Category Archives: To Be Filed

Bernard Duggan writes…

I watched the the Stan & Ollie movie and really liked it. I have never really watched any of their films. Can you recommend one to start with?

Also, I never really watched any of the Marx Bros. films. Can you also recommend one of their movies?

Well, I really didn't like the Stan & Ollie movie so maybe you don't want to take recommendations from me. But in case you do, a good starting point for Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy would be one of these features: Sons of the Desert, Way Out West, The Devil's Brother, The Flying Deuces or Our Relations. If you don't love those, there's little point in proceeding any further.

If you do proceed further, put anything they made in 1941 or later at the bottom of the pile. Those films are not without wonderful moments but save them until you get tired of the earlier films. Their other pre-1941 features and all of the shorts they made with sound are worthy of your attention, though a good filmography (here's one) will alert you to the ones where they only make brief (sometimes, very brief) cameo appearances.

Their silent shorts are mostly wonderful. You need to be charitable about some of the early ones where they're still figuring out their screen characters and maybe not functioning as a duo.

For the Marx Brothers, A Night at the Opera is a really good film to see first. It's not their funniest or zaniest but it's a good, solid work and the romantic sub-plot isn't too agonizing to sit through. Then go on to the films they made earlier for Paramount and I would say their three best for that company would be — in order of merit — Duck Soup, Horse Feathers and Monkey Business.

Then go on to the others but again, don't mess with anything they made in 1941 or later until you've exhausted the better stuff. (They made Room Service in 1938 but I'd put it in with the 1941-or-later efforts.)

Now, here's a Big However to both teams' work: All of these films are best seen on a big screen in an actual movie theater with a good audience. If you find a showing of any of the pre-'41 films in those circumstances, go.

I have this lovely friend named Amber who has never seen Stan or Ollie or Groucho or Chico or Harpo or even Zeppo. I have every decent film these guys made (and, yes, most of the lesser ones) on my DVD shelf and could introduce her to any of them at any time that way…but I haven't. I'm waiting for a good public screening of the best of either team because I want her to first experience them that way. If you can, do that. It can really make a difference in how you appreciate these great comedians forever after.

Pop Haydn, under whom I once studied magic, demonstrates the old "coin-in-the-bottle" trick…

Ah, what would Memorial Day be without Trump using the occasion to talk only minimally about Those Who Served and primarily about the greatness of his own administration? Because no matter what it's about, it's only really about Trump.

And few will be surprised that he claimed credit for things the Obama administration did to better the lot of veterans. I can't wait to hear how it was Trump who commanded the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Jon Voight thinks Trump is a better president than Abraham Lincoln. He probably also thinks Donald freed the slaves.

Memorial Day is meant to honor those who have died in the military service of the United States. That seems to get blurred by some into a general "thank you" to anyone who has ever served, including those who didn't die but that's okay. It wouldn't be so horrible if we just had two Veterans Days a year. It wouldn't even be a bad thing if we thought about those folks and honored them year-round so we didn't need a holiday to remind us of what we owe them.

I suppose in some ways, Memorial Day is also for the surviving friends and loved ones of those who died in uniform. The friends and loved ones especially had to cope with those deaths. A woman I know lost her husband in the Iraq War and suffered greatly. She's still suffering so don't tell me we don't owe her too.

I don't have anything that eloquent to say here except that I think the best way to honor those who have died or suffered because of military service is to create fewer of them in the future. There is a mindset out there that does not seem to put that high a value on the lives of American servicemen and servicewomen when there's talk of sending them into combat.

The most powerful piece I've read about this topic is this article by retired U.S. Army Major Danny Sjursen and I urge you to experience it. If you don't have time to read the whole thing, at least read this paragraph…

Do me a favor this year: question the foundation and purpose of America's wars for the Greater Middle East. Weigh the tangible costs in blood and treasure against any benefits to the nation or the world — if there are any! Ask how this country's political system morphed in such a way that Congress no longer declares, and presidents turned emperors unilaterally wage endless wars in distant locales. Ask yourself how much of this combat and death is connected — if at all — to the 9/11 attacks; why the over-adulated U.S. military mainly fights groups that didn't even exist in 2001.

Not much I can add to that. Like many of you, I did not serve in the military but like all of you (I hope) I am awfully appreciative of those that have…and those that do.

Dan Rather does a show called The Big Interview that runs on AXS TV. Like you, I've never watched the show or the channel but I just set my DVR to record this Tuesday's episode which runs at 5 PM where I am. If you want to record or watch it, find out what time it's on where you are.

Why You Might Want To Watch It: Rather's guests are Carl and Rob Reiner discussing their careers and, I have a hunch, their political activism and father-son dislike of Donald Trump. AXS TV seems to run every show they produce about seventy-nine million times so if you miss it this time, you can catch one of the other 78,999,999 times it airs. Here's a little sample…

I just read a quote online attributed to Archbishop Charles Joseph Chaput of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.  He supposedly said, "A real man is one who will bring his wife to Christ, rather than to orgasm."

And I thought, "If he brings her to orgasm, she'll have a better time and she'll still be calling out God's name."

Says here that Julie Ann Rainbird is pleading Not Guilty to all charges. Ms. Rainbird is the woman who drove a stolen RV wildly all over the valley the other day, crashing into cars, injuring several people and terrifying two dogs she had that apparently did not belong to her either. If the link's still good, you can see what she did by checking out this post.

The reporters who cover such news stories live have one of the most difficult jobs in the world.  Not only do they have to do it from a helicopter with very little idea what will happen in the next five seconds…not only do they have to suppress a certain amount of emotion and boiling adrenaline…but they have to beware of the impropriety of showing something gruesome that could happen at every moment and (boldface "and") they have to ad-lib madly without stumbling into prejudicial language.

It's a suspect we see committing crimes before our very eyes.  What we're witnessing is alleged.  Covering this one, I heard one reporter refer to "the alleged driver" of the vehicle we saw plowing into things.  Well, who was at the wheel if it wasn't the driver?

I understand the need to phrase things that way.  We have no law and order in this country if we don't have the fairest trials possible.  I'm just struck by the contrast.  One of the intriguing things about these televised car chases is that we are actually watching crimes being committed as they happen — unedited and in real time.

On Facebook, I saw some folks who were incredulous that a woman we had witnessed driving her vehicle recklessly into other vehicles would have the gall to plead Not Guilty.  "Why would she believe she could prove her innocence?" a couple of them asked.  The question is interesting and I wrote back to one, "Why would she believe she could get away from the cops and helicopters speeding madly through intersections and not hurt someone, including possibly herself?"  The woman did one of the most irrational, insane things you ever witnessed and you expect logic and sanity from her now?"

And of course the other answer would be an attorney who thinks he can get her a lighter sentence by starting with Not Guilty and plea-bargaining down to something less than the 14 years in prison she could serve if convicted on all charges.  That might seem like a wild longshot but when there's actual videotape of you committing the crimes, you might just take a wild longshot.  What else have you got going for you?

I just want to say that I think Jordan Klepper's new show on Comedy Central, Klepper, is one of the best things I've ever seen on television. Correspondents who go out to do field pieces about what's going on in the world usually stand on the outside above the fray, looking in. Mr. Klepper is something we don't see as often as we should: A participatory correspondent, reporting on a situation by becoming a part of it.

You may be able to watch some episodes on this page if you can sign in with your TV provider. But you can certainly catch an episode on Comedy Central every Monday night at 10:30. Here's a little footage from a recent one…

Shortly after 8 PM this evening, I decided to get a couple of Subway sandwiches — one to eat tonight, one to eat tomorrow. Naturally, there's a Subway location near me. There's a Subway location near everyone. If you were ever lost and starving in the middle of the Patagonian Desert, there would probably be a Subway within crawling distance of you, right next to the Starbucks and the CVS Pharmacy.

I went on the Subway app on my iPhone and looked up the shop near me. It said it closes at 9 PM so I placed an order. My credit card was charged $18.58 and the app told me that my order would be ready for pick-up at 8:30. Okay, fine. I walked down to the Subway place — about a fifteen minute hike — and found that it was closed. The door was locked. The chairs were all inverted on the tables. The bins where they keep the sandwich makings were all empty. The sign on the door said they closed at 8 PM, not 9.

An employee who was just finishing tidying-up saw me, came over and opened the door to see what I want. I explained and showed him the app saying my meal would be ready for pick-up at 8:30 and I also showed him the text message from my credit card company showing that $18.58 had been charged to my card at 8:14 PM. He said there was nothing he could do and told me to call the company. Their app, by the way, still says the place closes at 9 PM (55 minutes ago) and that my order is waiting for me.

Subway's phone number is not on their app nor is it on their website (of course) but I found it anyway. I called and as I expected, their "SubwayCare Customer Service Department" is closed for the weekend. I have a hunch it's closed Monday, too…but at some point, it'll be open. It has to be and that's when I'll see what they'll do about this. Whatever it is, I'll report on it here. And yeah, I know this isn't a particularly interesting story…at least not yet. I'm just posting it here to remind myself of the details and to bring you all into the loop just in case it turns into a fascinating tale. Not that I expect that…

Katy Keene is a comic book that the Archie company has published from time to time since 1945 and it's now becoming a TV show. It features a glamorous lady who's a model and an actress and a singer and sometimes an adventurer and she changes her outfit every few panels. Sometimes, her outfits have been designed by readers sending in their own designs.

The strip was created by Bill Woggon who produced it, sometimes with assistants, from what he called "Woggon Wheels Ranch" in Santa Barbara, California. One of his assistants was a very young Floyd Norman, then in high school and getting his first professional cartooning job. Floyd went on to become a Disney artist and he worked for many other studios and he…oh, hell. You know who Floyd Norman is. Floyd just sent me this note about someone else who contributed to the Katy Keene comics…

I enjoyed reading your post about E. Nelson Bridwell and your New York tour. Way back in the fifties, while working for Katy Keene cartoonist Bill Woggon, Mr. Bridwell was a regular contributor. Bill and I loved his submissions and always tried to include his zany designs and ideas in our Katy comic book stories. In time, we became eager to see what E. Nelson Bridwell would send us next.

Flash forward to one our "Katy Celebrations" at the Biltmore Hotel in Santa Barbara. We were delighted that E. Nelson Bridwell came all the way from New York to celebrate Katy Keene with us. We were all delighted to finally meet him. Just thought I'd add my memories of a really nice man.

Everybody thought that about the guy. One reader named Brad Fiske wrote me, "I'm not surprised to hear that Bridwell was a nice guy. I never met him but you can kind of tell that in his stories. They were generally free of an anger and darkness that I think has been way overdone in comics and too often applied to characters where it didn't fit." I'd agree with that.

And another reader reminded me that it's fitting that I'll be making the presentation of the Bill Finger Award to Nelson. It was because of Nelson that I met Bill Finger. As I explained in this post…

I met Bill Finger ever-so-briefly less than a year before he died. I was up at the DC offices and an older man I did not recognize was walking around. With my vast interest in veteran comic creators, I had to know who he was and Nelson Bridwell, an editor there, told me. I immediately went looking for the older man to express my long admiration for his work but to my great disappointment, could not find him. It seemed like he'd left the office and I'd missed my chance to meet Bill Finger.

A half-hour later as I was leaving the building, I spotted him coming out of a little newsstand and notions shop in the lobby. I went up, introduced myself and said something like, "Your writing has always been an inspiration to me…which is a nice way of saying that I steal shamelessly from you." He laughed, asked me a little about myself and we then spent five minutes talking about New York taxi drivers and the subway system. Not a word about Batman or Bob Kane or anything that I would have liked to discuss with him.

Lastly: One of Nelson's first sales to MAD was in issue #38, cover-dated March of 1958. It was a bunch of "TV Scenes We'd Like to See" drawn by Joe Orlando years before both men would be on the editorial staff of DC Comics. One of them was a two-panel gag about The Lone Ranger…

In case you're trying to read this on a cellphone screen, the first panel shows the Lone Ranger and Tonto surrounded by attacking Indians. The Masked Man says, "Indians!  Indians all around us!  Well, Tonto, ol' kimosovee, it looks like we're finished!"  And in the second panel, Tonto grins and asks, "What you mean…we?"

The question on the floor is: Was this the first appearance anywhere of that joke?  Because I heard and saw it everywhere in the sixties.  I'm pretty sure it was done on Laugh-In and on Johnny Carson's program and almost every other variety show of that era.  It was in Lenny Bruce's act.  Usually, the punch line is "What do you mean "we," white man?"  Which makes the joke stronger and it wouldn't surprise me if that's how Nelson wrote it.  MAD was kinda timid back then and they softened a lot of what the writers wrote.

So did Nelson originate it?  I honestly don't know.  Can anyone cite an earlier appearance of this joke?

While we're here, let's discuss the spelling of Tonto's favorite word.  Online sources will tell you the word came from Kamp Kee-Mo Sah-Bee, a boys' camp in Michigan.  Fran Striker, who wrote the Lone Ranger radio program, spelled it "ke-mo sah-bee."  And it seems to me Nelson Bridwell would have consulted the Lone Ranger comic strips or comic books where it was spelled "Kemo Sabay."  These days, I usually see "kemo sabe" but I've never seen "kimosovee" anywhere else.  Where did that come from?  If it was Nelson, I'll bet he had a good reason to think that was right.

The other night, ABC ran live redos (I guess you'd call them) of All in the Family and The Jeffersons with mostly new casts. Folks are writing to ask what I thought of them…and what I thought is that I didn't see them and should have set my DVR. But I get a redo because ABC is rerunning them tomorrow night and I'm set to get them this time.

Unlike some folks who seem to be around my age, I don't hate the whole concept of this and I sure won't judge the shows by whether these actors duplicate or make me forget the original actors. I will be interested in how the scripts they selected stand up. I loved All in the Family when it aired but was never able to get into the reruns. For me, it went from being set very much in the present to being set a long, long time ago.

The Dungeons & Dragons cartoon show was on CBS Saturday morning for three seasons starting in September of 1983. I had a lot to do with selling it to the network including writing the pilot and working out the format and characters. Then I went on to other things and left it to others, some of whom did some very fine work on it.

Whenever I mention it here, someone always writes in to ask me if it's true that it ended after three seasons because parents' groups were protesting its violent content and/on demonic imagery. No, that is not true. The protests were mild and the program ended, as most shows do, because the folks at the network did not think its ratings justified another season.

Someone also usually writes to ask if there was ever a "last" episode where the kids escaped the D&D world and got back to their own…and occasionally, someone writes to swear they saw such an episode on CBS. No, no such episode was ever produced. One of the writers on the series later wrote a script for such an episode but it was not produced until years later as a fan-funded venture. I do not endorse it and I wish they hadn't done that…but if you like it, fine.

The show is still fondly remembered and is rerun a lot in some countries. It's popular enough in Brazil that the folks who sell Renault automobiles down there spent a lot of money to make this commercial with actors (and CGI) bringing the animated characters to life. It probably had a larger budget than was spent making one or more seasons of the cartoon show and it's very well done. In fact, it's a better "ending" for the series than the fan-funded one…

Like you (I hope/assume) I believe in Free Speech and Freedom of the Press. I do think folks sometimes carry those principles to self-serving, ridiculous extremes — like claiming they're being censored if their TV show gets canceled — but the principles themselves are important. I also think that defense of Free Speech is kinda meaningless except when you defend the right of others to say things that you, yourself do not like.

It would not be courageous of me to defend the right of someone to praise Barack Obama. I would be placing principle over self-interest if I defended the right of someone to say Donald Trump was a great man. I'll have to do that one of these days.

Anyway, this brings us to Julian Assange, who has now been indicted not so much for stealing secret documents but for sharing them with the world. A prosecution of him could put in place a new order of punishing or at least intimidating journalists who do much better, fairer leaking than he does. As little as I like the way Assange selectively and manipulatively leaks, the stifling of real journalists would do much more damage. Fred Kaplan explains in more detail why this is.

• A phrase we will hear a lot, probably before this year is over: "No wonder he fought so hard to keep his taxes secret!"

I've received lots of favorable comments about the selection of E. Nelson Bridwell for this year's posthumous Bill Finger Award. This one is from Jack Lechner…

I'm very happy to see Mike Friedrich and E. Nelson Bridwell being honored, even though no one on the unanimous Finger Award panel seems to have gone for my own choice, Denny O'Neil.

I'm especially happy because Mr. Bridwell was once very kind to me. In the summer of 1971, I was 8 years old, and a big fan of DC Comics in general — and Kirby's Fourth World in particular (including the chatty missives written by you and Steve Sherman). I was visiting my grandmother in the Bronx, and on a total whim I called up the DC office and asked if they gave tours. Somehow, I got handed to E. Nelson Bridwell, who said they didn't, but that I could come by anyway. So I did, accompanied by my long-suffering mother. Mr. Bridwell greeted me, and actually did tour me around the office. I peppered him with questions about various books and characters, which he answered graciously, while my mother quietly gave up on having any idea what we were talking about.

There were three high points of the tour. The first was when I mentioned that besides Jack Kirby, I was devoted to the work of — naturally — Denny O'Neil, who was then writing both Green Lantern/Green Arrow and World's Finest. Bridwell smiled and opened a door to a small office…and there was Denny O'Neil himself, with an impressive head of bushy 1971 hair. (I was too awestruck to say anything to my hero.) The second was when Bridwell showed me page proofs on the as-yet-unpublished Forever People #5, featuring Sonny Sumo, possessor of the Anti-Life Equation. This felt like being able to read next month's newspaper today, and my mind was suitably blown. The third was when, before we left, Bridwell gave me brand-new copies of issue #4 in each of the Kirby titles, the first of the 25¢ "bigger and better" comics.

I don't think I came down from the high of that visit for months. I've never forgotten E. Nelson Bridwell's generosity, considering that there was absolutely nothing in it for him — except making a little boy very happy.

Knowing Nelson as I did, I believe every word of this account including the selfless motive. He was a very gentle, friendly man who — and this is just my opinion — was not properly respected by some at DC in that period. The guy was absolutely brilliant but folks who weren't as bright treated him the way Alan Brady treated Mel Cooley. If I had his brains and I went on Jeopardy! today, I'd kick James Holzhauer to the curb.

I know what you mean about reading "next month's newspaper today." The first time I visited the DC offices was Monday, June 29, 1970. The most recent DC comics I'd bought off the newsstands were books that had left that office for press three months earlier. So to see the current comics they were working on or had proofs of lying about was like being catapulted three months into the future.

And a lot of changes had happened during those three months. The DC symbol in the upper left hand corner of the covers had changed. Longtime Superman editor Mort Weisinger was retiring. He was there doing some bookkeeping-type work on his last issues but he no longer had an office and no longer had any power. Quite a few comics had changed creative staffs or undergone remodeling. It was somewhat jarring.

I was there with my then-partner and one of the many people we met that day was Nelson Bridwell. Everyone was nice to us but some people were nice to us because they were just nice people and some were nice to us because we were Jack Kirby's assistants. Nelson was definitely in the first grouping.