Ron Burgundy On Stephen Colbert talking about Fred Kaps

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Ron Burgundy On Stephen Colbert talking about Fred Kaps

Postby Chris Randall Magic » August 12th, 2019, 4:47 am

Very interesting reference to Fred Kaps performing on The Ed Sullivan Show right before the Beatles first performance. Very funny

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Odj6UwmYAPQ

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Re: Ron Burgundy On Stephen Colbert talking about Fred Kaps

Postby Jack Shalom » August 12th, 2019, 7:39 am

I saw that the other night and wondered if Will Ferrell was a known magic fan. Anyone know anything further?

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Re: Ron Burgundy On Stephen Colbert talking about Fred Kaps

Postby Richard Kaufman » August 12th, 2019, 11:47 am

More likely one of his writers is a magic fan.
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Re: Ron Burgundy On Stephen Colbert talking about Fred Kaps

Postby PapaG » August 12th, 2019, 12:11 pm

Probably most likely that they thought that it would be a good joke for Ron Burgundy to be a fan of the support act for the Beatles debut on the Sullivan show rather than the Beatles themselves, and engineered the gag from there.

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Re: Ron Burgundy On Stephen Colbert talking about Fred Kaps

Postby Jonathan Townsend » August 12th, 2019, 6:25 pm

Did he mention salt?
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Re: Ron Burgundy On Stephen Colbert talking about Fred Kaps

Postby Max Maven » August 12th, 2019, 8:15 pm

Whoever came up with the gag put in the effort to find out that the act who followed the Beatles that night was Fred Kaps, but not enough effort to learn that Fred’s performance was pre-taped. (The producers realized that no one deserved to have to perform in front of that particular live audience, largely composed of frenzied adolescents.)

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Re: Ron Burgundy On Stephen Colbert talking about Fred Kaps

Postby Leo Garet » August 13th, 2019, 1:36 pm

I don’t know, so this is me seeking information.

Was the Beatles/Kaps insert recorded for a specific Sullivan show? Or was it a performance that was already in the can, available, and convenient? Then slotted in to a show that just happened to feature The Beatles.

Fantasio also appeared on a later show “with The Beatles” but it was recorded in Las Vegas some time before transmission. Which may have been days or weeks before.

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Re: Ron Burgundy On Stephen Colbert talking about Fred Kaps

Postby Max Maven » August 13th, 2019, 8:18 pm

Leo Garet wrote:IWas the Beatles/Kaps insert recorded for a specific Sullivan show? Or was it a performance that was already in the can, available, and convenient? Then slotted in to a show that just happened to feature The Beatles.


Fred was booked for that specific show. (He had appeared on the show previously, so booker Mark Leddy was familiar with his work.)

His set was taped earlier that same day. It was customary for the Sullivan show to do a full dress run-through on the day of a broadcast, to make sure everything fit together, solve unexpected problems, and make timing adjustments. I would guess that with the introduction of videotape at the start of the ’60s, they would tape each run-through. In the case of Fred’s performance in 1964, the act was taped with the deliberate plan to insert it into that evening’s live broadcast — to spare him having to deal with the crowd that, they knew, would still be loudly reacting to the Beatles.

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Re: Ron Burgundy On Stephen Colbert talking about Fred Kaps

Postby Dick Koornwinder » August 15th, 2019, 11:52 am

Most of the time I agree with Max but not this time. Mr. Kaps was booked for two shows and according to his contract available for rehearsals and performances from 4th thru 6th of January 1963. It was common use for Mr. Sullivan to book the top acts from abroad for two shows….one act would be broadcasted live and the second would be recorded and saved for a next show and it happened just that way. The first act, with the ‘China Sticks’, was broadcasted live on January 6, 1963 and the second act with ‘The Homing Cards’ and ‘The Long Salt Pour’ on February 9, 1964.
Mr. Kaps’ contract was signed August 7, 1962 and at that time it was not yet known that the boyband from the UK would also appear at ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’.

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Re: Ron Burgundy On Stephen Colbert talking about Fred Kaps

Postby Jack Shalom » August 15th, 2019, 12:42 pm

Thanks for that insight!

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Re: Ron Burgundy On Stephen Colbert talking about Fred Kaps

Postby Leo Garet » August 15th, 2019, 1:29 pm

As we're in a disagreeing mode....

The Beatles were NEVER a boyband.

Interesting post, nonetheless.

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Re: Ron Burgundy On Stephen Colbert talking about Fred Kaps

Postby Zig Zagger » August 15th, 2019, 2:25 pm

Thank you for these most interesting background information, gentlemen.

I had always wondered how Fred Kaps must have felt then and there. Now I know better!

A shame Mr Maven was not on stage that night. He surely would have silenced the mad crowd at once with his stage presence and a heartfelt „Boo!“ :D
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Re: Ron Burgundy On Stephen Colbert talking about Fred Kaps

Postby Bill Mullins » August 15th, 2019, 3:26 pm

Kaps was on Sullivan on 4/15/1956 (with Grace Kelly, Ralph Meeker, comic-ventriloquist Rickie Layne, opera star Helen Traubel, comedian Ed Gardner, Naval Academy Glee Club, and a salute to Connie Mack);
1/6/1963 (with Sammy Davis Jr., Vaughn Meader, the Barry Sisters (jazz/Klezmer singers), Pat Carroll, Italian foot juggler Ugo Garrido, Rickie Layne (again!), the Hugh Lambert Dancers; Rip Taylor was to have appeared but was cancelled at the last minute);
9/20/1964 (with The Beatles. Georgia Brown of the Broadway show Oliver!, along with kids from the cast including Davy Jones as the Artful Dodger, later of the Monkees), Tessie O'Shea (Welsh music hall star), Frank Gorshin, The Four Fays (comic acrobats; Tony Basil's mom was one of them), and McCall and Brill (comedy duo; Brill went on to appear in "The Trouble with Tribbles" in Star Trek as the incognito Klingon; their recollections here).

While we are speculating, I suspect that it was something of a last-minute decision to drop the Kaps footage into the Beatles episode -- absolutely none of the pre-broadcast TV listings mention him. But when the show was repeated in September, he is mentioned quite often. By that time, publicity from the network would have been rewritten to include him, and media writers would have had more material to use in their articles.

Kaps also appeared on a 1962 special called "International Showtime", with various foreign variety acts; a 1973 special "Magic Man," hosted by Bill Bixby; a 1975 special "Magic Holiday" hosted by Professor Irwin Corey; a 1975 special "Wonderful World of Magic" hosted by Bill Bixby; a 1976 special "Grand Prix du Magique" hosted by David Niven (FISM acts); a 1976 special "Magic, Magic, Magic" hosted by Harry Blackstone Jr; and "The Parkinson Magic Show" in the UK in 1976;

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Re: Ron Burgundy On Stephen Colbert talking about Fred Kaps

Postby Bill Mullins » August 15th, 2019, 3:40 pm

An article about Fred Kaps at a 1978 magic convention.

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Re: Ron Burgundy On Stephen Colbert talking about Fred Kaps

Postby Bill Duncan » August 15th, 2019, 10:46 pm

Leo Garet wrote:The Beatles were NEVER a boyband.

Really? Because my recollection is that they kinda invented the boy band.

Maybe you didn't have a sibling who had all the magazines with "who's the dreamiest Beatle?" headlines.

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Re: Ron Burgundy On Stephen Colbert talking about Fred Kaps

Postby Max Maven » August 16th, 2019, 6:47 am

Dick Koornwinder wrote:Most of the time I agree with Max but not this time.


Thank you for the correction, Dick.

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Re: Ron Burgundy On Stephen Colbert talking about Fred Kaps

Postby Bill Mullins » August 16th, 2019, 10:40 am

My post above shows the Beatles/Kaps episode of Ed Sullivan as 9/20/1964. That was a repeat of a show originally broadcast on 2/9/1964.

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Re: Ron Burgundy On Stephen Colbert talking about Fred Kaps

Postby Leo Garet » August 16th, 2019, 12:00 pm

Bill Duncan wrote:
Leo Garet wrote:The Beatles were NEVER a boyband.

Really? Because my recollection is that they kinda invented the boy band.

Maybe you didn't have a sibling who had all the magazines with "who's the dreamiest Beatle?" headlines.


Yes really.
The Beatles were never a boy band…..

They invented, created, trailblazed, inspired and…..

Hmm, probably best to stick with Kaps and Sullivan on this thread.

If you get me started on The Fabs, you’ll be screaming for mercy and running for the hills.
:) ;)

In the meanwhile, another seeking-information question:

Where did the other acts on the show slot into the live/recorded situation and how were they affected (if at all) by the screamers?

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Re: Ron Burgundy On Stephen Colbert talking about Fred Kaps

Postby Bill Duncan » August 21st, 2019, 10:48 pm

I'll just leave this here.

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Re: Ron Burgundy On Stephen Colbert talking about Fred Kaps

Postby Bill Mullins » August 21st, 2019, 11:23 pm

In 1981 I was working at a used records/comic book store in Nashville. One day, a co-worker nudged me and said, "Mark Hamill's standing over there." I looked up and there he was. He had been in Chattanooga filming The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia, and took a day to drive up to look for Beatles memorabilia, which he collected. He bought a few old issues of "Tiger Beat" and the like, and a Beatles lunchbox, I think. ("Tiger Beat" was a fan mag targeted at teenage girls, full of pics of what we'd now call "boy bands". Thus this digression.)

We also sold old trading cards, and I quickly got one out of store inventory. I got an employee discount, so it may have only cost 9 cents instead of 10.

(And while checking out the exact title/date of the movie in Chattanooga on IMDB, I noticed that Hamill had been in an episode of Bill Bixby's The Magician. I never noticed that before.)

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Re: Ron Burgundy On Stephen Colbert talking about Fred Kaps

Postby Jon Pendragon » September 3rd, 2019, 12:58 am

There is also an obscure reference to Kaps (though not him, a dove manip. act stands in) in Richard Lester's film A Hard Day's Night where Ringo, I believe, bumps into a dove magician backstage who has a sign that reads: The Great so and so and his 12 appearing doves. The magician drops his hit arm and feathers fall from his sleeve. He crosses off 12 to make "11 appearing doves. From memory, but it's close.


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