Arai Chu

[Aaron Gerow]

The papers all reported in big stories that Arai Chu, the elder stateman 
of the Drifters comedy team, died yesterday at the age of 71 of liver 
failure. Arai joined the musical/comedy group in 1964 and appeared with 
them in dozens of movies (many of which SHV is putting out on tape) 
before the Drifters moved to television with "8-ji da yo! Zen'in shugo" 
in 1969, a live comedy variety show that ruled the ratings war for a time 
with regular 40+ ratings (it ran until 1985).  Arai himself created many 
"ryukogo" such as "Nanda! Bakayaro" and "Disu izu a pen", but left the 
strenuous show in 1974 and was replaced by Shimura Ken.  He appeared in 
films and on TV afterwards.  On a personal side, he was my wife's 
favorite comedian.

Aaron Gerow
Yokohama National University
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