IJBFC Chat - August 3, 2008
(Name of message originator in [] brackets at the beginning of each line)
[Maxwell]
Hey Laura
[Steve
-shimp-] Hiya Laura!
[Laura
Leff] Hi folks
[Maxwell]
Small group so far tonight.
[Laura
Leff] How's everyone doing tonight?
[Maxwell]
Doing good here. You?
[Steve
-shimp-] Doing well!
[Laura
Leff] Pretty good
[Laura
Leff] Nice productive weekend without being crazy.
[Laura
Leff] Hi Michael - Is this your first time here?
[Michael]
Hi Laura and no it isn't
[Michael]
I was here last month
[Laura
Leff] OK...just wasn't remembering...we have a lot of Mikes and
Michaels
[Laura
Leff] Ah, my apologies. I should have remembered!
[Michael]
no worries
[Steve
-shimp-] I missed last month, I was in Colorado...
[Maxwell]
But very few Maxwells.
[Laura
Leff] Well, welcome back.
[Steve
-shimp-] So, nice to meet you Michael!
[Laura
Leff] And only one Steve shimp
[Maxwell]
Except perhaps Maxwell Stroud.
[Steve
-shimp-] At least when the schizophrenia isn't kicking in.
[Laura
Leff] So did folks get a chance to listen to the two shows for
tonight?
[Michael]
now.... I've got a question for you Laura.... why did you pick two shows that
tell the same story?
[Steve
-shimp-] Yeah. How many times did they go to the well with that
script!?
[Laura
Leff] Michael - Well, I figured that it might be interesting to do a
compare/contrast between the two.
[Laura
Leff] Steve - More than just these two.
[Michael]
sounded to me the only thing different were the specific actors/actresses
[Laura
Leff] See what's the same and what changed in the four years between
performances.
[Steve
-shimp-] There's Vincent Price on TV -- and another we listened to
several chats back that wasn't quite the same, but used some bits.
User
Brad from Georgia has entered this room.
[Laura
Leff] Well, you have the fish market bit
[Michael]
Hi Brad
[Maxwell]
Interestingly enough I recently watched the live Vincent Price show.
[Laura
Leff] Hi Brad!
[Steve
-shimp-] Hi Brad.
[Brad
from Georgia] Hi, LL, Maxwell, Michael, Steve
[Maxwell]
Hey Brad!
[Steve
-shimp-] I love that one because VP and Jack together really makes my
day.
[Laura
Leff] Also that the audience on Ham for Sale sounded much
colder...took longer to warm up.
[Laura
Leff] Different ending, too
[Steve
-shimp-] Interesting how some gags die in one performance but will go
over like gangbusters in the other.
[Brad
from Georgia] Didn't Jack redo this show once again on TV, with
Vincent Price as guest?
[Maxwell]
Yeah, it sounded at first like they didn't know it was a comedy.
[Laura
Leff] And Stanwyck cracking up
[Laura
Leff] Brad - Sure did...Steve just recently saw it.
[Maxwell]
Brad and Irene Dunn and Gregory Ratoff.
[Maxwell]
Gregory?
[Steve
-shimp-] So did Maxwell!
[Brad
from Georgia] So did Brad.
[Brad
from Georgia] It was on the recent DVD set.
[Laura
Leff] Yeah, they got a lot of mileage out of this script! I think
Gulf was the first time they did it.
[Steve
-shimp-] It would have been great if Vincent and Irene were doing
"I Dismember Mama"
[Laura
Leff] Any guesses on the supporting cast members?
[Maxwell]
Steve, unfortunately that was before Price's career at AIP began.
[Steve
-shimp-] Ah, true.
[Maxwell]
Well, the announcer on the Stanwyck one was Truman Bradley.
[Laura
Leff] Any guesses on the supporting cast? Operators, etc.?
[Brad
from Georgia] It's been a couple of weeks since I listened to the
shows. Was gonna relisten today, but our daughter had a dog crisis, and we spent
the day helping her resolve it.
[Steve
-shimp-] There weren't many supporting cast - the phone operator?
[Laura
Leff] Brad - Hope the dog is better.
[Brad
from Georgia] Truman Bradley: "Science Fiction Theater."
[Laura
Leff] Joe's Fish Market guy
[Maxwell]
Brad *dingdingdingding*
[Laura
Leff] Truman Capote: "In Cold Blood"
[Maxwell]
I have to admit I was multitasking and wasn't listening to voices.
[Brad
from Georgia] LL--The dog is ours now. She couldn't handle it, and
couldn't stand to send it back to the pound. We have a fenced-in yard, so....we
took Tripper.
[Laura
Leff] Brad - For more than just a Day Tripper
[Brad
from Georgia] Truman Bradley Capote: "In a Cold, Bloody Science
Fiction Theater"
[Laura
Leff] It was a cold and bloody science fiction theatre...
[Maxwell]
From the audience reaction, it sounded like Jack really planted one on Barbara.
[Laura
Leff] So what else about these shows?
[Brad
from Georgia] Tripper was named, btw, for his propensity to wrap his
leash around one's ankles.
[Laura
Leff] Maxwell - Yes, so much that it made me laugh
[Brad
from Georgia] Let's see...I think you're right that the two audiences
were vastly different in their expectations.
[Laura
Leff] It sounded like Stanwyck starting to crack up got the audience
to loosen up
[Maxwell]
That and the jokes/ad libs about Curtiz.
[Brad
from Georgia] The way one audience seemed to laugh somewhat randomly
made me wonder if someone were mugging.
[Laura
Leff] Lines that got big laughs on Gulf sometimes got absolutely
nothing on Front Line
[Brad
from Georgia] Well, Gulf is a gas.
[Steve
-shimp-] I'm curious that this script seems to have been done for a
number of 'charity' shows but only once on the JBS, the TV version, right?
[Steve
-shimp-] Could Morrow and Beloin have 'donated' their writer's fees
in some way?
[Laura
Leff] Steve - Hmmm
[Laura
Leff] Steve - For some reason, I want to say that they did it on the
radio show too...
[Maxwell]
I've been trying to remember if I've heard it on the radio show.
[Laura
Leff] Would have to do some thumbing in "39 Forever".
[Steve
-shimp-] Was there a vincent price radio version?
[Brad
from Georgia] Does anyone remember what the TV equivalent of the
"Fine Sherlock Holmes, can't even find his car" line was?
[Steve
-shimp-] Maybe. Like I say, they went to the well a LOT with this
one.
[Laura
Leff] I feel like I remember some of it with Mary doing the lead in
on it
[Steve
-shimp-] There was "I can beat Vincent's PRICE", but not
the same context.
[Maxwell]
Brad Now I'm trying to remember if there was an equivalent line.
[Brad
from Georgia] I'd meant to check today, but doggy troubles....
[Laura
Leff] "Well, Don, you know Jack always wants to get into
drama...so the other day he (music fade)"
[Laura
Leff] But they'd have to trim it down to probably the second half of
the show.
[Steve
-shimp-] OK, 2/6/49, Vincent Price on radio version of the script.
Thanks for 39 Forever, LL!
[Maxwell]
That was pretty much what they did for the Price/Dunne show iirc.
[Laura
Leff] As for supporting actors, it's Morrow and Beloin doing the
"relay" bit on Gulf...
[Laura
Leff] Steve - Thanks! Knew I'd heard it...
[Laura
Leff] So they basically bring it up again every 4-5 years.
[Maxwell]
With a different director every time.
[Steve
-shimp-] Didn't we do a chat on a similar (but not identical) script
that was another charity show with Judy Garland, and Jack trying to horn in on
something as well?
[Laura
Leff] Jack helped with global warming by extensive recycling.
[Brad
from Georgia] But always a director with a different foreign
language.
[Laura
Leff] Steve - Oh...yeah, they did that at Sperdvac as well.
[Maxwell]
Steve, who was the director in the radio show with Price?
[Steve
-shimp-] I think there are sections that are identical in those
scripts.
[Laura
Leff] That was the first show of the Gulf Screen Guild Theatre.
[Steve
-shimp-] Fletcher Markle
[Laura
Leff] Does a bit with Joan Crawford, trying to get to do work with
her.
[Maxwell]
Okay, I am pretty sure I've heard that one, too.
[Maxwell]
I've been trying to remember.
[Laura
Leff] Jack did a lot of dialogues with beautiful actresses trying to
play leading man to them, and them saying that he doesn't have sex appeal.
[Brad
from Georgia] I thought the jokes mostly worked on both versions. I
think the walnut gag worked better on TV.
[Laura
Leff] Brad - Remind me of the visual on that.
[Maxwell]
Brad, agreed. It's funnier to see him cracking several nuts than hearing a
couple of loud SFX cracks.
[Steve
-shimp-] The SFX are exaggerated in the TV version too, which is
funny.
[Brad
from Georgia] Enormous bowl of walnuts; Jack sort of hogs them,
stirring them around noisily to select just the right ones, then cracking two at
a time, to loud SFX.
[Laura
Leff] Nod to Ray Erlenborn...
[Laura
Leff] who most likely provided the cracks...
[Maxwell]
The visual part adds to the gag.
[Laura
Leff] Brad - Right, OK, that's stirring a memory...or maybe just
stirring a nut
[Steve
-shimp-] Is it just me, or when Jack is out of his element --- i.e.,
without the regular cast, he tends to play "annoying Jack" rather than
"Patsy Jack"?
[Brad
from Georgia] (Barbara's watching the new Muppets show on Disney
TV--Kermit reminds me of Jack!)
[Laura
Leff] Brad - I know Jim Henson took a lot of inspiration from Jack.
[Steve
-shimp-] On his own show, with the exception of the Colmans episodes,
he's usually the fall guy.
[Brad
from Georgia] Steve--I think that's a valid observation.
[Michael]
no steve it wasn't just you
[Maxwell]
Steve Well, when he's trying to be a leading man, he is being more annoying than
anything else.
[Laura
Leff] Wanted to do a special with Jack and the Muppets. The mind runs
wild...
[Maxwell]
Steve: And also the Stewarts.
[Michael]
like Jack & Animal?
[Laura
Leff] Well, Jack does that sometimes on his own show as well.
[Steve
-shimp-] WO-MAN! Cut that out!
[Laura
Leff] I'm remembering a 30s show where Jack is in a barrel when
they're trying to shoot a scene, and keeps messing up the scene. Very similar
premise.
[Michael]
or Jack playing the violin with Dr Teeth & the Electric Mayhem
[Brad
from Georgia] "Lookit, Animal...Animal! Mattress head! Come in
on the downbeat, understand? ON the downbeat." "Ahhhhhh...OK, Jackson!
Ahhhhh!"
[Laura
Leff] IIRC, it has a very early Frank Nelson doing a totally straight
role.
[Laura
Leff] Jack arguing with Statler and Waldorf
[Steve
-shimp-] Dr. Bunsen Honeydew performing experiments on Dennis Day...
[Laura
Leff] Fozzie Bear could be a reasonable Phil Harris stand in
[Brad
from Georgia] Dennis: Meep meep meep meep.
[Laura
Leff] And Miss Piggy -> Mary is obvious...
[Laura
Leff] It's not easy bein' cheap...
[Steve
-shimp-] Mary could've karate-chopped Jack once in awhile. It'd be
hiLARious...
[Laura
Leff] Spendin' each day absolutely nothing...
[Brad
from Georgia] Jack wasn't annoying in either "To Be or Not to
Be" or "George Washington Slept Here." Fall guy in both. Smart
reworking of the script in the latter.
[Laura
Leff] And Lubitsch created Tura specifically for Jack.
[Steve
-shimp-] Yeah, I'm thinking more when he was guesting as
"Jack", not as other characters.
[Laura
Leff] Has anyone here seen (IIRC) Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream
House?
[Brad
from Georgia] My daughter saw the Benny version not long ago and was
astonished, she said, at how much better it was than the Mel Brooks version.
[Brad
from Georgia] LL--I've seen it.
[Laura
Leff] Brad - Amen
[Laura
Leff] Brad - Just wondering how that compares to George Washington
[Maxwell]
I saw Blandings a week or two ago.
[Steve
-shimp-] Ages ago. I don't recall it very clearly.
[Brad
from Georgia] The makers were sued, you know, because "Blandings"
was too close to a book about a homebuyer's headaches.
[Laura
Leff] I thought I recalled some sort of connection.
[Brad
from Georgia] There are similarities, but then there are similarities
between both of those and "The Money Pit."
[Steve
-shimp-] Geez, I saw "The Money Pit" in the theater. Where
is Shelley Long these days.
[Maxwell]
Basic premise is very similar but the details vary a lot.
[Laura
Leff] How's the comparison between Jack's character and Cary Grant's?
[Laura
Leff] Steve - Long gone.
[Maxwell]
Cary Grant is much more frazzled, I think.
[Maxwell]
Of course he's worried about the Wham account and Melvyn Douglas messing around
with his wife.
[Laura
Leff] Speaking of sex appeal...in this big stack of stills I got
recently, there's a shot from GWSH that's a downright compelling shot of Ann
Sheridan laying in Jack's arms. Really serious shot.
[Michael]
is he as frazzled as he is in Arsenic & Old Lace?
[Laura
Leff] Oh, I love that movie.
[Maxwell]
Not quite, but similar.
[Brad
from Georgia] I think Grant was uber frazzled in the last twenty
minutes of "Arsenic"
[Laura
Leff] Some day I'll find a stage production of it and try out for one
of the old ladies. Just my part.
[Maxwell]
Maybe closer to how frazzled he was in His Girl Friday.
[Maxwell]
Or Father Goose.
[Laura
Leff] But the lines are somewhat slower.
[Steve
-shimp-] We should put on an IJBFC production of Arsenic and Old
Lace. I want the crazy Teddy Roosevelt uncle part!
[Brad
from Georgia] I saw a live production of "Arsenic" in Utah
one summer. Made me wish I could try out for the Karloff role...the guy doing it
made him sort of a gay character, not menacing at all.
[Laura
Leff] They also did a long series of shots of Jack made up as George
Washington as publicity shots...got those too.
[Maxwell]
Somehow Raymond Massey didn't make it for me in the movie version of Arsenic. I
think of him as Abe Lincoln, not Boris Karloff.
[Laura
Leff] Steve - Oh my...if only...
[Brad
from Georgia] Massey was not a good Karloff sub.
[Steve
-shimp-] Especially since they left in all the karloff-specific
"He said I looked like Frankenstein" dialogue!
[Michael]
I know....
[Maxwell]
Exactly! But what could he have said, "He said I looked like Abe
Lincoln"?
[Brad
from Georgia] Problem was, Karloff was tied up on Broadway while the
movie was shooting, so he couldn't be in it.
[Michael]
and I think of him as Chauvelin in Leslie Howard's Scarlet Pimpernel
[Laura
Leff] It is an interesting thought though...that Cary Grant in comedy
always sort of plays the put-upon guy, just as Jack does.
[Maxwell]
What I like about Grant are the little asides he puts in to indicate that he's
frazzled.
[Laura
Leff] Such as
[Maxwell]
I can't think of a specific line...just little muttered things, kind of like
Popeye.
[Brad
from Georgia] I like the suppressed but frantic rising Grant whines
when he's under pressure.
[Laura
Leff] "Look, I have to stay here, but there's no reason you
can't go out into the lobby until this blows over..."
[Laura
Leff] Oops, wrong comic actor.
[Michael]
am trying to imagine jack proudly announcing "I'm the Son of a Sea
Cook"
[Maxwell]
Not just when he's frazzled really. He kind of acts as his own Greek chorus.
[Brad
from Georgia] "What kinna name is Olive Oyl? (sounds like some
kinda lubrikinks)."
[Laura
Leff] Maxwell - Interesting...I'll have to watch for that.
[Maxwell]
Can you tell that Cary Grant is one of my favorites? Maybe we should start a
thread on him in the Other Stuff area of the message board.
[Laura
Leff] Trying to think if Cary Grant ever worked with Jack...
[Laura
Leff] Maxwell - Go for it!
[Maxwell]
What's the movie he made with Irene Dunne where they were getting divorced?
[Brad
from Georgia] I'm reading "Sinatra: the Life" by Anthony
Summers and Robbyn Swan right now, and he mentions that Jack did Sinatra an
enormous favor early in Sinatra's career.
[Laura
Leff] Oh um...
[Michael]
Maxwell... have you heard Cary in the Suspense show "On a Country
Road"?
[Maxwell]
(Not Penny Serenade...this was a comedy)
[Laura
Leff] Penny Serenade
[Laura
Leff] That was a painful movie to watch. And I did at least a couple
of times.
[Maxwell]
Yes I have...a couple of years ago.
[Brad
from Georgia] When Sinatra was debuting in the Paramount in NYC, by
far the best venue he had ever played at the time, Jack gave him an effusive
introduction, saying that he was a great young singer and a good friend...when
in fact Jack had never heard of him and had
[Brad
from Georgia] met him only moments before.
[Laura
Leff] Brad - No kidding! I didn't know that...
[Laura
Leff] Where'd you get that tidbit?
[Maxwell]
Nice buildup for the kid, though.
[Brad
from Georgia] Jack was amazed--the book says that was the first real
assault of the "bobby soxers" and Jack said, "It was amazing! I
thought the building was going to cave in!"
[Laura
Leff] This wasn't the time that they hired women to be in the
audience and scream and faint, was it?
[Brad
from Georgia] LL--It's in "Sinatra: the Life," by Anthony
Summers and Robbyn Swan.
[Maxwell]
LL Supposedly.
[Laura
Leff] Cool. I read Kitty Kelley's book on Sinatra at the urging of
Larry Adler.
[Laura
Leff] He said every word of it was true.
[Brad
from Georgia] LL--that was earlier, in smaller places; there may have
been some shills in the Paramount, too, but most of the girls were really
swooning.
[Laura
Leff] Something to be said for mass hysteria, I guess.
[Michael]
yep.... just ask the Beatles
[Brad
from Georgia] One woman recalled, "When we got tickets to the
Sinatra show, a dozen of us got together and practiced swooning."
[Laura
Leff] It was the first for the bobby soxers, but I've read that women
used to do the same for Rudy Vallee.
[Laura
Leff] Vagabond lover and all, y'know.
[Maxwell]
I've never heard that about him...or Columbo or Crosby either.
[Steve
-shimp-] I'm not sure I even know the precise definition of swooning.
I'd be bad at that? Is that just shy of a full faint?
[Maxwell]
Steve I'd say that's about right.
[Brad
from Georgia] I saw the Beatles live in '64, crowd of 30,000, and
heard not one note of their songs because of the shrieking.
[Laura
Leff] Steve - I think of it as sort of a faint, mainly from emotional
fever pitch
[Maxwell]
Or what usually happens to the Cubs in June.
[Maxwell]
(Not this year, though)
[Laura
Leff] Brad - Sounds like the time Dan and I went to see Woody Allen
play at Michael's Pub in New York.
[Brad
from Georgia] A swoon is a series of rising screams, then moans and
swaying, and then a full faint.
[Steve
-shimp-] A good jelly donut might make me swoon. Sinatra not so much.
[Michael]
give it time (says the Cardinals fan) :-P
[Maxwell]
Michael, here's hoping!
[Laura
Leff] Brad - Really? I didn't know it had to be preceded by screams.
[Maxwell]
White Sox fan here.
[Brad
from Georgia] Well, the book makes Sinatra come across as an
enormously talented jerk.
[Laura
Leff] Must adjust my technique...
[Laura
Leff] I'm not sure where the Red Sox are, especially since their
heavy hitters went on the DL or into a slump (or both)
[Brad
from Georgia] The best form is "Eeeee! Frankie! Eeeeee! Frankie!
Frankieeeeeee! EEEEEEEEE!"
[Laura
Leff] So the faint comes from oxygen deprivation, apparently.
[Michael]
would make sense...
[Michael]
wonder how much hyperventilation would come into it though?
[Laura
Leff] And women in the 19th century fainted because their corsets
were too tight.
[Laura
Leff] Maybe same basic effect.
[Maxwell]
Exactly.
[Brad
from Georgia] And Jack's Pasadena fan club fainted because of clogged
arteries.
[Steve
-shimp-] Mary Livingstone would faint when someone else was sucking
the oxygen out of the room....or so I hear.
[Maxwell]
Gather unto you that which is yours.
[Laura
Leff] Brad - LOL...I was just telling Dan about that show today.
[Laura
Leff] Steve - Oooooooooo
[Steve
-shimp-] Or maybe Sinatra was hiding somewhere in a box. I can't say,
I wasn't there.
[Laura
Leff] Maybe Amy Winehouse is following in Sinatra's footsteps,
punching out fans and all.
[Laura
Leff] (The things you learn reading the London tabloids, you know...)
[Maxwell]
If somebody ends up with a horse's head in their bed, then you know she is.
[Steve
-shimp-] Jack and Amy Winehouse would be funny together.
[Steve
-shimp-] Doing the Gisele MacKenzie duet bit.
[Laura
Leff] That....would be an....interesting pairing
[Brad
from Georgia] Harry Cohn actually did not own a race horse.
[Steve
-shimp-] I don't want to go to rehab .... OH YES YOU DO SISTER!
[Laura
Leff] So it was made up for the movie, I take it
[Brad
from Georgia] I think in real life it was one of the Three Stooges'
heads...Cohn did own them.
[Maxwell]
Or Jules White.
[Laura
Leff] thinking of the pan down, flip the covers back, and it's
Curly's head and he starts screaming
[Brad
from Georgia] And Curly's head goes "Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk!"
[Laura
Leff] Harry Conn also did not own a race horse (as far as I know)
[Michael]
[Laura
Leff] (Had to re-read Brad's comment a couple times because my head
was stuck in Benny-land)
[Maxwell]
Did Harry Conn con Harry Cohn?
[Brad
from Georgia] LL--No, he didn't. Apparently, a threat from Johnny
Rosselli was sufficient--as though Tom Hagen's visit worked.
[Maxwell]
Or did Harry Cohn con Harry Conn?
[Laura
Leff] Maxwell - For an ice cream cohn.
[Brad
from Georgia] How many Cohns could a Harry Cohn con if a Harry Cohn
could con Cohns?"
[Laura
Leff] Brad - IIRC, I think Benny Goodman may have gotten threatened
as well to release Sinatra from his contract...
[Maxwell]
LL: Tommy Dorsey
[Maxwell]
I've heard that, too.
[Laura
Leff] Maxwell - Thank you.
[Laura
Leff] You're right.
[Laura
Leff] I even had the mental image of the trombone in my head...duh...
Maxwell
knows his big bands
[Brad
from Georgia] LL--yes, Maxwell's right. Tommy Dorsey.
[Laura
Leff] I know he's right...crossed my wires. Oops...
[Maxwell]
Benny Goodman didn't need anyone to make him get rid of his musicians. He could
do it all by himself.
[Brad
from Georgia] Gee, I get a line almost typed, and a bunch of people
make what I'm going to say irrelevant.
[Brad
from Georgia] At least an irrelevant never forgets.
[Maxwell]
All he'd do is give the "the ray" and they were toast.
[Laura
Leff] Brad - Or irreverent. But you don't need our help on that.
[Brad
from Georgia] Yeah, Goodman was reportedly very verbally abusive.
[Laura
Leff] Another very talented jerk.
[Maxwell]
Nothing like Steve Allen.
[Laura
Leff] And then there was Arte Shaw and his many wives, that I don't
think he ever admitted how many he had...
[Laura
Leff] Artie
[Brad
from Georgia] When a new musician joined his outfit, the standard
greeting was, "Okay, you @##@@, are you gonna do things my way or am I
gonna have to kick your #@@#?"
[Maxwell]
LL I think the number was something like 8.
[Laura
Leff] Maxwell - He was asked that in interviews later in life and
refused to answer.
[Laura
Leff] I've heard Vallee was also a talented jerk.
[Laura
Leff] And then there was Al Jolson...
[Brad
from Georgia] Sinatra was fixated on Ava Gardner for many years, even
after their divorce.
[Maxwell]
I know Vallee was tight.
[Laura
Leff] Who, BTW, is my favorite singer.
[Maxwell]
With a buck that is.
[Laura
Leff] Brad - There was a story that he was still insisting on being
buried next to her.
[Laura
Leff] I'm not sure if he was, though.
[Brad
from Georgia] Maxwell: Not only with a buck. That
"megaphone" was actually a funnel for bootleg hootch. (Naw, I'm lying)
[Laura
Leff] Of course, it's understandable to be fixated on Ava Gardner.
[Brad
from Georgia] I didn't know that Ava Gardner was from just down the
road in South Carolina. For some reason I was thinking she was from the
Southwest.
[Maxwell]
Hell, I'm fixated on Ava Gardner and she's been dead for decades.
[Laura
Leff] Mental image of Vallee using his megaphone the same way Harpo
uses his glass in Horse Feathers.
User
Michael has logged out.
[Steve
-shimp-] There is an Ava Gardener museum in some town there. I pass
the highway signs all the time but have never gone.
[Brad
from Georgia] Ava supposedly had a voracious romantic appetite, too.
[Maxwell]
And Mickey Rooney just couldn't satisfy it.
[Laura
Leff] Yes, heard that too. Read her autobiography...plenty of spin,
but still enjoyable.
[Brad
from Georgia] Of course, two weeks after she married Mickey Rooney,
she discovered he had started having an affair with one of her bridesmaids the
day after the wedding.
[Laura
Leff] Not surprised at that.
[Maxwell]
Why would you do that when you have Ava Gardner.
[Maxwell]
Some people are just NUTS!
[Laura
Leff] Some people like living on the edge, I guess.
[Laura
Leff] Welcome to Sillywood.
[Maxwell]
I guess that's why I've been married for 33 years and Mickey was married 8 times
or whatever it is.
[Laura
Leff] I'm told that Rooney is a very bitter man now.
[Brad
from Georgia] And supposedly Sinatra once called Gardner while they
were married and said, "I'm makin' love to Lana Turner." A couple of
weeks later, she called him and said, "I'm doing the same thing you were
doing with Lana Turner--with Lana Turner."
[Laura
Leff] Feels like Hollywood turned their back on him.
[Laura
Leff] Brad - Wow!
[Laura
Leff] No need for a sweater there...
[Steve
-shimp-] I wonder if there are pictures of that in that museum.
[Maxwell]
I saw the interview that Robert Osborne did a few years ago with Rooney. He
probably bored everybody in Hollywood to death.
[Brad
from Georgia] Sounds like a marriage made in, well, you know, heck.
Each one of them cheated, reported it to the spouse, who then upped the ante and
let the other know that....
[Brad
from Georgia] I saw Rooney live a couple of years ago at Dragon-Con.
He told lots of anecdotes, but rambled quite a bit, too.
[Laura
Leff] I guess it's like people who fight like crazy and then go to
the bedroom. I just don't understand it. But I guess it works for them.
[Maxwell]
Rooney did 5 minutes on what a wonderful guy L.B. Mayer was.
[Laura
Leff] Rooney was rambling plenty when I interviewed him at Sugar
Babies back in 1984.
[Maxwell]
It beats going to the bedroom and fighting like crazy.
[Brad
from Georgia] Makes you appreciate a union like Jack's and
Mary's.....
[Laura
Leff] He went on about Wallace Beery then.
[Steve
-shimp-] I hear Mickey Rooney is more "Andy" Rooney these
days...
[Laura
Leff] But I like Andy Rooney...
[Maxwell]
I think he lost his life insurance gig, too. I haven't seen that ad in awhile.
[Laura
Leff] He doesn't even do much in it.
[Laura
Leff] Or maybe it wasn't really selling for them.
[Brad
from Georgia] "Hi, I'm Andy Rooney. Know what burns me up? The
way my dad never let me drive the jalopy I'd built, and when we put on our shows
in the barn, he hardly ever attended them."
[Maxwell]
His wife does all the talking. They probably couldn't keep him to the script.
Had to tell about Judy and L.B. Mayer.
[Laura
Leff] I wouldn't be the least bit surprised.
[Laura
Leff] Might also have trouble remembering lines or reading cue cards.
[Brad
from Georgia] Well, he was in "Night in the Museum" not all
that long ago.
[Laura
Leff] Has everyone seen the show he did with Jack about the prison in
the future?
[Maxwell]
LL Yeah, about a year ago.
[Steve
-shimp-] No, or I don't remember it.
[Brad
from Georgia] LL-No, I haven't, or don't remember it anyway.
[Maxwell]
That was a re-do of an old script, too.
[Brad
from Georgia] LL! Steve's copying rom me!
[Laura
Leff] Maxwell - Any opinions on it?
[Steve
-shimp-] Brad's touching me! Pull the car over!
[Laura
Leff] Maxwell - Yeah, I think it's the same as the Ernie Kovacs
script.
[Laura
Leff] Now, now...am I going to have to separate you two?
[Maxwell]
Right...I just saw that one on the DVD a little wile ago.
[Brad
from Georgia] No, ma'am.
[Laura
Leff] Stop it or I'll turn this chat room around RIGHT NOW.
[Maxwell]
Tell Steve to put on his shoes!
[Steve
-shimp-] Good idea.
[Maxwell]
Are we there yet?
[Laura
Leff] Doggone it...I can't see my screen...
[Laura
Leff] So anyway...
[Maxwell]
Let's see...Prison of the Future....
[Laura
Leff] I'm just not a big fan of that script.
[Maxwell]
I think it kind of fell flat.
[Brad
from Georgia] This would have been about the time Rooney was starring
in "Babyface Nelson," I guess.
[Laura
Leff] And I don't think there's a lot of synergy between Jack and
Mickey Rooney.
[Maxwell]
I felt the same way about him and Kovacs, too.
[Laura
Leff] *Confession time* I've wanted to see the Kovacs show, and I
know I have it, but I haven't yet.
[Brad
from Georgia] Odd, because Jack loved surreal "picture"
jokes on the radio.
[Laura
Leff] I'd think they could be great together.
[Laura
Leff] Yeah, like I said on the Forum, I think that Kovacs was to TV
what Jack was to radio.
[Maxwell]
Brad The problem was this was in the '50s on Jack's show.
[Maxwell]
So none of that Kovacs visual stuff, which really took off in the early '60s
with video tape.
[Laura
Leff] Maybe Jack in a monkey suit and a derby playing the violin just
doesn't work, huh?
[Maxwell]
LL, I wish they'd DONE that!
[Brad
from Georgia] I see. Kovacs wasn't great as an actor; he had very low
energy, oddly enough, when in a regular movie role.
[Laura
Leff] Brad - Actually, I can see that happening.
[Laura
Leff] But wasn't he also on What's My Line for a while?
[Brad
from Georgia] He was unquestionably witty.
[Laura
Leff] Or one of the game shows?
[Maxwell]
LL Yeah, I just saw him in a YouTube clip on What's My Line.
[Brad
from Georgia] I think it was either "What's My Line" or
"I've Got a Secret."
[Brad
from Georgia] Or maybe both, who knows.
[Maxwell]
With celebrity guest Julie London.
[Laura
Leff] Maybe Kovacs the performer has more in common with Fred
Allen...
[Laura
Leff] Maxwell - Another one easy to be fixated upon...
[Maxwell]
Kovacs was best as a character.
[Maxwell]
Julie London is living proof that Jack Webb was an idiot.
[Brad
from Georgia] Kovacs was wonderful in set-ups where he had to react
in mute befuddlement.
[Laura
Leff] Rochester going to pour Jack a glass of milk, and the milk goes
past the glass and down the table...
[Laura
Leff] Brad - Sounds a lot like Jack.
[Laura
Leff] Maxwell - Were they married?
[Maxwell]
LL Put them together and the sparks don't fly.
[Maxwell]
Yeah.
[Laura
Leff] Gee. That's a shame.
[Laura
Leff] I guess I haven't been missing much.
[Maxwell]
Before she was married to Bobby Troup.
[Laura
Leff] Or Bobby Short.
[Brad
from Georgia] I learned the German words to "Mack the
Knife" from Kovacs, but of course I've forgotten most of them now. I do
remember "Mackie Messer" and something like "raum den Ecke."
[Maxwell]
I guess the London-Webb split up was amicable enough, though. Webb's company
produced Emergency.
[Maxwell]
And both she and Troup were stars.
[Laura
Leff] On the topic of Jack Webb and Julie London...there's a bit on
Kraft Music Hall where Al Jolson and Humphrey Bogart are talking about how they
got such young, beautiful wives.
[Laura
Leff] Jolson says, "I lied about my age."
[Laura
Leff] Bogie says, "I lied about my face."
[Brad
from Georgia] Und der Haifisch der hat Zahne und die tragt ihm in
Gesicht.....
[Laura
Leff] Hey, that's pretty good!
[Brad from Georgia] LL--Good line. I can hear Bogie saying that.
[Maxwell]
I hear him saying that in my head right now...both of them in fact.
[Maxwell]
I've always wondered if I'm related to Humphrey Bogart.
[Laura
Leff] You know, just since it's "just us"...something that
struck me funny yesterday and I'm curious as to your thoughts
[Laura
Leff] Since we've run the gamut from Al Jolson to Amy Winehouse
here...
[Maxwell]
My paternal grandmother's maiden name was Vandebogart, and part of the family
shortened it to Bogart.
[Brad
from Georgia] I got to play "Bogie" in a "Guy
Noir" sketch with Garrison Keillor's cast. My best line: Guy Noir: Bogie,
why do you talk like that, and what's wrong with your lip? Bogie: It was a Botox
treatment dat....went bad.....
[Laura
Leff] I got a hit on my Google agent (which I'd forgotten) for
"Jack Benny 39 cent stamp"
[Laura
Leff] Brad - Was it actually on the show, or travelling stage?
[Brad
from Georgia] LL-Not on the broadcast, no, but in an acting class
that the group was teaching. I'm in a radio theater, you know.
[Laura
Leff] Brad - Ah, got it.
[Steve
-shimp-] Anyway the google story?
[Laura
Leff] So I bring up this news column, which was some sort of
columnist somewhere in the heartland
[Laura
Leff] Who apparently had published a column about the "good ol
days" (firsthand rememberance)
[Laura
Leff] and got a note from someone telling him to "get over it,
that's history".
[Maxwell]
Sheesh!
[Maxwell]
You know what's scary? Nowadays the good old days are the '50s.
[Laura
Leff] So he takes off on one of the most intense tirades of what I
call "old fogeyism" that I've ever seen...
[Laura
Leff] Going on about how things were better when people got married
before they lived together
[Laura
Leff] and so on so on so on (you can probably fill it in)
[Steve
-shimp-] Sorta like Andy Rooney ?
[Maxwell]
Andy Rooney on steroids.
[Maxwell]
AND HGH
[Laura
Leff] Well, I like Rooney's stuff from the 70s and 80s...
[Brad
from Georgia] Who did you think I was in this uniform....Randy Ooney?
[Laura
Leff] Don't know as much what he's doing these days.
[Steve
-shimp-] With a little red bull thrown in!
[Maxwell]
LL Back before he turned into Grampa Simpson.
[Steve
-shimp-] Ah, I've got nothing against Andy Rooney much. He is kinda
"You kids get off my lawn!" though.
[Laura
Leff] So what's your take on the whole "everything's terrible
now, it was better back when..." attitude?
[Brad
from Georgia] BTW, wish my daughter luck-she's doing an audition DVD
for a stage version of "Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas" tomorrow.
[Laura
Leff] Good luck to her!
[Steve
-shimp-] Everything WAS better back in the day, if you have selective
memory.
[Brad
from Georgia] I think the old fogies today aren't a patch on the old
fogeys we had in my day.
[Laura
Leff] Steve - Hey, that's a really good answer.
[Brad
from Georgia] We even spelled 'em different.
[Maxwell]
Back in the good old days, I could buy a T-bone steak for less than a buck.
[Maxwell]
Of course, I was making $8100 a year at the time.
[Laura
Leff] Back in my day, we didn't HAVE Strom Thurmond. Oh wait...yes we
did.
[Steve
-shimp-] Yeah, pretty much!
[Brad
from Georgia] By nab, we didn't have nothin' to eat but gravel and
wormy apples, but we wuz happy. Ye could go to the moom picher show with a
quarter, see ths show, have popcorn and a big orange drink, and with the change
ye could by a used car. Studebaker, but even so
[Laura
Leff] I was joking with Dan that I should write a parody of such
things...something like
[Maxwell]
I have to say one thing. Music was better back in the day.
[Laura
Leff] "Things were better back when there was no silly talk of
things like women's rights. Women were born to raise the family and take care of
the home, that that's all they ever wanted to do...
[Laura
Leff] And a good smack in the mouth would keep 'em in line."
[Brad
from Georgia] My daughter has to operate "a furry puppet"
and sing a song that's "upbeat and borderline country." She's got a
bear puppet and is doing "Big Rock Candy Mountain."
[Maxwell]
Here's something inoccuous but it says a lot about the good old days....
[Brad
from Georgia] I said I'd come, stick my hand under a pile of fake fur
with tread marks painted on it and sing "On the Road Again."
[Laura
Leff] Brad - Ooo...I can feel my blood glucose going up as we
speak...
[Laura
Leff] Yeah, I prefer music from back in the day, too.
[Laura
Leff] Brad - I like yours better.
[Maxwell]
A few years ago GSN was running b&w episodes of Password from the late '60s.
Contestants are being introduced, man and woman. Alan Ludden says to the woman,
"What does your husbans do?"
[Brad
from Georgia] I actually prefer music from the forties and fifties.
[Laura
Leff] Maybe you can crank a pencil sharpener and whistle
"Sentimental Journey"
[Maxwell]
Now, can you imagine that being the first question you'd ask a woman nowadays?
[Steve
-shimp-] I can imagine that being the LAST question I'd ask most
women these days.
[Brad
from Georgia] I have a Pandora radio station that's a Bing Crosby
specialty. Though it often has other singers, too, including Dennis Day from
time to time.
[Laura
Leff] Maxwell - Well, once I was building shelves in the garage and
just finished a cut with my circular saw
[Laura
Leff] And our neighbor came by and said, "So...looks like Dan's
building something!"
[Maxwell]
Music for me: 1899 (Scott Joplin) to about 1970 or so (breakup of the Beatles).
[Laura
Leff] Dip%&*#
[Brad
from Georgia] www.pandora.com
[Maxwell]
LL Unreal!
[Laura
Leff] Interesting...hadn't heard of Pandora
[Maxwell]
A good place for music from 1900-1935 or thereabouts: www.dismuke.org
[Laura
Leff] Maxwell - I don't remember what I said in response...probably
something like, "No, *I'm* building some shelves."
[Brad
from Georgia] It's free--you set up a station with a specific song or
artist, and then if it plays songs you don't like, you hit the "NOW CUT
THAT OUT" button, or if you like it, you hit the "Great, Kid"
button and it hones in on your taste.
[Maxwell]
I hear stuff nowadays about how teachers tend to favor boys over girls in
science classes....
[Maxwell]
Hell, my best students have always been about an equal number of each.
[Laura
Leff] Gee...did they get inspired by Jack?
[Maxwell]
So why would I favor one over the other?
[Brad
from Georgia] LL-Well, those aren't the real buttons.....
[Brad
from Georgia] But that's the idea.
[Laura
Leff] Maybe because boys' performance in math and science is slipping
over the years, and girls are catching up?
[Laura
Leff] Brad - OIC
[Maxwell]
Could be to some extent...I'd say that in the top half or so, more are girls
than in the past.
[Maxwell]
By that I mean over half.
[Brad
from Georgia] You know what I could go for right now? A nice Vidalia
onion sandwich. I have allergies, and that would hit the spot.
[Laura
Leff] Just one additional comment about "back in my day"
diatribes...
[Maxwell]
How about just chewing on a jalapeno?
[Laura
Leff] Brad - You're in the right neighborhood to find one.
[Maxwell]
That should clear 'em out.
[Brad
from Georgia] Now the girls these days, they don't know how to make
an onion sandwich. Back in my day a gal would make you an onion sandwich, clean
your house, have your baby, and never bother you agin, dagnabbit....
User
KayLhota has entered this room.
[Brad
from Georgia] Oops, I have to clean up the act now.
[Maxwell]
Hey Kay! FINALLY!
[Steve
-shimp-] Hiya Kay
[Brad
from Georgia] Hi, Kay!
[Laura
Leff] I think the thing that bothers me the most is that because
they're written by people who came from "back in the day", they often
have a tendency to write stuff that's outrageously racist or sexist and ends up
being really offensive...
[Laura
Leff] Hi Kay!
[KayLhota]
Hi Brad, Steve, Maxwell, Laura
[Maxwell]
LL and then say they're rebelling against political correctness.
[Laura
Leff] Maxwell - Exactly. You've got it.
[KayLhota]
I have family visiting, so we were with them. Unavoidable.
[Brad
from Georgia] It's like one of those incredibly crude and unfunny
episodes of "Family Guy": "Hey, aren't we iconoclastic?"
[Laura
Leff] You leave Frank to keep them entertained?
[Maxwell]
Kay, you should just give them the brushoff. That's what I do!
[Brad
from Georgia] Kay--I didn't mean your family.....
[Steve
-shimp-] OK, well, from personal experience - I just came back from
research and excavation in a WWII Japanese-American internment camp. How's that
for "Things were better back in the day"?
[KayLhota]
no, he had to take care of all the other stuff we left when we went out
[Brad
from Georgia] Steve: Wow! George Takei has some very touching and
heartbreaking stories about his and his family's experiences in one of the camps
and afterward.
[Laura
Leff] Brad - Yes, I think I've heard him talk a little about that...
[KayLhota]
I read "Farewell to Manzanar" a book written by a girl that was
interred
[Steve
-shimp-] Yes, it was a pretty amazing experience. Got to meet a lot of folks
who were interned there, one awesome gentleman helped us with the excavation.
[Maxwell]
Things always look better in the past because you tend to forget the bad things.
[Brad
from Georgia] I tried once to get him to collaborate with me on a book for
kids about the camp, but he saved it for his autobiography.
[Laura
Leff] That's very cool.
[Maxwell]
However, I do think script writing was better in the past.
[Laura
Leff] Did you find anything interesting in the excavation?
[Steve
-shimp-] George Takei was supposed to come down, he was at a nearby
conference but didn't make it.
[Laura
Leff] Maxwell - Comedy in general was much more of an art form, with
rules just like music.
[Laura
Leff] Jack's writers knew the rules...were masters of them.
[Steve
-shimp-] Yes, not to get too off topic, but some very cool stuff - I
was focused on gardening activities, 'cause that's my research area.
[Brad
from Georgia] Situation comedy writing that's just an exchange of
zingers sort of ruined the form.
[Laura
Leff] It was a place where people were housed during the war?
[Laura
Leff] Brad - I blame the catch phrases of the late 70s sitcoms.
[Steve
-shimp-] Yes, 'forcibly housed'...
[Laura
Leff] Right. Wanted to say "interred", but that would mean
they were dead.
[Maxwell]
I blame Fonzie jumping the shark.
[Maxwell]
InterNed.
[Steve
-shimp-] Yeah, we've had some confusion with the
"interred"/"interned" thing...!
[KayLhota]
oh, I am guilty of that
[KayLhota]
I did say the wrong word
[Laura
Leff] I almost said "interned", but then it sounds like
they're students.
[Brad
from Georgia] Not many people know that very early in the war an
effort to round up and intern Italian-Americans began, but it was countermanded
by Roosevelt. The Japanese, on the other hand, "looked different."
[Brad
from Georgia] So they had to suffer in the camps.
[Laura
Leff] And not one of them was ever found to have anything to do with
support of "the enemy".
[Maxwell]
It's always easier to dehumanize somebody who looks different.
[Steve
-shimp-] There were different camps under different authorities. Some
Italian- and German- Americans were interned, but because they were 'suspected'
of something.
[Steve
-shimp-] The Japanese-Americans were the only group for whom it was
purely racial.
[Maxwell]
Yeah, the Germans had the Bund thing going on before the war.
[KayLhota]
The book that I read said that the Manzanar jazz band refused to play the
popular song," Don't Fence Me In"
[Laura
Leff] There's a great scene in "Europa Europa" where a
Jewish boy who's masquerading as a Gentile is stood up in front of the class as
a "superior example of the Aryan race".
[Maxwell]
So some of them actually did present a fifth-column threat.
[Laura
Leff] WWII Gitmo
[Brad
from Georgia] And Lucky Luciano cooperated with the FBI to help track
down German saboteurs and was released from prison after the war because of
that.
[Steve
-shimp-] Oh, wow, I remember that scene LL. Forgot I'd even seen the
movie!
[Laura
Leff] Kay - Wow!
[Laura
Leff] Fifth-colum threat?
[Laura
Leff] Steve - It's worth a rewatch!
[KayLhota]
"Farewell to Manzanar" was made into a TV movie some years ago as well
[Maxwell]
Yeah, some of the people running the Bund were actually in favor of the
overthrow of the government.
[Laura
Leff] Kay - Where was this jazz band? The name isn't familiar.
[Laura
Leff] Gunhild Carling
[Steve
-shimp-] Manzanar was an internment camp.
[KayLhota]
they were the band at the Japanese camp, Manzanar
[Brad
from Georgia] Luciano helped (through his contacts with the Union
dockworkers) the FBI track down the German saboteurs who destroyed a ship (the
same event that Hitchcock based "Saboteur" on).
[Laura
Leff] Aha...thanks for the context.
[KayLhota]
sorry, Laura. Talking in a clump this way can sometimes be confusing.
[Brad
from Georgia] "Chatroom clumping"
[Laura
Leff] Kay - No problem...I figured I'd get it in context and then
couldn't.
[Laura
Leff] It's a more serious talk than usual, but quite fascinating.
[Steve
-shimp-] Do we prefer the clumping or non-clumping chat room?
[KayLhota]
well, is everybody looking forward to seeing "Hollywood Revue of 1929"
on TCM tomorrow morning?
[Laura
Leff] Do we have a choice?
[Laura
Leff] I don't have TCM.
[Maxwell]
I don't know if I can manage to get up that early.
[Brad
from Georgia] Oh, yes! I forgot about that. Thanks, Kay! I'll record
it.
[Steve
-shimp-] Hey, if kitty litter can come in both styles..
[Brad
from Georgia] Wonder if the color scenes will be intact?
[Laura
Leff] I guess I can always watch it from the video library...
[KayLhota]
They have been since the 1990's.
[KayLhota]
Turner did a nice restoration of the film.
[Laura
Leff] Too bad they're not for Chasing Rainbows
[Maxwell]
Anybody catch the Chaplin movies yesterday?
[KayLhota]
I understand that the end no longer exists for "Chasing Rainbows"
(some
loss)
User
ed kienzler has entered this room.
[Laura
Leff] Supposedly not.
[Steve
-shimp-] No TCM/cable for me either...
[Laura
Leff] Hi Ed!
[Maxwell]
Hi Ed
[Steve
-shimp-] Hi Ed
[Brad
from Georgia] At the Oliver Hardy museum, they told me that Hardy
thought Jack Benny was "A perfect gentleman, very considerate and
encouraging to other actors."
[Laura
Leff] It was supposed to be a color musical number, but I think it's
"lost".
[KayLhota]
I saw that film for the first time in 1984 at a film series. The film ended with
the plot unresolved-- midsentence!
[Laura
Leff] Brad - That's great!
[ed
kienzler] hi guys had to work just wanted to check out this month's
chat
[Laura
Leff] Kay - I don't think it's that bad...been a while since I've
seen it.
[Brad
from Georgia] Hi, ed!
[KayLhota]
There are two color musical numbers in the midde that are lost, and the end of
the film was also in color-- and lost
[ed
kienzler] thanx brad
[Brad
from Georgia] I'm four steps behind tonight.
[Laura
Leff] Of course, I happen to have the video library hard drive right
here...
[KayLhota]
I enjoyed the movie
[Brad
from Georgia] Maybe they could splice in those extra scenes from
"Metropolis" that turned up in Argentina instead...
[KayLhota]
I haven't had the chance to see it in over a decade
[Brad
from Georgia] Just dub some music in....
[Laura
Leff] Too bad it's not like "A Plantation Act" with Jolson...
[Laura
Leff] Where the audience could sing with it to provide the music
(before they found the disc)
[KayLhota]
you always keep hoping that film footage will turn up. Just like radio discs of
lost shows.
[Laura
Leff] Checking Chasing Rainbows...
[Brad
from Georgia] The Atlanta Radio Theater is doing a script called
"Doom of the Mummy." The author told me "I need am
arcane-sounding chant to bring the mummy to life." I dropped to one knee
and sang, "I'd walk a million miles for one o' your smiles, my Mu-ummy!"
[Brad
from Georgia] He didn't take it.
[KayLhota]
Oh no, Brad!
[KayLhota]
That was funny!
[Brad
from Georgia] Not to him....
[ed
kienzler] what no imagination brad!!!
[KayLhota]
well, I hope he got his arcane sounding chant.
[ed
kienzler] he should have used it
[Brad
from Georgia] That's my curse as an actor. I'll tell the director,
"We could get a great laugh here--" and he cuts me off with,
"It's Hamlet, Brad!"
[ed
kienzler] ouch
[KayLhota]
oh, Brad! Love it!
[Brad
from Georgia] Hamlet has hand puppets and has them do the "To b
or not to be speech." A gasser!
[KayLhota]
oh my!
[Laura
Leff] The copy I have ends with Bessie Love shooing Charles King out
onto the stage.
User
Brad from Georgia has logged out.
User
Brad from Georgia has entered this room.
[Brad
from Georgia] be, I mean
[Brad
from Georgia] We had a power flicker. Wonder if there's a storm
somewhere?
[Laura
Leff] It doesn't completely resolve the plot, but you get the sense
that the show will go on.
[Laura
Leff] Brad - The birds are really big out your way, huh?
[Maxwell]
And Charles Kind sings, "Bye, Bye Love!"
[KayLhota]
yes, Laura. Just as they are telling him that his wife has walked out of the
show, leaving them without their leading lady
[Maxwell]
Lomg
[Maxwell]
King
[Maxwell]
Stupid home keys.
[Brad
from Georgia] Evidently. I do intend to try out for a small part in
"Romeo and Juliet" when we do that next spring.
[Laura
Leff] Right...Jack says he'll make a curtain speech that their
leading lady broke her leg, and they had to shoot her.
[Laura
Leff] Brad - Wait till you see the cover photo of the next issue.
[KayLhota]
Oh, I need to see "Chasing Rainbows" again
[Brad
from Georgia] Laura--can't wait!
[Laura
Leff] It's a great movie of transition between the greats of silent
film (e.g., Marie Dressler) into the future of comedy...
[Brad
from Georgia] You know, sooner or later they'll be able to recreate
actors convincingly with CGI, and then they can fill in those missing scenes.
[KayLhota]
I have a great love of those early talkie musicals
[KayLhota]
In fact, I take and give a lot of teasing about them with a friend of mine.
[Brad
from Georgia] Eddie Carroll said "The Drowsy Chaperone"
wonderfully evokes those old musicals--haven't seen it myself, though.
[Maxwell]
Kay Same here, at least once the camera became mobile again.
[Laura
Leff] Brad - Yes, he mentioned that to me as well. I think it's
playing locally now.
[KayLhota]
That helped a great deal, Maxwell.
[Laura
Leff] I've got a great photo...will likely be a cover photo some day,
or at least a caption contest
[KayLhota]
A friend of mine saw it on Broadway and loved it
[Maxwell]
Yeah, a static camera in a booth is deadly in a musical.
[Maxwell]
Or any other MOVIE for that matter.
[Laura
Leff] of Charles King and Jack giving Bessie Love (IIRC) a boost up
to an overhead mike.
[KayLhota]
aww, cute!
[KayLhota]
She was so little.
[Laura
Leff] They've got their arms around her ankle or something, and she's
up in the air
[Brad
from Georgia] What was the crime movie where everyone talked into the
bouquet on the table? "I want you to Take Him for a Ride." "You
mean you want us to...Rub Him Out?"
[Maxwell]
Lights of New York.
[KayLhota]
"Lights of New York"
[Laura
Leff] I like that movie, but we get so little call for it frmo the
video library.
[Brad
from Georgia] Nailed it, Max and Kay!
Maxwell
knows big bands and old WB movies.
[Laura
Leff] I'm still waiting to see "Madame Zombie"
[Laura
Leff] Someone was supposed to send me a copy and never did.
[KayLhota]
"Madame Zombie?"
[Laura
Leff] I think it's a music that takes place on a dirigible
[KayLhota]
Madame Satan!
[KayLhota]
I have that!
[Laura
Leff] It's been a while since they told me about it
[Laura
Leff] OK...close.
[KayLhota]
Cecil B. DeMille Directed it at MGM
[Laura
Leff] Thanks for the correction! Yeah...that's it...
[KayLhota]
Oh sure!
[Laura
Leff] Like circa 1927
[Brad
from Georgia] She's my Zombie Momma, Straight from Yokohama, She may
lurch to starboard, But in her my heart is harbored...."
[KayLhota]
Actually 1930
[Laura
Leff] OK, knew it was early.
[Maxwell]
MGM didn't make any talkies until '29.
[Brad
from Georgia] Big second-act finish song.
[Laura
Leff] Silent musicals just never hit it big.
[KayLhota]
Lillian Roth is the bad girl, stealing the husband from the good girl wife
[Maxwell]
Madam Satan, it's you I'm hatin'....
[Laura
Leff] Pre-code
[Brad
from Georgia] Well, Simon and Garfunkel weren't around to write the
sounds of silents, LL.
[KayLhota]
yes, very!
[Laura
Leff] Brad -
[KayLhota]
So the good wife goes to the costume party on the dirigible dressed up as Madame
Satan
[ed
kienzler] i picked up a JB 10 show DVD for $9.99 and found that the
most funniest person on the showother than jack was Benny Rubin
[Laura
Leff] Ed - Benny Rubin was very talented! Unsung supporting, like Joe
Kearns.
[Maxwell]
About whom my dad would always say when he appeared on a show: "Benny
Rubin!"
[Brad
from Georgia] Benny Rubin was great.
[ed
kienzler] true LL
[Laura
Leff] As opposed to his brother, Billy Rubin...
[Maxwell]
So I guess my dad liked him.
[Laura
Leff] (a joke which only chemists will get)
[ed
kienzler] LL bad
[Maxwell]
That was HORRIBLE!
[Brad
from Georgia] Or those who have seen "Silence of the
Lambs," LL.
[Laura
Leff] Wow...you did get it
Maxwell
teaches chemistry.
[Laura
Leff] Actually, the Billy Rubin is only in the book.
[Laura
Leff] Maxwell - LOL...didn't even remember that!
[Brad
from Georgia] LL-Really? I haven't read the book, but I remember the
line.
[ed
kienzler] it was put out in 2007 by timeless mediagroup
[Steve
-shimp-] What was the Benny Rubin bit that struck you Ed?
Laura
Leff
knows "Silence of the Lambs" a little too well
[Laura
Leff] Ed - Was it one of the "I dunno" bits?
Maxwell
was about to answer for Ed: "I dunno."
[Laura
Leff] That was usually done by Rubin or Joe Besser.
[ed
kienzler] where he was the info person at the train station where
jack wins a turkey
[Laura
Leff] Yeah, that's it.
[ed
kienzler] he says that the his condition is caused by some thing in
the brain but cant explain it
[Laura
Leff] If you can find a copy of his book, 'Come Backstage with
Me", get it.
[Brad
from Georgia] Aw, the TV just announced that Skip Caray, the
"Voice of the Braves," has died.
[ed
kienzler] sucks
[Laura
Leff] Oh my...son of Harry Caray, I think.
[Maxwell]
LL Correct.
[Maxwell]
And father of Chip Caray.
[Brad
from Georgia] I dimly remember Benny Rubin playing "Flat
Top" in the old "Dick Tracy" TV show.
[ed
kienzler] boy that 's bad
[Laura
Leff] That's too bad. I remember hearing him a lot during the early
days of cable when only Braves games and boring movies on SPN and religious
shows were on overnight.
[Brad
from Georgia] They just ran a clip from Skip: "Don't worry about
me. I'm ready if I go tonight. I've had a great life, I've had my money's
worth."
[Laura
Leff] To be fair: "boring movies" = movies so badly
degraded that what you could see you coudln't hear, and vice versa.
[Brad
from Georgia] He died peacefully in his sleep.
[Laura
Leff] So he knew he was sick. What did he die of?
[Maxwell]
Brad I'm firmly convinced that's the best way to go.
[Brad
from Georgia] I believe it was pancreatic cancer.
[KayLhota]
aww
[Laura
Leff] Not like the rest of the people screaming in his car...
[Maxwell]
That's rough. My grandfather died from that.
[Brad
from Georgia] So did Jack Benny.
[ed
kienzler] there are some comedians who would do great skip caray
imititations on bob and tom cant remember who though
[Laura
Leff] I thought they could treat it now..
[KayLhota]
yes, I was thinking that, Brad
[Maxwell]
Laura I'm not sure, but like most cancers, if it's not caught early, it'll get
you.
[Laura
Leff] yeah, that's true.
[ed
kienzler] right
[Laura
Leff] At least it wasn't a surprise.
[Maxwell]
My brother died of colon cancer last month. By the time they found the tumor it
was the size of a man's fist.
[Laura
Leff] Gosh Maxwell, I'm sorry.
[ed
kienzler] harry died 10 years ago i beleive
[Maxwell]
No helping him after that.
[Steve
-shimp-] Oh my, my condolences Max.
[Brad
from Georgia] Skip announced a game just a few days ago. They had a
clip. His voice was weak, but he was animated.
[Maxwell]
Thanks.
[ed
kienzler] sorry max
[Brad
from Georgia] Condolences, Max.
[Maxwell]
Thanks to everybody...the good news...it saved MY life. He found out about it in
September. I went into the hospital for a problem in October, and a surgeon
asked if I'd had a colonoscopy....
[Laura
Leff] My mother (many years ago) died very unexpectedly right before
my wedding. So if there's a bright spot for the others, it's that they got a
chance to say goodbye.
[Maxwell]
I hadn't...ever...so she told me I should, and I jumped at the opportunity. They
found two polyps. One had cancer cells.
[ed
kienzler] but it still hurts...
[Laura
Leff] Maxwell - Congratulations on catching it early. We want you
around with us for a long time!
[Steve
-shimp-] Most definitely.
[Maxwell]
I plan to be.
[ed
kienzler] YES!!!
[Laura
Leff] Amen!
[Laura
Leff] Well, at this unusual juncture, should we call it good for this
month?
[Maxwell]
Yeah, I've succeeded in depressing everybody!
[Laura
Leff] Or is there anything else Benny-wise on folks minds?
[ed
kienzler] yes and good health to all...from rexall!!!
[Steve
-shimp-] OK, sounds good to me.
[KayLhota]
I do have something old radi wise
[KayLhota]
radio wise
[Maxwell]
I can't even say Gunhild Carling this month!
[Laura
Leff] No, it's an up note that Maxwell will be with us for a long
time!
[ed
kienzler] go kay
[KayLhota]
I have been researching the inevitable
[Laura
Leff] Maxwell - But I can
[Maxwell]
LL, that depends on your point of view!
[Laura
Leff] Kay - Go for it
[Laura
Leff] Maxwell - It's good in my book.
[Maxwell]
Danke schoen.
[KayLhota]
and in doing so I discovered that the Orson Welles program "Your Radio
Almanac" only broadcast on the West Coast
[KayLhota]
I didn't know that, and I am finding that odd, since it was a comedy variety
program
[Brad
from Georgia] I've got to set the clock so I can recrord the movie at
six tomorrow morning. Good night, all!
[KayLhota]
that seemed meant to find a broader audience
User
Brad from Georgia has logged out.
[Laura
Leff] Good night, Brad!
[Laura
Leff] Kay - Was it a full network show? Or sustaining?
[Laura
Leff] I don't know much about it.
[KayLhota]
it was on CBS and sponsored by Mobil
[ed
kienzler] wasn't welles mostly a new york actor vey little hollywood
[KayLhota]
I had heard a couple of shows from OTRCAT
[Laura
Leff] Do you know what CBS broadcast in the slot for the East Coast?
[KayLhota]
but I found most of them at Archive.org
[KayLhota]
I read it but I've forgotten. I think it was a musical program
[Laura
Leff] Not surprised
[Laura
Leff] What are the years it was done?
[KayLhota]
There is an episode where Orson Welles sends up his just completed Suspense
program "Donovan's Brain"
[KayLhota]
it was done from Jan to July of 1944
[Laura
Leff] Hm
[Steve
-shimp-] Sounds like one to check out.
[KayLhota]
the series is the oddest collection of comedy, music, and jazz
[KayLhota]
I recommend it for it's strangness alone!
[Laura
Leff] Maybe Mobil wasn't looking to advertise as much during the era
of "Was this trip necessary?"
[Maxwell]
Welles was a huge jazz fan.
[KayLhota]
Like hearing Agnes Moorehead play Orson's swooning bobby soxer fan girl.
[Maxwell]
I think The Whistler was another show like that. Broadcast on the west coast
only.
[Laura
Leff] What did it replace in the middle of the season like that?
[KayLhota]
Laura, I'll have to check that out as well.
[Laura
Leff] Fascinating!
[Laura
Leff] Um...just wondering...
[KayLhota]
The evening had shows like Dr. Christian and Songs by Sinatra
[Laura
Leff] I think Mobil was a national brand, wasn't it?
[ed
kienzler] yes
[KayLhota]
yes it was
[Laura
Leff] Just wondering if they were only selling West Coast that they
wouldn't care about marketing to the East
[Laura
Leff] But the flying horse was everywhere
[ed
kienzler] "clean detergent gasoline"
[Maxwell]
Yeah...Mobil was Standard Oil of NJ.
[Laura
Leff] I think Shell is still selling that bit
[Maxwell]
OOPS...NY.
[KayLhota]
the thing that fascinated me was that Orson had had so much fun with the Jack
Benny show
[Maxwell]
SOCONY.
[KayLhota]
that he wanted to try doing more comedy on radio
[Laura
Leff] Wouldn't be surprised if the two were connected...
[Laura
Leff] Have to bow to a Welles researcher on that one.
[ed
kienzler] good comments kay!!!
[Laura
Leff] yes, thanks for turning us on to that!
[KayLhota]
Welles researchers tend to concentrate on the movies and they forget his passion
for radio
[Maxwell]
I want to hear what you find out.
[Steve
-shimp-] OK folks, I need to call it a night. Great chatting with you
all. Till next month!
[Laura
Leff] Have a good one, Steve!
[Maxwell]
Good night Steve!
[ed
kienzler] bye steve
[KayLhota]
see you Steve
User
Steve -shimp- has logged out.
[Maxwell]
And Gunhild Carling to you all!
[Laura
Leff] Anything else, or are we closed to September?
[KayLhota]
goodnight Max
[KayLhota]
what are we doing for September?
[Laura
Leff] Be well, Max!
[Laura
Leff] Oh yeah...any requests?
[ed
kienzler] good night max stay well please
[KayLhota]
The Cairo Egypt show?
[Maxwell]
Thanks...Night all.
User
Maxwell has logged out.
[ed
kienzler] bye max
[Laura
Leff] Didn't we do Cairo?
[KayLhota]
oops
[KayLhota]
probably
[Laura
Leff] Maybe not...thought we did...
[KayLhota]
I thought of it because it was September
[KayLhota]
and not part of his regular season
[Laura
Leff] Right
[Laura
Leff] Well, I'll try to pull something interesting.
[KayLhota]
I know that we can always count on you for that!
[Laura
Leff] Maybe off the wall.
[Laura
Leff] Thank you.
[Laura
Leff] OK, take care and see you in September!
[KayLhota]
see you
[ed
kienzler] thanx LL see you then