Happy Birthday, Harry Belafonte
Folksinger-actor-civil rights activist Harry Belafonte celebrates his 83rd birthday today.
We here at Nippertown.com would like to add our own tip of the hat to Belafonte with this clip of “Don’t Stop the Carnival,” which was filmed for a 1968 season opener of “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” but was excised from the broadcast by CBS-TV censors:
Aside from the political content I would imagine the REAL reason the censors dropped this song was due to the sloppy bass playing. The band pretty much falls apart around 3:16 and for a good half minute there’s nothing but instrumental and archival footage. That’s probably when Belafonte was looking back at the studio band in disgust.