by PETER TATCHELL (reprinted from LAUGH MAGAZINE #7, 1993)
In the 1950s, the undisputed king of audio comedy was Stan Freberg. His send-ups of popular hit records and television shows were popular all around the world, not only for their clever satirical content, but also for their outlandish sense of fun. It’s been suggested he was born a decade too late to reap the benefits of American network radio, but a major part of his success came from lampooning the music and television of the early days of the rock ‘n’ roll era.
Freberg was born in August 1926 of Swedish descent (his father was a Baptist minister) and grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles during the golden days of radio. A magician uncle whetted his appetite for the world of show business and at the age of seventeen he auditioned for the cartoon department at Warner Brothers (the home of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and dozens of others). Performing a selection of impersonations and character voices from behind a curtain, the youngster so impressed the gathering of directors and decision makers he was hired on the spot.
Over the next few years, Stan provided vocal interpretations of mice, gophers, bears and a myriad of other species for not only Warner Bros., but also Walt Disney, Paramount, Walter Lantz and MGM. In 1945 he took part in the breakfast session of a local radio station, and in the absence of a studio audience Stan did a range of characters as substitute interviewees.
Later that year Freberg began two years of military service (at the request of “Uncle Sam”) and upon his discharge got a job playing guitar with a novelty band in the Spike Jones tradition. In 1949, he teamed with another young voice artist Daws Butler to mouth the dialogue for a fifteen minute-a-day live-to-air puppet series Time For Beany on Los Angeles’ first commercial television station. Despite a miniscule budget and production values to match, the constant adlibbing throughout the storyline soon made the program something of a cult favourite and it won a number of awards during its five year run.
Soon after Beany had started, Stan was asked to make a test recording of a novelty routine he’d perfected whilst touring with the band … a strange satire of soap operas called John And Marsha where the two names are repeated over and over with various inflections conveying a range of emotions. Despite a good deal of scepticism within Capitol Records, the disc found favour with the company’s president and founder, Glenn Wallichs and upon release, the number rocketed up the charts. Stan Freberg was now a recording star!
In early 1952, Stan decided he’d had enough of Johnny Ray’s Cry which was echoing forth from radio sets across the country and penned a parody version titled Try. Within weeks, Freberg’s response was also sweeping the airwaves. The notoriety caused by the rendition even resulted in an article in Time magazine.
A little over a year later, Stan zeroed in on the enormously popular television police series Dragnet and (with Daws Butler and June Foray) created his incredibly successful spoof Dragonet. Jack Webb, creator and star of the original, was delighted with the send-up and even allowed the show’s theme music to be used on the disc.
Not all of Freberg’s targets went along with his satire, however. Lawyers for both Ed Sullivan and Arthur Godfrey (then top TV names from coast to coast) objected to the ridicule Stan had heaped upon their clients and forced the offending tracks to be locked away in Capitol’s vaults. The Ed Sullivan Story and That’s Right, Arthur were finally released in a Rhino set in the 1990s.
Freberg’s recording success had resulted in his appearing on quite a bit of television himself in those early years of the 1950s either as a panelist (on such shows as Musical Chairs on CBS) or performing his latest Capitol release on variety programs. He also found his way in front of the movie camera in MGM’s Callaway Went Thataway and Republic’s Geraldine. In 1954 he starred in a radio sitcom on CBS called That’s Rich which aired for a season.
By the mid-1950s Stan was becoming known as one of the country’s leading satirists through his Capitol releases. Television targets ranged from Ed Murrow’s Person To Person, The Lone Ranger and The Honeymooners to a daring sendup of the controversial McCarthy Un-American Activities hearings. The arrival of rock ‘n’ roll music sent him racing into the studios and Freberg versions of Sh-Boom and Heartbreak Hotel were soon in the record racks. He even vented his spleen against Harry Belafonte’s Banana Boat Song much to the displeasure of the artist.
On August 31st 1956, The CBS Radio Workshop devoted a half hour program to An Analysis Of Satire presented by Stan and his ‘regulars’ Daws Butler and June Foray. The show poked fun at political conventions and hi-fidelity sound buffs and even included a performance of the previously censored Arthur Godfrey lampoon.
Later that year Stan travelled to Australia and was delighted to find the locals were not averse to having their impending Olympic Games mocked by an American whose only prior contact had been via his 78rpm records. He was also surprised at the enthusiastic reaction given to his parodies of US television programs, in a country where the medium had not yet arrived. He made a follow-up tour with Frank Sinatra three years later.
In mid-1957, CBS radio had been so impressed by his earlier offerings that they premiered a sponsorless half-hour Stan Freberg Show every Sunday night. Though the series ran for only fifteen weeks it produced some inspired moments of comedy, and a handful of routines which have now become classics.
Apart from capitalizing on Freberg’s recording career with renditions of The Banana Boat Song, Yellow Rose Of Texas and Rock Island Line and new versions of his television sendups St George And The Dragonet and The Honeyearthers, the program yielded a notorious spoof of popular musician Lawrence Welk Wun’ erful, Wun’ erful which would be released as a single soon after. Regular characters on the show included Robert E. Tainter, an investigative reporter of historical greats, Mrs. Hagmire Prill, birdwatcher and sculptress in margarine, the Zazaloph Family (radio’s first. and possibly last, acrobatic group) and Professor Herman Horne, hi-fidelity aficionado. It truly was the ‘theatre of the mind’.
Despite having a cast of recording alumni such as Daws Butler and June Foray. one of the most popular sketches featured Stan interviewing himself, in the guise of the Abominable Snowman. So well received were the vocal gymnastics that it was reworked in two later editions. Also popular was Stan’s attempt to sing the classic Ol’ Man River while being interrupted by the infuriating Mr. Tweedly, who finds offence at nearly every line of lyric.
The Stan Freberg Show was an oasis in a medium quickly sinking into a morass of wall-to-wall pop music, but the economics of 1957 radio prevented it continuing beyond a short season. It was the peak of Freberg’s performing career and a double-LP of highlights remains testimony to its triumph.
As a child of radio, Stan regarded the spoken word and the images built up by sound as the mainstay of his craft and it must have been acutely disappointing to realize the medium of broadcasting could no longer offer an outlet for his talents. Not in the traditional sense anyway.
By the end of the 1950s, Freberg charted a new career path. Like millions of Americans he was affronted by the repetitive drivel put out by the advertising agencies (he’d even satirized the industry on his radio series). Why not create commercials that actually contained a modicum of wit to get their message across?
He formed his own company and set about promoting everything from aluminium foil and Chinese food to a mammoth six-and-a-half minute production for a brand of coffee. The public supported his efforts by dramatically increasing the sales of the products marketed.
From the earls 1960s onward Stan was rarely seen (or heard) performing, with his creative juices channelled through his agency Freberg Limited (but not very). On occasion though, he also lent his acting talents to his advertisements.
There were a couple of ventures for Capitol Records as well. In 1961 he put together a satirical history of the United States, from Columbus to the War Of Independence. A follow-up volume was planned but with the success of the disc a full-scale Broadway musical version was scripted instead, which would include both the released material and the new sketches. Unfortunately after a series of setbacks the production was abandoned, and the additional items left in limbo until the release of a CD in the 1990s.
In 1966. Stan decided to rekindle some of the magic of his radio show with an LP called Freberg Underground!. One of the tracks tried to explain the greatness of the golden days of broadcasting to his young daughter Donna, with “little old lady” June Foray declaring that compared to The Shadow ‘James Bond is a fink!’. Billed as an experiment in ‘Pay Radio’, it has unfortunately inspired no sequels.
It would be twenty-five years before Freberg would step out from his guise of advertising man (apart from supplying the voice for the title character in Family Dog, an animated edition of Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories television series in early 1987).
For Thanksgiving 1991, Stan scripted a one-hour special for American National Public Radio (in conjunction with Britain’s BBC, who aired it as two half-hour programs). Modern day targets for the Freberg wit included Madonna, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Jackson and Yassar Arafat. Telephone answering machines and faxes also came under scrutiny, and there was a welcome return of old favourite The Abominable Snowman. Four decades after his heyday the enterprise proved Stan had lost none of his wit and sense of silliness.
Stan Freberg died on April 7 2015, aged 88.
DISCOGRAPHY
John And Marsha/Ragtime Dan
Capitol 78rpm F 1356 (Nov 7 1950/Jan 18 1951)
I’ve Got You Under My Skin/That’s My Boy
Capitol 78rpm F 1711 (June 22 1951)
Tele-Vee-Shun (first version)/Maggie
Capitol 78rpm F 1962 (Jan 9 1952/Nov 7 1950)
Try/Pass The Udder Udder
Capitol 78rpm F 2029 (Mar 3 1952)
Abe Snake For President/Ba-Ba-Ball And Chain
Capitol 78rpm F 2125 (Mar 3 1952/May 16 1952)
The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise/The Boogie Woogie Banjo Man From Birmingham
Capitol 78rpm F 2279 (Oct 2 1952)
St. George And The Dragonet/Little Blue Riding Hood
Capitol 78rpm F 2596 (Aug 26 1953)
Yulenet (aka Christmas Dragnet)(parts 1 and 2)
Capitol 78rpm F 267l (Nov 4 1953)
A Dear John And Marsha Letter/C’est Si Bon
Capitol 78rpm F 2677 (Nov 12 1953)
Point Of Order/Person To Person
Capitol 78rpm F 2838 (Jun 8 1954/Apr 28 1954)
Sh-Boom/Wide Screen Mama B1ues
Capitol 78rpm F 2929 (Aug 26 1954)
The Lone Psychiatrist/The Honeyearthers
Capitol 78rpm F 3138 (Apr 7 1955)
Dinky and Pinky (parts 1 and 2)
Capitol CASF 3162
The Yellow Rose Of Texas/Rock Around Stephen Foster
Capitol 78rpm F 3249 (Sep 6 1955)
Nuttin’ For Christmas/The Night Before Christmas
Capitol 78rpm F 3280 (Oct 1955)
The Great Pretender/The Quest For Bridey Hammerschlaugen
Capitol 78rpm F 3396 (Mar 5 1956)
Heartbreak Hotel/Rock Island Line
Capitol 78rpm F 3480 (Jun 12 1956)
Banana Boat Song (Day-O)/Tele-Vee-Shun (second version)
Capitol 45rpm F 3687 (Mar 6 1957)
Wun’erful, Wun’erful (parts 1 and 2)
Capitol 45rpm F 3815 (Sep 11 1957)
Ya Got Trouble/Gary, Indiana
Capitol 45rpm F 3892 (Jan 20 1958)
Omaha
Capitol EP EAP 1-1101 (Jun 25 1958)
Overture
Whatta They Got In Omaha?
Omaha Moon
Omaha
I Look In Your Face
Reprise
Green Christmas/The Meaning Of Christmas
Capitol 45rpm F 4097 (Oct 27 1958)
The Old Payola Roll Blues (parts 1 and 2*)
Capitol 45rpm F 4329 (Nov 30 1959/Dec 1 – 4 1959)
(* a modified version of part 2 was issued in the UK)
Comments For Our Time (parts 1 and 2)
Capitol 45rpm F4433 (Jul 23 1960)
The Best Of The Stan Freberg Shows
Capitol 2LP WBO 1035 (Sep 1958)
Highlights from the 1957 series which also starred Daws Butler, June Foray, Peggy Taylor, Peter Leeds and Jud Conlon’s
Rhythmaires.
Opening
Elderly Man River
Face The Funnies
The Zazaloph Family
Bang Gunleigh, U.S. Marshall Field
Tuned Sheep
Incident At Los Voraces
Opening
Abominable Snowman Interview
Freberg In Advertisingland
Herman Horne On Hi-Fi
Literary Giants Of Our Time
Cocktails For Two
Son Of Herman Horne On Hi-Fi
Grey Flannel Hatful Of Teenage Werewolves
Conclusion
The United States Of America
Capitol LP (S)W 1573, CD CDP 7 92061 2 (July 1961)
Overture
It’s A Round, Round World
Take An Indian To Lunch This Week
Under The Double Turkey
Top Hat, White Feather And Tails
The Boston Tea Party
A Man Can’t Be Too Careful What He Signs These Days
Everybody Wants To Be An A Director
Command Decision
Yankee Doodle Comes Home
The Battle Of Yorktown
Finale
Freberg Underground! Show #1
Capitol LP (S)T 2551 (Nov 1966)
With June Foray, Peter Leeds, Naomi Lewis, Byron Kane, Charles Lane, Bill Woodson, Donna Freberg.
and Jud Conlon’s Rhythmaires.
Opening
Father Of The Year Award
The Shaft Theatre: The Flackman And Reagan
Digit Dialling Demonstration
Pop Art Interview
Anybody Here Remember Radio?
Folk Songs For Our Time (Oh Dat Freeway System – Poor Bobby Baker – Dey Took Away My Diner’s Club Card – Which Is The Girl Which Is The Boy?)
Closing
The Stan Freberg Show
Radiola CD CDMR 1166 (1993)
contains broadcasts of August 4 1957 and October 6 1957
The United States Of America – Volume 2
Rhino 2CD R2 72477 (1996)
Intro. And Overture
Madison, Jefferson, Franklin & Osborne – The First Advertising Agency (parts 1 and 2)
America! America!
Madison, Jefferson, Franklin & Osborne – The First Advertising Agency (part 3)
Rumplemeyer’s Horseshoes – The Francis Scott Key Story
Stephen Foster, Beloved Songwriter
Samuel F.B. Morse Sends The First Telegram
Abe Lincoln In Analysis
Show Folk
Abe Lincoln At Home In The White House
Barbara Frietchie, Martyr Of The Year
Lincoln At Shiloh With General Grant
As Long As You’re Up + A Sober Life’s A Hard Life
The Appomattox Bar And Grill
There’ll Never Be Another War
Custer’s Last Stand
Alexander Graham Bell And The First Phone Call
Thomas Edison Invents The Light Bulb! The Phonograph (part 1)
Perseverance
Thomas Edison Invents The Light Bulb! The Phonograph (part 2)
Planned Obsolescence
The Wright Brothers At Kitty Hawk
Henry Ford Invents Detroit
Perseverance (reprise)
The Sinking Of The Lusitania
Two Tin Pan Alley Songwriters
U-Boat + The Guns Of August
Hello, Peace, Hello
There’ll Never Be Another War (reprise)
Finale – America! America! (reprise)
The United States Of America – Volume 1 and 2
Rhino 2CD R2 72476 (1996)
The Stan Freberg Show
Radio Spirits 4CD set (1996)
contains shows 1 to 7
The Stan Freberg Show
Radio Spirits 4CD set (1997)
contains shows 8 to 15
The following releases feature reissues of the above material:
Stan Freberg
British Capitol EP eapi 496
John And Marsha
The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise
Try
I’ve Got You Under My Skin
Real St. George
British Capitol EP eapi 628
St. George And The Dragonet
C’Est Si Bon
Sh-Boom
That’s My Boy
The Great Pretender
British Capitol EP eapi 20050
The Yellow Rose Of Texas
The Great Pretender
Banana Boat
Rock Island Line
Freberg Again
British Capitol EP eapi 20115
Point Of Order
Person To Pearson
The Lone Psychiatrist
The Honeyearthers
It’s Stan Freberg
Australian Capitol EP eap 006
The Honeyearthers
A Dear John And Marsha Letter
The Lone Psychiatrist
Little Blue Riding Hood
A Child’s Garden Of Freberg
Capitol LP T 777 (mid-1957)
St. George And The Dragonet
C’est Si Bon
Try
Wide-Screen Mama Blues
Heartbreak Hotel
Rock Around Stephen Foster
The Yellow Rose Of Texas
John And Marsha
The Great Pretender
That’s My Boy
Rock Island Line
Sh-Boom
Stan Freberg With The Original Cast
Capitol LP T 1242 (Oct 1959)
(reissued in Australia as Stan Freberg Encores Australian E.M.I./Encore LP ENC 9070)
Banana Boat
Wun’erful, Wun’erful
The Quest For Bridey Murphy
Trouble
Tele-Vee-Shun (2nd version)
Little Blue Riding Hood
Ba-Ba-Ball And Chain
Green Christmas
Face The Funnies
Capitol LP T 1694 (Apr 1962)
Comprises disc 1 of “The Best Of The Stan Freberg Shows” 2LP set
Madison Avenue Werewolf
Capitol LP T 1816 (Jan 1963)
comprises disc 2 of “The Best Of The Stan Freberg Shows” 2LP set
The Best Of Stan Freberg
Capitol LP T 2020 (Jan 1964)
The Yellow Rose Of Texas
John And Marsha
St. George And The Dragonet
Banana Boat
Trouble
Tele-Vee-Shun (2nd version)
C’est Si Bon
Heartbreak Hotel
Rock Island Line
The Great Pretender
The Quest For Bridey Hammerschlaugen
Try
Stan Freberg vs. Rock ‘n’ Roll
Australian Raven LP RVLP 1019 (1987)
The Old Payola Roll Blues
Heartbreak Hotel
Sh-Boom
The Great Pretender
Try
Rock Island Line
The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise
C’est Si Bon
I’ve Got You Under My Skin
Banana Boat
The Yellow Rose Of Texas
Ba-Ba-Ball And Chain
Rock Around Stephen Foster
Folk Songs Of Our Time (ext)
Rock Around Romeo And Juliet (from Incident At Los Voraces)
Wide Screen Mama Blues
Omaha
Austra1ian Radio Jingles
The Capitol Years
British Capitol LP 7 91929 1, CD 791929 2
(reissued as EMI Comedy – Stan Freberg E.M.I. CD 590260 2)
The Yellow Rose Of Texas
St. George And The Dragonet
Sh-Boom
C’est Si Bon
Rock Island Line
Tele-Vee-Shun (2nd version)
Rock Around Stephen Foster
Wun’ erful, Wun’erful
Banana Boat
Little Blue Riding Hood
I’ve Got You Under My Skin
Heartbreak Hotel
The Quest For Bridey Hammerschlaugen
The Great Pretender
The Old Payola Roll Blues
Green Christmas
Collector Series—Stan Freberg
Capitol CD CDP 7 91627 2 (1990)
(reissued as The Very Best Of Stan Freberg EMI/Capitol Collectables)
John And Marsha
I’ve Got You Under My Skin
That’s My Boy
Try
The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise
St. George And The Dragonet
Little Blue Riding Hood
Yulenet
C’est Si Bon
A Dear John And Marsha Letter
Sh-Boom
The Yellow Rose Of Texas
The Great Pretender
Heartbreak Hotel
Rock Island Line
Banana Boat
Tele-Vee-Shun (2nd version)
Wun’erful, Wun’erful
Green Christmas
Stan Freberg’s Greatest Hits
Curb CD D2-77615 (1993)
St. George And The Dragonet
John And Marsha
Wun’erful, Wun’erful
Try
I’ve Got You Under My Skin
Little Blue Riding Hood
The Yellow Rose Of Texas
Banana Boat
The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise
Heartbreak Hotel
Tip Of The Freberg – The Stan Freberg Collection (1951 – 1998)
Rhino 4CD (plus Video) R2 75645 (1999)
John And Marsha
I’ve Got You Under My Skin
That’s My Boy
Try
The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise
C’est Si Bon
A Dear John & Marsha Letter
Sh-Boom
The Yellow Rose Of Texas
The Great Pretender
Heartbreak Hotel
Rock Island Line
Banana Boat Song
Tele-Vee-Shun
Wun’erful, Wun’erful
Ya Got Trouble
The Old Payola Roll Blues
The Worst Of The Town (The Most Of The Town)
That’s Right, Arthur
St. George And The Dragonet
Little Blue Riding Hood
Yulenet
Point Of Order
Person To Pearson
The Honeyearthers
The Lone Psychiatrist
Elderly Man River
Freberg In Advertisingland
Bang Gunleigh, U.S. Marshall Field
Incident At Los Voraces
Green Christmas
Overture
Columbus Discovers America
Pilgrim’s Progress
The Thanksgiving Story
Declaration Of Independence
Betsy Ross And The Flag
Stephen Foster, Beloved Songwriter
Barbara Frietchie, Martyr Of The Year
Shoot If You Must
Alexander Graham Bell And The First Phone Call
Thomas Edison Invents The Light Bulb! The Phonograph (part 1)
Perseverance
Thomas Edison Invents The Light Bulb! The Phonograph (part 2)
Planned Obsolescence
Henry Ford Invents Detroit
Perseverance (reprise)
Omaha
Folk Songs For Our Time – Which Is The Girl? Which Is The Boy?
Anybody Here Remember Radio?
The New Stan Freberg Show (opening)
Pop Faithcorn, Trend Predictor
Theater Of The Mind
The Freberg Zone
Father Of The Year
Spy Interview
The Conspiraski Theory
* set also includes a selection of Freberg radio and TV commercials (on CD and video)
RADIO
That’s Rich
(Audition show: November 12 1953)
CBS Fridays January 8 to May 21 1954, Thursdays July 15 to September 23 1954 (31 episodes)
21 editions (including the audition) are with collectors
The Stan Freberg Show
CBS Sundays July 14 to October 20 1957 (15 editions)
With Daws Butler, June Foray, Peggy Taylor, Peter Leeds and Jud Conlon’s Rhythmaires
#1 Opening: We’re All Stan Freberg/Tuned Sheep/Incident At Los Voraces
#2 Opening: John And Marsha Interrupted/Abominable Snowman/Great Moments From History: Barbara Fritchie/Margarine Sculptures At Mount Rushmore/Wrong Number/Rock Around Stephen Foster
#3 Miss Jupiter/Skin Diving Mandolin Serenaders/Bird Watching/The Zazaloph Family/Robert E. Tainter: Custer’s Last Stand
#4 Opening: Too Piercing!/Paul Revere/Herman Horne On Hi-Fi/Lox Audio Theatre: Rock Around My Nose/The Yellow Rose Of Texas
#5 Opening: Stan Freberg Show Played Backward At High Speed/Moon Man Orville (incl. Hello, Out There, Hello)/Herman Horne On Hi-Fi *2/Wun’erful, Wun’erful/A Universal Plea For One Minute’s Tap Dancing
#6 Opening: Theme From “I Was A Teenage Werewolf’/Elderly Man River/Robert E. Tainter: The Boy Stood On The Burning Deck/Face The Funnies/Rock Island Line
#7 Opening: The Outcome Of The Floyd Patterson Fight/The Lone Psychiatrist/Monsieur Toulet And His Nose Flute/There You Are: The Driving Of The Golden Spike/Banana Boat Song
#8 The Zazaloph Family Return/Uninterrupted Melody—The Story Of The Good Humor Ice-Cream Men/Face The Funnies *2/St George And The Dragonet
#9 Opening: A Condensed Version Of The Confidential Magazine Trial/The Abominable Snowman And Fiancee/Robert E. Tainter: Washington Crossing The Delaware/The Honeyearthers
#10 Audience Gripes About Freeways/The Freberg Do-It-Yourself Grand Piano/Literary Giants Of Our Time: Fortune Cookie Writer Albert T. Wong/Herman Horne On Hi-Fi *3/Heartbreak Hotel
#11 College Footballer Francis “Butch” Sharmley/The Monkey Song/Foster Pelt, Theatrical Agent For Dog Acts/Bang Gunleigh—U.S. Marshall Field
#12 Land Speed Attempt/The Home Handyman/Robert E. Tainter, Labor Racketeer/Sh-Boom!
#13 Cocktails For Two/Circus Discussion/Grey Flannel Hat Full Of Teenage Werewolves
#14 Stan Sponsors Himself/Miss Jupiter ReturnslFreberg In Advertisingland/Private Eye Sam Spillade
#15 Special Encore Show: Elderly Man River/Bang Gunleigh/Banana Boat Song/Wun’erful, Wun’erful/Abominable Snowman
The (New) Stan Freberg Show
National Public Radio/BBC co-production
60-minute version played over PBS on Thanksgiving 1991,
two 30-minute versions played on BBC Radio 2 on December 26 1991 and January 2 1992
With Ray Bradbury, David Ogden Stiers, June Foray, Naomi Lewis, Harry Shearer, Donovan Freberg, Donna Ebsen and the Jimmy Bryant Singers
#1 Sounds of Arnold Schwarzenegger Falling Off His Wallet and Madonna (In Cone Bra) Jogging into The Studio Wall/Freberg’s Theatre Of The Mind/Being A Spy After Glasnost/The Giraffe In The Smithsonian/Arafat’s Beard Theory/Sony Boy/Freberg Zone vs. Ray Bradbury Theatre/Ozone Update/Francis Scott Key Goes Commercial
#2 Sound Of The Communist Party Winding Down/Facelift The Nation/Stephen Foster Craving Inspiration/Yuppy Restaurant/Answering Machines/Fugue For Fax/The Abominable Snowman Returns/Night Of The Living Democrats
Stan Freberg’s Green Christmas
BBC R2 December 25 2001 (60 min)
hosted by Stan Freberg
Mark Thomas Presents … Stan Freberg Live
BBC R4 December 7 2005
TRIBUTES
It Only Hurts When I Laugh – an appreciation of Stan Freberg
BBC R4 February 11 to 25 1991 (3 x 30 min)
hosted by Robert Cushman
Stan Freberg On The Record
BBC R2 August 25 1997 (60 min)
We Interrupt This Programme
episode about Stan Freberg: BBC R4 August 10 2004 (30 min)
hosted by Mark Thomas
TELEVISION
Colgate Comedy Hour (NBC)
Stan appeared on the edition of January 17 1954
Colgate Variety Hour: The Gala Football Revue (NBC)
Stan appeared on the edition of October 23 1955
The Chun King Chow Mein Hour (ABC)
early 1960s (60 min)
Freberg’s Federal Budget Revue (Public Communications)
1980 (30 min)
Amazing Stories (NBC)
February 16 1987 (30 min)
BOOKS
It Only Hurts When I Laugh
by Stan Freberg
(Times Books/Random House, New York, 1988)
also of interest …
Seriously Funny
by Gerald Nachman (Back Stage Books, New York, 2004)
has a chapter about Stan: And Now A Laugh From Our Sponsor
Laughterlog.com 