Before you dig into Part 3 below, make sure you've read Part 1 and Part 2, preferably in that order. I'll start this one with a photo taken over a half-century ago… Another person I visited a few times when I was spending days in and around Santa Barbara in the seventies was the man […]
I'm declaring a tie for second place this year and also for first. These two videos have more or less taken turns being my #1 pick in years past and they both have fans among those who drive by this website. Since I get to make up the rules as I go along here, I'm […]
This is not part of Mark's Xmas Video Countdown. It's just three divorced men singing a Christmas Carol… […]
I'm spending Christmas Eve Day writing and hoping that Santa brings me a better ending for the piece I'm working on. But I have stuff here to post too, starting with these two items… An old pal of mine, Steve Darnall, produces a very fine magazine called Nostalgia Digest, which is full of articles about […]
If you haven't read Part One of this series, you might want to do that before you proceed. When I was reading Dell Comics in the fifties, I had a favorite artist not only before I knew his name but before I was fully aware that comic books were drawn by anyone. Until about the […]
Here's part of a message Audra McDonald posted online… Hi friends! You know that nasty cold that's going around right now? Maybe some of you have it? Sore throat, cough, etc? No fun right? Well that little bugger is racing through the Broadway community right now too including here at Gypsy and including yours truly. […]
My three favorite Christmas TV cartoon specials are — and I don't have a preference among them — A Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. In 2014, The Actors Fund staged a one-performance-only benefit concert presentation of Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. I wish I'd been there to see […]
Here we have this year's edition of TCM Remembers, scrolling quickly through a list of folks in the movie business who died in the past year. I like these because they cover so many people who weren't actors. I think though sometimes these are a little too artsy-sombre and they get too carried away with […]
Actor Barry Gordon was six years old when he recorded "Nuttin' for Christmas" in 1955. It immediately became a million-seller and other artists rushed out their versions of the tune. We'll get to my favorite in a second but first, here's the original… Now then: My favorite was Stan Freberg's cover. Not that many years […]
Woody Fraser died this morning at the age of 90. He was one of the most prolific TV producers in the business for several decades, specializing in talk and light news shows. A very partial list of his credits would include The Mike Douglas Show, The Dick Cavett Show, The Della Reese Show, The Bill […]
A whole batch o' memories were just seriously jostled loose when I came across the above photo on the 'net. It's of a little place called Santa Claus Lane that used to be along the west side of the 101 freeway between Santa Barbara and Carpinteria. It was kind of like a strip mall before […]
Referencing the previous post here, G. Robson wrote me to say… The religiously-minded would perhaps point out that the scientific discoveries that cured those 10 diseases came about as a result of prayer (and a lot of research and hard work of course). And that's fine. I personally don't think praying does anything except make […]
This is a meme that's making the rounds of the Internet and I decided it should be on my site too… […]
And of course, we all remember the great song from the 1966 animated special from the great Dr. Seuss book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It was directed by Chuck Jones and starred the voice of Boris Karloff…but maybe the real star of it was Thurl "Tony the Tiger" Ravenscroft singing this song. The lyrics […]
Have you got two hours to learn all about Bob Hope? Here's the complete profile of him from the American Masters series on PBS. It's a pretty good history of the man and it isn't too biased in his favor… […]