I've told this story before:
At a workshop with fellow psychotherapists years ago in Santa Fe Sid Ceasar and his daughter were featured speakers one evening.
Sid showed old film clips of his early live CBS TV show and said the pratfalls were actually real, that he was literally falling down drunk most nights. He acknowledged he was a total butthole in those days. The mutterings and acting lost that so pleased the audience were also real. He said he often forgot the script and some nights he would pass out on stage, causing the staff to drag him off and improvise from there. He was such a star and CBS trying so hard to make it in television in those days they would do anything he asked. He would demand a different brand of scotch at the last minute and some poor soul would have to run get it. Or, he would demand someone be fired and it would be done with no questions.
He showed a fairly recent clip of an interview with his early days co-star Imogene Coco. She cut no slack, saying he was the sorriest SOB she had ever met and she hated him, that he was the most obnoxious drunk she had ever met.
Sid told us about how he got in AA and found sobriety.
Sid’s daughter said he was never physically abusive but her entire childhood was miserable due to his verbal abuse and drunken behaviors. She spoke at length about what it was like being the child of a big star and how she had tried to change him and herself. She brought silence and then standing applause from the audience when she said,
“I finally became at peace with myself when I gave up all hope of a better yesterday.”
Thanks for posting this, Cap. Interesting and poignant.
I like to watch the 'oldies' and have seen some of their old shows. Imogene Coco has to be one of the funniest comediennes ever.
Hope you are doing well, really.