1947 CALL ME MISTER Program & Playbill-- Carl Reiner/Bob Fosse/Buddy Hackett

Description

Vintage 1947 CALL ME MISTER Program & Playbill-- Musical for GI's Theater--with Carl Reiner/Bob Fosse/Buddy Hackett
Call Me Mister --Program and Playbill—
1947 at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco, California
Quite the cast…including:
Bob Fosse
Carl Reiner
Buddy Hackett
Program---
22 pages
Good Condition--some tearing at top of cover and b
ackside has paper stuck to it as it came from scrapbook.
Otherwise, in very good condition.
11 7/8" x 9" (when closed)
Don't miss the great early pics of Bob Fosse, Carl Reiner and Buddy Hackett!!
An extremely valuable addition to your collection.
Playbill/Broadside---
18” x 5 ¾”  2 sided playbill, with list of actors, credits, music and acts.
Good Condition—folding and
b
ackside has paper stuck to it as it came from scrapbook.
Quite a find!
Politics makes strange bedfellows, but so does showbiz.
Carl Reiner and Bob Fosse
became showbiz powerhouses starting in the 1950s and ’60s in their very different worlds, so the combination seems incongruous. However, in the early days of their careers, both appeared in the revue “Call Me Mister,” which opened at the Los Angeles Biltmore in 1947, with actor-activist Melvyn Douglas among the producers.
Variety’s
review said there were “some funny sketches, ear-catching tunes and neat terp routines.” (Terp was Variety slanguage, short for terpsicore, a dancer.) The comedy headliner was Alan Dreeben, “who does a sock job in several skits and teams with
Carl Reiner
and Peter Turgeon for more laughs.” In the dance department, there was “a fine eccentric routine by Bob Fosse.”
The word “eccentric” is interesting, and this show may have helped establish the trademark Fosse style — dancing with hats and/or props, twisted arms, pelvic thrusts and dance contortions that are both sexy and mocking of the entire concept of sexuality.
After the revue,
Fosse
appeared in a few musical films under contract with MGM, but his career really took off on Broadway, as a choreographer, then director.
His “eccentric” work can be seen in the film musicals “Sweet Charity,” “Cabaret” and “All That Jazz” and then two non-musical works about the dark side of showbiz, “Lenny” and “Star 80.”
Reiner, meanwhile, continued to perform but is known best for his writing. On Jan. 13,1961,
Variety’s
Army Archerd wrote a short item about “Head of the Family,” a pilot from Reiner, which later that year debuted as “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”
The series ran 1961-66and put Reiner, Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore on the list of TV greats.
While Fosse’s work was always dark and cynical, writer-director Reiner went in a different direction. Some of Reiner’s humor was outrageous and dark in such films as “Where’s Poppa?” (1970) and “The Man With Two Brains.” But there was always warmth and kindness, even in the broadest comedies (“The Jerk,” “Summer Rental”) and fantastical situations (“Oh, God!” and “All of Me”).
Fosse died in 1987 at age 60. Reiner died in 2020 at age 98.