Talk:Stan Freberg/Archives/2013

Latest comment: 16 years ago by WilliamSommerwerck in topic "Elderly Man River"


"Elderly Man River"

I think this routine must be a varation on a bit that comedian Phil Silvers did. He would portray (solo or with a straight man) composer Jerome Kern teaching singer/collage graduate Paul Robeson how to sing "Old Man River" using dialect over Robeson's objections that it is not proper English. See Phil Silver's "The Laugh's Were On Me". M Bateman-Graham 203.171.196.113 13:48, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

I saw this sketch many years ago on "The Ed Sullivan Show". It's possible it might have been a minor inspiration for "Elderly Man River", but Freberg's sketch is bluntly satiriical -- and much funnier. WilliamSommerwerck (talk) 11:51, 21 November 2007 (UTC)