The Ed Sullivan Show

[ChiroDoc]

I never thought about favorites, but he did have some great guests. I watched the show mainly because it was just something to watch. In other words, I wasn't a big fan. There was one kind of regular performer on the show. Senior Whenclets (or something that) who could make a puppet out of his hand, and he had a talking head in a wooden box. I thought he was funny.

Yes, that was Senor Wences. I always loved when he came on. Years later, in the early '80s, we went to see him in a live show downtown L.A. He was still a riot.

You know, the guy lived until aged 103! I bet he performed almost to the end.

 

[JustDave]

Why could he have a talking hand, Poppo Gigio the little Italian mouse, and people spinning plates and no other show get away with it?

It was a "Variety Show," and he pressed the limits.

 

[Grampa Don]

It was a "Variety Show," and he pressed the limits.

Wasn't it kind of like vaudeville? We always watched it. You never new what to expect.

 

[ChiroDoc]

Wasn't it kind of like vaudeville? We always watched it. You never new what to expect.

Yeah, presumably the TV variety show was an offshoot of vaudeville.
I wish variety shows would come back. Great entertainment The shows they do today with the judges don't do it for me. Too much emphasis on the judges and their silly antics.

 

[Grampa Don]

Yeah, presumably the TV variety show was an offshoot of vaudeville.
I wish variety shows would come back. Great entertainment The shows they do today with the judges don't do it for me. Too much emphasis on the judges and their silly antics.

I'm turned off by any show that's a contest. I find them irritating. It's a way to get performers cheap and the judges are obnoxious.

 

[JustDave]

Yeah, presumably the TV variety show was an offshoot of vaudeville.
I wish variety shows would come back. Great entertainment The shows they do today with the judges don't do it for me. Too much emphasis on the judges and their silly antics.

How about the judges on the Gong Show? Somebody has to drag the poor jerk off the stage before he humiliates himself any more. Didn't they have a big hook in the vaudeville days that would come out from behind a side curtain and drag the performer off the stage before the audience started to boo?

 

[ChiroDoc]

How about the judges on the Gong Show? Somebody has to drag the poor jerk off the stage before he humiliates himself any more. Didn't they have a big hook in the vaudeville days that would come out from behind a side curtain and drag the performer off the stage before the audience started to boo?

As near as I can tell, the "hook" is mostly a legend. Reportedly there was a small theater in NYC around 1900 that used the hook on amateur nights. The legend probably grew from that, and became useful only as comedy.

"The Gong Show" was farcical, mostly to provide laughs. Most of the performers were hopeless amateurs. Occasionally there was a diamond in the rough.

But I'd love to see a variety show come back with actual professional acts. Perhaps they're harder to find today since entertainment tastes have changed since the 1040s, '50s and '60s.