I hear that singer and actor Ed Ames died a week ago. Ames stepped into show business while he was still in high school as a member of The Ames Brothers. Afterward, he became a Broadway actor, then went to TV and played Mingo on the TV series Daniel Boone. Ames also recorded music as a solo artist and continued stage acting. Ed Ames was 95.
Ames is still remembered well into the internet age because of the enduring 1965 clip from The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, seen above. The reaction has been called "the longest sustained laugh by a live audience in television history." And you can see why. (Thanks, gwdMaine!)
Sunday, May 28, 2023
Ed Ames
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4 comments:
OMG, I watched that and remember it happening vividly. Telling someone the next day people would stare at me like I was nuts unless they too had seen it.
Carson's: “Welcome to frontier bris!” is what set the audience off.
I guess an axe wound joke would have been too risque for that era.
There was another incident on live TV that might just rival this. Back in the 1950s, when Bill Cullen hosted "The Price Is Right", they brought out one real live elephant.
Well, live and on stage, the pachyderm began to demonstrate why elephants are always placed last in the line of march of a circus parade. I understand the live audience literally howled, while the poor camera operator didn't know where to focus ... he couldn't very well show the elephant crapping on live TV, but every time he'd cut to the contestants (or the host), they were doubled up in paroxysms of laughter.
And of course, being live, once the elephant had finished answering the call of nature, the show had to continue as best they could, the models tippy-toeing around the stage as they brought out more prizes and everything being shot from the waist up.
-"BB"-
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