Category Archives: Video Links

From a 1981 episode of The Lawrence Welk Show, dancers Elaine Balden and Bobby Burgess show us how to get down and funky. Thanks to Marvin Silbermintz for telling me about this.

Your favorite video clip of the week: A violin duet from Gisele MacKenzie and Jack Benny…

Once upon a time, there were Bozo the Clowns all over the country. Entrepreneur Larry Harmon franchised the show and in each of several cities, a TV station would hire its own local Bozo and then Harmon would supply scripts and costumes and Bozo cartoons to show. This clip is from the Boston version which ran on WHDH from 1959-1970. That's a man named Frank Avruch in the clown suit but of greater interest is the guy in the lion suit who draws cartoons about two-thirds of the way through this montage of scenes. His name then was Ed Spinney but he's now better known as Caroll Spinney, the man inside or under Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch.

Ten questions with Woody Allen…

Here we have the last ten minutes of Game 1 of the 1988 World Series — Dodgers against the Oakland Athletics. It's the bottom of the ninth.Two outs.The Athletics have a one-run lead, 4-3.

Dennis Eckersley is pitching…one out away from victory. Dodger Mike Davis is at the plate as this clip starts and as you'll see, he gets a walk. But that's no big deal to Eckersley and there may even have been something slightly intentional about it…because in the on-deck circle, obviously there to pinch-hit for the pitcher, he sees Dave Anderson…not a powerhouse hitter. After Davis walks though, it isn't Anderson who comes to the plate.

Kirk Gibson, who was a powerhouse hitter, wasn't going to play that night. He'd been in the clubhouse undergoing physical therapy for some recent leg injuries as he watched the game on TV. When he heard sportscaster Vin Scully note his absence from the dugout, he called that dugout and told manager Tommy Lasorda that he was ready to play if needed. Lasorda had him suit up and take some batting practice. And then after Davis took first, Eckersley and the crowd were stunned to see Gibson limping (literally) up to bat.

Let's go to the videotape and our man Vin Scully in the booth with, I think, Joe Garagiola…

You may have seen this video already but just in case…

It's the group OK Go with their incredible Rube Goldberg concoction. This article claims the video was shot in one single take with no editing or camera/computer magic. I'm not sure anyone believes that but, hey, it's amazing even if there was trickery.

Take a look. And you might want to go full screen on this one…

This is a 1963 sales film for Ideal Toys — something they threw together to show toy stores the products they'd be hawking in the coming year, I suppose. I don't think these are all final versions of the commercials for those toys but rather temporary versions thrown together for this presentation. There are two spots in here for Dick Tracy merchandise and they feature better animation than was then being done for the Dick Tracy cartoon series. (That's Everett Sloane as the voice of Dick Tracy, Benny Rubin as Joe Jitsu and Paul Frees as Go-Go Gomez. On the series, Señor Gomez was sometimes voiced by Frees, sometimes by Mel Blanc.)

What strikes me about all these commercials — this runs a little under eight minutes, by the way — is that I don't want any of these toys and didn't when I was 11, as I was when this film was made. The Mouse Trap Game looks like it might have been fun to play…once. Other than that, there's something kinda condescending about the toys and the way they're being sold…

A revival of Promises, Promises has just opened on Broadway to (generally) not great reviews. It stars Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth.The show interpolates a couple of other Bacharach-David hits, which is a good idea, and of course the choreography has to get more elaborate and physical as is today the norm. The Addams Family seems to be doing brisk business in spite of bad reviews so maybe this one will run a while.

I always kinda liked the show and have long been intrigued with how it reportedly came about. Neil Simon had become the hottest playwright on Broadway. David Merrick was the most prolific producer of plays and wanted to be in business with Simon. He invited Simon to lunch and asked him if he had any ideas for new musicals. Simon said no, he never had ideas for musicals, only plays. He only did musicals, he said, because people came to him with properties and said, "Wouldn't you like to adapt this into a musical?"

Merrick said, "Well, is there a play or movie that you wish someone would offer you to turn into a musical?" Simon, the man who never had ideas for musicals, said, "Yes, Billy Wilder's movie, The Apartment."

Merrick said, "And do you have any thoughts about what composer could write the score for a musical based on Billy Wilder's movie, The Apartment?" Simon said, "Well, you know, I've been thinking that Burt Bacharach and Hal David, who've had all those pop hits, could write a great, contemporary-feeling Broadway musical."

Merrick said, "And if we did do a musical of Billy Wilder's movie, The Apartment, with Burt Bacharach and Hal David doing the score, do you have any ideas who could direct it?" Simon said, "I recently saw an off-Broadway play directed by Robert Moore and I was thinking he should be directing musicals for Broadway."

Merrick said, "Fine," and eight months later, Promises, Promises opened on Broadway with a book by Neil Simon based on Billy Wilder's movie, The Apartment, and with a score by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and direction by Robert Moore.That's how a Broadway musical comes to be even though someone like Neil Simon doesn't have an idea for one.

Here are some snippets from the revival…

And here are the two stars singing a little of one song and showing that neither knows how to play a guitar…

Want to know the core of the Goldman Sachs problem? It's right here in this video, which shows four and a half minutes from the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Investigations hearing this morning. I assume you'll be seeing this a lot on the news, bleeped or otherwise…

This is the first four minutes of an episode of Hullabaloo from September of 1965.The hosts are Jerry Lewis and his son Gary…and by God, it's thrilling to finally hear one of the Beatles' songs sung properly. If you've never heard the definitive version of "Help!," it's about time. You may especially enjoy the fact that Jerry seems to have learned the number about six minutes before they taped and barely takes his eyes off the cue cards the entire time.

Let's see what else there is of interest to mention. Hullabaloo had previously taped in New York and this was the first one done out here at NBC Burbank, which they always lie and claim is "Hollywood." A pre-Laugh-In Goldie Hawn is reportedly visible as a dancer on this episode, though not in this clip. One of the dancers who is seen is a lady on whom I (and 32% of all males in America) briefly had what you might politely call a crush. Hey, I was thirteen at the time and lusting after every woman on television younger than Frances Bavier. In later years, I got to meet most of my teen-year crushes, though I never got to meet this particular Hullabaloo dancer. I did, however, find out that she'd had a brief-but-torrid affair with one of my favorite comic book artists — no, not Jack Kirby — and that somehow made up for my never getting to see her in person.

That's about it, except I have to thank Shelly Goldstein for finding this clip. Shelly is a devout Beatles fan and expert, and she probably can't believe that someone got a Lennon and McCartney song right…

So Victor Huang was free diving (not scuba diving) near the Wahine Memorial in Wellington, New Zealand. He was using a brand new Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT2 to shoot video when suddenly, an octopus grabbed it out of his hands and took off with it…with the camera still running. After a five minute chase, he caught up with the octopus and got it back. As you can see, the octopus could have a very good career as a cinematographer for rock videos…

As we noted here a month or so ago, the Henry Miller's Theater in New York is being renamed the Stephen Sondheim Theater. Apparently, this was arranged without the knowledge or permission of Mr. Sondheim. He found out about it on his 80th birthday, March 22, when he appeared onstage for a celebration at the new Broadway production, Sondheim on Sondheim. Here are the curtain calls from that evening, following by everyone singing Mr. Sondheim a song he probably wishes he'd written, followed by the announcement. He seems genuinely overwhelmed at the news.The two men breaking the news are his frequent collaborators, James Lapine and John Weidman…

Voice legend Allen Swift passed away last weekend but so far, I haven't seen an obit in any major news source. I'm sure they're coming…but in the meantime, Barry Mitchell has assembled a video of some of Swift's work on the Howdy Doody show. As I noted here, Swift joined the cast when several of the actors were hired and he used his gift for mimickry to give new voices to various denizens of Doodyville — for a time, most of the important males except for Howdy. The show's star, "Buffalo" Bob Smith voiced Howdy…but then Smith had a heart attack and Swift took over that job. The producers were so happy with how he did it that when Buffalo Bob returned to the show, Swift continued to speak for Howdy. Here's a sample, along with Swift doing an on-camera role…

Last year, my partner Sergio went to Georgia to give a cartooning demonstration. A gentleman down there filed this report…

The main thing that's kept me from this blog the last few days has been a sudden crunch on The Garfield Show, for which I wear many hats. One is Voice Director, which is an easy job since we have a cast of amazing skill.The last two days, I've "directed" (i.e., handed scripts to) Frank Welker, Gregg Berger, Wally Wingert, Jason Marsden, Julie Payne, Laura Summer and Laraine Newman. It is Mr. Marsden who is responsible for the fascinating video that follows.

On February 17, the son of Jason and Christy Marsden was born…fifteen weeks before he was due. Clark Otis Marsden weighed in at one pound, ten ounces. I have shoes that weigh more than that. At last report, he was doing well, gaining an ounce here, an ounce there.The news is all good.

Jason has been chronicling the entire story in this weblog which he started the day Christy's water broke. He's also making wonderful videos, the first of which is below.Take the eight minutes and enjoy some inspiring imagery. Click on the icon that will enable you to watch the video larger or even full-screen…