Sunday, September 13, 2009

Fleeting Films

Michael Barrier explains a little-known chunk of animation history — two Dr. Seuss cartoons made by Warner Brothers at their short-lived New York cartoon studio.

• Posted at 11:51 PM · LINK

Gelbart, Continued...

Ken Levine remembers his friend and employer Larry Gelbart.

Ken's right about how good Larry was at getting back to people, returning calls, etc. I did a couple of minor favors for him and every time, he sent me either an appreciative note or an appreciative note and an autographed copy of the script for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. I have at least three of them. I had one more but I gave it to a friend of mine named Mark who also loves the show.

One time, the "favor" was as follows. The Nathan Lane version of Forum was about to open in New York. I was back there that week and Larry arranged for me to get house seats for a performance that had been "sold out" for weeks. Being the co-author, he got great house seats: Second row on the center aisle. Any closer and I'd have had to play a courtesan. Anyway, since I was going to see the production before he did, he asked me — if I had a moment — to drop him an e-mail after and tell him what I thought of it. I sent him a message that evening that just said, "Needs more Jews." Then I followed it up the next day with a more detailed critique.

In the above case, common sense would suggest that he'd done me a much larger favor than I'd done for him. But Larry didn't see it that way. He sent another copy of Forum, wittily inscribed.

Speaking of Forum: It's my favorite musical and the Reprise group is staging in next March up at UCLA. They do a lecture series up there in conjunction with each show, and I'm one of the folks who lectures. We'd been talking about me interviewing Larry there after it opens, and he'd agreed. I can't tell you how much I was looking forward to that.

One other thing. Larry was active on the Internet, especially on the newsgroup, alt.tv.mash where he answered questions and corrected misinfo. His handle was "elsig" and if you want to read some of his messages, this search should locate some threads in which he participated.

If you browse, you may stumble across a particularly poignant exchange. Larry Linville, who played Frank Burns on M*A*S*H, popped in one day to report he was home following cancer surgery...

Feb 25, 1998

Just wanted to say hi and thanks to all those who've sent cards, letters, whatever, since my "grand opening." Thank God Ferret Face wasn't operating! I'm home now, and doing well. My wife says I'm looking good, but what does she know. Much love and all the best.

Larry "Frank Burns" Linville

It brought the following public reply from the other Larry...

Feb 28, 1998

So good to hear from you, Ferret Face, and to know that your spirit and your good humor are not deserting you in confrontation with cancer.

I know I speak for every in this newsgroup in wishing you the speediest of recoveries.

It's no hardship for any of us to do this. "It's nice to be nice to the nice."

Love,
Larry Gelbart

Mr. Linville passed away a little more than two years after this exchange...and now we've lost Larry G. to cancer, as well. I'll bet you his spirit and good humor never deserted him in his own confrontation, either.

• Posted at 9:34 PM · LINK

Possible Correction

Several folks have written to tell me that the Big Daddy version of the Star Wars theme is more in the style of Duane Eddy than The Ventures. Okay.

• Posted at 8:07 PM · LINK

Sunday Morning

The arguing on the political boards this A.M. mainly seems to be about the size of the turnout for yesterday's anti-Obama rally in Washington. A basic rule of such events is that those who believe in the cause of a public protest always wildly exaggerate its size, those who oppose the cause always underestimate it, reporters make wild guesses and the police and other non-partisan authorities usually get it right. But the accurate estimate gets generally ignored because it isn't of much use to anyone.

So today, you have the anti-Obama crowd claiming 1.5 to 2 million, you have the pro-Obama folks saying 20,000 to 30,000 and you have the D.C. fire department saying 60,000 to 70,000. Interestingly, you have the Washington Times (which is a right-wing paper) and the Washington Post (which has been turning into one) both saying, "tens of thousands." Super-statistician Nate Silver explains a little more about the wide disparity in claims...and seems to side with the fire department.

• Posted at 10:42 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Time for another selection from Big Daddy, the musical group that takes the music of today and arranges it like the music of yesterday. The theme from Star Wars isn't exactly the music of today but I guess they couldn't resist recording it in the style of The Ventures. I like it better that way...don't you?

• Posted at 2:54 AM · LINK

C-Span Viewing

I'm watching (via TiVo) the memorial service for Walter Cronkite that C-Span has been airing. It's a nice gathering of biggies in network news, saying a lot of incisive things about the departed and also about their profession. Presidents Clinton and Obama also spoke. If you'd like to catch it, it airs again tomorrow on C-Span 1 from 3:30 PM to 6:00 PM Eastern Time.

Earlier, I watched Obama's speech about health care in Minneapolis. Quite nice, though he did tell the "fired up" anecdote for about the six hundredth time.

• Posted at 2:52 AM · LINK