Members of old comedy duos are dropping like flies. First, Avery Schreiber and now, Frank Shuster — who was one half of the comedy team of Wayne and Shuster. (In the picture above, Shuster's the one on the right. Wayne, seen at left, passed away in 1990) In Canada, they were major stars. In this country, they were best known for their 67 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, wherein they performed very silly — and often, very elaborate — comedy sketches. They also starred in a short-lived 1961 summer situation comedy on CBS called Holiday Lodge, in which they played two guys who botched up the running of a vacation hotel. Though it failed, they probably could have been very big in America had they opted to work here more. They didn't, preferring to avoid high pressure situations and to remain in their native Canada. I never saw an example of it, but rumor is that a couple of American comedy shows took advantage of this to liberally borrow ideas from the boys.
Mr. Shuster's family ties may also be of some interest to those interested in American popular culture. His daughter Rosie was one of the key writers of the first generation of Saturday Night Live and was briefly married to its producer, Lorne Michaels. And Frank Shuster also had a cousin named Joe who, with a friend named Jerry Siegel, created a little thing called Superman.
I haven't seen anything on Shuster's passing in the U.S. wire services but here's a link to a story in the Canadian press.