IJBFC Chat - May 14, 2006

(Name of message originator in [] brackets at the beginning of each line)

[Kay_Lhota] Hi Laura

[Maxwell] WB LL.

[Steve_(shimp)] Hi again LL

[Laura_Leff] OK, let's try this again

[Maxwell] okay.

[Laura_Leff] This seems much better.

[Maxwell] We're talking about Jerry Lewis.

[Steve_(shimp)] You've been missing onion Jello, Jerry Lewis, all kinds of discussion.

[Laura_Leff] It was not letting me type and giving me your lines about 10 at a time...ick

[Kay_Lhota] I was telling everybody about finding a picture of Jack Benny in a gag for the Jerry Lewis movie "Rockabye Baby"

[Laura_Leff] Why are you talking about Jerry Lewis?

[Maxwell] That's cayenne and onion lime Jell-o to be exact.

[Laura_Leff] Maxwell - Yes, wasn't that just AWFUL?

[Steve_(shimp)] served with mayonnaise

[Laura_Leff] *slap*

[Laura_Leff] Too bad there isn't a GAG sound effect...

[Maxwell] Yummy!

[Steve_(shimp)] or a pukey emoticon!

[Maxwell] I needed a gag emoticon.

[Maxwell] gagging, that is.

[Laura_Leff] :<

[Laura_Leff] :P

[Maxwell] Combine those two.

[Laura_Leff] So what's the deal on Jerry Lewis?

[Maxwell] Well, then we started in on "The Day the Clown Cried."

[Laura_Leff] Greetings from our back patio, BTW. This is the first time I've ever done the chat outside.

[Laura_Leff] Max - I don't know that one.

[Maxwell] If you did that here, you'd probably short out your computer.

[Steve_(shimp)] Yeah, the rest of us are getting rained on.

[Maxwell] It's an unfinished film in which Lewis plays a clown in a concentration camp.

[Laura_Leff] Max - That sounds like...um...fun.

[Kay_Lhota] I'll try this again. In the film "Rockabye Baby" Marilyn Maxwell was secretly married to a Matador

[Kay_Lhota] who was the father of her triplets

[Maxwell] You know it has to be bad when Steve Dahl (the original shock jock) thinks it's in bad taste.

[Laura_Leff] Which would make her Marilyn Maxwell Matador

[Kay_Lhota] At the end of the film when the scandal hits, the photograph of the Matador was Jack Benny

[Maxwell] Did Jack leave Marilyn his Maxwell?

[Laura_Leff] Kay - It is?

Pierre_Drewson has joined the chat.

[Maxwell] Hi Pierre

[Laura_Leff] Hello Pierre!

[Steve_(shimp)] Hi Pierre

[Kay_Lhota] They even went into a closeup and played "Love In Bloom" so you wouldn't miss it

[Laura_Leff] Max - I assume Dahl says that of the concentration camp movie.

[Maxwell] Yes.

[Laura_Leff] Kay - Oh how funny,

[Kay_Lhota] I thought it was. I didn't expect it.

[Laura_Leff] I wouldn't be surprised if he had an opportunity to do so *ahem ahem*

[Kay_Lhota] And I thought, "Does Laura kn

[Kay_Lhota] ow about this?"

[Laura_Leff] Kay - No, actually I didn't! Fun to find something new.

[Kay_Lhota] And it was just like me to pull the movie out because I wanted to see my four minutes of Hans Conried!

[Laura Leff] Side note FYI...after 11 years, I had to terminate my friendship with Joe.

[Maxwell] I just got halfway through last month's program before I realized I'd listened to it last month.

[Laura Leff] Just so's you know.

[Laura Leff] I can give you more information later if you want it, but

[Maxwell] Ah, the inevitable Hans Conreid!

[Laura Leff] I wanted you to just know that fact.

[Kay_Lhota] Yes, but I don't know Joe, do I?

[Steve_(shimp)] Hey Kay, have you ever heard Hans Conreid's album "Monster Rally"? A blog posted it recently and it's been on my mp3 player.

[Laura Leff] He was at dinner that night. The one who wanted me to stop singing and go home.

[Kay_Lhota] Can you send me the link?

[Laura Leff] Joe Ross

[Kay_Lhota] I'm Kay Lhota@aol.com

[Maxwell] Ditto: hvickery_80@msn.com

[Kay_Lhota] KayLhota@aol.com

[Steve_(shimp)] OK, Kay, I'll see if I can find it.

[Kay_Lhota] and Max too

[Laura_Leff] Hans Conried had a much wider range than I realized from just knowing him older.

[Laura_Leff] He's even on the Benny show from time to time.

[Kay_Lhota] Yes, I heard him on one episode recently.

[Maxwell] He was on a lot of shows, hence the nickname I used that my brother gave him years ago.

[Kay_Lhota] Can't wait to get your book to search for me

[Kay_Lhota] What is that, Max?

[Laura_Leff] Max - That being?

[Maxwell] The inevitable Hans Conreid.

[Kay_Lhota] Conried!

[Kay_Lhota] Spell it right!

[Maxwell] Whatever.

[Kay_Lhota] LOL

[Laura_Leff] Oh hey folks...I keep forgetting to advertise this on the Forum...

[Pierre_Drewson] Hans used to do the narration on those old silent moves on Fractured Flickers

[Laura_Leff] Anyone want a copy of Volume 2 for the price of postage?

[Laura_Leff] Max - Ah, I get it.

[Maxwell] Hey! It took me 30 years to learn to spell Paul Henreid.

[Maxwell] Who do we have to kill?

[Steve_(shimp)] Hey LL, I want to send you in a REAL order. Will be doing so ASAP.

[Kay_Lhota] Yes!

[Laura_Leff] Maxwell - No one. Just E-mail me. I have about six "seconds" with the cover ripped off because they were damaged in some way.

[Kay_Lhota] Can I order one, and get a second for postage?

[Laura_Leff] Kay - Sure.

[Laura_Leff] I can't legally sell them, but I can give 'em away. But I'd prefer not to give away postage.

[Maxwell] You do paypal for postage?

[Steve_(shimp)] Hey Hans fans, this is the link for the Monster Rally album: http://bentrecords.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_bentrecords_archive.html

[Laura_Leff] Maxwell - I can do that. But know they'll take a little percentage out.

[Steve_(shimp)] Go to April 9th

[Steve_(shimp)] He and Alice Pearce sing stuff like "Purple People Eater" and Phil's "The Thing"

[Maxwell] No problem. If you know the amount they'd take out. I'd send you that much more.

[Laura_Leff] Reminds me of Paul Frees' album of celebrities covering pop songs

[Laura_Leff] Like Peter Lorre singing "My Old Flame". Unforgettable. No matter how hard you try.

[Laura_Leff] Maxwell - Just pop an additional 50 cents on there, and that will probably do it.

[Maxwell] The Peter Lorre is a Spike Jones record, iirc.

[Laura_Leff] Maxwell - Is it? You sure? Someone sent me a tape of the Paul Frees album years ago, and I thought it was one of the cuts on i

[Kay_Lhota] Peter Lorre by way of Paul Frees

[Laura_Leff] Paul Frees with Spike Jones?

[Steve_(shimp)] OK, I know these both: Paul Frees and the Poster People is one, and Spike Jones Spooktacular in Stereo is the other.

[Kay_Lhota] yes indeed

[Laura_Leff] Pierre - Apologies that we're not on topic at the moment...we'll get back to Jack shortly.

[Steve_(shimp)] And Paul Frees is on the Spooktacular album as well.

[Maxwell] I have a best of Spike Jones LP with it. My Old Flame vocal by Paul Frees.

[Kay_Lhota] thanks! I enjoyed this week's episode. It must have been just before Alice Faye gave birth to Little Alice Harris

[Pierre_Drewson] I figured someome would comment on my name. I'm Pere Drewson's French cousin

[Laura_Leff] Kay - Yes, she gave birth in the following week, and they announce Phil as a daddy the next week.

[Kay_Lhota] LOL

[Maxwell] I thought maybe you were Pierre Nussbaum.

[Laura_Leff] Pierre - I thought you were the waiter played by Eddie Anderson before he became Rochester.

[Laura_Leff] Oh, I guess no one's heard this yet because it's set to air tonight at 7:30 my time, but...

[Kay_Lhota] boy, that was a good one, that slipped by me until you said it, Pierre.

[Laura_Leff] Did you know that Drew Pearson was on opposite Jack in the 1942-43 season? On ABC.

[Steve_(shimp)] Who did you think we thought you were, Nelson Eddy?

[Kay_Lhota] No, I didn't know that.

[Kay_Lhota] LOL

[Maxwell] I thought he might be Eddy Nelson.

[Laura_Leff] It may be longer than that, but I stopped the research at 1943 because I had to record the Yesterday USA shows.

[Laura_Leff] Steve - :)

[Laura_Leff] *bird*

[Laura_Leff] (That's the birds out here in the backyard)

[Maxwell] George Seagull?

[Steve_(shimp)] *meow*

[Laura_Leff] So I figured I'd give you all the bird...or something like that.

[Kay_Lhota] LOL

[Laura_Leff] So what did you think of the show for tonight?

[Steve_(shimp)] The troops are always such a great audience. So enthusiastic.

[Steve_(shimp)] And, they love Phil and Roch the most!

[Laura_Leff] Yeah, they really rip it up at the end!

[Maxwell] Yeah, you can barely hear Don at the end.

[Laura_Leff] I think, by and large, Roch always gets the biggest hand of the cast.

[Laura_Leff] Max - I even noted that in 39F V1.

[Kay_Lhota] Especially with the troops.

[Laura_Leff] Does anyone have copies of the competing Fred Allen shows where he's doing these summaries?

[Steve_(shimp)] The off-stage stuff with Roch and Mr. Billingsley was pretty funny, if not totally PC.

[Kay_Lhota] I just got a huge batch of Fred Allen shows, but I haven't heard them yet

[Maxwell] I was thinking they'd never get away with some of that stuff nowadays...or for the past 20 years or so.

[Kay_Lhota] I wanted to hear Mr. Billingsley.

[Kay_Lhota] Talking about him was funny, but I get a kick out of hearing him pop in.

[Laura_Leff] Max - Yes, on one of the YUSA shows, Rochester says he's in a bridal suite filled with so much rice that he feels like a raisin.

[Steve_(shimp)] The image of him dropping ping-pong balls on anthills from the Maxwell was funny enough for me...

[Laura_Leff] That was from 1946...somewhat unusual for that late.

[Laura_Leff] I love the Billingsley character because I'm so fond of surreal humor, and he's the essence of that.

[Kay_Lhota] yes

[Laura_Leff] So what else from tonight's show?

[Steve_(shimp)] And, I guess Billingsley's "Hitler suntan" line just strikes me as funny because he's so obviously deranged, it seems less derog

[Steve_(shimp)] atory.

[Laura_Leff] Steve - I'd agree with that

[Steve_(shimp)] Yes, it's uncomfortable when Roch directs such lines at himself.

[Laura_Leff] A lot of people have said to me over the years that they don't like listening to the camp shows as much as others

[Maxwell] On the other hand, it did kind of lessen it when he said to Jack, "He thinks you're a Jap."

[Maxwell] Something else you could never say now.

[Maxwell] Amazing what you can say about an enemy when you're at war.

[Laura_Leff] Max - Reminds me of Fred Allen saying something like, "Yes, I got these slant eyes from pulling off a tight derby." Yow!

[Maxwell] What else about the show...Changes in the George M. Cohan lyrics.

[Laura_Leff] At the risk of turning this political, I want to run a short bit with Max's observation just now...

[Maxwell] "And forever on high may you wave."

[Laura_Leff] I don't hear a lot of derogatory terms about Iraquis right now, but I'm in about the bluest territory around.

[Laura_Leff] Is there anything today that comes anywhere close to the terms used in WWII?

[Maxwell] Yeah, I'm pretty much in the blue part of IL, too.

[Laura_Leff] Or even Vietnam.

[Steve_(shimp)] From the Red States, if you'll excuse me even typing these horrible terms: "raghead" and "sand n*gg*r"

[Maxwell] I've heard towelhead on occasion.

[Steve_(shimp)] Dip your toe into the scariest of the right-wing blogs and they're there...

[Laura_Leff] Yes, I've heard those as well...but not from people in this area.

[Laura_Leff] I'm just wondering about some of the anti-enemy publicity that was done during WWII

Brad_from_Georgia has joined the chat.

[Maxwell] Hey Brad!

[Kay_Lhota] Hi Brad

[Laura_Leff] You can easily find magazines with buck-toothed Japanese in coolie hats, etc.

[Laura_Leff] Hi Brad!

[Brad_from_Georgia] Hi, all--Just got back from NYC! (Well, tonight, from Mother's Day dinner with our son).

[Laura_Leff] I'm thinking that I haven't seen as much of that sort of thing in the present day.

[Maxwell] And if you couldn't find it there, you could find it in Popeye cartoons.

[Steve_(shimp)] Oh, there's no way you could be that overt. But, it seems to me the covert subtle stuff can be even more obscene in its own way

[Laura_Leff] Actually, I have to confess a great fondness for a cartoon called "Russian Rhapsody"

[Steve_(shimp)] Hey Brad!

[Brad_from_Georgia] Hi, Steve!

[Kay_Lhota] I don't think that sort of stuff is acceptable in our less innocent times, Laura. We are also a little less bigoted.

[Kay_Lhota] Gremlins from the Kremlin

[Laura_Leff] Kay - I'd certainly like to think so.

[Laura_Leff] Kay - That's it!

[Laura_Leff] We're gremlins from the Kremlin...da da da da da...

[Brad_from_Georgia] To the tune of "Otche Chornya"

[Maxwell] Yeah, about the dirtiest word you hear nowadays is "Liberal."

[Kay_Lhota] I know too much about the Warner Bros cartoons

[Pierre_Drewson] or Insurgent

[Kay_Lhota] Laura, did you know that the Gremlins are all charicatures of the Animation staff?

[Brad_from_Georgia] Round here it's "Yankee."

[Laura_Leff] Kay - No kidding!

[Laura_Leff] Brad - Is that still really an epithet in the South? All these years later?

[Steve_(shimp)] It's a gentle epithet, I'd say.

[Brad_from_Georgia] LL-Sure is. My daughter-in-law, whom we love dearly, is called "Yankee" by her husband, our son.

[Maxwell] Hey Yankee has always been a dirty word here...at least among White Sox fans.

[Kay_Lhota] LOL

[Kay_Lhota] It's even worse here in Red Sox country

[Laura_Leff] Thanks for exploring this topic in a non-political way, folks.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Hey, think of me--I was in New York, with Yankees to the right of me, Yankees to the leff of me...

[Laura_Leff] Kay - I was just thinking that.

[Pierre_Drewson] How about all the sports teams with names like "Redskins"

[Brad_from_Georgia] And my editor at Dial Books is a rabid Yankee fan. She hates the Braves. Calls them "Nazis."

[Kay_Lhota] ich

[Maxwell] Or the Cleveland Indians mascot, Chief Wahoo.

[Brad_from_Georgia] The Braves' mascot used to be Chief Knockahoma.

[Steve_(shimp)] There's a native American intramural team in Colorado (I think) who responded by calling themselves "Fightin' Whiteys"

[Laura_Leff] Brad - Indian...German...I don't see the connection, but hey...*donning Red Sox cap* why do Yankee fans do anything? ;)

[Laura_Leff] So anyway...what else from tonight's show?

[Brad_from_Georgia] LL-It's because of the "Tomahawk Chop". She says it looks like Nazis saluting Hitler.

[Maxwell] Back to "And forever on high may you wave."

[Laura_Leff] Brad - Ohhhhhhhh...now I get it.

[Maxwell] Another indication of wartime.

[Steve_(shimp)] Was Cohan sick during this broadcast, Jack references that.

[Kay_Lhota] The Fred Allen stuff at the end was fun, and I will have to listen to the Fred shows from around that time

[Kay_Lhota] to see what they are parodying

[Laura_Leff] Max - I'm glad you brought that up...I didn't get that the first time.

[Maxwell] He died not long after the premiere of the movie.

[Brad_from_Georgia] I s'pose the rationing of sugar and the Jell-O commercials have been covered.

[Kay_Lhota] and commenting on back and forth

[Maxwell] Not yet, Brad.

[Laura_Leff] Brad - Actually, not yet.

[Kay_Lhota] But Cohan was not well, either.

[Steve_(shimp)] Well, we discussed the pleasures of onion and cayenne vinegar lime Jell-O.

[Laura_Leff] Isn't that interesting? People must have been yelling at their grocers!

[Brad_from_Georgia] Oh. How 'bout the rationing of sugar mentioned in the Jell-O commercials?

[Kay_Lhota] He died a month after the film "Yankee Doodle Dandy" premiered

[Maxwell] With My-onnaise.

[Laura_Leff] Cohan wasn't young, either. And by then, he wasn't even on the telephone.

Pierre_Drewson has left the chat.

[Kay_Lhota] LOL Laura

[Steve_(shimp)] LOL LL

[Laura_Leff] I love it...the room "gets" that joke.

[Maxwell] I kept my chuckling to myself.

[Kay_Lhota] well, you have a prime audience

[Brad_from_Georgia] You know, on the "Merv Griffin" interview, Jack tells the fib about being promised the George M. Cohan role in "Yankee Doodle

[Steve_(shimp)] What's the anecdote where Jack said he could have been in Yankee Doodle Dandy if it was about George M. COHEN?

[Brad_from_Georgia] Dandy" if he'd do "Horn Blows at Midnight" first.

[Laura_Leff] OK...just regulars now and no one for me to apologize to...open forum.

[Maxwell] I was going to bring that up.

[Steve_(shimp)] Psychic Jack Friends Network here...

[Brad_from_Georgia] It's a gag, of course--"Horn" was long after "YDD"

[Kay_Lhota] LOL

[Laura_Leff] Had to have been...1945 Horn vs. 1942 YDD

[Maxwell] But it made a good joke.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Jack says in the interview that the boss at the studio said, "We thought it was COHEN when we said you could do it."

[Maxwell] I remembered it 30-some years later.

[Laura_Leff] Eddie has a gag in his show about Jack being offered Bob Hope's role in The Big Broadcast as some sort of start in pictures, but

[Laura_Leff] that's obviously not true.

[Laura_Leff] I can't remember the exact setup.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Yes, says that his theme could have been "Thanks for the Memories."

[Kay_Lhota] Well, Bob Hope played the role in "The Big Broadcast of 1938" because Jack Benny turned it down.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Eddie says he was in NY deciding whether to take the role--when he got back, Hope was already cast.

[Laura_Leff] Brad - Y'know (y'see...y'know...), if you listen to the radio shows around that time, he tries to do just that.

[Laura_Leff] LIB and TFTM were both written by Robin and Rainger.

[Laura_Leff] Kay - What's your source on that? Why would Jack go from starring roles and top billing to a supporting role like that?

[Maxwell] When Robin and Rainger split up, the latter became known as the Lone Rainger.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Yes, that's correct--they appear on one of Jack's shows pleading with him NOT to play LIB

[Kay_Lhota] do you know which episode?

[Laura_Leff] Max - :P

[Laura_Leff] Kay - Check V1

[Brad_from_Georgia] I would LOVE to have Jack's rendition of his theme as a telephone ringtone. Kay--don't know the ep, but it's in vol. 1...oh.

[Steve_(shimp)] Shucks, Brad, EVERYONE pleaded that!

[Kay_Lhota] okay, Laura. I will.

[Laura_Leff] I know someone who programmed it into their ringtone

[Laura_Leff] They kept playing it over and over at our convention.

[Laura_Leff] They even asked me to send them the sheet music so they could do it.

[Brad_from_Georgia] LL--I'm not that talented. I got my wife Barbara the "Harry Potter" theme as a Mother's Day present, though!

[Brad_from_Georgia] Supposedly, one can use a 20-second MP3 file as a ringtone--don't know how to transfer it, though!

[Laura_Leff] You always knew where he was by listening for the "deedle-deedle-deee dee-dee dee-dee"

[Maxwell] Dee-dee-dee-dee dah dah dah dah dum....

[Laura_Leff] Brad - Probably depends on your carrier. Wouldn't happen to have Verizon, do you?

[Steve_(shimp)] The best ringtone would be Mel Blanc doing the miniature organ, of Love in Bloom

[Brad_from_Georgia] LL-No, Cingular.

[Kay_Lhota] oh my

[Maxwell] hahahahahahahahahahaha

[Laura_Leff] Just imagine how annoying that could be if you leave your phone on your desk at work

[Maxwell] Steve, I'd pay big bux for that!

[Laura_Leff] Brad - Ah, too bad. I used to work for AirTouch.

[Brad_from_Georgia] In NY I heard a guy's phone going off with a voice track of Apu from the Simpsons: "Please pick up the phone, sir."

[Steve_(shimp)] Man, it's so SQUARE to have a phone that actually rings. I'm a proud square I guess.

[Maxwell] My phone does that too because I'm too lazy to get a custom ring tone.

[Laura_Leff] Someone around me at work has one that sounds like a 1960s phone...straight bell ring. Kind of fun

[Maxwell] Since I only use it in the car driving home from work.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Oh-we saw "Avenue Q" on Broadway. At one point they pass a hat, and I dropped a quarter and a nickel in.

[Brad_from_Georgia] The actors counted the money and said, "What a cheap crowd!" One said, "Except that guy" (pointing to me).

[Brad_from_Georgia] "He's like, Jack Benny."

[Laura_Leff] You notice that you can't slam down a phone any more?

[Maxwell] I can.

[Steve_(shimp)] LL, you can, but then you have to buy a new one!

[Laura_Leff] Brad - Did he really say that?

[Maxwell] I have one with a cradle.

[Laura_Leff] Max - Oh...you're OLD. :)

[Brad_from_Georgia] She, LL--the one playing Gary Coleman. Got a big laugh! Older crowd.

[Maxwell] It's a recent phone. Has caller ID and everything.

[Laura_Leff] I have one with a crank. But it's not connected.

[Laura_Leff] Brad - Matinee?

[Brad_from_Georgia] LL-We used to dream of having a phone with a crank. We had two cans and a string!

[Kay_Lhota] I don't have a cell phone, but my husband has one.

[Steve_(shimp)] OK, I love the fact that someone just corrected a gender to she, saying "the one playing Gary Coleman"...

[Brad_from_Georgia] LL-Nope, evening performance. Expensive as h-e-double toothpicks!

[Laura_Leff] Brad - Yeah, waving the can in a circle just isn't the same.

Scott_in_KC has joined the chat.

[Kay_Lhota] Hi Scott

[Steve_(shimp)] I think I may have to see Avenue Q at some point.

[Laura_Leff] Hi Scott!

[Steve_(shimp)] Hi Scott.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Gary Coleman is always played by a woman in "Avenue Q."

[Maxwell] Hey Scott

[Scott_in_KC] Happy Mother's Day!

[Kay_Lhota] thank you

[Brad_from_Georgia] Same to you, Scott. And to the moms in your life.

[Laura_Leff] Scott - Would you sing "Little Mother of Mine" for us?

[Steve_(shimp)] Jack might have made a good Mr. Drummond...

[Scott_in_KC] LOL....My college nickname was Mother.

[Laura_Leff] Hey Scott...any thoughts on tonight's show?

[Steve_(shimp)] I've been known to be called that, with usually another word attached afterward...

[Scott_in_KC] I did not hear it. Sorry.

[Laura_Leff] I am the mother of two beautiful rabbits.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Jell-O is a grand dessert, and with it we can defeat the Axis....

[Kay_Lhota] with cayanne and onion?

[Laura_Leff] Scott - Ah, you missed the mouth-watering recipe for cayenne onion lime jello

[Scott_in_KC] Me, too, Steve. :)

[Maxwell] Yeah, especially if you feed them that cayenne and onion lime Jell-o thing.

[Laura_Leff] LOL...funny how we all went right back at that.

[Brad_from_Georgia] "Ach du lieber, mein gut is gebrusten!"

[Scott_in_KC] Is it kosher, Laura?

[Steve_(shimp)] This must have been one of the last Jell-O shows, with the sugar rationing mentioned.

[Laura_Leff] Scott - Is Jell-O kosher?

[Brad_from_Georgia] Yes, Jell-O bowed out that spring.

[Scott_in_KC] Yes and the recipie?

[Maxwell] Hmmm...it's the hooves....

[Laura_Leff] Steve - Tis. They went off for the season a couple weeks later, then to Grape Nuts the next season.

[Maxwell] Are hooves kosher?

[Laura_Leff] Scott - As Max said, I think not because I'm pretty sure horses aren't kosher.

[Steve_(shimp)] Hate to tell you folks, but Jell-O is made mostly from SKIN rather than hooves.

[Steve_(shimp)] Ewww.

[Maxwell] They're cow hooves.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Not horse skin, either. Cow skin.

[Steve_(shimp)] Cow and/or pig.

[Laura_Leff] Maxwell - But have they always been? I thought they were horse hooves?

[Scott_in_KC] I am losing my appetite.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Well, pig I KNOW isn't kosher...unless it's very reformed.

[Laura_Leff] OK, pig skin definitely not.

[Laura_Leff] Brad - Yuk yuk yuk

[Maxwell] No, they started making gelatin from hooves back in the old Union Stock Yards days.

[Laura_Leff] OK, now you've got me curious...

[Steve_(shimp)] It's considered Kosher because it is so highly processed. Read "Jell-O: A Biography" by Carolyn Wyman

[Laura_Leff] *running to check a box*

[Brad_from_Georgia] Ah, so it is reformed.

[Maxwell] Actually Jell-o is Lutheran.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Jack evidently didn't keep kosher...he refers frequently to bacon and egg breakfasts.

[Maxwell] You bring it to pot luck dinners to compliment the hot dish.

[Laura_Leff] Max - Actually, it's Presbyterian

[Brad_from_Georgia] Maxwell-Garrison Keillor

[Brad_from_Georgia] and his crew served us Jell-O in St. Paul once.

[Laura_Leff] Well, the current box does have a hecture on it

[Maxwell] Or complement it.

[Laura_Leff] Brad - Did when he was a boy because his father was Orthodox.

[Scott_in_KC] Max, you sound like you read The Jungle as you were discussing the stock yards of Chicago.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Keillor said "We no longer eat this, but it's fun to watch strangers choke it down."

[Maxwell] Heck, I remember the Stock Yards vaguely.

[Maxwell] Used to drive by them coming up from Kankakee on the way to Sox games.

[Laura_Leff] I remember the Stock Market vaguely.

[Steve_(shimp)] Hey, we could SMELL the stockyards across the lake in Michigan....

[Brad_from_Georgia] Ya know the Fulton Fish Market is gone from the East Side of New York?

[Laura_Leff] Steve - Naw, that was Gary, Indiana.

[Steve_(shimp)] But, that might just have been Gary, Indiana.

[Maxwell] Yeah, MI was downwind from them.

[Steve_(shimp)] LOL. Psychic Jack Friends again.

[Laura_Leff] Steve - LOL!

[Scott_in_KC] Stevem are you from Michigan?

[Maxwell] When you smelled Gary, it smelled like rotten eggs.

[Steve_(shimp)] Hey, you wonder why the Jackson family is weird, look what they grew up in!

[Maxwell] (Lived there for 3.5 years.)

[Brad_from_Georgia] Gary Indiana, Gary Indiana, that's the town that knew me when....

[Laura_Leff] Max - That's a fact.

[Steve_(shimp)] Yeah, Scott, raised in East Lansing.

[Laura_Leff] Dang...mosquito time...may have to move inside.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Steve--I've visited Marshall, MI many times. And I met a girl in Kalamazoo. But she just drove me to Marshall.

[Steve_(shimp)] You would drive toward Gary and it was a thick, hazy, stinky cloud.

[Scott_in_KC] Steve...I almost got a job in Haslett. Lest I digress, Laura. I really do have a Jack Benny quesyion.

[Maxwell] U.S. Steel would make coke and that would drive out the sulfur as hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg odor).

[Steve_(shimp)] My sister lives in Haslett.

[Laura_Leff] Scott - OK...shoot. We're all regulars so I'm OK with open forum.

[Maxwell] A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I got a gal in Kalamazoo!

[Scott_in_KC] OMG Brad. My dad was from Kalamazoo and I was raised in Marshall.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Scott--really! Ya know, I write the John Bellairs books now!

[Scott_in_KC] question*

[Laura_Leff] I'm from Grand Rapids...about an hour north of Kalamazoo.

[Laura_Leff] Max - Yes. I always knew when my family was driving through Gary because of that tremendous sulfur smell. I'd dig down into my

[Laura_Leff] sleeping bag to try to avoid it.

[Maxwell] I once drove from Joliet to Kalamazoo to hear Sonny Rollins play. Drove back home in a snowstorm.

[Scott_in_KC] Brad. e-mail me sometime. KCApape@aol.com My Jack Benny question is: Are any of his things in the Smithosian?

[Laura_Leff] Maxwell - That could have been any time from November to April.

[Maxwell] I think it was about January.

[Kay_Lhota] that is an interesting question.

[Laura_Leff] Scott - Nope, not really.

[Laura_Leff] Scott - When I was working with the Smithsonian to set up the tour after the 39 Man March, we talked about it.

[Scott_in_KC] Bummer, Laura. There should be.

[Laura_Leff] But they didn't have anything specific.

[Laura_Leff] I can tell you where else stuff is, though./

[Scott_in_KC] With Joan, Laura?

[Laura_Leff] Steve - Hey, you like the caption to the 39 Man March photo in the latest Times?

[Brad_from_Georgia] Scott--will do. LL--the Museum of the Moving Image in NY is supposed to have some TV footage of Jack--don't know what, though.

[Steve_(shimp)] Hey Laura, I keep meaning to tell you will be in Berkeley next week & will probably be going to dinner

[Laura Leff] With me?

[Laura_Leff] Scott - Well, some.

[Steve_(shimp)] Would love to have you & Dan join us at Trader Vic's..?

[Laura Leff] In Walnut Creek or SF?

[Steve_(shimp)] Great pic, LL, the whole crowd!

[Scott_in_KC] Speaking of Joan, how is she these days?

[Laura_Leff] I'm thinking more of collectables and research material.

[Steve_(shimp)] The one in Emeryville - it's a tradition with my friends when I'm in town.

[Laura_Leff] Scott- Doing fine, enjoying life.

[Kay_Lhota] that's nice to hear.

[Laura Leff] Cool! We live in Oakland, so that would be great. What day?

[Steve_(shimp)] Probably Saturday, nothing confirmed yet.

[Scott_in_KC] ^5 I miss she could join this chat. The room would be filled to the brim.

[Laura_Leff] Yes, she enjoys travelling and going between the coasts.

[Scott_in_KC] I miss...I mean I wish.....

[Laura_Leff] Scott - True, but that's also not really her thing.

[Steve_(shimp)] I'm getting in Thursday and could give you a ring...

[Laura Leff] Great. You still have my number?

[Steve_(shimp)] Think so, but you might want to e-mail it to me again, sarcher@cwf.org

[Brad_from_Georgia] We ought to organize...a Jack Benny CRUISE!

[Laura_Leff] I always try to respect her limits WRT her father and the difference between "Joan" and "Jack Benny's daughter".

[Steve_(shimp)] We're celebrating my book being done, we can celebrate 39 forever 2 as well.

[Scott_in_KC] Maybe some of the others' children or grandchildren could join us?

[Laura_Leff] Scott - Tis possible. We've talked about that from time to time.

[Steve_(shimp)] My co-author's wife is in your line of work, too, so there's common ground.

[Laura_Leff] Brad - Great idea! Go do it! :)

[Steve_(shimp)] She's a project consultant type. Very sweet.

[Brad_from_Georgia] LL-Oh, no, you don't.

[Laura Leff] Mazel tov!

[Maxwell] I nominate Brad to organize that cruise!

[Scott_in_KC] Great idea, Brad. You be the Skipper and I will be Gilligan. Laura can be Mary Ann or Ginger. :)

[Laura Leff] What's her name? Maybe I know her.

[Maxwell] All in favor?

[Steve_(shimp)] Jenny Bartoy, formerly Salomon.

[Laura_Leff] AYE!

[Brad_from_Georgia] But think about it--Eddie Carroll can entertain in the lounge....

[Laura Leff] Hmmm...doesn't ring an immediate bell, but you never know.

[Brad_from_Georgia] ...we can pipe Dennis Day songs in to the ship's restaurant....

[Steve_(shimp)] She worked for some PR firm in SF for awhile, but it will be fun. I'll keep you posted.

[Maxwell] To be a true Jack Benny cruise, it would have to be in a galley.

[Brad_from_Georgia] ...we can gorge on Jell-O....

[Laura_Leff] Where will it cruise to? Waukegan?

[Maxwell] And we'd have to pay to be oarsmen.

[Laura Leff] Sounds great. Would love seeing you again.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Well, I've never been to Hawaii....

[Scott_in_KC] Brad, we would have to sail for Santa Catalina, like Jack did when he was buying a yachet and got seasick.

[Steve_(shimp)] Great! I'll get you more details when I know.. S.

[Maxwell] Take a boat from Navy Pier to Waukegan Harbor.

[Laura_Leff] Max - Ooooooo

[Brad_from_Georgia] That's a great idea, Scott! Or even the Navy Pier--that would work, too, Maxwell!

[Scott_in_KC] yacht*

[Laura_Leff] Navy Pier at the Great Lakes Naval Station?

[Brad_from_Georgia] Scott-"Yachet" is the sound you make when you get seasick.

[Maxwell] I like Navy Pier. It's only about 35 miles from me.

[Laura_Leff] Ghesundheit

[Scott_in_KC] LOL Brad. ^5

[Maxwell] Navy Pier is in downtown Chicago.

[Laura_Leff] OIC

[Maxwell] Chicago's biggest money making tourist attraction.

[Brad_from_Georgia] How about the Old Navy pier? We could all dress to the nines!

[Steve_(shimp)] Oh, man, I have to say a cruise is like my worst nightmare. Maybe a Jack Benny mule train....?

[Kay_Lhota] LOL

[Laura_Leff] There's been talk of a Jack Benny train from LA to New York

[Laura_Leff] Or Chicago

[Maxwell] The cruises from Navy Pier last maybe an hour.

[Steve_(shimp)] With mules?

[Scott_in_KC] Sorry, Kay, you can be Ginger or Mary Ann.

[Kay_Lhota] LOL

[Laura_Leff] Jack Benny covered wagon...there was one...I even know where it is now...

[Brad_from_Georgia] I'd say a four-day cruise or nothin'. I've been on four and seven-day cruises, and I actually like the shorter ones best.

[Maxwell] And if you're really lucky, you can go on the Chicago River and while going under one of the bridges, you might get a surprise..

[Steve_(shimp)] Little Jack on the Prairie...

[Maxwell] from the Dave Mathews Band.

[Steve_(shimp)] I always think of the missed possibilities for Jack parodies that came later.

[Scott_in_KC] Laura, don't tell me. Will it stop at Azuza, Anaheim, and Coooooo ca maga?

[Kay_Lhota] oh my!

[Laura_Leff] Scott - Would you believe people have analyzed whether that route would make sense?

[Steve_(shimp)] EEEWW. Max, I've had those surprises nearly dripped on me in Chicago.

[Maxwell] I can believe anything.

[Scott_in_KC] I bet. I know the Southwest Chief really leaves here (Kansas City) to Los Angeles. I never saw Jack playing gin or Phil dringi

[Brad_from_Georgia] *harp* We get a harp but no violin?

[Laura_Leff] Brad - Hey, I didn't pick it for the SFX

[Scott_in_KC] drinking pin.

[Maxwell] Well, if we had a violin, we'd also have to have Prof. LeBlanc.

[Laura_Leff] Oui

[Scott_in_KC] gin* I can't type tonight. Sorry, folks.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Please, Meesieur Ben-nee...a crust of bread...a soobway token....anyzing...

[Laura_Leff] Bowling pin...drinking gin

[Laura_Leff] How about a Spanish dubloon?

[Brad_from_Georgia] Thinkin' thin. Oh, btw, I lost 20 lbs so far at Weight Watchers.

[Scott_in_KC] LOL Laura

[Laura_Leff] Brad - Mazel tov!

[Steve_(shimp)] Congrats Brad

[Scott_in_KC] You go, Brad! :)

[Maxwell] Attaway Brad!

[Steve_(shimp)] Brad, want to be scared, check out mypetfat.com

[Maxwell] I lost 20 lb. last year, but I found it again.

[Brad_from_Georgia] My wife actually beat me to the 20-lb goal. Since we got back from our trip, I've been scared to weigh. All that NY pizza....

[Kay_Lhota] I've managed to keep off the wieght I lost.

[Brad_from_Georgia] I'm gonna stick with the program. Any luck, I'll hit my goal weight by, oh, next Christmas!

[Steve_(shimp)] I had sea monkeys, but they died. I'm thinking about a pet fat.

[Scott_in_KC] Laura, that famous drawing of Jack Benny on the webpage. Who drew it and when?

[Laura_Leff] Scott - Andre Bouche as one of a series of drawings for CBS. Jack's is the one that really stuck.

[Brad_from_Georgia] It's a wonderful likeness of Jack.

[Scott_in_KC] I have seen it elsewhere.

[Laura_Leff] As far as time, I think it was some time in the 1950s. In my files I have a clearance for Jack to use it whenever, but I can't

[Laura_Leff] remember the date on it.

[Steve_(shimp)] Does more than one version of the Bouche caricature exist? There seem to be variations.

[Brad_from_Georgia] It's part of Eddie Carroll's logo for his show as well.

[Laura_Leff] Actually, it would have had to be pre-1954, because I think those are the earliest shows where I've

[Laura_Leff] seen it on the title card.

[Scott_in_KC] I have an old LP with that pic. I wish I knew where it was so I would give it to you, Laura.

[Laura_Leff] Steve - I think they're the same drawing with different aspects included or excluded.

[Steve_(shimp)] Ah, interesting. Some he looks a little less rosy-cheeked, or fuller-faced I think.

[Laura_Leff] Scott - Appreciate that, but I bet it's "The Jack Benny Story" and I already have a couple copies.

[Laura_Leff] I think the one on our home page is the whole drawing.

[Brad_from_Georgia] There are a few varieties of the Hischfeld caricature as well, some of them kinda bizarre looking.

[Scott_in_KC] Is it the recording he talks about "timing" as his greatest asset?

[Laura_Leff] Brad - Yes, there are definitely multiple ones of those.

[Laura_Leff] Scott - Not to sound flip, but yikes, that interview has been used in just about every Benny tribute there is.

[Laura_Leff] Scott - But I think that may be the first clip on the first record.

[Brad_from_Georgia] LL-If you play the interview backwards, it turns into an "Allen's Alley" segment.

[Laura_Leff] What was Hirschfeld's thing about using spirals for eyes?

[Maxwell] Maybe he drank a lot.

[Scott_in_KC] Maybe I am thinking of a recording in which Jack describes OTR. That is it, he was describing OTR.

[Laura_Leff] Brad - I wouldn't be surprised. I've heard it so many times that I could probably just *think* it backwards.

[Maxwell] Howdy Bub

[Scott_in_KC] LOL Brad.

[Laura_Leff] Scott - The interview is pretty lengthy, and covers a lot of ground. It was done for a 1972 show called "The Great Comedians",

[Brad_from_Georgia] I think Hirschfeld's spirals were meant to connote the sparkliness of eyes on the Broadway stage.

[Laura_Leff] which is quite good and features more than just Jack.

[Steve_(shimp)] You should see what happens when you sync up Love in Bloom with "The Wizard of Oz"....

[Kay_Lhota] lol

[Brad_from_Georgia] There's a charming Hirschfeld of Harpo Marx with wildly swirly eyes.

[Laura_Leff] We're off to see Steve Bradley...

[Laura_Leff] Brad - See, now THAT works. Because Harpo's character was sort of crazy in his own way.

[Scott_in_KC] The recording I have of Jack narrating, he discusses comedy and drama. He pronounces "drama" with a long A.

[Laura_Leff] Or Jerry Lewis, or Zero Mostel.

[Steve_(shimp)] Scott, give him a break, he's a midwesterner!

[Laura_Leff] Scott - drAYma?

[Brad_from_Georgia] I think Jack usually pronounced "drama" that way. I remember it from the radio shows.

[Maxwell] A long A or a hard A?

[Scott_in_KC] LOL...I am a Midwesterner too.

[Maxwell] I could imagine "dramma."

[Steve_(shimp)] Me too.. but my stint in Virginia has me all screwed up vowel-wise.

[Laura_Leff] Max - Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

[Maxwell] Being a lifelong Illinoisian myself....

[Laura_Leff] Like to rhyme with "gramma"

[Maxwell] Right.

[Maxwell] I've known people who pronounce it that way.

[Steve_(shimp)] I spent a summer excavating with British folks, and you should have heard them cringe when I said "khaki pants".

[Brad_from_Georgia] "The Benny players will present our version of that well-known dramma...."

[Laura_Leff] Well, Grape Nuts is not RAYshunned

[Brad_from_Georgia] "Alabama Mamma."

[Laura_Leff] You can use in on every MAINyew

[Brad_from_Georgia] And garnish it with My-naise.

[Steve_(shimp)] Where was Don originally from?

[Laura_Leff] Steve - I'm sure they weren't particularly interested in seeing pants...

[Laura_Leff] Steve - Denver

[Brad_from_Georgia] That's how my mom pronounces "Mayonnaise," btw. Me, I pronounce it like "vodka." I love sandwiches.

[Steve_(shimp)] LOL, nope. But they were amused by Twinkies and Ding

[Steve_(shimp)] Dongs as snacks...

[Laura_Leff] But I think his pronounciation must have been network-standard.

[Steve_(shimp)] Main-Yew?

[Laura_Leff] Steve - I'll bet. Try their Dog's Bollocks beer next time.

[Brad_from_Georgia] "Imagine main-yew, I do, I think about it dain-night, 'sonly right...."

[Maxwell] I'm going to have to listen closely to other commercials from the era now.

[Steve_(shimp)] I had forgotten, there's a good show from Denver where they talk a lot about it being Don's home town.

[Laura_Leff] I still say Mwaukee and Indnapolis

[Brad_from_Georgia] Maxwell--the "Bromo-Seltzer" train always gave me the creeps for some reason.

[Laura_Leff] Steve - Yeah, that's it.

[Scott_in_KC] Laura, are you familiar with that 5/26/46 espisode of the Fred Allen Show when Jack loses his pants? It seems like they were...

[Maxwell] I love the Bromo-Seltzer train!

[Laura_Leff] Scott - King for a Day

[Kay_Lhota] Like and old shoe

[Laura_Leff] There it is again

[Scott_in_KC] ....really taking them off. Hard to believe that show is 60 years old in a few days.

[Laura_Leff] Myron Proudfoot

[Brad_from_Georgia] Maxwell-didn't Bromo-Seltzer once sponsor the Ellery Queen show?

[Laura_Leff] I'm a chaplain in a bakery

[Steve_(shimp)] Brad, I agree the Bromo-Seltzer train is creepy. What show did they sponsor, that might have had something to do with it...

[Scott_in_KC] Exactly, Laura! :)

[Maxwell] I'm not sure.

[Laura_Leff] Scott - Yes, that question comes around a lot. I think he must have because of the audience reaction.

[Brad_from_Georgia] I can't remember, but I've heard it. Maybe one of the horror shows, like "Lights Out."

[Laura_Leff] There's also a story that he had "LS" and "MFT" embroidered on his shorts

[Scott_in_KC] Laura, were they really taking his clothes off. The way the audience sounded, it seemed like they were really doing it.

[Steve_(shimp)] Yes, that or the Whistler or Mysterious Traveler - that's why it rings creepy to me.

[Brad_from_Georgia] LL-And when he gained weight, the whole slogan appeared!

[Laura_Leff] Scott - I think my lines got ahead of you...

[Laura_Leff] Brad - I could make that dirty, but won't.

[Maxwell] The only sponsor I've heard for any Whistler shows was Signal Oil.

[Maxwell] But I haven't heard all that many of them.

[Laura_Leff] I...am the Fiddler...

[Kay_Lhota] LOL

[Brad_from_Georgia] Rins-O Blue had a kind of chirpy commercial, I remember.

[Laura_Leff] I walk by night...*scree scree scree*

[Maxwell] I know it wasn't Grand Central Station (still talking about Bromo).

[Scott_in_KC] I am not a touch typist Laura...Plus, I was looking at my CD to get the correct date. :)

[Laura_Leff] Rinso WHITE and Rinso BRIGHT! Happy little washday song!

[Laura_Leff] Scott - OK, just wanted to insure you'd gotten my answer.

[Maxwell] Now the creepy one to me is L-A-V-A, L-A-V-A....

[Laura_Leff] BEEEEEEE-OHHHHHHHHHH

[Brad_from_Georgia] Oh, gosh, remember the Ralston cereal commercial?

[Scott_in_KC] If you like OTR, watch "Radio Days" by Woody Allen.

[Maxwell] I know the Tom Mix one.

[Steve_(shimp)] LL, I LOVE the B.O. foghorn. I am on a quest to find some lifebuoy soap, just cause I love it so much.

[Laura_Leff] Scott - Oh yeah, definitely.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Maxwell--that's it!

[Laura_Leff] Steve - ah, I heard that there's an online

[Laura_Leff] "old country store" that carries old brands like that.

[Steve_(shimp)] Cool, I'll track it down.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Lifebuoy is readily available around here.

[Maxwell] I'm trying to remember the name of the tune the Ralston theme was from...something like "When It's Roundup Time in Texas."

[Laura_Leff] Hark, I hear the cannons roah. Is it the king approaching?

[Scott_in_KC] <<< Wondering what life was like beofre color TV. :)

[Kay_Lhota] LOL Laura

[Maxwell] I've heard Gene Autry sing it on his TV show.

[Steve_(shimp)] There's a great Bugs Bunny cartoon where he sniffs along the ground, and ends up in someone's pit and mouths the BO foghorn.

[Scott_in_KC] before*

[Maxwell] There was radio.

[Laura_Leff] And radio was KING!

[Maxwell] People used to sit and stare at it wondering where the pictures were.

[Scott_in_KC] Laura...That is "kingk" approaching

[Brad_from_Georgia] Ya know, I've heard that the "Beeeeyoop!" zippy sound in Looney Tunes cartoons was a vocal by animator Tex Avery.

[Laura_Leff] I just pulled a 1937 Radio Guide yesterday and found on the cover (below a painting of Jack) "Who is Holding Television Back?"

[Scott_in_KC] Hear the cannons raw

[Kay_Lhota] It wasn't Tex Avery it was Bob Clampett

[Maxwell] Yup...it was used in Clampett's cartoons.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Jack was holding TV back? I'll bet he was waiting for color TV to show up his blue eyes. I stand Clampett-corrected.

[Laura_Leff] Supposedly, Walter Lantz's wife originated the Woody Woodpecker laugh, but then there was an argument that Mel Blanc did.

[Laura_Leff] Even went to court.

[Maxwell] Mel did.

[Maxwell] At least according to him.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Mel did the first Woody voice. It was like his early Bugs Bunny voice--almost identical.

[Laura_Leff] Mel and the Sportsmen did the record of Woody Woodpecker

[Scott_in_KC] Woody Woodpecker's voice was Walter Lantz' wife?

[Maxwell] The laugh was similar to one he did for both Bugs and Daffy Duck.

[Kay_Lhota] yes, she did it later

[Brad_from_Georgia] The Mel laugh in the very first cartoon was weirder than the standard ha-ha-ha-HAH-ha of later years.

[Kay_Lhota] yes

[Steve_(shimp)] When did Woody first appear?

[Brad_from_Georgia] Grace Lantz did Woody for years. I think the first Woody cartoon was 1940, but I'm not sure.

[Scott_in_KC] Shuffin' shuckatash

[Laura_Leff] Steve - I think it was "Bananas"...

[Steve_(shimp)] I watched the old George Pal movie "Destination Moon" awhile back and there's a whole Woody-goes-to-the-moon segment in it.

[Laura_Leff] Steve - (Actually not, but I can't remember the name of the movie)

[Kay_Lhota] It was in 1940. It was called "Knock Knock" an Andy Panda cartoon

[Steve_(shimp)] But Woody doesn't get any attention at all nowadays as far as I can tell.

[Steve_(shimp)] I was always partial to Chilly Willy of the Lantz stable for some reason.

[Scott_in_KC] Thanks, Kay. :)

[Maxwell] Tex Avery directed several of the early Chilly Willys.

[Laura_Leff] And what ever happened to Little Lulu?

[Maxwell] I think he may have even created him, but I won't swear to that.

[Kay_Lhota] I can tell you, Laura.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Tex grumbled, "You can't get laughs with a little old fuzzy penguin!"

[Steve_(shimp)] All those about her died of boredom, LL

[Laura_Leff] Kay - OK...

[Scott_in_KC] I know there was a Jack Bunny, but did Jack ever supply his voice to cartoons?

[Brad_from_Georgia] "Little Lulu" was resurrected a few years ago as a Home Box Office show.

[Kay_Lhota] Paramount's Famous studio did those cartoons for a few years, but because they

[Steve_(shimp)] Other than Mouse that Jack Built...?

[Laura_Leff] Scott - "the Mouse That Jack Built"

[Laura_Leff] Brad - It was?

[Scott_in_KC] Anything on TV?

[Kay_Lhota] didn't own the character, they didn't want to pay the royalty to the newspaper syndicate

[Maxwell] So they created Little Audrey.

[Kay_Lhota] so they created "Little Audrey"

[Kay_Lhota] yup

[Brad_from_Georgia] LL-Yep.

[Laura_Leff] Oh, I'll be darned.

[Steve_(shimp)] Wow, that is one of the great mysteries revealed to me. That's cool to know!

[Maxwell] But they paid King Features a royalty for Popeye for years.

[Steve_(shimp)] Now, is Casper really the ghost of Richie Rich?

[Brad_from_Georgia] LL-Tracey Ulman did Lulu's voice for HBO.

[Scott_in_KC] I yam what I yam

[Laura_Leff] You know, I'd heard KFS was trying to re-invent the Popeye brand a year or two ago.

[Scott_in_KC] LOL Steve

[Laura_Leff] Scott - You're a yam?

[Maxwell] I love yams.

[Steve_(shimp)] I love Popeye because he's such a horrible role model for kids. Sure he eats his spinach, but he's a cussin' one-eyed sailor.

[Brad_from_Georgia] "What kinda name is Olive Oyl? Sounds like some kind o' lubricinks."

[Laura_Leff] I'd heard they were trying to do something to make him (Popeye) sort of hip and happenin.

[Scott_in_KC] I was imitating Popeye, Laura

[Maxwell] Whow beats people up.

[Laura_Leff] OK, too many mosquitoes...moving inside.

[Maxwell] who

[Steve_(shimp)] How did Popeye lose his eye?

[Brad_from_Georgia] Popeye...cartoon uprightness tied to a short fuse.

[Scott_in_KC] Olive Oyl was annorexic.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Steve-In one of the comic strips, he explains that he has two eyes, but one of them is "squinky".

[Maxwell] Yup. And of course he was the model for Festus on Gunsmoke.

[Steve_(shimp)] Maybe he'd been using Bausch and Lomb contact solution...

[Maxwell] (Well, I just made that part up.)

[Scott_in_KC] Was Brtus (aka Jackson Beck) ever on a Jack Benny show?

[Maxwell] My son has an eye infection...and he was using &L.

[Maxwell] B&L

[Steve_(shimp)] Hope it clears up Max! That is bad stuff from what I hear.

[Scott_in_KC] Brutus*

[Maxwell] Brutus? Boy that dates you!

[Brad_from_Georgia] ...Ken Curtis, who played Festus, sort of prefigured that character with Charley McCorry from the John Wayne film "The Searchers

[Laura_Leff] Scott - Actually, I just heard that he's the "Beck, ?" in Volume 2.

[Scott_in_KC] I could have said Bluto

[Maxwell] To us old folks it's Bluto.

[Laura_Leff] Maxwell - I didn't even know he was gay.

[Scott_in_KC] ^5 Max

[Maxwell] It's a well-kept secret, LL.

[Laura_Leff] So yes, he was on the Benny show.

[Scott_in_KC] Wimpy and Oliver Oyl were brother and sister?

[Steve_(shimp)] Oliver Oyl?

[Laura_Leff] Scott - More like Mutt and Jeff.

[Maxwell] Couldn't be. His name was J. Wellington Wimpy.

[Steve_(shimp)] Coliver Oyl keeps you regular...

[Maxwell] Castor Oyl was Olive Oyl's brother.

[Laura_Leff] I hope not, considering what they do in Tijuana Bibles.

[Scott_in_KC] I think they were related.

[Laura_Leff] Banana oil

[Scott_in_KC] Iraqi Oyl

[Laura_Leff] Scott - LOL

[Steve_(shimp)] Who names their kid sweepea, anyway?

[Laura_Leff] Crude Oyl had a foul mouth

[Maxwell] And who's kid was Sweepea?

[Brad_from_Georgia] J. Wellington Wimpy was no relation to Olive. And his I.Q. is 240.

[Scott_in_KC] LOL Laura

[Brad_from_Georgia] Sweepea was a orphink chile.

[Maxwell] No, that's how many hamburgers a day he eats.

[Laura_Leff] Brad - At least, that's what they wanted everyone to BELIEVE.

[Steve_(shimp)] My favorite popeyeism is "abusement parks" - I always call them that.

[Maxwell] And remember, he always pays you back on Tuesday.

[Scott_in_KC] LOL Brad

[Laura_Leff] Steve - Did you see the note on that in the Times as well?

[Brad_from_Georgia] Segar always said that Wimpy was the smartest character in the strip. "He can always outthink Popeye."

[Steve_(shimp)] Holy cow, must have missed that! I glanced through the times but haven't sat down for a full read yet.

[Maxwell] At least as far as getting free hamburgers.

[Laura_Leff] There's a cartoon online which is a cross between Popeye and Star Trek.

[Laura_Leff] Drawn by an old friend of mine.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Poptrek?

[Brad_from_Georgia] LL-What is it?

[Scott_in_KC] Max, especially during The Great Depression

[Laura_Leff] Try the Popeye FanClub (not a typo...that's what they call it). I think it may be on their site.

[Laura_Leff] It's been a while since I saw it, but it's......well.........pretty strange.

[Steve_(shimp)] The interview was great in the Times, though, LL, what a treat to hear from "Belly-Laugh"

[Laura_Leff] Steve - Yes! It was fun transcribing it.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Steve--second that! Good interview!

[Laura_Leff] I'm looking forward to the next issue. Want to try and finish that interview, and have another timely one to celebrate an

[Laura_Leff] important anniversary this December.

[Steve_(shimp)] It's nice to know that a few of the Benny cast here and there are still well and with us.

[Laura_Leff] But I don't have to do that until August.

[Kay_Lhota] I enjoyed that interview with Dix Davis, Laura.

[Laura_Leff] Steve - And mainly the young ones.

[Scott_in_KC] What is in Dec., the anniversay of Jack's passing?

[Laura_Leff] Kay - Yes, thank you.

[Laura_Leff] OK, trivia time...

[Laura_Leff] What happened 70 years ago this December?

[Laura_Leff] You can get this. This room can.

[Scott_in_KC] Jack debuted?

[Steve_(shimp)] The first Benny broadcast?

[Kay_Lhota] The feud!

[Laura_Leff] Scott - Nope

[Laura_Leff] Kay - Yes, what part?

[Maxwell] Jack changed his name to Jack Benny?

[Steve_(shimp)] Oh, man, that can't be right...

[Laura_Leff] Max - No, that was 1920.

[Maxwell] Darn!

[Steve_(shimp)] The first Jell-O show?

[Brad_from_Georgia] Jack changed his name back to Benjamin Kubelsky?

[Kay_Lhota] That Fred Allen had Stuart Canin on his show in Dec of 1936

[Laura_Leff] Kay's on the trail...get more specific

[Laura_Leff] Kay - YOU GOT IT!

[Scott_in_KC] The first show was in 1934, anyway, right?

[Kay_Lhota] and on Dec 30 Jack commented on Fred's comment

[Laura_Leff] Scott - 1932

[Kay_Lhota] and the Feud got off and running

[Brad_from_Georgia] Ah, that was "The Bee."

[Maxwell] Damn...I was thinking 1926 instead of 36. (And to think I used to teach math....)

[Laura_Leff] Kay - Not quite...12/30 was Fred's show

[Kay_Lhota] oops

[Kay_Lhota] I was close

[Scott_in_KC] Thanks...I am not an expert.

[Laura_Leff] Kay - Oh you get credit.

[Maxwell] And I get an F in math.

[Steve_(shimp)] I think we should have a Jack Benny Feud Fight event... we can throw Jell-O and Grape Nuts at each other...

[Laura_Leff] So I interviewed Stuart Canin and he gives us his recollection of what Fred said on the West Coast broadcast.

[Kay_Lhota] but I thought it came at the end of the Buck Benny episode

[Brad_from_Georgia] Steve- :D

[Kay_Lhota] I better look up the dates

[Laura_Leff] Steve - How about JellO and Sal Hepatica?

[Scott_in_KC] Any more, Laura, like Who's buried in Jack's tomb?

[Laura_Leff] Kay - It did, but the following week.

[Steve_(shimp)] Those are actually two things that reasonably go together well, for which I will not explain further....!

[Laura_Leff] Scott - OK, who *is* buried in Jack's tomb?

[Maxwell] Thanks, Steve.

[Brad_from_Georgia] BTW, I liked Jack's parody of Fred Allen.

[Maxwell] Grant!

[Kay_Lhota] okay, I see it now. The first response was on 01-03-37

[Scott_in_KC] Jack and Mary?

[Steve_(shimp)] Slightly off topic, where is Fred Allen buried?

[Laura_Leff] Max - Granted

[Laura_Leff] Kay - That's it

[Laura_Leff] Scott - YOU GOT IT!

[Laura_Leff] Steve - Back East, either New Jersey or Long Island. Under his regular name of John Florence Sullivan.

[Scott_in_KC] Thanks Laura.....

[Laura_Leff] Steve - Check findagrave.com...they've got pictures.

[Steve_(shimp)] I should have gone on my last road trip. I saw Washington Irving's grave and the Headless Horseman bridge which is now a boring

[Steve_(shimp)] intersection!

[Laura_Leff] Portland is not buried with him.

[Steve_(shimp)] Really, LL, why not?

[Brad_from_Georgia] Fred is buried in Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, NY.

[Scott_in_KC] "Oh Mr. Allen, Mr. Allen......?"

[Laura_Leff] Steve - She remarried. I think she's buried with her second husband.

[Laura_Leff] Brad - There you go.

[Laura_Leff] A bandleader, as I recall. But I don't recall the name.

[Maxwell] Not Al Goodman?

[Steve_(shimp)] Saw Irving when I should have seen Hawthorne! Darned early American lit!

[Laura_Leff] Eddie Anderson, on the other hand, remarried but is buried with his first wife.

[Brad_from_Georgia] He's buried under his real name, by the way--the stone reads John F. Sullivan "Fred Allen".

[Scott_in_KC] Laura...The bandleader was Phil Harris. :)

[Laura_Leff] max - I think I'd remember that, but you could be right.

[Laura_Leff] Steve and Scott - :P

[Maxwell] LL, Al Goodman led the band on Allen's show.

[Laura_Leff] Max - Oh, I was thinking of Peter Van Steeden

[Maxwell] Doh!

[Maxwell] Okay, so what show did Al Goodman lead? Or maybe he came later....

[Laura_Leff] OK, trivia time again...

[Maxwell] Now I'm gonna have to look that up!

[Laura_Leff] How many Jack Benny bandleaders can you name?

[Laura_Leff] Maxwell - You may be right and he came later. I'm not an Allen expert.

[Steve_(shimp)] Don Bestor, Phil Harris

[Kay_Lhota] Don Bestor, Johnny Green, Phil Harris,

[Steve_(shimp)] Whew, claimed the easy ones!

[Laura_Leff] Yeah...more more...

[Kay_Lhota] Bob Crosby

[Maxwell] Ted Weems, Johnny Green PHil Harris Bob Crosby...

[Steve_(shimp)] Mahlon Merrick, the real one

[Laura_Leff] How about the first one

[Maxwell] Mahlon Merrick

[Laura_Leff] Steve - good call

[Kay_Lhota] yes

[Laura_Leff] And and?

[Kay_Lhota] I thought about him, but didn't think to list him

[Scott_in_KC] Doc Severson, Skitch Henderson, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg......

[Brad_from_Georgia] Me type 2 slow.

[Steve_(shimp)] LOL Scott

[Laura_Leff] Scott - LOL

[Maxwell] Ditto.

[Maxwell] Joplin!~

[Laura_Leff] And and? You've got at least two more

[Maxwell] No...

[Kay_Lhota] George Olson

[Steve_(shimp)] Ludwig Von Beethoven

[Laura_Leff] Kay - That's one of them

[Brad_from_Georgia] John Philip Sousa. "Play, John."

[Laura_Leff] Need a hint?

[Scott_in_KC] LOL Brad

[Steve_(shimp)] Hint, hing

[Kay_Lhota] his name hit me all of a sudden when I thought of his first show with Ethel Shutta

[Steve_(shimp)] hint

[Laura_Leff] FB

[Maxwell] Floyd Bannister!

[Laura_Leff] Kay - Yeah, George and Ethel were married

[Scott_in_KC] Was the bandleader a hip-hop artist

[Steve_(shimp)] Frank ...

[Laura_Leff] Maxwell - Thank you J. Edgar Hoover

[Kay_Lhota] yes, and she did WHOOPEE with Eddie Cantor

[Laura_Leff] Steve - Yeah, yeah...

[Maxwell] Didn't Ida object?

[Kay_Lhota] George Olson did the music for the stage show and the movie

[Steve_(shimp)] tip of the tongue... Black?

[Laura_Leff] Steve - YEAHHH!!!!!!

[Steve_(shimp)] whoohoo

[Laura_Leff] Hey, who said Ted Weems? That's darned good!

[Maxwell] I did.

[Laura_Leff] Max - Good job!

[Laura_Leff] I'd forgotten him until you said his name!

[Maxwell] Midwesterner...Ted Weems was very popular out this way a generation before I was born.

[Scott_in_KC] ^5

[Kay_Lhota] I have Volume 1 beside me, but it wouldn't be fair now to name Frank Black. So no points to score

[Maxwell] I think it was his boy singer, some guy named Como.

[Laura_Leff] Max - True. I have lot of his records I picked up in Michigan.

[Scott_in_KC] The Da Vinci Como?

[Brad_from_Georgia] Ah, "Perry Coma," as my aunt always called him.

[Laura_Leff] We could get real technical and pick up people like Benny Goodman and Abe Lyman who subbed

[Maxwell] Either she stole that from Mad Magazine or they stole that from her.

[Laura_Leff] The Velvet Frog...

[Maxwell] Michigan J. Frog.

[Steve_(shimp)] MAD is such a wonderful universal constant. Every few years I pick one up and it's still the same.

[Maxwell] Except Don Martin is dead.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Probably MAD from her. Back in the fifties, she HATED Perry Como--and my mom liked the show.

[Laura_Leff] Steve - An argument for not subscribing.

[Laura_Leff] Guy Lumbago

[Steve_(shimp)] True, I suppose. MAD and Godzilla just go on and on... I like that some things stay the same!

[Brad_from_Georgia] I once met Jack Davis, who used to be one of the usual gang of idiots at MAD.

[Laura_Leff] And Dr. Who

[Kay_Lhota] what was he like?

[Scott_in_KC] Max, so is David Berg. :(

[Maxwell] I used to love the Berg's Eye View Dept.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Davis? Nice guy--talked to me about working with my old friend Ed Dodd on the "Mark Trail" comic strip in the fifties.

[Kay_Lhota] oh cool!

[Laura_Leff] And Gasoline Alley

[Brad_from_Georgia] I talked to him about finding a bunch of Davis's early drawings in the UGA library, dating from his student days.

[Maxwell] MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRK TRAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLL!

[Laura_Leff] (GA = things that keep going and stay the same)

[Maxwell] Guardian of the forest!

[Scott_in_KC] Wow...The Kevin Bacon Effect going on here. :)

[Steve_(shimp)] Jack Davis is wonderful. His EC scary comics from the fifties are classics as well. Tales from the Crypt, etc.

[Laura_Leff] I thought that was Grizzly Man

[Brad_from_Georgia] Dodd once told me "I had to fire Davis. He couldn't draw feet. His damn feet looked like they had a hinge in 'em!"

[Kay_Lhota] LOL

[Maxwell] Sounds like Don Martin feet.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Maxwell--I suggested that Jack caught the hingefoot from Don Martin!

[Maxwell] Could be!

[Steve_(shimp)] I always think of Harvey Kurtzman as the original "MAD" guy, he had that way with words that is peculiar to MAD.

[Brad_from_Georgia] I always hoped that when Ed passed away, he would will me the Pogo strip that Walt Kelly gave him...but he didn't. Sigh.

[Maxwell] Gotta go....Adios!

[Kay_Lhota] goodnight Max

[Laura_Leff] Take care, Maxwell!

[Steve_(shimp)] Hasta la vista Max...

Maxwell has left the chat.

[Scott_in_KC] Are you an artist, Brad?

[Scott_in_KC] Take care, Max!

[Laura_Leff] So tell me something...was Pogo much better once than when it was resurrected?

[Brad_from_Georgia] Scott-Only a BS artist. A writer...

[Brad_from_Georgia] LL-Pogo was a classic. It was a WONDERFUL strip in its heyday!

[Steve_(shimp)] Brad, have you seen the unemployment skit in Mel Brooks' History of the World?

[Laura_Leff] It came back in the 1980s and I read it for a while, but it seemed quite dull.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Steve-Yep!

[Laura_Leff] But there are so many quotables from it that it must have been great at one time.

[Steve_(shimp)] :D

[Kay_Lhota] Pogo has a kind of low key humor and plays on words that you sort of have to grow into

[Scott_in_KC] "I have seen the enenmy and it is us." Is that the right quoye?

[Brad_from_Georgia] LL-Yes, that was Kelly's second wife and some assistants helping out. They sometimes sort of got the tone, but not often.

[Brad_from_Georgia] "We have met the enemy--and he is us."

[Laura_Leff] We have met the enemy, and it is us.

[Laura_Leff] Brad - OK, that makes me feel better. I thought I just wasn't "getting" it.

[Kay_Lhota] My Mom had a song book of Pogo songs that we used to sing

[Brad_from_Georgia] My favorite Pogo has a long discussion of grammar at its core: "A octopots done is got Albert"

[Steve_(shimp)] I have met the enemy and he is Fred Allen.

[Brad_from_Georgia] is the present emphatiwoticle tense.

[Kay_Lhota] like "The Keen and the Quing"

[Scott_in_KC] Thanks Laura and Brad. That strip was too highbrow for me. I will stick to "Peanuts" or "Garfield"

[Brad_from_Georgia] "The Keen and the Quiong were quirling at quoits in a meadow behind of the mere..."

[Brad_from_Georgia] quing, I mean...

[Steve_(shimp)] Peanuts is very Jack Benny...

[Kay_Lhota] Tho Mainly the meadow was middled with mo

[Laura_Leff] Peanuts was really, really great up to the 1970s. Then it started getting cutesy.

[Kay_Lhota] an hiretical hitherto hear

[Brad_from_Georgia] "Hooroar a roar for Nora, Nora Alice in the Night, for she has seen Aurora Borealis burning bright..."

[Laura_Leff] Steve - yes, Eddie wrote a column comparing Charlie Brown to Jack Benny and it was quite good.

[Kay_Lhota] the Prince and the Princess were praiting hte plates and praiting quite primly the peer

[Scott_in_KC] Yeah, Laura.

[Kay_Lhota] and that's why the duchess stuck ducks on the duke for no one was overto seer

[Steve_(shimp)] Charlie Brown is Jack Benny, though Jack's a little less maudlin about it...

[Laura_Leff] Steve - Yes, Jack has a little more fight in him.

[Scott_in_KC] I gotta run too. God bless everyone! :)

[Brad_from_Georgia] "I was eatin' some chop suey with a lady from St. Louie when there sudden come a poundin' on the door...

[Laura_Leff] Take care, Scott!

[Kay_Lhota] goodnight scott

[Steve_(shimp)] Bye Scott

[Brad_from_Georgia] And that knocker, he says Honey, roll this rocker out some money, or your daddy shoots a baddy to the floor."

[Laura_Leff] Look out! It's a Pogo tear!

[Brad_from_Georgia] G'night, Scott!

[Kay_Lhota] it's spooky, Laura. I don't often find people that know this music

[Brad_from_Georgia] I loved Kelly's playfulness with language in Pogo. It's akin to a Mr. Kitzel bit, really.

[Laura_Leff] Kay - You'll find an awful lot of people in the IJBFC that you wouldn't find elsewhere! :)

[Kay_Lhota] This is a good thing!

[Laura_Leff] I always say that "culture is dictated by the person at the top" (in companies).

[Brad_from_Georgia] Yes...otherwise we would spread...like a fungus. Bwahaha!

[Kay_Lhota] LOL Brad

[Steve_(shimp)] I think we have some kind of extra retroactive lobe in our brains ...

[Laura_Leff] I'm pretty eclectic myself, so I guess that's how we get this sort of strange group.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Steve-well, I got three kidneys, myself.

[Laura_Leff] Steve - See "Heavenly Creatures"

[Laura_Leff] Brad - Are you making a pie?

[Steve_(shimp)] I've seen Heavenly Creatures, but don't remember that!

[Laura_Leff] Steve - I'm one of the 10.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Nope, just got a spare. Showed up in an X-ray, and my doctor was bemused.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Kinda spooky...may be the last remnant of an unborn twin of mine....

[Laura_Leff] Brad - There are many comments that come to mind, none of which I'll share at the moment.

[Steve_(shimp)] So, I says, I said, kiddlies, diddle I?

[Laura_Leff] Ooooh what he said!

[Laura_Leff] Brad - I was born without tonsils. Handy.

[Steve_(shimp)] You know, Mike Amo's been here the whole chat but hasn't made a peep!

[Laura_Leff] Steve - Because he's at a concert.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Peep up, Mike!

[Steve_(shimp)] Ah, nice that he's here in spirit though.

[Brad_from_Georgia] O well.

[Laura_Leff] He'll check the transcript later.

[Laura_Leff] Everyone say hi to Mike!

[Brad_from_Georgia] Hiya, Mike!

[Laura_Leff] Let's see if he reads down this far.

[Steve_(shimp)] Hi Mike.

[Kay_Lhota] Hi Mike

[Steve_(shimp)] So LL, any Jack news on the horizon?

[Laura_Leff] Steve - Kind of up to the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee, I suppose.

[Laura_Leff] But I'm working on a deal for the estate. Too unfinalized to discuss at the moment.

[Steve_(shimp)] They are doing those "forever" stamps, but they will start at 42 cents, alas.

[Steve_(shimp)] 42 forever just stinks!

[Laura_Leff] Steve - Yes, that's beyond irony for me personally, what with 39 Forever.

[Brad_from_Georgia] Yawn...late for me. I guess I'll turn in. We're going to the Georgia Aquarium tomorrow.

[Laura_Leff] Brad - Don't get wet.

[Kay_Lhota] goodnight Brad

[Brad_from_Georgia] Gotta get up early to catch them fishies...

[Laura_Leff] Take care, Brad!

[Brad_from_Georgia] Bye all!

[Steve_(shimp)] Bye Brad!

Brad_from_Georgia has left the chat.

[Laura_Leff] So do people want to keep talking, or should we call it good?

[Kay_Lhota] it's been good, Laura.

[Steve_(shimp)] I'll go with the consensus...

[Laura_Leff] I'm getting hungry, so I think I'd like to wrap.

[Kay_Lhota] I just let Frank know that I want to order Volume 2.

[Steve_(shimp)] Fun chat as always! I'll drop you a line LL. Night Kay!

[Laura_Leff] Kay - OK...I have lots of copies, so just let me know.

[Kay_Lhota] we will

[Laura_Leff] Talk with you soon, Steve!

[Kay_Lhota] goodnight Laura

Steve_(shimp) has left the chat.

[Laura_Leff] Night Kay!

Kay_Lhota has left the chat.

[Laura_Leff] Good night Mike, wherever you are...