Category Archives: Video Links

I spent a nice hunk of my childhood at a shabby little place of magic called the Silent Movie Theater over on Fairfax near Melrose. It's still there, looking better now probably than it did then, but it no longer shows silent films exclusively. It's now the home of a group called The Cinefamily that programs eclectic offerings — unusual film programs and lectures.

There's a fascinating story about the history of the theater, one I told briefly here…though that account stops in 1999 and much has happened since. The tale is told in greater detail with interviews and rare clips and photos in a new documentary entitled Palace of Silence. I have no idea where or when you can see the whole thing but you can watch a preview right now and maybe keep an eye on this website for info on a general release. The second person who speaks in the video below is me…

Here's another long one (22 minutes) that you probably won't want to watch in full but might want to sample. It's We Learn About the Telephone, a 1965 educational film for kids featuring animation by John Hubley. Most of the voices were done by Mel Blanc with a few by Paul Frees. This probably means Mel did them all, a few had to be redone for some reason and Mel wasn't available to come back and do them so they called in Paul.

The film was produced by Jerry Fairbanks and someone oughta do a big article somewhere about all the films and TV shows produced by Jerry Fairbanks including the Speaking of Animals film shorts and the Crusader Rabbit cartoon show. It was directed by Jean Yarbrough, who directed hundreds of TV shows and movies, including an awful lot of both with Abbott and Costello.

In the live-action segments, the father is played by Wright King, who some of you will recall from a couple of appearances on the original Twilight Zone. The boy is Pat Cardi, a kid actor on lots of TV shows of the sixties. He got out of that line of work and under his birth name of Pat Cardamone, he became a major producer of infomercials and educational films — kinda like some of what Jerry Fairbanks did. Cardamone is probably most famous for having invented MovieFone. The girl is Pam Ferdin (her name is misspelled in the end credits) who was the daughter in half the sitcoms of the sixties and seventies, including The Paul Lynde Show and The Odd Couple, and she was the voice of Lucy in many a Charlie Brown special. She is now an activist for animal rights.

And that's about all you need to know except that I have to thank Scott Marinoff for calling this to my attention…

Here's the theme song from The Yogi Bear Show in Japanese. It's pretty much the same program over there except that instead of stealing picnic baskets, he takes bento boxes…

I never got to see Catch Me If You Can on Broadway. A couple of my friends said it was great, a couple said it was not…but all agreed that Norbert Leo Butz was terrific, especially with the song in the video below. It's called "Don't Break the Rules" and it was sure a showstopper when he did it on the Tony Awards. Here's a visit to the recording session for the cast album…

Brian DeFrees took a road trip of 12,225 miles. He wrote about it here and you can see the entire thing compressed into five minutes here…

In 1979 when he had History of the World, Part One coming out, Mel Brooks was the subject of a long BBC profile. This is it. It runs a little over an hour and is chopped up into chapters which should play one after the other in the player below. There are a couple of odd edits and the audio goes in and out of sync but it's still pretty watchable…

I've watched and re-watched the classic Fawlty Towers TV series many times without ever once thinking, "You know, I'd love to have dinner there." Apparently, not everyone thinks as I do…

I've decided to give this site a brief respite from all the Lambeth Walking. We will return to that topic at a later date.

For now: There's a new book coming out about the extraordinary work that Saul Bass has done over the years as a designer of motion picture titles and key art. It's called Art of the Title. Here's a little look back at some of the memorable work done by Mr. Bass…

Here's the second installment of Bruce Kimmel's new web series, Outside the Box. This one stars Brad Oscar, who I met when he was in the cast of Forbidden Broadway. When next I saw him on the stage, he was playing Franz Liebkind in the original Broadway company of Mel Brooks' The Producers, and he was also understudying Nathan Lane and occasionally going on for him. He later took over the role of Max Bialystock full-time and was very, very good in it. Here he is finally originating a role…

Kevin Mummery sent me the following message…

As much as I've enjoyed your recent 1,000 Lambeth Walk posts, I'm sure there are many of your devoted readers who would love more than anything if you began posting on another dance sensation that swept a nation…The Hucklebuck. No less a talent than Art Carney was an expert Hucklebuck-er, as he demonstrated once on The Honeymooners. So, whaddya say…would it kill you to at least slip in a little Hucklebuck action once in a while?

Yes. Here's another interpretation of "The Lambeth Walk"…

You're probably wondering to yourself, "What's next, Evanier?" A video of 'The Lambeth Walk' being performed in the British pavilion at the 1988 World Expo?" Yep…

Robert Weide, who's done fine work in the past with similar subjects, has produced a very long documentary on Woody Allen that runs in two parts this Sunday and Monday on most PBS stations. Some of the advance press says the whole thing runs four hours. Some say three-and-a-half. Either way, that's a lot of Woody.

>It's in their American Masters series but I didn't find it at first on my TiVo under "American Masters" where such programs usually reside. Instead, I found it under Woody Allen: American Masters and I set up to record it. It sounds like Weide had unprecedented access to all the people and source material you'd want if you were doing such a project.

Here's an article about it. And while we're at it, here's another article about it. And a video preview…

When I was a kid reading comic books, I learned the hard way never to send away for anything advertised in them. The one exception was the subscription ads in the Dell Comics. They actually sent you the comic books you were expecting plus a nice premium item. But all the other ones were a troubling lesson in caveat emptor with the emphasis on the caveat. There's a new book out that drives this point home and here's a preview…

I've been linking to audio files here of various recordings of "The Lambeth Walk." Hope some of you are enjoying them because I have a lot more coming.

Most were recorded around 1938. In 1939, a British experimental filmmaker named Len Lye edited several of them together and used them to make this short. I believe this is what some call a "scratch" movie meaning that the film didn't pass through a camera. Instead, its maker drew or scratched on the film itself to create the images. I tried making one of those on 8mm when I was a kid and it took me about three hours to make around four seconds of film and it looked lousy so I have naught but admiration for anyone who can do it at all, let alone this well…

And of course, no marathon of "The Lambeth Walk" would be complete without a performance by the Dutch Youth Musical Association, De Jonge Stem…