The Times Square Two
Encyclopedia
The Times Square Two was an extremely eccentric 2-man act of music, comedy, acting and juggling.
Their performance of "I've Got a Funny Feeling for Ophelia" on the Dean Martin Summer Show starring The Golddiggers, Joey Heatherton and Frank Sinatra, Jr. is part of the collection of the Museum of TV & Radio in New York and The Paley Center in Beverly Hills.
, a singer-guitarist-performer from Canada, found himself stranded in Vancouver
, when the owner of the coffeehouse he was to play there went bust. Among the other performers in town was Peter Elbling, a 20-year-old British folk singer who Choquette had met in Calgary several months previously. Their mutual interest in 1920s music and vaudeville and music-hall led to the creation of comic musical act called The Times Square Two. Elbling became "Mycroft Partner" and Choquette "Andrew i." (This allowed them, if asked their names, to reply, "My Partner and i." "Partner" sported a goatee, claimed to have been born of a Malayan princess on a rubber plantation and radiated a dominant, pompous Oliver Hardy persona. "I," who affected slicked-flat hair, large rimless glasses
and a high-pitched voice (in which he asserted he had once hoped to play football for Notre Dame), became his flightier, subservient Stan Laurel. (They told interviewers they had met while sitting out an avalanche in an Alpine hut with a goatherd and some lusty peasant girls.) They created an imaginary world of entertainment that hovered between 1880 and 1930. They came to inhabit this world in dress, conversation and manner so completely whether on stage or off, that they acquired a liveried chauffeur, who drove them about in a 1930 Model A
.
Their act opened with both men dressed in 1920's blue pin striped suits sitting on straight-back chairs, staring fixedly ahead while holding guitars parallel to the ground. They would begin a song like "Just a Gigolo" or "I wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate," rise like syncopated toys and kick like demented Rockettes. They would juggle fruit, read minds, perform acrobatics, hypnosis, a botched escape bit and achieve climax by dancing together while playing "Ain't She Sweet" on opposite ends of the same guitar, never losing the beat or missing a note.
After perfecting their act in Vancouver, they journeyed to L.A. and San Francisco, where they performed at The Committee Theater and then shared the bill at the hungry i
with Woody Allen
, Noel Harrison and Dick Cavett. In 1966, a Newsweek reporter caught the show at Chicago's Mother Blues. His story ran the same week they made their debut on national television on The Merv Griffin Show. A surge in bookings followed. For the next three years they performed in coffee houses, nightclubs, and concert halls appearing with such luminaries as Sarah Vaughn, Paul Butterfield, James Cotton, Stan Getz, The Chamber Brothers, Morgana King, Jose Feliciano and others. They appeared on numerous TV shows including Steve Allen, Johnny Carson, Mike Douglas, David Frost, Dean Martin, the Kraft Music Hall and the Smothers Brothers
. They had a three-week run off-Broadway and toured the U. K. with Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention.
and Concordia University in Montreal.
Elbling was later a member of The Committee, acted on many televisions shows (including TAXI
and "W.K.R.P.
") and films (including "Phantom of the Paradise
") during the 1970s and 80s, created the 1979 satirical NY Times Best Seller "The 80's: A Look Back at the Tumultuous Decade 1980-1989
", has written children's books as well as the international best selling novel "The Food Taster."
He is now creating films for Harold A. Vinegar.
Their performance of "I've Got a Funny Feeling for Ophelia" on the Dean Martin Summer Show starring The Golddiggers, Joey Heatherton and Frank Sinatra, Jr. is part of the collection of the Museum of TV & Radio in New York and The Paley Center in Beverly Hills.
The beginning
In early 1964, Michel ChoquetteMichel Choquette
Michel Choquette is a French Canadian from Montreal, a humorist who has written for print, for television and for film, and a comedian who has performed for television....
, a singer-guitarist-performer from Canada, found himself stranded in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, when the owner of the coffeehouse he was to play there went bust. Among the other performers in town was Peter Elbling, a 20-year-old British folk singer who Choquette had met in Calgary several months previously. Their mutual interest in 1920s music and vaudeville and music-hall led to the creation of comic musical act called The Times Square Two. Elbling became "Mycroft Partner" and Choquette "Andrew i." (This allowed them, if asked their names, to reply, "My Partner and i." "Partner" sported a goatee, claimed to have been born of a Malayan princess on a rubber plantation and radiated a dominant, pompous Oliver Hardy persona. "I," who affected slicked-flat hair, large rimless glasses
Rimless eyeglasses
Rimless eyeglasses, are a type of eyeglasses in which the lenses are mounted directly to the bridge and/or temples by way of a series of screws, rather than the lenses being secured inside of frames which encircle the lens...
and a high-pitched voice (in which he asserted he had once hoped to play football for Notre Dame), became his flightier, subservient Stan Laurel. (They told interviewers they had met while sitting out an avalanche in an Alpine hut with a goatherd and some lusty peasant girls.) They created an imaginary world of entertainment that hovered between 1880 and 1930. They came to inhabit this world in dress, conversation and manner so completely whether on stage or off, that they acquired a liveried chauffeur, who drove them about in a 1930 Model A
Ford Model A
The Model A is the designation of two cars made by Ford Motor Company, one in 1903 and one beginning in 1927:* Ford Model A * Ford Model A...
.
Their act opened with both men dressed in 1920's blue pin striped suits sitting on straight-back chairs, staring fixedly ahead while holding guitars parallel to the ground. They would begin a song like "Just a Gigolo" or "I wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate," rise like syncopated toys and kick like demented Rockettes. They would juggle fruit, read minds, perform acrobatics, hypnosis, a botched escape bit and achieve climax by dancing together while playing "Ain't She Sweet" on opposite ends of the same guitar, never losing the beat or missing a note.
After perfecting their act in Vancouver, they journeyed to L.A. and San Francisco, where they performed at The Committee Theater and then shared the bill at the hungry i
Hungry i
The hungry i was originally a nightclub in North Beach, San Francisco. It was launched by Eric "Big Daddy" Nord, who sold it to Enrico Banducci in 1950.-The name:How the club's name came about is something of a mystery...
with Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
, Noel Harrison and Dick Cavett. In 1966, a Newsweek reporter caught the show at Chicago's Mother Blues. His story ran the same week they made their debut on national television on The Merv Griffin Show. A surge in bookings followed. For the next three years they performed in coffee houses, nightclubs, and concert halls appearing with such luminaries as Sarah Vaughn, Paul Butterfield, James Cotton, Stan Getz, The Chamber Brothers, Morgana King, Jose Feliciano and others. They appeared on numerous TV shows including Steve Allen, Johnny Carson, Mike Douglas, David Frost, Dean Martin, the Kraft Music Hall and the Smothers Brothers
Smothers Brothers
The Smothers Brothers are Thomas and Richard , American singers, musicians, comedians and folk heroes. The brothers' trademark act was performing folk songs , which usually led to arguments between the siblings...
. They had a three-week run off-Broadway and toured the U. K. with Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention.
The end
Peter Elbling describes the end of their association thus:
"I quit the Times Square Two because we weren't coming up
with new material and hadn't in a long time. Without realizing
it, we had boxed ourselves into a corner by confining ourselves to
material from the first two decades of the 1900s."
Life after T.S.T.
Choquette went on to work for The National Lampoon and on editing a vast and ambitious comic book project with material from numerous internationally-known cartoonists and media figures. The book was entitled "Someday Funnies" and was never completed or published. Choquette teaches screen-writing and comedy writing at McGill UniversityMcGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
and Concordia University in Montreal.
Elbling was later a member of The Committee, acted on many televisions shows (including TAXI
Taxi (TV series)
Taxi was an American sitcom that originally aired from 1978 to 1982 on ABC and from 1982 to 1983 on NBC. The series, which won 18 Emmy Awards, including three for "Outstanding Comedy Series", focuses on the everyday lives of a handful of New York City taxi drivers and their abusive dispatcher...
and "W.K.R.P.
WKRP in Cincinnati
WKRP in Cincinnati is an American situation comedy that featured the misadventures of the staff of a struggling fictional radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show was created by Hugh Wilson and was based upon his experiences working in advertising sales at Top 40 radio station WQXI in Atlanta...
") and films (including "Phantom of the Paradise
Phantom of the Paradise
Phantom of the Paradise is a 1974 musical film written and directed by Brian De Palma. The story is a loosely adapted mixture of The Phantom of the Opera, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Faust and also briefly references Frankenstein and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari...
") during the 1970s and 80s, created the 1979 satirical NY Times Best Seller "The 80's: A Look Back at the Tumultuous Decade 1980-1989
The 80's: A Look Back at the Tumultuous Decade 1980-1989
The 80s: A Look Back at the Tumultuous Decade 1980-1989 is a humor book published in 1979.It was edited by Tony Hendra, Christopher Cerf and Peter Elbling, with art direction by Michael Gross. Contributors to the book included Henry Beard, Valerie Curtin, Amy Ephron, Jeff Greenfield, Abbie Hoffman,...
", has written children's books as well as the international best selling novel "The Food Taster."
He is now creating films for Harold A. Vinegar.
Sources
- LEVIN, Bob, August 2009, The Comics JournalThe Comics JournalThe Comics Journal, often abbreviated TCJ, is an American magazine of news and criticism pertaining to comic books, comic strips and graphic novels...
, No. 299, p. 30-81, How Michel ChoquetteMichel ChoquetteMichel Choquette is a French Canadian from Montreal, a humorist who has written for print, for television and for film, and a comedian who has performed for television....
(Almost) Assembled the Most Stupendous Comic Book in the World, Starring: Harvey KurtzmanHarvey KurtzmanHarvey Kurtzman was an American cartoonist and the editor of several comic books and magazines. Kurtzman often signed his name H. Kurtz, followed by a stick figure Harvey Kurtzman (October 3, 1924, Brooklyn, New York – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and the editor of several comic...
, Jack KirbyJack KirbyJack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....
, Federico FelliniFederico FelliniFederico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
, Art SpiegelmanArt SpiegelmanArt Spiegelman is an American comics artist, editor, and advocate for the medium of comics, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic book memoir, Maus. His works are published with his name in lowercase: art spiegelman.-Biography:Spiegelman was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to Polish Jews...
, Wally WoodWally WoodWallace Allan Wood was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, best known for his work in EC Comics and Mad. He was one of Mads founding cartoonists in 1952. Although much of his early professional artwork is signed Wallace Wood, he became known as Wally Wood, a name he...
, Bill Griffith, Don Martin, Vaughn BodéVaughn BodéVaughn Bodē was an artist involved in underground comics, graphic design and graffiti. He is perhaps best known for his comic strip character Cheech Wizard and artwork depicting voluptuous women. His works are noted for their psychedelic look and feel...
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, Roy ThomasRoy ThomasRoy William Thomas, Jr. is an American comic book writer and editor, and Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E...
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, Guido CrepaxGuido CrepaxGuido Crepax was an Italian comics artist. He is most famous for his character Valentina, created in 1965 and very representative of the spirit of the sixties. The Valentina series of books and strips became noted for Crepax's sophisticated drawing, and for the psychedelic, dreamlike storylines,...
, Ralph SteadmanRalph SteadmanRalph Steadman is a British cartoonist and caricaturist who is perhaps best known for his work with American author Hunter S. Thompson.-Personal life:Steadman was born in Wallasey, Cheshire, and brought up in Towyn, North Wales...
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, Arnold RothArnold RothArnold Roth is an American freelance cartoonist and illustrator for advertisements, album covers, books, magazines and newspapers.Novelist John Updike wrote, "All cartoonists are geniuses, but Arnold Roth is especially so."...
, Archie GoodwinArchie Goodwin (comics)Archie Goodwin was an American comic book writer, editor, and artist. He worked on a number of comic strips in addition to comic books, and is best known for his Warren and Marvel Comics work...
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and many more - Correspondence with Peter Elbling.
- Wednesday-Night, including an interview with Mr. Elbling
- The Paley Center in Beverly Hills collection (Golddiggers June 20, 1968 premiere episode)