Hysterical.
Those pre-60s performers frequently had 2 routines, the family ones and the ‘blue’ ones for after 11pm. Even their family ones are usually funnier than most of the contemporary performers. Maybe I’m just an old fart!
When I was a little kid I flew on a plane to LA. Milton Berle was on the same plane and had me run notes back to another gentleman on the plane.
Hey I was like 8. It was fun :)
Classic!
He was great, and so was Gracie. :)
He was quite a character.
I do think that Johnny Carson was mistaken when he stated that the greatest years of Burns’ career were the last 20 (1969-1989).
The Sunshine Boys and the “Oh, God!” movies are footnotes now, but the decades of radio and TV on the “George Burns and Gracie Allen Show” still rank among the greatest situation comedies ever. Gracie was the real star, but George was the glue, and he always had a solid stand-up act in the middle of each episode.
Burns and Allen in “Lambchops”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyI_l2XUEk0
My favorite of all time.
When comedy was gold.
That was great. Thanks.
In 1976, when I was 12, dad took mom and me to Hollywood to invite Bob Hope to a celebrity golf exhibition that he was producing. Before the meeting, we drove around Hollywood to sight see. At a crosswalk, we stopped as a young man was helping and elderly man across the street. As he neared our car, we all realized that it was George Burns! Dad went nuts, rolled down his window and yelled “HI GEORGE!!” Mr. Burns stopped and smiled at us and said “Hi Folks! How are you all doing today?” It was a miracle sighting.
Got some bad news yesterday.
After this post I watched some Best of Carson on YouTube.
I needed it. Thanks.
When he was starting out on the vaudeville circuit, he used his (cheap) cigars to time his act...and he adopted El Producto Queens because they burned the most consistently and didn’t go out. In later years, the Tobacco Institute sent him a couple of boxes of them every month.
All cheap ones too. I guess he liked them because he certainly could he afford ones that others considered to be of higher quality.
ML/NJ
I loved George Burns and remember that episode with Carson.
Grumpy Old Men was on recently with two other favorites, Walter Matthau and Burgess Meredith.