Question of the Day - 27 January 2024

Fred Sheldon Greenfield, a.k.a. Shecky Greene, was a stand-up comedian known for his nightclub act, mostly in Las Vegas. He was a real old-timer; he died last New Year's Eve at the age 97. 

He started out his career after WW II in Chicago, where he was from, doing stand-up in mob-owned bars and clubs. From there, he was booked at a club in New Orleans, where he headlined for a number of years. That led to gigs in Miami, then Reno, where he was recruited by a Vegas talent scout to open for a show at the Last Frontier in 1954. His act was so successful that he was held over for four months, a record for that showroom. 

In 1957, he performed as a headliner at the Tropicana when it opened, remaining there for five years. 

From there, Greene branched out into television, playing in a number of shows (we remember him from his role as PFC Braddock in the first (1962) season of Combat!), including more than 50 appearances on "The Johnny Carson Show," which he guest-hosted on occasion. Carson was a fan.

Sinatra was not. They had an on-again off-again relationship as Greene poked occasional fun at Frank. At one point, a few of Sinatra's goons started roughing him up and, of course, Greene turned it into a joke. "Frank Sinatra saved my life once,” he regaled audiences. “A bunch of guys were beating on me and Frank said, ‘OK, that’s enough.’” Greene claimed that it was Jay Leno's favorite joke.

He also made some movies, including Mel Brooks' History of the World: Part One, in which he played Marcus Vindictus, and Splash with Tom Hanks and Darryl Hannah (he was the supermarket owner).  

Greene's later years were interrupted by all kinds of obsessive disorders: compulsive gambling, drug and alcohol abuse, depression, stage fright, and bipolar. He once told an interviewer, "I'm more than bipolar. I'm South Polar. I'm North Polar. I'm every kind of polar there is. I even lived with a polar bear for about a year." He also attributed his personal problems, including a "bad attitude," to chronic anxiety he'd faced his whole life. "In Vegas," he said, "I should have been fired a hundred and fifty times. I was fired only a hundred and thirty."

In 1968, in perhaps his most famous misadventure, Shecky drove his Oldsmobile into one of the fountains outside Caesars Palace. With the fountains spraying all over the car, when the cops showed up, he turned on the windshield wipers, rolled down the window, and said, “What, no spray wax?” He didn’t even get a ticket (he admitted he was drunk). Those were the days, ay?

"I wanted to get out of show business so many times," he said. "But when you’re making a hundred grand a week and supporting a dozen bookies and a wife, it’s difficult.”

He retired in the '80s, but made a comeback In the '90s, selling out a theater in L.A. for two nights, appearing on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno, and working regularly up until his late 80s.

Greene's talent was celebrated not only by audiences he entertained for decades, but also fellow comics, for always working without a script. He never wrote down a joke. He never paid for a joke. He wrote all his own material, remembered an act's worth, and delivered it flawlessly. 

He lived in Las Vegas most of his adult life and, according to his wife of 41 years, died here of natural causes. RIP Shecky.