Hyperbole Never Dies

What's your definition of "Comedy Legend?"

A guy who never got a laugh? Rossi was a nice guy, ok, but he was a straight man. And not a colorful Bud Abbott straight man, either.

Who else is a "comedy legend" by the standards of tabloid headline-writers? Zeppo Marx?

To even say "Part of a Legendary Comedy Team" would be a bit ridiculous.

If you ask anyone under 40, who saw Allen & Rossi on the "Ed Sullivan Show" that The Beatles were on...the response would be: "What the FUCK was THAT?" Not "Oh, what comedy legends."

If you're over 40, and were a kid happily bouncing along to "I Want to Hold My Hand," it's possible you also found Marty Allen's "Hello Dere" schtick funny. But that was Marty, not his straight man. In the early 60'sAllen and Rossi was a variation on the recently split Martin & Lewis: Jewish nutjob and Italian singer. Only not nearly as versatile. Obviously, Steve wasn't much of a vocalist...if you compare his career trajectory to Dean Martin. And Marty...was a one-trick comic. A beloved one, for some, but he just was a pudgy guy with awful hair and bulbous eyes who gave a nasal wisecrack to whatever his straight man said.

Bill Dana (as Jose Jimenez) used Andrew Duncan and others to feed him lines. Listen to those old albums. And yet, it wasn't "the comedy team of Dana and Duncan..." because anybody could be a straight man to Dana. Spike Jones and Steve Allen did it on TV. That "Allen and Rossi" were a team was pretty much just because Martin & Lewis were, and they followed the template of childlike comedian reigned in by straight man who also breaks up the corn by singing forgettable songs.

Why didn't the "Comedy Legend" Mr. Rossi just go solo and tell jokes?

The trajectory of the solo Marty Allen was not exactly Jerry Lewis, either. He turned up on the quiz show "Hollywood Squares," and made a few guest appearances on TV shows and in low budget films. He was ok playing small eccentric roles. It was 1962-1965 when he was fresh and new, and "Allen and Rossi" became famous and popular. (Marty is still alive, in his 90's, and poses for pix with the same demented-glazed expression he's always had).

Rossi actually tried to re-start a comedy career over and over and over. He became straight man to Slappy White (the novelty was a black guy and a white guy) and with Joe E. Ross (the aging, annoying comic with "ooh ooh" for a catch-phrase). Ross could hardly remember his lines. In desperation, Rossi teamed with Allen...Bernie Allen, to create a fake Allen & Rossi. Marty wasn't too amused by this. Sporadically Rossi issued a single and/or appeared as a solo lounge act for God Only Knows who...people on a budget who couldn't get in to see Tony Bennett or Jerry Vale?

Eventually, as a nostalgia act, Allen & Rossi re-united in Vegas for a while.

Is any of this "LEGEND?"

"LEGEND" is nice for Rossi's relatives (that's his wife in the photo, not yet another awful comedian Rossi was attempting to work with as a duo). But it's ridiculous for an objective newspaper article, even an obit, to use such hyperbole.

Too bad the guy's gone...not that he was doing anything amusing. But you kind of wish that somebody who made you laugh long ago, had a long, long life spending his Vegas money. Rossi could've had a few more years than he had, but he probably was a heavy smoker...that's how you tend to get esophogeal cancer.

Steve Rossi the "Legend." What are they going to do when Marty passes on? Proclaim "Death of a Comedy God?"