Unlike just about every other performer in existence, there really isn't much out there on the Web about this guy--Stan Ross. What little info I can find indicates he was still alive as of just a few years back. Looking, as I've written elsewhere, like Buster Keaton's demented brother, Ross was in show business for at least 2 and a half decades, appearing on TV opposite Jack Haley, Jackie Gleason (below from 1951) and Jonathan Winters, always looking pretty much the same and usually doing his effeminate "I'm with YOU!" catchphrase.
He appeared in minor character actor bits in major films of the 1970s including WHAT'S UP DOC? with Barbra Streisand and (below) BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS.
Someone got the bright idea to give him his chance in a full-length feature during the 1970s as well...a porn one in fact! In THE SEXPERT, most of the "action" is softcore but for an insert section. Stan mainly does his darndest at a silent comedy bit around the otherwise softcore sex scenes. 1950s TV actor and voiceover performer Marvin Miller also appears along with future soap star Jamie Lynn Bauer!
Needless to say, neither fish nor fowl, the picture was doomed to obscurity, as was Stan's career. To add insult to injury, many of his appearances are confused online with those of later writer/actor Stanley Ralph Ross (no relation).
The one time I can remember seeing Stan was on a Jackie Gleason show from Miami Beach in the 60's. He had his back to the camera and the voiceover said something about a Miss America contestant (or one of the beauty pageants), and just as the voiceover finished, Stan turned around with that bug eyed look and a silly smile...I thought I was going to die laughing.
ReplyDeleteI've thought about guy and his "I'm with you" catchphrase for decades, wondering who he was. He was omnipresent in 1960s and 1970s sketch and variety comedy shows. Thanks for posting that, now I can put a name to the face (and yes, he does look exactly like Buster Keaton's demented cousin!). I remember all those odd characters like Pat Paulsen and Professor Irwin Corey who used to pop up on those shows.
ReplyDeleteI also used to wonder about an odd singing duet that appeared on a lot of the same type of shows - a rather nerdy looking guy with big glasses and a more arch fellow with a goatee who appeared in antique formal wear and sang songs from the 1920s and 1930s, with odd choreography. They appeared often on the Smothers Brothers' show and on the talk shows that I watched all the time as a kid - Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, and Mike Douglas, but I could never recall their name. Someone finally jogged my memory and I remembered their name - The Times Square Two (Michael Choquette and Peter Elbling)! There is a clip of one of their routines on YouTube, and Peter Elbling went on to become one of the Juicy Fruits in "Phantom of the Paradise" (He does the lead vocal on the Kiss-esque song introducing Beef.) He has a website here: http://www.peterelbling.com/performer.html
Michel Choquette wrote for NATIONAL LAMPOON, too, and was back in the public eye as recently as 2011 with publication of a book he had started 4 decades earlier--http://www.amazon.com/The-Someday-Funnies-Michel-Choquette/dp/0810996189
ReplyDeleteJust looked up this guy and finally found his name today, Stan Ross. Times Square Two I finally found about a year ago.
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