Gerald Nachman - Seriously funny : the rebel comedians of the 1950s and 1960s

F OR COMING TO MY AID at various bumps and potholes in the road, not to mention downright dead ends and crashes, I am grateful for the help of friends and for the kindness of many strangers. Sincere thanks go to Morris Bobrow for his feedback on interview tapes and general thoughts about comedy and comics and titles; to Abby Wasserman, for providing letters of Woody Allen to her brother John L. Wasserman; to the late Steve Allen (and to his helpful son Bill), for providing unpublished manuscripts of chapters on several comedians, and for photos and other editorial aid; to Sedge Thomson, for supplying his on-air interviews with Steve Allen and Mort Sahl; to Ronnie Schell, for his contacts in the comedy community and for inviting me to a meeting of Yarmys Army comics and writers; to Lawrence Christon, for various leads, perceptions, and encouragement; to Robert Weide, for supplying videos of his documentaries on Mort Sahl and Lenny Bruce, and for his incisive comments on and rare photos of same; to Playboy librarian Mark Duran, for digging up old Playboy interviews with comics from issues unavailable elsewhere, and to Playboys photo researcher, Liz Georgiou; to Associated Press photo researcher Martha Schmidt; to critic and friend Ron Miller, for his insights into the TV careers of various comics; to Max Schmid, for providing links to Jean Shepherds friends, and to Jim Clavin, for his thoughts and leads on Shepherd; to Bob Sarlatte, the only comedian I actually know personally, for his canny and funny inside-comedy views; to San Francisco Chronicle librarians Johnny Miller, for knocking some sense into a recalcitrant microfiche machine, and Judy Canter, for locating old photos, and to Chronicle photo editor Gary Fong; to Pat Akre at the San Francisco Public Library; to Ron Reisterer, Oakland Tribune photo editor, and to the Tribunes Frosene Phillips, for lending a hand; to Mary McGeachy, for her publicity advice; to Brenda Besdansky, for her recollections of Catskill life and comedians; to Ben Fong-Torres, for books and Rolling Stone articles; to Warren Debenham, for loaning records and rare volumes from his vast collection of albums and books on all things comical; to Grover Sales, for supplying Lenny Bruce CDs and insights; to Lillian Gregory, for help in locating her globetrotting husband, Dick, and to Gregorys manager, Rusty Michael, for getting me to him; to Murray Horwitz, for coming up with crucial telephone numbers and for his comedy savvy; to Richard Grant, for arranging an interview with Joan Rivers; to Christopher Porterfield, for leading me to Dick Cavett; to Marshall Jacobs, for his wry recollections and tapes; to Matt Cullison, for providing transcripts connected with the Second Citys fortieth anniversary celebration; to Jane Klain and her efficient interns at the Museum of Television and Radio, Alix Sternberg and Kelly Buttermore; also to MTRs Alan Glover; to James Gavin, for sending rare videos of Playboy After Dark shows and other clips; to the singer Wesla Whitfield, for her little-known cassette-dubbing skills; to Lainie Kazan, for offering memories and phone numbers; to David Freeman, for plugging me into Paul Mazursky, and to his wife, Judy Gingold, a helpful sounding board for titles; to Ben Thum, for his ideas about Jewish comedians and for smuggling me into the New York Friars Club, and to Mel Bernstein for taking me to lunch there; to Michael Krasny, for his jokes and insights on Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, and other Jewish comics; to Suzanne Chase, for providing an entre to her neighbor, Shecky Greene; to Pauline Tajchman, for her unswerving technical and moral support, for listening to endless progress reports, and for her thoughts on specific comics; to Leah Garchik, for helping to cut the Woody Allen chapter down to size; to Pantheon managing editor Altie Karper, for cheerfully shepherding the manuscript along; to Ed Cohen, whose demon copyediting kept me from hanging myself many times; to painstaking production editor Ellen Feldman; to Bonnie Schiff-Glenn and Margaux Wexberg at Knopf, and to publicist Pamela Mullin, for enduring nagging questions; to designer Archie Ferguson, for devising such a lively cover; and to Randy Poe, friend and comic soul mate, for providing inspired insights and intuition, for lending his sharp stylistic and journalistic eye, for wielding a keen knife on the more long-winded passages, and for his love of the subjectbut mostly for his wisdom and wisecracks.

Finally and foremost, a low bow to my editor, Robert Gottlieb, for recognizing a vague idea as a viable book, for providing his sensible perspective and perceptions, and for his patience in helping to shape an unwieldy manuscript into a manageable book. Bobs pencil laser-surgery was almost painless. Some editors you tolerate; a rare few, like Bob, you learn from. His edits saved me from various excesses, often leading me through a thicket of tangled verbiage to a clearing. Whenever I would wince at a cut, sixteen pages later it would become clear exactly why he had made it. All in all, he made the last lap of this four-year trek a walk in the park.