Poor quality or not, this chunk of film is precious to me. I saw this program when it originally aired, and never forgot it. Mr. Astaire and Mr. Levant were my childhood idols (I was an odd child), and seeing them together, in such a casual situation, was thrilling. Thank you for posting it.
moloch49, you are so right. I loved Oscar Levant from about the age of 5 - he and Gene Autry were my heros - Soupy Sales too. Ahhh..... the good old days. I may be 60 now and considered by today's kids to be out of touch, etc., etc., but to trade these guys for Lady Gaga and her ilk? Naaaahhhh..... Shalom. May those of blessed memory always be with us.
There was a legendary incident when Levant stormed off of the set because his wife read a letter on the air from a viewer complimenting her on her ability to host the show alone when Oscar was ill and unable to appear. The little speech at the beginning of the show sounded like a reference to that incident. Was it?
Thanks a million for this. I am enamored of this complicated, impossibly neurotic, charming, brilliant, extraordinary man. And to see him with the most elegant man of dance and song.... A special, special treat.
Thank you so much!. I remember watching these shows and truly enjoying them. Oscar was great - and so unlike anything else on TV. Loved him and his supportive wife June. Fred Astaire became a favorite singer of mine as I understand he was of Crosby. Thanks again
I just watched "Rhapsody In Blue. I loved it when Oscar asked George Gershwin ""Tell me, George, if you had to do it all over, would you fall in love with yourself again?"
"The truth is, Channel 13 is a Trappist monastery in disguise"--lmao! You just have to love Oscar Levant! Thanks so much for these clips & please--upload more!
Ha ha! I love how he hits his smoke instead of shaking Astaire's hand! The greatest professional smartass/brilliant concert pianist of all time. He throws away about 20 or 30 jokes in this one clip, mostly to an uncomprehending audience.
When I was growing up in L.A. during the 1950's, this was my favorite TV show, which I never missed. It was great finding this clip from it on YouTube.
I have listened to Oscar many times on the radio quiz show Information Please, from the late 30's and early 40's...and he is far less neurotic and strung out...poor guy...I really dug him...I guess 20 years of being Oscar was too much...anyway...he was a wonderful pianist...
When I was a kid, I used to wonder why I couldn't have had Oscar Levant for an uncle, instead of the relatives I had. I guess some people just aren't that lucky...
Oscar Levant may have been a little "off-sync" from the rest of humanity, but the rest of humanity isn't as brilliant, talented, funny, and sensitive as he was.
You had an unhappy childhood, a troubled adulthood - but your TV shows
I fell in love with Oscar when I was 5 years old one night at 2 or 3 in the morning as I sneaked to watch late night golden movies. That was back in 1952 and I could read his name so I remembered it. I never forgot Oscar's gorgeous piano talent, his genius wit, his amazing intelligence and how cute I thought he was. I love him to this day.
This is a very rare, wonderful and heartwarming clip of Oscar. Thank you SO much for posting it and sharing it with all of us!
As a very young chikd, I sat thru the banter that I didn't understand just for the small piano samplings. As I watch now, the piano is still brilliant, but I can't help wondering: what was he on???
in his autobiography, the name of which I cannot remember, he details his extensive, even extremem prescription drug use. it is amazing, in retrospect, that he was able to function at all. But I do recommend the autobiography - it is fascinating.
The only time I was ever called by a TV 'rating service' was when I was watching the "Oscar Levant Show"...'hope I helped his ratings-haha. He was brilliant, talented and totally irascible and unpredictable. What great shows we had then-look at the TV guides now and last week's "Top 10" (?)-I rest my case.
Oscar Levant was a musical genius, I am a classically trained concert pianist of 43 years and let me tell you he practiced hard and had incredible technique! Long Live Oscar Levant!
Television is no longer in it's golden age. We are over exposed to so many commercial ideas that it can only serve to reveal the mediums achiles heal, it's familiarity. Take for instance the sci-fi channel, now I have a high regard for science fiction, but television has cheapened it, by doing it poorly and doing it non-stop. In an ideal world where the government understands the value of not desensitizing it's viewers there are only about 8 to 10 channels. Just an opinion, I could be wrong.
Personally, I always liked Astaire's breezy vocal interpretations. And coupled with Levant's often dischordant accompaniment, for some reason it all seemed to fit. Levant was truly the great mad genius of TV.
Fabulous. The shy Astaire doing Sam Goldwyn is uncanny. Levant is one of the most colorful, talented, cultured, ,disturbed , autodidacts of 20th Century showbiz. I can't remember the name of the recent bio on him but I remember the haunting photo Candace Bergen took of him on the grounds of his home-black suited as always, suffering..just before he died
Saddly, this is the only remaining footage of the Oscar Levant show! By all accounts, the show was amazing, rebellious TV - but some idiots tapped over the kinescopes at the local LA station.
Thanks for posting this so much! I had never seen the show. It is such bizzare free-form TV, and this is Levant at his safest!
Sorry, but kinescopes can't be "tapped" over -- they film (a chemical image). The idiot must have done what a lot of broadcasters did and threw them out to save shelf space.
Oscar was a totally unique and unpredicatable personality. sardonic was his middle name. ... but oh he could be a brilliant talent once he got his motor running.
I like your video clip and have rated it as awesome. Please check out my new clip of 1930's cigarette cards of Fred Astaire, Joan Crawford, Gary Cooper, Errol Flyn, Vivien Leigh, George Formby and Gracie Fields.
Iloved "Memoirs of an Amnesiac," his autobiography. It starts out hilarious. He says since he was born on Columbus Day, his father wanted to name him after Christopher Columbus. But it was also Yom Kippur so he almost named him, Christopher Kippur.
My father always said Oscar Levant was way ahead of his time.
I was around 10 when I saw Oscar on the Jack Parr show in the late '50s. I had heard of mental illness but I never understood what it could be until then. He had been voluntarily institutionalized frequently and I think they let him go out to do performances. The most memorial quote I can recall is "There is a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased that line."
The good old days, when celebrities actually had talent. Back then Paris Hilton would have been in a brothel, Ozzy Osborne in an asylum, and Snoop Dog in jail - instead, now they're all on TV.
Kind of makes me wonder who they're locking up nowadays...
The good old days, when celebrities actually had talent. Back then Paris Hilton would have been in a brothel, Ozzy Osborne in an asylum, and Snoop Dog in jail - instead, now they're all on TV.
Kind of makes me wonder who they're locking up nowadays...
trippinglikeabigdog: I couldn't agree more with your brilliant critique of today's "celebrity culture". Oscar would be proud!
I agree with londonscot1: Oscar WOULD be proud! The world has been turned upside down and those of us who remember when witty (if eccentric) geniuses, superb writers, sublime dancers, and truly great actors (I think immediately of Spencer Tracy but there were many others) reigned supreme - well, is it any wonder we are happier living in the past?
Have you ever read, A Talent for Genius? It's a marvelous biography of the late Oscar Levant. The late Oscar Levant, is there a point at which it is assumed that he is no more and we can drop the late part? Just an interesting question. You couldn't for instance, depending on your religious belief, say, the late Jesus Christ now can you? Sorry for rambling these thoughts come to me unbidden. I too live in the past and I'm only in my 30's.
Levant is one of the two people in history I would choose to spend a night with if I could bring anyone back. He was a genius, though tortured, beyond belief. You have made my day...no,my month!...with this clip. Are there any others?
You guys should read his books. They are absolutely hilarious. He was a great wit. The titles are: Memoirs of an Amnesiac, A Smattering Of Ignorance, & The Unimportance Of Being Oscar. CHECK EM' OUT !!!
Until you posted nyronut, I didn't know that Oscar Levant had written any books (frankly, my only knowledge of him was from the "Information Please" radio show). Thank you for posting. The public library here apparently carries all three titles.
God i love that song "Hang on to me" one of Grrshwin' Unknown Greats-Mabe if the user of this page allows,i;ll post the original 1924 Recording of Fred & Adele doing it with george at the piano.
According to the very good and sympathetic biography of him, he's on a number of very serious drugs here, including Demerol, to which he was addicted. But he functions amazingly well under pretty impossible conditions. A genius indeed.
Fred is so wonderful in this---absolutely charming. He appeared on Oscar's local LA TV show to see how he'd come across on TV. (Obviously very well!) Oscar is a wreck, but you can't help loving him.
Jeff Goldblum is trying to emulate this guy with everything he does.
MsCellolad 1 month ago
my favorite curmudgeon!!!!!!!!!
readbeowulfnow 2 months ago
Poor quality or not, this chunk of film is precious to me. I saw this program when it originally aired, and never forgot it. Mr. Astaire and Mr. Levant were my childhood idols (I was an odd child), and seeing them together, in such a casual situation, was thrilling. Thank you for posting it.
ITURNER5555 3 months ago
Oscar Levant. An incredibly talented and accomplished musician.
saxophoney 4 months ago
When there were television shows which aimed to raise the general tenor of culture.
DougStoneent 6 months ago
The quality of this footage may be poor but its priceless nonetheless. Thank you.
davidhertzberg 6 months ago
Those good ol' days where you could even smoke in a show and no one minded that because it made the human who appeared on stage even more attractive!
ChrisWalkenFan 8 months ago
THOSE HANDS AND FINGERS. his wife must be very lucky. ;)
highschoolmusical92 10 months ago 2
This is very cool, like they are having a party in their living room.
Lockbar 10 months ago
@ 6:23, it goes color, or a millisecond! LOL!
evelsteev 11 months ago
"I married an angel. I know that the change will be awfully good for me." I love that.
KidMillions 11 months ago
Comment removed
MrSunnyandphoebe 11 months ago
moloch49, you are so right. I loved Oscar Levant from about the age of 5 - he and Gene Autry were my heros - Soupy Sales too. Ahhh..... the good old days. I may be 60 now and considered by today's kids to be out of touch, etc., etc., but to trade these guys for Lady Gaga and her ilk? Naaaahhhh..... Shalom. May those of blessed memory always be with us.
MrSunnyandphoebe 11 months ago 2
How he handled Bach and the Barrymores- grace and flare.
Christina5Archer 1 year ago
WoW, Mr. Levant, what big ears you have!
SecsSells 1 year ago
There was a legendary incident when Levant stormed off of the set because his wife read a letter on the air from a viewer complimenting her on her ability to host the show alone when Oscar was ill and unable to appear. The little speech at the beginning of the show sounded like a reference to that incident. Was it?
Cris43130 1 year ago
Who the hell is Oscar Levant?
Looks like he could co-star with Lon Chaney.
123Rockchild 1 year ago
Thanks a million for this. I am enamored of this complicated, impossibly neurotic, charming, brilliant, extraordinary man. And to see him with the most elegant man of dance and song.... A special, special treat.
QueenCeleste2 1 year ago
Thank you so much!. I remember watching these shows and truly enjoying them. Oscar was great - and so unlike anything else on TV. Loved him and his supportive wife June. Fred Astaire became a favorite singer of mine as I understand he was of Crosby. Thanks again
olelady40 1 year ago
He was brilliant.His wit was self deprecating and lastly he was a genius.
loulou2lou 1 year ago
I just watched "Rhapsody In Blue. I loved it when Oscar asked George Gershwin ""Tell me, George, if you had to do it all over, would you fall in love with yourself again?"
bjbell52 2 years ago 3
Levant is only 51 here.
lazur1 2 years ago
Levant: 'What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.'
lazur1 2 years ago 3
"The truth is, Channel 13 is a Trappist monastery in disguise"--lmao! You just have to love Oscar Levant! Thanks so much for these clips & please--upload more!
blackwingy 2 years ago
FRED IS MAGIC - I ADORE HIM...
Thank you....
astaire8 2 years ago
it is like Oscar is buzzed...he was having a time.
idiotglee 2 years ago
One of the last, true, famous intellectuals in America. An Aesthete beyond his years. Much gratitude for posting this video!
socialistrevolution 2 years ago 2
Ha ha! I love how he hits his smoke instead of shaking Astaire's hand! The greatest professional smartass/brilliant concert pianist of all time. He throws away about 20 or 30 jokes in this one clip, mostly to an uncomprehending audience.
OrchestrationOnline 2 years ago 3
This is my favorite song by Fred Astaire--a rare gem! Thanks for posting this.
howlywoodward 2 years ago
imo the sharpest wit of all ever
groucho's a cigar store indian by comparison
he had a beautiful wife
so tho he was mad he was a very fortunate madman
very sincere t/y for the share ... a priceless youtube
JustAintthatWay 2 years ago 2
charming... oscar was really something else
1955porsche 2 years ago
When I was growing up in L.A. during the 1950's, this was my favorite TV show, which I never missed. It was great finding this clip from it on YouTube.
gaylealstrom 2 years ago
i must be a referat about Oscar Levant :@ heeeeeelp ?^^
EINFALZREICH 2 years ago
I have listened to Oscar many times on the radio quiz show Information Please, from the late 30's and early 40's...and he is far less neurotic and strung out...poor guy...I really dug him...I guess 20 years of being Oscar was too much...anyway...he was a wonderful pianist...
I suggest people check out Information Please...
uncleroyhoggins 2 years ago
Thank you so much for posting this. It is outstanding and I just wish that a clearer copy was available but THANK YOU so much for sharing this!
fyncara 2 years ago
Thanks for posting this video.
zombieferoxmovie 2 years ago
From an era when stars really were stars and had class. Modern pop-culture killed that, and it won't ever come back again.
Lockbar 2 years ago 15
When I was a kid, I used to wonder why I couldn't have had Oscar Levant for an uncle, instead of the relatives I had. I guess some people just aren't that lucky...
Oscar Levant may have been a little "off-sync" from the rest of humanity, but the rest of humanity isn't as brilliant, talented, funny, and sensitive as he was.
You had an unhappy childhood, a troubled adulthood - but your TV shows
always brought this unhappy child enjoyment.
Aleva-shalom, Oscar; your fans still love
you!
moloch49 3 years ago 20
Gershwin concerto!
suremate 3 years ago
this is INCREDIBLE. I live for all of this and no, the stars of today do not compare whatsoever to the stars of back then. They are simply amazing.
rickisteiner 3 years ago 5
Yes, it is no wonder that some of us yearn for what has gone away. Could the "stars" of today stand in comparison to Oscar Levant and Fred Astaire?
lharrell22 3 years ago 5
OMG those guys have EARS. Seriously, this is wonderful. This should be available in better quality. Glad that it's available at all, really.
haqq84 3 years ago 3
I wish more of this program was preserved, it seems like many of the best shows of the 1950's just weren't preserved.
MattTheSaiyan 3 years ago
>hey, I'm supposed to do a report on Oscar >Levant, does anyone know where I can get >some info on him(other than wikipedia)?
There is his autobiography, though obviously biased; "The Unimportance of Being Oscar".
bagarap 3 years ago
hey, I'm supposed to do a report on Oscar Levant, does anyone know where I can get some info on him(other than wikipedia)?
kasumi9kitsune 3 years ago
I fell in love with Oscar when I was 5 years old one night at 2 or 3 in the morning as I sneaked to watch late night golden movies. That was back in 1952 and I could read his name so I remembered it. I never forgot Oscar's gorgeous piano talent, his genius wit, his amazing intelligence and how cute I thought he was. I love him to this day.
This is a very rare, wonderful and heartwarming clip of Oscar. Thank you SO much for posting it and sharing it with all of us!
:)--Darlene
cranburygal 3 years ago
My goodness....what year was this? I plan on reading the biography. I remember watching this show as a kid.
PaTudie 3 years ago
As a very young chikd, I sat thru the banter that I didn't understand just for the small piano samplings. As I watch now, the piano is still brilliant, but I can't help wondering: what was he on???
dobiegee 3 years ago 2
in his autobiography, the name of which I cannot remember, he details his extensive, even extremem prescription drug use. it is amazing, in retrospect, that he was able to function at all. But I do recommend the autobiography - it is fascinating.
Vlasta4444 3 years ago
Ironically, "Memoirs of an Amnesiac" is the name of the book you can't remember. It's a good read.
hartalum73 3 years ago
The only time I was ever called by a TV 'rating service' was when I was watching the "Oscar Levant Show"...'hope I helped his ratings-haha. He was brilliant, talented and totally irascible and unpredictable. What great shows we had then-look at the TV guides now and last week's "Top 10" (?)-I rest my case.
troypix 3 years ago
I wish they still made shows like this, so off-the-cuff I love it.
suremate 3 years ago
Oscar Levant was a musical genius, I am a classically trained concert pianist of 43 years and let me tell you he practiced hard and had incredible technique! Long Live Oscar Levant!
Mozart88keys 4 years ago 5
Was this network or syndicated...?
noahf67 4 years ago
In the next part he mentions the channel he's on: "...and the world, as far as channel 13 is concerned, goes as far as Bakersfield."
So a local LA station, but I believe it was syndicated all over the country.
KidMillions 4 years ago
. Thank you rglazier. What an extraordinary gem, oh, TV must have been brilliant once upon a time. Love Levant!
joshron99 4 years ago
You'd be amazed at some of the brilliant TV shows that aired during the 50's, But are never mentioned in history books.
iLoveClassicTV 4 years ago
Television is no longer in it's golden age. We are over exposed to so many commercial ideas that it can only serve to reveal the mediums achiles heal, it's familiarity. Take for instance the sci-fi channel, now I have a high regard for science fiction, but television has cheapened it, by doing it poorly and doing it non-stop. In an ideal world where the government understands the value of not desensitizing it's viewers there are only about 8 to 10 channels. Just an opinion, I could be wrong.
fringefries 3 years ago 4
Oscar seems so nervous at first. So out of character. Hah!
friendlier 4 years ago
That's when show biz was show biz. Levant was brilliant as of course was Astaire.
saxophoney 4 years ago 2
Personally, I always liked Astaire's breezy vocal interpretations. And coupled with Levant's often dischordant accompaniment, for some reason it all seemed to fit. Levant was truly the great mad genius of TV.
2cool5000 4 years ago
Oh if only the other wonderful Levant shows had not been lost....IS there any way there still might be some around
Tevo1910 4 years ago
Fabulous. The shy Astaire doing Sam Goldwyn is uncanny. Levant is one of the most colorful, talented, cultured, ,disturbed , autodidacts of 20th Century showbiz. I can't remember the name of the recent bio on him but I remember the haunting photo Candace Bergen took of him on the grounds of his home-black suited as always, suffering..just before he died
evjefwil 4 years ago 4
Saddly, this is the only remaining footage of the Oscar Levant show! By all accounts, the show was amazing, rebellious TV - but some idiots tapped over the kinescopes at the local LA station.
Thanks for posting this so much! I had never seen the show. It is such bizzare free-form TV, and this is Levant at his safest!
Great to see him playing and Fred singing - WOW!
russo76 4 years ago
Sorry, but kinescopes can't be "tapped" over -- they film (a chemical image). The idiot must have done what a lot of broadcasters did and threw them out to save shelf space.
hmengland41 4 years ago
Genius.
KidMillions 4 years ago
Fred starts singint "They can't take that away from me" at 7:12.
Fast forward!
robertlaberge 4 years ago
That poor wife.
stargate121 4 years ago
June Levant was called " The Saint of Hollywood" for putting up with Oscar.
KingSchism 3 years ago
Oscar was a totally unique and unpredicatable personality. sardonic was his middle name. ... but oh he could be a brilliant talent once he got his motor running.
lenbenhear 4 years ago 2
a fascinating personality. . . and an incredible piano player!
lunab4 4 years ago
I like your video clip and have rated it as awesome. Please check out my new clip of 1930's cigarette cards of Fred Astaire, Joan Crawford, Gary Cooper, Errol Flyn, Vivien Leigh, George Formby and Gracie Fields.
creamofcardstv 4 years ago
Iloved "Memoirs of an Amnesiac," his autobiography. It starts out hilarious. He says since he was born on Columbus Day, his father wanted to name him after Christopher Columbus. But it was also Yom Kippur so he almost named him, Christopher Kippur.
My father always said Oscar Levant was way ahead of his time.
sophizgood 5 years ago 3
I was around 10 when I saw Oscar on the Jack Parr show in the late '50s. I had heard of mental illness but I never understood what it could be until then. He had been voluntarily institutionalized frequently and I think they let him go out to do performances. The most memorial quote I can recall is "There is a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased that line."
Taikan1 5 years ago 2
Thank you, thank you for putting this up. I have an Oscar Levant album of Gershwin compositions, and I love it so. Fred is great and legendary too.
guitarmutt 5 years ago
the best! just the best!
Tab813 5 years ago
The good old days, when celebrities actually had talent. Back then Paris Hilton would have been in a brothel, Ozzy Osborne in an asylum, and Snoop Dog in jail - instead, now they're all on TV.
Kind of makes me wonder who they're locking up nowadays...
trippinglikeabigdog 5 years ago 5
The good old days, when celebrities actually had talent. Back then Paris Hilton would have been in a brothel, Ozzy Osborne in an asylum, and Snoop Dog in jail - instead, now they're all on TV.
Kind of makes me wonder who they're locking up nowadays...
trippinglikeabigdog: I couldn't agree more with your brilliant critique of today's "celebrity culture". Oscar would be proud!
londonscot1 4 years ago 2
I agree with londonscot1: Oscar WOULD be proud! The world has been turned upside down and those of us who remember when witty (if eccentric) geniuses, superb writers, sublime dancers, and truly great actors (I think immediately of Spencer Tracy but there were many others) reigned supreme - well, is it any wonder we are happier living in the past?
englisheditor 3 years ago 2
Have you ever read, A Talent for Genius? It's a marvelous biography of the late Oscar Levant. The late Oscar Levant, is there a point at which it is assumed that he is no more and we can drop the late part? Just an interesting question. You couldn't for instance, depending on your religious belief, say, the late Jesus Christ now can you? Sorry for rambling these thoughts come to me unbidden. I too live in the past and I'm only in my 30's.
fringefries 3 years ago
Levant is one of the two people in history I would choose to spend a night with if I could bring anyone back. He was a genius, though tortured, beyond belief. You have made my day...no,my month!...with this clip. Are there any others?
spegga 5 years ago 2
Fred is up there with the Beatles, great stuff. Many thanks.
Fearliath 5 years ago
Great clip I have only seen Astaire on his landmark NBC specials and the Cavett shows prior.
Robert4770 5 years ago
You guys should read his books. They are absolutely hilarious. He was a great wit. The titles are: Memoirs of an Amnesiac, A Smattering Of Ignorance, & The Unimportance Of Being Oscar. CHECK EM' OUT !!!
nyronut 5 years ago
Until you posted nyronut, I didn't know that Oscar Levant had written any books (frankly, my only knowledge of him was from the "Information Please" radio show). Thank you for posting. The public library here apparently carries all three titles.
Herbert7J 4 years ago
Read them all ! Start with Memoirs Of An Amnesiac. Absolutely brilliant !!!
nyronut 4 years ago
I love that you guys come up with this stuff, thank you so much.
jaglag 5 years ago
Thank you so much for sharing!
fiberoptickarrie 5 years ago
God i love that song "Hang on to me" one of Grrshwin' Unknown Greats-Mabe if the user of this page allows,i;ll post the original 1924 Recording of Fred & Adele doing it with george at the piano.
harriter88 5 years ago
I love Oscar Levant. Is he drunk or on drugs here?
Cramnella 5 years ago
I think he's high on stress.
wontonton 5 years ago 2
why, most possibly both! :-P
musicom67 5 years ago
According to the very good and sympathetic biography of him, he's on a number of very serious drugs here, including Demerol, to which he was addicted. But he functions amazingly well under pretty impossible conditions. A genius indeed.
blackwingy 2 years ago
I used to watch Oscar on the Jack Parr Show in the early 60s, and he made quite an impression on me as a kid.
What a blessing to find this!
You never quite know what's coming on YouTube.
Only a matter of time before most people stop watching broadcast tv.
JazzVideoGuy 5 years ago
I LOVE his version of 'Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra III' :D
He's amazing...
And Fres Astaire - another wonderful talent from those years.
AAMLfan 5 years ago
Thanks so much for this. Yes, God bless Oscar!
jp2a2m 5 years ago
Wow!
Oscar Levant: he had a talent for genius.
If only TV were like that now.
neoelitist 5 years ago
Wow, depression can do that to you? At least he doesn't play like Horowitz in Japan....
shilloshillos 5 years ago
god bless oscar levant, wherever he is.
chexy99 5 years ago 3
This is great! Thanks for posting it. I wish these episodes could be put on DVD.
bolexcollector 5 years ago
Hell I'D SAY THIS WAS RARE... Thanks for sharing :)
musicom67 5 years ago
Where did you find this?
adny 5 years ago
Fred is so wonderful in this---absolutely charming. He appeared on Oscar's local LA TV show to see how he'd come across on TV. (Obviously very well!) Oscar is a wreck, but you can't help loving him.
Pianojanna 5 years ago 3