It's a Dog's Life
- Jan 2, 2024
- 2 min read
Every month, I get a Search Report of my website that, among other things, has a record of the most-searched for articles on my site. Amusingly (and amazingly), for the longest time ever since I wrote an article back in 2013 about the ending of the series Northern Exposure, for which my good friend Jeff Melvoin was co-executive producer, that piece has been at the top of the list. This month's report came in today, and once again, the story was #1 -- not only #1, but by a massive amount. It had 264 searches and the next highest had just 57.
But there was another statistic that caught my eye, and one which I find almost as amusing and amazing. It was for the "Top Growing Pages" compared to the month before. Impressively, the Northern Exposure was on that list, as well, still growing, up by eight searches. But the #1 "Top Growing" page is one that utterly bewilders me.
It was a piece I posted about what is basically a vaudeville-style dog act! Yes, that's what leaped to the #1 top growing page on Elisberg Industries. Something that people somehow tracked down…let alone wanted to track down. The wonderful “Bob Williams and Louie.”
I’d remembered Bob Williams and Louie from the Ed Sullivan Show and had loved them as a kid, and I came across a video of them, wrote a short piece about the act, and embedded the video. And for some inexplicable reason, 24 people last month tracked it down to watch eight years later. But I’m sure they enjoyed every moment of it.
What I noted in that original article a decade ago was that in 1977 there was a big vaudeville-style production called Hellzoppin, a sort of "revival" of a massive hit from the 1930s. The show brought about battles between its producer Alexander Cohen and its star Jerry Lewis, who was hoping to make his Broadway debut. It closed out of town.
A few things sort of worked in the show, but never enough, and most things didn't. Throughout it all, however, there was only one part of Hellzapoppin that always -- always -- was singled out by the critics as great. Review after review raved about an act, Bob Williams and his dog Louie.
This is an act that Bob Williams did (largely unchanged) for a very long time. But then, when you're working with a pro like Louie there's not much reason to change something that's near-perfection. Here then, in honor of its bizarre and appreciated reappearance on the "Top Growing" list, hitting #1, is that video of their act that they did during an appearance on the Hollywood Palace in 1965.
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