{"id":2104,"date":"2021-02-14T20:10:04","date_gmt":"2021-02-14T20:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=2104"},"modified":"2021-02-14T20:14:55","modified_gmt":"2021-02-14T20:14:55","slug":"ftv-the-smothers-brothers-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=2104","title":{"rendered":"FTV: The Smothers Brothers Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0In the world of entertainment, the list of stories about siblings working together is a long one.\u00a0 \u00a0 In the music end of the business, these tales often focus on the dysfunctional pairings like the Robinson brothers (The Black Crowes), The Everly Brothers (Phil and Don), and the Gallagher brothers (Oasis).\u00a0 Some concentrate on groups like The Carpenters (Richard and Karen) and The Beach Boys (The Wilson brothers) who lost members due to illness or tragedy:\u00a0 Karen Carpenter succumbed to the accumulated ill effects brought on by anorexia, Carl Wilson to cancer, Dennis Wilson drowned, and Brian Wilson was almost done in but eventually recovered (mostly) from psychosis compounded by drug use.\u00a0 Sometimes the siblings will work together early on (Edgar and Johnny Winter, Rick and Randy Derringer (nee: Zehringer) of The McCoys) only to drift apart (or into solo careers) later on.\u00a0 In that the Smothers Brothers (Tom and Dick) have worked together professionally since the late 1950s and are still talking to each other seems quite remarkable if one remembers the catch phrase that became a staple part of their act.\u00a0 Anyone who has siblings could relate when older brother Tom would blurt, \u201cMom always liked you best!\u201d during their back and forth banter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The sibling rivalry that would become the Smothers Brothers calling card wasn\u2019t something that just happened.\u00a0 Tom spent a decade absorbing lessons that became the foundation of their early career.\u00a0 Why he gravitated to a profession in entertainment made more sense to Tom when he later figured out that his dyslexia made it hard for him to read both written material and sheet music.\u00a0 This difficulty no doubt sharpened his ability to learn and replicate music by ear.\u00a0 Acting as the head of the family, Tom also took his role as \u2018big brother\u2019 seriously to the point of including brother Dick in his musical adventures.\u00a0 Their youthful bonding was spurred by the unsettled nature of their mother\u2019s life after World War II.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Brother\u2019s father, Major Thomas Bolyn Smothers, Jr was born in North Carolina in 1908.\u00a0 When the boys (born in 1937 and 1939, respectively) were still very young, the family relocated to the Philippines.\u00a0 With rumblings of war echoing across the Pacific, the Major sent his pregnant wife Ruth, Tom, and Dick to California where they established a home just north of Pasadena in the town of Altadena.\u00a0 Major Smothers (\u2018Smo\u2019 to his close friends) survived the Bataan Death March only to perish when the Japanese ship full of POWs he was on was mistakenly bombed by Allied planes as it was enroute to Korea.\u00a0 Major Smothers\u2019 death occured on April 26, 1945, just five months before the Japanese surrendered.\u00a0 Smo never met his youngest, daughter Sherry, who was born stateside in 1941.\u00a0 Tom remembers being \u201ceight or nine\u201d at the time when, \u201cMy mother brought me in, sat me down, and said \u2018Your daddy was caught in the war and died.\u00a0 Now you are the man of the house.\u2019\u00a0 Tough for a nine year old.\u00a0 She was crying.\u00a0 I was crying, too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Looking back, Tom and Dick can clearly see that their unsettled life over the next decade began with the loss of their father.\u00a0 Ruth Smothers sought comfort in a bottle and a number of relationships that were doomed before they began.\u00a0 Tom acted as a buffer for his younger sibs, often telling them their mother had \u2018fainted\u2019 rather than exposing them to the truth;\u00a0 that she had passed out from drinking.\u00a0 The unstable environment and revolving door of new \u2018fathers\u2019 found the kids farmed out to various relatives over their childhood and adolescent years.\u00a0 Despite the turbulent atmosphere caused by their mother\u2019s addiction, they remained close.\u00a0 Appearing after a skit on their television show (<\/span>The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour)<\/span><\/i> where Annett Fabray appeared as mother Smothers in a send up of the \u2018Mom always liked you best\u2019 schtick, Ruth was brought on stage and asked if she was their real mom.\u00a0 She was supposed to reply, \u201cSadly enough, I am,\u201d before kissing Dick and playfully slapping Tom on the face.\u00a0 That is how it played out in the rehearsal, but she asked Tom if she could alter it a bit during the taping of the show.\u00a0 She got a bigger laugh (and Tom said \u2018his favorite moment of the show\u2019) when she kissed them both before slapping Dick instead of Tom.\u00a0 Ruth Smothers passed away the day before the Brothers began rehearsals for <\/span>The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour 20th Reunion Show <\/span><\/i>that aired on\u00a0 February 3, 1988 but \u201cMom always liked you best\u201d never left the act.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Tom was studying advertising at San Jose State while simultaneously dabbling in his music hobby.\u00a0 He kept Dick involved and eventually convinced him to join him at SJS (where Dick would work toward a career in elementary education).\u00a0 In addition to their studies, they played in a series of small music groups.\u00a0 Their first official \u2018paid\u2019 gig was at a college beer hall where the \u2018pay\u2019 consisted of beer and pretzels.\u00a0 They were raw and often bombed with the college crowd, but not because they were drinking their pay.\u00a0 Dick explained it to David Bianculli in his book <\/span>Dangerously Funny – The Uncensored Story of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour <\/span><\/i>(Touchstone – 2009):\u00a0 \u201cTom wasn\u2019t that comidically developed and I was not developed as a straight man.\u00a0 [After one particularly forgettable set] Tom made an announcement, \u2018Anybody who wants to join us who has got some songs and knows what they\u2019re doing, talk to us afterward.\u2019\u201d After the gig, Bobby Blackmore hobbled up to the brothers (his leg was in a cast from a skiing accident) bearing all the right credentials to become \u2018Gawd\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Blackmore knew a lot of songs, possessed a pleasant voice, and played tenor guitar just like Nick Reynolds of The Kingston Trio.\u00a0 The Kingston Trio came together singing at a fraternity luau and gathered a strong following in the Palo Alto area.\u00a0 With the folk music of The Weavers and The Limeliters as their base, The K-Trio kickstarted a new boom in folk music when their first album produced a number-one hit, <\/span>Tom Dooley,<\/span><\/i> in 1958.\u00a0 Not only did The Kingston Trio provide a template for the first version of The Smothers Brothers and Gawd, they provided the Brothers their first break.\u00a0 The K-Trio were performing at The Purple Onion in San Francisco when their record sold three million copies.\u00a0 They moved over to a rival club, the hungry i, giving The Smothers Brothers and Gawd the chance to audition at the P.O.\u00a0 Bobby wasn\u2019t a \u2018brother\u2019 so he opted to be \u2018Gawd\u2019, an identifier that would eventually disappear from the billings. \u00a0 Tom recalled, \u201cWe auditioned, and someone was talking out in the audience, and I said, \u2018Shut Up!\u2019 And people thought that was very funny – and it was.\u00a0 So all of a sudden they hired us.\u00a0 We couldn\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The manager of the Purple Onion, Barry Drew, liked the act that consisted of Tom playing guitar and doing rambling introductions, Dick singing, and Bobby providing tenor guitar, banjo, and lead vocals.\u00a0 It was Drew who suggested perhaps Dick should also play an instrument instead of just standing there.\u00a0 Tom rented out a stand up bass and began teaching Dick enough basics to flesh out the trio\u2019s sound.\u00a0 At first, Tom refused to repeat any of the ad libs he would toss in between numbers, feeling the audience would know if he was repeating himself.\u00a0 When his well began to run dry, Dick prodded him to try recycling the line that got the best reaction.\u00a0 Tom reluctantly tried out Dick\u2019s idea and got a big laugh.\u00a0 He repeated it again the next show and again got big laughs.\u00a0 The younger brother had shown Tom how to refine their comedic side even before he refined his role as the act\u2019s straight man.\u00a0 The Onion extended their contract to sixteen weeks and after they had done a summer booking in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, they were back at the P.O. for another sixteen weeks.\u00a0 Positive reviews in the press and their first local TV appearance made them a hot ticket.\u00a0 Regardless of their new found success, Blackmore was tiring of the grind.\u00a0 Bobbi married a professional skater and moved to Australia, whittling the Smothers Brothers down to a duo with uncertain prospects.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Dick was newly married and planning to return to college to pursue his education degree when another folk group offered them an eight week run at the club they had founded in Aspen, Colorado.\u00a0 The Limelite Club was owned by band members Glen Yarbrough and Alex Hassilev (who took their band name, The Limeliters, from the club).\u00a0 They guaranteed $200 a week with free room and board.\u00a0 It was hard to pass up as evidenced by Tom and Dick\u2019s travel plan.\u00a0 Dick only had twenty dollars in his checking account but he did have a new fangled VISA card.\u00a0 The card was only good in California so they rode their credit card to the state line.\u00a0 A mini-jackpot won from a slot machine in Elco, Nevada provided the gas money needed to get them all the way to Aspen.\u00a0 Dick summarized their debut as a duet:\u00a0 \u201cWe didn\u2019t really know [if it would work].\u00a0 We didn\u2019t sense the movement, how much more professional we were.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0February of 1960 would become a pivotal period for The Smothers Brothers because things were happening beyond their new gig in Aspen.\u00a0 The first was to cause a seismic shift in the world of comedy when an unknown accountant from Chicago named Bob Newhart recorded his first album in front of a live audience.\u00a0 Self made tapes of Newhart\u2019s \u2018act\u2019 had been discovered by Warner Brothers Records who offered to make a record with him.\u00a0 Listening to <\/span>The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart<\/span><\/i> today, it is impossible to believe that this was his first effort in front of a live audience (hastily arranged at a club in Houston that had an open date).\u00a0 The album was the first comedy album to hit number one on the charts and it would open doors for The Smothers Brothers.\u00a0 Newhart was appearing across the street at the hungri i when the Brothers were at the Purple Onion, so they were well aware of each other\u2019s schtick early on.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The second event involved Jack Parr walking away from his NBC talk show over the censorship of one of his six minute joke-stories about a woman visiting Switzerland and having the locals confuse her question about the location of the W.C. (water closet) with a local landmark up the road with the same initials (Wayside Chapel). \u00a0 Later, when the ruffled feathers were smoothed, Paar returned.\u00a0 He opened the show saying, \u201cAs I was saying before I was interrupted . . . When I walked off I said there must be a better way of making a living.\u00a0 Well, I\u2019ve looked and there isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Paar\u2019s return as the \u2018King of Late Night TV\u2019 (and at that time, the only late night show going) would soon provide The Smothers Brothers with their next big break.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Meanwhile, back in Aspen, Tom and Dick took the stage at The Limelite for the first time as a duo.\u00a0 With Tom on Dick\u2019s right (necessary because a fall from a moving car as a toddler resulted in a skull fracture that rendered Dick deaf on his left side), they were unsure how the new act would go without their now departed lead singer, Bobby.\u00a0 They describe it as being a lightning bolt like transformation.\u00a0 Without their third member, they stumbled on the idea that Dick (who was previously the mum member on stage other than singing) could be the straight man, setting up Tom\u2019s comedic ramblings.\u00a0 Dick says, \u201cOnce we got onstage, within the first couple lines – boom!\u00a0 It was just there.\u00a0 There was just something about the naturalness of being two.\u201d\u00a0 Tom adds, \u201cWe didn\u2019t think we could do it.\u00a0 Bobby Blackmore, he always sang lead, and we sang harmony, and we had to learn these different songs and we didn\u2019t think we had strong enough voices to carry them.\u00a0 Pretty soon, we\u2019re singing solos and doing comedy.\u00a0 It was amazing!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It was a fertile place to be and the Brothers spent a lot of time mixing and mingling with other artists in the Aspen-Denver area.\u00a0 Teenaged future folk star Judy Collins opened for them on their first night at The Limelite.\u00a0 They also got to know Walt Conely, Bob Gibson and Mason Williams.\u00a0 Williams would become Tom\u2019s best friend, a major contributor to their <\/span>Comedy Hour<\/span><\/i> (seven years later), and recording star in his own right (<\/span>Classical Gas)<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 They weren\u2019t a polished act by any means, but the template for The Smothers Brothers\u2019 act that would bring them to a national audience on CBS was now in place.\u00a0 How far they were from \u2018the big time\u2019 is illustrated by their future manager Ken Kragen.\u00a0 Kragen shared a story about a snowy night in Aspen when a long line was waiting to be let into the club to hear the Brothers play:\u00a0 \u201cTom and Dick walked up there, arguing over something and they got in a fight.\u00a0 They were now wrestling in the snow, right next to the line of people who were waiting to go in and see them at the club.\u201d\u00a0 This same sibling combativeness would become the linchpin of their act, albeit without physical altercations erupting on stage.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With the Aspen booking behind them, The Brothers found themselves headlining a new Denver folk club called The Satire (managed by the aforementioned Walt Conley).\u00a0 A 19 year old Bob Dylan had hitchhiked down from Minneapolis to play The Satire just before he became a hot property, but Dylan and the Brothers did not meet.\u00a0 Dylan was on a different trajectory than Tom and Dick and stylistically they were not on the same page.\u00a0 The Purple Onion was more than happy to have them back when they returned to California.\u00a0 An acetate of their live act was recorded with an eye toward them recording a comedy album.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When it was finally released, <\/span>The Songs and Comedy of the Smothers Brothers!\u00a0 At the Purple Onion<\/span><\/i> was not entirely the truth.\u00a0 The only thing that survived from their recording at the Purple Onion was the introduction.\u00a0 \u201cThe shows were good,\u201d Dick explained.\u00a0 \u201cI think they just blew it on the recording end.\u00a0 But we were committed – plus we owed [The Purple Onion] for giving us our first break.\u201d\u00a0 They had made a \u2018Plan B\u2019 recording at The Tideland Club in Houston and that is the performance heard on the album.\u00a0 The \u201cLive, at the Purple Onion\u201d introduction is the only vestige of the earlier recording.\u00a0 The album would not be released until May 1961, but by then the Brothers were in New York.\u00a0 They set down in The Big Apple during the brutal winter in January 1961.\u00a0 The Smothers Brothers would soon\u00a0 enter Jack Paar\u2019s orbit in The Big Apple and this would mark the next big step forward in their career.\u00a0 We will pick up their introduction to a national TV audience in Part 2 of The Smothers Brothers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Classic early Smothers ‘Brothers Boil That Cabbage Down’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0In the world of entertainment, the list of stories about siblings working together is a long one.\u00a0 \u00a0 In the music end of the business, these tales often focus on the dysfunctional pairings like the Robinson brothers (The Black Crowes), The Everly Brothers (Phil and Don), and the Gallagher brothers (Oasis).\u00a0 Some concentrate on groups […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,8,12,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-humor","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2104"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2107,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions\/2107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}