The Bristol Daily Courier from Bristol, Pennsylvania • Page 27

(HO. LtivWNr BEININ AU THESE TV WESTERNS AINT HELPIN'MY CAREER1 (SOT A MIND QUIT AN'TRy FOR A BROADWAY PLAY OR Life Writes Shelley Acts Ten Hard Years Aided Shelley Berman started zooming to comedic stardom the first time he did his routine as the sit-down comedian with the imaginary telephone. It will be seen on his forthcoming one-man special over ABC-TV. comedy style, Berman wanted nothing less than to be an and a good one. He was still trying when old friend Geraldine Page (a Broadway and film success) badgered him until he agreed to leave California and try summer stock work in New York.

Ile got several parts and things started looking up. Roles in television plays such as I a y- and came his way and odd jobs, his unemployment checks, and i department store earnings kept the Bermans going. It was at this point, with a bit too much free time on his hands, that Shelley took a try at writing and turned out comedy material for Steve Allen. The opportunities were slim and Shelley returned to Chicago, joined a group doing improvisations and after a year and a half, decided to try solo improvisations. For the first time, he used his now-famous high stool and imaginary telephone.

It was at this point that Shelley Berman started being overnight Shelley points out in his magnificently rhetorical voice, was the beginning. Perhaps the comedy style I had come up with was that time. Who knows what would have happened if tried it a few years before? the engagements came in rapid New Blue Angel and then 12 Ed Sullivan shows. In 1957, he a Jack Paar show and the reaction was near staggering. As in the cases of many entertainers, people began the routine of having discovered him.

Actually, Berman discovered Berman. He toured the night club circuit to uniformly rave reviews. He set attendance records at The Blue Angel, Mister in Chicago, the hungry i and the Venetian Room in San Francisco, and the Empire Room at New Waldorf Astoria. At the Venetian Room and the Waldorf he broke records held jointly by Harry Belafonte and Lena Horne. was finally coming (Continued on Page 15) By EDGAR PENTON Hollywood Shelley Berman is an honest man.

Really. Ask Shelley. know of the IO long and hard years he spent working for his overnight success, trying to get a foothold in the theater all this before he turned to comedy. The famed comedian, he of the one-sided conversation and the imaginary telephone, says so. In 1945, after a Navy discharge, Berman enrolled as a student in Goodman Theatre.

He was intent on a dramatic career. Berman will star for the first time to an American television audience in his own one-man, hour-long special, Shelley Berman (of course), Tuesday, Aug. 14, on ABC-TV (10-11 p.m., EDT). course said Berman. in the sense of comedy, truthful would be a better word choice.

deal in the common, the truthful anguish, the embarrassing moments, the television commercials the Take his famed routine of the slightly gruff father trying to give his 15-year-old daughter a bit of long-overdue advice as she prepares for her first date. You can feel the embarrassment, the agony he goes through, you feel for him, you laugh, but the laughter is a thing borne out of memory. It is something recalled. says the only sit down comedian in the world, the basis for my manager and the executive producer of his upcoming special, Harry C. Bell, puts it in this way: routines are definitely in the realm of probability and possibility.

are made up I things, of bits, of those incidents which have happened to all of us or at least heard about it happening to someone else. occasion toss in his own satirical touches, but mainly truth which makes entire act a believable, understandable and very acceptable comic The public which came to know Shelley Berman through his many night club appearances and on television shows (including 12 appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show), has always been sure of the overnight success of this master of the monologue. But others, like Geraldine Page, Betsy Palmer and Tom Bosley Four years later, after studying his chosen craft and being partially supported by his wife (he married Sarah Herman, an aspiring actress in 1947), actor Berman set out on a cross-country hitch-hiking jaunt in search of theatre work. were the recalls Shelley. There were, among other things, a stint as social director of a Florida resort hotel.

But the hotel manager had no liking for the Berman brand of humor and the stay was a short one. Daytona said Shelley, and I once more made use of our thumbs and headed for His west coast efforts were sadly rewarded. Shelley was first a speech, voice and diction teacher, then a cab driver, a third assistant manager of a drug store and finally, a ballroom dancing instructor. Each of these experiences has contributed to the success that is today Shelley Berman. The people he met, argued with, was frustrated by, laughed at and with have found a place in his comedy.

he says, for a vibrant memory. Believe me, without it well, you know what I mean. Drawing from life is vital for my Before he came upon his unique rn AUGUST ll, 1962.