How Sid Caesar Reinvented American Comedy

“A portrait of an unstable genius and a cultural history of a medium coming to life. Margolick writes in vibrant detail not only of the Caesar shows but of the early-TV world around them. . . . [Margolick] is an ideal cultural historian . . . . [and] makes the achievements of Caesar and his gang shine through.” —David Denby, The New Yorker

David Margolick, acclaimed biographer (“THE PROMISE AND THE DREAM: The Untold Story of Martin Luther King, Jr.; ROBERT F. KENNEDY”) and cultural historian (STRANGE FRUIT: The Biography of a Song") discusses his new book, WHEN CAESAR WAS KING How Side Caesar Reinvented American Comedy and the comedic force of nature at the center of this television revolution.

He was called the greatest living comedian, with nobody a close second. His comic genius was considered inexhaustible. Mel Brooks described him as the “Golden Boy . . .as an artist. As Matisse.” Einstein was a fan; Hitchcock thought him the funniest performer since Charlie Chaplin.

Sid Caesar was a master of improvisation who became one of television’s first stars and who influenced generations of comedians and comedy-writers. He was hailed as the King of Comedy of America’s 1950’s television; the highest paid, most influential, most watched comedian who each week was seen by more than twenty million people who tuned in to NBC to watch the brilliant, zany, laugh out loud, high-brow low-brow comedy-variety Show of Shows, broadcast live.

In addition to Caesar, the writers included: Mel Brooks ( age 25 when he started), Neil Simon (age 23), Lucille Kallen(27), Larry Gelbart (23), Woody Allen (20).

Join Victoria Wilson and Foster Hirsch in conversation with David Margolick as he discusses the man, the work, the brilliance; the mayhem; the hijinks; the high-wire tension and desperation of the writers fighting to be funny as they fought to survive; the Jewish sensibility at the heart of the work; the huge sums of money ( Caesar was earning $1 million a year; more than $11 million today); the brutal pressures of a weekly live 90-minute show and the toll it took (dependency on alcohol and pills), and the extraordinary influence of Caesar’s comic mastery still being felt today (SNL, anyone), almost seven decades later.

Watch the eleventh event in the Talk of the Town series of conversations with Victoria Wilson and Foster Hirsch that takes place monthly at the Salmagundi Art Club in New York City.