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Thursday, March 1, 2012

Tony Webster - Tony Webster's Marriage Counselor 1963

Tony Webster
Birth Name
aka Tony Webster II
Birthplace
Jan 09 1922 - Jun 26 1987 age 65
Official Site 

Comedy writer Tony Webster, fresh with the success of a hit album, "Marriage Counselor", aimed a velvet-tipped dart in the lofty direction of  "serious writers."
"What do you think a 'profound' writer is?" asked Tony, whose mother and stepfather, Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Crane, live at 513 E. 28th Avenue, in Pompano Beach. "Just a comedy writer who couldn't get a laugh with his lines. So he turned 'profound' - that way the people couldn't catch him at it." In "Marriage Counselor" Tony touches all the bases of marital non-bliss.
"I mean, let's face it - this is a serious subject," said the man who speaks with the wisdom of two marriages and two divorces behind him. "But what I tried to do was make people identify with a situation in comic terms where it would be too painful on a serious level."
Thus there's the counselor  who's encouraged because the wife can still call her husband 'hon' - until she explains, "That's his name - Attila The Hun" and the elderly couple who approach the counselor on the occasion of their 75th wedding anniversary, apologizing,  "We'd get a Mexican divorce, but we're both afraid to fly." "Comedy" said Tony, pooh-poohing the 'profoundests' even more, "goes right past tragedy."
The Arthur Miller look-alike ("l think it'd be nice some day if people said Arthur Miller looked like ME")  was born and raised in St. Louis and attended the University of Missouri for two years before being drafted into the army. Since then he's written for the best comics in the business - including Sid Caesar and Phil Silvers.
He's proudest of his Emmy-award winning TV show of a few years ago, "Call Me Back" which starred Art Carney. "It was a one-hour monologue", Tony recalled, "and probably the only suicide ever shown on TV.  It has a lot of laughs, though. Most people remember the line of Carney on the phone asking whether Dr Schweitzer made house calls."
Humor aside, Tony has a real thing against quack marriage counselors.
"It's amazing,"  he says. "Anyone can put on a black suit and become one. You can't prescribe a pill without a license. but they have these guys who can prescribe for the mind without a thing. I could become one too, you know. Except I'd make the people sign a notarized release so that if their lives fell apart afterwards I wouldn't assume the responsibility."
"Do you wan to get married again?" I asked. "I hope so", he said, "I don't like to go swimming that much - at the club bar, that is." ~Earl Wilson, Miami News January 12 1964
~~~
This is certainly a funny album! Many a happily married couple will get a chuckle or two out of most of the bands. A good deal of the material is suitable for air play and many of the cuts are less than 60 seconds long. The other material should be great t for parties or as a warning for those who are about to tie the knot. ~Billboard 1963-12-14

01  Opening
02  Sex Manuals
03  The Late John
04  Something in Common
05  Understanding a Husband's Career
06  The Promise
07  I Love You Truly
08  Hon
09  Red China
10  Know What I Mean
11  The One Flaw
12  Happy Anniversary
13  Immaturity
14  Henry and Catherine
15  Commuting
16  Relating to People

17  Woman's Best Friend
18  Oedipus Complex
19  Adam & Eve
20  The Panel Experts
21  Duke & Duchess
22  Woman Behind the Man
23  First Husband
24  Working Mother
25  Questions and Answers
 

Verve Records
V/V6015040

Stand-up
Enjoy!


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