[78-L] Live comedy

[Michael Biel]

I have a Victor Borge -- actually Borge Rosenbaum -- HMV in Danish arom 
the 1930s.  It is a two sided routine about a restaurant.  Like his 
Columbia 78s, this has no audience.  Like some other British records in 
the late 30s, there are Gracie Fields records recorded with audiences of 
the troops but that probably doesn't count.  But Bob Hope's "I Never 
Left Home" on Capitol DOES because it consists of four monologues with 
troop audiences.  Do the W.C. Fields records have an audience?    The 
Borge Columbia LPs should also count.  He stood much of the time.  They 
contrast greatly from the 78s because of the audience, and the Sam 
Levenson records are notable because although the audience seems coached 
in the first two sessions, the last record Baby and My Landlady do not 
have an audience and have a different feel about them.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com


On 4/8/2011 12:42 AM, Cary Ginell wrote:
> I have early spoken comedy on 78s by such folks as Borge, Stanley Holloway, Amos&  Andy, Douglas Byng, Alec Templeton, Weber&  Fields, Reginald Gardiner, Nat. M. Wills, Cal Stewart (Uncle Josh), Senator Ford, Ada Jones, Benny Rubin, Sam Levenson, Bob Hope, and a few others. As far as live audience stand-up, there wasn't much on 78 - most of it was recorded in a studio. None of Borge's later Columbia stuff ("Comedy in Music" and after) appeared on 78.
>
> Cary Ginell
>
>> Date: Thu, 7 Apr 2011 22:33:34 -0500
>> From: citrogsa at charter.net
>> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
>> Subject: [78-L] Live comedy
>>
>> On 4/7/2011 10:05, David Lennick wrote:
>>>> Question here is how much live comedy was being done on stahe (including
>>>> vaudeville) in the "78 era"...?! I used to do "standup comedy" at local
>>>> "talent
>>>> shows" back  in the late fifties, before it went under that name! I hadn't
>>>> yet
>>>> discovered my singing talents...so I just got up on the stage at our local
>>>> "talent shows" and told jokes! I knew any prizes would be3 given to young
>>>> dance acts anyway///!
>>>>
>>>> Steven C. Barr
>>>>
>>> Professor Irwin Corey's Jubilee lp was issued in 1957. The Mort Sahl predates
>>> it as a recording but I think it was issued later, once he'd done well on Verve.
>>>
>>> And actually there was a fair bit of standup comedy by Max Miller on 78s around
>>> the early 40s, but that's British. Henny Youngman also did a 78 for Bluebird.
>> I've go Red Buttons' "Strange Things Are Happening." That was 1953.
>>
>> Victor Borge's discography
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Borge#Discography
>> "Phonetic Quotations", a later version:
>> http://www.elsewhere.co.nz/fromthevaults/3358/victor-borge-phonetic-punctuation-1955/
>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Mark L. Bardenwerper, Sr. #:?)