This thesis is neither a textbook of pantomime, with instructions for the development of mimetic expertise, nor a history of pantomime. What is recorded here is the personal philosophy of the art of pantomime advanced by Jean-Louis Barrault, Étienne Decroux, Charlie Chaplin, Marcel Marceau, and Red Skelton. The section devoted to each artist contains the portions of his biography pertaining to his development as a mime and a representative sample of critical reactions to his work. In addition to this purpose, this thesis also offers evidence that the comic style of pantomime underwent a change in nature in its use by the mimes who are studied here. Whereas the comic style was original! y unique to pantomimes that had no other intent but to produce laughter or, at most, pathos by physical comedy, these mimes took the comic pantomime into the realms of introspection and philosophy.

An oral history of television comedy from the early 1950s through the mid 1970s as told by the writers Sydney Zelinka, Larry Rhine, Milt Josefsberg, and the team of Seaman Jacobs and Fred S. Fox. The shows they wrote for included "The Honeymooners," "The Phil Silvers Show," "The Red Skelton Hour," Bob Hope specials, "Here's Lucy," "All in the Family," and "Maude." These five writers were working in the earliest days of the medium and spent years writing for the personalities--from performers to producers--who pioneered and defined it. Most of them also wrote scripts during one of broadcast television's greatest periods of transformation, when comedy took a decidedly topical turn that continued to have a significant impact on television comedy in the decades that followed. / text