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Spending the Afternoon With George Burns
North Miami Beach, Florida 9-10-2000 Aaron H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
AN AFTERNOON WITH GEORGE BURNS
Essays on issues, ideas and reflections on the times. Published now and
then. Opinions pro or con are welcome.
Carol and I spent yesterday afternoon with George Burns. It was a fine
exercise slipping into yesteryear with a guy named Gorshin who looked,
sounded and acted remarkably like the 100 year old George Burns of the Burns
and Allen comedy team.
The one-man show (without intermission) was a dip into the history of the
American Jewish comedy community of the 20th Century. Name-dropping was an
important portion of Frank Gorshin's routine. Eddie Cantor, the Marx
brothers, Jack Benny and other figures who emerged out of the impacted
immigrant based Lower East Side of New York City were some of them. But
George Burns who was one of that group and his relationship with a tiny
Irish girl, Gracie Allen, that was the heart of the show.
Carol and I cried and sniffled a lot. It was impossible not to. Their
story of rise to success was unusual and unexpected but gave to millions of
us a great deal of pleasure over the years. I had problems with my hearing
once again. I couldn't quite catch the nuances of Gracie's recorded voice
hurrying to the punch line but I remember how we laughed and laughed and
enjoyed the nonsense and humanity of the picture of two ordinary people
doing extraordinarily well in America.
Frank Gorshin looked the part with makeup, props and insight into the man
whose life he was portraying. And we were part of the act. The playlet,
short but enhanced with slides and movie bits as well as the original
voices, was written and produced and directed by veterans of the American
theater who knew their audience well. What was surprising was that that
audience did not solely consist of gray headed contemporaries of George
Burns. It seems that this theatrical period, represented by a unique
Centenarian, was an experience that resonated with many and spoke true and
pure - shining - out of the self-indulgent and narcissistic kind of thing we
are exposed to today. An improbable journey from impromptu sidewalk
displays, music houses, vaudeville, radio, and movies and on to television,
this duo portrayed an America now gone. We were grateful to be able to see
and sadly (sometimes) enjoy it. Carol's Evaluation: 10 out of 10.
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