IJBFC Chat - September 11, 2016
(Name of message originator appears after the timestamp)
[5:03 PM] R.Hookie: Good evening folks!
[5:03 PM] Laura Leff: Hi Hookie!
[5:03 PM] Brad Strickland: Hookie! Hiya.
[5:03 PM] Laura
Leff: By the way, Hookie is running for President of the US.
[5:03 PM] Steve Archer: Hey folks
[5:03 PM] R.Hookie: I am, I am
[5:03 PM] Laura Leff: Hi Steve!
[5:03 PM] Brad Strickland: Hi, Steve!
[5:04 PM] Steve Archer: How's everyone?
[5:04 PM] Brad Strickland: Meh, so-so. Sort of have a
DragonCon hangover--touch of Con Crud.
[5:04 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: I'll vote for Hookie!
[5:04 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: did you wear any costumes,
Brad?
[5:05 PM] R.Hookie: I'm registered for the Tupperware Party
[5:05 PM] Steve Archer: Next time you can go to Draggin'
Con
[5:05 PM] Brad Strickland: No costumes, but I was in three
Atlanta Radio Theatre plays: I was a giant firefly, a fatally wounded Nazi, and
the announcer for an Old West horror play.
[5:05 PM] Brad Strickland: Not all in the same play, mind
you.
[5:06 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: so awesome! Would you help
me do some Jack Benny "lost" episodes from 1932-34? I want to get a
couple podcasts made
[5:06 PM] Brad Strickland: I rode Marta in. Parking for the
con was $50 a day--Sure, Kathy. Whaddaya need?
[5:06 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: we can take that
conversation offline, Brad, HELLO everybody!!!
[5:06 PM] Brad Strickland: OK, looking forward to it!
[5:07 PM] Brad Strickland: So the wallpaper says to the
wall, don't make a move, gotcha covered.
[5:07 PM] Steve Archer: I'll give Brad 50 cents if he can
do that Mel Blanc "Indian Auctioneer" bit from tonight's show
[5:07 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: well, everyone might be
interested to know that I would like to recreate some of the unrecorded scripts,
and make podcasts to go on a website to go with my book (out sometime in 2017
first half)
[5:08 PM] Brad Strickland: Hah! I wouldn't want to try! I
did recently hear the history of Rancho Cucamonga on the XM old-time radio show
"Romance of the Ranchos." No mention of Mel, alas.
[5:08 PM] Laura Leff: Kathy - That's fantastic!
[5:08 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: I did meet a lady in Atlanta
who told me that her father was in the Coast Guard and helped to rescue Eddie
Anderson from his trouble at sea. There is a connection to tonight's show
[5:09 PM] Brad Strickland: Kathy--very doable. ARTC has a
recording studio and talent, though I don't know if anyone can do an acceptable
Benny.
[5:09 PM] Laura Leff: I'll be doggone!
[5:09 PM] Brad Strickland: Wow! And "The Guard"
is on one of the cable channels right now!
[5:09 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: fantastic, Brad! Let's see
what we can work up. I can get to Atlanta...
[5:09 PM] HipChat: Hi @PerriHarper! Welcome to Hipchat. You
can @-mention me by typing @HipChat and I'll tell you what HipChat can do!
[5:09 PM] Brad Strickland: OK--you have my email, so PM me
and we'll get things rolling.
[5:10 PM] Laura Leff: And I happened to sit next to a
friend's girlfriend who works for the Coast Guard.
[5:10 PM] Laura Leff: Hi Perri!
[5:10 PM] Brad Strickland: Hi, Perri!
[5:10 PM] Brad Strickland: Echo in here...
[5:10 PM] Perri: Hello! So glad to make it
this month!
[5:10 PM] R.Hookie: Hi Perri!
[5:10 PM] Laura Leff: And does search and
rescue. So I asked her about the process in anticipation of this
chat.
[5:10 PM] Steve Archer: Hiya Perri
[5:10 PM] Laura Leff: Perri's wonderful, BTW folks.
[5:10 PM] Perri: Hi everyone--missed y'all!
[5:10 PM] Steve Archer: That's a Phil Harris Hiya, not a
Miss Piggy hiya, by the way.
[5:10 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: first they rescue, then they
search, no, wait...
[5:10 PM] Brad Strickland: Aw!
[5:11 PM] R.Hookie: Miss Piggy.... she's gone to the frogs
[5:11 PM] Steve Archer: The continuing story of a quack,
who's gone to the dogs.
[5:12 PM] Brad Strickland: "All right, Stanley, we're
looking for people in trouble at sea." "OK Ollie. Hey, Ollie--you mean
money trouble or romantic trouble?" "Money trouble or romantic
trouble! How can you stand being so dumb?" "Well, I'm used to meself..."
[5:12 PM] Laura Leff: So I was hoping Zach would be on
since he requested this show, but what thoughts on the show for tonight?
[5:12 PM] Steve Archer: Oh, so funny. I loved
this one, just loopy all the way around. And what a speech by Jack
for brotherhood day.
[5:12 PM] R.Hookie: I keep missing the wallpaper gags
[5:13 PM] Brad Strickland: Very loosey-goosey, like some
very late-season shows in the fifties. Or at least that was the feel. And yes, I
wish that Jack's curtain speech could be played before every TV political ad....
[5:13 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: one of the few times Eddie's
activities blurred into Rochester's? This and the Kentucky Derby horse....
[5:13 PM] Perri: Loved the scaring eggs out of the seagull
bit
[5:13 PM] Brad Strickland: I thought Mary's impression of
Phil was adorable. Not close vocally, but man, did she hit those Phil Harris
intonations!
[5:13 PM] Laura Leff: I think the loosey-goosey thing was
because the news about Rochester came in as they were writing it, and they
quickly reworked it to include it.
[5:13 PM] Perri: yes!
[5:13 PM] Steve Archer: Agreed brad
[5:14 PM] Brad Strickland: Perri--that bit was also used in
a Looney Toons cartoon.
[5:14 PM] Perri: it's just too good :-)
[5:14 PM] Brad Strickland: I think it's a Daffy
line--"Well, ya never know what you're capable of 'til you're under the
gun!" (he'd just laid a golden egg)
[5:15 PM] Brad Strickland: The variant of the wallpaper
joke was very Benny-esque--repetition with variation makes it funny. Oh,
considering current events--did anyone find the Sioux and Iroquois material
offensive?
[5:15 PM] Laura Leff: Say, tell us about the guy who helped
rescue Rochester.
[5:17 PM] Laura Leff: (Confessing that I wasn't able to
listen to the show today as planned...)
[5:17 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: all the lady remembered was
that her Dad was proud of rescuing a celebrity, and she remembered it being in
the news and all (because her dad was involved)
[5:17 PM] Steve Archer: It takes a lot to push my offended
button, but that stuff is certainly the equivalent of some of the early
Rochester stuff that sets the teeth on edge a bit.
[5:17 PM] Brad Strickland: "Well, I saw this guy
running across the water ahead of a shark. . . . "
[5:17 PM] Steve Archer: Did you remind her about Jack
Bentley Kathy?
[5:18 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: (sheepishly) no, drat
[5:18 PM] Brad Strickland: I do think that the Don weight
joke sort of made it all silly instead of flat-out offensive (Me heap big chief.
"No, you big heap, that's all."
[5:19 PM] Steve Archer: That and Mel's bit were
OK. More the casual racism of "whoever heard of an Indian
writer?" type thing.
[5:19 PM] Brad Strickland: OTOH, Frank Nelson's apology was
edging toward, well, the edge: "For those Indians who came in late, my face
is red, too!"
[5:19 PM] Laura Leff: One of these days I'm going to get
the Jack Webb show in circulation. I will be very interested to see
what people think of that.
[5:20 PM] Laura Leff: (Has a Charlie Chan skit in it that's
over the top "yellowface.")
[5:20 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: what happens with Jack Webb,
do they do Dragnet?
[5:20 PM] Brad Strickland: And then Mary breaks the fourth
wall--"This is the craziest program we've ever done. What are we aiming
at?" Jack: "4:30!"
[5:20 PM] Steve Archer: I'm very interested to see that one
Laura.
[5:20 PM] Laura Leff: Dragnet aspects do creep into the
Charlie Chan skit...Webb is the "number one son" and starts
questioning people ala Dragnet.
[5:20 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: ah ha......well, Fred Allen
spent a whole lot of time doing his "One Long Pan" skits
[5:21 PM] Laura Leff: Kathy - Definitely, but this was much
later. But they did a total "yellowface"-busting joke the
next week, so I found it interesting. That one is on the lost
episodes.
[5:21 PM] Brad Strickland: BTW, Benny's joke about Allen
was sort of Allen-esque: "He got a long word stuck sideways in his
nose."
[5:21 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: There's one time in the 30s,
1936? When Jack does Charlie Chan himself and he's laughing at himself. Other
than a hillbilly and an old guy, Jack was not so good at impression voices
[5:22 PM] Laura Leff: That's like "I wouldn't say Jack
Benny is cheap, but he has short arm and keeps his money low in his
pockets."
[5:22 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: oh do you mean its a TV
episode?
[5:22 PM] Brad Strickland: Kathy--well, now, I wouldn't say
that. Put a clothespin on Jack's nose, and he did a credible Fred Allen.
[5:22 PM] Laura Leff: Yeah, the 30s I completely excuse
because that was a different time. This was (IIRC) 1960.
[5:22 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: yes Brad, forgot about
that!!! A GREAT Fred
[5:23 PM] Steve Archer: Racial humor aimed at Asians and
Native Americans seemed to be acceptable much longer than it was toward African
Americans.
[5:23 PM] Brad Strickland: Now it's pretty much limited to
us Southerners.
[5:23 PM] Laura Leff: Except for the Washington Redskins
and the Cincinnati Reds
[5:23 PM] Brad Strickland: Oh, the Professor LeBlanc lesson
was fun, as always.
[5:23 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: and Cleveland Indians. Ohio
gets a double dip
[5:23 PM] Steve Archer: I actually agree and know what you
mean Brad.
[5:24 PM] Laura Leff: Kathy - Ah right.
[5:24 PM] Laura Leff: Kathy - That it crosses my mind, did
you and Jerry get in touch?
[5:24 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: oh yes! We had a fun morning
of exchanged emails
[5:24 PM] Brad Strickland: Yup. As one TV cartoon character
said to a stereotypical Southern hick, "See, it's funny 'cause you're
dumb."
[5:24 PM] Laura Leff: Excellent!
[5:25 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: he's a little wigged out
that I am with his former publisher, who doesn't want to publish his books
anymore. I was very nice about it : )
[5:25 PM] Brad Strickland: I always like Blanc's rhymes to
the tune of the Kreutzer exercises.
[5:25 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: Mel Blanc in 1946 was such a
huge plus for the radio program!
[5:25 PM] Brad Strickland: Ooh, ooh, and the Sympathy
Soothing Syrup bit!
[5:26 PM] Laura Leff: Ah, wasn't aware of
that. He seemed a bit wigged out that you had your book coming out,
and that it would kill the market for his book. I tried to assuage
his fears.
[5:26 PM] Steve Archer: Jack never moved much beyond that
ONE exercise :)
[5:26 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: yip yip ypathemys
[5:27 PM] Brad Strickland: What was the bit about the
horrible quartet in the "Yip Yip Yhtapmys" jingle? They just call in
the writers or the janitors or something?
[5:27 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: oh yes, I told him that we
would be fellow travelers and that our books would be very different. Between
you and me, what he knows about Jack and the show would fit comfortably inside
something rather small : )
[5:27 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: I mean he has general
knowledge aplenty, and I said I would be very glad to help him. But they will be
different books : )
[5:27 PM] Laura Leff: Kathy - I gave him copies of all my
books I had in stock. He's working through those. :)
[5:27 PM] Brad Strickland: '"You could fit a
television vice-president's conscience in a flea's navel and have room left over
for his brain." --Fred Allen
[5:27 PM] Steve Archer: Is Jerry Kitty Kelley?
[5:27 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: yeah, what he said!
[5:28 PM] Laura Leff: Gerry Nachman...he's interested in
writing the definitive biography on Jack.
[5:28 PM] Steve Archer: Ah, OK. Last month he
was Anonymous Credentialed.
[5:28 PM] Laura Leff: Zackly.
[5:28 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: Jerry Nachman has written a
half dozen books, you all may know his "Raised on Radio." Fun stuff,
but as I assured him, it will complement what else is going on...
[5:28 PM] HipChat: Hi @TheodoreMichaelKonek! Welcome to
Hipchat. You can @-mention me by typing @HipChat and I'll tell you what HipChat
can do!
[5:28 PM] Laura Leff: I didn't want to spread his name
around until I had his OK.
[5:28 PM] Laura Leff: Hi Ted!
[5:29 PM] R.Hookie: I like that closing speech
[5:29 PM] Brad Strickland: I thought this week's show had a
fair number of topical references: "Petrillo," "Shipwreck
Kelly," "First time I lost a weekend on WATER."
[5:29 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: well, he is eager to learn
and that is fantastic. He has a great track record and the more Benny the
merrier!
[5:30 PM] Laura Leff: Hallelujah!
[5:30 PM] Steve Archer: Well he is talking to the right
people!
[5:30 PM] Brad Strickland: I know the book "Raised on
Radio." Read some of it while rehearsing the DragonCon plays, 'cause when I
wasn't on mike, I was sitting in the library.
[5:30 PM] Laura Leff: I told him that he'd come to the
right place!
[5:31 PM] Brad Strickland: Oh, and "I am the
Whistler." I did that as a mike check one rehearsal--"Red mike, say
something." "I walk by night, and I know many things . . . I am . . .
the Whistler." And I whistled shrilly on the "S" in the last
word.
[5:32 PM] Brad Strickland: Hm...TMI, TMK?
[5:32 PM] Steve Archer: Did you catch Jack bungle the word
"progidy"?
[5:32 PM] Brad Strickland: Yes, I noticed that. But Mel
soldiered on: "No, I can't believe you were a child!"
[5:33 PM] Steve Archer: I wonder if Jack's comment about
Babe was an ad-lib.
[5:33 PM] Laura Leff: Maybe that was the pronunciation of
it, like hee-lee-oh-copter?
[5:33 PM] Brad Strickland: Good line: "Someday I may
be a great violinist!" "You should live so long, and you already
have!"
[5:33 PM] Brad Strickland: Or "Los ANGLE-ees."
[5:34 PM] Steve Archer: Nah, because they say it correctly
on the feed line, "prodigy".
[5:34 PM] Laura Leff: Gotcha. Good catch.
[5:34 PM] Brad Strickland: Interesting to hear various
takes on L.A. from 1930s radio. Everything from "Los AN-helas" to the
way it's pronounced nowadays.
[5:35 PM] Laura Leff: Main-yew
[5:35 PM] Steve Archer: I like the "Angle-Less"
version. Makes me think of a city of bubbles.
[5:35 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: and Don Wilson's
"MAIN-you" for menu
[5:35 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: haha Laura, yes! and no one
could say vitamin
[5:36 PM] Laura Leff: Yeah, short i on both of them!
[5:36 PM] Steve Archer: vita-meata-vegamin
[5:36 PM] Brad Strickland: Say, who posted that photo of
the Jell-O prune salad on the FB page? 'Cause I think one of my cats makes those
things.
[5:36 PM] Laura Leff: Kathy - Did I steal that from you?
[5:36 PM] Laura Leff: The Jell-O prune thing?
[5:36 PM] Brad Strickland: "Vittamin."
[5:37 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: I have been collecting
Jell-O attrocities. I get old church cookbooks when I am trolling through
antique stores
[5:37 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: yeah, that was one of the
worst ever. A great website MidCentury Menus or something , a blogger actually
makes midcentury atrocities and makes her husband eat them, then takes photos
and blogs...
[5:37 PM] Brad Strickland: Gahk, Kathy, I just misread:
"I get old church cockroaches when I..." Made me go "Say
WHAT?" until I realized my mistake.
[5:38 PM] Steve Archer: Cockroach Jell-O
[5:38 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: could BE old church
cockroaches!!!
[5:38 PM] Brad Strickland: "We were poorer than church
mice. We were a little better off than church cockroaches."
[5:38 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: added protein, popular with
the South Beach and Paleo folks
[5:38 PM] Steve Archer: Friends, place a gay Palmetto Bug
in the center for a party pleasure that's SURE to delight!
[5:39 PM] Brad Strickland: Yeah, I noticed you can now buy
processed crickets in health-food stores.
[5:39 PM] Brad Strickland: I once ate a Monarch butterfly,
but not on purpose.
[5:39 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: I ate HALF a cockroach once,
a good reason not to live in Decatur, GA.....
[5:40 PM] Brad Strickland: "The Palmetto Bug's a
critter / That skitters off when you approach. / His friends call
him "Palmetto Bug," / But I just call him "Roach." My
original composition.
[5:40 PM] R.Hookie: I step away for a minute and walk into
this?
[5:40 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: author, author!
[5:40 PM] Laura Leff: Yeah, you could hide plenty of
cockroaches in that recipe.
[5:41 PM] Brad Strickland: Well, I was teaching at the
Georgia Governor's Honors program and a visiting poet, George Betts, made us
all, teachers and students, write a poem about something we encountered in
Valdosta, GA, that we'd never seen before. He made fun of my poem.
[5:41 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: anyway.... Laura, where are
the LOST TV episodes? At UCLA? I have a new faculty friend in the tv archives
there
[5:41 PM] Laura Leff: Mostly yes. They have
the most masters of any location.
[5:41 PM] Brad Strickland: Kathy, if we knew where they
were, they wouldn't be lost, would they?
[5:42 PM] Steve Archer: Why watch LOST when you can watch
the JACK BENNY PROGRAM? :)
[5:42 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: do you have any cheese or
Benny reels here, sir?
[5:42 PM] Brad Strickland: Sorry--Laurel and Hardy
hangover.
[5:42 PM] Laura Leff: Well, I could say "uncirculated"
but "lost" has more traction.
[5:42 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: LOST gets us grant money : )
[5:42 PM] Brad Strickland: Sometimes I feel that I've lost
traction. And I misread again: "Well, I could say "uncircumsized...."
I ought to put my specs back on.
[5:43 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: I will see this friend at a
conference this week, and he's perhaps on to more of the radio transcription
discs that we could be salvaging
[5:43 PM] Brad Strickland: Wow!
[5:43 PM] Laura Leff: Kathy - Oh wouldn't that be great?
[5:43 PM] Steve Archer: That would be fantastic.
[5:44 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: yeah, I will butter my
friend (Sean) up with Texas barbeque and see what we can get cooking
[5:44 PM] Brad Strickland: Butter up with barbecue. . .
there's a joke there somewhere, I know it . . .
[5:44 PM] Laura Leff: I approached UCLA about the Benny
family funding restoration of some of the TV shows, and was told that they would
only be available for viewing on campus.
[5:45 PM] Brad Strickland: Maybe use the FOIA to spring
them?
[5:45 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: well, I'll start again and
see where we can go. Remember that when I went to the library in January, the
archivists claimed you didn't exist. So glad you do! And they are nuts
[5:45 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: Jell-O again!
[5:45 PM] Laura Leff: Annoying that the family donates all
this stuff to them, and then they won't let the family use it.
[5:45 PM] Brad Strickland: Hi, MMM!
[5:46 PM] Steve Archer: Did the Sportsmen just walk in too?
[5:46 PM] Laura Leff: Kathy - They claimed I didn't exist?
[5:46 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: UCLA is super-spooked about
copyright these days, very frustrating
[5:46 PM] Laura Leff: Hi Mitch!
[5:46 PM] Brad Strickland: "There is no such person as
Laura Leff."
[5:46 PM] Brad Strickland: Sounds like an episode of Inner
Sanctum.
[5:46 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: yeah Laura, no one had been
to see the Benny papers, said they, and they had no idea who would be a
copyright holder/estate contact.
[5:46 PM] Laura Leff: The Face is Not Familiar
[5:47 PM] Laura Leff: Expletive sent via private message.
[5:47 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: we'll show them a thing or
two....
[5:48 PM] Laura Leff: I know there are a couple people
there who got ticked at me for calling out that they "lost" a large
copy order of mine for about nine months.
[5:48 PM] Brad Strickland: I just noticed that when I enter
something, it shows up in a pretty robin's-egg blue. Bug or feature?
[5:48 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: Brad, you are special!
[5:48 PM] Laura Leff: Feature
[5:49 PM] Steve Archer: Your own posts will show up in
blue, but just on your screen.
[5:49 PM] Laura Leff: But I wasn't trying to get anyone in
trouble, I was just trying to get my copies.
[5:49 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: (scrolls back in convo) I
can do a pretty good Maxwell... http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3061845/
[5:49 PM] Brad Strickland: Well, that's a relief. At least
they won't follow me to bed and dance around and all, like those darned
elephants.
[5:50 PM] Brad Strickland: Yes, very good, Mitch!
[5:50 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: of course you only wanted
your copies, Laura. They have the attitude that they must protect their precious
materials from ANY evil scholar who wants to touch or access them! I just found
that the Huntington Library is the same way, couldn't even break into the joint!
[5:50 PM] Steve Archer: It is probably just a rogue
librarian. Gotta watch out for those.
[5:50 PM] Laura Leff: Nice job, Mitch!
[5:51 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: fantastic, Mitch!!!!!
[5:51 PM] Brad Strickland: Mel's effect that I WISH I could
do: a horse whinny.
[5:51 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: or even better, an English
horse whinny
[5:51 PM] Laura Leff: Or a British horse whinny.
[5:51 PM] Brad Strickland: I can do a pony, but only when
I'm a little hoarse.
[5:51 PM] Laura Leff: There ya go.
[5:51 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: hahaha
[5:52 PM] Laura Leff: Rimshot
[5:52 PM] Brad Strickland: See, it's funny because it's a
pun.
[5:52 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: there's a 1936 or so show
where Jack, Mary and the gang are all horses getting ready to race, its amusing,
anybody remember that one?
[5:52 PM] Brad Strickland: I did hear that one, Kathy.
Details are foggy.
[5:53 PM] Laura Leff: Mutter mutter mutter
[5:53 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: Wheee-hee-hee-hee! A-henh,
[5:53 PM] Brad Strickland: I don't have the memory I used
to. At least I think I don't I can't recall.
[5:53 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: brilliant, Mitch!
[5:54 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: now, can you do Al Jolson?
[5:54 PM] Laura Leff: You can tell you're getting old based
on two things: losing your memory, and the other one I forget.
[5:54 PM] Brad Strickland: Mel did this incredible whistle
while playing Hawaiian nose guitar at the same time. Remarkable horse effect.
[5:54 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: Nyaaaa!
[5:54 PM] Laura Leff: Nyahhhhhhhhhh
[5:55 PM] Brad Strickland: Now, I can't sing at all--but
for some reason I can do a few lines of "California, Here I Come" in a
very passable Jolson impression. Go figure.
[5:55 PM] Laura Leff: There's a wonderful story in Milt
Josefsberg's book about them putting crazy caricatures into the scripts for Mel
to do in the readthrough. Not particularly PC, but funny.
[5:55 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: Heh. I do a
pretty good Peter Lorre.
[5:56 PM] Brad Strickland: Me too. And a fair Jimmy
Stewart.
[5:56 PM] Brad Strickland: Our director, Bill Ritch, told
me I was being too "Rod Serling" when I announced the Western, so I
went back to a kind of mild Walter Brennan instead.
[5:56 PM] Laura Leff: I think I do a decent Ronald Reagan.
[5:57 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1549420/
[5:57 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: you folks are all so
talented!!!!! I can hardly sound like myself some days : )
[5:57 PM] Brad Strickland: LL, we live close to the Ronald
Reagan Parkway, and after we moved here I would get on the Parkway, say, "Wellll...."
every single time until Barbara started to pelt me with stuff. Bad when you're
driving, so I knocked it off.
[5:58 PM] Laura Leff: Good idea.
[5:58 PM] Steve Archer: Gee, they named a parkway for
someone just for introducing Jack Benny on the GE Theater?
[5:59 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: LOL
[5:59 PM] Brad Strickland: Mitch--I do Mel Blanc doing
Peter Lorre--"Leopold, why did you hit me on the head with a baseball bat?
Don't you know that will make me very angry, and I will do TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE
things to you? I'm going to bed now."
[5:59 PM] Brad Strickland: Very good Serling, btw.
[6:00 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: Brad, ever get off the RR
Parkway and say "where's the rest of me?"
[6:00 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: Thenkew!
[6:00 PM] Steve Archer: Vincent Price had a great story
about working with Lorre. Price said Lorre would pinch his nose and
do his own Peter Lorre impression. Price: "He sounded just
like Peter Lorre!"
[6:00 PM] Brad Strickland: No, because we get off on Five
Forks Trickum, and I'm always saying, "Barbara, TELL me when a car's coming
up! I can't SEE them at this angle! YEOW!"
[6:01 PM] Laura Leff: Larry Adler used to play tennis with
Peter Lorre.
[6:01 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: close to my old stomping
grounds in Stone Mountain, hahaha
[6:01 PM] Laura Leff: Somewhere I've got a wonderful media
package on the promotion of the TV episode where Lorre guest starred!
[6:01 PM] Brad Strickland: Bela Lugosi used to do
high-diving with Peter Lorre. And Lorre and Alexander Woollcott used to do
Impressionist water colors together.
[6:01 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: who does anybody think Mary
was imitating when she did her murderous cigarette girls in the Captain O'Benny
skits?
[6:02 PM] Laura Leff: I thought it was Lauren Bacall
[6:02 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: Mae West?
[6:02 PM] Brad Strickland: Um--care to rephrase that?
[6:02 PM] Laura Leff: In the 30s she did Mae West
[6:02 PM] Brad Strickland: Who does anybody think....well
she was kinda irritating to me, but who, I dunno. Third base.
[6:03 PM] R.Hookie: I almost did a joke there
[6:03 PM] Laura Leff: I think after "To Have and Have
Not" she moved to more of a Bacall purr.
[6:03 PM] R.Hookie: Good taste stopped me
[6:03 PM] Laura Leff: Good idea.
[6:03 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: Might be Barbara Stanwyck in
Double Indemnity
[6:03 PM] Brad Strickland: "BAY-BEEE!" (Sorry,
Bugs Bunny Bacall flashback)
[6:04 PM] Laura Leff: Kathy - That's true...they both had
that low voice.
[6:04 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: Lizbeth Scott....
[6:04 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: "Baby's gonna hafta have
a ham sandwich."
[6:04 PM] R.Hookie: Besides, my jokes have been tanking
lately,,,,
[6:04 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: who quilled Carlton Quince?
[6:04 PM] Brad Strickland: "Shay, there washn't a dry
eye in the house when I knocked off Lisbeth Shcott." -- "Play it
Again, Sam"
[6:05 PM] Brad Strickland: Just read the bio "Lou's on
First," by Lou Costello's daughter Chris. Some interesting anecdotes,
little depth.
[6:06 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: is there a good book on
Peter Lorre? or an autobiography?
[6:07 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: H'm. I know Josh
Friedman did a page or two on him...
[6:07 PM] Brad Strickland: Stephen Youngkin, "The Lost
One: The Life of Peter Lorre," 2012.
[6:08 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: I like reading biographies,
although some of the recent ones on Hollywood stars have disappointed me, like
the Barbara Stanwyck one
[6:08 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: http://www.peterlorrebook.com/
[6:08 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: thanks, I will check that
one out!!!!
[6:09 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: http://www.eviltwin.velvetsofa.com/Lorre/peter.html
[6:10 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: does anyone in this group
ever go to the sperdvac conference anymore?
[6:10 PM] Brad Strickland: The best showbiz bio I've read
in years is Gary Gidden's "Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams". It was
supposed to be the first of a multi-volume bio, but I don't think he's published
the second book.
[6:10 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: they have moved it to
Vegas....
[6:11 PM] Laura Leff: I haven't in some
years. They had Marty and me on a panel back in 2012, but that was
the last one.
[6:11 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: that is a whole lot of
Binging, Brad!
[6:11 PM] Laura Leff: Kathy - They have?
[6:12 PM] Brad Strickland: Well, Crosby was a complex guy.
Had a laid-back nice side and a dark, evil side, too.
[6:12 PM] Laura Leff: They apparently took me off
distribution of the Radiogram, but I never got a ton out of reading it.
[6:12 PM] Laura Leff: There were a couple authors who would
do good in-depth articles, but there were a number of authors whose articles
were just really simplistic stuff or nostalgic ramblings.
[6:13 PM] Brad Strickland: And infighting, too, LL,
unfortunately.
[6:13 PM] Laura Leff: Brad - That would be interesting to
be able to see a balanced treatment of both sides.
[6:13 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: I could be wrong, but I
thought that is what I read/heard. I have friends in San Bernadino who attended
it for a couple of years, but can't go this year, where-ever its being held
[6:13 PM] Perri: Just took a glance at the sperdvac webpage;
got a Geocities-style headache!
[6:13 PM] Laura Leff: Brad - I was aware of the infighting
that was happening back in the 2010-2012 timeframe, but I take it it still goes
on?
[6:14 PM] Brad Strickland: Giddens does a good job--he
presents Crosby warts and all, but isn't muckraking or condemnatory. I think I
made up a word there.
[6:14 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: Crosby could be really evil,
that was fun to read about!!!
[6:14 PM] Brad Strickland: LL--Dunno. I dropped off the
mail list too, somehow.
[6:14 PM] Laura Leff: Kathy - It's not a complete surprise,
as Walden was getting into some Vegas connections.
[6:14 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: such an interesting idea,
that the world's most popular singer is virtually unknown by anyone under 50 or
40
[6:14 PM] Laura Leff: Confession...I was listening to a CD
of Crosby that someone had given me.
[6:15 PM] Laura Leff: And I heard a cut come on with a duo.
[6:15 PM] Laura Leff: I didn't know who was singing with
him.
[6:15 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: friends sent me 2015
RAdiograms, and lots of ranting about PCness, ugh
[6:15 PM] Laura Leff: But I almost threw my neck out of
joint when the other person sang because I thought they sounded so awful in
comparison.
[6:15 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: If it was "The Spaniard
That Blighted My Life," it was Al Jolson.
[6:15 PM] Laura Leff: Kathy - Well, glad to know I'm not
missing anything.
[6:16 PM] Laura Leff: Mitch - Oh no...Jolie's my favorite
singer.
[6:16 PM] Laura Leff: It was David Bowie.
[6:16 PM] Steve Archer: We have REPS up here, looks like a
lot of the same folks who are at the SPERDVAC convention.
[6:16 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: I hope that the same thing
does not happen to Jack Benny!!!! Laura I was part of Nora Patterson's
dissertation defense, and her interview with you is part of a chapter. IJBFC
looks really good in her diss!
[6:16 PM] Steve Archer: I had a nice time at REPS last
year, couldn't make this years' for some reason.
[6:16 PM] Brad Strickland: Oh, yeh. Bowie and Bing did
"Little Drummer Boy" on one of the Christmas specials....
[6:16 PM] Laura Leff: Kathy - Oh that's
fantastic! I had no idea!
[6:16 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: yipe!
[6:16 PM] Brad Strickland: Garrison Keillor says whoever
wrote that as a Christmas song should have been shot.
[6:17 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: Yeah, that's NOT one of the
better Christmas songs out there.
[6:17 PM] Brad Strickland: I mean, you just get the kid to
sleep, and this jerk comes in playing a DRUM?
[6:17 PM] Laura Leff: Brad - That was it. Now
Bowie on his own is his own thing. But his style and Bing's just
really created an auditory clash for me.
[6:17 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: I can send it to you. I
wanted to bring up the point that, at her defense, I asked the room full of
academics if they thought that interest in Jack Benny could spread. They were
all sure that Old Time RAdio was dying and Benny with it...
[6:17 PM] Laura Leff: Sad. They should see the
E-mails I get from new members.
[6:18 PM] Laura Leff: Or look at the recent post from the
person in Portugal.
[6:18 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: BUT I made the case that
perhaps all the radio shows and TV shows now available would turn him into a
Classic Comedian like Chaplin, Keaton and the Marx Brothers, who had been just
part of nostalgia 40 years ago....
[6:18 PM] Brad Strickland: Wish I'd made it. I would've
stood up and said, "Well, sure it can."
[6:18 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: Of course, there are plenty
of WORSE Christmas songs... "I'm Gonna Spend My Christmas With A Dalek"
comes to mind. Google that one at your own risk. :D
[6:18 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: The new person from Portugal
was fascinating
[6:18 PM] Steve Archer: Academics know a lot about one
little thing....and not much about lots of things.
[6:18 PM] Laura Leff: Kathy - Then again, everyone knows
that no one gives a crap about stuff old people like Jefferson, Lincoln, Winston
Churchill, etc. That's the PAST.
[6:18 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: or Grandma Got Run Over by a
Crooner Reindeer
[6:19 PM] Brad Strickland: "Grandma Got Run Over by a
Grand Jell-O Dessert."
[6:19 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: yeah exactly, so I will be
pushing the Benny-Renaissance,,,,,, The Bennysance!
[6:19 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: I amazed a Nobel laureate
once by showing him a carburetor I'd just overhauled.
[6:19 PM] Laura Leff: Kathy - Careful that Brad doesn't
misread that as Benny sauce.
[6:19 PM] Steve Archer: Rhino put out a great CD in the 80s
called "Bummed Out Christmas". I love
it. "Christmas in Jail", "Christmas in
Vietnam", etc.
[6:20 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: or Benny-stance!
[6:20 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: "Oh, I could never do
that," he said.
[6:20 PM] Brad Strickland: I keep seeing little touches of
Jack's style and timing on TV shows, and even in contemporary cartoons. Not
impressions, but style and timing.
[6:20 PM] Laura Leff: Mitch - Yep. I'm a math
major and have sometimes referred to "graph theorists who can't boil
water."
[6:20 PM] Steve Archer: Sauce Bennaise on Eggs Benedict,
laid by a seagull.
[6:20 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: Back Door Santa is my
favorite from the Atlantic Records Christmas collection
[6:20 PM] Laura Leff: Steve - Cute.
[6:21 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: I do like Buck Benny's annual
Christmas collection.
[6:21 PM] Brad Strickland: Or the 1050s, "Run and Tell
Your Mommy that Santa is a Commie." Don't remember much about it, other
than "If he's red, / He should be dead."
[6:21 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: hahaha I will serve some
sauce Bennaise this week
[6:21 PM] Laura Leff: Jerry was asking me about current
comedians influenced by Jack. I gave him a slew of them, but a lot
of them are people like David Letterman and Jon Stewart who have recently
departed the mainstream scene.
[6:21 PM] Brad Strickland: That should have been 1950s. In
the 1050s it was all like Anglo-Saxon junk.
[6:21 PM] Perri: @SteveArcher (heart)
[6:22 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: Jerry told me that he's
never been on facebook and doesn't know about the internet, so he might not be
up on current comics.....
[6:22 PM] Perri: ...a frightened seagul!
[6:22 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: My favorite Christmas novelty
song is "The Pretty Little Dolly". THAT is drop dead
hilarious.
[6:22 PM] Laura Leff: Kathy - I'm probably not much either.
[6:22 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: Mitch, that sounds
dangerous, hahahaha
[6:22 PM] Brad Strickland: What was the one about the
little girl buying shoelaces for her dying mother?
[6:22 PM] Laura Leff: Brad - Wondered about
that. Figured you were just typing Hastingsly.
[6:22 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: Oh, lordy, I try and forget
that one.
[6:22 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: wonder if she got plastic
tips...how many others are typing that right now
[6:23 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: LMAO!
[6:23 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: Laura, ouch
[6:23 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: PLASTIC
TIPS! METAL TIPS!
[6:23 PM] Steve Archer: Mel really should have done a
novelty song as the clerk for "Bummed Out Christmas"
[6:23 PM] Laura Leff: Brad - Oh God, that sounds awful.
[6:23 PM] Brad Strickland: No, it's a real song. I think
the tips would have been an improvement.
[6:23 PM] Laura Leff: "I'm Committing Suicide for
Christmas" Not a big seller, I suppose.
[6:24 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: she sings, dear Lord, help
my mother tie her shoes to walk to the Promised land...
[6:24 PM] Brad Strickland: Then there's a Country-Western
song: "Shotgun Shells on the Christmas Tree."
[6:24 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0xq2K-ut8U
[6:25 PM] Brad Strickland: You know, if we could get the
rights, we'd have a seasonal best-selling book: Have an Awful Earful Christmas:
The World's Worst Carols.
[6:25 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: BearManor Media would love
it : )
[6:26 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: would the Sportsmen's
elevator song count as a christmas carol? I would call it GOOD,
however
[6:26 PM] Brad Strickland: Nah, that one's too classy.
[6:27 PM] Laura Leff: Wow...I had to bail on the song when
it got ugly...
[6:27 PM] Brad Strickland: "All I Want for Christmas
Is My Two Front Teeth" is too good. That tells you something about the
level of mediocrity to which we must aspire.
[6:27 PM] Laura Leff: Dear George Rock.
[6:28 PM] Laura Leff: Hey, before we get too far away from
Jack, any requests for the show next month?
[6:29 PM] Brad Strickland: Let's see, October, not too many
Halloween episodes and I think we've done them all. . . . But how about one
featuring Peter Lorre or Boris Karloff? (They're the same script)
[6:29 PM] Laura Leff: I stand condemned
[6:29 PM] Brad Strickland: I'm sorry, LL, what did you do?
[6:29 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: October
show, how about the Basil Rathbone one?
[6:30 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: just listened to
Mona....Johnny's reactions are fun
[6:30 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: I love I Stand Condemned! We
can print up fake money to give each other
[6:30 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: Yus. He credits
Jack for a lot of his underlying style.
[6:31 PM] Brad Strickland: Yes, and buy a cigarette lighter
for $25,000!
[6:31 PM] Laura Leff: OK, I'll pick one of those.
[6:31 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: Mitch, have you ever heard
Johnny's senior thesis from college? Its all about Benny and Allen, at the
University of Nebraska library website
[6:31 PM] Brad Strickland: Let's do the Lorre version. The
Karloff one was a bit more recent, and Lorre seems to enjoy the script so much.
[6:31 PM] Steve Archer: I Stand Condemned sounds like a
great choice.
[6:31 PM] Laura Leff: Hey, you're all welcome to stay as
long as you like...I need to run, but thanks so much for being here!
[6:31 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: Which ep has Jack trying to
get someone to go see "Death of a Salesman" with
him? That ep was a 30 minute shaggy dog story and the punchline had
me in hysterics. :D
[6:32 PM] R.Hookie: Sorry for bailing.... my dog had a
seizure... she's better now
[6:32 PM] Brad Strickland: Oh, sorry, Hookie.
[6:32 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: Never heard the thesis,
no. Is there a URL?
[6:32 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: sorry about your dog, hope
she feels better, Hookie!
[6:32 PM] Laura Leff: Give her a hug from me.
[6:32 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: Mitch, I will post it to the
facebook page
[6:32 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: Odear. Hope the
doggie is OK!
[6:32 PM] Brad Strickland: I think the Carson thesis is
available on the IJBFC site.
[6:32 PM] R.Hookie: Yeah, she's snapped out of it.
[6:33 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: Ah! Good show!
[6:33 PM] Steve Archer: All right folks, I should be
heading out too. Great chatting with you all as usual!
[6:33 PM] Brad Strickland: Our daughter's dog had epilepsy.
Cutest little Papillion you ever did see.
[6:33 PM] Brad Strickland: Yeah, I'd better go to.
Goodnight, all!
[6:33 PM] Kathy Fuller Seeley: great to talk with you all,
much good luck to dogs and humans!!!!
[6:33 PM] R.Hookie: Good night Brad!
[6:33 PM] R.Hookie: Thanks Kathy!
[6:34 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: I'm gonna mosey
too! As a parting shot, well, don't say you weren't warned:
[6:34 PM] Perri: Always fun and interesting
here. Goodnight, people 'n pups!
[6:34 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuBJ5H9m3Sc
[6:34 PM] R.Hookie: Good night folks!
[6:34 PM] M. Mitchell Marmel: Nite, all!