Alan Safier has a way of getting under George Burns’ skin.
“George Burns’ main thrust was to please an audience,” Safier said. “When I get inside his skin, I love to please an audience. The difference is I don’t have to win over the audience, because George Burns has already done that.”
Safier has been playing Burns for nearly a decade in the play “Say Goodnight Gracie.” It is a retrospective of the late comedian’s life and career, including his marriage to famed partner, Gracie Allen.
George Burns’ show business career lasted almost 90 years. He starred in vaudeville, radio, television and movies. He died at 100 in 1996.
“Say Goodnight Gracie” will be presented Monday, Sept. 12, at 5 and 8 p.m. in the Savannah Center. Money raised from the event will help the Orange Blossom Gardens Lions Club.
“We thought this was a good way to entertain people and raise money for our work,” said Judy Kohn, of the club. She said the club donated about $94,000 to various local charities last year.
The club is teaming up with Get Off The Bus Concerts, which is promoting the show. “We want to work with local charities and we’ll do what we can to help them,” said Joe Bamford of Get Off The Bus Concerts.
“Say Goodnight Gracie” will generate some laughs and tears, in addition to helping the Lions Club.
“This is the story of a human being’s life,” Safier said. “There are funny parts and sad parts.”
Burns started out in vaudeville as a song and dance man. Then he met Gracie Allen and, originally, he was the funny guy while she played straight.
“But Gracie kept getting the laughs,” Safier said. So they switched roles and soon became one of the hottest acts in the business.
“One night he told her: ‘Gracie, I think you’re the funny one.’ George basically invented a character,” Safier said. That character was what might be described as an attractive, charming and somewhat daffy wife who had a way of tangling words and actions to delight an audience.
The couple switched to radio and success continued. Then, in 1950, before “I Love Lucy,” George Burns and Gracie Allen tackled the new medium of television.
“The Burns and Allen Show,” was a unique sitcom. George and Gracie basically played themselves. George embraced television and would actually look in the camera and talk to the audience during the show. “George was very creative and willing to try something new,” Safier said. “Gracie was very much underrated as an actress. She had a lot of talent.”
Here is a video from the show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDCjhLOaNZI
Gracie suffered a heart attack in the late 1950s and they stopped doing the show. George Burns played clubs and would often appear with this old friend Jack Benny on television. He worked with different partners, but never reached his previous success.
Gracie Allen died in 1964.
“George never got over Gracie’s death,” Safier said. “He would often visit Gracie’s graveside. It was a difficult time for him.”
Then in the mid-1970s, Jack Benny was scheduled to appear with Walter Matthau in “The Sunshine Boys,” a movie about a couple of quarreling vaudeville partners making a comeback.
Benny died before the film, and Burns took his place.
“By then, George was practically forgotten,” Safier said. But the film was a smash and old George Burns, pushing 80, won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Once again, incredibly, Burns’ career was booming. He made a series of successful movies, including a series of “Oh God,” films with John Denver.
He took his success in his 80s and 90s in stride.
“In my youth, they called me a rebel,” Burns once said. “When I was middle aged, they called me eccentric. Now that I’m old, I’m doing the same thing I’ve always done and they’re calling me senile.”
Burns became a headliner in Vegas. He died in 1996.
“I love playing George Burns,” Safier said. “I’m not an impressionist, I’m an actor. Actors create characters. I’m playing a character that really existed.”
The play features movie and TV clips, radio shows, and pictures. The pre-recorded voice of actress Didi Conn is used in the Tony-nominated Broadway play, written by Rupert Holmes.
But it’s George Burns who makes it come to life, with a little help from Alan Safier.
