"Mike Barer said... With Betty White gone, he is one of the last survivors of Classic TV."
Not to mention Carl Reiner, creator of The Dick Van Dyke Show, who passed two years ago.
"kent said... So sad that Laura couldn't be with him."
You do know that "Laura" is not a real person, don't you? Dick's wife's name is Arlene, and she may well have been there with him. In any event, I doubt she enjoys people ignoring her for a fictional character.
Great photo….my only direct contact with Dick was when he attended sports days at my elementary school on Long Island c. 1960…his son Barry was in my class. I’ve loved to observe his illustrious career.
PS There are some people who convey their virtues on their face. Even if you didn't know who the man was, that photo of him exudes so much joy, warmth and kindness. He wears his age so well. He is a lot like Betty White in that regard. May he live as long.
I'm not religious and am pretty much an atheist, but whenever I see a current picture or footage of Dick Van Dyke alive and smiling, I'm always compelled to say out loud, "God bless Dick Van Dyke".
You're taller than Dick Van Dyke? I know you're taller than me, but I thought Dick would be your height or taller. I know he says he was 6'1" at age 11, which made for a difficult junior high. I'd assume he was still growing then. (Or has he shrunk? People sometimes do - ah - "settle" a bit in old age.)
Last night I watched a 1963 Jack Benny Show with Dick as the guest. Dick's show was new on CBS at the time, so it was plugged relentlessly. Dick did a WONDERFUL eccentric dance at the top of the show. (It blows my mind that Dick never had dance lessons. He's a self-taught dancer!)
Then they did a murder-mystery sketch where Jack played the detective, and Dick played ALL the suspects, doing costume change after costume change after costume change after costume change. Since it was an English murder mystery, it gave Dick, already famous for his horrible excuse for a Cockney accent in Mary Poppins (He'd be the first to tell you how pathetic his Cockney accent was), an opportunity to do five different terrible English accents, some of them women.
There was this idea floating at the time that Dick would be the American Peter Sellers, able to play multiple characters in the same show or film. (Hence his awful bank president at the end of Mary Poppins.) This was the same year Sellers played three roles in Dr. Strangelove, and not long before he did three characters in The Mouse That Roared.
But Dick was not Peter Sellers, and his parade of characters on Jack's show were OK in a comedy sketch, but was not on the level of the work Sellers was doing in movies. Nor did Dick need to be. He was Dick Van Dyke! He didn't need to be Peter Sellers also. (And while Sellers did flawless American accents, we have Dick's high-school-play English accents. Eddie Izzard once asked if Dick was supposed to be Australian in Mary Poppins.)
In any event, the joke in Jack's sketch became how the increasingly-rapid costume changes were wearing Dick out. As Dick's matron exited, Jack would say, "Send in the butler." Seconds later Dick appears in the butler outfit and bald cap, and Jack says, "Hives, send in the next witness," and Dick rolls his eyes and exits to go change again.
The changes got more rapid and sloppy, until Dick finally appeared in the matron's costume, still with the brother's mustache, and doing the wrong voice. It became "The Murder Mystery Sketch That Goes Wrong," (Peter Pan Goes Wrong contains a variety of fast-change gags aimed at the actress who plays Mrs. Darling, Liza the maid, Tinker Bell, Tiger Lily and Cecco the Pirate, often getting caught mid-change, or realizing she was onstage in the wrong costume and changing onstage), and was all about how Dick couldn't sustain the pace of the changes, and how it was breaking up Jack. At the end, they drag off the corpse, whose feet were all that was visible throughout the entire sketch, and of course, it was Dick as the corpse. (And of course, the joke-under-the-joke was that Dick had to play all the characters because Jack was too cheap to hire other actors for the roles.)
Dick was funny in the sketch, but it was his dance at the top of the program that showed what was special and beloved about him.
DIck Van Dyke had a very funny cameo on "Coach". Jerry Van Dyke's character was having a family reunion and complained nobody looked like him. Dick Van Dyke was a guest in the background and just walked in front of the camera and left. Whoever wrote that deserves an award.
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That's an awesome shot <3
ReplyDeleteGREAT Photo!
ReplyDeleteDid Dick ask you to sign it for him?
So sad that Laura couldn't be with him.
ReplyDeleteWow, look at his smile. He seems to just be enjoying life!
ReplyDelete.
With Betty White gone, he is one of the last survivors of Classic TV.
ReplyDelete"Mike Barer said...
ReplyDeleteWith Betty White gone, he is one of the last survivors of Classic TV."
Not to mention Carl Reiner, creator of The Dick Van Dyke Show, who passed two years ago.
"kent said...
So sad that Laura couldn't be with him."
You do know that "Laura" is not a real person, don't you? Dick's wife's name is Arlene, and she may well have been there with him. In any event, I doubt she enjoys people ignoring her for a fictional character.
No offense to your dad, but man....you look like you could be Dick Van Dyke's kid.
ReplyDeleteGreat photo….my only direct contact with Dick was when he attended sports days at my elementary school on Long Island c. 1960…his son Barry was in my class. I’ve loved to observe his illustrious career.
ReplyDeleteDick Van Dyke...? Oh yeah, he was a villain on Columbo.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful shot. I hope you have it framed on a wall somewhere.
ReplyDeleteUsing the rules of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon: my Stan Laurel number is one.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/craig.gustafson.666/posts/10229350804774928
PS There are some people who convey their virtues on their face. Even if you didn't know who the man was, that photo of him exudes so much joy, warmth and kindness. He wears his age so well. He is a lot like Betty White in that regard. May he live as long.
ReplyDeleteI'm not religious and am pretty much an atheist, but whenever I see a current picture or footage of Dick Van Dyke alive and smiling, I'm always compelled to say out loud, "God bless Dick Van Dyke".
ReplyDeleteYou're taller than Dick Van Dyke? I know you're taller than me, but I thought Dick would be your height or taller. I know he says he was 6'1" at age 11, which made for a difficult junior high. I'd assume he was still growing then. (Or has he shrunk? People sometimes do - ah - "settle" a bit in old age.)
ReplyDeleteLast night I watched a 1963 Jack Benny Show with Dick as the guest. Dick's show was new on CBS at the time, so it was plugged relentlessly. Dick did a WONDERFUL eccentric dance at the top of the show. (It blows my mind that Dick never had dance lessons. He's a self-taught dancer!)
Then they did a murder-mystery sketch where Jack played the detective, and Dick played ALL the suspects, doing costume change after costume change after costume change after costume change. Since it was an English murder mystery, it gave Dick, already famous for his horrible excuse for a Cockney accent in Mary Poppins (He'd be the first to tell you how pathetic his Cockney accent was), an opportunity to do five different terrible English accents, some of them women.
There was this idea floating at the time that Dick would be the American Peter Sellers, able to play multiple characters in the same show or film. (Hence his awful bank president at the end of Mary Poppins.) This was the same year Sellers played three roles in Dr. Strangelove, and not long before he did three characters in The Mouse That Roared.
But Dick was not Peter Sellers, and his parade of characters on Jack's show were OK in a comedy sketch, but was not on the level of the work Sellers was doing in movies. Nor did Dick need to be. He was Dick Van Dyke! He didn't need to be Peter Sellers also. (And while Sellers did flawless American accents, we have Dick's high-school-play English accents. Eddie Izzard once asked if Dick was supposed to be Australian in Mary Poppins.)
In any event, the joke in Jack's sketch became how the increasingly-rapid costume changes were wearing Dick out. As Dick's matron exited, Jack would say, "Send in the butler." Seconds later Dick appears in the butler outfit and bald cap, and Jack says, "Hives, send in the next witness," and Dick rolls his eyes and exits to go change again.
The changes got more rapid and sloppy, until Dick finally appeared in the matron's costume, still with the brother's mustache, and doing the wrong voice. It became "The Murder Mystery Sketch That Goes Wrong," (Peter Pan Goes Wrong contains a variety of fast-change gags aimed at the actress who plays Mrs. Darling, Liza the maid, Tinker Bell, Tiger Lily and Cecco the Pirate, often getting caught mid-change, or realizing she was onstage in the wrong costume and changing onstage), and was all about how Dick couldn't sustain the pace of the changes, and how it was breaking up Jack. At the end, they drag off the corpse, whose feet were all that was visible throughout the entire sketch, and of course, it was Dick as the corpse. (And of course, the joke-under-the-joke was that Dick had to play all the characters because Jack was too cheap to hire other actors for the roles.)
Dick was funny in the sketch, but it was his dance at the top of the program that showed what was special and beloved about him.
DIck Van Dyke had a very funny cameo on "Coach". Jerry Van Dyke's character was having a family reunion and complained nobody looked like him. Dick Van Dyke was a guest in the background and just walked in front of the camera and left. Whoever wrote that deserves an award.
ReplyDelete