The Top Banana

A century ago today Phil Silvers was born. He played the fast-talking con man, making the stock character his own. Like every great comedian, he filled a gap no one knew existed.

He started in burlesque, and soon made it to movies (including some impressive work in Gene Kelly musicals) and Broadway. But he's best known for his TV role of Sergeant Bilko.

I read his autobiography, This Laugh Is On Me, years ago. He came across as a guy who knew he was great but suffered from the fear not everyone would figure it out. They did, Phil.

One of his odder projects was the film version of his Broadway hit Top Banana (with a decent though not great score by Johnny Mercer, who usually just wrote the lyrics).  Silvers won a 1952 Tony for playing overbearing TV comedy star Jerry Biffle. (This is before Bilko. The part is clearly based on Milton Berle.) Then someone got the idea of filming the show pretty much as is in 3-D. By the time it came out in 1954 it was released flat.  3-D or 2-D, no one wanted to see it, but it exists today as a great example of Phil Silvers on stage.



P(hil)S(ilvers): He toured with the show after it closed on Broadway.  It usually played well, but the response was poor in Salt Lake City.  Silvers was confused but someone told him when he says the line "this must be the place!" (1:34 above) the Mormons thought he was mocking them, since Brigham Young said "This is the place" when he first saw Salt Lake Valley.  Silvers changed the line and the show was a hit.