Cue card

History

Cue cards were originally used to aid aging actors. One early use was by John Barrymore in the late 1930s.

Cue cards did not become widespread until 1949 when Barney McNulty, a CBS page and former military pilot, was asked to write ailing actor Ed Wynn's script lines on large sheets of paper to help him remember his script. McNulty volunteered for this duty because his training as a pilot taught him to write very quickly and clearly. McNulty soon saw the necessity of this concept and formed the company "Ad-Libs". McNulty continued to be Bob Hope's personal cue card man until he stopped performing. McNulty, who died in 2000 at the age of 77, was known in Hollywood as the "Cue-Card King".

Marlon Brando was also a frequent user of cue cards, feeling that this helped bring realism and spontaneity to his performances, instead of giving the impression that he was merely reciting a writer's speech. During production of the film Last Tango in Paris, he had cue cards posted about the set, although director Bernardo Bertolucci declined his request to have lines written on actress Maria Schneider's rear end. Tony Mendez became a minor celebrity for his cue card work on the Late Show with David Letterman.[[File:Cue Cards (14163208133).jpg|thumb|A cue card being prepared with simple one-word prompts]]

Cue cards in video art

Occasionally, cue cards are incorporated into music videos as an artistic element themselves, as, for example, by Bob Dylan in his 1965 song "Subterranean Homesick Blues", by the Australian band INXS in their 1987 song "Mediate", by "Weird Al" Yankovic in his 2003 song "Bob" or by the German band Wir sind Helden in their 2005 song "{{ill|Nur ein Wort|de}}" (Just one word).

References

References

1. Bognár, Desi K.. (2000). "The International Dictionary of Broadcasting and Film". Focal Press.
2. (May 2, 2011). "Team Coco Podcast #25: Cue Card Master Steve Burm!". Conan (talk show).
3. Goldberg, Orith. (December 20, 2000). "Barney Mcnulty, 77, Cue Card Creator, Dies". [[Los Angeles Daily News.
4. (26 December 2000). "Barney McNulty Dies at 77; First to Use TV Cue Cards". The New York Times.
5. (1994). "Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me". Random House.
6. (2013). "The Films of John G. Avildsen: Rocky, The Karate Kid and Other Underdogs". McFarland.
7. Rawlings, Nate. (March 14, 2012). "40 Things You Didn't Know About ''The Godfather'': Brando and the Cue Cards".
8. (July 1981). "Dossier: Marlon Brando".
9. "Letterman's Letter Man {{!}} The New Yorker".
10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr-Vfnd7Yno [[INXS]] (1987) "Mediate"
11. Nur ein Wort. de