Jesse Jackson (not that Jesse Jackson) wrote the following…
I've been following the blog for years, I always appreciate your perspective on Comics, Politics, Entertainment and our mutal hate of Kandy Corn (though when you mix it with Spanish Peanuts, it is not horrible).
One of the things I love reading about is your Brushes with Greatness. Mel Torme during Christmas, Groucho at a Restaurant (I think), etc, etc. Has there been someone in the entertainment world that you would have liked to meet and didn't or someone where it was very close to meeting and you didn't?
Yes. I'm still kicking myself that I missed a chance to go visit this man…
I was with Groucho on three occasions. The first was at the brunch buffet table at Hillcrest Country Club. The second was several years later on the second day of my employment — and my first tape day — on Welcome Back, Kotter. The third was a few weeks later at an party at his home on N. Hillcrest Road. He was only really Groucho (mentally) on the first of these.
(That second day of Kotter was really one of the most amazing days of my life but I can't write a blog post to explain all that happened that day…a book maybe but not a blog post.)
By then, I had overcome a fear I'd had of meeting famous people. When I was twelve, I missed my chance to meet the man in the above photo. Stan Laurel was, to me at the time, about as famous as famous people got. Back in 1997, I wrote an article about how I did not meet Stan Laurel. If you want to read about how dumb/cowardly I was when I was twelve, you can read that article here.
Who else would I have liked to have met? I can think of plenty of people who were alive and who stopped being that way before I could have met them: Buster Keaton, Walt Disney, the other Marx Brothers, Kurt Vonnegut, Jack Lemmon, Stephen Sondheim, et al. A more interesting list might be of people I met but not for very long: Jack Benny, Neil Simon, Chuck Jones, Bob Newhart, Moe Howard, William Gaines, Soupy Sales, Bud Abbott, Johnny Carson…I could go on and on.
I can also think of a few I wanted to meet, did and wish I hadn't. But that didn't happen often. You know the saying about never meeting your heroes? Not many disappointed me but a few did.
Before I get off this topic, here's a repost of a piece of advice I gave on this blog a few years ago…
If you ever get to meet someone you've admired who has had a long career, try to ask them about something they did that not everyone asks them about. When I was introduced to Robert Morse, he was so happy that I knew of things he'd done besides How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, including projects that were relatively recent. When I met Billy Wilder, he was pleased that I wanted to know about Ace in the Hole instead of Some Like It Hot.
Thank you for the question, Jesse. I hope this is the kind of answer you wanted.
The Los Angeles Times has an article about the second coming of Souplantation and it confirms that they'll be reactivating the old, vacant-since-all-the-Souplantations-closed location in Fountain Valley. It's at 11179 Talbert Ave. — which is right near a Costco, as I recall — and the Times says that building is 7,800 square feet.
11179 Talbert Ave.
This is cause for hope because while I dined at a great many Souplantations, the most convenient for me was the location on La Cienega Boulevard in the Beverly Connection shopping mall. And that old location is 8,663 square feet and it's been empty all this time and is listed as available for lease.
Meanwhile, the fine writer of comedy Arnie Kogen wrote me to say…
I'm retired. Live a quiet life now. No more pressures, no more deadlines. Then, this week in your blog, I saw this…
EXCITING SOUP NEWS
My world was rocked forever. My blood pressure spiked to 249/120. An ambo rushed me to Cedars. Damn you, Mark!
Hang in there, Arnie. The La Cienega location is within walking distance — even for me — from the Cedars-Sinai hospital. If you can last until they reopen it (assuming they reopen it), I'll bring you soup from there. And a couple of their cornbread muffins.
When I was very young and very small, one of my favorite people to see on television was Paul Winchell. He was a ventriloquist with (primarily) two dummies — Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smif. He and his wooden pals were on TV a lot and my most treasured toy might have been a kid-sized Jerry Mahoney I had. Today, I own full-sized, working replicas of Jerry and Knuck. They're in my living room and every time I look at them, I smile and every time my cleaning lady walks in there and sees them seated on the couch, she screams.
As you may be aware if you've read much of this blog, much of my career has involving getting to know and/or work with as many people as possible who entertained me when my age was in single digits. Above is a photo from a recording session for the Garfield and Friends TV show I worked on. The lady in the doorway is my great friend, Jewel Shepard. The man seated is Jim Davis. I'm the guy with suspenders and the man at right is Paul.
Most of the folks in this "got to know and/or work with them" category turned out to be very nice but Paul was…well, kind of strange. If you read his hard-to-find autobiography, Winch, you know what I mean. Another great ventriloquist I worked with, Shari Lewis, described Paul as "a ventriloquist with Tourette Syndrome."
He was also an inventor and you may know how he made a significant contribution to the invention of the Artificial Heart. Paul developed a lot of things, some of which he used in his act. One of them was Ozwald. Who, you might wonder, was Ozwald? Well, this was Ozwald…
Paul used Ozwald in a lot of his TV appearances, usually by having the director flip the image upside-down. In 1965 when Paul launched a popular syndicated kids' show, Ozwald was featured though by then, his name had been changed to Mr. Goody-Good. You also didn't see a lot of Oswald the Rabbit in comic books after the Kennedy Assassination.
I doubt the home version of Paul's Ozwald sold very well. It looks like something you'd play with for about ten minutes and then never open the box again. A close relative of his turned up in the 1964 beach party movie, For Those Who Think Young with Bob Denver supplying the mouth and chin. Winchell told me he got money for that but I'm not sure if they paid him before the film came out or he sued afterwards. My thanks to my pal Mike Clark for helping us all remember Ozwald…
Forty years ago today, my friend Frank Ferrante got into the Groucho business with both feet and a painted-on 'stache. It was the debut of Groucho: A Life in Revue, an off-Broadway play written by Arthur Marx and Bob Fisher. It wasn't the first time he'd played the man but it was when he really turned pro and he's been doing it — along with some other things — ever since.
I've seen him perform as Groucho more than a dozen times and he never fails to delight audiences that often span a wide range of ages. An awful lot of people have thanked me for sending them his way…and I've also seen him perform not as Groucho. In fact, he's currently playing his other identity, Caesar, in a show called The Soiled Dove in Alameda, California. But don't worry: He'll be back to Grouchoing soon, doing it all over Arizona in November. Check out where to see him in some identity on this page. One of the most talented performers I know.
Here's another video of the "bows" at the end of Boop! The Musical when it was on Broadway. This is from a different performance than this one. I am not as obsessed with this show as it may appear.
The folks who now own the Souplantation business have revealed that the one they're going to open in California will be in Fountain Valley. That's a town about 45 miles south of Los Angeles.
They used to have one at 11179 Talbert Ave. in that city and that building has been vacant ever since the chain closed all its eateries. Online Souplantation fans are therefore assuming that they'll be reopening there. Since it's just off the 405 freeway, that would be a convenient place for me to stop on my way to or from San Diego next Comic-Con. Actually, no spot in Fountain Valley is that far from the 405 freeway.
In the window below, I've embedded a video of an episode of The Red Skelton Show from sixty (60) years ago but I've set it to start playing in the middle of the episode when Red introduces his musical guests, Simon and Garfunkel. This has to be one of their first TV appearances, perhaps the first ever on a primetime network show.
You will rarely see video of performers who so clearly are rooted in different generations. And you can see Paul and Art thinking, "Do we really have to do this to become famous?"
The window will show you the rest of that show from that point on. You can quit after the Simon and Garfunkel number or you can keep watching and see a jazzy dance number from Red's house dancers and then a Silent Spot pantomime sketch with Red.
Or you can even move the little slider all the way to the left and watch the entire episode. You'll see Red do his monologue, then there's a sketch which has him running around the studio audience. That's Studio 33 at CBS Television City where, among hundreds of other programs, The Price is Right taped for many years. So did Carol Burnett.
That's followed by a sketch with Red and his guest Mickey Rooney. And in all the sketches, you'll see Henry Corden, a busy actor you might know best as the second voice of Fred Flintstone. Take your pick.
All the Souplantations in California went away in 2016 and some of us really miss 'em. They were wonderful soup 'n' salad restaurants. Since then, a few copycat places have opened, though far from anywhere my limited travels would ever take me. Also, the company that acquired the operation after it filed for bankruptcy has opened a few under the restaurant's alternate name, Sweet Tomatoes…but in Arizona and Florida. Again, out of my reach.
Now, it turns out, they've about to announce a reopening in California. Will it be somewhere I can easily visit? That remains to be seen.
A couple of my correspondents were a bit confused about what I was saying about how the Boop! The Musical national tour has to simplify its sets to be able to go from town to town. This will be of interest to them. Below this paragraph is a clip of the bows from the Broadway performance right after the Tony nominations were announced. The gent who comes out at the end to make mention of them is Jerry Mitchell…
And now below here, we have the bows from the first performance of the touring company in Rochester. Notice the simplified, probably-more-portable BOOP! sign. Also notice the absence of the stairway and the clever way they distract your eye while sneaking Aliya Grace (who plays Betty) onto the stage so she can be revealed in her full presence instead of walking onto the stage to take her place. They did something similar in the above video to get Jasmine Amy Rogers (Boop on Broadway) behind the stairs. I assume the whole touring show has scaled the sets back…
To go back to the start of this long, wandering essay, click right here.
I'm 74 and comic books have been an important part of my life for about 70 years. My parents bought them for me because…well, I think if I'd asked for a Goodyear blimp and a live hippopotamus, my father would have at least tried to purchase them for me. He was that kind of father. Fortunately for him, I preferred comic books — and this was back when they cost a dime apiece.
Comics were not all I read. I loved books from the library and I was always reading — and soon writing — a little above the level that was normal for kids of whatever age I was at the time.
I vaguely remember friends of my parents and a relative or two questioning whether it was good parenting to let your kids read comic books. My folks' response was that Mark was ahead of his classmates in reading skills so something was working there. They weren't going to change what they were doing. If they had, I might have wound up in some other profession than the one I've been in since 1969.
My interest in comics was less in the characters and what they were doing than in how a comic book was made. I'm a fan of Superman and Batman but I think I'm more a fan of the men — for a long time, they were all men — who wrote and drew the Superman and Batman comics I avidly collected. And the Marvels and the Gold Keys and…well, just about everything.
I was and I remain particularly fascinated by the ones who formed the Talent Pool that created comic books for the first three or four decades of that industry. They all grew up either during the Great Depression or in the following years when the nation was still reeling from that dark period. And like all adults when I was a kid, they also had their lives influenced irrevocably by World War II. That was true of those who served but also those who didn't.
During the many conversations I had with Jack Kirby, he answered all my questions. A lot of 'em were about the comic book industry that he entered in its earliest days and impacted so much. His answers usually had a way though of getting around to the battles he fought in the war and the battles he fought, before and after his time in the service, to escape poverty. That's why I was so happy recently to see this at a street corner where, as a kid, he used to sell newspapers and apples…
Now, let's talk about another comic book artist of roughly the same era — a man named Mike Sekowsky…
Six years Jack's junior, Mike Sekowsky went through the same challenges to make a living though he did not serve in the military. I asked him once if he had and he said, "No, I had it worse. I was working for Stan Lee." During his career, he worked just about everywhere and drew every kind of comic book one could draw…with one notable exception.
He drew like Kirby for Timely (Marvel) comics. He drew like Dan Barry for DC Comics. He drew like Alex Toth for Standard Comics. He drew like the other Dell Comics artists for Dell Comics, even doing funny animal funnies. Wherever there was paying work, he drew the way the guy who did the hiring wanted his comics to look. But I'm not sure that, among the hundreds upon hundreds of comic books he drew, he ever drew any like Mike Sekowsky.
The comic book business did that to a lot of guys. They never had much time to pursue and develop their own natural inclinations and styles. That all-important paycheck depended on giving some editor what he wanted in the style he wanted. Charles Schulz first made a living by lettering the work of others. Imagine if that had kept him so busy that he never had time to draw children with large heads and a beagle fighting World War I from the safety of his doghouse roof.
I have one of those theories that no one can ever prove right or wrong that a lot of the men who were in the comic book industry before I was (1970), were like Charles Schulz lettering for a living. Or imagine if Charles Addams had spent his life inking super-hero comics…or if the need to buy the necessities of life had steered Sergio Aragonés into forsaking his delightful style of (mostly) pantomime cartooning and learning to draw realistic-looking war comics.
Or, thinking of MAD artists drawing war comics, what if Mort Drucker had kept doing those for his entire career and never ventured into humor and celebrity caricatures?
There comes a moment in most lives when you need an answer to this question: "What do you want to do when you grow up?" Not everyone comes upon an easy, natural response. When I attended my 25-year high school reunion — which for some reason was held 28 years after we all graduated — everyone was asking everyone else what they were doing for a living. I was amazed how many guys I knew when we were teenagers now said things like "I'm trying to get my shit together and find something to do that I like."
I was more or less set in my goal when I was still in elementary school. These fellows (ages 45-47) still didn't have an answer to that very significant question a few decades later. They had jobs and some of them made very good livings in those jobs. But were they the right jobs?
Reading comics all those years, I of course had favorite artists. One of them was Mike Sekowsky. Not everyone liked his work. It wasn't slick. When he drew Superman in the Justice League of America comic book, it didn't look like Curt Swan's beautiful, balletic version. (Then again, Sekowsky's Superman looked more to me like a guy who could smash his way through a brick wall.)
I liked the stories Sekowsky drew. I think that when he was at his best — which he often was not — he "told the story" better than most guys who could draw anatomically-perfect and poised heroes. And once I got to know him, he was the guy who caused me to see a marked difference between someone who had natural, latent drawing ability and someone who learned how to fake it. Which was kind of what I was doing any time I was called upon to draw something.
Our man in Rochester, Dick Halsey, attended the first performance of Boop! The Musical Saturday evening and he filed this report…
Boop! opened their U.S. tour last night in Rochester, NY. Before the start of the show, the director welcomed the audience and then said that this was only the 2nd time they have run the whole show.
It opened as a black and white Betty Boop cartoon. They played with B&W vs. color throughout the show especially in one musical number.
The first musical number, "A Little Versatility," got the audience hooked. The first act ends with the strong song, "Where I Wanna Be" and by that time you are sure that Aliya Grace, as Betty, now owns the show.
Photo by Dick Halsey
None of the cast from the Broadway run returns. The primary cast have been in some other shows but much of the cast are newcomers. It didn't show. I didn't see anything that could be considered even a small mistake. I especially liked Grampy.
There are references to some of the old Betty Boop cartoons that makes it fun if you have seen them. There was also a brief mention that Betty was originally a dog in her first cartoon. Maybe this show will lead to some new Betty Boop cartoons.
I only attend about one musical show per year. I'm glad that it was Boop! as it was well acted and a lot of fun.
Well, that's all great to hear. The director is a gent named Jerry Mitchell who has become something of a superstar in the Broadway community for directing and choreographing. An actress I met at a party of theater people a few years ago said to me, "My dream before I got to Broadway was to be in a Bob Fosse show but by the time I got there, he was gone so now I want to work for Jerry Mitchell." I don't recall her name so I can only hope she has or will.
Notice that since this is a bus-and-truck production going from city to city, some of the production values have been simplified. On Broadway, the bows at the end had the cast coming down a big stairway but apparently there wasn't room for it on the truck.
Twice in my life, my writing services have been sought by producers who thought they were going to make new Betty Boop cartoons and they wanted me to show-run and voice direct. And both times, deals fell through — as deals so often do in this business, especially when they tell you, "It's 99% set!" When I hear that, I know it ain't gonna happen. If it ever does, I'd love to be involved because she's a great character.
Thank you for your report, Dick. Boop! The Musical opens in Schenectady a week from tomorrow for six performances. If any Schenectadians — I guess that's the name for residents of Schenectady — is reading this, attends one and would like to submit a review, I'll post it here.
For the first time since July 1, I'm taking a day or two off from blogging to attend to matters that need my attention. When I do this, I post an image of a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup — an ancient Internet tradition that dates back to the year 1507 and the books produced by the celebrated printer Johann Grüninger, most notably the woodcuts by which he attempted to facilitate the identification of pious readers with the holy figures.
In them, he depicted a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup and if it's good enough for Grüninger, it's good enough for me. If you look real hard, you may be able to find something on the Internet to read. I shall return soon.
