Cue the Elephant! Backstage Tales at the CBC

Abstract

BY an interesting co-incidence, on taking up Knowlton Nash's Cue the Elephant!, the pages fell open at the story of Norman Jewison's difficulties with General Electric when it objected to his "sexy and impudent" shows and his decision to use writer Reuben Ship, who had been blacklisted in the US as a communist. The CBC should never be at the mercy of sponsors and their hucksters -- as it so frequently has been and still is! Nash's book is what it claims to be: Backstage Tales at the CBC. His previous work, The Microphone Wars (1994) was his history of the Corporation. The new book is about the artists and celebrities, from John Drainie to the Happy Gang and on to The Royal Canadian Air Farce, who brought CBC radio and television to life and became its bright personalities and stars. The younger generation of today will never have...