They recently ran over at Salon Magazine a rather clumsily-conducted interview with Kurt Vonnegut that still managed to yield some wonderful quotes. My favorite — and this is one of those lines I'll probably be quoting myself often — is the one at the end of Mr. Vonnegut's reply below:
What is the purpose of life?
Well, I have a son who writes very well. He just wrote one book; it's called "The Eden Express." It's my son Mark, who is a pediatrician and who went crazy and recovered to graduate from Harvard Medical School. But anyway, he says, and I've quoted him in a couple of my books, "We're here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is."
I believe you need a Salon subscription to access the whole piece. This is another reason why that's well worth it.
My longtime friend Jack Enyart is teaching a course in how to create and pitch animation projects. If you're in L.A. and you want to learn that side of the biz, I can't imagine anyone who could tell you more than Jack. Details can be had over at www.gnomon3d.com.
Another of my best pals is a brilliant cartoonist named Carol Lay, who produces the pithy weekly feature, Story Minute. You can read it online at www.salon.com and at her own website. And if you go to her website, you can see other Carol-created goodies and you can order some Lay Goodies that you will want and love and treasure. So here's a banner ad for Carol's site. Click on it. Go there. Spend money. Laugh.
That's right. We're still waiting for The Game Show Network to rerun the two episodes of Press Your Luck in which an unemployed air conditioning mechanic named Michael Larsen figured out a way to beat the "wheel" for over $110,000. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen on TV. We're told that GSN has the episodes and will soon announce when they'll air. They'd better.
Of the above articles, I would most like to direct your attention to Joe Brancatelli's, which well articulates a belief I've had for some time. It is that our nation's airlines are, with the token exception, managed about as badly as humanly possible. A year or three ago, another reporter covering the airline beat said to me, "If you picked anyone at random off the street and installed them as the CEO of American Airlines, they could not do a much worse job."
The amazing thing is that you have airlines that are flying at 90+% capacity and charging fees that most passengers feel are exorbitant…and these companies still are not turning a decent profit. The government bailouts that were arranged after 9/11 were needed before the planes hit the World Trade Center. And a point Joe doesn't make in his excellent article is this: There are people out there still arguing that we should trust the same geniuses who run the airlines to arrange for proper security on their flights. Yeah, sure, that makes sense.
What a wonderful evening. I'm talking about the event last Wednesday night at the Motion Picture Academy. It was a program about Walt Disney — not the company, not the channel, not the corporate entity but the man in the picture above…the man pretending to be finishing a drawing that was probably done by someone else. On the date he would have been 100 years young, fans, co-workers and even a few family members convened to celebrate Walt and to view a perfectly-selected program of films.
Leonard Maltin was the host. We had dinner before the event and he expressed some trepidation that he would handle things properly — and he was, of course, worrying needlessly. He did a superb job of introducing clips, interviewing guests and providing spot-on factual info about Mr. Disney.
The film program consisted of excerpts from a number of Disney-produced movies, plus one whole Mickey Mouse short and couple of curios. One amazing item was the recently-unearthed footage of voice actor Billy Bletcher and Walt recording dialogue for a Mickey cartoon. Seeing Walt's face with Mickey's voice coming out of it provided a fascinating link between a man and his mouse. Later, when Walt's daughter Diane narrated some home movies, one could see an even more pronounced connection.
The real "find" of the night was a 10-minute sales film that was lensed shortly before the Disneyland TV show made its debut. It was made only to be shown to execs and/or perhaps stockholders at one of the companies that was sponsoring the new show — Derby Foods, purveyors of Peter Pan peanut butter. In the film, ABC president Robert Kinter keeps interviewing and praising Walt…who is obviously bored out of his skull by the whole experience and resenting ever second he has been forced to spend making this stupid sales pitch. It resembles that sketch on The Carol Burnett Show wherein Harvey Korman is making a horrendously insipid speech and it's all Tim Conway can do to not doze off. Every time the network biggie is talking, Walt is fidgeting and playing with some drawings on his desk…and you can almost read a thought balloon over his head that says, "Why must I put up with this nonsense? I have important things to do." Perhaps it is reading too much into the film to say it displays The Impatience of Genius. But when it was over, everyone in the audience the other night sure felt like they knew Walt Disney — the private man, not the public spokesman — a wee bit better.
Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas and Ward Kimball
Other insights were provided by some guests — Ilene Woods, who provided the voice of Cinderella; master matte painter Peter Ellenshaw, director Ken Annakin, and actor Robert Stack (who's 82 but looks like he shot The Untouchables a year or two ago). But the real treat was to hear — and for some of us, to meet at the earlier reception — three of the legendary "Nine Old Men" of Disney Animation. Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston and Ward Kimball appeared, and the love and respect of the crowd for these three legends was, in itself, thrilling. They all spoke affectionately of Walt, as did everyone, and of his amazing willingness to spend whatever it took to achieve the best possible product. (The picture above shows — left to right — Johnston, Thomas and Kimball, chatting with Ms. Woods.)
In fact, the reception and audience were filled with folks who worked with Walt — and, by the way, I don't think anyone referred to him as "Mr. Disney" or even "Disney" the entire evening. He was Walt to everyone, now and forever. His life and times were discussed for almost three hours and, as amazing as what was mentioned was what wasn't. Talk about barely scratching the surface: No one got around to mentioning around 90% of his features and 99% of his shorts. Disneyland (the theme park) was barely mentioned. The comic books, the comic strips, the toys, the technological breakthroughs that are credited to Disney and those he hired…there wasn't time for any of that. Even Goofy didn't get a mention.
Usually, I write these reports as much for myself as for any of you. I figure they'll serve as a diary to remind me of great events, long after they occurred. But this was an evening I won't forget. I don't think anyone who was there will forget it, either.
Chase Craig, who edited as many great comics as anyone who ever lived, passed away last night at the age of 91. He was recuperating from an operation to correct injuries he had suffered in a fall three weeks earlier.
Chase was born in Texas and moved to Los Angeles in the thirties to get into the animation business. His fellow Texan, Tex Avery, gave him a job in the story unit at Warner Brothers, where he worked for some time without — for some reason — ever getting a screen credit. After a few years, he decided to turn his attention to print cartooning and left…only to be quickly tapped by Western Printing and Lithography to write and draw stories for its first Bugs Bunny comics. Chase produced over half of the first issue of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies comics, issued under the Dell label, including the authorship of the Mary Jane & Sniffles strip. (Sniffles the Mouse had been a character in the cartoons but Chase came up with the format for this long-running strip, naming the character of Mary Jane after his then-recent bride.)
Western soon hired him as an editor and, through the mid-seventies, he worked out of their Los Angeles office, editing (at one point) a comic per day, at a time when it was not uncommon for one of their comics to sell over a million copies. He was the editor who kept Carl Barks producing Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge stories, and Paul Murry doing Mickey Mouse and so many others. He was one of the creators of Magnus, Robot Fighter and worked over the years with an array of talent that included not only the above but also Michael Maltese, Alex Toth, Russ Manning, Dan Spiegle, Warren Tufts, Pete Alvarado, Mike Royer, Gaylord DuBois, Don Glut, Tony Strobl, Phil DeLara and so many more…
…including me. I've always said I had two great teachers in the comic book business — Chase Craig and Jack Kirby. Chase bought the first scripts I ever had published in this country and he taught me an awful lot about how to pace and structure a story. I wish I could remember a tenth of it…
Any Dora Hall fans here? Anyone who knows who Dora Hall even was? Dora Hall was a sweet little woman who, in her seventies, starred in a flurry of syndicated TV specials in the early seventies, surrounded by guest stars. Since I'd never heard of her, I assumed she was a British star whose fame had not previously reached this continent and that these specials were being made for, primarily, overseas consumption. And it turned out I was wrong. Ms. Hall was not a star in England or anywhere. She'd had a very minor performing career in this country and had devoted most of her life to being a good wife to a man named Leo Hulseman. Now, Mr. Hulseman, as it turned out was the President of the Solo Cup Company, maker of plastic and paper cups, and he had so much money that he figured he could buy his spouse a couple of variety shows.
And he did. At a reported cost of $400,000 per show, Mr. Hulseman made his dear wife a TV star. He had previously made her a recording artist. Hundreds of thousands of Dora Hall albums and singles were recorded and given away when one purchased Solo Cups. Now, he surrounded her with mid-range guest stars (Rich Little, Roosevelt Grier, etc.) and allowed her to be a TV star.
I remember seeing the shows and being somewhat baffled by them. Dora was about as talented as a decent piano teacher, but not without a certain twinkle. The guest stars who surrounded and sang with her did a pretty fair job of looking like they were thrilled to appear with her. But I never knew all that much about her past until I came upon a website called Dora Hall TV Heaven. If any of this intrigues you or you recall those bizarre TV outings, you might want to pop by and read up on what they call "The Queen of Vanity Television."
Here are two stories from the Reuters News Service. Compare the Gore quotes and ask yourself how they could have gotten things this far wrong…
Al Gore Says Now Restaurateur in Tennessee
Thursday, November 29 1:51 PM ET
LAGOS, Nigeria (Reuters) – Former Vice President Al Gore told a Nigerian audience on Thursday that he now runs a family restaurant in Tennessee.
Gore narrowly lost the 2000 U.S. presidential election to Republican George W. Bush.
"This has been a time of transition for me and it hasn't been easy," Gore told an audience at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs."
"For example, there are usually a lot of cars on the road. Now it takes a lot longer to get around, and given that I haven't driven for eight years, I'm not sure it's wise (to drive)," said Gore, who was driven in a limousine while he was vice president.
He also told the capacity audience that he had started the new family enterprise in his home state.
"We have started a family restaurant in Tennessee and we are running it ourselves. It is a low-cost restaurant," he said. "I am also a visiting professor or VP for short."
Spokesmen in the United States were not immediately available to provide further details.
That's the first story. Here's the second story…
CORRECTION: Al Gore Restaurateur Story Withdrawn
Friday, November 30 6:23 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Nov. 29 LAGOS, Nigeria, story headlined "Al Gore says now restaurateur in Tennessee" is wrong and is withdrawn. The story was based on an erroneous hearing of Gore's remarks.
According to a transcript provided by a representative for Gore, the former vice president said "…we stopped at a little family restaurant in Tennessee. We were eating there by ourselves. It was a low-cost restaurant called Shoney's."
There will be no substitute story.
This is a pretty good example of how much we can trust the news. And, uh, how come it took more than 24 hours to correct this?
The above links are to articles that the operator of this website believes contribute to the national debate. He does not necessarily agree with all or any of what they say…and you won't, either.
In 1965, my friend and frequent employer Lee Mendelson produced his first animated TV special. Bill Melendez and his crew animated it, based on a script by Charles M. Schulz which was, in turn, based on Schulz's rather popular newspaper strip, Peanuts. The folks at the network hated it and predicted it would bomb… but it wound up being quite popular, winning every award it could possibly win. It catapulted Mr. Schulz's lovely little strip into a merchandising phenomenon, and launched Mendelson-Melendez on a career of producing award-winning animated specials. Several of the songs, expertly crafted by Vince Guaraldi, have become standards.
Over the years, A Charlie Brown Christmas has been rerun more often than any other prime-time TV special. For some folks, Christmas isn't Christmas 'til they see Good Ol' Charlie Brown bring home that ratty Christmas tree and see that weird kid doing that weird dance in the musical sequence. Alas, over the years, the increased number of commercials in a network time slot has forced a few minutes to be trimmed from this classic animated work.
This year, the annual event switches from CBS to ABC and reverts to its original, restored glory. A 17-minute documentary has been prepared on the creation of the special and, by putting all this together and adding in Whoopi Goldberg as host, they can put it all in an hour time slot and not have to cut anything from the original show, save for the plugs for Coca-Cola. It airs Thursday evening, December 6 at 8 PM. Enjoy, enjoy.
We especially recommend taking a look at the Eric Boehlert piece. Also, here's a link to an interview with Gene Lyons, whose columns are often included in the above box, and whose reportage has offered some very different views of the Clinton years.
About thirty-four people have now inadvertently sent me e-mail containing the W32.Badtrans.B@mm virus, some of them sending 5 or 10 infected, infectious messages. None of 'em got to me, and I can understand how anyone can accidentally contract a virus. (I got one myself, last year) But I suspect some of these time bombs were disseminated because their unwilling victims did not go to a rather small expense of time and money. You may be willing to run the risk of infection but most trojans are now written to not only contaminate you but to plunge into your address book and e-mail themselves to all your friends. So running a good virus protection program on your computer is a matter of simple courtesy to others.
No virus checker can catch them all. The one I got last year infected me before any of the anti-virus companies had heard of it. But most of the ones that make the rounds could be caught by McAfee VirusScan or Norton AntiVirus. If you won't do it for yourself, do it for your cyber-buddies. (I use McAfee ActiveShield, which is for folks with an "always-on" DSL or cable modem connection to the Internet.)
Very few writers live lives as interesting as those they write about. My friend Bill Woodfield, who passed away last week from a heart attack, was an exception. How many people have you met who took nude photos of Marilyn Monroe? Who interviewed Jack Ruby in his cell? Who put all his worldly experience to work as a writer-producer for, among other TV shows, Columbo and Mission: Impossible? He was a fine gentleman and a fine writer.
And we're also mourning the passing of Sol Forman. I never met him but the restaurant he owned, Peter Luger's Steak House in Brooklyn, serves the best piece o' beef that ever entered my digestive system. Here's a link to the New York Times obit, which will tell you a little about the history of the place. (And here's a link to the website for this wonderful restaurant.)
After an extended period where I stopped watching Politically Incorrect, I am back to nightly viewing. For a time, I felt it was too much about phony, tabloid-style controversies, and that too many of its guests were akin to the kind of talk radio host who says outrageous, extreme things not because he believes them but because they're good for the career. There is, alas, Big Money to be made in telling angry people that they're absolutely right and that their enemies are lying, evil scum. The only caveat is that you must never, never admit that the other side is even a teensy bit right or honorable about anything or that any accusation against them might possibly be untrue.
Some of those folks still get airtime on Bill Maher's nightly chatfest but they haven't interfered too much with — and have occasionally actually contributed to — some bold and important discussions of issues of actual importance. And every so often, someone says something extraordinary…like this statement from the Reverend Robert Schuller the other night:
Rev. Schuller: Thank you. First of all, you can find things in any holy book. I'm a Christian. I believe the Bible. I can find things in the Bible that I don't like, that I don't agree with, that I think are not — what do I do? I tell people who become Christians, the Bible is our holy book, but read the Bible the way you eat fish — carefully. [Light laughter] Don't choke on a bone. [Laughter] Pick the food that serves you well.
Bill: Wow. I'm very impressed to hear you say that. [Applause]
Rev. Schuller: That can be said for any holy book of any of the religions.
Have you ever heard a so-called "Man of God" say such a thing on television? I sure haven't. They all seem to demand blind respect of not so much The Bible as their particular, parochial interpretation of it, and I must admit I'd previously classed the Reverend Schuller as among the worst in that regard.
Like some of my friends, you may have stopped watching Politically Incorrect because you found Bill Maher to be a snide, arrogant presence. Based on a few personal contacts with the man, I'd say he's all that, plus I don't like his attitude towards women. But I also think he's a very smart guy and a skillful moderator who, most nights, runs a terrific and, lately, very relevant venue for stimulating conversation. So you might want to give him another try.
Like Sisyphus pushing that big, old rock up that big, old mountain for all eternity, Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy carted a piano up a long, long flight of stairs in their Oscar-winning short, The Music Box. As comedy imagery goes, it ranks right up there with the shots of Harold Lloyd hanging off the clock hands, Buster Keaton riding his newly-launched ship to the ocean's bottom, Charlie Chaplin dining on shoe in The Gold Rush, and a whole bunch o' Marx Brothers crammed into a teensy stateroom. The stairs Stan and Ollie climbed in that film — and also in an earlier silent called Hats Off — were and still are located at the intersection of Vendome and Del Monte Streets in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles. In the film, empty lots were visible on either side. Today, there are buildings there…but the stairs remain somehow recognizable. (Should you wish to visit them, here is a Mapquest link to the location.)
All of this is a way of mentioning that the great City of Los Angeles has finally gotten around to taking note of this vital landmark. A street sign has recently been erected on the premises, as proven by the above photo. And by the way, that photograph was taken by Harry Marnell, who operates a nice little Laurel & Hardy site at this address. If you can't visit the stairs, at least visit Harry's site. A lot of good stuff there…and not as much walking.
