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John Fitzgerald Kennedy ~ That Was the Week That Was 
Mort Sahl ‎~ At Sunset on red vinyl    
 
    
    
    
 
    
    
Kate Smith  - 1926   
dancing the Charleston    
photographer unknown    
    
    
 
    
    
 

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20,000 vinyl LPs 222: Mort Sahl ‎~ At Sunset on red vinyl

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Mort Sahl ‎~ At Sunset
red vinyl LP front cover
cover photo by Bob Willoughby
photo of front cover by Styrous®

In the late 50's and early 60's I discovered comedy on vinyl LP albums. The artists ranged in style and look all over the place; of course, there were the squeaky-clean and cute as buttons Kingston Trio, the goofy and fun Smothers Brothers, naughty Bell Barth, Shelly Berman, etc. Then there was Mort Sahl.    

Mort Sahl is an American comedian, actor, and social satirist, considered the first modern stand-up comedian since Will Rogers. He pioneered a social satire which pokes fun at political and current event topics using improvised monologues and only a newspaper as a prop.        

              

Mort Sahl ‎~ At Sunset
red vinyl LP back cover
photo by Styrous®

Morton Lyon Sahl was born on May 11, 1927, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the only child of Jewish parents. His father, Harry Sahl, came from an immigrant family on the Lower East Side of New York City, and hoped to become a Broadway playwright. He met his wife when she responded to an advertisement he took out in a poetry magazine. Unable to break into the writing field they moved to Canada where he owned a tobacco store in Montreal.     

The family relocated to Los Angeles, California where his father, unable to become a Hollywood writer, worked as a clerk and court reporter for the FBI.                    

       

Mort Sahl ‎~ At Sunset
red vinyl LP back cover detail
detail photo by Styrous®

Between 1950 and 1953 he tried to get jobs as a stand-up comedian in nightclubs throughout Los Angeles, but with no success. NBC, where he once auditioned, told him he would never succeed as a comedian. He even offered to perform free during intermissions for the chance to show his talent. He recalls that period: "Despite all the folklore about the faith of friends in the struggling young artist, my friends constantly discouraged me." He and a friend then rented an old theater, which they called Theater X, for "experimental," and he began writing and staging one-act plays. One of his plays was titled "Nobody Trusted the Truth." But unable to attract a large enough audience, they eventually closed the theater.            

Mort Sahl ‎~ At Sunset
red vinyl LP back cover detail
detail photo by Styrous®

In 1953 he moved to the San Franicsco Bay Area. He once commented, "I was born in San Francisco." He auditioned for the hungry i, a nightclub in San Francisco. Its owner, Enrico Banducci, took an immediate liking to Sahl's comedy style and offered him a job at $75 a week (About $720 in 2020 money), which became his first steady job as a stand-up comedian.           

Mort Sahl ‎~ At Sunset
Bob Willoughby photo credit
red vinyl LP back cover detail
detail photo by Styrous®

Mort Sahl ‎~ At Sunset
red vinyl LP back cover detail
detail photo by Styrous®

Mort Sahl ‎~ At Sunset
red vinyl LP, side 1
photo by Styrous®

Mort Sahl ‎~ At Sunset
red vinyl LP label, side 1
photo by Styrous®

Mort Sahl ‎~ At Sunset
red vinyl LP, side 2
photo by Styrous®

Kate Smith introduced Mort Sahl on the Saturday, January 23, 1965 episode of the Hollywood Palace on ABC (link below) and the PBS American Masters series did an episode about him in 1987 (link below).       

Mort Sahl ‎~ At Sunset
red vinyl LP label, side 2
photo by Styrous®

  

Tracklist:

Side 1     Part 1   
Side 2     Part 2   

Notes:

Red vinyl           

            

Mort Sahl ‎– At Sunset
Label: Fantasy ‎– 7005
Format: Vinyl, LP
Country: US
Released: 1958
Genre: Non-Music
Style: Comedy

          

Viewfinder links:           

            

Mort Sahl           
Kate Smith         

Bob Willoughby           

           

YouTube links:           

            

Mort Sahl ~             
     @ the Hollywood Palace (1965)
     about the Kennedy Years (1987)   
     discusses Lenny Bruce       
     explains politics (1967)        
     Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour             

     Telephone Call to God                      

Woody Allen ~ Mort Sahl Changed The History Of Comedy  

            

           

Styrous® ~ Monday, May11, 2020                

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20,000 Vinyl LPs Archive
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Lon Clark, Sr. ~ Nick Carter & beyond

          

Lon Clark, Sr. was a New York City actor of stage and radio; born in Frost, Minnesota in 1912. As a youth in Minnesota, Clark studied at the MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis. He began as a musician and actor in traveling tent shows, followed by a season with the Cincinnati Summer Opera. After participating in radio drama in Cincinnati, he arrived in New York City during the 1940s, and his rich baritone voice quickly led to network radio roles.

Lon Clark, Sr.

publicity photo

He had the title role in Nick Carter, Master Detective on the Mutual Broadcasting System from 1943 to 1955. The Nick Carter scripts were by Alfred Bester and others. Clark also played the district attorney in Front Page Farrell.
              

Charlotte Manson as Patsy Bowen and 

Lon Clark as Nick Carter, 1946

 Mutual Broadcasting System 
 

Clark was also a familiar voice on such programs as the weekday serial Mommie and the Men, the frontier serial adventure Wilderness Road, the World War II dramas Words at War (1943–45) and Soldiers of the Press (1942–45), the quiz show Quick as a Flash, the soap opera Bright Horizon, the science fiction series 2000 Plus, Exploring Tomorrow, Lights Out, The Mysterious Traveler, The Kate Smith Hour, The March of Time, The Adventures of the Thin Man and Norman Corwin Presents, playing opposite such performers as Fred Allen, Art Carney, Helen Hayes and Orson Welles.

He was the opening narrator for the Earl Robinson work, The Lonesome Train which was originally produced for radio and later recorded (link below).          
               

Clark returned to the stage in his later years, replacing Jason Robards in the 1956 Broadway production of Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill. He was back on Broadway in the short run of Roman Candle by Sidney Sheldon with Inger Stevens and Julia Meade.  

Lon Clark, Sr. as Nick Carter

              

He was 86 when he died on October 2, 1998, at St. Clare's Hospital in Manhattan. He was survived by his wife, Michelle Trudeau Clark; two sons, Lon Jr. and Stephen, both of San Francisco; a brother, Gerald, of Plymouth, Minnesota; and a grandson, Lon Clark, The Third.

Lon Clark, Sr.

photographer & date unknown 

            

In 1986, through the small San Francisco publishing company, North Beach Press, his son & artist, Lon Clark, Jr. (link below), produced a book of Jazz photographs by French photographer, Michelle Vignes (link below).   

  

            

         

     

Viewfinder links:      

           

Earl Robinson ~ The Lonesome Train         

The art of Lon Clark, Jr.      
Michelle Vignes              

          

             

              

Styrous® ~ Saturday, July 29, 2017        

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