Monday, October 24, 2005

Memory Lane

Here's another photo of Charles Lane, this time playing a gym coach in the 1965 movie, Billie. In the film, Patty Duke played a high school girl who tried out for the boys' track team and put all the males to shame. Her secret? A little rock 'n' roll mantra she called "The Beat." I know it's hard to believe, given that plot summary, but it was not a great movie. If you want to order a copy of it on DVD, here's a link but I don't particularly recommend it. The film's main redeeming feature is that it was filled with good character actors including Jim Backus (seen at right above), Ted Bessell, Billy DeWolfe, Richard Deacon and, of course, Mr. Lane. Remember when you could cast people like that and make unwatchable material watchable?

But I didn't post the above photo to make that point. One of my oldest friends is a devout reader of this weblog, Bruce Reznick, and this is for him. Hey, Bruce! Recognize that track in the background? You and I used to run around it back when we both could run. That's University High School in West Los Angeles, our alma mater...though I don't remember us having any gym coaches like Charles Lane. Ours were much meaner.

• Posted at 11:54 PM · LINK

Indictment Watch

Anything? Anything?

Aw, shucks. Doesn't look like there are any yet.

Oh, well. The week is young.

• Posted at 8:13 AM · LINK

Calvinist Cartoonist

Here we have a photo of artist Bill Watterson and in this article, about as much info about the creator of Calvin and Hobbes as we're likely to get from a reporter.

I am told that copies of the newly-released Complete Calvin and Hobbes have been flying off the tables at Costco, and are presumably being snatched up at other stores, as well. A friend of mine who's a huge fan of the strip told me he was hoping the book would sell poorly. His logic was that the more money Watterson makes off it, the less likely he is to ever come back and do it or something else again. My impression of Watterson, based on the one phone call we had years ago and on a long chat with an exec at his syndicate, is that he's not out to see how much cash he can make in this world. So you can probably buy this new collection without fear that you're depriving yourself of future Watterson work.

(P.S. If you want to buy this book from Amazon, here's a link and it's one of those that will pay me a slight commission. They have it for $94.50 plus postage. If you're a member of Costco, their website sells it a bit cheaper but I don't make anything off it. My friend Gordon Kent told me that it was eighty bucks plus tax at his local Costco. It's probably about the same at a Sam's Club.)

• Posted at 12:05 AM · LINK