If Donald Trump came out and said he was going to drastically lower taxes for the wealthiest Americans and raise them on the middle-class, there would be massive outrage and it would become a major issue against him in the election. But apart from phrasing it that way, that's what he's done and he's now about to do more of it…counting on, I guess, the fact that most of his supporters will never figure that out.

People who knew Hal Prince remember Hal Prince.

Thank you, Mr. Prince, for The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, New Girl in Town, West Side Story, Fiorello!, Tenderloin, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, She Loves Me, Fiddler on the Roof, Baker Street, Flora the Red Menace, It's a Bird…It's a Plane…It's Superman, Cabaret, Zorba, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Candide, Pacific Overtures, Side by Side by Sondheim, On the Twentieth Century, Sweeney Todd, Evita, Merrily We Roll Along, The Phantom of the Opera, Kiss of the Spider Woman and all the rest, including the flops. They'd be dimming the lights on Broadway if you'd only been involved in any three of them.

I didn't watch the debate last night. I'm more and more convinced that just about nothing in current events is going to have much significance in the presidential election next year. It may just come down to a simple referendum: Trump or no Trump? Most voters may cast their votes not on who has the best health plan or who had the best vision for the economy…but if they think Donald Trump is a very good man or a very bad man, end of thought process. It might also be about one divisive issue like whether you think the U.S. should welcome refugees or keep them out.

Who "won" last night? I dunno. Amanda Marcotte thought Cory Booker did great and Joe Biden did poorly. Eric Levitz says Biden won the night. Take your pick. The many diverse opinions out there suggest to me that no one scored a meaningful gain…and I'm not sure at this point, any of this matters.

There was talk about different health care plans. I kinda agree with Kevin Drum that debating this is silly and needlessly divisive. The Democrats may have several different plans but they all have roughly the same goals and much in common. The Republicans meanwhile have no health plans and no real desire for there to be one. They'd like to get rid of the government-backed ones that already exist. That's the divide here, not whether Kamala's plan takes longer to phase in than Bernie's.

Maybe the thing that interested me most was how rapidly Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers were able to generate material about the debate between the time it ended and the time they went on the air. They had to really scramble to pull that one off.

And to segue to another frequent topic on this blog: That's one of the problems MAD magazine has faced. The last few years, one of the things the MAD crew realized would boost their circulation was a cover ridiculing Donald Trump and promising more of the same within. Just as calling Trump a moron raised Stephen Colbert's ratings, Trump caricatures on MAD clearly goosed their sales. He may have been a better mascot for them than Alfred E. Neuman.

And why not? They're equally qualified for the presidency.

But it's nearly-impossible to do topical humor in a magazine. It was never easy and now in the era of the Internet and immediacy, why even try? If later today, Trump says something that cries out for parody and scorn — and of course, the odds are pretty good he will — there'll be a thousand jokes on Twitter and Facebook within the hour. Colbert, Meyers, Kimmel and maybe Trevor Noah will all be on it tonight. Depending on which day of the week it is, they'll be closely followed by Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Bill Maher, Saturday Night Live and ten or twelve others.

Who knows? Maybe Jimmy Fallon will even mention it.

By the time MAD could get an issue to its readers, the topic will have been strip-mined and then forgotten. Trump could molest a nun and when the MAD article mentioning it finally came out, even Trump enemies would say, "Aw, that's old news." The pre-2018 crew of MAD did a good job finding timeless Trump humor…like making fun of his hair. That's always good and it never changes, just like his rotten business track record or his mistreatment of women. They did some good pieces but these days, we not only want today's news today, we want the jokes about today's news today. Or sooner, if possible.

Here's a nice print of "The Silent Partner," a 1955 episode of the TV series Screen Directors Playhouse, which was one of the last things the Hal Roach Studio produced.  It was directed and co-written by George Marshall, who honed his craft working on the Roach lot with Laurel and Hardy before becoming an important director elsewhere.

"The Silent Partner" stars Buster Keaton, Joe E. Brown and frequent Roach player Zasu Pitts.  You'll also see a lot of familiar character actors including Jack Elam, Jack Kruschen, Evelyn Ankers, Percy Helton and Charles Horvath.  Enjoy…

Thanks to Joel O'Brien for sending me this link to a 1985 interview with Bill Gaines, the original publisher of MAD. There are a few errors in it. Alfred E. Neuman's usual name before he was named Alfred E. Neuman was Melvin Cowznofski, not Melvin Paslovsky. Harvey Kurtzman is mentioned in passing but not in the section which describes how MAD was created. Somehow, Al Feldstein who became editor a few years later gets the credit. Gaines did not sell MAD to Warner Communications in 1960, etc.

I get asked a lot of questions about the history of MAD and often, the answer includes, "You have to know a lot about Bill Gaines to understand why things were the way they were." Gaines was an eccentric who wanted to keep his company small enough so that he could preside over most of the business matters himself, not work too hard and not have a lot of strangers around him. He didn't write or draw for the magazine but had an undeniable influence on its creative content.

His business practices were not much different from any comic book publisher and in that sense, somewhat unfair to the talent. And yet at the same time, he loved the writers and artists who contributed to MAD, treated them as a family, took them on expensive trips and treated them to swank dinners and so forth. You could work for DC and Marvel for decades and never meet the publisher or be granted an audience if you requested one…but Gaines' door was always open and if you dropped in at the proper hour, he'd take you to lunch. A very colorful, complex man.

Usually, I just plug live performances in Southern California — i.e., those I can get to. But two of my best pals are playing in or near Chicago and I'd go to these shows if I was there.

One is a one-time-only (for now) appearance by the glamorous, gifted Shelly Goldstein who'll be doing her cabaret show, "How Groovy Girls Saved the World" this Saturday evening at Studio 5 in Evanston, Illinois. It's a delightful assemblage of the kind of songs sung by female vocalists of the sixties like Petula Clark, Mama Cass and Jackie DeShannon, plus some of Shelly's own witty compositions. Tickets are going fast but you may still be able to snag a deuce (that's theater talk) at this website. I've seen her many times and always attend any performance within 2,000 miles of my home. This one, sad to say, is 34 miles too far for me but possibly not for you.

My buddy Frank Ferrante has been getting rave reviews for the new show which Teatro ZinZanni has opened in the heart of Chi. Teatro ZinZanni is an outfit that stages dinner shows with gourmet food, a great live band, luscious surroundings and wonderful entertainment between the courses. Your genial/outrageous host Caesar is your guide and Caesar is Frank when he's not being Groucho. This show isn't as urgent a go-see as Shelly's because Caesar will be Caesaring through the end of September but don't miss it, either. Info and tickets can be found at this website. It's an evening you won't soon forget.

Those of you who want to know about all the sturm und drang in the halls of DC Comics would do well to read Rob Salkowitz on the topic. There is much more to be said about this topic but everything Rob writes here is, as far as I can tell, absolutely on target.

We're still thinking about Minnie Mouse and about the lovely Minnie-like actress who did her voice, Russi Taylor. Esteemed Disney historian Jim Korkis sent me this…

Like Mickey Mouse, Minnie only did squeaks and squawks provided by Walt Disney himself in the earliest cartoons. Marcellite Garner from the ink and paint department began doing Minnie's dialog in 1930. Thelma Boardman took over from approximately 1940-1942 followed by Ruth Clifford from around late 1942 to 1952. Russi Taylor became Minnie's official voice in 1986.

I am sure many people have shared Russi and Wayne stories with you. One of mine was that back in the 1990s when I worked at Walt Disney World, I got to be their unofficial tour guide and helped them do things like get V.I.P. viewing for the fireworks at Epcot. I joked to them that they could never get divorced because it would break the hearts of every Disney fan knowing Mickey and Minnie got divorced. Wayne took the offhand remark very seriously and started explaining in great detail why he could never divorce Russi because she was so important in his life. Russi, realizing it was just a joke, kept laughing and laughing. I still hear that joyful laugh decades later.

Russi did have a great laugh. Meanwhile, I got this from Jon Balogh…

It's disturbing to hear about all those voice artists lining up to get a crack at Russi Taylor's job. Could you advise on the ethics of such matters? I'm not a voice actor but I'm curious. When would it be okay to apply for that kind of job? What if the actor is still alive but just can't do the voice any longer?

If the actor who voices an established character dies, a potential replacement should wait a suitable interval — and no, I can't tell you what would make an interval suitable but I know it's more than a week or two — before even thinking about moving in on the role. I would think one should wait longer if the deceased actor originated the voice in question. Something like fifteen people have now been the voice of Bugs Bunny and no one's had the job exclusively like Mel Blanc did. If the current guy dies, it's not as big a deal.

If the actor is alive but the studio thinks he can no longer do the voice well, that's where it gets dicey. When Don Messick had the stroke that ended his acting career, he had his agent notify the studios than he was retiring and they should go ahead and recast Scooby Doo and other iconic parts he played. That is rare. Usually, the actor doesn't want to give up that important part of their lives and careers and admit they can't do it anymore. And sometimes, they don't agree that they can't.

June Foray wanted to keep working until the day she died. She was polite to a vast number of actresses who did their imitations of her for her, perhaps hoping she'd endorse them as her replacement…but she was privately pissed about every one of them. I don't think any voice actor really wants to hear that you can imitate them well, though most will be too polite to tell you that.

I was in the room one day when a noted voice actor decided for some silly reason to do his Bugs Bunny voice for Mel Blanc. At the time, Mel was getting paid very well every time Warner Brothers called on him to do Bugs — and deservedly so. The execs there used to weep and wail over what it cost to hire Mel and I thought that was petty and greedy of them. There were a number of people who were responsible for Bugs becoming a character worth billions and if Mel wasn't at the absolute top of that list, he was right behind whoever was.

Still, at least one of the WB suits talked to me like Mel was shamefully holding a gun to their heads. The exec was very well paid himself and used the old "it'll only take him twenty minutes" line to justify his resentment of Mel's asking price; no recognition that there was a special value to WB to have Mel Blanc voicing a Mel Blanc character. Even leaving aside the horrendous publicity that might have resulted, some good mimic doing Bugs was not — and still is not — the same thing as Mel friggin' Blanc doing Bugs.

So when that noted voice actor showed Mel he could do a great Bugs, Mel did not take it as the sincerest form of flattery. The guy might just as well have said, "Hey, Mel! One of these days, some dunce at WB will decide to save money and have me replace you!" Oddly enough, the noted voice actor in this story had been in Mel's position. He was holding out for a raise to do a famous character he voiced, they hired an imitator for less money and he was furious with that "scab" (as he called him) forever after.

Generally speaking, most good voice actors will tell you that you don't imitate another actor while he's still live and available. You just don't. If the reason they want you to do him is because they think he's just too old, that gets dicey and you have to really analyze and discuss the situation. Ideally, what should happen is that the studio should deal with that actor before they seek out a replacement; maybe pay him a fee, maybe find him other work which he can do.

If the reason is just that he wants a raise, you don't undercut him. It's that simple and most successful voice actors will tell you this. I know of at least three separate occasions where Actor A was offered serious money — in one instance, millions — to imitate and replace Actor B but Actor A said absolutely not.

In every case, the Actor A was working steadily and didn't need the dough. Still, there's a certain amount of integrity and decency involved in turning down a job worth six or even seven figures for reasons of principle and it is to be admired. By me, at least.

Ultimately, all this is one of the things agents are for. An actor who covets someone else's job will always (always) look like an asshole of some dimension for campaigning on their own. The way to avoid that is to have your agent contact the person who does the hiring and say, "Hey, I know one of these days, you may need a soundalike for Abercrombie Alligator. If and when that happens, I hope you'll read my client before you make a final decision."

That's how professionals do it. If you want that kind of job, professionalism is a great quality to display.

As we noted here, Lenny's Deli — a fine establishment in West Los Angeles — has closed. We are pleased to report the news that it will be replaced by…another delicatessen! Wise Sons Jewish Delicatessen, a popular place in San Francisco, is moving into the building soon. Let's hope they can make a go of it!

A few items back here, I said that I thought Carol Burnett was a lot less than good in the 1974 film version of The Front Page. And that's not just my opinion. It's Carol Burnett's opinion, too…

• In punishment for allowing their massive data breach, I'd like to see Capital One fined just enough money that they can't afford to mail me eleven credit card offers per week for the rest of my life.

The New Yorker has a very, very long article by Connie Bruck about Alan Dershowitz, mainly about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein is the latest in a long line of clients via whom Professor Dershowitz has systematically sullied his own, once-proud reputation. There isn't much there left to sully but he's doing what he can to eliminate the last vestiges.

I blame a certain amount of my personal cynicism on the list of public figures I once respected and later felt I'd either misjudged or seen them throw away what was once valid respect. Dershowitz is on the list somewhere between John McCain and Bill Cosby. There's a quote in the article that gets to one reason why. A judge who presided over a case involving Dershowitz said, "He has squandered his position as a Harvard law professor and a civil libertarian — for the sole purpose of being on TV."

As I mentioned a month or so ago here, the Kino Lorber company is releasing a Blu-ray of Billy Wilder's 1974 remake of the movie The Front Page starring Jack Lemmon as Hildy Johnson and Walter Matthau as Walter Burns. I really like this version of the classic play of the same name by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur.

I like the pace. I like the supporting players. I like the interplay between Lemmon and Matthau. I like just about everything in it except Carol Burnett who seemed to be filmed playing in some other movie with a totally different style and then greenscreened into this one. Please note that I say that as someone who loves just about everything else Carol Burnett ever did.

Sorry to say, there is no DVD coming out of this release, at least now. There is a DVD still in print but the Blu-ray, I'm told, is a much superior transfer and of course it has some extra features and two world-class movie experts did a commentary track that isn't on any DVD. Those two world-class movie experts are none other than my friend Michael Schlesinger and myself.

At least, I think I'm on it. I had a bad cough the day we recorded the track and I wouldn't blame them if they chopped out a lot of what I said. But Mike had all sorts of interesting, non-hacking things to say about the film so you'll be in good hands.

The Blu-ray ships next week so if you want to advance order it, here's a link.  I'm pleased to be a part of it, assuming I am a part of it.

One hundred years of cookies with your slobbering host, Cookie Monster…