Category Archives: Uncategorized

As anyone who'd come to this blog knows, Alan Reed was the voice of Fred Flintstone. He performed the role from the show's debut in 1960 until he passed away in 1977. Thereafter, the role was assumed by Henry Corden, who had sometimes supplied Fred's singing voice or filled in for Reed on kids' records and educational projects. I liked Henry and thought he did as fine a job as could have been done by anyone who wasn't Alan Reed. Unfortunately, he wasn't Alan Reed.

Mr. Reed did a lot of other things in his career besides holler, "Yabba Dabba Doo!" He wrote about his entire life in a autobiography that he hadn't finished at the time of his death. A few years ago, it was finished and published by Ben Ohmart, who's the man behind BearManor Media, publishers of many fine books on topics that interest people like you and me. Here's a link if you didn't get a copy and yearn for one.

Or if you don't feel like reading, someone will read it to you. You can now buy it as an audiobook read by veteran radio-theater producer Joe Bevilacqua and Alan Reed Jr. As the press release notes, "This 5-hour unabridged audiobook is enhanced with rare interviews with Alan Reed himself, an interview with Joe Barbera, and clips from Reed's radio, TV, and film career, including The Fred Allen Show, The Shadow, The Life of Riley, Life with Luigi, Duffy's Tavern, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Viva Zapata, Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Flintstones.

Sound good to you? Sounds good to me. You can order your own copy here. Go grab one while they have them in stock.

Hey, let's all go look at some photos of the construction of Disneyland!

I seem to have confused a few folks with my phraseology. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy appeared in around 32 silent shorts for the Hal Roach Studio. The number is a bit arguable since there were a couple in which they were on-screen for less than thirty seconds and since a few later ones were made in both sound and silent versions.

The second Roach film in which both appeared was Duck Soup and it's the first film you could claim was "A Laurel and Hardy film" as opposed to a comedy in which the two men both happened to have roles. But then the next few films to contain both men are in the latter category. They're just two unteamed actors in a movie and in some, they don't even have scenes together.

Then the eighth Roach film to house both guys — Do Detectives Think? — really looks like what we think of as a Laurel and Hardy movie. If you see it, you think, "Aha! The studio finally realized that those two guys should be starring as partners!" But then their ninth film and several thereafter are back in the "two guys in the same film" category. Their eleventh joint Roach job — The Second Hundred Years — has them teamed…and thereafter, but for one or two missteps, they were.

Douglas McEwan writes to remind me why Putting Pants on Philip, which was made after all of these, is often referred to as the first official Laurel and Hardy movie…

The reason Putting Pants on Philip is sometimes called "The First Laurel & Hardy" movie is because Stan Laurel called it such to John McCabe, apparently repeatedly. McCabe quotes Stan's assertion that Putting Pants on Philip is The First Official Laurel & Hardy in both Mr. Laurel & Mr. Hardy and in Babe. He probably quotes it in his The Comedy World of Stan Laurel also, though I haven't read that one, so I can't state it. I reread Babe last week, and in that McCabe expresses skeptism about whether Putting Pants deserves this appelation or not, but he does repeat once more that Stan felt it was the first. Now, as to why Stan thought of it as such, I have no idea, but Stan's widely-published assertion is the reason others do.

You're right…and it points up how maddening it can sometimes be to chronicle film history since you'd think Stan Laurel would be an unimpeachable source as to what the first Laurel and Hardy movie was. I suppose he was recalling some burst of special promotion on Putting Pants on Philip which made it seem in his mind like their first official film together. But he did tell that to John McCabe who printed it in Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy, which was for a long time the definitive book on The Boys — mainly because it was the only one. I just checked my copy of McCabe's The Comedy World of Stan Laurel and Putting Pants on Philip does not seem to be mentioned in there.

Doug also wrote to thank me for cautioning folks against believing what Jerry Lewis says on that new DVD set. Mr. Lewis seems to believe — and I can't imagine where he got this — that Hardy was an unemployed stagehand at the Roach studio when someone got the idea to star him with Laurel. Uh, Jerry, Oliver "Babe" Hardy had appeared in dozens of movies (a lot more than Stan, many of them for Roach) before teaming up with Laurel. Hardy was actually one of the workingest actors in silent movies before being paired with Laurel. I'll betcha the folks who shot Lewis for that DVD knew the truth but feared making him angry if they corrected him.

It's amazing how wrong some folks are on what is readily-available film history. Some years ago, there was a Laurel and Hardy documentary hosted by Dom DeLuise in which Dom solemnly told the spurious tale of Laurel sitting at Hardy's bedside and holding his hand as Hardy died. Didn't happen. Stan was not there and I can't imagine how anyone could do enough research to write any narration about Laurel and Hardy and not know that. It's pretty clear in McCabe's first book and it makes you want to do one of those exasperated Oliver Hardy looks towards the camera.

This evening, Turner Classic Movies is running four silent Laurel and Hardy shorts. They start at 9 PM on my satellite dish but check your listings for the proper time where you are. They are, in order, Do Detectives Think?, Putting Pants on Philip, You're Darn Tootin' and Two Tars.

Do Detectives Think? was the eighth Hal Roach comedy in which both Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy appeared. It was not billed as a Laurel and Hardy film back in 1927. There were no such films at the time. It was just another episode of a series called "Hal Roach's Comedy All-Stars" which basically consisted of short comedies starring some selection of comedians who were then under contract to the Roach studio. In some of these, Stan and Ollie were not really a team. In fact, in some of them, they didn't even have any scenes together.

The second Roach film in which they both appeared, Duck Soup, almost looks like a Laurel and Hardy comedy. Do Detectives Think? truly does. They're a team and they're even wearing derbies. They aren't quite the guys we know and love — both a little too aggressive — and Jimmy Finlayson (who would later support them so well in bonafide L&H films) has about as much screen time as they do. Oh, yeah — and they're also called Ferdinand Finkleberry and Sherlock Pinkham instead of Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy. But this was reportedly the film which first got folks on the lot thinking these guys should be a team.

Putting Pants on Philip is sometimes referred to in histories as the first Laurel and Hardy film. I'm not sure why. They aren't a team, they aren't in their soon-familiar characters…and Laurel is in a kilt, playing not Hardy's friend but his silly, lust-crazed nephew. It's a funny, broad comedy about having to get Philip's (Stan's) inseam measured so he can get trousers, and Hal Roach used to cite it as one of his favorites.

You're Darn Tootin' is one of The Boys' "fight" pictures that build to a huge brawl. In this one, it's people on the street kicking each other in the shin and ripping off each others' pants. In Two Tars, it's drivers in a traffic jam all ripping off pieces of each others' cars. I like the scenes before the battles more than I like the battles but all of these films are well worth your attention. So are the others TCM is showing later in the month.

I get about three e-mails a week asking when I — or Sergio Aragonés and I — or sometimes just Sergio — will be at a convention near the person writing to ask. Sergio will be in Savannah, Georgia next weekend for…well, it isn't a convention. It's kind of a three-day event celebrating MAD magazine and quite a few members of The Usual Gang of Idiots will be present including Al Jaffee, Jack Davis, Paul Coker, Sam Viviano, Nick Meglin and Tom Richmond. More info can be found here.

Sergio doesn't recall any other commitments before WonderCon, which is March 16-18 in Anaheim, California. I'll be a Special Guest at WonderCon, too…and that's the only convention on my schedule until Comic-Con next July. After 40+ years of attending comic and science-fiction conventions, I've pretty much burned out on such gatherings, especially if all they have for me to do is sit behind a table and write my name on comics and books I've written. The next year or three, I'll be very surprised if I find myself at any convention other than WonderCon and Comic-Con.

Each year, the Animation Writers Caucus of the Writers Guild of America, West presents a trophy called the WGAW-AWC Animation Writing Award. It's kind of a "life achievement" award and this year, there will be two, both presented posthumously. In a ceremony on November 17, the late Dwayne McDuffie and the late Earl Kress will be honored for their careers and accomplishments. I will be making the presentation for Earl, which will be accepted by his wife Denise. If you're a member of the caucus, you should have received your invite by now.

If you watched Laurel and Hardy films years ago on TV, you were probably used to the sound shorts starting with a title card that looked something like the above. That's how I saw them when Engineer Bill ran them on Channel 9 back in the mid-sixties. It was several years before I learned that the familiar plaque wasn't on those great movies when they were first produced and released.

Originally, each short began with the MGM lion since MGM distributed those films produced by the Hal Roach Studio. The lion was then followed by a more decorative card and there were several designs over the years, many of them specific to the film at hand. One that I rather liked was this one…

In 1943, Roach contracted with a company called Film Classics to rerelease those shorts so someone had to go in and delionize them. While they were taking Leo off, they also put a new Laurel & Hardy title card on them. In some cases, they also remade the next title card which gave the name of the film. In others, they just cut from the new card to the old one for a jarring change of styles. There was also a lot of tampering with the films themselves, including some inexplicable edits and the dubbing-in of misplaced music on early talkies that didn't have, someone apparently thought, enough. Subsequent prints, including the ones run on TV, were usually made off these prints so that's what we all saw for a while.

One of the many nice things about home video is that it encourages companies to go seek out better prints and original materials. The new Laurel and Hardy DVD set, which you can order here, restores its contents back to pretty much the way the films were originally supposed to look…or darn close to it. I'm still stumbling through it but so far, I'm delighted with the picture quality and the completeness. (One short, Laughing Gravy, is much longer than I've ever seen it before owing to the restoration of extra footage.)

I'm also still making my way through the extra features and commentary tracks and so far, they're great too…though I would warn everyone that Jerry Lewis divulges some highly incorrect "facts" about the history of Stan and Ollie. Believe not a word he says except for when he talks about how great they were.

Turner Classic Movies is running a batch of silent Laurel and Hardy shorts tomorrow evening with more treats later in the month. I'll post a little guide to them before they air but in the meantime, you might want to set your TiVo or DVR.

My friend Jim Brochu, mentioned many times on this blog, is taking time out from his one-man show as Zero Mostel, Zero Hour. He'll be playing Sheridan Whiteside (a role Zero should have played but I don't think he ever did) in a New York off-Broadway revival of The Man Who Came to Dinner by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman. It begins November 25 at the St. Clement's Theater.

I wish I could see him in that but I don't think I can get back there. I'll have to settle for seeing him next Tuesday when he's a contestant on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? He did not ask me to be a phone-a-friend.

From Jeremy Redfield comes this accusation. I have added in hyperlinks where appropriate…

You have apparently not been completely honest with us, Mr. Evanier. In your report on Neil Gaiman's appearance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, you said you "needed to get something to" Mr. Gaiman but did not say what it was. Could it perhaps have been a vegetarian haggis?

In his segment, Mr. Gaiman presented Mr. Ferguson with a vegetarian haggis which he said he had smuggled into America. The vegetarian haggis now sits on Mr. Ferguson's desk and has become another of the games he plays with guests to end their segments. They are invited to touch his vegetarian haggis. Tuesday night, Ted Danson touched it.

You have not disclosed your role in this smuggling incident but I see that on his website, Mr. Gaiman refers to you as his "haggis mule" and says that the haggis was shipped from overseas and that you took delivery of it. Is this so and if it is so, why did you not disclose it?

I would like an answer, keeping in mind at all times that you are under oath.

I respectfully decline to answer and wish to assert my Fifth Amendment rights.

Playboy has put up a number of their most interesting interviews for online reading. If you can navigate your way around the nekkid women in the margins, you might find a conversation you'd enjoy reading.

Joe Giella currently draws the Mary Worth newspaper strip but most of you probably know him for the fine work he did for DC Comics for many years on Batman, Green Lantern, Flash and other features, especially in the so-called "Silver Age." He is a lovely, generous man…which makes it all the more infuriating that someone — probably someone Joe trusted — grabbed precious artwork when Joe's back was turned. The investigating officer asked me to post this here…

Joe Giella recently contacted the Nassau County, NY Police Department in regards to the following missing [and presumed stolen] artwork. The list is as follows:

• Silver Age Flash #144, pages 1 & 9
• Detective Comics #329, pages 7 & 8
• Green Lantern #107 Cover

The loss is put at approximately $12,000.00. Any assistance in this matter would be greatly appreciated, and anyone with any information can either contact Nassau County NY Crime Stoppers at 1-800-244 TIPS [1-800-244-8477] or joconnor@pdcn.org.

Be on the lookout for those pieces. Joe is one of the good guys and it would be great if his many fans could help him recover his property.

In other police-related news: Steve Rude posted bail but there is still the need to cover legal fees. If you've ever wanted to own a piece of art by this fine illustrator (i.e., if you've ever seen his work), you will never get a better price. Visit his website and check out his auctions and other offerings.

Umpteen people have recommended Microsoft Security Essentials to me as a fine (and free) anti-virus program. I'm sure it must be great for some folks — maybe most folks — but I tried it after I ditched AVG and before I installed Avast, which is what I'm now running. Though it was made to work especially well under Windows 7, which is what's on my computer, MSE didn't agree with my system and things locked up during most scans. This was disappointing because I usually get along fine with Microsoft Anything, plus I like the idea of running software that has the same initials as me.

No such lockage has occurred with the free version of Avast Anti-Virus. It's so far operating unobstrusively and, it would seem, well. I will report back on any change in this condition.

For those of you concerned about the fire at the Magic Castle the other day, here is what I'm hearing. The Castle is closed all this week and the management hopes to be able to announce on Friday when the place will reopen. There does not seem to be an official cause yet given for the fire but the relevant Internet forums are saying that it was triggered by roofers who were doing repairs. That is not a final verdict. The fire was in the attic which did not house anything irreplaceable but there was water damage (and perhaps some smoke damage) elsewhere in the building. Professional restoration crews are already on the job and there's no reason to assume the Castle won't be made whole again though it may require some bucks above and beyond what insurance will cover. And that is all I know at this time, not just about this but about anything.

From Robert Barnes…

Thank you a thousand times over for the link to the Caesar's Writers video. I have never seen so many funny people in one place and it's obvious they all had a lot of love and respect for each other. Was that you in the video sitting next to Howie Morris?

It must have been great to be there that night. I wish I could have heard the conversations backstage. I also wish we'd heard more from some of the people I didn't know more about like Gary Belkin and Danny Simon. Thanks again.

Yes, that was me sitting next to Howie Morris. Howie and I went to dinner earlier at a restaurant near the theater and wound up joining a table with about half the dais. The best line I remember from that table occurred when Sheldon Keller was talking about an encounter in the forties with Milton Berle. He said, "Berle was at the Paramount Theater" and in less than a second, Larry Gelbart jumped in and added, "Yeah, and his cock was at the Bijou."

Danny Simon isn't represented more in the show because he was not feeling well that evening. In fact, he took ill during the proceedings and left about two-thirds of the way through. It's not too noticeable due to deft camera angles and editing. (By the way, I'm amazed how well-shot the video was. That theater was not made for TV and they had to put the cameras in some less-than-ideal spots but still cover a long line of eleven people who were jumping in and out of the conversation, often unexpectedly. Notice how many times someone starts speaking and the camera is right on them. The camera guys and director did a good job of guessing who was about to talk and being ready for it.)

Gary Belkin's presence there involved a certain amount of courage. Gary's wife had died not long before and he became something of a recluse. He initially declined to appear but a couple of friends nagged him and threatened to drag him from his apartment at knifepoint and spirit him off to the theater. He ultimately came under his own power and I think it may have been the only public appearance he made after he became a widower and before he passed. I was pleased he was there at all and he was pleased that he actually got a couple of big laughs.

Yes, those men were fans of each other and there was a lot of love up there on the stage. There were also a few resentments and mostly-concealed jealousies. That's kind of inevitable when you have a gang of folks who were all at one point more-or-less equal and then one went on to become the most produced playwright of the century, one became a movie star, etc. It would be odd if a band of peers who came to have wildly-different income levels didn't have some points of bitterness…but they were very happy to be together that night and managed to leave most of the bad stuff at home.

Before I leave this topic: I forgot to mention that the video posted here is very close to the complete program. A version that aired on PBS was seriously cut so if you saw it there, you may still want to check out the version posted here.

And I must correct an omission on my part. Bob Claster did the great job of hosting the evening but the initial idea for the event came from a fine writer-producer named Aron Abrams. Aron secured Mr. Gelbart's participation and help, then was wise enough to bring Bob into the project. Aron passed away less than a year ago and while he had many credits on television, he had a special pride in Caesar's Writers. He should…because it was a terrific and important evening.

In my report on the Al Jaffee evening, I neglected to mention the award that was bestowed upon him. I also neglected to tell you a little about CAPS, the group that bestowed the award in question.

CAPS is the Comic Art Professional Society, a group founded in 1977 by Sergio Aragonés, Don Rico and myself. There was a pressing need for a place in Los Angeles where folks who worked in comic books and print cartoons could converge. To fill that need, we started this organization and began meeting monthly and soon after we also began having annual banquets.

Let me confess to something here. Though I was pleased to see Al Jaffee honored and similarly elated by previous evenings and other celebrations of great talents, I originally opposed all suggestions that CAPS honor anyone. I am intermittently and inconsistently anti-award.

I have been involved in the founding of about a dozen groups of writers, cartoonists, artists, etc., of one kind or another. In every single case, when the organization process commences, almost the first suggestion someone makes is that we set up some way to honor each other and give trophies. This is generally proposed by someone whose main motive is that they very much want to win such a thing and who plans to look humbly shocked when he or she is nominated.

Believing as I do that one cannot say, for example, that this guy who draws funny ducks is "better" than that lady who draws ninja warriors, I can't take creative awards too seriously. On the other hand, they usually make their recipients very happy and though I am sometimes anti-award, I am always pro-happiness…and with something like the award for Al Jaffee, there's another aspect. There's absolutely nothing wrong with loving someone and telling the world in some way that you love them. In fact, there is something wrong with not celebrating a guy like Al Jaffee.

So I have come around on the subject of awards. I have seen them go to the wrong people for the wrong reasons but I have also seen them go to the right people for the right reasons. And I have decided to gripe about the former but to focus on the latter.

The award CAPS gives out is called The Sergio and as you can see above, it's a statuette that looks like Sergio Aragonés. Odd tale of how that came about…one I've told here before. Here, copied 'n' pasted from an earlier posting here, is that tale…

Not long ago, the current CAPS board decided to present an annual award that would honor some great cartoonist's lifetime achievements. Sergio was asked to do an appropriate design sketch, and he did. It featured a generic cartoonist. This sketch was then turned over to master sculptor Ruben Procopio to turn into a statue, which he did. Along the way, it was decided to make two adjustments without Sergio's knowledge. One was to make the generic cartoonist look like Sergio. The other was to call the award The Sergio.

And actually, a third decision was made by the CAPS Board without Sergio knowing of it at the time. They decided that at the dinner to present the first one to Jack Davis, they'd also surprise Sergio and hand him the second.

That's right. Sergio Aragonés has now won so many cartooning awards that in order to receive any more of them, he has to design them himself.

So that's how the award came to look like and be named for my amigo. Al Jaffee, who is as fond of the real Sergio as anyone, seemed very pleased to get one. I will believe that for the rest of my life or until I see it offered on eBay, whichever comes first.