In 1952, comedian Johnny Standley had one of the best-selling records of all time in this country…and it was a comedy record at a time when it was unprecedented for a comedy record to get anywhere near the top of the charts. Soon after, Stan Freberg matched his feat with "St. George and the Dragonet."
Mr. Standley's record was called "It's in the Book" and what we have here is a video of him performing it. I first heard a truncated version of it on the Soupy Sales TV show when I was a wee lad. Every week or three, Soupy would have one of his puppet performers, Pookie the Lion, mime to it…and it took me a long time to figure out what the record was and who'd performed it.
The fellow who introduces him is the famed bandleader, Horace Heidt, who also sold a lot of records…