Friday, March 11, 2011

Today's Video Link

Everyone complains the Academy Awards are too long every year. Well, in 1959, the telecast was too short and host Jerry Lewis had to fill. In our video today, Jerry gives his version of what happened. Ignore the part where he says he brought Humphrey Bogart up from the audience. That didn't happen. Bogey died in '57.

This is a two-minute excerpt from a 2.5 hour interview of Mr. Lewis that was conducted ten years ago for the Archive of American Television. I haven't had the chance yet to watch the entire thing but what I have seen has been quite interesting and it might give some folks a different perspective on Jerry. If you'd like to watch some or all of the whole video, you can do that on this page. Too bad they never got Dean to sit for one of these.

• Posted at 8:35 PM · LINK

The Latest From New York

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is undergoing major revisions under a new director and a new book writer. The current version will play for another month or so and I'm curious to see if attendance will go up (because people want to see this much-talked-about version while they can) or down (because this version has been declared seriously broken). The show will close on April 17 so the changes can he rehearsed and then it will resume previews on May 12 and actually open on June 14. Obviously, those last two dates are subject to change.

I hope they pull it off. I know there are folks out there who think expensive spectaculars are choking Broadway, making it impossible to do a "little" show. I have no doubt theater would be better off if there wasn't so much money riding on every effort but I think Spider-Man is already an example of why huge budgets need to be avoided. It will forever remind producers that a $10 million budget can easily turn into a $20 million one and a $30 million one and eventually, $65 million. (Closing for a month will drive the total $$$ gamble up further.) Even if it's eventually profitable — and it has a long way to go before that will seem possible — few will want to take that risk.

• Posted at 8:34 PM · LINK

Friday Afternoon

I have nothing but the obvious to say about the horrible news out of Japan. This kind of thing depresses me...and also makes me angry in a way Hurricane Katrina made me angry. Money couldn't have prevented Katrina just as it can't stop an earthquake...but it can make things better in the rescue/rebuild phase. If we wasted less money on foolish wars and silly political battles, we could have more to save lives, minimize suffering and put a lot of things back the way they were.

As I do when things of this tragic sort happen, I'm reminding you all about my favorite charity, Operation USA. There are many good ones out there but I'm quite certain that the cash I donate to Operation USA couldn't do any more good in anyone else's hands. Send what you can spare...and if you were thinking of donating to this website, send it to them instead.

• Posted at 5:49 PM · LINK