Wayne and Shuster

Wayne and Shuster were born in the same neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and met in grade school. In 1931, while students at Harbord Collegiate Institute, they performed their first skit together for their Boy Scout troop, and, as part of the school drama club, continued to entertain fellow students. They both studied at the University of Toronto, where they wrote and performed as "Shuster and Wayne". ==Radio==

In 1941, they made their radio debut on CFRB in their own show, The Javex Wife Preservers, for which they were each paid $12.50 per week to dispense household hints in a humorous fashion. The revue travelled across Canada in 1943 to entertain troops and help with the sale of Victory Bonds, and included a stop at the Quebec Conference. In addition to Shuster and Wayne, the cast included the singer Roger Doucet, Brian and Dennis Farnon, Denny Vaughan, and Lois Hooker (who later, as Lois Maxwell, starred as Miss Moneypenny in fourteen James Bond films). An advertising executive suggested that "Wayne & Shuster" sounded better than "Shuster & Wayne". Since the order of their names wasn't important to the two, they agreed to the change. (Alex Barris later recalled that they had a CBC office with two doors — one read "Wayne & Shuster", the other was "Shuster & Wayne".) Their popularity rapidly grew and CBC changed the name of their radio programme to The Wayne & Shuster Show. By 1950, their Canadian weekly audience numbered 3 million. They also began to make a name for themselves in the U.S. when they were hired to make a radio network series to replace William Bendix's The Life of Riley while it was on summer hiatus in 1947. ==Television==

Wayne & Shuster first appeared on television in 1950, but not in Canada, which did not have network TV until 1952. Their radio sponsor, Toni Home Permanent, also sponsored an American television show, Toni Twin Time, hosted by Jack Lemmon. their first sketch was a 14-minute re-run of the sketch they had done for CBC and British television, "Rinse the Blood Off My Toga". and co-starred in a CBS-TV sitcom, Holiday Lodge, which aired as a summer replacement for (and was produced by) Jack Benny in 1961. In 1964, Wayne & Shuster created a series of six short documentaries for CBC Television (later presented on CBS during the 1966 summer season) about comedians such as W. C. Fields and the Marx Brothers, with music scored by John Williams, titled Wayne & Shuster Take an Affectionate Look at.... They made another six episodes the following year. In 1965 The Wayne & Shuster Hour won the Silver Rose at the Rose d'Or Television Festival. In 1962 and again in 1965, the pair went to Britain and produced Wayne & Shuster specials for the BBC. In the 1960s, they moved from a weekly television show to monthly Wayne & Shuster comedy specials on CBC Television. By the 1970s, they were producing three to four comedy specials per year, which often drew Canadian television ratings of more than two million viewers. Wayne and Shuster's skits often employed large casts of characters, and supporting players included Canadian actors Don Cullen, Jack Duffy, Tom Harvey, Bill Kemp, Paul Kligman, Ben Lennick, Sylvia Lennick, Pegi Loder, Les Rubie, Eric Christmas, Joe Austin, Larry Mann, Paul Soles, Marilyn Stuart, Roy Wordsworth, John Davies, Carol Robinson, Lou Pitoscia, Peggy Mahon, Don Ewer, Howard Swinson and Keith Hampshire. For many years, their music director was Canadian jazz artist Norman Amadio. Wayne and Shuster were infamous for their vociferous arguments during scriptwriting sessions, television production and editing sessions. Wayne especially was particularly exacting during production and often took the studio crew to task for perceived faults. The technicians often responded by refusing to work overtime at the end of the day. During one sketch, some crew members were instructed to throw fruit and vegetables at both of the comedians from off-camera. Instead, the crew only hurled fruit at Wayne. One floor director remembered Wayne as "two people. On the [studio] floor he was a son of a bitch, but outside he was one of the nicest guys you could meet." Despite their temperamental reputation in the studio, both were friendly, thoughtful and welcoming outside of work. Because of their combative natures in the studio, the two agreed early on to not mix socially. Shortly after their CBC radio show became popular, Wayne told Shuster that he was organizing a party, but that he wasn't going to invite his partner "because we're always together and we'll start in about the business. So, to hell with that." Shuster agreed, and from that point on, they led completely separate lives away from work, with different interests and hobbies. ==Later career==

By the late 1970s, critics were calling their comedy irrelevant and out of date, but their Canadian TV ratings remained strong. In 1980, CBC re-packaged their material into 80 half-hour specials that were syndicated worldwide. The pair continued to produce comedy specials until Wayne's death from cancer in 1990. After Wayne's death, Shuster went back into the editing suite and from almost 40 years of their television shows, produced a retrospective series of twenty-two shows, which he also hosted. In 1999, three years before his death, he hosted a one-hour compendium of their work, "Wayne & Shuster: The First Hundred Years". == Awards ==

• After Wayne's death in 1990, the duo received a special Gemini Award for their outstanding contribution to Canadian television. • In 1996, Shuster accepted the Margaret Collier Award for the duo's comedy writing • In 1996, Shuster was named an officer of the Order of Canada. • In 1999, Wayne and Shuster were inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. • In 2012, the duo were recognized with a Heritage Toronto plaque at their old high school, Harbord Collegiate Institute. • In 2019, a lane in the Bathurst/Harbord area where they grew up was named Wayne and Shuster Lane. ==Other media==

In 2000, Australian music group The Avalanches created a track called "Frontier Psychiatrist", which was built on various samples of previously recorded material, most noticeably the Wayne & Shuster sketch "Frontier Psychiatrist". (Audio clips of two other Wayne and Shuster sketches were also used in creating the track, along with samples of dozens of pieces of music.) Johnny Wayne vocalizes the song's repeated refrain "that boy needs therapy"; both Wayne and Frank Shuster are the featured voices throughout verses one and two. ==References==