John Simon, who in his old age has started writing about the things he reviews instead of writing about himself, gave the only out-and-out rave I've seen for the new Addams Family musical. That might ordinarily mean it's doomed but it seems to have a hefty box office advance. So it might be around for a while.
A week from tomorrow night! My pal Shelly Goldstein sings and delights at the world-famous Magic Castle in Hollywood! Tix are going fast but last I heard, there were still a few seats left. Do not miss this chance to hear a fabulous cabaret performer, visit the Magic Castle and, if you scan the audience, maybe even see me in a suit. Details here.
Meinhardt Raabe, the oldest surviving Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz, has died at the age of 94. Mr. Raabe played the Coroner who pronounced the Wicked Witch of the East deceased — I believe the official Cause of Death was that a house fell on her — and he "sang" the four lines that began, "As coroner, I must aver..." In truth, the voice you heard in the film was the sped sound of a vocalist named Rad Robinson, a member of the Ken Darby Singers, a singing group that was heard all throughout the film. Mr. Darby was the movie's Vocal Arranger.
Perhaps you didn't know that Mr. Raabe was dubbed. For much of his life, Mr. Raabe apparently didn't, either. He long assumed that it was his voice — electronically altered but his — heard on the soundtrack. It was only in later years that he was informed otherwise.
That's one of the things I find interesting about Meinhardt Raabe. Another is that in his senior decades, he found an amazing stardom and even made some serious dollars making personal appearances and doing autograph shows. I know some find that circuit depressing...and it is sad in a way to see someone who was briefly on a hit TV show of the sixties or in some long-ago movie now sitting behind a table somewhere, hoping someone will lay down $20 for their signature. But for some, it's a chance to be a bit of a star again and to make a bit of the money they're not making as their work is rerun and reissued and remonetized without residuals being paid. I'd think it was more depressing if they didn't have that opportunity.
Mr. Raabe turned his 13 seconds of screen time (plus a few crowd shots) into lasting fame and a bit of an income...and good for him. I saw him a couple times at comic and film conventions, striding about in a replica of his high-collared Coroner suit, thrilled that people cared who he was. He certainly didn't seem to mind answering the same questions over and over and over and over and over and over.
The one time we spoke, I avoided those stories and asked him about his stint as the first Little Oscar, the mascot for the Oscar Mayer meat company. In that capacity, he drove around the country in the first Wienermobile — the 1936 model seen above — making personal appearances for that brand of hot dogs. So did a number of other "little people" over the years...and I never quite understood the premise. I mean, if you had a company that made frankfurters and you wanted to sell the idea to parents that their kids would grow up to be big and strong if they ate your product, wouldn't you want someone tall as your spokesperson?
I'm guessing that wienermobile was the key to it. Once they'd decided to have such a vehicle, they realized it wouldn't look very impressive if their mascot was taller than it was...so the choice was to build a huge, expensive wienermobile or to hire a shorter mascot. As a kid, I saw the current model wienermobile in photos and on TV and for lack of scale, I imagined something like a Rose Parade float, immense in size. The day it finally came to the Food Giant near me, I thought we'd gotten the Cocktail Frank version.
Here's a photo of four Little Oscars — left to right, George A. Molchan, Joe White, Meinhardt Raabe and Jerry Maren. I'm guessing the towering presence in the middle of the photo is Mr. Oscar F. Mayer, himself. Maren is the one I remember in Los Angeles in the fifties. He was always popping up at L.A. supermarkets and on our local kids' shows. He appeared about every other week on Channel 9 with Engineer Bill, who always seemed to have it in for poor Jerry. One of the things Engineer Bill sold for a time on his show was a product called Silly Soap, which was basically shaving cream in a colorful aerosol package for kids. The ads encouraged you to spray your friends with Silly Soap and then hop into the tub and wash with it. The filmed commercials suggested you could sculpt it into a lovely hair style or a funny beard but you couldn't. Just another of the many lies children are told.
Engineer Bill seemed to have crates of it on his set and he would occasionally spray an off-camera stagehand with the stuff. When Little Oscar came on the show, the Engineer had an opportunity — one he could not resist — to foam someone on-camera. Not only that but half a can of Silly Soap could easily cover Jerry Maren, head to toe...so when he came on, trying to deliver his pitch for Oscar Mayer All-Meat Franks (no filler), he'd have to dodge Engineer Friggin' Bill, who'd be chasing him around the cheesy set with two cans of Silly Soap, one in each hand, determined at all costs to suds the midget.
Maren was a pro...a guy who's still with us and who's had an amazing career. He'd worked with the Marx Brothers. He'd worked on the Superman TV show. He was in The Wizard of Oz, too. He knew that the bit had to have a payoff; that the audience would be disappointed if he didn't get Silly Soaped. So he'd just try to avoid the inevitable until he was done selling hot dogs and then he'd let Engineer Bill cover him with shaving cream. When I saw him recently, we talked about that, the most dangerous assignment of his many years in show business.
When I discussed playing Little Oscar with Meinhardt Raabe, he had no tales of crazed kid show hosts trying to slather him with soap, silly or otherwise. He complained about kids poking him and how poorly he was paid and driving around in the hot, not-air-conditioned wienermobile to Godforsaken locations where boorish children threw things at you. I have no doubt it was a rough way to make a buck, and I'm sure Jerry Maren had all the same problems. But to Jerry, who was and is a genuine actor/performer, it was all part of show business, which is why he's worked in it his entire life. Still, I'm glad Mr. Raabe had his little piece of it. He sure did more with 13 dubbed seconds than anyone else ever has.
This runs close to an hour so you may not want to watch it...but if you do, here it is. It's an interview with the World's Foremost Authority, "Professor" Irwin Corey, on a cable access show. The interviewer is not likely to make Charlie Rose sweat the competition but Corey — at age 96 for cryin' out loud — is pretty sharp and pretty interesting. (And there's probably a freeze-frame below that reminds us of the first rule if you're going to do a TV interview show: Know enough about your guest to spell his name right.)
Recently, a number of hotels in Las Vegas have been experimenting with offering an "all-day buffet pass." You pay one price — usually $25-$30 — and you can dine as often as you like at the hotel's buffet, stuffing down as much grub as you can hold during the hours the buffet is open and operating.
Typical of these deals is the one at the Excalibur Hotel. It costs $29.95 and their buffet is open from 7 AM until 10 PM. If you have a wristband, you can come and go as you please...I guess. Their website says "Blackout periods may apply" but it doesn't say if that's their blackout period because the place is too crowded or your blackout period because you just had your 19th helping of Chocolate Hot Lava Cake. Anyway, it's not a bad deal monetarily. At the Excalibur Roundtable Buffet, breakfast is $14.99, lunch is $15.99 and dinner is $19.99. If you eat two meals, you at least break even and if you eat three or more, it's cheaper.
There are two drawbacks though, both of which are that you have to eat every meal at the Excalibur Buffet. One is that you can't wander very far around Vegas...not when your next meal is prepaid back at the Excalibur. And the other drawback is that you're eating at the Excalibur Buffet, which was designed (I suspect) to make your old high school cafeteria seem like a gourmet spread. I mean, I guess it's okay if you don't mind Jell-O that makes noise...even when no one is eating it.
The other "all day" options are pretty much the same...or were until today when the Harrah's chain announced a new All-Day-Dining Deal: $29.95 and it stretches across all the buffets at all the hotels Harrah's owns in Vegas. They own a lot of hotels and while some don't have buffets, many do. There's the one at Harrah's, the one at Planet Hollywood, the one at Paris, the one at the Imperial Palace, the one at Caesars Palace, the one at the Flamingo and the one at the Rio. The Rio actually has two buffets but their Seafood Buffet, which costs $39 a person is presumably not included in this deal.
Still, the dinner at the Planet Hollywood buffet is $27.99 and the one at Caesars is only a buck cheaper. So this is quite the bargain: Breakfast, lunch and dinner at Planet Ho purchased separately would run you $62. As long as you eat two meals a day in any of these places, you're saving money. You also, of course, have better food and a greater variety...so you're free to wander more of the Strip. Instead of needing to stick close to one hotel, you have seven where you can eat all you want whenever you feel like it.
Whether you should eat all you want whenever you feel like it is another matter. You shouldn't, of course. Then again, you probably shouldn't do several of the things you're likely to do in Vegas...and most of them will cost you a lot more money.
April 9, 2010
