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| CO STAR, The Record Acting Game" was a popular series of 15 LP records released by Co Star records, a subsidiary of Roulette Records, that appeared in the late fifties/early sixties, featuring several legendary actors, several has-been actors, and several younger actors (and singers) performing scenes from plays (Macbeth), novels (Peyton Place) and movies (Casablanca) costarring YOU, ("YOU act scenes opposite your favorite star!") leaving blank spaces between their lines so you can recite YOUR lines. A narrator introduced each record (although Tallulah Bankhead read her own introduction )and 20-24 page mimeographed scripts were enclosed with each record, indicating when to insert your lines to "act" opposite the star. Who needs acting teachers? http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/05/365_days_135_co.html Albert Brooks also did a brilliant parody of the Co Star Records for his comedy album "Comedy-Minus-One": http://www.how2foldsoup.com/index.php/Articles/Albert-Brooks-Comedy-Minus-One-Script.html  Here are all the CO STAR covers: |
a Co Star Script
Very nice! I've never seen these all in one place before. I've got the Slapsy Maxie around here somewhere, and one or two others. Has anyone ever "acted" these scripts and recorded it? It sounds like a project for WFMU.
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff. I didn't know about these. There was also Albert Brooks's version on his 1973 LP "Comedy Minus One", where you read the lines to the other half of the act.
ReplyDeleteLou, yup, Albert was doing a parody of these records!
ReplyDeleteI have six of these albums, and looking forward to finding the other 9. I recently did a scene from "The Importance of being Earnest" from the Vincent Price LP, at a zoom open mike. People who never heard of this were amazed. Thanx, Drew for this as well as your other work, bet your bottom Shemp dollar.
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