The Palladium Show - Toronto
1968 Article
Cover
With this presentation of the London Palladium Show, our Subscription Series for the 1967/68 season comes to an end.
But first of all, welcome to our visitors from overseas. Difficult though it may be to believe, this is the first time that a Palladium show has ventured outside the hallowed walls of the English speaking world's leading variety house, and O'Keefe Centre is proud to have been chosen for the distinction of offering this "first."
Depending how things go during this fortnight's run, a Palladium visit might become an annual event. We hope so. We also hope that Messrs. Morecambe and Wise, Millicent Martin and all the other good people you will see at this performance enjoy their stay in Toronto and that you will enjoy having had them here. The logistics of moving a show of this size across the Atlantic for a single two-week engagement are staggering, but may the headaches all be forgotten when the final curtain falls on Saturday, May 25.
Morecambe and Wise
Eric Morecambe (the one with the glasses) and Ernie Wise (famed for his short, fat, hairy legs) are two of Britain's most highly-paid and most highly-respected comics, headlining this first London Palladium show ever to be exported in its entirety.
In British comedy films, on TV and stage in Britain Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise are rated top TV light entertainers; they have starred many times at the London Palladium; been voted Britain's Show Business Personalities of the Year and are Royalty's favourite Court Jesters, having starred in several Royal Command shows and as special guests at the request of the Queen and Prince Philip at private Windsor Castle parties before the Queen and members of the Royal household. Prince Charles rates them his top comics.
Eric and Ern, as they are affectionately known to more than 20,000,000 devoted British TV fans, are certainly not strangers on this side of the Atlantic. They have appeared many times on the Ed Sullivan Show and are now regularly commuting between London and New York for TV productions shown in Britain and abroad.
Both aged 40, Eric and Ernie have developed a unique style in comedy that particularly lends itself to exposure on television. Their's is a subtle, inter-play of dialogue, not between a comic and straight man, but between two strangely matched funny characters who each think the other one is an idiot.
For more than a quarter-of-a- century they have developed this partnership, starting out as boy dancers in vaudeville, they have now conquered almost every aspect of show-business.
© morecambeandwise.com 1968