Elisberg Industries
Decent Quality Since 1847
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like

Above and Beyond the Fringe

3/23/2014

2 Comments

 
As I wrote here, the revue Beyond the Fringe was made up of some awfully remarkable people, not just as comic performers within the troupe, but (remarkably, given the fame of the show) perhaps more what they did individually after -- Peter Cooke, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett (playwright of The Madness of King George III and The History Boys) and Dr. Jonathan Miller (National Theatre opera director, Shakespearean director, and neuropsychologist).  It had its start at the Edinburgh Festival in 1960, when four young talented men from Oxford and Cambridge Universities were brought together.

I've posted several sketches from the famous show
, and the other day suggested in a reply to a comment that I had come across something special and would be posting it soon.

Today is soon enough.

Here is Beyond the Fringe.  Not a sketch or two...but the whole freaking thing.  The legendary show.  When you have two hours, sit back and revel in it.  Or bookmark the video and make it through piecemeal.

The show opened on the West End in 1961 and later transferred to Broadway, where Jonathan Miller was eventually replaced by Paxton Whitehead, who appears on the second Broadway album, Beyond the Fringe '64.  (Among his many acclaimed credits and stage awards, he's probably most recognized for playing the
husband of the snooty British couple across the hall from Helen Hunt and Paul Reiser in Mad About You.) 

This performance comes from the final "gala farewell" on London's West End.  Though the show ran until 1966, I suspect this comes from 1962, when the original cast left to take the show to Broadway. The voiceover announcer notes that the play has played on Broadway, but since is the cast's final performance before going to Broadway, by the time this film was released it was legitimate to say that the show had played in New York.  

Fun too is the brief introduction with the came
ra maneuvering around the West End and seeing the marquees of the shows that were playing at the time, including Camelot with Laurence Harvey, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum starring Frankie Howerd, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Oliver!, among the many.

The video isn't up to today's movie production standard, but seriously who cares?  This is from a live stage production
with the original cast, and captures it all for posterity, and that's about as good as it gets.

It may not all translate ideally to a video, where we tend to expect things faster paced and more image oriented.  This is a stage show, after all, recorded on video.  It's talky, thoughtful, very smart, with some of the material dated politically perhaps.  It's also vibrantly clever and anti-authority in suits and ties.   And generally is utterly and blissfully funny.  And that it exists in its entirety is stunning.

In the image below, from left to right are Peter Cook, Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller and Dudley Moore.


Curtain up...


2 Comments
Jim Haberman
3/23/2014 07:59:21 am

Hi, Mr. Elisberg, this is my first comment post on your excellent blog which I’ve been reading almost daily for several months and, as that likely indicates, greatly enjoying (first heard about you via Mark Evanier’s blog). What I most love is the impressive combination of variety and depth in your column subjects, just a little sheepishly regretting that mine aren’t quite so wide.

One of your subjects that I’m very interested in, some might say borderline obsessed, is “Beyond the Fringe” and especially its four remarkable creator/performers. (Most especially among them being the absolutely unique comic voice of Peter Cook, ingenious author of more than half of “Fringe.”) This places me into an extremely tiny fan club as far as the US goes, but by now I’m more than used to the blank stares I typically get whenever bold (or tipsy) enough to introduce the subject, even among comedy and/or theatre buffs. What occasionally still shocks me is that mighty rare instance where I find a kindred “Fringe” spirit here in the States.

So of course I’ve much enjoyed your recent posts on the show, and am impressed that your recounting of the facts and history of it have tallied up well with my own understanding. One small point in your latest post could use a touch of clarification, though, and I hope you don’t mind if I offer that here. (Apologies in advance for the moderate length of this comment; brevity once again escapes my grasp.)

This recording of the entire performance of “Fringe” actually dates from shortly after the very end of its complete run with the original members. The show ended its Broadway stint in late May 1964 with only Dudley Moore left abroad of the founding group. Sometime in late summer, with all the principals back home in the UK, the BBC arranged for a “gala farewell performance” of the show at its longtime home, London’s Fortune Theatre. The idea was to record it all with its original cast, obviously on videotape as was BBC’s custom at the time, and to televise an hour-long edited version of the recorded show on BBC2 in early December 1964, which is what in fact happened.

What’s astounding here, of course, is that this full-length record of that performance still exists at all. The BBC was hugely notorious for erasing their videotapes for re-use at an alarming rate, leaving their vaults with very little content prior to the late seventies, when they finally abandoned that disastrous and nearly incomprehensible part of their business model. It’s well known that Peter Cook himself offered to pay the BBC a huge sum for copies of the three series of the wonderful “Not Only … But Also” program he starred in with Dudley Moore between ‘65 and ’70, when he’d heard from an insider that they were about to be wiped. The BBC’s refusal came back with the pitiful reasoning that doing so would set an undesirable precedent, a position they’d sadly clung to for many years.

So it’s no surprise at all that the televised one-hour cutdown of “Fringe” is utterly lost along with countless other BBC treasures of the era. But how on earth, one wonders, did this complete version ever manage to escape the flames? There are probably a few left who know that answer, but all I’m aware of is that it apparently surfaced about 12 to 15 years ago at the Museum of Television, then happily was released on DVD in 2005. Despite its less-than-stellar video and audio quality, that’s quite enough for me.

And enough of my wordiness for now too. Thanks again and huge congrats for providing the web with such an entertaining and informative blog, proving once more those two qualities can in fact co-exist, and for such surprisingly frequent updates as well.

One last semi-quick thing; there’s a terrific website out there with the most detailed history of “Fringe” that anyone’s probably ever undertaken. Not surprisingly, it seems British in origin (the wording, plus the fact that its detail of the Broadway run is somewhat less intricate than its UK rundown), and its whole saga makes for thoroughly fascinating, if not exactly brief, reading. The site is found here:
http://www.beyondthefringe.site40.net/index.html

All my very best,
Jim Haberman
Carpinteria, CA

Reply
Robert Elisberg
3/23/2014 04:14:44 pm

Jim, I am much appreciative of your far-too-kind comments, and also for your correction and updating of information about this recording. It's bizarre that it even was recorded in the first place, let alone (as you say) still exists, especially with the BBC's policy.

If you do a search of the site, you'll find that I've posted some videos of "Not Only...But Also," and at some point down the line, I'll likely post some of my own digitized audio recordings from LPs of the show, as well as Peter Cook's hilarious and brilliant "The Misty Mr. Wisty" monologues. Watch This Space -- and spread the word.

That you read Mark Evanier's great blog means that your plate is already full from that alone...

Thanks again.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture
    Elisberg Industries gets a commission if you click here before shopping on Amazon.
    Picture
    Follow @relisberg

    Author

    Robert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 

    Elisberg is a two-time recipient of the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. He's written for film, TV, the stage, and two best-selling novels, is a regular columnist for the Writers Guild of America and was for
    the Huffington Post.  Among his other writing, he has a long-time column on technology (which he sometimes understands), and co-wrote a book on world travel.  As a lyricist, he is a member of ASCAP, and has contributed to numerous publications.



    Picture
           Feedspot Badge of Honor

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Audio
    Audio Land
    Books
    Business
    Chicago
    Consumer Product
    Education
    Email Interview
    Entertainment
    Environment
    Fine Art
    Food
    From The Management
    Health
    History
    Huffery
    Humor
    Internet
    Journalism
    Law
    Los Angeles
    Media
    Morning News Round Up
    Movies
    Music
    Musical
    Personal
    Photograph
    Piano Puzzler
    Politics
    Popular Culture
    Profiles
    Quote Of The Day
    Radio
    Religion
    Restaurants
    Science
    Sports
    Technology
    Tech Tip
    Theater
    The Writers Workbench
    Tidbits
    Travel
    Tv
    Twitter
    Video
    Videology
    Well Worth Reading
    Words-o-wisdom
    Writing

    RSS Feed

© Copyright Robert J. Elisberg 2021
Contact Us    About EI    Chicago Cubs