About the Book: When Caesar Was King: How Sid Caesar Reinvented American Comedy
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 versatility and
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 expert, a beleaguered husband (opposite his redoubtable co-star
Imogene Coca), even a gumball machine and a bottle of seltzer.
To his mostly urban audience, Caesars comedy was an