Monday, May 4, 2009

When apes groove



Man, these guys were awesome. Think there's any hope of a reunion tour?

2 comments:

susan said...

The Nairobi Trio: three gorillas (wearing derby hats and long overcoats) mechanically miming to the music like wind-up toys. In the middle sat the "head gorilla," always played by Kovacs (with a cigar, of course), conducting with a baton or (sometimes) a banana. To the viewer's left another gorilla stood, holding two oversized timpani mallets. (The identity of this ape varied, but among Kovacs' celebrity friends both Jack Lemmon and Frank Sinatra are known to have performed in the skit.) And seated at screen right at a piano was a female simian (often Kovacs' wife, Edie Adams), robotically thumping up and down on the keys.
(thank God for wiki when the memory starts to shred)

I knew one of them had been Sinatra but not about Jack Lemmon. All things considered a reunion in this space-time continuum is unlikely but I'm sure they're still playing somewhere.

Ben said...

I remember seeing Jack Lemmon being interviewed in a documentary about Kovacs, so I knew he had played with them. I didn't know about Ol' Blue Eyes. Guess that's one way to get over Ava Gardner.

Ah, some space-time continuum, somewhere.:)