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SHADOW WALTZ - Sid Caesar and Nanette Fabray

Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 4:40 am
by Richard M Roberts
One of the best things Sid Caesar did on CAESAR'S HOUR in the mid-late 50's with Nanette Fabray as the Singer, and Sid as the "Sung-Too".







RICHARD M ROBERTS

Re: SHADOW WALTZ - Sid Caesar and Nanette Fabray

Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 2:04 pm
by Thomas Reeder
The person in the next office wondered what the hell I was laughing so hard about; it made my afternoon!

Re: SHADOW WALTZ - Sid Caesar and Nanette Fabray

Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 7:03 pm
by Gary Johnson
I know we are suppose to think of CAESAR's HOUR as a continuation of YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS but with the loss of Imogene Coco I've always felt the sketches veered more toward situation comedy than the more rowdy parodies and silent routines from the first series. Even though Nanette Fabray could mug and cut up it seems she always played a more elegant-type spouse or fiancee in sketches rather than a cut-up.

Of course, like all things concerning TV in the Kinescope era not everything survives so maybe we're just missing all of those examples where she was dunked in a vat of goo while wearing her slap shoes.

Re: SHADOW WALTZ - Sid Caesar and Nanette Fabray

Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 7:28 pm
by Richard M Roberts
Gary Johnson wrote:I know we are suppose to think of CAESAR's HOUR as a continuation of YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS but with the loss of Imogene Coco I've always felt the sketches veered more toward situation comedy than the more rowdy parodies and silent routines from the first series. Even though Nanette Fabray could mug and cut up it seems she always played a more elegant-type spouse or fiancee in sketches rather than a cut-up.

Of course, like all things concerning TV in the Kinescope era not everything survives so maybe we're just missing all of those examples where she was dunked in a vat of goo while wearing her slap shoes.


Completely disagree. While Imogene Coca was terrific, Fabray is completely underrated in her work on CAESARS HOUR, as the above clip shows. She had great timing, could do physical stuff, and, again as the above clip shows, also sing very well. Both partnered Caesar just fine, and SHADOW WALTZ with Coca might have been more violent, but nowhere near as funny. It's Fabray's air of class, and her vain attempts to keep it, that really make that sketch work.


RICHARD M ROBERTS