This show originates in the South
Shore Room at Harrah’s in Lake Tahoe. The Garry Moore Show, Garry’s Tuesday
night variety series, is also being recorded here. This show was recorded before the Hollywood
visit, yet aired after. Tickets and
early press for the event list Bess as one of the panelists, but it’s Betsy who
made the trip.
Dick Surryhne from Sacramento, California: “I have a 70-piece band
backstage…they all play the banjo”
Surryhne and
about twenty banjo players founded the Sacramento Banjo Club in 1960. The group grew to over a hundred members, 70
of whom perform “Waiting for the Robert E. Lee” (1912) here. They continue to present a “Banjo-Rama” in
Sacramento each year. Surryhne is the
brother-in-law of 60s comedian and erstwhile presidential candidate Pat
Paulsen.
Fred Gallo, Jim Smith and Joe Seidl, all of Lake Tahoe, sing
together as The Ski Larks, backed by Norman Paris and some of his musicians:
“We weren’t singing…the musicians behind us are ventriloquists”
The
musicians, as it turns out, are not Paris’ people at all. They are a trio called the Top Notchers,
consisting of brothers Al Pepi (accordion) and Frank Pepi (bass), and their
brother-in-law Eddie Nigro (guitar). The
group performs at the Harrah’s properties in Reno and Lake Tahoe. The three contestants, all Tahoe civic
leaders, were just lip synching.
Special guest Carol Burnett: “We’re going to play musical chairs”
With the
panel blindfolded, Burnett enters with a dozen men who play the game without
music. They stop whenever Carol answers
a question with ‘yes’. Blonde bombshell
Jayne Mansfield was supposed to have been the celebrity guest for this
show. According to various gossip
columnists of the day, she showed up drunk and was dropped. Burnett, who was there to perform on Garry’s
variety show the next night, filled in at the last minute. Without mentioning Mansfield by name, Garry
says on air that Carol learned five minutes before airtime that she would be
the show’s guest.
This site was created with the Nicepage