Before Boston's Comedy Boom In The '80s, There Was Bill Dana

For many fans, Boston’s comedy history starts with the boom in the '80s that produced stand-ups like Denis Leary, Steven Wright and Lenny Clarke. But an exhibit at Emerson shows Boston had been producing comedy stars for decades before the boom, including a kid named Bill Dana from Quincy who became a sensation.

The exhibit, "Bill Dana: A Celebration of Life, Love, and Laughter!" is part of Emerson’s American Comedy Archives and traces Dana’s life story. He was 92 when he died in June 2017, and there’s a lot to cover. He’s most widely known for his character, José Jiménez, an everyday guy with a heavy accent of unidentified Latino origin, put in extraordinary situations in “man on the street” interview segments on “The Steve Allen Show.” Jiménez was an instant hit when he debuted in 1959 in a sketch coaching department store Santa Clauses. At the time, no one publicly questioned the idea of a Hungarian Jewish kid from Quincy playing a Latino character — that would come later.

“If you wanted to describe José’s success in the language of today, I would say as soon as he performed it on 'The Steve Allen Show,' José went viral,” says Robert Fleming, executive director of Emerson’s Iwasaki Library and Archives. “The 1959 version of viral was the switchboards at NBC just lit up. He was pretty quickly a national phenomenon.”

What cemented Jiménez’s place in popular culture was a routine called “The Astronaut” that first appeared on Dana’s 1960 album, "José Jiménez — The Astronaut." His co-writer Don Hinkley played the straight man, and Dana was Jiménez, chosen as the first man sent to outer space. Hinkley questions him about the mission and his space suit, asking, “What is that called, a crash helmet?” Dana takes a bit, then warily replies, “Oh, I hope not.”

The bit was so popular, Dana would perform it with Milton Berle at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961. One of the artifacts in the exhibit is a souvenir booklet from the celebration. NASA loved the character, too. The first words spoken to Alan Shepard after Mercury launched on May 5, 1961 by astronaut Deke Slayton from the ground were, “OK, José, you’re on your way!” A couple of years later, Jiménez would be the basis for the sitcom "The Bill Dana Show."

There were unintended consequences to Jiménez’s success. Jenni Matz worked with Dana to produce the American Comedy Archives from 2005 to 2007 and is working on a documentary about his life. She says Dana never lost his love for the character, but didn’t like how some interpreted it. He retired Jiménez in the '70s “when he started hearing that little kids were being teased and being called ‘José’ at school and being beat up,” she says, “and then it was lumped in with a negative portrayal of Latinos, he was crushed.”

When Dana died last year, president and CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, Alex Nogales released a statement commending Dana for his actions and being a friend to the organization. “Dana listened to Latino leadership and learned how fictional misrepresentations of Latinos negatively skew public perspectives,” the statement read. “I’m proud to have called him my friend and I always thanked him for his courage to sacrifice the character that was such a pivotal part of his career in entertainment.”

In another clip from the exhibit, Dana explains his thoughts on ethnic humor. “I have people who come up to me and tell me a dumb joke,” he says. “Some ethnic Polack story or a Mexican story or something like that. And I’ll look at them with disgust. [They] say, ‘What’s the matter? You of all people must like ethnic humor.’ And I say, ‘I adore ethnic humor. My life is based … my performing life, much of it [was] based on ethnic humor. That’s anti-ethnic humor. That’s promulgating hate.’ ”

The story of José Jiménez has a way of overshadowing the rest of Dana’s career and life story, an imbalance the exhibit seeks to correct. You learn Dana, the youngest of six kids in the Szathmary family, used to play hooky to sneak into burlesque houses in Scollay Square to see the comedians. “That’s maybe his first introduction to comedy performance,” says Fleming. He also lied about his age to enlist in the Army, which is what allowed him to afford a higher education. “Guys like Bill, many of them had been through the World War II experience,” says Fleming. “At least at Emerson, we had a wave of men coming to Emerson on the G.I. Bill.”

Once there, he helped to create WERS, the college radio station, along with other students and faculty members. He and his friend Gene Wood developed a comedy team there and started taking the train down to New York City to play an occasional club gig. One sign in the exhibit memorializes the letter form Wood that helped convince Dana to move to New York to try writing for television. “Dear Bill,” it reads, “You know that stuff we did at Emerson? They pay for that!”

Dana started as a page for NBC at 30 Rockefeller Plaza and started writing jokes for people like Don Adams. This is where Dana’s work starts to infiltrate popular culture, things people still quote. Dana came up with Adams popular, “Would you believe…” catchphrase that would later follow him to "Get Smart." That helped earn him a spot on “The Steve Allen Show” as a writer, and eventually head writer. He also scouted for talent. “He brought Don Knotts into the Steve Allen fold,” says Fleming. “He also brought Jim Neighbors in.” Imagine "The Andy Griffith Show" without Knotts and Nabors.

In those early days, Dana was a producer on "The Milton Berle Show," wrote and produced for "The Spike Jones Show," and performed on "The Ed Sullivan Show," "The Imogene Coca Show" and "The Danny Thomas Show." In the '70s, he wrote the “Sammy’s Visit” episode of his old pal Norman Lear’s show "All In the Family," which had Sammy Davis Jr. kissing Archie Bunker’s cheek.

“Norman Lear, him and I had lunch together, he told me it was the best first draft he’d ever seen in his life in comedy,” says another one of Dana’s friends, comedian and former David Letterman booker Eddie Brill.

Later on, he would pop up on "St. Elsewhere," "The Golden Girls" and other popular shows. Bill Dana might not be a marquis show business name, but there is no denying his credentials. “He’s a largely forgotten name, but when you start reminiscing about some of his credits, you realize he’s up there with the [Sid] Caesars and the [Norman] Lears,” says Matz. “Being head writer of "The Steve Allen Show," pre-the whole José Jiménez hoopla. His work on that show stands among the finest with Reiner and Gelbart and all the rest of them.”

Matz thinks his biggest accomplishment might be the American Comedy Archives, of which this exhibit is a part. Dana pushed to create the archives and get interviews with dozens of pivotal figures in comedy history, including Bea Arthur, Phyllis Diller, Hugh Hefner, Dick Gregory and Dick Cavett, on tape talking about the craft.

All of them opened up for the cameras because Dana asked them to. “All I had to do was drop his name,” says Matz. “He maintains a golden reputation among other comedians and basically anyone he’s ever met or done business with. I think that’s super rare.”

"Bill Dana: A Celebration of Life, Love, and Laughter!" is on view Monday through Friday, 1 to 5 p.m., through June 29. The general public can contact Robert Fleming by e-mail at Robert_fleming@emerson.edu to arrange a viewing time.