Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1997 Tickets to His Head: Larry Gelbart (1928-) as Writer and Adaptor. Jules Adolphe Malarcher III Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Malarcher, Jules Adolphe III, "Tickets to His Head: Larry Gelbart (1928-) as Writer and Adaptor." (1997). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 6580. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/6580 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. 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Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zed) Road, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TICKETS TO HIS HEAD: LARRY GELBART (1928- ) AS WRITER AND ADAPTOR A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Theatre by Jules A. Malarcher, III BA, Loyola University, 1983 MA, St. John's College, 1992 December 1997 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9820734 UMI Microform 9820734 Copyright 1998, by UMI Company. A11 rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Frankly, it's a pain in the keester for me to have to shoot the God damn thing so everybody else can see it, but the studio can’t sell tickets to my head, right? —Buddy Fidler, City ofAngels by Larry Gelbart ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DEDICATION For my parents, who may not always have understood what I was getting myself into, but never stopped believing in me. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I first thank my adviser, Professor Gresdna Doty of the Department of Theatre for her generous and unflagging enthusiasm for my project The other members of my committee. Professors Bill Harbin, Robert J. Edgeworth, Les Wade, and Femi Euba have all helped to make my study at LSU a productive, enjoyable and scholarly lime for me. All of my teachers and fellow students have my thanks for their support of everything I have tried to accomplish there. As for my subject, Larry Gelbart has my boundless gratitude for his assistance with facts and contacts necessary to complete this document, for the enjoyment his works have given me, and finally for the friendship I have received from him on a much more personal level. His family, especially his wife, Patricia Marshall, has welcomed me openly so that the facts reflect the man, and for that, my thanks. Also, my thanks to the curator of the Larry Gelbart Collection in the Arts Special Collection at the University of California at Los Angeles, Brigitte Kueppers, who has provided me with the best possible assistance through decades of material. My family and friends know how much they mean to me, but I would like to acknowledge them formally for how much they have meant to this study: my parents, Jules and Juanita Malarcher, my brother, Andre, and his wife Ann; my sister, Renee: friends, who have provided places to stay on the road, a reassuring voice, or an extra pair of eyes. iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................................ iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS............................................................................................. viii ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................ Lx INTRODUCTION: A WRITER’S THREE RING CIRCUS................................................ 1 CHAPTER 1 L’Enfant Terrifique...................................................................................12 Maxwell House Coffee Time (1944) Duffy’s Tavern (1945) Command Performance (1946) The Jack Paar Show (1947) The Joan Davis Show (1947) The Jack Carson Show (1947) The Bob Hope Show (1948) 2 A Cavalcade of Writers ..............................................................................39 Specials The Red Buttons Show (1952) Honestly, Celeste! (1954) Caesar’s Hour (1956) The Patrice Munsel Show (1958) Pat Boone Chevy Showroom (1958) The Danny Kaye Show (1963) 3 Out of Town with a Musical; or. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way From the Forum Theatre........................................................................81 My LA. (1951) The Conquering Hero (1961) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962) V Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 AVery Small Business—Rights and Re-Writes ..................................115 Fair Game (1961) The Notorious Landlady (1962) The Thrill o f It All (1963) The Wrong Box (1966) Not With My Wife, You Don’t (1966) Chercher La Femme (1967) The Chastity Belt (1968) A Fine Pair (1968) 5 You Pull Down Your Pants a L ot ........................................................ 139 The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine (1972) M*A*S*H (1972) Roll-Out (1973) Karen (1975) United States (1980) 6 Have You Ever Read Volpone ? .............................................................175 Jump! (1971) Gulliver’s Travels (1971/1985) Peter & the Wolf (1970) Sly Fox (1976) 7 Guilding the Lilies ................................................................................216 Oh, God! (1976) Movie Movie (1978) Rough Cut (1980) Neighbors (1981) Tootsie (1983) Hotel Royale (1983) Blame It on Rio (1985) 8 The Only Safe Place for Writers ...........................................................267 City o f Angels (1989) One, Two, Three, Four, Five (1986) Mastergate: A Play on Words (1989) Power Failure (1991) 9 Straight Reportage ...............................................................................306 Mastergate /Showtime (1991) Barbarians at the Gate /HBO (1993) Weapons o f Mass Distraction /HBO (1997) CONCLUSION: COMEDY TO MANY LENGTHS.........................................................332 vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................341 VITA............................................................................................................................... 350 vii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1: Floorplan of the Caesar’s Hour Writing Room, by Larry Gelbart (1993) ___ 57 Fig. 2: “The Tennis Song,” by Cy Coleman; lyrics by David Zippel ......................... 287 Fig. 3: Power Failure's Cicuitry .................................................................................304 viii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Larry Gelbart (1928-) has dominated the field of comedy writing in the latter half of the twentieth century the way George S. Kaufman (1889-1961) dominated the first half. Comedy, according to Gelbart, is a “tic—a way of making myself comfortable. I can’t imagine not having comedy to lean on. I tend to write things with a circus-like