Colgate Comedy Hour – 1955
Louis Prima
An early look at the Louis Prima and Keely Smith show
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In 1955, after periods of playing New Orleans jazz, leading a big band, and emphasizing novelties, Louis Prima was ready to really hit the big time.
Here is the trumpeter-singer-entertainer’s first appearance on national television.
He is joined by his wife singer Keely Smith, tenor-saxophonist Sam Butera, and the Witnesses which includes trombonist Little Red Blount.
In a fast-moving show that hints strongly at what they would be serving up in Las Vegas, Prima and his band perform a medley of “Flip, Flop and Fly,” “Robin Hood,” and “Oh Marie,” Prima has a comedy routine with Keely Smith, and the group romps on “The Saints.
-Scott Yanow
Ella Fitzgerald