A fine actor and a friend of mine, Jojo D'Amore, passed away September 24 from emphysema and cancer. You may have seen Jojo in one of several documentaries about his old friend, Lenny Bruce, who got him into a career as a thespian and standup comedian. Jojo's background was in trucking and he later filled […]
This article from the Associated Press covered Simpson's appearance this evening at the convention. It includes the following… The former football star, who flew to California from his Miami home, said he occasionally appears at memorabilia conventions to sign such things as football helmets, jerseys and lithographs for collectors who pay top dollar. He acknowledged […]
Several people have sent me this link so I might as well post it. The Heritage Galleries auctioneers are auctioning off one of Johnny Carson's desks. They say it's one of "approximately five" he had in his 30 years. I suspect he had more than that but perhaps they're right. […]
Here's a long but good article on Conan O'Brien by Vanessa Grigoriadis. The main bullet points are that (a) Conan doesn't seem to know what he's going to do when he takes over The Tonight Show in 2009 but he's pretty sure he's going to do it from Hollywood and (b) he and his staff […]
As noted earlier here, O.J. Simpson is appearing at a horror film convention this weekend in Northridge, California. As if Northridge doesn't have enough problems with fires all around and the smoke from them forcing school closures. Most of the press coverage is headlined something like "Comics Show Plans Rare O.J. Simpson Appearance" (for example) […]
Here's the L.A. Times obit for John McCabe, the man who invented Laurel & Hardy Fandom. I think the L.A. Times makes you register to read these. […]
Tomorrow night is the season premiere of Saturday Night Live. Here's a simple question: What time does it start in most time zones? If you said 11:30 PM, which is what all the printed TV listings say, you're wrong. The official NBC press information says the show starts at 11:29 PM. I'm told it actually […]
The Broadway.Com website is featuring an interesting columnist these days…but I have no idea who he is. In this section, an anonymous Broadway actor is writing about what goes on backstage, what it's like to audition, etc. The essays are a nice look at a world that is not always visible from the front of […]
Last March, a bunch of us attended the unveiling of a wall sculpture at the TV Academy commemorating the work of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera. As I mentioned here, there was another new wall sculpture that had been installed at the same time but it was covered with a tarp. A quick peek under […]
I used to have a friend whose job was to lie for a big movie studio. Actually, there are a lot of people in that field but his fibbing was confined to producing movie trailers. When the studio found itself stuck with a movie it thought wouldn't draw an audience, my friend took over. He […]
A last second war between two bidders got it up to $505,100.00. Not bad but pretty far short of the million dollars Jay kept saying they were hoping it would bring. Ah, well. […]
Still at $285,100. […]
I'm monitoring the eBay auction of the Jay Leno signed Harley-Davidson. They were hoping it would go for a million but if it does, there's going to have to some incredible bidding in the next few minutes. It has five minutes to go and it's at $285,100. […]
Yesterday, I received the 146th and final issue of Cartoonist PROfiles, a fine magazine that covered comic strips and political cartooning (and occasionally, comic books) for more than 35 years. We noted here in June that its editor-publisher, Jud Hurd, was in failing health and that the magazine would probably be ending. Sure enough, Mr. […]
Here's a link to a fine article on the late Jerry Juhl, as remembered by Ken Plume. Go read. […]