| 
Johnny Wayne &
Frank Shuster
Wayne & Shuster
Frank Shuster &
Johnny Wayne
|
Interviews with friends, family and colleagues,
including Norman Jewison and Dave Broadfoot, reveal that Wayne
& Shuster were a volatile duo. Though "joined at
the hip" professionally, the two were total opposites
- Johnny, explosive and hot-tempered, Frank, reserved and
somewhat insecure. Their working relationship was equal parts
trust and antagonism - creative differences sparked real battles.
"Whoever argued the loudest would win the fight,"
recalls Wayne's son, Brian, who remembers their battles over
scripts. "That was basically how the decisions were made."
Theirs was truly a marriage of opposites - a partnership that
endured for nearly 60 years, and changed the face of comedy.
As the biography reveals, together they wrote, directed and
acted in the Varsity Follies during their years at the University
of Toronto in the 1930s. During the War, they starred in the
Army Show and upon their release from the army they wrote
for a CBC Radio show that dealt with veterans' rehabilitation,
for which they won a Beaver Award for comedy writing. After
a highly successful run on CBC Radio, they warily switched
to television in 1954. Their legendary international success
came in 1958 when they were asked to appear on The Ed Sullivan
Show in New York. Over the next seven years, they appeared
an unprecedented 67 times. There were constant attempts to
lure them to the U.S. but they chose to remain in Canada,
continuing to work at the CBC.
Links
Wayne
and Shuster
Canada's
Walk of Fame
Wayne
and Shuster: The Radio Years
Wayne
and Shuster at the National Archives
Original Air Date - October 2, 2002 |
