Eddie Lawrence - The Old Philosopher

The Old Philosopher

In September 1956, a single entitled "The Old Philosopher" rose to the Billboard Top 40 chart, a rare distinction for a comedy record by a little-known performer. It turned out to be a one-hit wonder for Eddie Lawrence, but nonetheless paved the way for his long comedy career. In a four-minute routine, a crotchety, ridiculous-sounding character recounts a litany of nonsensical calamities. Speaking in a comically downtrodden, empathetic voice, and accompanied by a flute rendition of "Love's Old Sweet Song," he begins, "Hey there, friend" — or "cousin" or "bunkie" or "pal" — "You say you lost your job today ...", followed by a litany of improbable disasters like "Your daughter's goin' out with a convict?" and "Your wife just confessed she spent your last 60 bucks for a deposit on an airplane hangar?" Pause as the flute retires. Eddie asks plaintively, "Is that what's troubling you, friend?" Suddenly cymbals crash and a brassy rendition of "National Emblem" plays as Eddie declaims in full voice, "L-L-L-Lift your head up high and take a walk in the sun with that dignity and stick-to-it-iveness and you'll show the world, you'll show them where to get off, you'll never give up, never give up, never give up" — — "that ship!" Those sentiments are followed by a recitation of another round of silly misfortunes and foolish optimism, then another rallying cry, and then still another round.

The success of the single made Eddie Lawrence a minor celebrity and helped the sales of his two previously-released LPs. The initial one, The Garden of Eddie Lawrence (Signature SM 1003) did not make much of an impact on its original release in early 1955. It contained three comic interviews with personalities introduced as "Kiddie Star", "Wolfgang Birdwatcher" and "Fleming of the Yard", a set of brief blackout gags, a long, whimsically strange routine about plucking chickens, and three monologues delivered by the as-yet-unnamed, Old Philosopher-like character. The second LP, released in mid-1956, finally gave him the name of the title — The Old Philosopher (Coral 57103). It was the first of Lawrence's five LPs for Coral Records and proved so successful that the company realized the profitability of issuance of the title routine as a single ("King Arthur's Mines," another track from the LP was on the flip side). Years later, the original "Old Philosopher" routine would be included on the compilation record, 25 Years of Recorded Comedy (Warner Bros. Records 3BX 3131)

With this achievement under his belt, Eddie Lawrence was already busy writing the routines for a follow-up album, while rehearsing for his first full-fledged Broadway show. Bells Are Ringing, a new musical by Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, opened at the Shubert Theatre on November 29, 1956 with Judy Holliday in the lead and, in the supporting cast for most of its run, Eddie Lawrence as Sandor, with the role preserved for posterity on the original cast album (Columbia OL 5170). Closing night, more than two years and 924 performances later, was March 7, 1959.

The second Coral LP, The Side-Splitting Personality of Eddie Lawrence (CRL 57371) came out in 1957. It contained only one "Old Philosopher" track, but the other routines were the usual bizarre mix that pleased his fans. Especially deft were the parodies of The Untouchables ("The Unbreakables") and Casablanca ("Play the Music, Sol"), with an inspired impression of Peter Lorre. At least two of the tracks, "Panhandling on Madison Avenue" and "Foreign Movies" have the background laughter and applause indicative of performances recorded in front of a live audience.

On March 5, 1958 he made a rare television acting appearance in an episode of Sergeant Bilko playing an artist named Felix, a next door neighbor to a character played by Alan Alda.

There were two "Old Philosopher" tracks on The Kingdom of Eddie Lawrence (Coral 57203), his next LP, which came out just before Christmas. Taking note of the season, one of the other tracks, "That Holiday Spirit" was a bizarre routine with a character whom listeners may judge to be a combination of "The Old Philosopher" and Ebenezer Scrooge, denouncing Christmas and various other holidays, including Halloween, while an annoyed, Wally Cox-like, voice is heard piping up occasionally with "... will you shut up?". The album cover depicts Eddie sitting in a throne-like chair, wearing what appears to be a white bathrobe and a Prince Valiant wig held by a metallic ring shaped like the base of a crown, while gazing sideways with an exasperatedly worried expression on his face.

1959 saw the release of Eddie the Old Philosopher (Coral 57155) which contained four "Old Philosopher" routines as well as "Memories of Louise" in which a sentimental Eddie remembers his boyhood love — " ... who could predict then that from a little fibber you'd grow into a dangerous paranoid liar? ... ah, the way you used to stick your finger in my eye ... ". Another well-remembered routine, "Television Highlights" was a series of parodies which sent up popular television commercials of the era.

1987-1992 saw the return of his role on Square One TV. His format remains the same except the fact that his litenary talks about math. Whenever he says "Well lift your head up high!" something will fall on him .