Assimilating the idiom, he was able to communicate with the Warner Brothers when it came time dramatic acting, ”Imposter,”cried Your show of shows Sid Caesar as he attempted to usurp the Sheik’s mesmerizing the likes of Archie Leach (Cary Grant), Bernie Schwartz (Tony Curtis), Gia Scala, the blue eyed brunette from Southern Italy, living with her chaperone mother on Bluff side Drive, an extension of the studio, Dorothy Dandridge on loan from MGM, and last but not least, Piper Laurie ,her dream of being and becoming a journalist, still very much alive, in her metamorphosing skin..
II
The two larger than life humans: one his own worst enemy,thinking he could beat the system. Orchestrating his Ponzieschemes ,(”my hero,” his secretary of 40 years) from thoseseventh grade marbles: while Isaac Sid Caesar was morphing as “Your Show of Shows”, mimicking double talking, second banana Carl Reiner, “ Sid had the greatest double talking monologue, original thinkers have ever seen or heard on our minor planet”.
Isaac Sid in his post WW2 incarnation, transcending Edgar Bergen and his dummy, Charlie McCarthy.
III
Jimmy Cagney’s steno (pitman) at his vaudeville syndicate(Klaus and Abe( Lincoln) Erlanger) wrote Esther Kaminsky,near the end of her life at Shangri-la, Santa Monica ,California. ”Az synoz es Got”
How Jimmy Cagney challenged the 7 year contract, bargaining for freedom to nnoegotiate each flick.
An emancipation proclamation, the language of 7 years in the role of a slave, replaced in a historic freedom ,comparable to Curt Flood in major league baseball, the owners no longer able to treat their players as slaves in seven year chains links.
IV
In this clash of “titans” the Sheik of Arab ) recognized Sid Caesar had earned his chops. Indeed Isaac Sid Caesar out of Yonkers was a monologist supreme, and a mimic at that, double talking his mimicry into the podium and top billing.
The Sheik of Araby” setzing” with the likes of Archie Leach, Bernie Schwartz, Gia Scaaa, Dorothy Dandridge and journalist in futuro turned starlet, Piper Lorie.
“Come the revolution” said the Caesar, mounting the podium, those bulging eyes taking in the scene ,his top billing, liberating his unconscious into “Your Show of Shows” “first peoples people may we go back to those earliest memories when as a kid, my dream was to be a baseball player….
Sitting in the Ebbets Field bleachers a, knothole kid at 55 cents,identifying with my heroes .The Brooklyn Dodgers…. “Cookie,Camiii Wyatt, Higbe, Hugh Caseey,, Pete Reiser, Pee Wee, Jackie Robinson late. Leo Durocher “Nice guys finish last”..
V
“My dream was short circuited…by the called third strike. TheYankee World Series Mickey Owen, ,the Dodger catcher dropped the third strike on “Old Reliable”, Tommy Heinrich.The Bronx Bombers never looked back. the Bums lost the Series.
The Scooter Crosetti, Red Rolfe…..
That turned me around to search for other heroes ….House thatruth Built…..the Yankee Clipper, the Mick..the 61 four baggers….Lou Gehrig, Joe Gordon……the Yankee Clipper, King Gong Keller, Bill Dickey, Lefty Gomez, Chandler, Whitey…”
VI
But the natives were getting restless. Archie Leach into his own quest for an I.D. Bernie Schwartz from his pops kosher butcher shop. Gia Scala and her momma mia’s quest… chasing the American Dream Dorothy Dandridge’s “Cabin the Sky” Ethel Waters, Lena Horne and the proud Piper..Piper Lorie telling it like itis. is.
“How’d a genius is like you, earn your wings. Get top billing?” she asked of the man on the podium.
“Max Liebman hitched his star to mine, at Governor’s Island and the Coast Guard, during World War 2….but I’m getting ahead of myself, sweetie. ..it was at the Alamo, fighting for my name. It was me against a horse. Silver, the Lone Ranger’ssteed..or a dog… .Rin Tin Tin, Lassie. “Your Show of Shows didn’t come easy. Getting top billing, fighting for my credentials…my umbilical chord.”
“Where and when was the break thru, Sid?” asked Gia Scala in a bit of a sulk, living down North Bluffside, opposite the busy noon traffic of the motel at the corner on Vineland..
“The two thousand year old man. Those five worlds brought Alley Oop and his dinosaur, Dinny, back to the table….
“Monyay honyah,” cried the Shei of Araby back into his forte.His Barrymore “Great Profile””.the Ponzi schemer and roleplayerdie of all time. Bernie Madoff into his 7th grdemesmerizizing sixty year Mafioso scar faced masquerade.
“I was a beaten human,” said the Caesar. “The Angels were the second banana. Carl Reiner. I love that guy. M y alter ego…andBrooksie. Mel Brooks,” said the monologist….the greatest of his time.
VII
“Yo u could have become a rock star,” said Tony Curtis into his zen Buddha stance, at n the Universal Studio dramatic acting scho, off North Hollywood’s Bluffsaide Drive, Universal Studio’s Lankershim Boulevard.
“Liste n guys and gals. Remember the Alamo. Gimme a break. Rin tin tin, Lassie, Asta, the Thin Man’s Nick and Nora Chalesbest friend, getting billing ahead of The 2 Thousand Year OldMan”
“Yet you came off the mat , like a prime time Alley Oop. What’s the secret of your top billing?. How’d you top ”Remember the Alamo”, Sid?”
VII
“Clean living,” responded Your Show of Shows, born of immigrant parents from Latvia, settling in Yonkers, brewing a restaurant where Sid mimicked the foreign accent s (the Ukraine Russia Latvia Kiev, Bederchev”, his waiting on the tables and busing the dishes.
“Remember the Alamo”.
VIII
Archie Leach unscrambled his yogi like pose. “How I rememberthe Hungarian goulash up the Street. Madame Lazonya’s home cooked goulash.”Archie’s fingers to his lips as though he was back on North Crescent Drive and Wilshire at Prince MikeRomanoff’’s restaurant.(Beverly Hills) She ws vunderfulvunderful,” said Archie in his Hove English cockney twang, Beverly Sills of Kings Highway, in the wings..
“Vunderful,” echoed the actors, the scent from MadameLazanya, the Greatest on the East side of the four laneLankershim... “The greatest goulash West of the Rockies,” saidGia Scala, echoed and reechoed by Bernie Dorothy, and thePied Piper.
“Perseverance, boys and girls. Perseverance” Your Show ofShow host doing a jig..taing from his uniformed khaki pocket a harmonica (aka Stan the man Musial a St. Louis Cardinals*immoral) , playing
“La cucaracha La cucaracha” the gang of six clapping, themelody’s arc flowing through the corridors and around thewater coolers of the Universal Studio School of Dramatic Acting.
“I look where there is good”…. the 110 year old grand dame*immortal pianist, survivor of the Holocaust.
The City that never sleeps, February 27, 2014
