There are days when America feels like a nation in the grip of Civil War. There are days, months, even years when it feels like we can agree on nothing and that we, as a people, are incapable of viewing anything with a sense of unanimity and common ground. And then there are those rare moments when we feel as one...when everyone is on the same page and of the same mind, and truly there is widespread agreement on something.
I have just browsed political websites that run the gamut from Ultra-Liberal and Ultra-Conservative. And I am here to tell you that our great nation is united in its disgust of George Tenet.
I have a section on this website called Great Los Angeles Restaurants That Ain't There No More. An amazing number of folks have failed to grasp the concept that this is all about restaurants that I went to and about which I have fond or at least interesting memories. They write to me as if I have committed some grievous factual error by omitting some eatery that they went to in 1958 and which I never heard of. Wrong. The section is about places I've eaten. Me. Not you. Me. You want a page on the web about your favorite restaurants? Hey, no one's stopping you.
When I get the time, I will be adding to mine the somewhat-famous outlet of Trader Vic's in Beverly Hills, which closed forever either today or yesterday. It's part of the Beverly Hilton which is part of a big hotel/shopping center which is part of a forthcoming development of super-luxury condos. The Hilton's staying but undergoing massive renovations that involve the ousting of the notorious Polynesian bar-restaurant.
Trader Vic's was one of those establishments I really wanted to enjoy but rarely could. It felt like a great place to hang out, eat and/or drink something slightly exotic and take in an atmosphere of what we wish Hollywood nightlife was like but too often is not. But the times I wound up there — usually because someone I needed to eat with wanted to dine within — I found the service to be smothering and the food to be largely inedible and way overpriced. I've had expensive meals where I could understand the pricetag and others where I felt I'd just paid $24.95 for the exact same thing the Sizzler sells for eight bucks. Put enough Teriyaki Sauce on that Malibu Chicken, have it served by an overly obsequious waiter...and you have a Trader Vic's entree.
My last evening on the premises would have been in October of '05 when we had a bachelor party in one of the private rooms for my pal, Paul Dini. We had a great time in spite of the cuisine. We had exotic beverages. (I chug-a-lugged a 7-Up with a flowered swizzle stick in it.) We had festive decorations. We had several lovely young ladies who'd been hired to artfully disrobe to music. Mostly, we had friends around and you can enjoy being anywhere if you have that. I was wise enough to leave that as my final visit to Trader Vic's so I have fond memories of the place. I'm sure a lot of people do and are mourning its demise.
One hopes the obits for saxophonist Tommy Newsom, who died Saturday at the age of 78, will all remember what a fine musician he was and not just focus on his alleged boring personality. Newsom was a member of The Tonight Show Band beginning in 1962, even before Johnny Carson took over as host, and he stayed on 'til the night Johnny had departed. Not only was his playing valuable to that wonderful orchestra but his skill as an arranger was put to good use. Everyone else in the music business seemed to know this. Newsom was in constant demand for outside jazz gigs, both for his musicianship and for his charts.
The job of Musical Director on The Tonight Show went through a scuffling period before Doc Severinsen nailed it down on a permanent basis. Newsom became his second-in-command, stepping into the position when Doc was away. For a while, when Ed McMahon was off, they'd bring in an outside announcer to handle his job but in the early seventies, Carson decided he didn't want a "stranger" as his sidekick, even for an evening. So when Ed wasn't there, Doc would move over to function as announcer and that increased the number of nights when Tommy moved from playing his sax to leading the band. (There were even nights when Doc and Ed were both off. When that happened, Tommy would be the announcer and someone else from the orchestra — usually Shelley Cohen — would conduct.)
Johnny was already getting good monologue mileage off Severinsen's outrageous wardrobe. The writers went the other way with Tommy, penning jokes about how bland and unexciting he could be. Newsom was a brilliant musician but his awkwardness speaking on camera often yielded comedy gold. It certainly paved the way for David Letterman's practice of putting non-professionals on his show. A lot of the seemingly spontaneous banter between Johnny and Tommy was carefully scripted but there were nights when Newsom would come up with something so clumsy (or just odd) that it was hilarious.
At some point around the late eighties, Johnny more or less retired the "Tommy Newsom is so boring that..." franchise and only rarely went for such jokes. He also stopped using Tommy in sketches, as he'd occasionally done, and almost completely eliminated Newsom's role as Doc's replacement. The story is that Johnny decided he wanted Ed and Doc there any night he was hosting so the two men were asked/ordered to schedule their extracurricular projects for guest host nights so they'd be there for Johnny. And then on guest host nights when Ed was off, Doc would serve as both announcer and musical director...so Tommy rarely got to front the band. The official word around the Tonight Show set was that Johnny simply thought the lines about Newsom's lack of charisma had gone on too long, but many suspected a personal falling-out.
Whatever the cause, Newsom continued to contribute his playing and arrangement to what was truly an outstanding band. Whenever I was in the NBC studios and they were rehearsing, I'd race for Studio 1 just to listen. The sound was amazing and Tommy Newsom was a major reason.
Continuing with our festival of obscure Laurel and Hardy film clips: Our next installment is a little less than three minutes of a British Pathé newsreel from 1947. The first part is an interview with Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Taylor. Then comes a brief chat with Stan and Ollie, who were then about to begin touring the British Isles with what turned out to be a highly successful stage show.
You'll hear Hardy talk about an upcoming film version of Robin Hood that, alas, was never made. The storyline would have cast Oliver as Friar Hardy and Stan as Little John Laurel, the two main Merry Men of Robin Hood's band. It is unknown why the project never made it to the business side of a camera. Instead, they wound up making no movies for several years, which was our loss. Here's the newsreel...
April 29, 2007
