Stan Freberg to receive a much-deserved award.

Tonight, Turner Classic Movies has two airings of Billy Wilder Speaks, a 90-minute interview with the great director, edited out of a series of interviews he did for German television. How can that not be worth watching? The interview airs at 5 PM and again at 8:30 on my satellite.

The other day here, I mentioned voice actor Dick Beals and his most famous role…that of Speedy Alka-Seltzer. Our featured video today is a cute commercial starring Mr. Beals as Mr. Alka-Seltzer.

One of the things that impressed me about Dick the few times we worked together was how he manages to be highly versatile even though biology has trapped him in the higher vocal ranges. If you have six minutes, you can listen to or download his voice demo tape from the link below. It represents a pretty tiny fraction of the work he's done…

And here's Speedy Alka-Seltzer…

Boy, it's weird how topics evolve on this weblog. The other day, I linked to this Post Raisin Bran commercial and a lot of you wrote in to say you thought the lead actor was Barney Martin. I thought it wasn't. I still kinda think it isn't even though I now have eyewitness testimony from a trusted friend who says it was.

Turns out, an old and dear pal of mine, Jim Brochu, was also in that commercial. In the above photo, Jim's the raisin on the far left. In the commercial itself, Jim's the raisin on the far left also, seen in profile. He says they shot this in a studio at 106th and 2nd Avenue in New York around 1973. He also says the guy in the front is definitely Barney Martin. I say it still doesn't look to me like Barney Martin but I'll take Jim's word for it. He and Barney were good friends.

Also in the commercial is the very fine character actor, Ken Olfson. In the above photo, Ken's on the far right and I don't know where he is in the commercial. Jim says David Doyle was in another commercial in this series (there were four made in all) but wasn't in this one. And while we're identifying people, Frank Buxton says the voiceover at the end is by William Redfield, a fine actor who was probably best known for his work in the movie of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Anyway, I think it's amazing: I link to this silly little commercial and later find out a friend of mine is in it. Eventually, everything in my life will be connected to everything else in my life.

Hey, lemme tell you what Brochu is up to. Jim is a maddeningly versatile gentleman whose knowledge of The Theater puts mine to shame. He's an actor, a director, a playwright, an author, a producer, etc. He's been putting a couple of those job descriptions together as the writer and star of a forthcoming one-man show, Zero Hour, based on the life and times of his old pal, Zero Mostel. The play debuts July 7 (I will be there) at the Egyptian Arena Theatre in Hollywood and will play through August 13 before heading for New York. More info and a link to purchase tickets can be found here. Based on what Jim's done in the past, I expect to have a very good time. In fact, this may turn out to be the best play ever done by a former raisin.

Before 1980, if you drove your vehicle into a Jack-in the-Box drive-thru, you had to give your order to a big, plastic jack-in-the-box. I guess a lot of people felt silly doing this…though if you were eating there, it's not like you had a lot of dignity to lose. Nevertheless, '80 was the year they took out those jack-in-the-boxes and did a not-ineffective advertising campaign announcing they were "blowing up the clowns." This is a commercial from that campaign. The elderly lady you see in Nedra Volz, who turned up at one time or another in every single situation comedy of the late seventies and throughout the eighties. At one point, she had recurring roles on three different TV series — Diff'rent Strokes, The Dukes of Hazzard and Filthy Rich. Not bad for someone in their seventies. The gent who plays the manager of the Jack-in-the Box is our old pal, Chuck McCann, who's been in even more TV shows. Here they are…

There's a new book out by Ron Suskind called The One Percent Doctrine. It makes some pretty amazing claims about how the Bush administration has pressed the case for the Iraq War. They're summarized in this review by Barton Gellman.

Quite a few of you are suggesting that the lead raisin in the previous video is Barney Martin, who was probably best known as Jerry's pa on Seinfeld. And I see that a number of websites say that he played a raisin in a Post Raisin Bran commercial along with a couple of other actors who later somewhat well-known — David Doyle and Ken Olfson. I've looked at the spot a few times and it doesn't look like Barney Martin to me. He may be one of the other guys in the bowl or he may have been in another commercial in the same campaign. If you want to believe it's Barney Martin though, don't let me stop you.

Been kinda busy lately. Today, I visited my Public Storage lockers for the first time in about a year and discovered a roof leak had damaged about twenty boxes of goodies, including a crate of the first few issues of Groo. Hope that doesn't mean God is not a Sergio fan.

Last night, I went back to my friendly neighborhood Sav-on Drug Store which, to the confusion of elderly patrons everywhere, is becoming a CVS Pharmacy. A sign out front promises that the new establishment will have "More convenient hours." Since the place is now open 24 hours a day, every day of the year, I can't wait to see how they manage that.

I was there to pick up a renewal on a prescription and the man behind the counter fetched it and announced, "That'll be $91.88." I said…well, here. I'll let you listen in on what I said…

ME: What? I've been getting that prescription for two years and it's always been ten bucks.

PHARMACIST: (after consulting his computer) You're renewing it ahead of schedule. Your insurance doesn't pay unless you're within seven days of running out.

ME: And when will I be within seven days of running out?

PHARMACIST: (after consulting his computer again) June 20.

ME: It's 11:54 PM. In six minutes, it'll be June 20.

PHARMACIST: And in six minutes, it'll be ten dollars.

ME: I suppose there's no point in mentioning that I'm not going to be taking that pill tonight. I am just as "out of it" as I will be in six minutes.

PHARMACIST: Right. There's no point in mentioning that. At this moment, it's $91.88.

I went to the end of the line and saved eighty bucks. Makes you wonder what the mark-up is on these pills. And the funny/sad part of it is that this particular drug is also sold over-the-counter without a prescription for $23. I'd hate to think there are uninsured people out there who don't know that and are paying the $91.88, but I'll bet there are.

By the way, I'm told by several folks that not every Sav-on is becoming a CVS. Good for them. This conversion is already becoming way too traumatic for me.

This is a commercial for Post Raisin Bran starring a whole bunch of actors who had to go around for the next few months and answer the eternal actor question — "What have you done lately?" — by saying, "I played a raisin." I seem to recall that at least one of the thespians in this spot later became quite famous but I can't recall who it was, nor can I recognize anyone. But I do remember some rather successful actor on some talk show admitting to having been in this commercial.

I do recognize but cannot put a name to the lead singing voice which I'm pretty sure did not belong to the man on-camera mouthing to it. There was some New York-based vocalist who sang in hundreds of radio and TV commercials, and also on a lot of the kids' records done by one of several singing groups that went under the name of The Sandpipers. Isn't that same guy heard on the famous "Mighty Mouse" record that Andy Kaufman used to use in his act? I think so. As we learned back here, this batch of Sandpipers consisted of Mike Stewart, Ralph Nyland, Dick Byron and Bob Miller…so I'm going to throw caution to the wind and guess that one of them is the voice of the lead raisin in this spot. Give a listen.

My pal (and the hardest working man in the comic community, this time of year) Gary Sassaman finds an interesting example of an old pulp cover that was ripped-off for a classic cover on Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen. Mort Weisinger was the editor of Olsen at the time and Gary wonders if Mort had a hand in the creation of the original version, which appeared on the pulp magazine, Thrilling Wonder Stories. Answer: Yes. Thrilling Wonder Stories was published by Standard Magazines, and Weisinger was its editor from around 1936 through 1940. This is the July, 1940 issue so it was probably one of his last issues.

Betcha the Jimmy Olsen cover came about as follows. Weisinger used to use the children who lived in his neighborhood as a kind of unofficial "focus group." He'd take crates of comics home from the office and hand them out every Saturday afternoon at some specified time. But before he gave out the comics, he'd ask the kids which covers they liked, what they'd like to see Superman do, etc. One time, one of them said, "I wanna see Superman fight King Kong" and when all the others chimed in that that would be neat, Weisinger made a note to go to the office and order up a cover of Superman fighting a giant ape who was climbing a building. The script was later written around the cover.

So my guess here is that Weisinger had a copy of that pulp around and showed it to the neighborhood tots one Saturday. When he got an enthusiastic response, he took the pulp into the office, handed it to artist Curt Swan and said "Here, draw this but make the monster Jimmy Olsen!" Which would explain the similarities not only in idea but in composition. Swan was not the kind of artist who would have copied someone else's cover design in any way unless ordered to do so.

Quite a few pulp covers morphed into comic book covers, though usually not that blatantly. Quite a few comic writers were former pulp writers so a lot of ideas were recycled that way, as well. I'm sure there must be examples of some of those comic book ideas that came from the pulps going on to become a videogame or some other 21st century concoction. What goes around comes around and vice-versa.

A week or two ago, I linked to a clip from one of the Night of 100 Stars specials — a rather nice dance number filled with great dancers. Here are two more clips from what I believe is the same special. (And if so, I'm curious as to why Bob Fosse was in the one where the stars just walked out instead of the one where they danced, at least a little.) These are both more along the lines of most of the numbers on these specials as I recall them, with celebrities just coming out and receiving applause for doing darn near nothing besides showing up…although I must say that putting Burgess Meredith in a kick line is the very definition of Entertainment.

The first one I'll link to is a cavalcade of male celebrities to the tune of "One" from A Chorus Line. As I watched this, I was thinking that it was a slight misuse of that song, which was intended to spotlight the backup dancers and chorus and not a star…and of course, here it's used to spotlight nothing but stars who are being carried by the chorus. Notice how many of the celebs don't even know which way to walk until they are guided by their smiling Rockette partner. Anyway, I thought this was a perversion of the song "One" until I noticed that one of the guys who wrote the tune is among the stars…so I figure if it didn't bother him, it doesn't bother me. This is the clip in which Mr. Fosse appears, strutting out to the big song from a musical that he reportedly loathed with all his might. I won't tell you who the other people in the number are because the surprises are most of the fun. Here it is…

And now, here's another clip, this one featuring lovely female celebs of the day ('85, it says) modelling fashions and jewels. It's a nice segment even if it does look like some of the ladies are thinking to themselves, "What the hell am I doing here?" If this was taped the same day as the other number, I'm guessing that Fosse hit on at least half of them.

Continuing with our festival of great commercials, we have a musical minute for Ajax, the Foaming Cleanser…and no, I don't know who did the singing. Thurl Ravenscroft provided the bass voice in some of these but I don't think that's him in this one. The voiceover at the beginning and the speaking voice of the fat elf are by Paul Frees, and the little elf is June Foray. I'm working now with June on her autobiography and it's amazing how many things like this she did and can barely remember. Once you jostle her memory though, she can usually recall doing it. I'll try showing this to her in the next week or so and I'll let you know what, if anything, I learn.

Sorry but I just spotted this. The Sundance Channel is abandoning its reputation for quality programming! In about six hours (9:20 AM Eastern, 6:20 AM Pacific) they're running The Gong Show Movie, Chuck Barris's 1980 somewhat autobiographical and taste-numbing motion picture. Some of you will probably curse that you missed this chance to record it…and while it doesn't seem to be scheduled again, we'll keep an eye out and see if it is.

In the meantime, if you checked in here before bedtime and rushed to set your TiVo or VCR, just appreciate what a valuable service this website can be.

A retired Major General, John Batiste, writes about the ineptness of Donald Rumsfeld.

We all have the public issues that rankle us. One of mine is the ongoing (and increasingly successful) attempt to do away with the Inheritance Tax. I not only think it's wrong and unfair but I believe the argument for eliminating it is built on a structure of deliberate and calculated lies…starting with calling it "The Death Tax." In this article, Ellen Goodman explains why that's a dishonest way to put it and why the whole thing is a rotten idea.

And I'll link to an old article which ran in Slate and which did not prompt one rebuttal that I saw. Michael Kinsley wrote about how it's a lie to say that money taxed by the Inheritance Tax is money that's been "taxed twice."

I understand why very, very rich people are in favor of its repeal. If I stood to inherit billions, I'd sure prefer that no tax be paid on that money. Heck, I'd prefer that no tax be paid on the check I'm expecting from DC Comics and I'm sure the guy who cuts my lawn would prefer not to pay taxes on the money I pay him each month. But us non-billionaires don't have the clout and connections to ram through our exemption from taxes. So not only don't we get it but we'll probably end up paying in many ways for the tax cut for the super-rich.

Not long ago over lunch, back when I ate lunches, I got into this discussion with one of my more Conservative (and not rich) friends. I said that if the U.S. government was going to forgo a trillion dollars (or whatever eliminating the Inheritance Tax will cost us), I'd prefer that the cuts be spread out over the entire population and not all given to the family that owns Walmart. It seems to me that people who actually work are at least as deserving of tax relief as people who inherit it. My friend came back with the usual accusations that "my side" (I was talking about just me) loves taxes, would raise them as high as we could, wants to soak the rich, blah blah blah. I don't get why he feels this way. Isn't cutting taxes for everyone still cutting taxes? Apparently not. It's only a tax cut if it goes to people who don't need the money.

Last April, we had a brief discussion here and also here about the origin of the oft-bootlegged office poster with the laughing guys asking, "You want it WHEN?" A consensus emerged that it was the work of cartoonist Henry Syverson and that it probably derived from the laughing characters he drew for years, chuckling atop the cartoon page in each issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Well, Russ Maheras has just sent me the above scan from the March 29, 1958 issue. The heading is credited to Mr. Syverson so for me, that pretty much proves it. Thanks, Russ.