Category Archives: To Be Filed

Only a couple more of these. I actually really liked Billy Crystal as the host of the Oscars all but his last time. Often, you get the sense that the live audience there really respects the host but rarely does it feel like they all really like him. They did with Billy. Here he is in — what are we up to? '98? — and again, ignore that line about a billion people watching. Not even close to that…

Dick Cavett tells of his visit to meet Stan Laurel. Having chickened out on my own opportunity to go see one of my favorite performers in his home, I am quite envious.

I wrote about my affection for Laurel and Hardy in this article and then in its follow-up, told of that chickening-out. Well, we all do things we later regret.

This is so wrong. So very, very wrong.

You'll probably want to watch this twice…

Congratulations to the earthquake for its promotion to a 3.5. I knew you could do it.

We just had another small earthquake here where I live. Early reports say it was in the same place as the 3.3 we had the other night — which I guess means it qualifies not as an earthquake but an after-shock. But screw that. When the ground moves, you don't hang on semantics. It's a friggin' earthquake.

Preliminary readings peg this one at 3.4 but it felt weaker to me than its immediate predecessor. Then again, that one woke me up out of a sound sleep whereas this one hit when I was up and working on a script so I'm not sure I can compare. Anyway, no damage here. Back to work…

Fred Kaplan notes how it's now the Democratic Party that's talking tough about fighting terrorism, saluting our fighting men and women, and generally kicking ass on foreign policy. I suspect though that Democrats could go out and personally strangle every last member of Al Qeada and many American would still insist Dems were weak on defense and it's the G.O.P. that's tough.

Let us resume our Billy Crystal Oscar Monologue Film Festival. Here's 1997…

Robert Rose has a great answer for the question about what old show he'd like to see…

No question for me: The Marx Brothers in I'll Say She Is, their first Broadway show, which (as I'm sure you know) was never filmed and turned them into major stars.

Okay, I officially steal that answer for mine. Or even the original Cocoanuts or Animal Crackers. Great thought.

The editors of Playbill asked a whole buncha actors, "If you had a time machine in which you could go back and see any Broadway show, which one would it be?" Here are their responses. If they'd asked me, I'd have picked the same one as Josh Gad: The original A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Zero Mostel. But The Music Man with Robert Preston is awfully tempting, as is the original company of My Fair Lady…or maybe Matthau and Carney in The Odd Couple.

Today is the 75th birthday of my best friend in the Male Division, Sergio Aragonés.  As a gift, I'm giving him the smile I know he'll have when he sees this photo I took of him and a man he loved very much, the late Joe Kubert.  And take a good look at this one, people.  You may never again see a photo with two guys who draw as fast and as naturally as these men.  Or are as beloved.

I have known Sergio since 1969.  I think in that time, I've encountered one instance of someone who didn't like him…and the disliker almost admitted the reason that was obvious to all: Pure jealousy.  He was envious of how popular Sergio was as both a creator of mirth-inducing sketches and as a human being who was fun to be around.  That's about the only reason I can imagine for anyone to dislike my friend.

Recently on Facebook, someone asked me when I was going to hire Sergio to do voicework on one of my cartoon shows.  I fired back, "When he learns to speak English" and of course, someone didn't get that was a joke and wrote me, "Doesn't Sergio speak English?"  Answer: Yes…and many other languages as well.  It was almost a waste of time for him to learn some of them because he communicates so well with anyone via his drawings.  I just kid him about his English because a guy like that…well, you have to kid him about something and I couldn't find anything else.  Sergio, if you'd like to give me a gift on my birthday next March, how about a flaw?  Yours, not mine.  I already have enough of mine.

Michael Kinsley on the Republican interest in lowering the National Debt. It seems to only be there when there's a Democrat in the Oval Office.

Boy, Bill Clinton is a good speaker. I haven't had much time to watch either convention but I squeezed in a peek at what the former president had to say…which reminds me: Is it true that this is the first time a former president has nominated someone else? Wolf Blitzer said it was but, you know, he's Wolf Blitzer. Wonder why the Republicans didn't bring George W. Bush out to place the name of Mitt Romney in nomination.

We don't get a lot of great orators in politics these days. I'm assuming there was someone between Reagan and Clinton who did equivalent magic at the lectern but I can't come up with a name right now. Clinton is especially skilled at somehow looking you right in the eye when he talks to you even when he's on TV and you're someplace else. He's also real good at explaining things without sounding condescending and doing so in terms that everyone can understand. Reagan to me always sounded like he didn't have a lot of respect for his audience but I know most listeners didn't feel that way. And both are/were good at sticking a stiletto in their enemies without coming across like bad guys.

I suppose Clinton will be criticized for going on so long but heck, it's the Democratic National Convention and they loved having him up there. If he'd talked less, the time would just have gone to someone more boring and less consequential. And it takes time to touch all those bases.

Hard to believe but forty years ago today, The New Price is Right debuted as a half-hour on the CBS daytime schedule. There had been a previous Price is Right with Bill Cullen but now the program had been revamped and it had Bob Barker as its host. I doubt anyone imagined it would still be on four years later, let alone four decades.

This is the first episode as it aired on 9/4/72. As you'll see they didn't have all the bugs out but it's a fast-moving show that was off to a good start. Mr. Barker is the host, Johnny Olson is the announcer and the prize models are Anitra Ford and Janice Pennington…

In 1939, the legendary restaurateur Pasquale "Patsy" D'Amore came to L.A. from New York and with his brother Franklyn, opened Casa D'Amore on Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood.  There, they served the first pizza in Los Angeles to the likes of Frank Sinatra, Joe DiMaggio, Tommy Dorsey and Dick Powell.

In 1949, he opened Patsy D'Amore's Pizza in the famous Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax.  The place was such a success that a year later, he opened the Villa Capri on McCadden Street in Hollywood. In 1957, it relocated to a larger, plusher building a few blocks away at 6735 Yucca, one block north of Hollywood Boulevard.  The new Villa Capri became a favorite of movie stars, including James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and Jimmy Durante.  Durante was there so often that a private banquet room was named for him.

But the big star of the Villa Capri was Sinatra.  That was, if you don't count Patsy, who was much loved by the cliente.  But with the Capitol Records building only a few blocks away, Frank practically used the restaurant as his clubhouse, dining there often and throwing lavish parties.  When he recorded the song, "The Isle of Capri," he snuck a mention of the Villa Capri into its lyrics.  It is said that in 1960, when Sinatra threw his support behind John F. Kennedy for president, he held planning sessions there to figure out how to mobilize show business to help J.F.K.

D'Amore passed away in 1975, by which time the area around the Villa Capri had deteriorated.  By then, for reasons unknown, Sinatra had shifted his main patronage to Matteo's in Westwood.  Joe Barbera (of Hanna-Barbera) used to lunch there almost every day, often taking Yours Truly.  In 1982, shortly after it was used as a location for the movie Body Heat, the building was turned into a radio station and later an office complex before it was bulldozed in 2005.  Still, the cuisine of the late Patsy D'Amore lives on.  His family still owns and manages the Patsy's Pizza stand in Farmers Market.  A photo behind the counter proudly shows Patsy on the set of the movie Guys and Dolls, chatting with Sinatra.