Kanter Sings

Comedy writer and sometime-director Hal Kanter has died.  Just by chance, not long ago, I checked out his memoir So Far, So Funny: My Life In Show Business from my local library.  I've seen his name pop up on so many movies and TV shows I figured he have some good stories to tell.

Born in 1918, he worked in show biz through most of the 20th century, and in every medium available--comic strips, Broadway, radio, motion pictures, TV, recordings--and with every name you've ever heard of: Olsen and Johnson (he wrote gags to keep their Broadway show up to date), Bob Hope, Ed Wynn, Lucille Ball, Groucho Marx, Burt Lancaster, Danny Kaye, Martin and Lewis, Milton Berle, Rowan & Martin, George Gobel, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis, Diahann Carroll, Jimmy Stewart and hundreds of others, including those on the many Academy Awards he produced.

The celebrities, not to mention all the behind-the-scenes people, rush by in the book, often given only an anecdote or two before Kanter moves on.  Sometimes he praises them, sometimes he settles scores.  Either way, he usually comes out on top.  The punchlines roll off the assembly line on a regular basis, but few of them knocked me out.  It might have been better if he'd tried to be less funny and more interesting.  In fact, it's when he takes his time and goes into greater detail, discussing how he dealt with Elvis as a director, or created Julia, a sitcom in the 60s with a black female lead, that the book gets considerably better.

It may be true he rarely did inspired work, but he was no hack.  He was a true professional whose work always deserved (and generally got) respect.