Best of Tonight

Barbara Streisand is a classic. In this clip, Streisand made her first public network appearance on the Jack Paar show. What a voice. Her appearance was confusing for many critics, as her voice was a mix between the beat choice of lyrics in the early 1960s (this was filmed in 1961) and opera, which is as old as the hills. Streisand crosses those bounds with an appearance that is contemporary as well as classic. Streisand was in her early 20s here, which equates to a person with one to two years of college under her belt.

Considering that Streisand went on to develop her skills as a composer, political activist, film producer and director, this clip stamds as a testimony to Streisand’s early skills as a self-assured talent of note.

I have to question the lyrics, as I haven’t found a generic substantiation for her inflection for what would be considered, “black” lyrics” for these lines:

“A sleepin’ bee done tol’ me,
I will walk with my feet off the ground
when my one true love I has found…”

I can’t seem to find a notation or an online collaboration that would verify these lyrics to any time frame or place of origin, so if you all know something about these lyrics, let me know!

Jay Leno interviews a George Bush impersonator. This guy can laugh like Bush, without a doubt. The best lines, in my opinion:

Leno: “I heard you do impressions form the movie [Austin Powers],can you do Dr. Evil for us?”
Bush: “I’m sorry, Jay, but I’m not a Dr. Evil doer.”
Leno: “What about Fat Bastard?”
Bush: “I don’t do Dick Cheney, either!”

(uncontrollable laughter from impersonator)

Dinah Shore (born Frances Rose Shore February 29, 1916 - February 24, 1994) began her one-hour program, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, on NBC in 1956 (10/5/56 - 5/12/1963). The theme song for the show was “See the USA in your Chevrolet…” and it always ended with Shore’s signature kiss to the television audience that was punctuated with a “MWAH!”. The lineup for her show usually contained two or three guests drawn from the worlds of music, sports and movies.

In this clip from 1960, Dinah enjoys Johnny Carson’s banter about her cat (”he’s teaching our musicians in the band to be real cats”), and he then shows her a TV museum where she opens a can that supposedly holds a kiss from her very first Chevy show. She releases the kiss and When she tries to replace it, Carson encourages her to give it a little more “MWAH!”

Steve Allen wasn’t the only person who read prose or poetry on his show. In this clip, Jack Kerouac (King of the Beats, March 12, 1922 - October 21, 1969) reads a passage from his book, On the Road. This is what Kerouac said later about this experience:

“remembering that awful time only a year earlier when I had to rehearse my reading of prose a third time under the hot lights of the Steve Allen Show in the Burbank Studio, one hundred technicians waiting for me to start reading, Steve Allen watching me expectant as he plunks the piano, I sit there on the dunce’s stool and refuse to read a word or open my mouth, “I don’t have to REHEARSE for God’s sake Steve!”—”But go ahead, we just wanta get the tone of your voice, just this last time, I’ll let you off the dress rehearsal” and I sit there sweating not saying a word for a whole minute as everybody watches, finally I say “No I can’t do it” and I go across the street and get drunk)(but surprising everybody the night of the show by doing my job of reading just fine, which surprises the producers and so they take me out with a Hollywood starlet who turns out to be a big bore trying to read me her poetry and won’t talk love because in Hollywood man love is for sale)”

In the 1950s, Kerouac followed Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady to Berkeley and San Francisco, where he became close friends with the young Zen poet Gary Snyder (I’ve met him, yes!). Ginsberg and Snyder became underground celebrities in 1955 after the Six Gallery poetry reading in San Francisco. Since they and many of their friends regularly referred to Kerouac as the most talented writer among them. However, Kerouac never was taken seriously during his lifetime. As the beatniks of the 1950’s began to yield their spotlight to the hippies of the 1960’s, Jack took pleasure in standing against everything the hippies stood for. He supported the Vietnam War and became friendly with William F. Buckley (November 24, 1925 – February 27, 2008).

Finally, Kerouac moved to St. Petersburg, Florida where - his health destroyed by drinking - he died at home in 1969 at age 47.

Jazz singer Ruth Olay was born to a rabbi and a singer in San Francisco. When she was eighteen months old, her family moved to Los Angeles. While just a teenager in the 1940s, she began to sing with Benny Carter’s band, and by the mid-a1950s she was a major fixture in the Hollywood nightclub scene. Eventually, Olay parlayed her regional popularity into national and international recognition via television, recordings, and in major nightclubs in the U.S. and abroad.

Today, Olay is retired from singing and has turned to social activism on various committees for aging, the homeless, etc. Read Bill Reed’s interview with her in 2000.