Media Madness

“Comedy Tonight”

Everyone, young and old alike, love a good punch line – if they can remember it – and the great feeling and natural medicine of laughter.  The Henrietta Public Library is pleased to say we have many, many wonderful books on compact disc, videos and DVDs that promise all of the above. Here are two collections featuring two of comedy’s best.

The “curmudgeonly” W.C Fields is the king of the madcap comedies of the 1930s and 40s. The Henrietta Public Library recently bought the W.C Fields Comedy Collection which includes four classic Fields’ vaudevillian slapstick films in glorious black and white.  If viewed chronologically, with International House (1933) first, Fields' physical comedy is supported by Rudy Valle, Burns and Allen, Bela Lugosi, and Sterling Holloway. W.C. steals the show with his invasion of a hotel in his helicopter/airplane contraption. Fields’ skills with slapstick continue to be fine-tuned in 1934’s It’s a Gift, and 1939’s You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man with ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy features a hilarious ping-pong game.  My Little Chickadee (1940) has Fields bantering with the incomparable Mae West. In The Bank Dick (1940), the hapless Fields finds himself a bank security guard and there the fun begins!  This later film of Fields contains one of the best car chases in movie history.  Finally, this collection includes the 1994 A&E biography of W.C Fields as a bonus.

Television variety shows have gone by the wayside, but one of the greatest was the Carol Burnett Show which aired on CBS from September 1967 to March 1978. Few comedians, with the exception of Lucille Ball can compare with the irrepressible Carol! The Carol Burnett Show- Collector’s Edition consists of nine DVDs with two full episodes on each DVD. Each disc includes a short introduction by Carol and regulars, Harvey Corman, and Tim Conway.  Episodes highlight guest stars Jim Nabors, Rock Hudson, Carl Reiner, Steve Lawrence, Roddy McDowell, Nancy Walker, Ken Berry, Sammy Davis, Jr., Shirley MacLaine, Betty White, and Bernadette Peters. The show included many now classic sketches taped live with Carol’s “family” of regulars, trying hard not to break down in laughter at the antics of each other. Favorite characters included “Mama” played by Vicki Lawrence, “Eunice”, “Mrs. Wiggins” and the “washerwoman” by Carol, and Tim Conway’s exasperated “Mr.Tudball”. Also included in this series is the very, very funny “Went with the Wind” sketch, many marvelous musical numbers, and the “Let’s Turn Up the Lights” segment with Carol answering questions from the studio audience.
           
Nancy Maxwell
Audio-Visual Librarian