The Forgotten Woody Woodbury

If you are a record collector or if you've frequented a thrift store, the name Woody Woodbury should sound familiar. If not, this picture on the left may jog the memory. Woodbury's records are among the most common comedy LPs available in thrift stores, flea markets and junk shops. Most record stores will have at least one of his albums in their comedy section, moderately priced and collecting dust. Joining Vaughn Meader's million-seller JFK take-off, The First Family, and the raunchy nightclub recordings of Rusty Warren, Woody Woodbury is the most common of the thrift store comedians. Woody and Rusty were, respectively, king and queen of what is called the 'Adults Only' comedy genre.¹ Although neither Rusty or Woody became part of the revolutionary "New Comedians" movement that started with Mort Sahl and climaxed with Nichols and May, Woody Allen and Bill Cosby, the two were still extraordinary phenoms in the world of vinyl. Both sold records well into the millions but neither had their sales boosted by the privilege afforded most other popular comics: television exposure. To listen to a Woody Woodbury record today is primarily an exercise in patience. The jokes are the same stale bits re-used often by the era's nightclub comics on record labels like FAX, After Hours, Surprise, Jubilee, Laff and countless others. No material on a Woody Woodbury album would make a person blush today, nor does the disclaimer on most of his LPs "Not Suitable for Radio Play" seem particularly apt anymore. However, there was a time when Woody Woodbury, Rusty Warren and any number of lesser known comedians released on a handful of obscure labels struggled and fought for fame simply through word of mouth. In the case of Woody, the overwhelming popularity of these "banned" albums had disc jockeys trying to figure out how to get around the prudish restrictions of playing the records on the air.

As Woody Woodbury recalls, "[Radio stations] refused to play some of them in their entirety. What they did was take what they deemed the purest stories, but you could play them in their entirety today during high mass. They were innuendo. They were called risque. But today... they're child's play." Woody belonged to a small Florida based record label with a wonderful name. StereOddities had Woody as its star and a small handful of others who, to put it crudely, were nobodies. Bill Barner, Billy Carty and Nino Nanni, the three other comedians released by the outfit are actually quite uncommon in thrift stores. The few other releases that the label put out were mostly of ragtime music by Eubie Blake.

Woody Woodbury, forgotten by almost everyone today, walked through showbiz history like some kind of Forrest Gump character. He met everybody and knew anybody that made a mark in show business history from nineteen fifty through seventy. He was one of the first comedians ever pressed onto vinyl and the first to star in a Beach Party knock-off film. When Jack Paar abandoned The Tonight Show in 1962, the hosting gig was up for grabs, primarily between two candidates. One was named Johnny Carson the other, acording to Woody, was Woody Woodbury.

At the time, Johnny Carson was the host of a popular game show on ABC titled Who Do You Trust? Woodbury was arguably the more qualified for the Tonight Show seat as he had already guest hosted The Tonight Show dating back to the Steve Allen era. "I used to sub for Steve Allen. I would take over the show but at that time Steve was doing the show from Los Angeles ... a lot of people don't realize that. Joe Wolson was my agent with the William Morris office and he'd call in a panic. He'd say 'Jesus! You gotta get out to L.A.' I was in Fort Lauderdale because by that time I was part owner of the hotel [that I performed at]. He said, 'You gotta come out here 'cause we have a problem with Steve Allen!' I never did find out what the problems were. Steve was out vacationing in Hawaii or some darn place." Despite the fact that radio stations had to avoid playing most of his albums, Woody's popularity still meant dollar signs in the eyes of television advertisers. As long as it was made clear what type of comedy he was and was not allowed to perform on television, he was given the green light from censors to appear. Ironically, although Woody's best selling records became huge without the help of TV exposure, as he appeared on the boob tube more and more often, his record sales actually decreased. Regardless, in the end Carson was granted The Tonight Show and in a strange twist of fate, Woody was named the new host of the game show Who Do You Trust?

The beach picture Woody starred in was an early example of product placement. Paramount's For Those Who Think Young (1964) took its title directly from the current Pepsi slogan of the day. According to Woody, the reason came down to who was funding the picture. "That's where the money came from for the movie ... Pepsi Cola. Rosalind Russell, who was married to one of the head guys at Pepsi ... she was in on the deal." The film is a typical teenage drive-in picture of the era with an impressive cast. Woody Woodbury stars as a stand-up comedian named Woody Woodbury. He performs nightly at a hot teenage hangout called The Surf's Up that is frequented by a bevy of familiar characters including Bob Denver (doing another take on his famous Maynard G. Krebs beatnik), Tina Louise, James Darren, Ellen Burstyn, Paul Lynde, Nancy Sinatra and another Rat Pack offspring - Dean Martin's daughter, Claudia. The movie also features the mostly overlooked surf music of GNP Crescendo Records artists The Challengers. It was directed by a man who, like Woody, enjoyed a fascinating career that deserves more thorough examination. Leslie H. Martinson was no stranger to pumping out crap in both the film and television worlds. His list of credits include The Atomic Kid (1954), Hot Rod Girl (1956), Hot Rod Rumble (1957), Batman (1966), and his swan song, the 1985 sitcom about a family with a robot for a daughter, Small Wonder. For Those Who Think Young has yet to be released on DVD or VHS and Woody muses that this may be due to the always-powerful wishes of old blue eyes. "It belongs to the Sinatra family. It was Nancy's first movie. She didn't have that big of a part, but that was due to her dad. At that point Nancy was going with a singer named Tommy Sands. Frank did not care for Tommy Sands."  Whether this is a strong enough reason for the film to remain buried seems unlikely, so hope for drive-in movie, surf music, and Adults Only comedy record fans remains. In recent history, Turner Classic Movies has aired the film, usually as part of some kind of beach movie marathon.

As the sixties wore on, the appeal of 'Adults Only' comedy records  started to wane, thanks to a relaxing of previously uptight social morals. People no longer had to wait for a sophisticated cocktail party to hear Rusty Warren say words like "knockers" or Woodbury using a risque phrase like "whoopee." Not when you could now go to the movie theatre downtown and see Vanessa Redgrave's ten feet high bush starring in Antonioni's Blow-Up (1966). The time seemed ripe for Woody's career to move on. In 1967, Ralph "This Is Your Life" Edwards enlisted Woody for a new talk show. The Woody Woodbury show was a nightly syndicated talk show similar in format to the crowning jewel of talk shows that Woody missed manning the helm of by a thread. Almost no remaining record of the show exists, a real shame since The Woody Woodbury Show is known to have featured some of the greatest garage rock bands of the era, many for whom enjoyed their only television appearance with Woodbury. But tragically as Woody explains, "Ralph used the same tape over and over. He never saved an episode. He just taped over last night's show with this night's show and on and on. Not one was preserved. Erased instantly. They've never been able to uncover any if they still exist.² I can remember him saying 'These are fun shows but there's no point in saving them.' People call me all the time. Hollywood called me the other day ... they're making a film about Harry Nilsson and looking for footage." Eventually, Woody had a falling out with producer Ralph Edwards and left the show. This left Edwards scrambling for a replacement. "The first person they replaced me with was Allen Ludden ... Betty White's husband. He lasted about two weeks. And then, of all people, Ralph Edwards brings in Donald O'Connor. A great guy but ... he was wooden. Like a statue. He didn't last very long at all. And then what happened was Merv Griffin was on CBS trying to compete against Carson and just getting murdered. So his management talked to Ralph Edwards and [The Woody Woodbury Show] became The Merv Griffin Show."

Woodbury's career slowed somewhat after his tenure as a talk show host but he was more than fine with that. He returned to Florida where he acted in the odd movie, mostly low budget Italian comedies that were filmed around Fort Lauderdale for tax purposes. His role in Jerry Lewis' filmed-in-Florida comeback picture, Hardly Working (1980) ended up on the cutting room floor. He still performs stand-up, called upon by droves of screaming fans at country clubs, senior's homes and lodges. Now you know!

Notes

¹The 'Adults Only' genre is also often refered to as 'Party Records.' 

²Three and a half years after this piece first appeared, a four minute clip of his program surfaced on YouTube.

Comments

[Eugene]

Nice write up on WW. One thing, though not actually a complaint; how can you run down the cast of For Those Who Think Young and not mention the positively luscious Pamela Tiffin? Any mention of Tiffin's name always leads me to recommend one of my all time favorite films: One Two Three (1961), directed by Billy Wilder. I don't understand why One Two Three seems so overlooked. It's hilarious. James Cagney is the man!

[Andy Alexis]

Woody Woodbury had a brief part (as himself) in one of the 1960s beach party/teen movies..anyone remember which one? I remember seeing a movie in which he is leading an audience in singing "It's woody weeding time..." which presumably involved him going through the audience and picking on someone to humiliate.

[Listener Kliph]

Andy Alexis, did you even bother to read my blog entry? Try again.

[Dale Hazelton]

Great post! I often see his records in the Salvay, but having more than enough wax in the attic, pass them up. It's nice to see the whole story on these guys. A 60's comic I like is Brother Dave Gardner
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Dave_Gardner
very clean cut stuff, but funny still because his bits are more about universals, steering clear of politics etc. "The Button Down Mind....." is still very funy to me, too. Someone should just do a post on all those beach movies. As a 10 year old kid I still remember how risque it was to watch "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini" with my mom and dad in the room, and weird too (Buster Keaton in a surf movie?)!
http://www.briansdriveintheater.com/beachparty/howtostuff2.jpg

[Andy Alexis]

No, I guess I missed that part, and you don't have to be rude about it.

[Listener Kliph]

Sorry, Andy, didn't mean to be a dick, just found it outrageous.

[jon]

"for those who think young" has been on cable tv recently and I've seen it a couple of times...it was just on March 20, 2007...keep your eyes open for it.

Woody Woodbury was not a big deal in my life. But I recalled that one pseudo stoner in my army unit (an army band in chicagoland) used to always sing: Its Woody Weeding time. Sung to the tune of "its howdy doody time".

It was featured in the film and appears to be a way of getting younger folks to go home before they were too drunk or unable to go to school the next day.

this man is really a unique character in American pop culture. He was a distinguished Marine Corps Jet fighter pilot during the Korean War. He has a current web site, just google his name.

I wish him the best if he reads this...from a fellow pilot.

[Sandra]

I've just spent my Sunday afternoon going from site to site reading. I came upon your blog and I too had forgotten about Woody Woodbury. I went to a taping of his show in the 60's with friends. We were given the front row seats - I guess because we seemed to be a fun group. Woody used to read a couple of cards the studio members had filled out while waiting in line. He read mine, had me stand up and asked all sorts of questions. Of course that would make our visit to the show more memorable than some. MacDonald Carey and Jackie Verson were the guests that night. Bob Ridgely was the announcer on the show and did the warm-ups, which is a little known fact. He must have been in his late 30's and was a very handsome man. I still have the card I filled out and Bob's signature. Fun remembering old memories.

[Ron Stout]

My family moved to Las Vegas,Nevada in 1949 and Woody was a big local star at the El Cortez hotel downtown.
In 1953-54 I was serving in the Marine Corps at K-3 (Pohang)South Korea with pilots who came back from the officers club to tell me about this screamingly funny guy named Woody Woodbury who played the piano and told jokes.Unfortunately I never got to see him perform.

[Michael Powers]

Johnny Carson actually guest-hosted (what a word) the Tonight Show during Paar's tenure and there's a fascinating episode that recently turned up at the Museum of Television & Radio in New York and LA (now renamed the "Paley Center for Media" as of last week). It's something to see since Carson hadn't yet figured out how to hide behind his desk all the nervous tics and gestures that people who've been on his show always talk about, and he's a show unto himself as a result. I never thought Carson had one percent of Paar's charisma and the nation was infinitely more fixated on the Tonight Show under Paar, when half the country would be talking about the host's latest antics the next day. Woodbury must have been devastated when Carson wound up with Paar's show and he got Carson's as more or less a booby prize.

As for Ralph Edwards idiotically taping over Woodbury's talk show night after night, there was a lot of that going around. The reason Carson's show visually looked so muddy in the 70s while Cavett's over on ABC appeared pristine was that NBC was reusing videotape over and over. The difference in picture quality as you flipped back and forth between channels was shocking. Carson himself had little regard for keeping his own work for years, although eventually he stored what episodes that exist in some underground bomb-proof atmosphere-controlled cave in Nevada or somewhere: some day that and ruins of places like the Empire State Building will be the only artifacts of our civilization, and even then it will be a shame that they're Carson's shows instead of Paar's.

[Michael Powers]

By the way, one of Carson's guests on that appearance during which he subbed for Paar that's available at the Museum of Television & Radio was Tom Poston of "Zots!" fame. Poston discusses some off-Broadway play he was doing at the time at length and Carson eventually interjects, "I feel like I've seen it." A surreally smashing-looking Eva Gabor sits in the main guest chair throughout the show without being interviewed, apparently there only to look ravishing and stop channel-changers in their tracks, a lost talk show tradition that I imagine began with Dagmar.

[Michael Powers]

Yesterday I happened to drop by the "Paley Center for Media" here in New York and watched the last episode of "Who Do You Trust" that Johnny Carson hosted before moving on to "The Tonight Show." He's more entertaining to watch during this particular half hour than he ever was before or since to my knowledge, probably because he was so euphorically happy to be leaving a schlocky game show for the most important job in show business. He mentions Woodbury and at one point says, "Woody will have days like this and worse." I don't think the show lasted long after Carson left. One thing I'd entirely forgotten that brought back horrified memories was the insipid organ music that ran relentlessly all through the show. God, that damned organ was so awful. If you think daytime programming is bad now, people have mercifully forgotten that practically all of daytime television was awash in organ music, it was the oppressive background to all the soap operas and apparently many game shows (or at least this one) and even some children's shows.

It was also good to see the real Emmett Kelly (instead of his son) in a commercial. When Kelly did a commercial, it was more entertaining than the show itself. I wonder why the companies involved (in this case French's Mustard) don't dust off some of their most arresting celebrity commercials, colorize them (much as I hate colorization), and run them again today. It would certainly make most of the celebrities' heirs happy.

[Albert Rein]

He is a great comedian, I would like to have a DVD of his shows

[Devin Kelly]

I've always been fascinated with how Woody ended up in Italian comedies, working with Sergio Corbucci - also a legendary director of some classic Spaghetti Westerns. I've managed to get my hands on one of Woodbury's Italian, Florida-lensed comedies, SUPER FUZZ (1980) and am on the hunt for Corbucci's CAT AND DOG (1982) next, in which Woody also pops up in. Very intriguing how he found himself in these though. Quite rare films a collector of Italian cult cinema like me will certainly make a huge effort to get my hands on. Wonder how fondly Woody remembers them?

[Mushroom]

I have all of his albums, including the "Booze Is The Only Answer" fanclub record. He was not dirty, he was just risque', with plenty of doctor (as psychiatrist) and golf jokes mixed in with all the drunk jokes. Awesome guy.
Picture of the albums: flickr.com/photos/thedamnmushroom/510165255/

[Linda]

Just sitting here listening to Booze Is The Only Answer album. I was lucky to see Woody in person at Diamond Jim's Supper Club, years ago, in St. Paul. I was pregnant at the time and seemed to draw a few jokes about that. My parents owned a record store, and I am going through some of the best records that I remember hearing when I was growing up. You just can't beat these old records!

[diane]

i just love those oldie not so 'moldie' beach movies. i loved them when i was 18 and still love them now that i'm way older than 18. see what turned you on. it keeps you young. maybe not in body but certainly in spirit. three cheers, and then some, for woody, et al. you made my youth and now you are making my older youth! bravo!

[Vikki DeArment Buss]

LISTEN, FOLKS:

I met Mr. Woodbury in Evansville Indiana during a performance...I don't give a rat's rear end what anyone thinks negative about him; I was incredibly young and very vulnerable; he was an absolute gentleman and we did many things together; never once did he show me anything but ultimate respect...in face, he kinda wanted to date; however, I told him I was too young for him...that was fine, we were "best friends" for the week I was in IN -- and, the reason I even went to his show, in the beginning, was because of the movies he was in and how much I admired him for his "impressions" he had on young lady!

HE IS/WAS THE BEST....I STILL REGRET NOT KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH HIM!

[J.G. Herringshaw]

When I was a teenage girl, I listened to my father's Woody Woodbury albums. I thought they were hilarious and still remember some of the bits - the lion tamer, and the scuba diver, and I'm 65 now. The other day I was wearing a low cut blouse and my mother quoted Woody, I love a woman who shows so much heart! I will now try to find some of his albums.

[Mike G]

Woody weeding time was from the beach film, "For those Who Think Young," also starring Paul Lynde, James Darren, Pamela Tiffin, Tina Louise, Bob Denver, and in a small role Nancy Sinatra.
Woody Weeding time was to weed out those who could not be served alchohol and also had a curfew to send them home. The hand was stamped with a UV light sensitive ink for those who could drink and stay past curfew--it was not about humiliating anyone

[Marty Moran]

Woody You're the greatest. I remember popping my head into your club when you were finished with the act and asking "hey Woody are you aturtle ?" and got the sweet "you bet your sweet ass I am" It don't get any better than that. Marty Moran

[Mike]

I Saw Woody Woodbury doing a stand up routine in Florida back in the 1970's......The man is funny.

[MrsKessler]

"For Those Who Think Young" was on Turner Classic Movies recently, so I taped it and watched it this weekend. It's...well, "dreadful" is perhaps a bit too strong. Simply captioning it "a period piece" may be most appropriate. Woody has several extended nightclub sequences, garnering far more screen time than Paul Lynde. The most memorable sequence is Bob Denver doing this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8jUFC4dsd8

[Sara]

I recently saw "For Those Who Think YOung" again on TV and loved it now as
much as I did when I was a teenager. It may not be a sophisticated movie but it was fun and lively and reminds us of better times.

Sara October 7 2009

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=507536722]

When pop singer Eileen Barton died, I got many pieces of memorabilia she had stored from her career. 16 boxes full. Including two reels of 2" quad videotape.

I just had them transferred - and one is in poor condition, but the second is her appearance on "The Woody Woodbury Show".

I plan to put it up on YouTube and I'll let you know when that happens. I haven't received the transfer yet from the engineer who did it. But it might give a peek at this lost show.