My pal Jim Brochu is in New York these days, racking up unanimous raves for his one-man off-Broadway production, Zero Hour. In it, Jim transforms himself miraculously into the late Zero Mostel and enables us to spend some time with this most fascinating of men. He discusses his career, being Jewish, being Tevye, being blacklisted...all sorts of topics.
The play is currently at the Gotham's Theater at St. Clement's, where it's in a limited engagement that must end on January 31. But if you don't get there by then, don't panic. It's just been announced it will reopen at the DR2 Theater there on February 24 for an open-ended run. We are happy for our friend Jim, even though this means we won't see much of him back here for a long time.
On Conan O'Brien's last show, guest Tom Hanks was played on with the Beatles song, "Lovely Rita, Meter Maid" — a reference, of course, to Hanks' wife, Rita Wilson. This, by the way, is the same song that Paul Shaffer usually uses to play Mr. Hanks on when he comes on to converse with D. Letterman.
It has made the rounds of the Internet — and even been reported in articles like this one — that this was a departing act of sabotage by the O'Brien gang. To play that song, they reported, costs a fee of half a million dollars. ?uestlove, the bandleader on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, said as much in a widely-quoted Twitter posting.
This is not so. NBC will not pay a half-mil to Sony (which controls the Beatles catalog) for the use of that song, just as CBS pays no such fee when Mr. Shaffer plays it. The amount will be modest...a few bucks, nothing NBC doesn't expect.
I'm kinda stunned people believe that Conan O'Brien, after just asking America to donate to help the poor citizens of Haiti, would turn around and toss a half-million bucks away for what wouldn't even be much of a joke. Moral of the story: Never listen to a man whose name starts with a punctuation mark.
Back in this posting, I introduced some of you to the joys of a comedian of long ago, a gent named Charley Chase. He was a very funny person and he made very funny short films which are rarely seen these days.
Some of his rarest were the talkies he made for Columbia Pictures from 1937 through 1940. He did a lot of directing for Columbia (mostly of The Three Stooges) but he also starred in some films that languish in the Sony/Columbia vaults. They think there's no market for these pictures and so they plan no DVD, no release of any kind. Chase fan Yair Solan thinks otherwise and has set up this online petition, urging Columbia to release these wonderful comedies. If you have a moment, please go sign it. I don't think petitions to end the war or influence our government do any good whatsoever but we can (perhaps) make a difference over something like this. At least, it won't hurt to have the relevant folks at Sony see that thousands of people out here want to see Charley's Columbia films out on DVD.
To learn more about Charley Chase, go to Yair's site. Do not (I repeat:) do not Google Charley's name as its been seized by a porn actress and you'll only get pictures of her.
In the meantime and fortunately: There's a wonderful 4-disk set out that includes copies of many fine silent Chase comedies. We recommend it and him highly. Here's an Amazon link to order.
It's Cartoon Time, kiddies! This is one that's embedded in my brain from having seen it 7,448 times between the ages of 4 and 8. Sheriff John Rovick on KTTV here in Los Angeles used to run Tom & Jerry cartoons on his daily noontime show, Sheriff John's Lunch Brigade. The Sheriff was a genial, gentle man who put on a great show even if he did only have about eight cartoons to run over and over and over.
This is, of course, not the famed cat 'n' mouse duo named Tom & Jerry. This is an earlier pair whose cartoons were animated between 1931 and 1933 by the Van Beuren Studios. They made 26 of these and among the folks responsible was a young gagman named Joseph Barbera. Years later, of course, Mr. Barbera would team up with Bill Hanna to make the cartoons of the other Tom & Jerry. Thanks to Sheriff John, I've always had a warm spot for the human versions and particularly remember this film, which was released on December 9, 1932. I'm about to watch it for the 7,449th time...
Here's a long profile of John Mackey, the co-founder and CEO of the Whole Foods Market chain. It's nice to hear Mackey is conflicted about his stores because so am I, though for different reasons. I frequent one and generally find things overpriced and with a high rate of disappointment. What's good at the one near me is real good (mostly produce and what's in the meat and seafood counters) but there's an awful lot that looks good and turns out to be not that wonderful once you get it home. I kinda like the idea of the place more than the execution, I guess.
January 26, 2010
