It really does come in "three's". Earlier in the summer we lost three giants of the music business, Les Paul, Ellie Greenwich and Michael Jackson. And now within a few days, we've lost three more popular entertainers. Patrick Swayze lost his battle with pancreatic cancer on Sept. 14, and yesterday was a one-two punch of a day, with the news of the losses of Henry Gibson on Sept. 14 and Mary Travers on Sept. 16, both also to cancer..
Henry Gibson was best known as one the cast members of the mega-popular 1960's television program, "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In". Gibson most often appeared as the guy holding the giant flower while reciting satirical and politically-themed poems, and as the conservative religious figure who sipped tea at the "cocktail parties" while slipping in barely disguised jabs at the hypocrisy of big religion and
other political institutions. "Laugh-In" was the number one show in the country for two seasons, 1968-69 and 1969-70 and made household names out of performers Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Lily Tomlin, Ruth Buzzi and others. The show was part vaudeville and burlesque and part a humorous take on the political and social events of the day. Most importantly, it took its cues from the comedy of Lenny Bruce, who had radically broken the mold of the safe and sanitized comedy of performers like Bob Hope, who had dominated the comedy landscape for the decades before the '60's. "Laugh-In" and "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" were the first television incarnations of Bruce's "in your face" style of comedy, and these programs paved the way for the brilliant, soon t
o follow "Saturday Night Live 1975-80". (In fact, SNL's producer, Lorne Michaels, was an early writer on "Laugh-In".) And SNL, of course, opened the doors for the more honest and raucous, post-ironic comedy which we enjoy today. So when you're laughing at a film or television comedy in 2009, you can thank Henry Gibson for helping to rip the lid off the staid and stuffed world of pre-1960's entertainment..
(at left: the cast of "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In")
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Gibson went on to many other film and t.v. roles, most notably as the Golden Globe-nominated country singer, Haven Hamilton, in Robert Altman's masterpiece, "Nashville", and most recently as a judge on "Boston Legal".
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Mary Travers was better known as one of the members of the very popular folk singing group of the 1960's, Peter, Paul and Mary. After singing back-up for Pete Seeger while in high school in the 1950's, Greenwhich Village-raised Travers joined Peter Yarrow and Noel "Paul" Stookey to form Peter, Paul and Mary in 1961.
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In 1962, the group's first album included hits "If I Had a Hammer" and "Lemon Tree", the former winning them two Grammy Awards. Their next hit, "Puff, The Magic Dragon" went to #2 on the pop charts and a third album produced the Bob Dylan written mega-hit, "Blowin' in the Wind". The group earned five Grammy Awards and had twelve major
hits in all, one of the last being the John Denver-penned "Leaving on a Jet Plane"..
At one point in 1963, three of Peter, Paul and Mary's albums were in the Top Six Albums on Billboard. "If I Had a Hammer" and "Blowin' in the Wind" also became anthems for racial equality; the group performed both songs at the 1963 March on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
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Peter, Paul and Mary disbanded in 1970, but later got back together and toured for many years. They were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999. We're not sure why Peter, Paul and Mary have yet to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but we're sure their time will come.
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(above photos, l. to r. Peter Yarrow, Travers and Noel "Paul" Stookey)
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(at right: Travers with John Denver)
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