From: PRIVACY Forum mailing list <priv...@vortex.com>
To: privacy-d...@vortex.com
Subject: [ PRIVACY Forum ] Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers dies at 86
Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers dies at 86
This really hurts. Tom (Tommy) Smothers, who along with his brother
Dick formed the Smothers Brothers, has died at 86. Despite his
character being played as a dummy, in reality he was the driving force
of the comedy duo, pushing them from a fairly straightforward singing
comedy team into realms of free speech, anti-Vietnam war, and
anti-censorship realms that incurred the wrath of President Johnson,
who pushed CBS to cancel their show ("The Smothers Brothers Comedy
Hour") -- which ultimately happened.
When they featured (in September 1967) once blacklisted Peter Seeger
singing his anti-Vietnam war "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" all hell
broke lose and CBS cut the performance from the tape. After pressure
from the brothers, CBS permitted them to bring him back for another
performance of the song in February the next year, which did air --
but the brothers relationship with CBS was beyond repair, especially
when CBS tampered with a performance by Harry Belafonte later that
year.
It's impossible for me to express here the impact of the Smothers
Brothers, or reasonably point at a single representative sample of
their vast work, or their many interviews about these topics, but you
may find this Q&A interesting as a starting point.
Peace Tommy. You deserve it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Cw2lZt72Y
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein lau...@vortex.com (https://www.vortex.com/lauren)
