Notes About The Poem

Let Me Entertain You

vaudeville stepped off the stage
and leapt into the living room
with hot topic-tuned antenna views

shy ventriloquists turned from radio
to television with a vision to be seen

juggling with eye-catching
candle-, duck-, and ten-, pins
off the bowler skids in aerial suspension

abracadabra handlers saw their guests -
half of them enjoyed their shows

hats and canes spinning, shoes tapping
all the old variety - hosts rolling eyes

acrobats rose above them all -
the fall guys, the masters of the skies

Marx, Burns, Allen, Fields, Benny
broke their audience records

showcase of holidays and war
in time with comedy and lyrics

The good old daze
replaced by supersonic, telephonic-cell
(the farmer in the dell throws down his pitchfork
to watch)
to hock back the latest, greatest craze
of series, not to purge, but to binge

staying carefully away from Burnett, Sonny and Cher,
Donny and Marie, and Ed.

drooping eyes spring glasses,
a glass of red or white…

elsewhere, the hypothalamus of the kids,
impacted by Squiddy, Stampy and CaptainSparklez

5/25/2023
Copyright © | Year Posted 2023


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Date: 5/26/2023 1:52:00 AM
Wow! That was entertainment.
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Kim Rodrigues
Date: 5/26/2023 2:37:00 AM
Thank you, Victor!
Date: 5/26/2023 12:06:00 AM
what a wonderful stroll down memory lane Kim, entertainment ... it sure isn;t the same these days:-) hugs jan xx
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Kim Rodrigues
Date: 5/26/2023 2:37:00 AM
Thank you, my friend! xx
Date: 5/25/2023 3:57:00 PM
Wonderful trip down memory lane, Kim. Very informative write, my friend. These times, they're a changing! A great loss to entertainment and society. Thanks for sharing! Bill
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Kim Rodrigues
Date: 5/25/2023 8:07:00 PM
It’s been a whole different world. My 8 year old grandson has always been able to choose what to watch…not like us. Binge watching, not in our early days!
Date: 5/25/2023 2:02:00 PM
All those you mentioned all grew up hardscrabble -- scratching for pennies; fending off Jew-haters, trying to put their immigrant roots behind them... Tough customers, they all were in vaudeville. Didn't grow up soft, like I did. That's for sure!... Interesting ink, Kim.
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Rodrigues Avatar
Kim Rodrigues
Date: 5/25/2023 2:17:00 PM
Thank you, Gershon! It was fun taking a stroll down memory lane! I saw Sonny and Cher when I was a kid. I was beyond excited!
Date: 5/25/2023 9:07:00 AM
Originality flashes in this one and great imagery. I was young and. We danced tto live bands and even full live orchestras. When I was a debutante at 16, live orchestra, ball gowns…the Viennese waltz, lovely. I don’t understand the loss of beauty, Kim. Music theatres in Chicago played organ music and fad stage shoews before the movie! Times have changed. Pangie
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Panagiota Romios
Date: 5/25/2023 11:40:00 AM
What a lovely compliment, Kim. I grew up in more civilized times.I have been blessed. Attention, the New York Post has many pictures and articles and some You Tubes on Tina Turner today. .. Stay sweet, Pangie
Rodrigues Avatar
Kim Rodrigues
Date: 5/25/2023 9:39:00 AM
When I’ve gone to the Fox theater and also in Arizona, they had an organ player…so fun to be entertained with good old-fashioned flair! I know you were something special!
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