In the previous post, I said that I didn't think Burke Moses was the gent playing Gaston in the excerpt of Beauty and the Beast performed on the Jerry Lewis Telethon. Well, Galen Fott — who seems to know a lot about such things — wrote me and seems sure that it was Burke Moses. […]
From the 1995 Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon, here's the "Gaston" number from the Broadway/Disney musical of Beauty and the Beast. IMDB says this is Burke Moses, who originated the role of Gaston in New York but I don't think it is. [UPDATE, ADDED LATER: It is. See here.] This is probably the national touring company […]
One year ago this evening, I was in an upstairs bathroom here in my home, getting tidied-up because a lady friend was coming over to spend time with me. Suddenly — for no reason that has ever been determined — I was lying on the tile bathroom floor with a broken left ankle. I did […]
I could have picked many, many different books by Jules Feiffer to put next to his photo but I picked the one that meant the most to me. In 1965 when The Great Comic Book Heroes came out, it filled in so much that I didn't know about the history of comics, it was like […]
I'm hearing too much bad news these days. I need to watch this clip and you can watch it along with me. The young lady is Celina Smith and the policeman was played by Ben Davis. I don't know the dog's real name… […]
Before you read Part 2 of this article, you might want to read Part 1. If you know anything about comic book history, you know that the business endured a major slump in the fifties. Folks in the industry — some of them, at least — were worried that there would soon be no comic […]
Here's a musical number from a 1958 episode of The Pat Boone Chevy Showcase featuring Pat, Shirley Jones and Dick Van Dyke. Dick has always said that he never thought of himself as a dancer until he won the lead in the Broadway show, Bye Bye Birdie…and yet here he is, two years before Bye […]
…make sure you're aware of this recently-enacted law… Assembly Bill 413, or California's "daylighting" law, went into effect in 2024 and prohibits drivers from stopping, standing or parking their car within 20 feet of a crosswalk and 15 feet of a crosswalk with a curb extension. During the first year of the law's implementation, violators […]
I'm not watching — and I shall continue to not watch — any of the inauguration activities. That's not because this country is installing a man who is a convicted felon and a jury-decreed molester and an incredible liar and you can fill in other things that he is for yourself. No, I've never watched […]
You may have heard this story back when the Disney movie The Little Mermaid was first released on home video: The cover for the video was painted by a long-time Disney staffer who'd been told this was his last job for them and thereafter, he was fired and persona non goofy in the Disney organization. […]
Garth Gersten sent me this… Was reading an older interview (2007) with Denny O'Neil where he states, "And I thought, 'Well, I've had a really long run at doing this.' According to Mark Evanier, the longest regularly-working writer in the history of the medium. Maybe it's time to get off the stage and to pass […]
For the last few decades, the theatrical community has never let eleven minutes go by without a new Stephen Sondheim tribute. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little but it sure feels that way. One of the first Sondheim tributes, if not the first, was a one-night concert in 1973 (I think) that also produced a […]
The late Richard Sherman was a delightful man who, alone and with his brother, wrote delightful songs, mainly within the awesome purview of Disney — Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, many rides at the Magic Kingdom, etc. For a number of years, I always seemed to be at parties where he was present and there […]
Actually, I'm not sure this is news but Comic-Con International has again extended its deal or contract or agreement or whatever you call it to remain in San Diego and convene at the San Diego Convention Center. The reason this may not be news is that I keep telling you they ain't moving. They're now […]
My, a lot of Petula Clark fans read this blog. A number of you wrote to tell me that Ms. Clark had recorded a new version of "Downtown" in 2019 with a group called the Saw Doctors. I not only knew about it, I put it up on this site at the time. And a […]