Saturday, January 17, 2004

Hollywood Collectors Show

This'll be a quick report since I made a quick visit: Twice around the main room and I was out, but only 'cause I was pressed for time, not because there weren't scores of people to meet and greet. Among the stars, current and past, who were in attendance today were Kate Jackson (who seemed to have the longest line), Margot Kidder, Mamie Van Doren, Adam West and Frank Gorshin, Dwayne Hickman, Jane Kean, Charlotte Rae, Kim Darby, Carol Lynley, Beverly D'Angelo and Michael J. Pollard. I bought the new book by Lou Ferrigno on his Hulking days and chatted with Bob Hastings and Kathy Garver. Kathy is doing okay, it seems, following a fire shortly before Christmas that destroyed her home and darn near everything in it. Everyone wishes her well because she's a great talent and a lovely lady.

The show continues tomorrow with most of those same folks and others. I don't think Adam and Frank will be there, but loads of celebs will be around with pictures and autobiographies to sell. Here's where you can find details on it. If the parking tomorrow is anything like the parking today, leave your car at home and walk.

• Posted at 5:21 PM · LINK

Happy Popeye Day!

Birthday greetings to Popeye the Sailor Man, who showed up in Elzie Segar's newspaper strip, Thimble Theater, 75 years ago today. The spinach-munching, Bluto-punching gob would later take over the whole feature...and Segar's version (who never punched Bluto and only occasionally munched spinach) would be almost forgotten in favor of the Popeye of the Max Fleischer cartoons. What Segar put on paper was one of the five-or-so greatest comic strips ever done but unlike many who feel that way, I also have affection for the cartoons and for the strips and comic books done by Segar's successor, Bud Sagendorf. That's a Sagendorf Popeye I put up there at left, next to two panels from the sailor's first appearance wherein you can see Castor Oyl (Olive's brother) hiring the guy who would soon boot him out of his own strip.

When the Fleischer crew got hold of Popeye in 1933, he was a pretty well-rounded character with a personality as well-defined as his forearms and a certain amount of stardom. The cartoons though gave Popeye two things that Segar, working in pen and ink, had been unable to give him: A great theme song and the perfect voice. Whenever a print character is animated, there's always at least a little controversy over what he or she should sound like. I recall the disappointment of some of my friends when the first Peanuts cartoons (the Ford commercials) were voiced by genuine little kids with bland little kid voices, rather than the smarter, better-defined voices my friends were hearing in their heads. And when I worked on the Garfield cartoons, I sometimes encountered someone who insisted that in selecting Lorenzo Music, Jim Davis had woefully miscast his own creation.

But can you imagine Popeye with anything but that perfect sound? It was originated by a performer named William Costello who billed himself as "Red Pepper Sam." After a fistful of cartoons, he made the mistake of mentioning the "r" word ("r" as in, "raise") and was quickly booted. After a few failures, the job went to an artist in the studio named Jack Mercer who matched what Costello had done and went him one better, adding nuance, a wider range of emotions and those wonderful muttered asides. Mercer owned the role until his death in 1984.

Credit for creating this American icon goes to Segar, but one should note an "assist" by men like Mercer, Sagendorf and others who made the cartoons. Sadly, they have all departed this planet, and Popeye's current creative health is a bit uncertain. Three or four times in my life, I've been called in for chats about new Popeye projects and all three times, everyone seemed so worried about him punching anyone, and to a lesser extent about him having a pipe in his mouth, that the projects seemed doomed. I am all for not presenting bad role models for the kiddies but you can carry Political Correctness to the point of draining all humor, and all that is special from a character. Popeye used to always say, "I yam what I yam," and I wish the folks who currently control the property would listen to the guy. He knows what he's talking about.

• Posted at 1:13 PM · LINK

Walt Twice Removed

As a stockholder with a big two shares of the company, I am naturally interested in the management of the exalted Disney organization. But I have more of an investment in the firm, as do most of us. The operation Walt founded was and is unique among motion picture studios and entertainment conglomerates due to its tradition and, most of all, its avuncular figure. No one could ever recognize a Warner Brother or tell you what Louis B. Mayer looked like...but most adults know Walt. In a century of filmmaking, he remains the only "star" mogul, not just to the public but to those who still see his surname on their paychecks. On the lot, in the offices, all around the theme parks, he remains a benevolent, haunting presence. Almost everyone who works there has had to make peace with their Inner Walt, deciding to embrace or reject what they know of him. Almost every one of them has had to defend some decision by arguing that it's what Walt would have done. And like a child who needs to break free of a smothering parental figure, they intermittently need to remember that Walt is dead and that we don't know for sure how, for example, he would have organized a DVD marketing campaign.

That's why the current takeover/reform movement by Roy E. Disney is so different from the usual battles for corporate control. Nothing of the sort could happen at Paramount or Sony. It might not even happen at Disney if Roy didn't look so much like his uncle. But the fact that he represents that lineage forces the question: Is the goal here to make a lot of money and uphold the Disney tradition? Or is it to just make as much money as possible? I would sure love to see the shareholders polled on this one. I'm guessing the "money + tradition" votes would win but either way, those on the losing side would probably start selling off their stock and the company's ownership would soon be united under one goal. After spending some time perusing Roy's website, savedisney.com, I know how I'd vote. Then again, I only have the two shares.

• Posted at 12:04 PM · LINK

Sidney Miller

I can't find a photo of him but I have to post about Sidney Miller, who passed away January 10 at the age of 87. Sidney was a director, Sidney was a producer, Sidney was an actor, Sidney was a composer, Sidney was a nice man who did everything. He was best known for a time as Donald O'Connor's sidekick, and he wrote many of the tunes that the late Mr. O'Connor performed. His acting career included movies as diverse as Boys Town (with Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney) and Memories of Me (with Billy Crystal and Alan King). He directed the original Mickey Mouse Club, dozens of sixties' situation comedies and a couple of odd movies, including Lou Costello's 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock. In the seventies and eighties, he was often employed as a kind of Comedy Troubleshooter, called in on a TV show to stage and/or covertly direct scenes on programs officially directed by someone else.

It was in this last capacity that I worked with him a few times on variety shows. The director was great at music but couldn't handle the sketches, so they'd hire Sidney, give him some non-directoral title and have him stage the skits. I liked his efficiency and (of course) the fact that you couldn't mention any movie or TV star of the previous forty years without Sidney summoning up an anecdote about working with them.

Sidney also did cartoon voices. One of many was the key role of The Dungeon Master on the 1983 Dungeons & Dragons animated series. When he saw my name on the pilot script, he erroneously assumed I'd been responsible for casting him and, like a novice getting his first break, called to thank me. I thought that was charming. As I told him, it wasn't my idea but as it turned out, it was a good one. Sidney was very good in the role. Sidney was very good in everything he did. Maybe that's why he worked for so long and at so many things. There's a little less "show" in Show Business without him around. Here's a link to a newspaper obit.

• Posted at 10:08 AM · LINK