Woody Woodbury wants to correct a previous report that he said his agent was crazy to move him up here in 1956, from popular spot The Clover Club in Miami to a town that had “a little Italian restaurant and a Texaco station.”
After all, for nine years in Miami, Woodbury was doing two shows a week and three on Saturdays at a venue which “was like Mocambo’s or Ciro’s in Los Angeles.” Stars like Patti Page and Spike Jones and “all the greats of yesteryear” appeared there.
Regarding that Fort Lauderdale description, Woodbury, now 99, says: “I’ll tell you I said it more as a joke, because when I got here, opening night at The Bahama Hotel on AIA was packed with people. I couldn’t believe it.
“I come to find out these were local people who used to drive down to Miami to 118 Biscayne Blvd. to see the show. It was unbelievable, but that’s exactly what happened.”
He went onstage that night in 1956 – the same night, he says, that across town a new place called the Mai-Kai was opening – and he ended up playing the club for six years. “I didn’t realize it at the time but Fort Lauderdale turned out to be heaven,” Woodbury says. “I loved to go work; every night was two shows and three shows on Friday and Saturday.”
Sports stars such as New York Yankees Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, plus film greats like Cary Grant and Susan Hayward took in his show. “They loved to get down here in the winter,” he says. (The Yankees then had spring training here.) He soon built a home in Wilton Manors for his wife, Sue, and two children, and parked his 1944 Cadillac convertible there.
Born in St. Paul, Minn., Woodbury was a U.S. Marine Corps flight instructor in World War II before he got into showbiz. And when Uncle Sam called on him again for Marine fighter pilot duties in the Korean War, he went. “When you get a call,” he says, “well, it’s your country.”
By the time he was settling in South Florida, he was also making a name for himself nationally.
He recorded a series of comedy albums, the first of which went gold. He replaced Johnny Carson for a time to host a popular game show, Who Do You Trust?, in 1962. And when Jack Paar left The Tonight Show, Woody was a candidate alongside Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin for the job. When his friend Carson got it, he was fine with it.
He had parts in several films, including Where the Boys Are. His film roles came in movies with stars such as Fred MacMurray, Ernest Borgnine and Jerry Lewis.
He performed at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, toured nationally and performed in charity golf tournaments with Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason. He even had his own TV show.
His style of humor could be racy but never raunchy. “Smut and body parts” were not my style, he says. And following Bob Hope’s advice, he never got into politics: “You lose half your crowd that way.”
A typical Woodbury joke: “What is home without Mother? A good place to bring girls.”
The comic would involve the audience and have laughs at the expense of his friends. A good friend who often attended his shows with his wife was an easy target. The friend had married a woman 20 years younger.
Calling out his friend and his bride, Woody said, “I’m not saying there’s an age difference, but after their wedding night he picked her up and burped her.”
The friend and the audience cracked up.
Next month: Fort Lauderdale’s 4 O’Clock Club and more jokes and lore from Woody Woodbury.
