When Caesar Was King

How Sid Caesar Reinvented American Comedy

FINALIST FOR THE PEN/JACQUELINE BOGRAD WELD AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHY • FINALIST FOR THE MARFIELD PRIZE • FEATURED ON CBS SUNDAY MORNING • From longtime New York Times and Vanity Fair writer David Margolick comes the first definitive biography of Sid Caesar: founding father of television comedy and icon to generations of Americans.

“Whip smart. . . . A nuanced appreciation of Caesar’s comedy and the overall atmosphere of TV’s early days.” —Esquire

By the spring of 1954, Sid Caesar was the most influential, highly paid, and enigmatic comedian in America. Every week, twenty million people tuned their TVs to his NBC extravaganza, Your Show of Shows, and witnessed his virtuosity in sketches and film spoofs, pantomime and soliloquy. Onstage, Caesar could play any character and make it funny: a befuddled game-show contestant, a pretentious German professor, a beleaguered husband (opposite his redoubtable co-star Imogene Coca)—even a gumball machine and a bottle of seltzer.

To Caesar’s mostly urban audience, his comedy was an era-defining leap forward from the days of vaudeville, launching a new style of humor that was multilayered and full of character, yet still uproarious. To his rivals, Caesar was the man to beat. To his fellow American Jews, his show’s success meant something more: a post-Holocaust symbol of security and a source of great pride. But behind all that Caesar represented was the real Sid. Introverted and volatile, ill at ease in his own skin, he could terrorize his collaborators but reserved his harshest critiques for himself. After barely a decade, he was essentially off the air, beset by exhaustion, addiction, his own impossibly high standards, and changing viewership as television spread to the American heartland. TV’s first true comic creation was also its first spectacular flameout.

But in his wake came the disciples he personally nurtured—including Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, and more. Caesar left an indelible impact on what still makes us laugh. In When Caesar Was King, veteran journalist David Margolick conjures this complexman as never before. Deeply researched, brimming with love for Caesar and the culture from which he sprang, and reanimating a New York City that has all but vanished, this rollicking and poignant book traces the rise and fall of a legend.

This Caesar is the forgotten king of comedy

Sid Caesar may not mean much to those born after the 1980s but his life is still worth a listen. Why? Because he was a American television pioneer who brought a unique approach to broadcasting in its infancy, and his amazing popularity in the 1950s and into the1960s was unique enough that he left a mark which has influenced all the comedy on TV since. While early comics like Jackie Gleason and Milton Berle were popular, what they brought to the small screen was what they had learned in vaudeville - a form of comedy that depended on pies in the face, silly jokes, predictable characters and stuff more for kids than adults. Not Caesar. He came from a tradition closer to literature, the arts, the classics, history, human behavior and a unique way of capturing an audience with sounds, skits, theatrical notions and intelligent humor that even in its day was unique. His first and most important show, "Your Show of Shows," ran for 90 minutes and lasted about eight seasons. He was surrounded by a cast of regular players who could be whatever he imagined for any given show, as smart or stupid as he needed, as crazed or funny as he wanted. They were supported by writers who he trained, who would go to be the top performers, producers, script writers, Broadway stars and comedians - filling the screens in American homes for years after the Caesar shows were history. Carl Reiner brought us "The Dick Van Dyke Show." Mel Brooks gave us movies like"Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein." Woody Allen gave us dozens of wonderful movies like "Annie Hall" and "Crimes and Misdemeanors"and among many others - the list includes creative geniuses like Neil Simon and Larry Gelbart,
Caesar did not write the shows those comic geniuses gave us but all those writers and producers were influenced greatly by what they learned from him, with him and when they lived to make him laugh.
Most of what Sid Caesar did on TV was over by the time he was in his mid-30s, but he was not over. He went on to live about six more decades, doing more shows, movies, night club acts and beyond. Some younger viewers only remember him as the crazy coach in the hit movie "Grease." But he is and was much more, on small and big screens, to the arts and comedy.
Like his life, this book is long. Caesar suffered from alcoholism, he was not an ideal dad, he was not the funny guy away from work that some wanted, and late in life he was more interested in history and culture and classic music than what pop culture offered.
If you love show biz stories, Hollywood lore, TV influences, and great story telling, then this is worth a listen.
Join me. Let us Hail Caesar, and i don't mean that guy from Rome. This guy was a Jew from New York City who really did change the world as he knew it and left us all richer for his time in our lives and cultural history.

Perfect Audio Book

Excellent biography capturing the highs, lows and rivalries of Sid, his co-stars, and murderer's row of writers. Expertly and entertainingly narrated by Rob Shapiro. Just great.

Excellent biography

An excellent biography. I learned so much about Sid Caesar and tv in the 50’s. A very detailed biography and so well written.

Informative Biography of an Early Television Icon

I was born just as Sid Caesar's most productive years on television were ending. I saw him from time to time on TV in the late 1960s and beyond and viewed him as a bit of a has been. Although not charitable, that was probably accurate.

This book explained what Caesar was before I was born--a TV icon and probably TV's first superstar. It is a rather fascinating recreation of an important era that did not last long. And of what television might have been.

The book goes into detail about Sid's many struggles to carry a weekly live television show (usually 90 minutes) for 39 weeks a year (back before a "season" was a handful of scripted taped episodes). Sid had some issues and could be a pain in the neck, only lower. But a talented pain. His struggles continued for many years.

In addition to going in detail into Sid's life, the book chronicles the contributions of Carl Reiner, Imogene Coca, and Howard Morris, along with the many writers, including, among others, Larry Gelbart, Neil Simon, and especially Mel Brooks. Brooks is almost as much a subject of the book as Caesar.

I enjoyed the book and the narration is very good. The book does double back a little too much. It also drones on a bit, in large part because Caesar had a long period of decline after his heyday (which ended in his mid-30s) and before a bit of a renaissance later in life.

Outstanding book

Insights to early TV comedy. Value of Sid Caesar’s past to present day comedy. How it failed because of Lawrence Welk Show.