Here's some footage I never thought I'd see…one of those things I assumed was long since lost to the world. In August of 1963, Allan Sherman guest-hosted Johnny Carson's show for a week. I loved Allan Sherman and begged my parents to allow me to stay up late enough to watch. They lovingly said no. Not on a school night…and for reasons I can't recall, I don't think I even saw him on Friday night, when there was no school the next day. Yet here's a few key minutes of that week on YouTube…
Mr. Sherman hosted from Monday, August 5 through Friday, August 9. On Monday's show, he came out and issued a challenge to Cary Grant, who at the time was about the handsomest, classiest man in the movie business…and someone who'd never really done television. Sherman explained that the short, pudgy guy we all saw on TV and on the covers of his record albums was a character he'd created; that he really looked just like Cary Grant but that the other look just seemed more fitting for a guy who sang quasi-Jewish song parodies. The challenge was to come on the program and allow America to make a side-by-side comparison and determine which of them was the more adorable.
That was on Monday. On Tuesday night's show, Sherman came out and announced he had not heard a peep from Cary Grant. This, of course, was an admission that Cary was afraid to let the public decide. And then on Wednesday afternoon, Sherman received a telegram of concession from Grant and on Thursday, an off-the-air phone call. I believe Grant apologized to him, explaining that he was shooting a movie (probably Charade) or he'd have flown back to New York and appeared on the show to properly button the gag. But Sherman had fun with it, anyway. The video below starts with the opening of the show from Wednesday night, then cuts to a statement he made on Friday night to sum up. My thanks and amazement to Barry Mitchell for digging this up…
