Much has been made about how Hollywood had steadfastly avoided casting an Asian-American to play Charlie Chan in the movies, although Keye Luke, who played #1 son Lee opposite Warner Oland, later broke the barrier with the animated Amazing Chan & The Chan Clan series.
Asian-Americans weren't the only minority being disrespected by Hollywood. Far from it.
For Cy Howard's Life With Luigi, a 1948 series about an Italian immigrant, the producers cast Irish-American J. Carroll Naish, a 2-time Oscar nominee, in the title role, with Alan Reed (Duffy's Tavern) as Luigi's bestie, Pasquale. Howard, who'd scored a hit with My Friend Irma (adapted into a feature film with Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis), got five years out of Luigi (1948-53) on CBS Radio.
CBS, flush with success, tried to duplicate it with a TV version in 1952 with the same cast. However, there's a big difference between radio & television when it comes to portraying characters like Luigi. Italian-Americans raised a fuss over the show, which was cancelled, and later retooled with Vito Scotti replacing Naish. It bombed on video a second time.
Meanwhile, check out "Luigi Needs a Driver's License", and you can probably figure Italian-Americans had a problem with the radio show, too, and its depiction of Luigi.......
No different than your average radio comedy.
Rating: B.
4 comments:
My family is Sicilian and from what my Dad told me, he and his family (and Italian friends from the neighborhood) like the Luigis just fine - at least when it was on the radio. In fact, a few years ago, we were listening to a tape of one of the shows, and Dad was laughing up a storm. He didn't remember any protests about the show.
The protests were in regards to the television version, which I should've been clearer on.
The world is a mess. You would think in 2022 things would be less chaotic. In search of diversion I was looking for old time radio shows about robots and tripped over "Life with Luigi ". I listened and listened and have not stopped laughing. I was born in Canada but my parents were immigrants from Malta. I find the show charming and never, ever insulting. On the contrary it highlighted the fact that our respective countries was built , in part by immigrants. It starred J Carrol Nash. He has been in so many films that I recognized him. He starred in a short " Star in the Night ". It was a wonderful Christmas story that TCM broadcast this year. I felt for his part of Daniel in " The House of Frankenstein ". Alan Reed also starred in the radio series and to me he will always be Fred Flintstone!! So if you want to laugh, listen to this cute, funny show!!!
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