Maxine Marx, daughter of Chico, passed away in her sleep early Monday morning, September 14, at the age of 91. She was a lovely lady with a nice background in acting and in teaching acting. Maxine was always accommodating to the many Marx Brothers fans who sought her out for interviews and info, and an awful lot of them became fans of this charming woman. I spent an evening with her about twenty years ago and while she had many great stories of her father and uncles, it was more fun to hear her talk about her own life and the many talented friends she'd acquired. Folks just liked Maxine and her legacy includes a lot of actors who cherish her tutelage.

It's times like this I wish I had an extra $60,000 to throw about. That's the opening bid (at this hour, unoffered) in an online auction of Walker Edmiston's Beany & Cecil memorabilia.

The late Mr. Edmiston was a brilliant actor, voice performer and puppeteer and in the fifties, he spent some time puppeteering for Bob Clampett on Time for Beany and Thunderbolt the Wonder Colt. His estate (or someone) is selling off all the neat stuff he saved from those gigs, including actual hand puppets and set pieces. Wonderful stuff.

In other news, you can also own the Emmy Award that Fred deCordova won for producing The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. You can also bid on many of the original stop-motion figures built for George Pal's Puppetoon series…

There are many priceless TV artifacts over there, especially to please a Star Trek fan. Thanks to Phil De Croocq for letting me know about some of this.

Here's one of the most useless lists you'll ever come across: A list of fifty great places to eat a specific food item. Like, it's real handy for me to know that if I ever decide I want to try suckling pig — and I've somehow made it to age 57 without having such an urge — the place to go for it is the Montimar in Estellencs, Mallorca. I'm sure whoever designated that as the best suckling pig in the world has tried suckling pig in every other eatery that serves it. (Note that they also seem to love the suckling pig at the Lighthouse Restaurant in Cebu, Philippines. The two restaurants cannot both have the best suckling pig in the world. I sense a duel-to-the-death looming…)

I've been to exactly one of the restaurants listed here — Katz's Deli in New York where, the list says, one can get the best pastrami sandwich in the world. And when I have been to Katz's, I've always had brisket or corned beef which, by the way, were terrific.

So it's a useless list but an entertaining one. You can even fantasize about the perfect meal: Oysters as an appetizer from Strangfor Lough in Northern Ireland…then a "surf 'n' turf" composed of the steak at El Carpicho in Jimenez de Jamuz, Spain plus prawns from Casa Bigote in nearby Sanlucar de Barrameda, Spain. Add in the fried potatoes from the Bomba Bar Cova in Fumada, Barcelona and finish off your meal with chocolate cake from Pierre Hermé in Paris. Or if that's too much trouble, you can go grab an In-n-Out Burger, which is what I may do. Yum.

Just came across a photo I took at the same party where someone took that photo of me with Henry Gibson. Here are three men who played judges on Boston Legal — Henry, Shelley Berman and Chuck McCann. The gent at right is Richard Riordan, the former mayor of Los Angeles. This was taken at Gladstone's in Malibu, a seafood restaurant that Mayor Riordan owns. Henry lived in Malibu and he told us he hadn't been well lately and wouldn't have come if the party hadn't been so close to his home. This was taken on June 9.

This article claims — and I don't see anyone rushing to correct it — that as many as 45,000 people die each year in this country due to a lack of health insurance. I would think that number's low…and of course, it doesn't take into account people who have health insurance but it doesn't sufficiently cover the treatment they need. It also probably doesn't measure folks who don't directly die from not being insured but whose lives merely get wiped out by hospital bills.

I've had to post a lot of obits on this site for folks I know. I can think of several where I could have listed the cause of death as "couldn't afford to see a doctor." Seriously. If you want to know why I'm so militant on this topic, there you go.

Here's a link to some excerpts from what's being billed as the last in-depth interview of Larry Gelbart.

Note that in it Larry confirms that he never was a writer on Your Show of Shows. Sid Caesar had a succession of different TV series and Gelbart worked on the one Sid did after Your Show of Shows. It was called Caesar's Hour…but folks have a way of lumping all the Caesar programs together under the general umbrella of Your Show of Shows and often say that Larry (and Woody Allen and Sheldon Keller and Gary Belkin and a couple of others) worked on that series. Not so.

Also, here's a speech that Larry prepared and apparently never delivered anywhere.

Recently here, I posted an item about comic book dealer-historian Bob Beerbohm, who's having a big sale to raise money for a desperately-needed dual hip joint replacement.

Intersecting with a constant topic here, Bob is a classic example of the failings of our present health care system. He had health insurance but just when he reached the point where this surgery was mandatory — to alleviate constant pain and to keep him able to walk — his HMO dropped him. It was one of those "undisclosed prior condition" deals. If there's any humanity in Washington, we will soon see the day when human beings will not be in this horrible situation…but that will not help Bob. He needs money now.

He was originally going to have the surgery next week but his doctors have delayed it for two weeks. This is fortunate for Bob because to get the "deal" he's going to get on the procedure (a substantial discount from what it usually costs), he has to pay cash up front…and he doesn't quite have all the money. So this would be a great time to go to this page or this page and find some treasure to purchase. You'll get a bargain and you'll be doing a good deed at the same time.

John Wells was elected president of the Writers Guild of America, West. He received 1,191 votes and his opponent, Elias Davis, received 1,066. The more significant number may be that 2,348 ballots were cast, which is high for a WGA election. Member involvement is a big issue and that number suggests a high level of member involvement.

I voted for Elias but as I said here, I don't think John will do a bad job. The outcome does not surprise me. The main thing Elias did wrong was picking up the endorsement of Larry Gelbart. Larry was a brilliant writer and a dear man but I can't recall him ever backing a winner in a WGA election.

Tom Schulman was elected vice-president and David N. Weiss will be secretary-treasurer. Elected to the Board of Directors were Patric M. Verrone, Howard A. Rodman, Dan Wilcox, Linda Burstyn, Billy Ray, Steven Schwartz, Chip Johannessen, Carleton Eastlake and Ian Deitchman. Full details are here.

Today is the mumble mumble birthday of the First Lady of Cartoon Voicing, the legendary June Foray! I just got off the phone with her and it's amazing. The woman can still sound like a ten-year-old boy. Maybe that's what keeps her working and thriving and just persevering.

We love June dearly — and by "we," I mean everyone who ever loved animation and Rocky & Bullwinkle and funny records and memorable commercials and Tweety's owner Granny and…well, the list is very long. Helping her with her autobiography, Earl Kress and I were continually amazed at how much she's done. We knew it was a huge body of work and we thought we knew all of it. But even we were stunned, and not just at the quantity. The quality is also amazing, as is the span. Do you realize she started doing Rocky the Flying Squirrel fifty years ago? That's half a bloomin' century!

So a Happy June Foray Day to you all…but especially to June Foray. Just the best.

I don't pretend to understand all the math of the Max Baucus health care draft…but jeez. So far, all the movers 'n' shakers in this debate who strike me as really caring about fixing the problem loathe it. It would help some folks but not all and its monetary projections are utterly unrealistic and some people would be a lot worse off and the only thing it would seem to have going for it is that some Republicans could get behind it, but of course the only one who will is Olympia Snowe and even she's not guaranteed. Most of all, it seems to come from that mindset that the only way to fix health care in this country is to make sure the insurance companies make even more money off a good system than they do off a bad one.

I have nothing against corporate profits. The heart of this nation's economy depends on businesses being able to amass moola. But when human lives are concerned, couldn't that be close to an equal consideration? It doesn't even have to be more vital than making sure some corporations have their best year ever. Couldn't it just be, you know, almost as important?