).

• Intermission—Ten Minutes—Title Card (missing from some prints)

• Singin' in the Bathtub—Winnie Lightner and a bunch of male chorines amusingly send up Singin' in the Rain against a huge bathroom set, concluding with Lightner and ex-wrestler Bull Montana singing a parody of the MGM song "You Were Meant for Me" from the 1929 film The Broadway Melody.

• Irene Bordoni singing "Just an Hour of Love".
• Chinese Fantasy—Introduced, via sharp barks, by canine performer Rin Tin Tin; with Nick Lucas singing "Li-Po-Li" and Myrna Loy dancing. This lavish production number is a good illustration of the film as a whole and still entertains today. It survives in Technicolor.

• Frank Fay with Sid Silvers—Amusing skit with Sid Silvers stepping in as an annoying spectator who is auditioning for a solo spot, by showing Frank Fay his own imitation of Al Jolson singing "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody". Jolson, although a Warner Bros. top star, does not appear.

• A Bicycle Built for Two—Another music hall pastiche featuring Chester Conklin, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Chester Morris, Gertrude Olmstead, Sally Eilers and others singing the 1890s standard "Daisy Bell", against a deliberately unreal revolving backdrop.

• If Your Best Friend Won't Tell You (Why Should I?)—Sid Silvers back with Frank Fay wickedly singing about the horrors of halitosis.

• Larry Ceballos' Black and White Girls—Introduced by Sid Silvers, danced by chorus girls dressed up in black and white dresses. One half of the girls wear outfits with black fronts and white backs (with corresponding wigs) the others wear outfits exactly the reverse. As the girls turn about in formation the lines of dancers switch from white to black, or form geometric patterns. Music instrumental Jumping Jack. A reworking of an almost identical dance routine, set to "The Doll Dance", that appeared in the 1928 Technicolor two-reeler, "Larry Ceballos' Roof Garden Revue".

As an afterpiece the dance appears to begin again but is halted by Louise Fazenda as the "Dancing Delegate" complaining about the costumes ("These skirts are TOO SHORT!") demanding that Fay be brought on stage — which happens so rapidly he appears without his pants.

• Your Love Is All I Crave—An emotional and surprisingly moving torch song of lost love sung by Frank Fay. Fay introduces the number with a topical and (for 1929) surprisingly sharp series of jokes — he describes being in a play where the entire cast entered dressed in rags; "It was a futuristic piece". He also tweaks his own image: "The leading lady called to me: "My Stalwart Youth" ... (I was heavily made up)...."

• King Richard III (in excerpt from Henry VI (Part III))—Introduced and recited by John Barrymore. This Shakespeare extract was thought to add a bit of class at the time. Deliberately picked as a particularly grim sequence, the delivery or meaning could easily be accepted by any contemporary audience.

• Mexican Moonshine —Comedy sketch with Monte Blue as a condemned man, and Frank Fay as his executioner, accompanied by Lloyd Hamilton, Albert Gran and others as rather effeminate soldiers. ("Oh, Penelope!" calls Fay, and Lloyd Hamilton walks over swaying his hips.) It is a parody of 'Chesterfield' Tobacco advertising. Much the same idea, parodying a cigarette advertising slogan, also appears in the opening seconds of Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929).

• Lady Luck Finale—A genuinely spectacular finale lasting over quarter of an hour. (Originally filmed in 2-strip Technicolor it now exists only in black and white. The following description is of the ORIGINAL version). It starts with Alexander Gray singing a full blooded version of the song "Lady Luck" inside an enormous ballroom set with huge windows revealing a midnight green sky. The set is backed by stairs in varied warm colors, down which a procession of novelty acts, pastel colored dancers with pink and green costumes, flood the stage, each with a different number to perform against a fast moving musical backing. The red lined ceiling reveals chandeliers to which girls have been fixed all in the name of spectacle. Tap dancers (both White and Black groups) dance themselves into a frenzy on a highly polished wooden floor. This all ends as Betty Compson walks down the full length of the stage in procession to meet Alexander Gray and with the whole cast assembled, hundreds of colored streamers drop from the roof as "Lady Luck" reaches a finale.

• Curtain of Stars —With the cast appearing with their heads poked through holes in canvas singing "Lady Luck", especially John Barrymore making facial gestures while he pretends to be singing along with the others.

Film preservation[link]

This movie still survives in a black and white 1950s television copy. Color sequences only survive in black and white except the "Chinese Fantasy" sequence introduced by Rin Tin Tin, and starring Myrna Loy and Nick Lucas.

Songs[link]

• "You Were Meant For Me" by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed—Sung by Bull Montana and Winnie Lightner
• "Singin' in the Bathtub" Music by Michael Cleary, Lyrics by Herb Magidson and Ned Washington—Sung by Winnie Lightner with a chorus of men dressed as women wearing comic bathing suits, who in turn are joined by fat cigar smoking men in reclining in glass bathtubs.
• "Lady Luck"—Music and Lyrics by Ray Perkins, Sung by Nick Lucas, Alexander Gray and Ted Lewis
• "Motion Picture Pirates"—Music and Lyrics by M.K. Jerome
• "If I Could Learn to Love"—Music by M.K. Jerome, Lyrics by Herman Ruby—Sung by Georges Carpentier
• "Isle of Pingo-Pongo"—Music by Joseph Burke, Lyrics by Al Dubin, Sung by Winnie Lightner
• "The Only Song I Know"—Music by Ray Perkins, Lyrics by J. Keirn Brennan
• "Meet My Sister", Music by Ray Perkins, Lyrics by J. Keirn Brennan
• "Your Mother and Mine", Music by Gus Edwards, Lyrics by Joe Goodwin
• "Just an Hour of Love", Music by Edward Ward, Lyrics by Alfred Bryan
• "Li-Po-Li", Music by Edward Ward, Lyrics by Alfred Bryan, Sung by Mr Nick Lucas
• "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody", Music by Jean Schwartz, Lyrics by Sam Lewis and Joe Young
• "If Your Best Friends Won't Tell You (Why Should I)", Music by Joseph Burke, Lyrics by Al Dubin, Sung by Frank Fay
• "Your Love Is All I Crave", Music by Jimmy Johnson, Lyrics by Perry Bradford and Al Dubin, Sung by Frank Fay
• "What's Become of the Floradora Boys?", Music and Lyrics by Ray Perkins
• "Dear Little Pup", Music by Ray Perkins, Lyrics by J. Keirn Brennan, Sung by Frank Fay

Credited cast[link]

• Harry Akst—On-Screen Pianist
• Armida Vendrell—'Meet My Sister' and 'Lady Luck' Finale
• Johnny Arthur—'Motion Picture Pirates'
• Mary Astor—'Motion Picture Pirates'
• John Barrymore—'Henry VI Part III'
• Richard Barthelmess—Introduces 'Meet My Sister'
• Noah Beery—The 'Motion Picture Pirates' and 'Mexican Moonshine' sketches
• Sally Blane—'Meet My Sister' number
• Monte Blue—Condemned man in 'Mexican Moonshine' sketch
• Irène Bordoni—singing 'One Hour of Love'
• Hobart Bosworth—Prologue (executioner)
• Jack Buchanan—Himself (Not in American Release Prints)
• Marion Byron—'Meet My Sister' number
• Georges Carpentier—'If I Could Learn To Love' Number
• Chester Conklin—'Bicycle Built for Two' number
• Heinie Conklin—Himself
• Dolores Costello—'Meet My Sister' number
• Helene Costello—'Meet My Sister' number
• William Courtenay—'Bicycle Built for Two' Sequence
• Viola Dana—'Motion Picture Pirates' and 'Meet My Sister number
• Alice Day—'What's Become of the Florodora Boys' and 'Meet My Sister numbers
• Marceline Day—'Meet My Sister number
• Douglas Fairbanks Jr.—'Bicycle Built for Two' number
• Frank Fay—Master of Ceremonies
• Louise Fazenda—'Recitations' sketch
• Lloyd Hamilton—'Florodora', 'Recitations' and 'Mexican Moonshine' sketch
• Lupino Lane—'What's Become of the Florodora Boys' number
• Lila Lee—'What's Become of the Florodora Boys' number
• Ted Lewis—Himself (as Ted Lewis & His Orchestra)
• Winnie Lightner—'Pingo Pongo' and 'Singin' in the Bathtub' numbers
• Beatrice Lillie—'Recitations' sketch
• Lola—'Lady Luck' Finale
• Myrna Loy—'Florodora Boys', 'Believe Me' and 'Chinese Fantasy' numbers
• Nick Lucas—'Lady Luck' solo, 'The Only Song I Know' and 'Chinese Fantasy numbers
• Tully Marshall—'Motion Picture Pirates' and 'Mexican Moonshine' sequences
• Shirley Mason—'Meet My Sister' number
• Patsy Ruth Miller—'What's Become of the Florodora Boys' and 'If I Could Learn to Love' numbers
• Bull Montana—'Singin' in the Bathtub' number
• Lee Moran—'Singin' in the Bathtub' sequence
• Chester Morris—'$20 Bet' sketch and 'Bicycle Built for Two' number
• Jack Mulhall—'$20 Bet' Sketch
• Marian Nixon—'What's Become of the Florodora Boys' number
• Molly O'Day—'Meet My Sister'
• Sally O'Neil—'What's Become of the Florodora Boys' and 'Meet My Sister numbers
• Kalla Pasha—'Motion Picture Pirates'
• Anders Randolf—'Motion Picture Pirates'
• Rin Tin Tin—Himself, introducing "An Oriental Fantasy"
• Sojin—'$20 Bet' Sketch
• Ann Sothern—'Meet My Sister' and 'Bicycle Built for Two' numbers—Unverified (as Harriet Byron)
• Ben Turpin—'What's Become of the Florodora Boys' number
• Ada Mae Vaughn—'Meet My Sister'
• Alberta Vaughn—'Meet My Sister'
• Edward Ward—(as Eddie Ward)
• H.B. Warner—Aristocrat in Prologue
• Alice White—'If I Could Learn to Love'
• Lois Wilson—'Bicycle Built for Two' number
• Grant Withers—'Believe Me'(cut) and 'Bicycle Built for Two' number
• Loretta Young—'Meet My Sister' number
• William Bakewell—'Bicycle Built for Two' number
• Ethlyne Clair—'Motion Picture Pirates' number
• Betty Compson—'Lady Luck' Finale, as Lady Luck (herself)
• Albert Gran—'Singin' in the Bathtub' sequence
• Alexander Gray—Vocalist, 'Lady Luck' Finale
• Jacqueline Logan—'Motion Picture Pirates' sequence
• Marcelle—'Lady Luck' Finale
• Edna Murphy—'Motion Picture Pirates' sequence
• Carmel Myers—'Motion Picture Pirates' sequence
• Gertrude Olmstead—'Motion Picture Pirates' sequence
• Sid Silvers—Al Jolson imitation, introduces 'Black and White Girls' number
• Bert Roach—'What's Become of the Florodora Boys' sequence

Uncredited Cast[link]

• Anthony Bushell
• Michael Cleary
• Ruth Clifford
• William Collier Jr.
• Jack Curtis
• Sally Eilers (as herself )
• Pauline Garon
• Julanne Johnston
• Frances Lee
• Otto Matieson
• Philo McCullough
• Wheeler Oakman
• E.J. Ratcliffe
• Reginald Sharland
• Dave Silverman
• Louis Silvers
• Norman Spencer
• Lester Stevens
• Ted Williams

See also[link]

• List of early color feature films

External links[link]

• The Show of Shows (1929) at the Internet Movie Database

Sid Caesar
Caesar in 1980
Born	Isaac Sidney Caesar (1922-09-08) September 8, 1922 (age 89) Yonkers, New York
Occupation	Actor, comedian, writer, musician
Years active	1946-2008
Spouse	Florence Levy (m.1943-2010; her death)

Isaac Sidney "Sid" Caesar (born September 8, 1922) is an Emmy award winning American comic actor and writer known for the 1950s television series Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, and to younger generations as Coach Calhoun in Grease and Grease 2.

Early life[link]

Caesar was born in Yonkers, New York, the youngest son of Max Caesar and his wife Ida (née Raphael), Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire who ran a restaurant.^[1][2][3] Caesar would wait on tables and learned to mimic the accents, something he would use throughout his career. He first tried his double-talk with a group of Italians, his head barely reaching above the table. They enjoyed it so much that they sent him over to a group of Poles to repeat it in Polish, and so on with Russians, Hungarians, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Lithuanians and Bulgarians. Despite his apparent fluency in many languages, Caesar can actually speak only English and Yiddish. Sid's older brother David was his comic mentor and "one-man cheering section." They created their earliest family sketches from then current movies like Test Pilot and Wings.

At fourteen, Caesar went to the Catskills as a saxophonist with Mike Cifichello's Swingtime Six and would also occasionally perform in sketches in the Borscht Belt. When he graduated from high school, he left home, intent on a musical career. He arrived in New York City penniless and tried to join the musician's union (later he attended classes at the Juilliard School of Music). He found work at the Vacationland Hotel in Swan Lake in the Catskills. Under the tutelage of Don Appel, the resort's social director, Caesar played in the band and learned to perform comedy, doing three shows a week. In 1939, when World War II was just starting, he enlisted in the United States Coast Guard, and was assigned to play in military revues and shows in Brooklyn, New York.^[4] Vernon Duke, the famous composer of Autumn in New York, April in Paris, and Taking a Chance on Love, was also at the same base and collaborated with Caesar in musical revues.

During the summer of 1942, Caesar met his future wife Florence Levy at the Avon Lodge. After joining the musician's union, he briefly played with Shep Fields, Claude Thornhill, Charlie Spivak, and Benny Goodman.^[5] Caesar's comedy, however, got bigger applause than the musical numbers, and the show's producer asked him to do stand-up between his numbers. While still in the service, Caesar was ordered to Palm Beach, Florida, where Vernon Duke and Howard Dietz were putting together a service revue, Tars and Spars. There he met the civilian director of the show, Max Liebman, later the producer of his first hit television series. Tars and Spars toured nationally, and then a film version was made at Columbia Pictures. He also got a part in The Guilt of Janet Ames. He married Florence Levy on July 17, 1943, and has three children, Michele, Rick, and Karen.

Career[link]

After the war, Caesar and his wife stayed in Hollywood, but despite a few offers to play sidekick roles, Caesar decided to go back to New York, where he got a club date as the opening act for Joe E. Lewis at the Copacabana nightclub. He reunited with Max Liebman, who guided his stage material and presentation. That appearance led to a contract with the William Morris Agency and a nationwide tour. Caesar also performed in a Broadway revue Make Mine Manhattan, which featured The Five Dollar Date, one of his first original pieces in which he sang, acted, double-talked, pantomimed, and wrote the music.

Caesar began his television career when he made an appearance on Milton Berle's Texaco Star Theater. In early 1949, Sid and Max met with Pat Weaver, vice president of television at NBC (and father of Sigourney Weaver), which led to Caesar's appearance in his first series The Admiral Broadway Revue with Imogene Coca. The Friday show, simultaneously broadcast on NBC and the DuMont network (in order for the show to be carried on the only TV station then operating in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — DuMont's WDTV — the sponsor had to agree to a simulcast) was an immediate success, but its sponsor, Admiral, an appliance company, could not keep up with the demand for its new television sets, so the show was cancelled after 26 weeks on account of its runaway success. According to Caesar, an Admiral executive later told him the company had the choice of building a new factory or continuing their sponsorship of the Revue for another season.

On February 23, 1950, Caesar appeared in the first episode of Your Show of Shows, a Saturday night 90-minute variety program produced by Max Liebman (who had previously produced The Admiral Broadway Revue). The premiere featured Burgess Meredith as guest host, and other musical guests Gertrude Lawrence, Lily Pons, and Robert Merrill. The show launched Caesar into instant stardom and was a mix of scripted and improvised comedy, movie and television satires, Caesar's inimitable double-talk monologues, top musical guests, and large production numbers. The impressive guest list included: Jackie Cooper, Robert Preston, Rex Harrison, Eddie Albert, Michael Redgrave, Basil Rathbone, Charlton Heston, Geraldine Page, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Pearl Bailey, Fred Allen, Benny Goodman, Lena Horne and many other big stars of the time. It was also responsible for bringing together one of the best comedy teams in television history: Caesar, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, and Imogene Coca. Many prominent writers, denizens of the 'Writer's Room', also got their break creating the show's madcap sketches, including Lucille Kallen, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Woody Allen, Michael Stewart, Mel Tolkin, Sheldon Keller and Larry Gelbart. Sid Caesar won his first Emmy in 1952. In 1951 and 1952, he was voted the United States' Best Comedian by Motion Picture Daily's TV poll. The show ended after 160 episodes on June 5, 1954. The movie My Favorite Year was a fictional comedic account of a show similar to Your Show of Shows — and the favorite year was 1954.

Just a few months later, Sid Caesar returned with Caesar's Hour, a one-hour sketch/variety show with Morris, Reiner, a young Bea Arthur, and much of the seasoned crew. Nanette Fabray replaced Imogene Coca who left to star in her own short-lived series. Ultimate creative and technical control was now totally in Caesar's hands. The show moved to the larger Century Theater, which allowed longer, more sophisticated productions and the weekly budget doubled to $125,000. The premier on September 27, 1954 featured Gina Lollobrigida.

Contemporary movies, foreign movies, theater, television shows and even opera all became targets of satire by the writing team, whose frenetic and competitive spirit produced some of the best comedy in television history. Often the publicity generated by the sketches boosted the box office of the original productions. Some notable sketches included: "From Here to Obscurity" (From Here to Eternity), "Aggravation Boulevard" (Sunset Boulevard), "Hat Basterson" (Bat Masterson), and "No West For the Wicked" (Stagecoach). Even silent movies were parodied, which showed off the impressive pantomime skills of the entire ensemble. They also performed some recurring sketches. "The Hickenloopers" were television's first bickering couple, predating The Honeymooners. As "The Professor", Caesar was the daffy expert who bluffed his way through his interviews with earnest roving reporter Carl Reiner. In its various incarnations, "The Professor" could be Gut von Fraidykat (mountain-climbing expert), Ludwig von Spacebrain (space expert), or Ludwig von Henpecked (marriage expert). Later, "The Professor" evolved into Mel Brooks' "The Two Thousand Year Old Man". The most prominent recurring sketch on the show was "The Commuters", featuring Caesar, Reiner and Morris involved with everyday working and suburban life situations. Years later the sketch "Sneaking through the Sound Barrier", a parodyof the British film, The Sound Barrier, was run continuously as part of a display on supersonic flight at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Everything was performed live, including the commercials, which only took up seven minutes of the one-hour show, as compared to today's shows, which average about 22 minutes of commercials per hour. Prominent Hollywood movie stars (or their agents) clamored to be on the show, but in reality doing a sketch in one shot with no cue cards and minimal rehearsal time was a challenge for many of the stars used to languid preparation and numerous retakes.

In his book Caesar's Hours, Caesar describes the essence of his comedy as 'working both sides of the street', the deliberate blending of comedy and pathos in the tradition of the great comedians of the 1920s and 1930s — his idols Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton, and W. C. Fields. His sympathetic portrayal of the follies and foibles of his characters resonated with a weekly live audience of over 60 million Americans. He was a master of impeccable timing, careful preparation, and quick-witted flexibility, relying heavily on an endless variety of rapidly changing facial expressions and a strong physical presence. Though by nature shy, Caesar reveled in his characters. The most difficult moment of the show for Caesar was the opening, when he had to say 'good evening ladies and gentlemen'.

Caesar's Hour was followed by Sid Caesar Invites You, briefly reuniting Caesar and Coca in 1958, and in 1963 with several As Caesar Sees It specials, which evolved into the 1963-'64 Sid Caesar Show, which alternated with Edie Adams in Here's Edie. Caesar also teamed up with Edie Adams in the Broadway show Little Me, a successful Neil Simon play, with choreography by Bob Fosse and music by Cy Coleman in which Sid played eight parts with 32 costume changes. Caesar and Edie Adams played a husband and wife drawn into a mad race to find buried money in the mega-movie-comedy It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.

Later years[link]

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Caesar continued to make occasional television and night club appearances and starred in several movies including Silent Movie, History of the World, Part I, Airport 1975 and as Coach Calhoun in Grease and its sequel, Grease 2, in 1982. In 1971 he starred opposite Carol Channing and a young Tommy Lee Jones in the Broadway show Four on a Garden. In 1973, Sid and Max Liebman mined their own personal kinescopes from Your Show of Shows (NBC had 'lost' the studio copies) and they produced a feature film Ten From Your Show of Shows, a compilation of some of their best sketches. In 1974, Caesar said, "I'd like to be back every week" on TV and appeared in the NBC skit-based comedy television pilot called, Hamburgers.^[6] In 1977, after blanking out during a stage performance of Neil Simon's The Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Sid gave up alcohol 'cold turkey'. His autobiography, Where Have I Been, published in 1983 and his second book, Caesar's Hours, both chronicle his struggle to overcome alcoholism and barbiturates. In 1983, Sid hosted Season 8, episode 12 of Saturday Night Live where he received a standing ovation to start the show and was awarded with a plaque that declared him as an honorary member to conclude the show (He is the only host to receive this honor). In 1986, Caesar appeared as Frosh the Jailer in Die Fledermaus at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.^{[citation needed]}

Although advancing in age, Caesar has remained active by appearing in movies, television shows, at award shows and autograph signings. In 1995 he appeared in the movie The Great Mom Swap. In 1996 the Writers Guild of America, West reunited Caesar with nine of his writers from Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour for a special, two-hour panel discussion featuring head writer Mel Tolkin, Caesar, Carl Reiner, Aaron Ruben, Larry Gelbart, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Danny Simon, Sheldon Keller, and Gary Belkin. The event was taped, and later broadcast on PBS in the United States and the BBC in the UK. It has since been made available on DVD.^[7] In 1997, he made a guest appearance in Vegas Vacation and The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit in 1998 based on a Ray Bradbury novel. Also that year, Caesar joined fellow television icons Bob Hope and Milton Berle at the 50th anniversary of the Primetime Emmy Awards, where the three were greeted with a long standing ovation. He reprised his famous foreign dub skit on the November 21, 2001 episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, to which he was received with an extended standing ovation by the crowd, as well as a surprise birthday cake from the cast and crew. In 2003, he joined Edie Adams and Marvin Kaplan at a 40th anniversary celebration for It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.^[8] In 2004, Caesar's second autobiography, Caesar's Hours, was published, and in March 2006, Caesar was presented with the 'Pioneer Award' at the 2006 TV Land Awards. Caesar performed his famous double-talk for over five minutes.^[9]

Awards[link]

See also[link]

• Wayne Lamb, dancer in the Make Mine Manhattan

References[link]