Friday, January 9, 2009

Recommended Reading

Fred Kaplan likes Barack Obama's Pentagon hires.

• Posted at 8:17 AM · LINK

Magic Kingdom Kameo

Hey, remember that home movie, Disneyland Dreams, we looked at recently? Go read this item that Jerry Beck posted about it. There seems to be a very young Wild and Crazy Guy in it.

• Posted at 8:13 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Here's a goodie...footage of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy you've never seen before. Okay, so it's just a few seconds but we'll take what we can get.

In the forties, Stan and Ollie occasionally went on tour, playing to packed audiences in theaters and arenas across the country and in England. Usually, they were part of a musical revue and would perform a few routines, especially one called "The Driver's License Sketch." In this short film, you see a few seconds of that. The gent who plays the person interviewing Laurel for his driver's license is James C. Morton, who was in a lot of Laurel and Hardy films, usually playing a policeman.

This was shot at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee where they performed between October 11, 1940 and October 16. They did four shows a day and the theater management later announced that every seat was sold for every performance. Can't do much better than that.

The dance troupe you'll see was called The Danny Dare Girls. The show also included a classical dance team, the Fredricos, and the girl singer at the end is Maxine Conrad.

A gentleman named Robert Wilson, who lives in Milwaukee, has the film which was shot by his father. I think it's great that he shared it with the world. It runs less than two minutes but it's a treasure...

• Posted at 1:57 AM · LINK

P.S.

Forgot to mention: While I'm in San Francisco for Wondercon, I'll be teaching another class in the artistry and commerce of Animation Voice Acting at the Voice One workshop. It's March 2 at 10 AM. I did one of these last year while I was in that fair city and I guess it went over well enough to do another.

• Posted at 1:55 AM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Joe Conason takes on folks who are claiming Al Franken "stole" his Senate seat in Minnesota and challenges them to put up or shut up. I've gotten quite a few copies of a chain e-mail that insists that the whole process was gamed by a solidly-Democratic election board. And of course, that's a flat-out lie.

• Posted at 12:48 AM · LINK

Where Groucho and I Will Be

I turned up at a lot of conventions in '08 but I've decided to stick closer to home this year. Right now, I'm only scheduled for the Wondercon (San Francisco, end of February), the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo (Calgary, end of April) and the Comic-Con International (San Diego, late July). There may be others but not many.

If you're going to Wondercon next month, read this. There are still tickets available to see my buddy Frank Ferrante, world's greatest Groucho impersonator, in San Francisco on February 28. If you're around Southern California, you can also catch him at the La Mirada Theatre in — where else? — La Mirada the following weekend. One matinee performance on March 8. His whole schedule is over here and if he's coming your way, go see him. It's as close as you'll ever get to the genuine article.

• Posted at 12:44 AM · LINK