The Man With the Rilly Big Shoe

It was on October 13, 1948 that he debuted at Le Ruban Bleu nightclub in New York City. Not too many months earlier, on June 20, 1948, another man made his debut. And their careers would forever be entwined on March 29, 1953.

That’s when the first man, comedian Will Jordan, appeared for the first time on the Sunday night TV programme of the second man, Ed Sullivan, and did an impression of him.

Jordan, the man’s whose name likely isn’t the first one who comes to mind when you say the word “impressionist,” has passed away, according to his long-time friend and colleague Keith Scott.

Just about everyone can do an impression of Ed Sullivan. Except they’re not. They’re doing Will Jordan’s impression of Ed Sullivan.

Jordan explained this odd phenomenon in a newspaper feature story. This was published October 14, 1978 in the Pittsburgh Courier.

Will Jordan defines mimicry
Charlie Chaplin, himself came in a shaky third in a Chaplin contest staged at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood a number of years ago. Bing Crosby once struck out as ... Bing Crosby, and Al Jolson was actually booed off the stage imitating himself. How could such things happen? Will Jordan, a veteran impressionist, has the answer.
Jordan analyzed the art of mimicry while working as a mimic on the set of Universal's "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," a raucous comedy about Beatle crazy teenagers in New York during the early 1960s. On their first trip to America the Beatles' first stop was for a "live" appearance on the Ed Sullivan TV Show, and the movie's recreation of that event has Jordan cast as the late columnist and impressario. It's a role he has played thousands of times in nightclubs and on television, including 22 on the Sullivan Show itself.

"Some you hear on TV or radio are so perfect that everyone thinks they're the originals," says Jordan. "What happens is this, a good mimic capsulizes his characters, pulling highlights out of what may be an hour-long routine, and boiling them down to maybe even a single short sentence.
"Did Ed Sullivan ever say 'Really-Big Show'? You're wrong. He never said it. I invented it for him when I first imitated him in 1954. Also the famous knuckle cracks, eyes upward roll, and crazy body spins.
"Did LBJ really say 'I come to you with a heavy heart'? Sorry, but David Frye made that line up him. If anyone really wants to check it out, he can listen to Truman's speech at FDR's death, and that's where it was actually said.
"Did Charles Boyer say 'Come wiz me to the Casbah'? No Way. He never left the Casbah. And Cary Grant never said Judy, Judy, Judy... and same for Bette Davis "Peteh, Peteh, Peteh.. it was all made up by people like me.
"Don't tell me you ever heard Bogie say "play it again Sam' or 'Alright Louis, drop the gun.' I know better. He never did."
Jordan claims mimics made up all those lines to get laughs—and to "sell" the imitations. "If they imitated the actors as they really are, there would be no laughs, since the actors are not comedians and the lines written for them are not supposed to funny."
Jordan had two ways to go as Ed Sullivan in "I Wanna Hold Your Hand." He could either give an exact imitation of Old Stoneface, or give a much more entertaining impression. He could be made up to look exactly like Sullivan by the studio makeup artist, or do his own theatrical makeup just for effect.
Director Robert Zemeckis made the decision. In the film, Jordan looks as much like Sullivan as it is humanly possible to contrive and he provides an exact imitation.
"Imagine me, a comedian, imitating the world's straightest man, straight? It was hard to resist putting in at least on 'RRReally big shew,'" quipped Jordan, who then segued into a reflective moment.
"You know, Ed and I hit it off and were good friends. He was a great guy and a wonderful force in journalism and show business. I could never imitate that."

Jordan was performing in public at an early age; but not as an impressionist. He grew up in Flushing, New York where at age nine in 1937, he gave a piano recital (with his older brother Harold) under the direction of his teacher, T. Robin MacLachen. A year later, he performed in a couple of playlets at a Flag Day programme at School 20 (not far from his home on Sanford Avenue). He graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan in March 1946. He changed his professional name from Wilbur Rauch soon afterward.

I can’t tell you when Jordan first came up with the words “a rilly big shoe,” but he was doing his version of Sullivan before making his first appearance on the “Toast of the Town.” He pulled it out about five weeks earlier in March 1953 on the debut of “The Jacqueline Suzann Show” (yes, the same woman who wrote “Valley of the Dolls”) along with his interpretations of Dave Garroway and Morey Amsterdam.

I also can’t tell you when other people glommed onto his impression, but he was beefing about it in 1955 to United Press West Coast entertainment columnist Vernon Scott. He spent the next 60 years seemingly frustrated about it. Here’s what he had to say to United Press’ East Coast entertainment columnist on June 6, 1957.

Sullivan Mimic, Will Jordan, Says Others Steal His Stuff
By WILLIAM EWALD
NEW YORK (UP) — Will Jordan, a comic who was lifted out of obscurity by his knuckle-cracking imitation of Ed Sullivan, today cracked the knuckles of fellow comics Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis and Jack Carter.
Jordan said the trio was guilty of swiping his Sullivan routine and sticking it in their own acts.
"I've turned the other cheek on this thing long enough," said Jordan.
"It's reached the point now where it's affecting my earnings. The Sullivan imitation has been the basis of my act, but it's reached the stage now where I'm booked into a club and then learn somebody else has done my act the week before.
His Real Objection

"What I object to is that Lewis and Davis and Carter aren't really imitating Sullivan at all. What they're doing is imitating me imitating Sullivan. And what gets me even more, is that they're all big stars, big talents, with no need to steal from a comparative unknown like myself."
The 29-year-old Jordan, in the funny business for nine years, began doing his Ed Sullivan impression about four or five years ago. Sullivan likes the routine so much he's had Jordan eight times on his CBS-TV show.
"The routine is not really Sullivan," said Jordan. "It's an extension of Sullivan in the comedy vein—cracking my knuckles with the palms turned out and rolling my eyeballs up and saying—That's beeg, really beeg' and 'Beeg shew.' Sullivan doesn't really do any of those things. They're my inventions.
How It Happened
"Well what happened, I think, is that Jack Carter stole it from me first. I was friendly with Carter once, but he used my friendship to lift the routine. It never occurred to me be was that kind of guy. Then Jerry Lewis lifted it from Carter and Sammy (Davis) from Jerry.
"Carter does it better than the rest, but they all do it poorly. They sell the comedy well, but they just don't look like Sullivan."
Jordan has talked to both Carter and Davis about the problem.
"Carter just ignored me," said Jordan. "And Sammy, you know what he said? — I'll teach you to dance."
“Well, I don’t want to be called a crybaby, but this whole thing is really hitting me in the pocketbook. Carter has played the Perry Como show and done my Ed Sullivan and now, I can’t even get on the Como show, one of the most important bookings in the business.”

Jordan still managed to work but he seems to have been overshadowed by others as the ’60s rolled along. But they all owe a debt to Jordan, who moved past the standard Jimmy Cagney-Cary Grant-Edward G. Robinson impersonations others were doing. He was big. Rilly big.