It's going to be interesting to have Bernie Sanders in the presidential race. Folks who thought Bill Clinton and Barack Obama represented the Far Left are going to have a hard time figuring out how to describe Sanders, who comes a lot closer to that label. I gather we'll hear that a President Sanders would implement total Soviet Communism and make us all eat nothing but borscht.
I have this e-mailbox that just collects mail sent to me by political websites where I have to sign up, which I do under a bogus name and special e-mail address. Right now, it's full of calls to arms because the Federal Government has troops training in Texas to implement martial law all across America, suspend the Constitution and enslave us all. This is all part of Obama's secret plan to suspend the constitution so he can have a third term and a fourth and a fifth and a ninth. You get the feeling that the folks who buy all this are the same folks who fire off their banking info when they get one of those e-mails that tells them some lottery they never heard of has twenty million bucks waiting for them?
I erred the other day here to suggest Alan Cumming is not a CBS star. He is, of course, on The Good Wife. If I'd ever watched that show, I might have known that. In any case, I don't think his co-hosting the Tonys has the same promotional value that would result from, say, James Corden hosting it.
I have nothing to say about the Baltimore rioting except that Jon Stewart's right. Why are people running around saying, "Nothing like this has ever happened before in a major American city"? It's happened before, it'll happen again and they'll say that again. It's so nice to be living a post-racial America.
Yesterday, I was in a Costco where I was disappointed — as I have been my last few visits to one — that nothing happened to yield an interesting blog post here. I did notice this, though: My doctor has me on one of those aspirin regimen programs where each day, you take a baby (81 mg) aspirin. I was going to buy a new supply of them but I realized a problem with the two different mega-sized packages that Costco offers. There was one that contained a two-year supply of one-per-day pills — two bottles each containing 365 pills. The package carried an expiration date of 07/16 meaning that almost half the pills will expire before I get around to taking them. The other package offered had a similar problem. It expired three months before I'd use up all the pills in it. I can't be the first person to notice this.
This coming Sunday evening, MeTV — the channel I like to believe was named for me — is rerunning the entire, historic final episode of M*A*S*H…and just because it's not quite long enough on its own, they're adding in some interviews with the cast and crew. I only saw that show the first time it aired, which was when every single human being who was ever alive on this planet watched it at the same time. I recall it as being really good…longer than the Korean War itself but really good. I've set my TiVo to record it so I can see if it's still really good when interrupted by commercials targeted for people born on or before the day of Harry Morgan's birth.
David Letterman reflects on 33 Years in late night teevee. You get the feeling he's still a little confused about why he's leaving now and where he's going?
The gent seen above at left is the late Johnny Olson, the great announcer and the man who brought the concept of the audience warm-up to the status of Fine Art. The gent at right is the current great announcer, Randy West, who has mucho experience at doing audience warm-ups…and you know who else does? Stu Shostak, the host of Stu's Show does! Randy and Stu and producer Bob Illes (who's done a few in his day) will be discussing the art and their experiences today on Stu's Show. At times, it's a thankless job. If the audience doesn't laugh, some producers blame the warm-up guy instead of the program itself…but it's a vital part of any TV show that has live human beings in to watch the performance. As you'll hear if you tune in.
Stu's Show can be heard live (almost) every Wednesday at the Stu's Show website and you can listen for free there. Webcasts start at 4 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM Eastern and other times in other climes. They run a minimum of two hours and sometimes go to three or beyond. Shortly after a show ends, it's available for downloading from the Archives on that site. Downloads are a paltry 99 cents each and you can get four for the price of three. Just see if you can get a deal like that when you go shopping for new cars!
(NOTE: I mean he's writing about the movie, not that Leonard is actually, physically on 42nd Street. Then again, I don't know for a fact that he isn't…)
William Saletan points out a basic contradiction in the argument against Gay Marriage. Its opponents are down to arguing that gay couples should not be allowed to wed because they cannot possibly procreate…but neither can straight couples when the woman is over 60 or either is simply infertile. And others might ask if marriage is really about nothing more than procreation and why straight couples would not procreate just because the two gay women down the street get to marry.
If you read certain of the reports on today's arguments before the Supreme Court, you could come away with the sense that the S.C.O.T.U.S. will not rule that there is a constitutional right for folks of the same gender to wed each other. If you read other reports, you'll sense that the Court will rule that way. I think we're all kidding ourselves if we think we really know. The folks on the Supreme Court may not even know at this point…and if they don't, we sure don't.
Two of my favorite political writers are battling over how much (if any) trouble Hillary Clinton is in or should be in for financial dealings relating to the Clinton Global Initiative. Jonathan Chait wrote this. Then Joe Conason wrote this in response. Now, Jonathan Chait has written this to respond to the response.
If you care about this matter at all, you oughta read all three plus whatever Mr. Conason writes in response to the response to the response. I read all three and I'm not sure I do care. One of these days when I can bring myself to write it — and probably after I make up a big, flashing CYNICISM ALERT banner to post before it, I'll write here about how I'm dreading this whole presidential election even though I think it will have a happy ending for my point o' view. But I'm also dreading writing that piece so it may be a while.
The Tony Awards nominations are out. Of perhaps more interest to some is that they finally announced who'll host the ceremony on June 7. It'll be Kristin Chenoweth and Alan Cumming.
Not that we're likely to ever hear it but there must be an interesting story why it took so long to announce who's handle the hosting duties, a decision usually announced in February or early March. That story presumably involves Neil Patrick Harris and Hugh Jackman, and maybe Stephen Colbert and/or James Corden. It's interesting that whichever network hosts the Emmy Awards almost always selects as host someone who's starring on one of their programs…but CBS doesn't seem to insist on a CBS star. (Yes, Mr. Harris was one when he hosted but that doesn't seem to have the reason for his selection.) You'd think they'd want to promote Colbert or Corden or even Jim Parsons.
Interesting too that Mr. Colbert has so totally disappeared from television since the last Colbert Report. I talked about that gap with lots of people in the TV biz and everyone agreed that 274 days was way too long for someone to be off the screen if he expected to keep his fan base. But he's about halfway through that period and he hasn't shown his reportedly-now-bearded face. I like it when someone in TV doesn't do what's widely expected but I'm usually curious as to the thinking behind that decision.
Here's another thing to think about: On Jimmy Fallon's first Tonight Show, Colbert made a surprise cameo appearance even though he was on a competing show in that time slot. Will Mr. Fallon return the favor when Colbert debuts? Would Colbert's show even want him to? Hmm?
I'm intermittently watching Mr. Letterman's last shows. Maybe it's reading too much into stray remarks and attitude but Dave's really coming off as a guy who's unhappy to be leaving and clueless as to what he'll do after. When Johnny Carson did his last Tonight Show, he did not intend to disappear from show business. He honestly figured he'd find some project via which he could return to the air and it (a) wouldn't seem like a massive step downward and (b) wouldn't risk a massive flop that would tarnish his legacy. Johnny never did and he eventually decided that the classiest thing he could do would be to do nothing. Dave strikes me as a guy who, perhaps through the example of Johnny, already knows that and doesn't like it.
Again, I wonder. Did Dave and CBS really discuss anything? Saturday night at 11:30? A weekly prime-time hour like Jack Paar did for a few years after his Tonight Show? I'm guessing the core problem is that for a long time, Letterman has had total control and a safe gig. The gig finally stopped being safe and he's unlikely to ever get anything like that again…which means he probably also won't get the absolute control he seems to need. He could get another show somewhere but not on those terms; not unless it was on some tiny cable channel that would be an embarrassment after a real TV network.
I hope some miracle happens and he finds something. He's too good to go away at his age. I'd love to see him find something which would be a new challenge and which might bring out some of the Old Dave who looked like he cared…but I sure don't expect that.
Looking forward to watching the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight this weekend? I'm not. Of course, I'm never interested in those contests. Two men hitting each other does not excite me. No one hitting anyone excites me. I suppose there's no victim when it's two men who are being paid millions to do it but what if one of them is an alleged "human being" who assaults others, including those who are weaker and unable to defend themselves? Take seven minutes and watch as Keith Olbermann lays out the moral case for us…
Next Monday in the United Kingdom, some TV channel (I don't know which one) is airing a special four-part episode of The Garfield Show called "Rodent Rebellion." This was a special we did after the completion of our fourth season. Stan Freberg had a couple of small roles in it and I believe it represents his final performance as a cartoon voice actor. I'm told it will run in the U.S. later this year.
Stan's extraordinary career began doing voice tracks for Warner Brothers cartoons which were recorded in 1945 and released in 1946. We recorded "Rodent Rebellion" on June 24, 2014 and I think this will be its first telecast in English. So I figure the math as 69 years, though I suppose someone could argue for 70. Either way, it's a career track record that I do not think will ever be beaten. And it's just a small accomplishment among the many in the life and times of that amazing, talented man.
By the way: After we recorded that episode, the entire cast and as much of the crew as was present adjourned to a restaurant to celebrate…most appropriately, an Italian restaurant where many ordered lasagna. Stan and his wonderful wife Hunter joined us and at one point, one of the actors came up to me and said, "I've done quite a few of these when you've had him in the session and I still have trouble wrapping my brain around the fact that I'm working with the guy who created all those wonderful records and commercials." I feel the same way.
I sometimes let aspiring voice actors sit in on our recording sessions. Back in 2010, a talented lady named Cia Court, who is now working a lot I hear, visited a session when Stan was present. This is what she blogged at the time.
Dick Cavett's Vietnam, a brief history of that fiasco traced through clips from The Dick Cavett Show, debuts tonight on PBS and reruns a lot throughout the week, at least on my PBS station. I haven't seen it but I recall Mr. Cavett's show hosting a lot of folks who criticized the handling of that war, followed by a lot of rebuttals from spokespersons who basically argued that to criticize the handling of that war was to hate America and our brave fighting men. During that military action, I started out on one side of the debate and slowly (perhaps too slowly) moved to the other side. On both sides, I saw a lot of folks who were incapable of making such a move in either direction, regardless of the facts. It was when I coined a phrase that has since popped up many times in things I've written about a wide range of topics…a reference to someone "who thinks never admitting you're wrong is the same thing as always being right."
I've set my TiVo for the Cavett show and for two companion telecasts where the same phrase may also be applicable. One, which precedes the Cavett program in my area, is called The Draft. I remember that horrible, impractical and cruel institution. I avoided (quite legally, via a high draft number) that horrible, impractical and cruel institution. And I recall people who supported it hysterically. If you'd gone up to one of them and said, "Here's how our military should get its soldiers" and you described the way it's worked for decades now with no one proposing we change it, they would have screamed at you, told you there was no chance in hell that would ever work and that it would unquestionably destroy the United States of America. In fact, some of those who said it would doom America to eliminate the draft were in the Nixon Administration which, before it ended, eliminated the draft. I'll be interested to see if this program notes that amazing (to me) reversal.
There's also a show called The Day the 60's Died which covers the Kent State Massacre — a tragedy which, I think, did a lot to turn swing voters against The War. Even a lot of people who supported the U.S. actions in Vietnam felt they were on the wrong side after that happened. Again, my TiVo is set. You might want to have yours be the same way.
As the debate over Gay Marriage hits the Supreme Court, we're about to hear a lot more about it. Personally, I think it'll be great when we reach that inevitable day when it's no longer a debate; when two people of the same sex can just wed and no one cares about it. Oddly enough, when I discuss this issue with my more Conservative friends, none of them thinks that day is not coming…and coming soon. They just think that the battle and trying to delay it has ancillary benefits for their achievable goals, most of which are to protect and promote their religion's influence over other public policies.
They all seem to agree with me that the opponents of Gay Marriage have done a pretty lame job of fighting it in the courts, typified by a lead attorney in the defense of California's Proposition 8. As noted in the piece I'm about to link to, he was asked how same-sex wedlock harmed man-woman wedlock and he answered, "Your Honor, my answer is: I don't know." You do something like that in the boxing ring and they accuse you of throwing the fight.
Facing what may be their last chance to stop what they seek to stop, opponents of Gay Marriage are bringing their "A" game to the Supreme Court donnybrook and that means having answers to that question. Pema Levy reports on what some of those answers are.
I have no idea how the highest court in the land will rule and I'm not sure anyone in the media does. Those who follow the Supreme Court closely and predict how its decisions will go have not had a very good track record lately with their forecasts. They often haven't even been right as to which justice represented the deciding vote…so it may not be, as they all seem to be saying, Anthony Kennedy. It wouldn't even surprise me if Scalia and Thomas not only voted for it but seized on that occasion to announce their engagement. (Well, yeah, I guess we can rule that out…)
Jonathan Chait on what the upcoming presidential election will actually be about. Either side may find points on which they can slam the other as unfit to lead or morally corrupt or not in touch with the American people…but really, it's about whether the country should be run to benefit the wealthy or those who are not.
The actors on Volume Two of Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America were recorded at the Wilder Brothers Recording Studio in West Los Angeles. As recording studios went, it was ideal. It was even a block from one of my favorite pizzerias and in yet another of my invaluable contributions to the new album, I arranged for pizza to be brought in.
Still, as fine as the Wilder Brothers' facility was, Stan paused several times to say, "Gee, it feels odd to be doing this here instead of over in the Capitol Records building." That was where he had done almost all of his previous albums but, alas, the studio there was in no shape to handle this one. (A few years later though, when I helped him edit a compilation CD set called Tip of the Freberg, he did the editing at Capitol and was very happy to be back there.)
I was present for some of the recording at Wilder Brothers but not all. One of the days, I was too busy to go. On another, everyone else was too busy to call and let me know about it until it was half over. But the main day I was there, vocal tracks (talking and singing) were done for about half the album, the orchestra having already been recorded.
I keep wanting to emphasize again here how little I contributed. This is not modesty nor was it any kind of failing on my part. This is just me reporting how Stan worked. He was God Almighty when it came to creative decisions and his wife Donna was in total charge of producing-type decisions. When I arrived, she took me aside and said, "I need your help to stop him from doing dozens of takes when three or four will do. At Capitol, Stan had an almost unlimited budget. He could have done fifty takes if he wanted and sometimes, he just about did. We don't have that luxury here. If you think a take is fine, please tell him. Help me convince him not to do twenty more." I said I would.
The session started that day by recording a song and sketch called "Madison, Jefferson, Franklin, & Osbourne," in which a four-man advertising agency plotted the marketing of America. Lorenzo Music played Madison, David Ogden Stiers played Jefferson, Stan played Ben Franklin and Peter Leeds played Osbourne. Also in that sketch — though in some cases, recorded later that day — were Stan's son Donavan, his daughter Donna (not to be confused with his wife, Donna) and another longtime Freberg player, Naomi Lewis. The cast and a few of us "helpers" sat around a table and read it a few times. Stan adjusted a couple of lines and gave relatively minor direction to the other actors.
He invited everyone in the place to make suggestions and comments. I was too intimidated to have any. Lorenzo had a few and Stan took some (not all) of Lorenzo's notes. Then the four men took their places at four microphones and in a non-excessive number of tries, recorded the speaking portion of the sketch. Before long, Stan was sure he had what he wanted.
In the engineer's booth, I turned to Donna Sr. and said, "That wasn't too many takes." She replied, "Wait. We haven't gotten to the singing yet."
Peter Leeds
As she said that, a rather small argument broke out between Stan and Peter Leeds. Peter had been a vital member of the Freberg Stock Company for years. On Stan's classic parody of Harry Belafonte's "Banana Boat," Peter played a beatnik drummer who kept interrupting Stan in the Belafonte role. He'd been on other Freberg records including Volume One of The United States of America and on Stan's 1957-1958 radio show. As Stan prepared to record the singing, it suddenly dawned on him that in all those great, highly-musical records and shows he'd done with Peter, Peter had never sung.
"You don't sing," Stan said to Peter.
"Of course, I sing," Peter said to Stan.
"When did you ever sing on any of my records?" Stan asked Peter.
"I sang on some of them. I sang on the radio show," Peter told Stan.
"When did you sing on the radio show?" Stan asked Peter.
"I sang, I sang. I don't remember what but I sang," Peter assured Stan.
Stan came over to me and asked me in my capacity as the Resident Freberg Expert, "When did Peter sing on the radio show?" I said I didn't recall that but there were plenty of group numbers he could have been in. Later on, I asked other Freberg authorities. Peter had done dozens of radio shows, records and commercials with Stan but none of us could come up with a moment on any one of them when he sang. Well, he sang a little on Volume Two of The United States of America.
Less than a year later, Peter passed away and I drove Stan to the funeral where he spoke eloquently of his friend and colleague, as did many others. On the drive home, Stan recalled the little argument with Peter about his singing and he asked me, "Did you ever figure out where Peter sang before on one of my projects?"
I said, "No. I think he was confused. I don't think he sang on anything he did for you."
"Well," Stan said wistfully. "I'm glad Peter finally got to sing on something I did." Then he added, "You know, he was pretty good. I should have had him sing on Volume One."
The other songs and sketches that day in the studio went well but when we got to a tune where David Ogden Stiers sang as Ulysses Grant, what Donna had predicted came to pass. Stan kept calling for take after take after take. I thought several of them were fine but Stan, like some sort of insatiable perfectionist, kept saying, "Let's try one more." And then after they'd tried one more, he said, "Let's try one more."
On a break, David came to me and making sure Stan couldn't hear said, "Mark, I beg of you to do me this favor. If I start and the take isn't good, stop it. My voice is beginning to go and I can't sing the entire song and then find out that Stan didn't like the first four bars." David was a consummate professional and his respect for Stan was total. He was less concerned with harming his throat than he was with being unable to perform for Stan.
So I did what he asked. I didn't stop the recording — that wasn't my job — but on the next few takes when I could see Stan wasn't 100% pleased with what he was hearing, I got him to stop right away.
In his youth, Stan had one of the most versatile and indestructible voices in the recording business. Singing or speaking, he could do a hundred takes and sound letter-perfect on every one and so could the actors of approximately the same age that he'd employed — Daws Butler, June Foray and others, including Peter Leeds. It had just not occurred to him that once performers get older, their voices often have limits.
Mr. Stiers was a fascinating, wonderful performer. I had heard but not fully appreciated that acting was his second love, his first being his work as a conductor of symphony orchestras around the country. He was neglecting work with one in his home town in Oregon that day to record for Stan because, as he put it, "When Freberg calls, you do not say no." We talked a little of his role on the TV series M*A*S*H but mostly about his work in music. I noted aloud that he had been taking direction unquestioningly from Stan about the singing and not interjecting his own opinions. He replied — and this is an approximate quote — "In a symphony, all must bow to the guidance of the conductor."
All day, people were dropping by the recording studio — friends of Stan's, associates, etc. They all loved the first album and wanted to be able to say that they were present at the historic event of its sequel. I knew how they felt.
John Crean stopped in. Mr. Crean was a man of great philanthropy and greater wealth. He'd founded Fleetwood Enterprises, at one time the world's largest manufacturer of mobile homes and trailers. You can imagine the kind of money he had and, as a good friend of Stan's, he'd invested a tiny portion of it to help make Volume Two happen. (Years later when Stan married his second wife, the ceremony took place at the Crean estate, which was about the size of a Congressional District.) Stan let his friend and benefactor not only watch some of the recording but he's on there, playing a small part.
Buddy Ebsen stopped in. The great actor, best known for The Beverly Hillbillies and Barnaby Jones, was family. Stan's daughter Donna was married to Mr. Ebsen's son, Dustin.
At heart, Buddy Ebsen was a hoofer so Stan thought to ask him about a problem that had yet to be solved for the album. For Volume One, he'd recorded the sounds of an expert dancer named Maurice Kelly tap-dancing. For Volume Two, he needed someone else in that capacity. He asked Buddy if he knew any great tap-dancers.
Mr. Ebsen said, "Well, how about me?" and he launched into a few steps. Everyone laughed and Stan said he'd find someone else. But based on that little sample, I'd say that even at age 87, Buddy could have pulled it off. Later, Stan did find someone else — the legendary Fayard Nicholas of the Nicholas Brothers. Fayard was, of course, a much younger man. He was 81.
Donna, mindful of the costs and not wanting to have to book another day in the studio for this material, kept the intrusions to a minimum. The problem came when Ray Bradbury — the great, wonderful Ray Bradbury — walked in.
In later years, Stan and Ray. • Photo by Leonard Maltin
Ray and Stan were tremendous friends — in the past, as close as two straight men could be. The friendship had been occasionally strained in recent years over politics. Stan remained a staunch Liberal Democrat. Ray, in a turn that surprised many around him, had gone rabidly right-wing on a few but not all issues. (Not long after when Ray asked me to become his annual interviewer at Comic-Con in San Diego, I of course agreed. One of his daughters implored me, "Please don't let him talk about politics." Ray, of course, talked about whatever he wanted to talk about, occasionally even answering my questions.)
Mr. Bradbury, as we all know, did not drive. Someone had dropped him off at the recording and that someone was coming back to pick him up in two hours…so we were stuck with him for that time. After greeting Stan warmly and telling him what an honor it was to be present for this historic recording, he began lecturing Stan that the record — to folks of Stan's and Ray's age, it was a "record," not a "CD" — absolutely had to include some slams on Bill and Hillary Clinton. This was late '96. William Jefferson Clinton held a commanding lead over Bob Dole and was soon to win a second term as president. "The only hope this country has," Bradbury insisted, "is to get someone in there who's smart enough to eliminate the Capital Gains tax."
Because of his love for Ray, Stan was terribly uncomfortable and unwilling to raise his voice much. There was zero chance he was going to do what his friend wanted. Even if he'd agreed with him politically — and he did not — it was way too late to make that kind of change. He'd already recorded 75% of the singing and talking, and 100% of the music. In fact, the recording was supposed to be completed in about four hours.
"But you have to," Ray implored. "This record is about the United States of America. There won't be a United States of America by 2000 if the Clintons aren't stopped!"
Stan awkwardly excused himself to go direct and/or perform in the next segment. Ray retired to the engineer's booth to listen…but every time there was a pause between takes, he tried to talk to Stan about the dire need for anti-Clinton material on Volume Two. Donna gave me a look: Can't you do something?
I did something. When Ray went to the men's room, I "happened to" run into him on his way back, engaged him in conversation and steered him into a little lunch room nearby. We sat there and talked for around 90 minutes, which was no grand hardship for me. When you kept him off certain political "hot button" topics, Ray Bradbury was still one of the most brilliant and fascinating storytellers and pontificators in the world. In fact, when I later interviewed him at Comic-Con, a lot of what I did was to prompt him for anecdotes that he'd told me that day in the Wilder Brothers break room.
So that was my major contribution to Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, Volume Two. I kept Ray Bradbury out of the room for an hour and a half, almost until his ride came for him. I also contributed a few lines and jokes to the album but those bits of input were minor compared to keeping Ray occupied.
Just before he departed, an odd thing happened…one of those moments that has stayed with me until this day.
We had just wandered back into the recording studio where Stan had finished a number with Donavan. Donavan was quite experienced at performing under his father's direction and his recording did not require as many takes as others that day. Suddenly, an employee of Wilder Brothers came into the room and said, "I don't mean to interrupt but all of you…you just have to come outside and see something." Curiosity and a need for fresh air caused all of us, Stan and Ray included, to venture outside…
…and there, filling the sky to the west of us, way out over the Pacific Ocean was the most beautiful sunset that any of us had ever seen.
It was jaw-droppingly amazing…every possible color highlighting and backlighting wispy clouds. You could spend a month with Adobe Photoshop and not create anything quite that awesome. We all just stood there, mouths open, staring at it and I stole a joke from the Ziggy comic strip. I applauded and called out, "Author, author!"
There was still work to be done inside but none of us could tear ourselves from that vision; not until a few minutes later when it began to darken and lose its lustre. We felt transformed and claustrophobic as we trooped back in to the windowless studio. The recording was completed, sans Bradbury diversions, in another half-hour. In the following weeks, Stan edited it and mastered it, deciding how loud this or that should be and adding sound effects. I sat in on the last day of editing and made another of my great contributions by saying, "It's great, Stan. Stop fiddling with it!" He fiddled for another hour or so, then with a deep sigh declared it completed.
I remember that day in the recording studio with the kind of clarity your mind demands on an important day in your life. I remember Stan being fully in command of what would go on the "record" and Donna being fully committed to him getting it on there the way he wanted. I remember the other performers, all of them clearly feeling privileged to be a part of it and eager to give Stan what he wanted. I remember the visitors, Bradbury especially, and the general excitement that Stan was finally, at long last, getting Volume Two done.
And I especially remember that sunset…a magical interlude that was somehow altogether appropriate on that very magical day.
