I’m doing sound design for a community theater production of ‘Laughter on the 23rd Floor’, the play by Neil Simon about a 1950s comedy writer’s room. We know he’s writing about his experience working on Sid Caesar’s ‘Show of Shows’ TV program, although it’s a fictional TV show in the play.
I’m trying to come up with curtain call music that would pay homage to Sid and his show. My first thought was to find a recording of the opening theme they actually used for the Show of Shows program, but there are few challenges here.
Many of the original recordings I can find are partial recordings often with the intros missing. The ones I have found are of bad quality and have the usual 1950s voice overs and sponsor mentions, because that’s what they did back then.
Ideally I would like just the theme music used for the opening of the show by itself, but I don’t think such a thing exists. I had assumed that the music they used to open the show would have been recorded by some orchestra later for posterity, but I don’t seem to be able to find it.
Does any know the name of the music that was used for the opening of Show of Shows? It may have been written specifically for that show, but it still likely has a title and composer associated with it. Or if you know of some other piece of music that would be similar to that music that might be close enough.
I remember the 1950’s. I suggest you watch My Favorite Year, a 1982 movie set in 1954. It’s about a Sid Caesar-like variety show. It probably includes the kind of music you’re looking for. More about the movie here:
Or alternatively, just go with a classic song such as “That’s Entertainment!” or “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” There’s also “The Sabre Dance” (that was very popular in the '50’s) and “The Harlequin Dance.” You can hear all of these on YouTube.
The theme from YSOS was Stars Over Broadway listed as written by Mel Tolkin, Clay Warnick, and Max Liebman. Unfortunately, that’s also the name of a musical from the 1930s, which is what all the links direct to.
If you don’t mind applause with the theme, try the closing theme to Caesar’s Hour – the successor to YSOS. There’s a good 40 seconds here before the announcer talks, which should be long enough for something.
For generic tunes, I’d go with Lullaby of Broadway.
Thank Kunilou. I would have thought that there would be a recording of Stars Over Broadway somewhere, but apparently not. I will have to find something else instead.
