Customer Reviews

This Is a Recording

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All you need to do is look at the cover to this album, which features Lily Tomlin doing what she does best: playing Ernestine, the telephone operator who loves to insult her callers, and that's what you get here. This is a Recording was originally released in 1971 on Polydor (a label I usually associate with music), at the same time when she was still a member of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Recorded live at the Icehouse in Pasadena, this album proves that she can do 40 minutes of Ernestine and do it successfully (where on Laugh-In, Ernestine only appeared two or three times each show, each lasting a couple minutes). Some of my favorites include her calling Joan Crawford in which Ernestine demanded her dime back because the Pepsi machine didn't dispense her pop (Crawford was once head of the Pepsi company, that explains why). Another, of course, is the classic "Mr. Veedle" (which is a mispronunciation of "Vidal", as in Gore Vidal). My favorite line is "When shall we expect payment? What? When what freezes over? Oh, [snort] Mr. Veedle, that is so cute". There's also "The Pope and the Mafia", which totally cracks me up, for Ernestine mistakes a mafia boss for the pope (she says things like, "Do you believe in brotherhood?", "Do you believe in large families?", "Do you drive a large black car?"). And then there's "Peeved" which is Lily Tomlin playing not Ernestine, but herself as an incoherant talker (she often done that on Laugh-In). Some of the material presented on this album might be dated, and of course, there's a lot of references relevant to the time, but might be over the heads of some who hadn't lived through that era, or hadn't studied up on that era. Regardless, I had the time of my life listening to this album, it's hard to believe a 30+ year old record got me laughing so hard (except, perhaps, a Frank Zappa album, but that's another story). This album is all the proof you need to understand how Lily Tomlin became one of the biggest names in comedy. So if you're a Tomlin fan, especially her Ernestine character, this album is a total must.

Lily Tomlin's "This Is a Recording" explores the wacky world of her comic creation Ernestine, the world's most obnoxious telephone operator, who first began counting ringie dingies on the NBC top ranked comedy Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Tomlin's one-woman show was recorded at the famous Ice House in Pasadena (I still have my "Pat Paulsen at the Ice House" album around here someplace) in 1971. Most of the album has Tomlin in character as Ernestine, dealing with problems from an "Obscene Phone Call" to the Pepsi C.E.O. and sometime actress "Joan Crawford." However, there are some moments when Tomlin steps out of character, which I happen to think are the best part of the album which begins with her hysterical biographical background on Ernestine and the impact of the telephone on the operator's life ("Alexander Graham Bell"). If you remember that "This Is a Recording" was originally a record, then you should appreciate that at the end of both sides of the record Tomlin does a couple of wicked takes on dealing with Ma Bell as a poor consumer in "Peeved" and "I.B.M." Of course, most of the time we have Ernestine in her full glory, dealing with not only unfortunate ordinary folks in "Mr. Veedle," "Strike," and "The Bordello," but also more well known types in "The Mafia and the Pope" and the best track on the album where she butts head with J. Edgar Hoover of the "F.B.I." The Fickled Finger of Fate Award goes to Laugh.com for reissuing not only "This Is a Recording," but other great comedy albums from the past (including finally getting the first Smothers Brothers album out). I am much more a fan of Lily Tomlin in general than Ernestine in particular, but what is impressive is how she could take this fairly limited character and make a sustained evening of comic inventiveness out of her.

After all these years, this comedy routine ranks as my all time favorite. Though dated, it easily stands the test of time, with Tomlin at her very best. My personal favorite is her dialogue with "Miss J as in Joan, Joan Crawford". It never fails to get me going. If you like good, old fashioned, non-vulgar comedy, this is a must have item. Tomlin never disappoints.

This is a Lily Tomlin classic. Ernestine the telephone operator from "Laugh In" on her very own album. Hilarious. Lily went on to win Emmy and Tony awards for her brilliant multi-character TV specials and Broadway shows but before all of that was Ernestine. This album won a Grammy for best comedy recording of 1971 and it deserved it. Finally it is on CD. Buy this CD to hear why Lily & Ernestine became an overnight sensation on December 29, 1969 on NBC.
This is humor without using four letter words. It is innuendo perhaps, but not dirty or blue. Ernestine threatens everyone from Joan Crawford to J. Edger Hoover ( "Jedger" ) She eavesdrops, reveals taped conversations, counsels housewives, rigs a pay phone to take a trip to Mexico and snorts. All in a days work if you're omnipotent, "that's potent with an omni in front of it". Find out why and how Ernestine Tomlin was immediately promoted to District Representative. Buy "This Is A Recording" and get hooked on Lily.

It's been a long time since I chortled away listening to Miss Lily Tomlin doing her character Ernestine "Dimes are my bread and butter" the saviour of the Telephone Company.
The highlight of the album would have to be listening to the Queen of the Telephone Company interrupting the Queen Bee of Hollywood Miss Joan Crawford, (Vice President of the Pepsi Cola Company) who is speaking long distance to someone in Paris.
Ernestine has lost her dime in a Pepsi Cola machine and she wants it back - pronto.
One can imagine a startled Crawford asking "Where's Paris ?" as we hear the response from Ernestine "still in France,I think," then snorts.
Bowls me over every time.
It's wonderful to have Ernestine on CD thirty years after vinyl, and each of my work mates were presented with a copy from moi, to celebrate having Ernestine and Vito back in our lives.
(We are, I might add,all receptionist /telephonists ourselves).
Not being American, I did have to remind a few who Mrs Mitchell was - we certainly remember Watergate - Martha the Mouth was reknown back then.
The discussion between Ernestine and the Bordello Madame is hilarious -"nobody has more familar equipment than yours?" - and the rare opportunity to hear Ernestine grovelling "Your Eminence, your Magnificence", when believing she is talking to the Pope (it was a different kind of Godfather).
From standup comedy to Laugh In, hit movies (Nine to Five being one) and more recently,the immortal West Wing, Lily Tomlin has come a long way baby - but I'll always love Ernestine.

Received in a timely fashion, but not received as expected or as I understood the description. The case was cracked and there were finger prints and couple fine scratches on the surface of the C.D. Fortunately, it played okay, so decided not to pursue returning it.

I am very pleased with the DVD.
I had this album on record years ago - but cannot play it anymore.
What is more awesome for me is that it personally signed by Lily Tomlim!

I have loved "This is a recording" since it first came out in the 1970's. Bought the vinyl album and had lost it over the years. I was thrilled to find it in CD version on Amazon. Lily Tomlin as "Ernestine" is hysterically funny and I remember her from when she played the same character on Rowan & Martin's Laugh In. Want a belly-bouncing laugh? Listen to Lily!

I just got done watching Lily Tomlin's debut at the end of the third season of "The West Wing" as a new candidate for replacement of the beloved Mrs. Landingham, President Bartlet's personal secretary. I've been building a DVD collection of that series. But you know, I couldn't help but wish that during that season's run, someone like Saturday Night Live would have "Mrs. Fitterer" saying "one ringy-dingy", etc, in the outer office outside the Oval Office. That would have underlined Tomlin's greatness as a performer, though--when someone plays you on a different comedy show. But as far as I know, it didn't happen.
Anyway, I recall when this album came out that my eventual ex owned it when we were dating, and there was one time on "Laugh In" where Earnestine said; "Half a ringy-dingy (snort) ooh, I love those", obviously in reference to those partial rings when Ma Bell's ring pulse kicks in late in the first ring. My then-girlfriend began answering the phone that way when she was expecting a call from me; "Three-and-a-half ringy-dingies". Only one time it wasn't me, to her embarrassment. It was a prospective employer--she was job hunting at the time.
That's how this album imprinted itself upon society in those days--the percentage of young women who could do a Lily Tomlin impression was probably almost as high as the way their guys learned to play guitar during the previous decade because of the Beatles. So much so that Tomlin's "Little Edith Ann" sketches from "Laugh In" (with Tomlin in this huge rocking chair) kind of got lost in the shuffle. It probably was a real pain to real switchboard operators back then.

I remember hearing this on a vinyl LP when I was too young to be listening to much of it. But even at that young age the thing that tickled me the most about Lily Tomlin's wonderful performance was simply that squeaky, nasal operator voice, at once so familiar and yet also so unique!

Another thing that strikes me about Lily Tomlin's role is that she seems to possess a great deal of knowledge of the telephone operator profession and persona. My only complaint is that I wish the album were more family-friendly. Some of the humor is a little on the PG-13 side of things. However, I realize it's still remarkably tame compared to most of the comedy put out nowadays.