I love coming across and sharing videos of old, largely-forgotten comedians. James Edmondson, Sr. was an old vaudevillian whose act long outlived vaudeville. In it, he portrayed a silly scholar named Professor Backwards and throughout the fifties and sixties, he was very busy on the State Fair circuit and appeared on all the major variety and talk programs. He is said to have been the most frequent guest on The Mike Douglas Show.
Often, a performance would include a demonstration of his ability to write and talk backwards; ergo, his stage name. But you won't see those skills demonstrated in this clip, which is from The Ed Sullivan Show for October 25, 1959.
Edmonson's life came to a tragic end when he was murdered in January of 1976. Shortly after, on NBC's then-new Saturday Night series (later retitled Saturday Night Live), Chevy Chase read a joke about the murder in the Weekend Update segment. Reportedly written by writer Michael O'Donoghue, it went…
Well, the popular TV personality known as Professor Backwards was slain in Atlanta yesterday, by three masked gunmen. According to reports, neighbors ignored the Professor's cries of "Pleh! Pleh!"
That kind of joke later became more commonplace on television but at the time, it was an example of the outrageousness of the new late night show. It drew so many complaints that Mr. Chase, when asked about it, would swear he didn't know there was a real person named Professor Backwards. But some of us knew who he was. He was this guy…