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| designed by Lawrence Ratzkin |
In 1967, my dad Bruce Jay Friedman's play SCUBA DUBA, (A Tense Comedy), opened to rave reviews at the Off-Broadway New Theatre on E. 54th St, and became a huge hit. It was inevitable that the show would spawn a softball team that would play in the then popular "Broadway Show League" on Thursdays in Central Park, two games per field, popularized by then Mayor Lindsay.
On my The MAD Show blog, I posted a photo of "The MAD Show" team of 1967, (The MAD show had been the previous tenant at the "New" New Theatre), featuring among others, Woody Allen, George C. Scott and Jason Robards. There were no future superstars on the "Scuba Duba" team of 1968, but it still featured some interesting players:
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| Scuba Duba team photo (click to enlarge) |
Top row, L to R: Alan Wolfson (IBM engineer), author George Plimpton, New York Yankees president Michael Burke (CBS then owned the Yankees), MAD show writer Stan Hart, The show's star Jerry Orbach, author Bruce Jay Friedman, unknown, Bernard (Buzz) Farber. Kneeling, LtoR: Harry Ufland (William Morris agent, Hollywood producer), Jay Rosenblatt (publisher of Showbill), Bobby Kampf (NJ real estate mogul), Artie Kaplow, unknown. Front: The MAD Show and Scuba Duba general manager Michael Brandman, now an independent film producer and author.
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| Opening night ticket Learn more about "Scuba Duba" on my brother Josh's blog about the show: http://newtextureblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/josh-alan-friedmans-scuba-duba-man.html |
Quite the All Star team! Cool! I can also imagine an earlier team made up of editors, writers and artists who your father worked with at Magazine Management, back when he edited men's adventure magazines for Martin Goodman. Some of the team members who would have played with your father on that team would have included Goodman, Mario Puzo, Noah Sarlat, Mel Blum, James Bama, Mort Kunstler and Walter Kaylin. Best regards from your fan (and a fan of your dad's and Josh Alan's)...
ReplyDelete- Bob Deis
www.MensPulpMags.com
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ReplyDeleteBob, Then you'll be sure to enjoy BJF's upcoming memoir "Lucky Bruce", coming out this fall.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to reading both "Lucky Bruce" and "Scuba Duba."
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to reading LUCKY BRUCE, too, and already put in my preorder on Amazon.com.
ReplyDeleteDrew, Check this out. Your Dad, Jimmy Olsen, and Jack Kirby the Scuba Dubba/ Flippa Dippa connection.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.armagideon-time.com/?p=6142
My dad Bobby Kampf would bring us kids to all the games in Central Park. So many wonderful memories. ❤️
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