An evening with Mike Nichols & Elaine May
cover photo by Richard Avedon
photo of LP cover by Styrous®
I woke up this morning to discover that Mike Nichols died yesterday. Although I did not know him personally I was sad to hear of this as he and his partner, Elaine May, were part of my early years of discovery of the world of comedy on vinyl records and I had enjoyed many hours of pleasure listening to their routines.
One of the great cuts from the album is Telephone. This was recorded a decade or so before Lilly Tomlin introduced her world famous character, Ernestine on Saturday Night Live.
Nichols was born Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky on November 6, 1931, in Berlin, Weimar Germany. He was an American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s with the improv troupe, the Compass Players, predecessor of the Second City in Chicago and as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. May was also in the Compass. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate (which starred Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman). His other films include Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, (the ground breaking film which starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton) Catch-22, Carnal Knowledge (the controversial film which starred Jack Nicholson), Silkwood, (which starred Meryl Streep) Working Girl, The Birdcage (which was the American adaptation of the French film, La Cage aux Folles, which starred Robin Williams), Closer, Charlie Wilson's War (his final picture), and the TV mini-series Angels in America. He also staged the original theatrical productions of Barefoot in the Park, Luv, The Odd Couple and Spamalot.
Nichols was 83 when he died.
Side 1:
A1 Telephone 8:07
A2 Adultery 7:50
Side 2:
B1 Disc Jockey 9:02
B2 Mother And Son 6:32
Credits
Directed By – Arthur Penn
Photography – Richard Avedon
Piano – Marty Rubinstein
Mother And Son on YouTube
Adultery on YouTube
Disc Jockey on YouTube
Telephone on YouTube
What a Team!
The entire collection is for sale. Interested? Contact me.
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