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October 1991

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Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
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Sat, 19 Oct 1991 23:24:52 EDT
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WFUV (Fordham University) just broadcast an episode of the Leo Reisman show.
He was a big band leader, and the show (a radio show, of course) was known by
its sponsor, Schafer beer.  Bert Lahr was the guest.  I was amazed.
 
If you're like me, you grew up on the annual TV showings of the WIZARD OF OZ so
that you can recite the dialogue by heart.  But I never realized that Lahr's
performance was a compendium of his comedy skits, his "shtick."  In this
radio show (which was a transcription from a 1937 show -- two years prior to
the WIZARD) there was a skit about a man trying to fall asleep but unable to
do so because of ambient noise.  The thing about counting sheep, the phrase
"ain't it the truth" and come to think of it, nearly half of what he says in
the film has a similar sound (if not literal) in this radio show.
 
Even when Lahr was plugging Schafer beer there were all sorts of off-the-cuff
remarks that eventually would show up in the WIZARD.  Very intersting.
 
Bob Kosovsky
Graduate Center -- Ph.D. Program in Music / City University of New York
New York Public Library -- Music Division
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Disclaimer:  My opinions do not necessarily represent those of my institutions.

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