Monday, May 11, 2009

Disney Discounts

You may very well be buying the Disney Treasures DVD sets which feature some of the less famous (but still wonderful) classics from the House of Mouse. If you are, it might be worth your time to prowl around the website of the online Disney Store. They have some of them available for the lowest prices we've seen, including a few that are nearing out-of-print status. Just a tip.

• Posted at 9:43 AM · LINK

Letters, We Get Letters...

Lotsa messages this morning taking me to task for jesting that Johnny Rivers only had one hit. Many folks (Randy Skretvedt, to name one) itemized the many successes of Mr. Rivers for me, citing — here's Randy's list — "Memphis," "Maybellene," "Mountain of Love," "Midnight Special," "Seventh Son," "Poor Side of Town," "Baby, I Need Your Lovin'," "Tracks of My Tears," "Summer Rain," "Swayin' to the Music," "Rockin' Pneumonia (and the Boogie Woogie Flu)." He quotes Wikipedia as saying Rivers had nine Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and 17 in the Top 40 from 1964 to 1977, and notes that the singer had his own record label, Soul City, which gave us The Fifth Dimension.

So, joke retracted. And I hereby reapply it to Yellow Balloon.

In case you don't remember Yellow Balloon, that was a group in '67 or so that really did only have one hit. You know what it was called? "Yellow Balloon." That's right. The one hit of Yellow Balloon, a group founded by Don Grady of the My Three Sons TV show, was called "Yellow Balloon." And you know what was on the flip side of "Yellow Balloon?" A song called "Noollab Wolley," which was "Yellow Balloon" spelled backwards. They named it that because all it was was the same recording played in reverse. I always thought that was funny. Most "one-hit wonder" performers technically had two hits because the A side of the record sold a zillion copies and then the flip got a free ride because even though nobody ever cared about it, it also sold a zillion. But Yellow Balloon actually was a one-hit wonder with one hit. Let's listen to Yellow Balloon playing a medley of that hit, shall we?

Meanwhile, I am also informed by the other half of the people who read this blog that it isn't quite accurate to say this is the 30th anniversary of Fawlty Towers, even though John Cleese apparently says it is. There were two seasons of the show, the first of which aired in the Fall of 1975 and the second of which aired in Spring of '79. So it's the 30th anniversary of the second batch. My thanks to Jon Delfin, Bob Claster, Nigel Parkinson and a lot of folks whose names I don't feel like retyping.

• Posted at 9:02 AM · LINK

I Won't Grow Up

Back in 2005, after touring in the part for a little over thirty years, Cathy Rigby played her farewell performance in the title role of Peter Pan. I saw her do it a couple times in those 30+ years, plus I have the DVD of the show, which is a pretty good replica of what they did on stage. (It's out of print but not hard to come by.) The show always had a little of that "bus-and-truck" ambiance that most touring shows have...that feeling that they could pack up all the scenery and be in the next county within an hour. But I thought it was a great presentation, superior — this will come as sacrilege to some but I don't care — to the legendary Mary Martin version.

To me, Mary Martin, as good as she was, never quite became Peter Pan — no youth, no boyishness. She was just somebody's grandmother on a wire, and Cyril Ritchard's Captain Hook was so gay, his feet touched the stage less than Peter's. By contrast, it was possible to pretend for a little while that Ms. Rigby was a boy, and her Hook was suitably villainous.

It was sad when she packed it in and hung up the green tights. In this newspaper interview, she talked about the sense of loss. But after all, she was 51 years old and that's a bit old to be playing a young boy, right? Well, guess where this is headed...

At age 57 (she was born the same year I was), Cathy Rigby is flying again. May 23, she opens a six-month engagement in Branson, Missouri as Peter Pan. At the Mansion Entertainment and Media Center. Eight shows a week.

I don't have a lot else to say about it. I just think it's amazing. She's probably in great shape but heck, even if she's not able to do as many backflips as she used to, big deal. Peter Pan has the secret of eternal youth and so, apparently, does the performer who's played him more than anyone. If I were anywhere near Branson, I'd go. I don't believe in fairies but I do believe in Cathy Rigby.

• Posted at 2:11 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Here's pop star Johnny Rivers singing a medley of his hit...

• Posted at 12:33 AM · LINK

May 12, 2009 • Current • May 10, 2009