Category Archives: Video Links

This is kinda neat even if it is silent. It's footage of a Bob Hope Christmas Show performed on the USS Ticonderoga off the coast of Vietnam. It was shot by someone in the audience on December 29, 1965…45 years ago today. The troupe includes Kaye Stevens, Anita Bryant, Linda Battsa (Miss USA-World), Joey Heatherton, Carroll Baker, Jack Jones, Nicholas Brothers, Jerry Colonna and Peter Leeds. Peter is the guy in the blue shirt…a very fine human being and actor, who managed to work constantly in Hollywood for years without a lot of stardom. Hope often employed him when he needed a straight man or, in this case most likely, someone who could host and keep the show moving without upstaging the star.

Somehow though, I suspect the servicemen were more excited about Joey Heatherton.

There's no live audio but a makeshift music track has been skillfully added. Take a peek.

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello (with a little help from Shemp Howard) teach arithmetic…

My pal Earl Kress pointed this one out to me. It's another batch of openings from old TV shows — in this case, sitcoms that lasted one season or less. You will notice certain folks appearing in more than one of them. You'll also notice a few are outta-sync or truncated. That's Vin Scully voiceovering the main title of Occasional Wife, by the way. And whatever happened to Emmaline Henry?

Speaking of childrens' fantasy movies starring Oliver Hardy: Bob Elisberg reminds me that Turner Classic Movies is running The Wizard of Oz tomorrow evening…but not the one with Judy Garland and Ray Bolger. This is the 1925 silent version which starred Dorothy Dwan as Dorothy, Larry Semon as the Scarecrow and Oliver N. Hardy (that's how he was being billed then) as the Tin Woodsman. This was a year or so before Mr. Hardy teamed up with Mr. Laurel. Mr. Hardy was still playing roles — usually, villains — in Larry Semon comedies.

Larry Semon is largely forgotten today but there was a brief time when he was one of the most popular comedians in this country. He started as a cartoonist, segued into writing gags for silent comedies and then directing. Finally, he moved into performing and he did a run of successful two-reelers that fit what most people think silent comedies were like. They were all fast-paced and loaded with slapstick. Every thirty seconds, someone crashes through a wall, gets covered with food, gets knocked on his or her butt, gets hit with a sack of flour, falls into a mud bath or otherwise is messed-up or battered. Mud baths were a particular fetish of Semon's and another apparent obsession was the absence of dull moments.

It is said he was terrified of an audience being bored for even ten seconds so he crammed every film full of action. He would spend any amount to achieve his goals and as a result, he usually went wildly overbudget. His films grossed a lot of cash but cost so much that they went into the red. Rather than cut back on expensive gags, he moved into the (theoretically) more lucrative world of features and The Wizard of Oz was one attempt. It doesn't bear a vast amount of similarity to the book, perhaps because L. Frank Baum forgot to have his characters plunge into mud baths every few pages.

The movie was not successful. It was released by a small, fringe distributor that went bankrupt in the process. Semon tried a dramatic role in Josef von Sternberg's Underworld (1927), then went scurrying back to short comedies. He took ill and died about an hour before talkies arrived on the scene.

Still, his Wizard of Oz is a fascinating film. Yeah, he changed the story around a lot but so did the famous version. If you're a fan of the novel, this is an important piece of history. Should you yearn to see a more "typical" Larry Semon comedy, I've embedded one below. It's his 1922 two-reeler, The Sawmill. Mr. Semon and his oft-utilized stuntman play a clumsy employee and Mr. Hardy plays the bossy foreman. You may have to sit through a silly commercial to get to it…

Since you probably have nothing better to do today than watch a 77 minute movie in a little window on somebody's website: Here's the splendid 1934 holiday feature starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Upon its initial release, it was called Babes in Toyland and it was around two minutes longer than this print. Over the years, it was reissued and recut and renamed a half-dozen different names, including a major 1948 re-release that called it March of the Wooden Soldiers and changed its main title. Prints from that version later became ubiquitous on television so that name became the more common one. In the video below, you can see the edit in the opening when it cuts from the old titles to the newer one.

It is, by any name, a great movie. I posted the trailer and some background info here and then there's a lot more information in this item. Merry Today!

To anyone out there who is worried about gay rights threatening non-gay rights, take a moment and listen to Barney Frank. He is telling you the absolute truth here…

Another of our favorite Christmas videos…

I link to this every year because it's really cool…

Take five minutes and watch this piece with Swedish academic superstar Hans Rosling. In it, he illustrates something about global development over the last two hundred years that we all need to be aware of. Thanks to Will Ryan for the link…

Ah, this'll be fun to share with you. It's the opening titles (or in one case, I think the closing titles) to ten TV shows from the sixties of an adventure/crime nature. I don't remember any of these theme songs and only a few of the shows themselves. But I sure recognize a lot of names…like in the series written and directed by Garson Kanin with music by Dave Brubeck. Take a gander…

I've cut my late show TiVoing and viewing back to 2.5 shows: Conan, Craig Ferguson and the first half of Jay. I realized that I'd stopped watching The Tonight Show past the mid-break and since there was something else I wanted to record on another channel, I'm set to just get the first half of Leno each night. Unless there's a very special guest booked, I don't watch Dave, George, Carson or either Jimmy.

But the other night, Jimmy Fallon had on something that's worth watching. As you may know, composers often write "dummy lyrics" to a song just so they can remember or refine the melody, then they go back later and write (or have a lyricist write) the real lyrics. Fallon had Paul McCartney on and in what was of course a planned, agreed-upon moment, asked him to sing the dummy lyrics to "Yesterday." I believe the lyrics to "Scrambled Eggs" only ran a few lines so someone — probably not Sir Paul — extended them into an entire song. Funny moment…

Operating I guess on the assumption that no one in the movie business will die in the last three weeks of this year, Turner Classic Movies put together a tribute to those who died in the first 49. Despite its prematurity, it's quite a lovely bit of film assembly. The one they air on the Academy Awards will probably not be this classy nor will it include as many of the non-biggies…

41 songs you either never heard or heard and don't remember are eligible for the "Best Song" category in the 2010 Academy Awards. This press release lists them but you might be more interested in the rules that govern this particular award. They include…

To be eligible, a song must consist of words and music, both of which are original and written specifically for the film. A clearly audible, intelligible, substantive rendition of both lyric and melody must be used in the body of the film or as the first music cue in the end credits.

So does this mean a song under opening titles and credits is not eligible? If so, might that have something to do with the fact that almost no one does that kind of song anymore? Anyway, I was not aware that a song is not a song unless it has lyrics.

The "written specifically for the film" clause is why, incidentally, a stage musical transferred to the screen will often have a couple of new songs added. Either the composer wants a shot at winning an Oscar or the studio thinks it will help the box office if the film wins that award…or most likely, both. It's why they added "I Move On" to Chicago and why they added "Hopelessly Devoted to You" and a few others to Grease and why they added "You Must Love Me" to Evita and why they added "Surprise, Surprise" to A Chorus Line and why they added "Pet Me, Poppa" and "Adelaide" to Guys and Dolls and why they added "Mean Green Mother" to Little Shop of Horrors and why they added "Being in Love" to The Music Man and you get the idea. I think I read somewhere that before Dolly Parton agreed to appear in Best Little Whorehouse in Texas or Nine to Five, she insisted she be able to write at least one song for each so she'd have a crack at that Oscar.

What's interesting, of course, is that so few songs written for movies in the last few decades are familiar to us even if we've seen the films…and some songs we do know weren't even nominated. I'll bet more people know "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from Life of Brian (a film which received zero Oscar nominations) than that year's winner, "It Goes Like It Goes," which was from the movie, Norma Rae. Most of you also probably know — and some artists still record — two songs which were nominated that year but lost: "The Rainbow Connection" from The Muppet Movie and "Through the Eyes of Love" from Ice Castles.

At the Oscars the following year, Steve Lawrence and Sammy Davis sang a darn good medley of songs that were written for movies and which became part of American culture…but were not nominated. In fairness, a lot of these tunes were penned at a time when there were a lot of good songs in the cinema so they didn't necessarily go unnominated because no one recognized their appeal. Some years then, there were ten great songs but only five could be nominated. That has not been a problem in quite some time.

From Tuesday night's Colbert Report: Two Stephens, one named Sondheim.

It's always interesting to me how guests on this show deal with the position into which they allow themselves to be placed. Colbert is, of course, in total control.The guest really cannot drive or steer the conversation in any way. Instead, they have to play straight for what is largely a real-time improvisation with Colbert working in character. Before the interview, they are all basically told that Stephen is playing an idiot so they should sit there and disabuse him of his stupider ideas.They are either advised or seem to sense that they should never get hostile with him or (worse) try to top him. It simply cannot be done, especially since he has home court advantage and a studio audience that adores him.

If they follow instructions and play the game, they will nearly always come off looking good. I can't recall too many guests who didn't…and those were mostly self-inflicted wounds. Colbert may occasionally score some solid points against his more political guests but he always treats them like a gracious host. And sometimes, he's so in awe of a guest, even his character can't be too confrontational with them. Case in point…

The best show on Broadway — well, one of the best shows — is only performed twice a year. It's the annual Gypsy of the Year show done to raise moola for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, a most worthwhile charity. Its two performances are (usually) the first Monday and Tuesday of December and are performed in the late afternoon because many of the participants and audience members are in shows that perform those evenings, and the theater where the event is staged is usually hosting a current show. Pretty much everyone in the building is somehow involved in the theatrical community.

There are basically two components. Each current show on Broadway does a short sketch or song…often a parody of their show or someone else's but sometimes a serious presentation.Then at the end, awards are given out for the best offering but more importantly for the show that has raised the most money during the year for BC/EFA.

I have been to several of these and bought videos of others.They are tremendously entertaining.There's a lot of inside humor…inside for those inside the business.There's also a nice emphasis on the "gypsies" (chorus members) and supporting players. Often, the stars of a show will come in and play supporting roles to the folks who support them in the eight shows a week they all do together.

I missed this year's, which was held 12/6 and 12/7 at the New Amsterdam Theatre. It was hosted by Seth Rudetsky but also featured appearances by Bernadette Peters, Molly Shannon, Kristin Chenoweth, David Hyde Pierce, Sean Hayes and just about everyone else currently starring in anything in that neighborhood. Fortunately, we have a brief clip of some highlights here…

In the opening, you'll see a few moments of what was from all accounts a remarkable performance by Carol Channing, age 90. Good for her. Among the other clips, you'll also see a little salute to the tradition of the Gypsy Robe. If you don't know what the Gypsy Robe is all about, read this. Everything else should be self-explanatory. I'm sorry I wasn't there…