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110-490: Isaac Sidney Caesar (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2014) was an American comic actor and comedian. With a career spanning 60 years, he was best known for two pioneering 1950s live television series: Your Show of Shows (1950–1954), which was a 90-minute weekly show watched by 60 million people, and its successor, Caesar's Hour (1954–1957), both of which influenced later generations of comedians. Your Show of Shows and its cast received seven Emmy nominations between

220-563: A "foreign dub" skit on the November 21, 2001, episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway? On September 7, 2001, Caesar, Carl Reiner and Nanette Fabray appeared on CNN 's live interview program Larry King Live along with actor, comedian and improvisationist Drew Carey . In 2003, he joined Edie Adams and Marvin Kaplan at a 40th anniversary celebration for It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World . In 2004, Caesar's second autobiography, Caesar's Hours ,

330-616: A Garden . In 1973, Caesar reunited with Imogene Coca for the stage play The Prisoner of Second Avenue , written in 1971 by Neil Simon . Their play opened in Chicago in August 1973. That same year, Caesar and Max Liebman mined their own personal kinescopes from Your Show of Shows (NBC had lost the studio copies) and they produced the feature film Ten From Your Show of Shows , a compilation of some of their best sketches. In 1974, Caesar said, "I'd like to be back every week" on TV and appeared in

440-451: A TV performance. Still in the military, Caesar was ordered to Palm Beach, Florida , where Vernon Duke and Howard Dietz were putting together a service revue called Tars and Spars . There he met the civilian director of the show, Max Liebman . When Caesar's comedy got bigger applause than the musical numbers, Liebman asked him to do stand-up bits between the songs. Tars and Spars toured nationally, and became Caesar's first major gig as

550-475: A box office success and earned six Academy Award nominations. Caesar was not a stand-up comedian but a "sketch comic, and actor," wrote one historian. "He conjured up ideas and enhanced scenes, but never wrote a word," and thereby depended on his writers for dialogue. Caesar was skilled at pantomime , dialects, monologs, foreign language double-talk and general comic acting. His sketches were often long, sometimes 10 or 15 minutes, with numerous close-ups showing

660-618: A comedian. Liebman later produced Caesar's first television series. After finishing his military service in 1945, the Caesars moved to Hollywood. In 1946, Columbia Pictures produced a film version of Tars and Spars in which Caesar reprised his role. The next year, he acted in The Guilt of Janet Ames . He turned down the lead of The Jolson Story as he did not want to be known as an impersonator, and turned down several other offers to play sidekick roles. He soon returned to New York, where he became

770-530: A cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas close to or within the borders of the Catskill Park , a 700,000-acre (2,800 km ) forest preserve protected from many forms of development under New York state law. Geologically, the Catskills are a mature dissected plateau , a flat region subsequently uplifted and eroded into sharp relief by watercourses. The Catskills form

880-497: A featured dancer opposite Coca in parodies of classic ballets of his creation. As author Ted Sennett described, stars Caesar, Coca, Carl Reiner , and Howard Morris appeared in a series of superbly written sketches that poked fun at human foibles and pretensions. Alone onstage, Caesar would depict a befuddled Everyman trying to cope with life, or a blustering Germanic 'professor' being interviewed at an airport and vainly trying to conceal his abysmal stupidity. Alone onstage (or with

990-501: A group of Poles to repeat his native-sounding patter in Polish, and so on with Russians, Hungarians, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Lithuanians, and Bulgarians. Sid Caesar's older brother, David, was his comic mentor and "one-man cheering section." They created their earliest family sketches from movies of the day like Test Pilot and the 1927 silent film Wings . As a boy, Caesar took saxophone lessons and played in small bands to make money during

1100-658: A half-hour syndicated series. The Paley Center for Media in Manhattan and Beverly Hills, California , holds an almost complete set of the series, and a set of master tapes of the 1976 syndicated series. In 2000, a cache of original scripts from the show were found in a closet of producer Max Liebman, in the City Center building in New York City. The find made the front page of The New York Times . A former employee of Liebman, Barry Jacobsen, told The New York Times he had left

1210-419: A language for 15 minutes, you know the rhythm and song." Having developed this mimicry skill, he could create entire monologs using gibberish in numerous languages, as he did in a skit in which he played a German general. Among his primary subjects were parodies and spoofs of various film genres, including gangster films, westerns, newspaper dramas, spy movies and other TV shows. Compared to other comedy shows at

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1320-549: A local band of northern Lenape Native Americans who inhabited the banks of the Hudson and hunted in the highlands along the Esopus Creek . While the meaning of the name ("cat creek [ kill ]" in Dutch ) and the namer (early Dutch explorers) are settled matters, how and why the area is named "Catskills" is a mystery. Mountain lions (catamounts) were known to have been in the area when

1430-511: A negative one for Broadway. Caesar fans preferred to stay home on Saturday nights to watch his show instead of seeing live plays. "The Caesar show became such a Saturday-night must-see habit—the Saturday Night Live of its day," states Nachman, that "...Broadway producers begged NBC to switch the show to midweek." Comedy star Carol Burnett , who later had her own hit TV show, remembers winning tickets to see My Fair Lady on Broadway: "I gave

1540-516: A one-hour sketch/variety show with Morris, Reiner, Bea Arthur and other members of his former crew. Nanette Fabray replaced Coca, who had left to star in her own short-lived series. Ultimate creative and technical control was now in Caesar's hands, originating from the Center Theater and the weekly budget doubled to $ 125,000. The premiere on September 27, 1954, featured Gina Lollobrigida . Everything

1650-438: A parody of the popular TV show This Is Your Life . It was said to be "Caesar's personal favorite" sketch. In many cases, sketch dialogue was not even written down, but simply indicated by describing a scene, as in, "Sid does man coming home from business mad." Sometimes, said Larry Gelbart , it was "organized chaos," and when watching the writers create from offstage, felt, "...it was a religious experience." To Mel Brooks, "it

1760-488: A partner), Imogene Coca would make us laugh at a passion-ridden torch singer, or a daffy ballerina, or a sweet, wistful tramp. Together, Caesar and Coca would take us through the hilarious marital tribulations of Doris and Charlie Hickenlooper, or show us two strangers exchanging cliches when they meet for the first time. Coca recalled, There was a special chemistry to Your Show of Shows , I think, because [producer-director] Max [Liebman] wasn't afraid to throw out material at

1870-655: A piano, a rattlesnake and a bottle of seltzer. On the Dick Clark show in 1978, he played a chewing gum machine and a slot machine. He was also able to create imaginary characters. Alfred Hitchcock compared him to Charlie Chaplin , and critic John Crosby felt "he could wrench laughter out of you with the violence of his great eyes and the sheer immensity of his parody." In an article in The Saturday Evening Post in 1953, show business biographer Maurice Zolotow noted that "Caesar relies upon grunts and grimaces to express

1980-471: A raucous, hilarious, and truthful brand of comedy that, 50 years later, is still funny and inspiring, and makes me think ... What kind of comedy would I be doing if I hadn't seen Sid Caesar? Would I be a comedian at all? Your Show of Shows The show has been featured in several lists of the greatest television series. Most of the series has been preserved to some extent, but only some sketches have been released on home video. The 90-minute live series

2090-447: A real career or make any money. But we were married one year after we met, in July of 1943." She also pointed out, "You know, he's not funny all the time. He can be very serious." At the time of the interview, the couple had been married for 66 years. Florence Caesar died on March 3, 2010, aged 88. Caesar was married to Florence Levy for 67 years until her death in 2010. Caesar asserted that he

2200-472: A sketch and giving it to Caesar, "Sid would make it ten times funnier than what we wrote. Sid acted everything out, so the sketches we did were like little plays." Simon also remembered the impact that working for Caesar had on him: "The first time I saw Caesar it was like seeing a new country. All other comics were basically doing situations with farcical characters. Caesar was doing life." Some of his writers, like Woody Allen , initially didn't like being among

2310-538: A stand-up comedian. He also relied more on body language, accents, and facial contortions than simply dialogue. Unlike the slapstick comedy which was standard on TV, his style was considered "avant garde" in the 1950s. He conjured up ideas and scene and used writers to flesh out the concept and create the dialogue. Among the writers who wrote for Caesar early in their careers were Mel Brooks , Neil Simon , Larry Gelbart , Carl Reiner , Michael Stewart , Mel Tolkin , Lucille Kallen , Selma Diamond , and Woody Allen . "Sid's

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2420-415: A temperate rainforest. [3] 1. Averages at least 55 inches of precipitation per year with at least 10% of its average annual precipitation during the summer months. [4] 2. Cool, frequently overcast summers with average July temperature less than 16 degrees Celsius (60.8 degrees Fahrenheit) 3. Infrequent forest fires/wildfires and fires do not play an important role in shaping the ecology or ecosystem of

2530-602: A two-hour panel discussion featuring head writer Mel Tolkin , Caesar, Carl Reiner , Aaron Ruben , Larry Gelbart , Mel Brooks , Neil Simon , Danny Simon , Sheldon Keller , and Gary Belkin . The event was taped, broadcast on PBS in the United States and the BBC in the UK, and later released as a DVD titled Caesar's Writers . In 1997, he made a guest appearance in Vegas Vacation and,

2640-454: A vast range of emotions." Of his double-talk routines, Carl Reiner said, "His ability to doubletalk every language known to man was impeccable," and during one performance Caesar imitated four different languages but with almost no real words. Despite his apparent fluency in many languages, Caesar could actually speak only English and Yiddish . In 2008, Caesar told a USA Today reporter, "Every language has its own music ... If you listen to

2750-514: Is 5a with an average annual extreme minimum temperature of −16.6 °F (−27.0 °C). The plant hardiness zone in Margaretville at 1,000 feet (300 m) is 5b with an average annual extreme minimum temperature of −10.6 °F (−23.7 °C). The Catskill Mountains also is a temperate rainforest [1] [2] and meets all 4 of the criteria in Alaback’s definition of what qualifies or defines

2860-490: Is a live sketch with Nanette Fabray , where they both pantomime an argument choreographed to the music of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony . Writer Mel Tolkin stated that Caesar "didn't like one-line jokes in sketches because he felt that if the joke was a good one, anybody could do it. One-liners would take him away from what drove his personal approach to comedy." Larry Gelbart called Caesar's style theatrical, and called him "...a pure TV comedian." In describing his control during

2970-707: Is consistent with the actual topographic relief. The Pocono Mountains , to the immediate southwest in Pennsylvania , are also a part of the Allegheny Plateau. The Catskills contain more than 30 peaks above 3,500 feet (1,100 m) and parts of six important rivers. The Catskill Mountain 3500 Club is an organization whose members have climbed all the peaks in the Catskills over 3,500 feet (1,100 m). The highest mountain, Slide Mountain in Ulster County, has an elevation of 4,180 feet (1,270 m). Climatically,

3080-678: Is famous for its fly fishing , although in recent years it has been plagued by invasive plants . Road and mountain biking are fairly popular in the range. Bicycle racing includes the Tour of the Catskills, a three-day road stage race held in Green and Ulster counties each summer, and the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Windham. Other cycling resources include the Catskill Scenic Trail ,

3190-539: Is less than 16 degrees Celsius (60.8 degrees Fahrenheit). As for the 3rd criteria, forest fires or wildfires also are very rare and many places within the Catskills which have never had any forest fires ever before and many the trees and ecology of the forest is old and untainted by wildfires or forest fires have not played any significant role in the ecology or ecosystem of the forest with the exception of Native Americans who did prescribed burning in some areas in order to create land for farming. [7] And of course it also meets

3300-447: Is no known case of a name changed at Ellis Island. Max and Ida Caesar ran a restaurant, a 24-hour luncheonette . By waiting on tables, their son learned to mimic the patois , rhythm, and accents of the diverse clientele, a technique he termed double-talk , which he used throughout his career. He first tried double-talk with a group of Italians, his head barely reaching above the table. They enjoyed it so much that they sent him over to

3410-739: Is noted for making an almost 270-degree turn around Panther Mountain , following a buried 6-mile (10 km) impact crater rim. It is famous for tubing , a sport of rafting down a river in an inner tube. Many tubers begin their trip at Phoenicia, New York , and head down the creek towards the Ashokan Reservoir at Olive, New York . The Ashokan Reservoir is part of the New York City water supply system, with fishing allowed under permit, but swimming and most other recreational uses are forbidden. River canoeing and kayaking are popular. There are 42 rapids ranging from class I to V+ . The Esopus Creek

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3520-466: Is that Larry Gelbart wrote for Your Show of Shows ; in fact, he wrote for its successor program, Caesar's Hour , which was broadcast from 1954 to 1957. Likewise, Woody Allen did not write for Your Show of Shows , as he worked only on several Sid Caesar TV series and specials from 1956 forward. Carl Reiner has stated that the time he spent on Your Show of Shows was the inspiration for The Dick Van Dyke Show . Your Show of Shows also inspired

3630-633: The Capitol Theater there. He was ineligible to join the musicians' union in New York City until he established residency, but he found work as a saxophonist at the Vacationland Hotel, a resort located in the Catskill Mountains of Sullivan County, New York . Mentored by Don Appel, the resort's social director, Caesar played in the dance band and learned to perform comedy, doing three shows a week. He audited classes in clarinet and saxophone at

3740-502: The Devonian and early Mississippian period (395 to 325 million years ago). Over that time, thousands of feet of these sediments built up, slowly moving the Devonian seashore further west. A meteor impact occurred in the shallow sea approximately 375 mya , creating a 10 km (6 mi) diameter crater. This crater eventually filled with sediments and became Panther Mountain through

3850-479: The DuMont network, and it was an immediate success. However, its sponsor, Admiral , an appliance company, could not keep up with the demand for its new television sets, so the show was canceled after 26 weeks—ironically, on account of its runaway success. On February 25, 1950, Caesar appeared in the first episode of Your Show of Shows , initially the second half of the two-hour umbrella show Saturday Night Review ; at

3960-570: The Great Depression . When he was 14, Caesar went to the Catskill Mountains as a tenor saxophonist in the Swingtime Six band with Mike Cifichello and Andrew Galos and occasionally performed in sketches in the Borscht Belt . After graduating from Yonkers High School in 1940, Caesar left home, intent on a musical career. He arrived in Manhattan and worked as an usher and then a doorman at

4070-680: The Juilliard School of Music . In 1940, he enlisted in the United States Coast Guard , and was stationed in Brooklyn , New York, where he played in military revues and shows. Caesar was discharged from the service in 1945. Vernon Duke , the composer of Autumn in New York , April in Paris , and Taking a Chance on Love , was at the same base and collaborated with Caesar on musical revues. During

4180-528: The Taconic Mountains are located today (though significantly larger). Finer sediment was deposited further westward, and thus the rocks change from gravel conglomerates to sandstone and shale . Further west, these fresh water deposits intermingle with shallow marine sandstone and shale until the end, in deeper water limestone . The uplift and erosion of the Acadian Mountains was occurring during

4290-438: The "comedian of comedians from TV's early days." Honored in numerous ways over 60 years, he was nominated for 11 Emmy Awards , winning twice. He was also an accomplished saxophonist , having played the saxophone since he was eleven years old, and was the author of several books, including two autobiographies in which he described his career and later struggle to overcome years of alcoholism and addiction to barbiturates. Caesar

4400-569: The 1970s and 1980s, Caesar continued to make occasional television and theatrical appearances and starred in several movies including Silent Movie and History of the World, Part I (both reuniting him with Mel Brooks), Airport 1975 , and as Coach Calhoun in Grease and its sequel Grease 2 in 1982. In 1971, he starred opposite Carol Channing and a young Tommy Lee Jones in the Broadway show Four on

4510-568: The 1970s as fire spotting from airplanes had become more effective and efficient, so the fire towers were decommissioned; the Hunter Mountain Fire Tower was the last to be taken out of service in 1990. Six remaining towers were renovated and opened to the public as observation posts with panoramic views and a tower was opened at the Catskill Visitor Center in 2022. In 2024 a tower was restored to Bramley Mountain , bringing

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4620-533: The 1976 syndicated "best of" series were aired on Comedy Central during the early 1990s. Skits from the series which are from Sid Caesar's personal collection are available on The Sid Caesar Collection DVD set. In 2002, Your Show of Shows was ranked #30 on TV Guide ' s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time . In 2013, it was ranked #37 on TV Guide ' s 60 Best Series of All Time. In 2007, Time placed Your Show of Shows on its unranked list of "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME." In 2013, Your Show of Shows

4730-399: The 1982 movie My Favorite Year , produced by Mel Brooks, and the 1993 play Laughter on the 23rd Floor written by Neil Simon. The series was noted for its array of glamorous dancers, including Joy Langstaff, Pauline Goddard, and Virginia Curtis. By the 1953–1954 season, although the ratings had slipped a little, Your Show of Shows remained extremely popular with viewers. However, in

4840-632: The 4th criteria of dormant season caused by lower temperatures in the winter and snow is very common in the winter Although the Catskills are sometimes compared with the Adirondack Mountains farther north, the two mountain ranges are not geologically related, as the Adirondacks are a continuation of the Canadian Shield . Similarly, the Shawangunk Ridge , which forms the southeastern edge of

4950-481: The Broadway musical Little Me , with book by Simon, choreography by Bob Fosse , and music by Cy Coleman . Playing eight parts with 32 costume changes, he was nominated in 1963 for a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. On film, Caesar and Adams played a husband and wife drawn into a mad race to find buried loot in Stanley Kramer 's comedy ensemble It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) which became

5060-808: The Catskill Mountain Branch of the Ulster and Delaware Railroad which was absorbed into the New York Central railroad in 1932. Oneonta to Kingston passenger rail service continued until 1954. Part of the line still exists but now serves only freight. The southern part of the Catskills was served by the New York, Ontario and Western Railway . Over the course of 1950, service on the NYO&;W downscaled to summer only. In its last years it ran trains from Roscoe to Weehawken, New Jersey , via Liberty . It connected with

5170-707: The Catskill region are Albany International Airport to the north and Stewart International Airport in Newburgh to the south. Smaller airports in the region include: The Catskills serve as the setting for many works of fiction, such as the short story Rip Van Winkle , and the children's book My Side of the Mountain . The Hudson Valley Film Commission maintains a list of films set in the Hudson Valley/Catskills Region. Of them, more than three dozen films are set in

5280-600: The Catskills lie within the Allegheny Highlands forests ecoregion . According to the Köppen climate classification system, the Catskill Mountains have two climate zones. The vast majority of the Catskills have a warm summer humid continental climate ( Dfb ) with some isolated locations in valleys with hot summer humid continental climate ( Dfa ). The plant hardiness zone on Slide Mountain at 4,180 feet (1,270 m)

5390-492: The Catskills still average at least 55 inches annually. [6] For the 2nd criteria, summers in the Catskills are indeed cooler, not as hot and frequently cloudy, overcast, and foggy and even frequently chilly overnight as soon as the sun goes down. The tops of the mountains also meet the criteria of average July temperature less than 16 degrees Celsius (60.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in July. The top of Slide Mountain for example has an average July temperature of 60.3 degrees Fahrenheit which

5500-512: The Catskills, is part of the geologically distinct Ridge-and-Valley province and is a continuation of the same ridge known as Kittatinny Mountain in New Jersey and Blue Mountain in Pennsylvania. The Catskill Mountains are more of a dissected plateau than a series of mountain ranges. The sediments that make up the rocks in the Catskills were deposited when the ancient Acadian Mountains in

5610-477: The Catskills. The town of Bethel, New York , located in the Catskills, was home to the famous Woodstock music festival that took place August 15–18, 1969. The event, wherein 32 music acts performed in front of over 500,000 concert-goers, was captured in the documentary movie Woodstock (1970). The site is now home to the world-renowned Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. The many hotels and vacation resorts located in

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5720-821: The Catskills: Belleayre Mountain (run by the Olympic Regional Development Authority ); Hunter Mountain (the first ski area to install snowmaking machines in New York); Windham Mountain ; Holiday Mountain Ski and Fun in Monticello ; and Plattekill Mountain in Roxbury . Joppenbergh Mountain , in Rosendale Village hosted its first ski jumping competition in 1937. Ski jumping was continued on

5830-474: The Dutch arrived in the 17th century and may have been a reason for the name. The confusion over the origins of the name led over the years to variant spellings such as Kaatskill and Kaaterskill , both of which are also still used: the former in the regional magazine Kaatskill Life , the latter as the name of a mountain peak and a waterfall . The supposed Native American name for the range, Onteora ("land in

5940-708: The Headwaters Trails in Stamford and the Roundtopia trail network (mapped by the Round Top Mountain Bike Association). Several ski centers provide downhill mountain bicycling in the warmer months. Within the range is the Catskill Park , comprising over 700,000 acres (280,000 ha). Catskill Park is part of New York's Forest Preserve . Not all the land is publicly owned; about 60% remains in private hands, but new sections are added frequently. Most of

6050-778: The Jailer in Die Fledermaus at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In 1987, Caesar starred in the David Irving film The Emperor's New Clothes with Robert Morse as the Tailor. Caesar remained active by appearing in movies, television and award shows, including the movie The Great Mom Swap in 1995. In 1996, the Writers Guild of America, West reunited Caesar with nine of his writers from Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour for

6160-633: The NBC skit-based comedy television pilot called Hamburgers . In 1980, he appeared as a double-talking Japanese father for Mei and Kei's Pink Lady and opposite Jeff Altman in the Pink Lady and Jeff show. In 1983, Caesar hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live , where he received a standing ovation at the start of the show and was awarded a plaque at the conclusion of the show declaring him an honorary cast member. He released an exercise video, Sid Caesar's Shape Up! , in 1985. In 1987–89, Caesar appeared as Frosch

6270-639: The New York Central's West Shore Railroad at Cornwall . This service lasted until September 10, 1953. The Delaware and Ulster Railroad is a heritage railroad , based in Arkville, New York , that still runs a scenic part of the track from Highmount to Hubbell Corners, New York, for tourist use. The Catskill Mountain Railroad is also a heritage railroad in the Catskills, operating from Kingston up to Highmount. The Catskills are accessible by automobile from

6380-481: The age of 91, after a short illness. On Caesar's death, Carl Reiner said, "He was the ultimate, he was the very best sketch artist and comedian that ever existed." Mel Brooks commented, "Sid Caesar was a giant, maybe the best comedian who ever practiced the trade. And I was privileged to be one of his writers and one of his friends." Woody Allen stated, "He was one of the truly great comedians of my time". Jon Stewart and The Daily Show paid tribute to Caesar at

6490-415: The count to eight. The current towers are: The Catskill Mountain House , built in 1824, was a hotel near Palenville , New York , in the Catskill Mountains overlooking the Hudson River Valley . In its prime at the turn of the century, visitors included United States Presidents Ulysses S. Grant , Chester A. Arthur and Theodore Roosevelt . From 1872, the northern part of the Catskills were served by

6600-507: The couple's meeting, Florence said, "Well, I thought he was nice for the summer ... I thought he would be just a nice boyfriend for the summer. He was cute-looking and tall, over six feet.... I was in my last year at Hunter College; we were still dating when Sid went into the service, the Coast Guard. Luckily he was stationed in New York so we were able to continue seeing each other, even though my parents weren't too happy about it. They never thought he would amount to anything, that he'd never have

6710-414: The east along Interstate 87 / New York State Thruway , which runs north–south through the Hudson Valley . To the south and southwest, the Catskills are accessible by a variety of highways, including New York State Route 55 , U.S. Route 44 , U.S. Route 209 , and New York State Route 17 . Access to the western Catskills is provided by New York State Route 30 ; and the vaguely defined far-western edge of

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6820-418: The east were rising and subsequently eroding. The sediments traveled westward and formed a great delta into the sea that was in the area at that time. The escarpment of the Catskill Mountains is near the former (landward) edge of this delta, as the sediments deposited in the northeastern areas along the escarpment were deposited above sea level by moving rivers, and the Acadian Mountains were located roughly where

6930-746: The end of the 1950–51 season, Your Show of Shows became its own, 90-minute program from the International Theatre at 5 Columbus Circle and later The Center Theatre at Sixth Avenue and 49th Street. Burgess Meredith hosted the first two shows, and the premiere featured musical guests Gertrude Lawrence , Lily Pons and Robert Merrill . The show was a mix of sketch comedy , movie and television satires, Caesar's monologs, musical guests, and large production numbers. Guests included: Jackie Cooper , Robert Preston , Rex Harrison , Eddie Albert , Michael Redgrave , Basil Rathbone , Charlton Heston , Geraldine Page , Douglas Fairbanks Jr. , Pearl Bailey , Fred Allen , Benny Goodman , Lena Horne and many other stars of

7040-435: The expressions on the faces of Caesar and other actors. Caesar relied more on body language, accents, and facial contortions than simply spoken dialogue. Unlike slapstick comedy, which was standard on TV, his style was considered avant garde . Caesar "...was born with the ability to write physical poetry," notes comedian Steve Allen , a technique like that used for a silent film comedian. An example of this "silent film" style

7150-484: The following year, in The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit based on a Ray Bradbury novel. Also that year, Caesar joined fellow television icons Bob Hope and Milton Berle at the 50th anniversary of the Primetime Emmy Awards . Billy Crystal also paid tribute to Caesar that night when he won an Emmy for hosting that year's Oscar telecast, recalling seeing Caesar doing a parody of Yul Brynner in The King & I on Your Show of Shows . Caesar performed his double-talk in

7260-483: The forest 4. Dormant season caused by lower temperature or even occasional snow. [5] For the first criteria, majority areas within the Catskill Mountains do indeed average at least 55 inches of precipitation annually and summer is the wettest season hence it by far meets the criteria of at least 10% of its average annual precipitation during the summer months. Slide Mountain and nearby Hunter Mountain average about 63 inches of precipitation annually and most areas within

7370-436: The large team of writers coming up with routines for Caesar, feeling it was too competitive and contributed to hostility among writers. An Allen biographer wrote that Allen "...chafed under the atmosphere of inspired spontaneity", although Allen did say that, "Writing for Caesar was the highest thing you could aspire to—at least as a TV comedy writer. Only the presidency was above that." Neil Simon noted that "we were competitive

7480-399: The last minute. And I think when you do live television — well, we stopped for nothing. We had no cue cards, no TelePrompTers , and no ad-libbing on the air, because Max would have died if anybody had ad-libbed. It would have been utter disgrace, and you would have been drummed right out of the corps. ... Nobody ever forgot a line, and that was the amazing part of it. A common misconception

7590-401: The late 19th century, the Catskills have been a haven for artists, musicians and writers, especially in and around the towns of Woodstock and Phoenicia . Nicolaes Visscher I 's 1656 map of New Netherland located the Landt van Kats Kill at the mouth of Catskill Creek . The region to the south is identified as Hooge Landt van Esopus (High Lands of the Esopus ), a reference to

7700-411: The live performances, actress Nanette Fabray recalled that unlike most comedians, such as Red Skelton , Bob Hope or Milton Berle , Caesar always stayed in character: "He was so totally into the scene he never lost it." Caesar was able to pantomime a wide variety of things: a tire, a gumball machine, a lion, a dog, a punching bag, a telephone, an infant, an elevator, a railroad train, a herd of horses,

7810-404: The mountain until February 7, 1971, when the last competition was held. The Mountain Trails Cross Country Ski Center in Tannersville has 22 miles (35 km) of trails. The Catskill Mountains fire towers were constructed to facilitate forest fire prevention and control. Twenty-three fire towers were built in the Catskill Mountains between 1908 and 1950. The fire towers fell out of use by

7920-482: The mountains. Grooves and scratches in exposed bedrock provide evidence of the great sheets of ice that once traversed the region. Even today the erosion of the mountains continues, with the region's rivers and streams deepening and widening the mountains' valleys and cloves. In the mid–20th century, summer resorts in the Catskills, nicknamed the Borscht Belt , were a major vacation destination for Jewish New Yorkers. At its peak of popularity, about 500 resorts operated in

8030-435: The music. He won a 1948 Donaldson Award for his contributions to the musical. Caesar's television career began with an appearance on Milton Berle 's Texaco Star Theater in the fall of 1948. In early 1949, Caesar and Liebman met with Pat Weaver , vice president of television at NBC, which led to Caesar's first series, Admiral Broadway Revue with Imogene Coca . The Friday show was simultaneously broadcast on NBC and

8140-675: The northeastern end of the Allegheny Plateau (also known as the Appalachian Plateau ). The Catskills were named by early Dutch settlers. They are well known in American society as the setting for films and works of art, including many 19th-century Hudson River School paintings, as well as for being a favored destination for vacationers from New York City in the mid-20th century. The region's many large resorts gave many young stand-up comedians an opportunity to hone their craft. Since

8250-539: The opening act for Joe E. Lewis at the Copacabana nightclub . He reunited with Liebman, who guided his stage material and presentation. That job led to a contract with the William Morris Agency and a nationwide tour. Caesar also performed in a Broadway revue, Make Mine Manhattan , which featured The Five Dollar Date —one of his first original pieces, in which he sang, acted, double-talked, pantomimed, and wrote

8360-772: The park and the preserve are within Ulster County, with a significant portion in Greene County, and parts in Sullivan and Delaware counties as well. Many of the trails in public areas are maintained and updated by the New York–New Jersey Trail Conference and the Catskill Mountain 3500 Club . Devil's Path is one of the many trails open for hikers. Spots to camp in the Catskills include Bear Spring Mountain , Little Pond, Mongaup Pond, and North-South Lake . There are five main downhill ski and snowboard areas in

8470-553: The process of uplift and erosion. By the middle of the Mississippian period, the uplift stopped, and the Acadian Mountains had been eroded so much that sediments no longer flowed across the Catskill Delta. Over time, the sediments were buried by more sediments from other areas, until the original Devonian and Mississippian sediments were deeply buried and slowly became solid rock. Then the entire area experienced uplift, which caused

8580-646: The range's eastern end, the mountains begin dramatically with the Catskill Escarpment rising up suddenly from the Hudson Valley . The western boundary is far less certain, as the mountains gradually decline in height and grade into the rest of the Allegheny Plateau , but maps from the 18th and 19th centuries consistently mark the border of the Catskill Mountains as the East Branch of the Delaware River, which

8690-410: The region is variously considered to be New York State Route 10 or Interstate 88 , though this boundary remains a matter of local preference. New York State Routes 28 and 23A cut east–west through the heart of the Catskills, serving many of the most popular outdoor tourist destinations. New York State Route 23 runs east–west across the Catskills' northern section. The closest major airports to

8800-530: The region. Later changes in vacationing patterns have led most of those travelers elsewhere, although there are still some bungalow communities and summer camps in the region catering to Orthodox populations. Esopus Creek is a 65.4-mile (105.3 km) tributary of the Hudson River , starting at Winnisook Lake on Slide Mountain . It flows across Ulster County to the Hudson River at Saugerties . The Esopus

8910-621: The remainder telecast from the since-demolished International Theatre (also known as the Park Theatre) at 5 Columbus Circle and the Center Theatre in Manhattan , New York City . The Chicago portion was dropped at the end of the 1950–51 season, and the series became the 90-minute Your Show of Shows . Writers for the series included Mel Brooks , Neil Simon , Danny Simon , Mel Tolkin , Lucille Kallen , Selma Diamond , Joseph Stein , Michael Stewart , Tony Webster (the only Gentile among

9020-596: The scripts in the closet and was holding onto the key until he could come back to decide how to dispose of them. After the program ended the Caesar-Coca team was effectively split into two successor programs the following season: Imogene Coca starred in The Imogene Coca Show (which lasted one season), and Sid Caesar starred in Caesar's Hour , which retained much of the cast and staff of Your Show of Shows . Reruns of

9130-415: The sedimentary rocks to begin to erode. Today, those upper sedimentary rocks have been completely removed, exposing the Devonian and Mississippian rocks. Today's Catskills are a result of the continued erosion of these rocks, both by streams and, in the recent past, by glaciers. In successive ice ages , both valley and continental glaciers have widened the valleys and the notches of the Catskills and rounded

9240-528: The show to which all comedy writers aspired. It was the place to be." While Caesar did not write his dialogue, he made all final decisions. His writers, such as Mel Brooks , felt they "had a great instrument in Caesar that we could all play, and we played it very well." As for Caesar, Nachman describes him basically as an "inspired idea man who allowed the writers to take more risks" than other TV shows. Woody Allen remembers that "...you wrote situations," instead of jokes, as in "This Is Your Story" with Carl Reiner,

9350-613: The show was "The Commuters", which featured Caesar, Reiner, and Morris involved with everyday working and suburban life situations. Years later, the sketch "Sneaking through the Sound Barrier", a parody of the British film The Sound Barrier , ran continuously as part of a display on supersonic flight at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Steve Allen claimed, "Sid's was

9460-475: The show's close on February 12, 2014. Vanity Fair republished a brief tribute written by Billy Crystal in August 2005, in which he said of Caesar and his contemporaries: I get nervous when I am with these giants. I always feel like I want to say, Thank you. I am blessed to have grown up in their time of perfection, to have witnessed the utter force of Sid. Live, uncut, daring but not risqué. Never stooping beneath themselves, Sid and this team of icons put forth

9570-425: The show's writers), and Carl Reiner who, though a cast member, also worked with the writers. The series is historically significant for the evolution of the variety genre by incorporating situation comedies ( sitcoms ) such as the running sketch "The Hickenloopers"; this added a narrative element to the traditional multi-act structure. James Starbuck was the resident choreographer for the show, and often appeared as

9680-501: The sketches boosted the box office of the original productions. Some notable sketches included: "From Here to Obscurity" ( From Here to Eternity ), "Aggravation Boulevard" ( Sunset Boulevard ), "Hat Basterson" ( Bat Masterson ), and "No West for the Wicked" ( Stagecoach ). They also performed some recurring sketches. "The Hickenloopers", television's first bickering-couple sketch, predated The Honeymooners . As "The Professor", Caesar

9790-563: The sky"), was purportedly created in the mid-19th century to drum up business for a resort. It is still the name of a school district and as the name of a Boy Scout summer camp ( Onteora Scout Reservation ). The Catskill Mountains are approximately 100 miles (160 km) north-northwest of New York City and 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Albany , starting west of the Hudson River . The Catskills occupy much of two counties ( Greene and Ulster ), and extend slightly into Delaware , Sullivan , and southwestern Schoharie counties. At

9900-545: The spring of 1954, it was decided to break up the comedy team of Caesar and Coca and, beginning in the fall of 1954, sign them to star in their own individual variety series on NBC. As a result, Your Show Of Shows ended its network run on June 5, 1954. At the end of that episode, NBC president "Pat" Weaver came out at the curtain call to congratulate the cast on their four-year-four-month run and personally to wish Caesar and Coca great success in their future endeavors. The summer replacement for Your Show of Shows in 1953 and 1954

10010-487: The summer of 1942, Caesar met his future wife, Florence Levy, at the Avon Lodge in the Catskills village of Woodridge, New York . They were married on July 17, 1943, and had three children: Michele, Rick and Karen. After joining the musicians' union, he briefly played with Shep Fields , Claude Thornhill , Charlie Spivak , Art Mooney and Benny Goodman . Later in his career, he performed "Sing, Sing, Sing" with Goodman for

10120-486: The tickets to my roommate because I said, Fair Lady's gonna be running for a hundred years, but Sid Caesar is live and I'll never see that again." After nearly 10 years as a prime-time star of television comedy with Your Show of Shows followed by Caesar's Hour , his stardom ended rapidly and he nearly disappeared from the spotlight. Nachman describes this period: Caesar slid into a personal and career abyss ... [he] had no interest in movies ... He would live and die by

10230-418: The time, the dialogue on his shows was considered sharper, funnier and more adult oriented. In his sketches for Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour , he would also typically "skewer the minutiae of domestic life" along with lampooning popular or classic movies. Contemporary movies, foreign movies, theater, television shows and opera were targets of satire by the writing team. Often the publicity generated by

10340-629: The time. It was also responsible for bringing together the comedy team of Caesar, Coca, Carl Reiner , and Howard Morris . Many writers also got their break creating the show's sketches, including Lucille Kallen , Mel Brooks , Neil Simon , Michael Stewart , Mel Tolkin and Sheldon Keller . Sid Caesar won his first Emmy in 1952. In 1951 and 1952, he was voted the United States' Best Comedian in Motion Picture Daily ' s TV poll. The show ended after almost 160 episodes on June 5, 1954. A few months later, Caesar returned with Caesar's Hour ,

10450-443: The tube. His career was short-circuited by alcohol and pills ... The pressures of sudden stardom, of headlining and co-producing a weekly hit show, crushed him. Caesar himself felt, "It had all come too fast, was too easy, and he didn't deserve the acclaim." Writer Mel Brooks , who also became his close friend, said, "I know of no other comedian, including Chaplin, who could have done nearly ten years of live television. Nobody's talent

10560-557: The way a family is competitive to get dad's attention. We all wanted to be Sid's favorite." As part of the competitive atmosphere in The Writer's Room , as it was called, friendship was also critical. Larry Gelbart explained: We were able to be urbane. Between us we read every book. Between us we saw every movie. Between us we saw every play on Broadway. You could make jokes about Kafka or Tennessee Williams. We also had dinner together. We went to movies together. We were all friends. And that

10670-412: The years 1953 and 1954 and tallied two wins. He also acted in films; he played Coach Calhoun in Grease (1978) and its sequel Grease 2 (1982) and appeared in the films It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Silent Movie (1976), History of the World, Part I (1981), Cannonball Run II (1984), and Vegas Vacation (1997). Caesar was considered a "sketch comic" and actor, as opposed to

10780-412: Was Saturday Night Review . The show featured several regular musical sketches, such as the mock rock group The Haircuts which achieved a surprise novelty hit with "Going Crazy" in 1955. The kinescopes of the series were retained by Max Liebman ; from those shows, a 1973 theatrical film titled Ten from Your Show of Shows was compiled which featured ten sketches. In 1976, this was followed by

10890-564: Was "proud to be Jewish" and that "Jews have a good sense of humor. Jews appreciate humor because in their life it's not too funny. We've been trodden down for a long time, thousands of years. So we've had to turn that around because if you take it all too seriously you're going to eat yourself. And we're very good at being self-deprecating. Either we do it or somebody's going to do it for us. We might as well do it first." Caesar died on February 12, 2014, at his home in Beverly Hills, California, at

11000-424: Was a zoo. Everyone pitched lines at Sid. Jokes would be changed fifty times." Naturally there were some explosive episodes: "Mr. Caesar once dangled a terrified Mr. Brooks from an 18th-story window until colleagues restrained him. With one punch, he knocked out a horse that had thrown his wife off its back, a scene that Mr. Brooks replayed in his movie Blazing Saddles ." Neil Simon recalled that after writing out

11110-619: Was ever more used up than Sid's. He was one of the greatest artists ever born. But over a period of years, television ground him into sausages." In 1977, after blacking out during a stage performance of Neil Simon 's The Last of the Red Hot Lovers in Regina, Saskatchewan , Caesar gave up alcohol " cold turkey ". In his 1982 autobiography, Where Have I Been? , and his second book, Caesar's Hours , he chronicled his struggle to overcome his alcoholism and addiction to sleeping pills . Throughout

11220-529: Was performed live, including the commercials. Caesar's Hour was followed by ABC's short-lived Sid Caesar Invites You from January 26 to May 25, 1958. It briefly reunited Caesar, Coca, and Reiner, with Simon and Brooks among the writers. In 1963, Caesar appeared on television, on stage, and in films. Several As Caesar Sees It specials evolved into the 1963–64 Sid Caesar Show (which alternated with Edie Adams in Here's Edie ). He starred with Virginia Martin in

11330-615: Was produced by Sylvester "Pat" Weaver and directed by Max Liebman , who had been producing musical revues at the Tamiment resort in the Pocono Mountains for many years prior. Caesar, Coca, and Liebman had worked on Admiral Broadway Revue from January to June 1949. The series originated as the second half of a two-hour umbrella show, Saturday Night Review , with the first portion hosted by comedian Jack Carter in Chicago , Illinois, and

11440-538: Was published, and in 2006, Billy Crystal presented Caesar with the TV Land Awards ' Pioneer Award. In what TV Land called "...a hilarious, heartfelt, multilingual, uncut acceptance speech," Caesar performed his double-talk for over five minutes. In a November 2009 article in the Toluca Lake , California , Tolucan Times , columnist Greg Crosby described a visit with Caesar and his wife Florence at their home. Of

11550-434: Was ranked #10 on Entertainment Weekly ’s Top 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked Your Show of Shows #41 on its list of the "101 Best Written TV Series of All Time." Catskill Mountains The Catskill Mountains , also known as the Catskills , are a physiographic province and subrange of the larger Appalachian Mountains , located in southeastern New York . As

11660-415: Was the daffy expert who bluffed his way through his interviews with earnest roving reporter Carl Reiner . In its various incarnations, "The Professor" could be Gut von Fraidykat (mountain-climbing expert), Ludwig von Spacebrain (space expert), or Ludwig von Henpecked (marriage expert). Later, "The Professor" was inspiration for Mel Brooks' "The Two Thousand Year Old Man". The most prominent recurring sketch on

11770-469: Was the first original TV comedy creation." His early shows were the "...gold standard for TV sketch comedy." In 1951, Newsweek noted that according to "the opinion of lots of smart people, Caesar is the best that TV has to offer," while Zolotow, in his 1953 profile for The Saturday Evening Post , wrote that "in temperament, physique, and technique of operation, Caesar represents a new species of comedian." However, his positive impact on television became

11880-554: Was the show to which all comedy writers aspired. It was the place to be," said Steve Allen . His TV shows' subjects included satires of real life events and people, and parodies of popular film genres, theater, television shows, and opera. But unlike other comedy shows at the time, the dialogue was considered sharper, funnier, and more adult-oriented. He was "best known as one of the most intelligent and provocative innovators of television comedy," who some critics called "television's Charlie Chaplin " and The New York Times refers to as

11990-495: Was the youngest of three sons; his family was Jewish. He was born in Yonkers, New York . His father was Max Ziser (1874–1946) and his mother was Ida (née Raphael) (1887–1975). They likely were from Dąbrowa Tarnowska , Poland. Reports state that the surname "Caesar" was given to Max, as a child, by an immigration official at Ellis Island . According to Marian L. Smith, senior historian of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, there

12100-490: Was very important. We appreciated each other a lot. Nachman concludes that "the Caesar shows were the crème de la crème of fifties television," as they were "studded with satire, and their sketches sharper, edgier, more sophisticated than the other variety shows." Likewise, historian Susan Murray notes that Caesar was "...best known as one of the most intelligent and provocative innovators of television comedy." According to actress Nanette Fabray , who acted alongside Caesar, "He

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