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HOST: TERRENCE McKENNA
GUEST: HANA GARTNER, CBC Reporter; FRANK SHUSTER, Comedian; JOHNNY WAYNE File Footage, Comedian; SYLVIA LENNICK, Co- star, STEVE SHUSTER, Son; ROSALYN SHUSTER, Daughter
(Film clip) ANNOUNCER: (Music) And now...here are Johnny and Frank. (Applause)
WAYNE AND SHUSTER / COMEDIANS: (Singing) Hello fellow Canadians. Now won't you join with me, saluting all the cities that are linked by CBC.
McKENNA: Hello. This is the 10th floor of the CBC broadcast centre in Toronto, and the Wayne and Shuster Comedy Wall of Fame. It's lined with photographs of some of this country's greatest comedians. And at the front of them all, the two men who put Canadian comedy on the map. Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster were more than just a comedy team; they were seen as a kind of national treasure. This fall is the 50th anniversary of the Wayne and Shuster show. Tonight, we're going to look back, celebrate -- and have some laughs along the way. Here's Hana Gartner with: The Kings of Comedy.
HANA GARTNER: The Ed Sullivan Show was the biggest thing on television in 1958. If you could make it there, you could make it anywhere.
ED SULLIVAN: Let's have a tremendous hand for Wayne and Shuster of Canada. (Applause)
GARTNER: This was the big break for the Canadian comedians.
(filmclip): Rinse the blood off my toga! (Music)
(Film clip): Julius Caesar has been murdered! (Music)
(Film clip): Julius Caesar murdered? Couldn't believe my ears. Big Julie was dead!
(Film clip): He was stabbed!
(Film clip): Stabbed!
(Film clip): And they got him right in the rotunda. (Laughter)
(Film clip): Hey, that's a painful spot. I had a sliver there once.
GARTNER: It really was Ed Sullivan who made stars out of Wayne and Shuster.
FRANK SHUSTER: I think so. I think we were very popular in Canada. But there's always a certain number of Canadians who don't believe in them, until you get the 'Good Housekeeping' seal of approval from the States.
(Film clip): Well, what do you think?
(Film clip): This guy is really fixed for blades. (Laughter)
(Film clip): If I told him once, I told him a thousand times: Julie, don't go!
(Laughter)
(Film clip): Don't upset yourself.
(Film clip): I begged him...