O P I N I O N

BOOMER LIFE

By Annette Kurman

Remember watching Erich Brenn’s spinning plates on The Ed Sullivan Show?

Who knew spinning plates would become a metaphor for multi-tasking?

When I think of The Ed Sullivan Show (1948 – 1971), in addition to the February 9, 1964, Beatles appearance that saw 73 million viewers glued to their television sets, I recall with awe plate spinner Erich Brenn. 

A master at the classic circus act of plate spinning, Brenn’s spinning plates relied on the gyroscopic effect in the same way a kid’s top stays upright while spinning. His routine included spinning five glass bowls on four-foot-long sticks, all the while spinning eight plates on the tables holding the spinning glass bowls. As some sticks began to slow down, causing the glass bowls to wobble uncontrollably – often getting a rise out of audiences thinking the bowl would soon smash to a million pieces — Brenn would run in and save the day, prompting a sigh of relief from the audience.

Brenn performed on The Ed Sullivan Show eight times and was indeed the king of what we term today “multi-tasking.” And if you are indeed interested in how plate spinning is a metaphor for business life today, check out How many plates do you have spinning? Or, instead of multi-tasking even more,  perhaps you’d rather launch a side gig and learn how to spin those plates. Think of all the settings in which you could perform anniversary parties, corporate events, bar mitzvahs, kids’ parties, and more. Maybe that’s more of a post-retirement gig.

If you watched The Ed Sullvan show with your parents, you might have a soft spot in your heart for the little Italian mouse puppet Topo Gigio. If you remember Topo Gigio, it’s not surprising, as he appeared on the show more than 50 times. 

Many recall Sullivan was being kind of stiff and stodgy. Topo Gigio was originally brought onto the show to make Sullivan more engaging to his audience – especially kids, allowing him to better compete with The Wonderful World of Disney, which had switched to Sunday nights in 1961. 

Topo Gigio was a complex puppet, requiring four puppeteers: Creator, Maria Perego, Milan, Italy, controlled his legs with her fingers and opened and closed his mouth with her other hand using rods; actor Giuseppe Mazullo voiced Topo; two other puppeteers moved his arms. Topo quickly became a hit, particularly with  with writers such as  guest Joan Rivers scripting his act, and allowing the audience to see  a gentler side of Sullivan that had not been apparent before. 

“The man (Sullivan) who critics defined as “stiff” or “dull,” seemed to transform whenever the charming mouse came onto Sullivan’s stage. Topo’s presence turned Ed into a much softer figure and brought out his playful side. The two talked to each other like old friends and their humorous and playful interactions remain a signature of The Ed Sullivan Show.” 

“Eddie, Kiss Me Goodnight!” Nearly every Topo appearance on the show ended with these four words, sung in the mouse’s signature squeaky voice.

The end of The Ed Sullivan Show did not mean the end of Topo Gigio. Topo went on to star in a feature film, an Italian TV show, and Japanese and Latin American animated series.

Do you remember anyone who “spoke with their hand” at school? Probably a take-off of Señor Wences puppet, Johnny. Johnny boasted a stuffed body with ventriloquist Wences’ hand as Johnny’s face (with lipstick), with a blonde wig atop. 

“Johnny” was a childlike face drawn on Wences’ hand, placed atop a doll, with whom the ventriloquist conversed while switching voices between Johnny’s falsetto and his own voice with great speed. 

Wences opened his act by drawing Johnny’s face on his hand, on stage. He would first place his thumb next to, and in front of, his bent first finger; the first finger would be the upper lip, and the thumb the lower lip. He used lipstick to draw the lips onto the respective fingers and then drew eyes onto the upper part of the first finger, finishing the effect with a tiny long-haired wig on top of his hand. Flexing the thumb would move the “lips.”

The inspiration for Johnny came from his school days when the teacher punished him for imitating classmates and answering “present” when they were absent. His punishment was to clean the inkwells and he smeared some of the ink on his hand, then clenched his fist to create the face. 

Señor Wences protégé and New York ventriloquist Michele LaFong explained Wences’ inexplicable appeal: 

“The main thing he taught me was that it’s not about the jokes. If you wrote down all of his words from any Ed Sullivan Show, it wasn’t funny. He made everything funny by the voices—the cuteness of the voices—and the rapid exchanges. He could do it in any country and it didn’t matter. He was the only international ventriloquist that ever existed. People just thought he was great, hysterical.”

Wences made 23 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show from 1950 through 1971. When the show ended, Señor Wences appeared on The Muppet Show, toured night clubs, and performed at the White House four times for four different presidents. 

Stay tuned for The Ed Sullivan Show Part Two, where we’ll review which singers and bands have graced the Sunday night show. 

You can reach Annette Kurman at annette.kurman@gmail.com.