In 1959, the Kenner Toy Company of Cincinnati, Ohio introduced its Give-A-Show Projector. What this basically was was a flashlight that looked a little like a projector and which came with little six-frame filmstrips that told stories, mainly featuring licensed cartoon characters. More primitive, it couldn't have been…but in the pre-VCR days, it was kind of impressive. That is, if you were young enough. I probably got mine around '60 or '61. I would have wanted one anyway but the fact that some sets featured Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear was an added incentive.
Unfortunately, like a lot of toys with a great premise, the Give-A-Show Projector had limited fun. Each one came with around 32 of the flimsy little filmstrips and once you'd shown them all to your friends, that was it. They gave you some blank strips on which you could draw your own but that didn't work so well. Still, it was fun for a couple of days.
Looking back now, it looks so primitive…and actually it did, not long after I gave up on mine. I began collecting and running 8mm silent movies of Abbott & Costello, Laurel & Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, etc. Once I was into that, the Kenner Give-A-Show didn't seem so impressive. Now, it all seems positively prehistoric…and it makes you wonder what, a decade or two from now, will make our TiVos and LCD screens and Blu-ray players seem like one step above making hand shadows.
For more into on the Kenner Give-A-Show Projector, take a look at Jon's Random Acts of Geekery. I especially like the fact that over the years, the Kenner folks made the box look more modern and made the projector look a little more space-age…but the toy itself remained a technological no-brainer — a flashlight and some flimsy filmstrips.
Mel Blanc and Jack Benny guest with Johnny Carson. I think the date on this is January 23, 1974 and it was one of Benny's last TV appearances. He passed away the day after Christmas of that year.
The thing that's most interesting about this clip is what an enormous fan Mr. Benny was of Mr. Blanc. Benny was apparently that way with everyone — a wonderful audience and utterly unthreatened by someone else getting the laughs or the spotlight. That was one of the reasons his radio and TV programs worked as well as they did: He was willing to let Dennis Day get the laugh or to let Don Wilson get the laugh or to let Rochester get the laugh, etc. As long as somebody got a laugh, Benny was fine with it.
There have been a lot of great comedians who wouldn't do that because they thought — wrongly — that their career hinged on them being the funny one. And not even the example of Jack Benny would dissuade them from that belief. There have also been some comedians who for emotional reasons couldn't stand still while someone else was funny.
But Jack Benny could and did…and no one was more successful. Click and see.
Today's episode of the comic strip Funky Winkerbean (you can view it here) featured a Superman-Supergirl spoof drawn by Jim Mooney, the man who drew Supergirl's strip in Action Comics from 1959 to 1968. Jim, as we noted here, passed away on March 30.
A few days ago, Tom Batiuk — the creator of Funky — issued the following statement…
I was saddened to hear about Jim Mooney's passing. About a year ago, Tony Isabella wrote a sweet little Funky Winkerbean Sunday featuring my characters as Superman and Supergirl. He suggested I contact Jim to actually draw the Superman characters. I did and found him to be one of the nicest and genuine individuals you'd want to encounter. He agreed to do the Sunday and did a wonderful job. The strip will run Sunday April 13th and quite possibly could be Jim's last published work. If so, I feel privileged to have been a small part of it.
It probably was his final work. Nice to note that it was seen by perhaps the largest readership Jim's work ever had, and that it reunited him (more or less) with one of his most famous characters.
Finally, a "top ten" list about something that's really and truly important…The Top Ten Underappreciated Cuts of Meat. Personally, if I were Ribeye, I'd demand a recount.
It's not as true as it used to be but when I broke into TV writing, comedy writers always came in pairs. If one aspiring comedy writer went to almost anyone for advice, he or she was told, "Find a partner." There were exceptions but not many and I was not among them. My co-conspirator for a couple of years was a clever gent from Pittsburgh named Dennis Palumbo. We worked well together for a while, then we decided to see if we could work well in separate directions…and I'm happy to say we've remained friends.
On his own, Dennis went off and wrote other shows and novels and movies. My Favorite Year is probably his best-known work in those categories but a lot of folks also know him from another career he embarked on after we parted ways. Dennis is an oft-quoted psychotherapist who specializes in show business folks and in the special problems of writers. He has written books and articles on those subjects, and he often lectures…plus, of course, he spends all day at his office in the valley, offering advice and aid to people in need of advice and aid. From what I can tell from afar, he has a pretty good success record in that field, as well.
He has so many patients that we've spent the last few years trying to find a free lunch hour on his schedule so we could see each other again. Recently, someone cancelled and we were able to get together…and at that meal, he presented me with an advance copy of his new book, From Crime to Crime. It's a collection of short, brain-stretching mystery stories that manage to echo the classic traditions of that genre while still being fresh, modern and witty. I have been known to finish a whodunnit by flinging it across the room if the author has cheated or otherwise led us, the readers, down a primrose path. Having finished Dennis's book, I'm delighted to report that it was totally unflung. In fact, it's a nice demonstration of how this kinda thing oughta be written.
You can pre-order a copy of it here. You can also read Dennis's new weblog over here. I suggest you do both. He's a good storyteller and unlike some, he really understands what it means to be a professional writer.
I want to thank the 200+ of you who sent in suggestions about how to trap The Kitten and/or messages of interest and concern. At one point when it was looking hopeless and I momentarily thought of giving up, I was emboldened by the thought, "No, no…I have a story going on the weblog. It needs a better ending than me throwing in the towel."
I would also like to thank several of you who surprised me with donations to help pay for The Kitten's spaying and the cost of the trap and such. If anyone else would like to surprise me, here's the donation link. I thank you and Lydia thanks you.
Actually, Lydia can't thank you in person because she's still sitting in a cage out at the vet's office awaiting surgery. As we all know, there is a health care crisis in this country and it apparently extends to the neutering of feral cats. The vet had an emergency yesterday and couldn't get around to her then. I'm assured she'll be going under the knife later today and that I'll probably be bringing her home tomorrow. Also, she can't thank you because she's a cat and she doesn't have Internet access.
This is another one of those playlist embeds where the little window plays part one of a multi-part video and then it plays part two and part three and so on. This one runs about 47 minutes but you may find it worth that much of your life.
The original production of A Chorus Line closed on Broadway in April of 1990. Shortly before then, Phil Donahue somehow got members of the original cast to come on his show, talk about their experiences and perform a couple of numbers from it. Here's an amazing bit of theatrical history…
It doesn't seem to be getting much attention in the news but the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes is negotiating a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The old contract doesn't expire for another 16 months but a new deal with the I.A. is just a formality so they might as well get it out of the way early. There will be minor adjustments and the I.A. will get some sort of token payment for New Media — a benefit of the WGA strike that I.A. leadership decried.
Bargaining was expected to be concluded a few days ago but they've run into a complication. There's a new law on the books called The Pension Protection Act, and the union's pension plan has to be recalibrated to fit. It should all be worked out soon. In the meantime, the AMPTP is scheduled to open negotiations with SAG and then AFTRA, so the IA negotiations may not resume for a while.
The more I think about it, the less I think I can predict what will happen with SAG and AFTRA. The bifurcation of that bargaining unit (as explained here) is such a wild card that almost any outcome could result. I don't think I'd wager any money on it being good for actors, however…especially not good for them in the long run.
Hey, let me tell you about Michael Hoey. Michael Hoey is one of those people who've done just about everything a person can do in show business. His father, Dennis Hoey, was a great character actor best known for his recurring role in the Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone. Michael grew up in the entertainment industry and had a special vantage point to understand Hollywood and how it has changed over the years. He especially has wise perceptions and great anecdotes about powerful folks including Jack L. Warner, Darryl Zanuck, Walt Disney, George Cukor, Elvis Presley, John Ford, Mel Brooks, Charlton Heston, Jimmy Cagney, Angela Lansbury and Robert Blake. In high school, he had a band with Mr. Blake.
Michael has written an engrossing memoir that chronicles his life and career, his interactions and observations with folks like the above, and his stormy (at times) relationship with his father. He recently gave me a copy and I expected to like it because I've always enjoyed talking with him, but I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. The man has worked as a film editor, a director, a producer and a writer. (In the photo above, Michael's the guy on the left, going over the script he wrote for Live a Little, Love a Little with its star, Elvis Presley. Hoey worked on a half-dozen Elvis movies and the behind-the-camera stories from those jobs are worth the price of admission, all by themselves.)
What really impressed me about the book was the same thing that always impressed me about Michael. He's a very smart man with a grounded-in-reality outlook on a field that often veers wildly from sanity and realism. He writes about Elvis, for instance, with a passionate but rational perspective that one does not see in much writing about the man. He writes about everything that way.
The book is called Elvis, Sherlock and Me (How I Survived Growing Up In Hollywood), and you can order a copy from this page. I suggest you do this.
Well, I feel a lot better about the whole thing this morning. As you may recall, I caught The Kitten in the trap last night about eight. I moved it and her into the garage and she was about as uncomfortable as you'd be if I crammed you into one of those little cages. I soon discovered that she was relatively calm and accepting if she couldn't see anything or anyone. If I had the towel over the cage and the lights out, she was serene and quiet. If she saw me coming in to check on her, she began howling. So I stopped going out to check on her.
This morning, I confirmed with the vet that they could take her today and then I went out to the garage. She was peaceful until she saw me and then began howling. (By the way: Remember I said I put a piece of cardboard down on the floor of the trap? Well, she'd gnawed and clawed it into confetti. It looked like Rip Taylor had gotten into the cage with her and done his act. Talk about cruelty to animals…)
I covered the back seat of my car with newspaper and towels, then placed the trap with her in it on top of all that. I was expecting her to yell and meow all the way to the vet's but once I covered the cage, she quieted down and I didn't hear a peep out of her the entire journey; not until I took the trap out of the car at the vet's office.
She should be ready to come home tomorrow, and they say I should keep her in the trap in the garage for a day or two before returning her to the wilds of my backyard.
While I was filling out forms at the veterinarian's office, I came to the place where I had to fill in the name of the patient. It seemed insensitive or wrong somehow to write down "The Kitten" so I pulled a moniker out of thin air…or more likely, a song Groucho used to sing. Henceforth, The Kitten shall be known as Lydia. That's what I'm going to call her in the future whenever I speak to her. Whether she'll be speaking to me remains to be seen.
I'm a 30+ year member of The Magic Castle in Hollywood…and before I go any further, do me a favor. Please don't write and ask me for passes. I know you have a once-in-a-lifetime event or a dying relative whose last wish is to go to The Magic Castle and I'm your only hope. But I once gave a pass to a stranger who embarrassed me up there so I don't do that anymore.
Now, then: One evening in the early eighties, I took a group of my fellow comic book writers up there for an evening. Steve Gerber was in the group and Marv Wolfman and maybe Len Wein and some others. At the Castle, you wander from showroom to showroom seeing different magicians, and we all went into the Close-Up Gallery to see a performer named Richard Turner.
Richard Turner bills himself not as a magician but as a "card mechanic." He can fix a card game the way a good automotive mechanic can fix your Honda Civic. He can shuffle the deck, let you cut it, and he can then deal you whatever hand he wants to put in front of you without you being any the wiser. Before I go any further, let me give you a short (40 second) demonstration of what this man can do…
Pretty amazing, huh? Here's the kicker: Richard Turner is blind. Not totally blind but legally blind.
Watch the video again. He doesn't even look at the cards. It wouldn't matter. He can't see them. But after handling cards constantly all day for 40-some-odd years (he has a three-pack-a-day habit), he's developed an extraordinary touch. It is not magic. He just has these amazing hands. One demonstration of many he did that night was to have someone place either a deuce or a face card in his hand and he'd tell them which it was.
How? Simplest thing in the world. The face card has more ink on it so it weighs more. Can't you feel the difference when you pick up a card?
That night at the Castle, we were all astounded at what he did and simultaneously, we all came to the same realization: We had found Daredevil. In the comic book, blind Matt Murdock has developed his sense of touch, among others, until it can do the impossible. He also developed his physical strength and agility…and Richard's done that, too. He's a black belt karate champ. Almost everyone in our party had written Daredevil at one time or another (I'd just written a TV pilot of him for Marvel) and we were all agog at the parallels.
At the time, I was a writer for a TV show called That's Incredible! Right after Turner's demonstration, I went up to him and asked if he'd like to do that act on national television. He said yes and a few weeks later, he did. It was a very popular segment and I especially enjoyed the show's technicians in the editing room, playing and replaying the video we shot of Turner doing false shuffles, dealing from the middle of the deck or dealing the second card and making it look like the top one, etc. You couldn't catch him cheating. If you'd been in a game with him, he'd have had your wallet, socks and undies in ten seconds.
Richard works mostly in and around the San Antonio area but he also tours and if he's ever performing near you, run and get a front row seat. Also, if you're interested in learning about how to cheat at cards, he has a set of videos you can purchase through his website that you'll want.
Lastly, here's a little promotional film (nine and a half minutes) about Richard…and it even includes a few seconds of his appearance on That's Incredible! And that's all I have to say about him. I just wanted you to know about the guy and to insert into the collective wisdom that is the Internet, just what I think of him. I think he's the most amazing handler of cards I've ever seen.
So I set the trap again around a little before sundown, baiting it with some steamed cod I got yesterday from my favorite Chinese restaurant. I cut a piece of cardboard to line part of the floor so The Kitten wouldn't have to walk on grating when she ventured inside to get the cod. And then I covered most of the trap with a towel and left it there on the back porch where I usually feed The Kitten and many other critters.
I ran down every twenty minutes or so to check on the trap, as I've been doing since I started this hunt last Saturday. This evening, The Kitten was wandering around, occasionally sniffing the outside of the trap, just as she's been doing all week. Occasionally, another neighborhood cat — including the one I caught last night and the one I caught a few days ago — were hovering nearby and I chased them off. Around 7:45 when I checked, that was the situation. A little after eight, I went down and found The Kitten inside the trap…and very unhappy about it.
Actually, "unhappy" doesn't begin to describe it. Screaming. Yelling. Clawing at the cage walls. Struggling to reach through and claw me or anything nearby. Very upset.
I've moved the trap and its new inhabitant into the garage for the night. The expert tells me to keep her in the dark and not to worry too much about feeding her. Apparently, they can't perform the surgery if she's eaten in the last 12 or so hours.
I did not feel joyous about my "catch." Well, I guess I'm relieved that after a week of this, this part is over…but The Kitten is so miserable in that trap — and I can imagine the agony of riding in the car tomorrow, to say nothing of being in the vet's office. I tell myself it's for the better and that it had to be done, and I absolutely believe that. It just doesn't feel like that right now.
