Just consider this. One day back in the sixties, someone was put in charge of producing a TV commercial that would urge people with Arthritis not to squander their money on quack "cures." That's a noble endeavor, making something like that and if you'd been in that position, you might have gone looking for some celebrities to appear in this commercial. And who better to carry that message to America than…the Three Stooges!?
Attention, C-Span: It's lovely that you've redesigned your website but your video clips still won't play on most browsers. They're mostly RTSP links and most browsers are specifically designed to exclude them, plus they're also in RealPlayer format, which is becoming increasingly obsolete with all the FLV video clips available on YouTube, Google Video and any other site that offers a lot of video. I can download your clips because of a special piece of software I have but I'll bet most people can't download 'em and can't watch them online. If your goal is to send everyone elsewhere, you're doing a fine job.
That's another photo of Lydia, the animal formerly known as The Kitten. Want to know what's special about it? I took it in my backyard about twenty minutes ago. Lydia is home from the vet and back in her natural habitat. She seems a bit skinnier — and not just because she's no longer preggo — but in pretty good shape. I had assumed it might be several days before she got back in her regular routines…if she ever got back to them. But ten minutes after I released her from the cage, she was back in her old favorite location: Right outside the patio door, waiting for me to come out and pet her and feed her. Which I did.
I spoke today to my actor friend — the one who fielded my initial call about what to do about the feral one in my yard. He rattled off some statistics that I didn't catch but the exact numbers don't matter. The quick summary is that a staggering number of cats (more than you imagine) are put to death each week in this country because no one will adopt them, no one will feed them, no one will take them in…and to let them roam free and unspayed is to just ask for more.
One of the many "stray" experts I spoke to the other day said the following; that while it was commendable that Bob Barker spread the word to "spay or neuter your pet," that counsel was missing the bigger problem, which are cats and dogs that are nobody's pet. A pet cat that is kept indoors is not as likely to have kittens as a stray roaming through yards and living under houses. The kittens of a pet cat are more likely to be cared for and adopted than the offspring of a feral feline. More people need to take care of critters like Lydia.
It's another Fred Kaplan article, this one about how John McCain seems to be deferring to General Petraeus on an important matter that he oughta be handling himself.
The New York Times has a nice piece up about Joe Simon. Joe is one of the folks I'm looking forward to seeing this weekend at the New York Comic Con. In fact, he'll be signing with me from 1 PM to 2 PM on Saturday at the Harry N. Abrams booth, Harry N. Abrams being the company that published my book on Joe's longtime partner, Jack Kirby. It's booth #1825 if you want to come by and meet the iconic Mr. Simon.
I'll be there all three days. This message I posted last week is still accurate as a "where I'll be and when" guide. As if you care where I'll be or when.
A great thing about blogging: You ask questions, you get answers. My old pal Bruce Simon assures me that the clip of John Daly and Harpo was indeed from The Today Show — or as it was sometimes called then, The Dave Garroway Today Show. Bruce has the longer clip and, says he, it has identifying bumpers. He notes that Daly left ABC in 1960 over a flap about ABC News procuring documentaries from outside the news division. He was replaced by Eisenhower's former press secretary, Jim Haggerty.
Meanwhile, Jason Togyer got curious about the clip and here's what he sent me…
A little dinking around with an online newspaper database turns up a Nov. 17, 1960 Washington Post story, "John Daly Quits ABC In Dispute Over Policy." Daly was then ABC vice president in charge of news, special events and public affairs. His resignation was over a decision by ABC to contract production of four documentaries out to Time-Life. The same story noted that Daly "would continue in his role as host of CBS-TV's What's My Line?"
A story in the May 4, 1961 Los Angeles Times ("Daly by Dawn's Early Light") notes that John Charles Daly was asked to fill in for Dave Garroway as host of NBC's Today for several weeks after the death of Garroway's wife, Pamela. Incidentally, the Harpo Marx interview was taped Tuesday, May 2, for broadcast on May 3.
A July 6, 1961 Washington Post story ("Chancellor Inherits Vexing Problems of Today") reports that John Chancellor had been named permanent host of Today to replace Garroway, who had resigned. The same story mentions that "there have been reports that John Charles Daly was certain to get the job."
Too much information? Probably. But I thought if anyone would care, you would. Well, and possibly Lydia.
Lydia doesn't care about that stuff. No one does except you, me and Bruce Simon.
John Daly occupied an odd position in the annals of television. It wasn't so much an issue in radio but once television news was established, its most prominent practitioners had to wrestle with that capricious dividing line between News and Entertainment. They all had their occasional forays into the latter category, hosting game shows and celebrity-laden talk shows and even playing themselves in movies and sitcoms. They all had moments when they asserted that they were Journalists (with a capital "J") and not entertainers…but there was always more money, fame and probably fun to be the latter. Daly's career arc seems to define the way the industry came to grips with that distinction as he incrementally — and quite deliberately, it would seem — blurred the line.
Anyway, thanks to Jason and Bruce for humoring my curiosity.
Here's a clip of John Daly interviewing Harpo Marx, who's promoting his autobiography, Harpo Speaks. This is supposed to be from The Today Show for May 3, 1961 but I wonder if it really is. Mr. Daly hosted What's My Line? on CBS and throughout the late fifties, was otherwise employed as one of ABC's star newsmen. So what would he have been doing hosting the morning show on NBC in 1961?
It's possible, of course. But the full, longer clip is making the rounds of film collectors and I wonder if anything in it confirms that it's from The Today Show. In any case, here's a little more than a minute of it. Always nice to see a little Harpo…
An interview with me about working on The Spirit, following distantly and humbly in the large footsteps of Will Eisner.
Floyd Norman has some nice words (and photos) up about Ollie Johnston. For that matter, there are several short posts on Floyd's blog that are worth browsing. Go read 'em all.
Meanwhile, Cartoon Brew has thoughts about Ollie from Brad Bird and John Canemaker, as well as a good obit released by the Disney Studio.
Reading this news article, the following sentence kinda leaped off the screen at me…
While the pope and Bush differ on such major issues on the Iraq war, capital punishment and the U.S. embargo against Cuba, they do find common ground in opposing abortion, gay marriage and embryonic stem cell research.
"I haven't seen a word about Lydia on your site in days, Mark, and I'm worried. Please, please reassure me she is all right. I have come to care about that little cat in a way I do not care about some members of my own family." So writes Jennifer Wahl, whose e-mail was but one of many that's shown up in my e-mailbox the last day or so. Here, as they say, is the latest…
I just spoke to the vet's office and they say Lydia is resting comfortably after the surgery, which was performed last evening. She is already eating which, they say, is an excellent sign. She was pregnant. She is no longer pregnant, nor can she get that way again. She has had all her shots and is now in fine shape, but I'm going to board her there for another day of post-op, just in case, and also because I'm too busy to get out there and pick her up today. Tomorrow, I will bring her home and return her to a backyard which has not seemed the same without her. My house sitter will pay special attention to her while I'm away in the wilds of Manhattan.
And that, pretty much, is that. We can now turn our attention to getting certain members of Jennifer Wahl's family spayed so perhaps she can care a little about them.
Thanks again to all who have sent suggestions, encouragements and especially donations. I didn't start telling this story so you folks would pay the cost of fixing Lydia but that's how it turned out.
As I've mentioned here elsewhere, I used to like to go hang out on Stage 1 at NBC Burbank when a certain Mr. Carson was doing this thing he used to do called The Tonight Show. There was a little area of standing room right behind where Fred DeCordova and the other producers and staff members sat or congregated during the taping, about two yards from the edge of the guest couch. If you looked even vaguely like you belonged on the lot, and if Johnny hadn't had a bevy of recent death threats, you could loiter there during the taping and enjoy the proceedings. I probably watched all or part of a dozen Carson shows from there and there was a true feeling of magic in the room.
I was there when this clip was taped, and it's a shame the camera wasn't on Mr. Carson because I have never seen a human being laugh so hard in my life. Everyone was convulsed with laughter but Johnny looked like he was going to need paramedics to come in and give him oxygen.
The comedian is Charlie Callas, who I can't recall seeing on TV the last few years, not even on the Jerry Lewis Telethon, where he was once a regular. His website has not been updated in four or five years but his Internet Movie Database listing says he was in a Larry the Cable Guy special in '07 and that he's in a horror movie spoof currently in production.
Right after Callas did this bit on Johnny's show and they went to commercial, Carson told him how hilarious he thought it was. At that moment, Exec Producer Fred DeCordova hurried up to the desk and informed Johnny that NBC Standards and Practices was "concerned" about the routine and wanted to discuss perhaps editing the tape or doing an audience cutaway during parts of it. From where I stood, you could see steam emanating from Johnny's ears and he said, very firmly, that it was staying in and there would be no cutaways and that, by God, was that. End of discussion. DeCordova, fulfilling his role as Good Cop, returned to our area and told a worried-looking lady, "I tried." The Standards folks at NBC were occasionally able to overrule Johnny but I gather that this was one of many times they decided the battle wasn't worth the headache.
Here's one very funny minute of Charlie Callas…
If I understand the deal correctly, The New Yorker is inviting a different cartoonist to blog for a month at a time on the magazine's website. The current cartoonist is one of my favorites, Charlie Barsotti. When, oh when will someone put together a collection of a brilliant newspaper strip he did for around four years called Sally Bananas?
You know, I'm not sure if Barack Obama is looking better and better to me or if Hillary Clinton is just looking worse and worse. Feels like the latter.
Once upon a time, Mr. Disney nicknamed nine of his best animators "The Nine Old Men." They were kind of like the Yankees of great character animation but they were, alas, old. Their names were Les Clark, Wolfgang Reitherman, John Lounsbery, Marc Davis, Milt Kahl, Eric Larson, Ward Kimball, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston.
Their animation will live forever but sadly, they couldn't. One day, there were only Eight Old Man. Then Seven. Then Six and so on. I was fortunate to meet the last three at a gathering in December of 2001. All of us present that night felt fortunate…and quite aware that these were men to be treasured and honored for as long as they could remain for us to treasure and honor.
Then there were two. Frank died in September of '04 and now Ollie's left us. We mourn not only his passing but the loss of that kind of wonderful, magical artist.
Jim Hill has a nice remembrance…the first of many I'm sure we'll see on the Internet in the coming days.