Just to remind you all: Turner Classic Movies is running the oft-discussed (on this website) and ultra-cynical Billy Wilder movie, Ace in the Hole this Saturday. I think it's on at Noon on the West Coast but you'd better look it up to make certain. It may be listed by its other name, The Big Carnival.
As you may recall, we made a fuss over this film in part because it's never had a real home video release in the United States. Several folks have now informed me though that a DVD is coming this summer from the folks at Criterion. So if you don't remember to set your TiVo, it may not matter.
Rolling Stone convenes a panel of Iraq War pessimists to discuss how bad things are there and how much worse they can get. I almost didn't link to this because it seemed too negative and gloomy...but I do think even the optimists need to brace themselves for the possibility of some "worst case" scenarios. This piece will give you several.
The last big building that comprised the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas was imploded very early this morning and I thought you might enjoy seeing that. Originally, the company behind it all told reporters that they weren't going to make a fuss; that they even preferred for safety reasons to not draw a huge audience for the event. Obviously, they changed their mind because they put on a huge fireworks show before making the shell of the hotel go bye-bye. It doesn't look like their fireworks display was as spectacular as the one I saw when the Hacienda Hotel was blown up but it looks pretty good.
It's charming in a way that they added the fireworks. I mean, why? It's not like you need that to attract interest when you're blowing up a building. And for what purpose? They don't have to drum up business for the Stardust, after all, and I fail to see how this will translate into any value to the new mega-resort they'll be opening on that parcel of land in a few years. They just did it to show off, which I think is great. It's Vegas, baby.
We have team coverage for you of the demolition. First, here's footage from a British newscast...
Then since that clip ends a little abruptly, here's the CBS News footage of the implosion...
I'm not going to miss the Stardust for reasons I explained here. Or at least, I thought I wasn't going to miss it. I kinda wish I'd gotten there one last time before they made it go away, not because it was a great hotel. It hadn't been that for decades. But it was fun to look at the coffee shop and imagine Frank and Dean and Peter Lawford sitting there, talking about stuff.
This post is mainly for folks who live in Los Angeles but the rest of you can listen in.
One of the things I've learned to never discuss with friends is pizza. I have friends who wouldn't react if you told them their mother was a crack whore but if you disparaged their favorite pizza, it would be pistols at twenty paces. Actually, the possessive quality of one's pizza fave often goes in two stages, the first being the locale of the best pizza. Some stand ready to fight to the death should anyone suggest that the best pizza outside of New York is not inferior to the worst pizza in New York. I have learned not to tell these people about some of the real lousy slices I've had in Manhattan.
Others are the same way about Chicago, Boston or certain parts of New Jersey, and I even have a friend who stands ready to argue that there's no better pizza than one can find in Reno, Nevada.
Anyway, once you decide what city defines your ultimate pizza, you can get down to the second stage of the argument, which is where — outside of that town — someone makes a reasonable facsimile of it. In Los Angeles, I have heard people swear that the closest thing to "New York Pizza" is to be found at Mulberry Street Pizza (in Beverly Hills and Encino), at Frankie & Johnnie's (in Beverly Hills, Brentwood and Hollywood), at Damiano's (on Fairfax, across from Canter's), at Rocco's (in the Miracle Mile and on Vermont, across from L.A. City College) and at Johnnie's (many locations). I like all of these places and wouldn't argue for or against any of them.
Two or three years ago, there seemed to be a consensus winner among my acquaintances. That was Vito's Pizza, over on Vermont in the building that is now a Rocco's. I know people who'd drive clear across town, passing all those other places, to get pizza from Vito's...and I admit, it was pretty good. Many went into mourning when Vito and his brother closed down, reportedly moving back home to Chicago.
Well, they're back. I haven't been there yet but I received an ecstatic e-mail from one buddy that Vito has reopened on La Cienega Boulevard. He's in a strip mall somewhere between Melrose and Santa Monica Boulevard...and it's all so new that Directory Assistance doesn't even have a listing for them yet. This is exciting news, especially if it turns out that I'm in their delivery area, as I may well be. I'll give them a try just as soon as Creamy Tomato Soup Month is over at the Souplantation. That's all I'm eating until April 1. If anyone gets there before me, let me know if the new Vito's is as fine as the old Vito's.
Ever since Deal or No Deal debuted, I've been TiVoing the show and watching it with increasing speed. Thanks to my remote control, I now make it through an hour episode in about seven minutes. When I pause, I can see that the program has gotten a bit more condescending and a lot more repetitive. There have been many games that were simply not interesting because the contestant knocked out the big amounts near the beginning so the whole hour was to see if they'd go home with $10,000 or $20,000.
Last night, they had on a two-hour episode and I guess I should insert the SPOILER ALERT right about here in case you recorded it and haven't watched yet.
Still with me? Fine. Last night, they had the second half on a game from the previous episode plus two complete games. No one won huge amounts. All three players went home with amounts under $100,000 — but what was interesting was that two of them picked the case with the million dollars in it. One sold it for $99,000 and the other — who obviously got out way before the producers and audience were expecting him to — took $81,000.
Now, neither one of those folks were likely to take home the million. They play out the game after the deal is accepted and the last guy, the one who settled for $81 grand, would have reached the point where he had either $75,000 or the million and he had a bank offer of, I believe, $561,000. If someone got that far, they almost certainly would have grabbed the dough. I doubt anyone would go down to the last case unless their last two choices were both six figure amounts.
Still, it's fascinating that the million was picked in two of three consecutive games. I guess that's why I still TiVo the thing...to see those odd moments. This one was pretty odd.
You may not want to sit through this entire clip but it's kinda interesting in a way. In 1972, the Goodson-Todman game show company revived their old game show, The Price is Right, in a new, more energetic format. In addition to the daytime version hosted by Bob Barker, there was a syndicated nighttime version hosted by Dennis James, and this is a sales film for the syndicated version. It was sent to stations to try and get them to buy the show...which, at this point, apparently had not taped any episodes. One presumes that if they had done some, they would have included scenes. Instead, Mark Goodson and Dennis James have to sell the show by explaining what it is, how it works, etc. There is a clip but it's of James filling in for Monty Hall as the host of Let's Make a Deal.
This runs close to fifteen minutes and it's amazing that the show sold. It sounds complex and boring, whereas the TV show they were hawking was pretty simple and fast-paced. You have to wonder what they thought the station managers would think they were buying — the idea of pricing games? The charisma of Dennis James? It may have just been the past track record of Goodson-Todman but for some reason, Goodson doesn't itemize their many past hits. If I were running a TV station and they sent this to me, I think I'd have wondered why they were so sure they had a great show when they obviously hadn't done one episode yet. But it worked.
March 14, 2007
