Today's Video Link

I first discovered the work of my hero Stan Freberg on the Soupy Sales TV show that was broadcast in Los Angeles from 1960-1962 (my age: 8-10). Soupy had a lot of time to fill and couldn't spend it all getting hit with shaving cream pies so he'd often have puppets mime to old records. Many were Freberg's and that's how I found my way to the comedy records section of a shop in West L.A. and bought my first Freberg album.

Soupy used other records. I also discovered Eddie "The Old Philosopher" Lawrence there as well as Spike Jones and every once in a while, Mickey Katz. And quite often, Soupy would have Pookie the Lion lip-sync to Johnny Standley's 1953 novelty record, "It's in the Book." This was, amazingly, a smash hit…and really Mr. Standley's only biggie, though he made other records. He spent most of his career as a vocalist/comic with the Horace Heidt Orchestra and when that ended, he played local clubs in California and state fairs around the country. He died in 1992.

I have no idea what show or film this is from but it's Johnny Standley performing an abbreviated version of the number. I believe the man introducing him is his longtime employer, Horace Heidt and that Mr. Heidt is exaggerating the number of copies that were sold of this record. My understanding is it sold one million, not two million — but hey, one million is pretty darned good…