Mark Evanier's Blog, page 25

Today's Video Link

Buster Keaton was one of the greatest comedians and filmmakers in the world until around 1929 or 1930. His work and his life took terrible nosedives then due to problems in his personal relationships, the consumption of alcohol, financial mismanagement, the coming of "talkies' and the decision to leave his own independent production company and make his movies thereafter for M.G.M. Film historians argue as to whether the problem was that the studio didn't know what to do with him or that he didn't know what to do with himself.

It was probably a combination of both but he worked for M.G.M. for four years making movies of varying quality and declining success. In 1934, he found himself out of that huge studio and laboring for smaller companies on smaller budgets. Still, he occasionally, now and then, once in a while managed to make films that almost lived up to his old standard. He made sixteen two-reel comedies for Educational Pictures, which was like Sandy Koufax pitching for a farm team. (I should be able to come up with a better analogy than that but you know what I mean. How about "Gordon Ramsay flipping burgers at a Wendy's?" Or "Laurence Olivier working with Ed Wood?")

When Educational went out of business, Keaton moved over to Columbia where a few other once-great comedians like Harry Langdon and Charley Chase made two-reelers when no other studio would have them. Mostly though, the big stars at the Columbia shorts department were The Three Stooges. It was for Buster yet another notch down and one of these days, I'll link you to a few of those films and you can judge for yourself how good they were.

(A "two-reeler," by the way, was a short film, usually around 16-24 minutes in length. They became less and less popular with moviegoers over the years but for a while, all the great movie comedians made them…somewhere.)

What I have here for you today was probably the best short Keaton did for Educational — Grand Slam Opera. Made in 1936, it spoofed the then-popular radio program, Major Bowes' Amateur Hour, and also some scenes in the 1935 Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers feature, Top Hat. Grand Slam Opera is a pretty good little film though every print of it I've ever seen obviously came from the same source material with the same frustrating splices. There are a couple of bad ones in its opening song, a parody of George M. Cohan's "So Long, Mary." (Educational refused to pay for the rights to use the tune so Buster paid the fee out of his own depleted pockets.)

This is not Buster at his best but it is him at his best when he was at his worst. That's still better than a lot of comics' best when they were at their best…

From the E-Mailbag…

One of those folks who opts to remain nameless — to you, not to me — read this post here and then sent this my way.  But before I get to it, lemme warn you: This is going to be long and it'll get kinda sappy and most of you are smart enough to know what I'm about to say in reply to my anonymous correspondent…

I was very intrigued by your post about having crushes on women in comics or on TV. I've had more than my share of both and as I get older, they feel to me like they aren't healthy but I'm not sure why. I would be interested in your take on this. Did your crush on Mary Tyler Moore have negative repercussions for you, especially when you finally met her?

"Met her" is too strong a term. What happened was, as I wrote in this obit about her, I stepped on her foot at a screening. I apologized every way I could, she politely accepted my groveling… and that was the end of my contact with the former Laura Petrie and Mary Richards. I felt bad as I always feel bad when I do something as dumb 'n' clumsy as that and it had little to do with her ever being what we're calling here a "crush."

But I don't think there's anything wrong with finding someone attractive…not that it's a voluntary thing. It's kind of built into our DNA as an incentive to find happiness and/or propagate the species and if you find someone attractive, you find someone attractive. That's just how it works.  What I think can be dangerous is when you convince yourself it's not what it probably is: A placeholder until you find someone with whom you can have an actual relationship.

My crushes on the TV stars I listed were quite different from the ones I had on girls in my high school. I could never have asked Judy Carne out on a date…and not just because at the time, she was married to Burt Reynolds. I could (theoretically) have asked one of the girls in my Geometry class to dinner and movie…not that I thought there was a chance in Hades of any of them saying yes.

I didn't ask any classmates out but I at least talked with them.  They knew my name.  Most of them giggled at the proper moment when I said something funny or when I drew a passable Fred Flintstone on the brown-paper-wrapping cover of one of their textbooks.  (There are many reasons some of us learn to draw and a big reason for a lot of us is that it impresses people you might want to impress.  It's the same reason a lot of us at an early age took up magic.  I did that too.)  One of the many, many dumb things I did in high school — not to be confused with the many, many, many I've done since — is that I never asked a girl out on a date.

Why the hell not?  Three reasons, one being that I was sure whoever I asked would say no…so what was the point?  Another was that I knew that if I did and got the inevitable turndown, I'd re-experience the pain every time I saw that girl — the one who said no — on campus.  That might be (shudder!) several times a day.  Lastly, I felt that if I asked one out and got the expected turndown, no matter how gracious it might have been, it might be a long time — somewhere between Years and Never — before I mustered up the courage to try, try again with someone else.

What was I waiting for?  Beats the heck outta me.  Maybe for some misguided young lady to ask me.  I don't know if it works that way for that age bracket in current times but it sure didn't in 1969.  (Thought I'm reasonably certain that however it works today, it works the same way when both parties are of the same gender.)

Other classmates of mine were dating back then. In the boys' locker room, guys were even bragging/lying about what happened on those dates.  Having read many an Archie comic book, I understood the concept of a "date."  And from the fibs in the locker room, I had some sense of things that could happen that never happened 'twixt Archie and either Betty or Veronica.

I was just plain afraid.  Fortunately for my life since, I had one of those "it's now or never" impulses on Graduation Day.  It led to me asking three different young ladies for their phone numbers and some indication that they wouldn't phone the police and demand protective orders if I called.  I wrote about that day here in three parts, the first of which you can find here.  Warning: It's kinda long and I come across as a real jerk in it.

If it feels like I'm forcing Too Much Information on you, forgive me.  I just recall that day as a major turning point in this silly life of mine…and I see a very strong connection between Mark getting up the guts to ask a girl on a date and, a few weeks later, Mark walking into the office of a big publishing company and for the first time, trying to sell something I'd written.  Amazingly, I got the answer I wanted there too and it was another major turning point.

I know a lot of people — and thanks to Social Media, can see a lot on Facebook and other forums — who are clearly unhappy with their relationships and/or their careers.  There are many reasons for each dissatisfaction and I've written plenty on this blog about why I think careers go askew or just plain don't happen…and don't worry.  I haven't the time or the experience to list all the possible reasons why marriages fail or couples split up or never get together in the first place.  I'll just say that Unrealistic Expectations have to be a major factor…and I don't see how anyone could not have Unrealistic Expectations about someone they lust after from afar.  Some even have them from lusting anear.

In my teen years, I probably had "crushes" on about fifteen or sixteen movie or TV stars.  I probably got to actually meet about ten of them eventually…and by "meet," I don't mean stepping on someone's foot.  I mean talking to them, sometimes for a little while, sometimes for more.  The total number of them who turned out to be the people I thought they'd be was approximately zero.

Some of them were very nice.  A few became actual friends in some loose sense.  But none of those ladies turned out to be, when not performing, precisely the person I'd had the crush on…which is the problem with crushes: You're not infatuated with an actual person.  You're just infatuated with a figment of your imagination — one perhaps built around the visual of the crush but not much more.  To have a real relationship, you kind of need to fall in love with a real human being.

But you already knew that.  Most of you, anyway.  This was just for anyone out there who somehow didn't and especially for the guy who wrote me.  The next e-mail I answer here will be about comic books or cartoons or something I'm more qualified to discuss.

Today's Video Link

I used to post a lot of Stephen Sondheim interviews on this blog but eventually, I would come across one online and not be sure if I'd linked to it before…and then I'd decide to not post it because I wasn't sure. Here's one I'm pretty sure has never been posted here before…

Not-So-Plain Jayne

Last night, a friend of mine and I watched My Mom Jayne, a new HBO documentary that's basically Mariska Hargitay taking us all along on her journey to find out stuff about a mother she never really knew.  We both enjoyed it a lot more than we expected.  I must admit to not knowing a lot about Jayne Mansfield, a bonafide movie star who I think some have dismissed (unfairly) as the person producers hired when they couldn't get Marilyn.  Ms. Mansfield did not have an easy life and it can't have been easy for her daughter to conduct this inquiry and to keep finding out so much she didn't know either.  The story takes some stunning twists and turns…

…and even if it didn't, it's fascinating to look at the life of a Sex Symbol of that era through the prism of today.  There are moments when it felt to me like some people who (admittedly) didn't know Jayne well were taking some questionable leaps into knowing what was going on in her heart and mind.  Still, if you took all those theories and speculations and mashed them up, they might well have arrived at an accurate portrait.  It's hard to say.  Certainly, Jayne Mansfield was a lady who did what she had to do to get where she wanted to be.  Or at least it was what she had to do in those days…and if it wasn't a spot-on accurate picture of her, it probably was of those days.

It's running on HBO an awful lot in the coming weeks.  You might like it as much as we did.

Today's Video Link

This ran here before on this blog and it will probably run here again…

Happy Independence Day!

When there's bad news on the political front — like, say, Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" passing — you try to look for some good aspect. The lining you find may not be silver but maybe it'll at least be shiny and worth something. Most folks I see online today trying to come up with something are anticipating a moment when people who backed the current G.O.P. wake up and realize that their loss of health care, rising prices and maybe even being plunged into a new war or two are not a good swap for a brief feeling of "owning the libs."

Well, maybe. But that means a lot of pain and suffering and loss for everyone — not just Trump supporters — before that happens. What buoys my spirit, and I'm afraid it doesn't buoy it nearly enough, is the vast number of people I know to be worried, not for themselves but for others. I mean the folks who will suffer no personal damage and might even profit from the direction our nation is taking…but they're worried about the poor, the elderly, the folks who have dire medical problems now and those who will.

They're worried about the people who need groceries, housing and medical care but are unable to work. A lot of Republican spokespersons I see on the news lately don't seem to believe there are such people. Or maybe they don't want to think about them. It gives me hope that there are so many people in this country who do.

Have a Safe and Sane Fourth. Enjoy watching Yankee Doodle Dandy or 1776 or whatever you select. I'm taking the day off.

Today's Video Link

A year or so ago, The Price is Right did a special episode where they filled the audience (and therefore, Contestants' Row) with devout fans who knew the show backward, forwards and sideways. In connection with that, a little documentary was produced about how the show is done.

To the horror of certain people I know, I prefer Drew Carey as host of the show over Bob Barker, especially Mr. Barker's last decade or so when the show was mainly about how much the audience adored him as opposed to the games being played. I don't watch it every day or even every week but I sometimes like to tune it in, just for the comfort of knowing it's there and that so many people are having such a good time because of it.

It's now being done at a studio out in Glendale after years of emanating from Studio 33 at CBS Television City — the same studio where I once saw Red Skelton do his show, the same studio where Carol Burnett (and others) did their shows for years…the same studio where I worked a few times. It was an amazing production in that studio which was not built for a series that had to roll out a new car or a boat every ten minutes. A couple of times, I got to see the show from backstage, watching as the stagehands did the impossible over and over, getting every prize and every game board into its marks precisely on cue.

Really, really impressive…and I loved the sense of history about it all. Alas, CBS Television City (a facility devoted to television production) is turning into Television City (a real estate development which, at least for its first few years will have some television production on its premises). It won't be…it can't be the same. But The Price is Right will go on…and on…and on. There's something I like about that.

Broadway Stats

Every so often, I like to look at the list of the longest-running shows on Broadway. The number after each show title is the number of performances the show had on Broadway, not counting previews.  These are the shows that had 1,000 performances or more.

The ones here in boldface are still running and a couple of them have a shot — albeit a long one — of knocking Phantom of the Opera out of the number one spot. All the 1996 revival of Chicago has to do to achieve that is run for another 2724 performances. If they take no vacations and continue to do the customary eight shows a week, they would claim the top spot in 341 weeks, which is like six-and-a-half years. Lion King needs a little more than that.

You would think the top of the list would have a lot of shows by Neil Simon but the show of his that had the most performances was Barefoot in the Park which is in 64th place.  Stephen Sondheim never wrote a show which had 1,000 performances in its initial run but the original production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum came close with 964 performances.

If you added up all the revivals, Sondheim would fare better.  There have been six different Broadway productions of West Side Story totaling 2,117 performances.  There have been six of Gypsy that total more than that and since there's a revival running now, that total is growing.  The three Broadway productions of Forum, the four of Company, the two of A Little Night Music, the four of Sweeney Todd and the three of Into the Woods each total over a thousand performances.

Smash hits run longer these days than they did in earlier times.  When the original production of Hello, Dolly! closed in 1970, Broadway pundits said no musical would ever top its long run. Two years later when the original production of Fiddler on the Roof closed, Broadway pundits said no musical would ever top its long run. Today, those shows are in 19th and 22nd place on this chart.  Phantom of the Opera ran more than five times as long as Dolly!

Since this edition of the list was compiled, Hamilton has passed 42nd Street to move into 16th place and Aladdin will almost certainly move from 15th place to 14th place shortly.  Before they close, those two shows both stand a good chance of making it into the Top Ten.  The Book of Mormon almost certainly will.

As I think I've mentioned before, the odd presence of a revival of Oh! Calcutta! (a show almost no one liked) being in the Top Ten is due to it being a very low-budget production in a small theater that could turn a profit — and therefore, keep running — for a long time with low ticket sales.  It did not have the financial burdens of most other shows.  It also had a lot of naked people in it.

And of course, the number of performances a show lasted on Broadway is not the whole story.  Most shows on this list and many that are not are revived and performed over and over and over all around the world.  The comedy Norman, Is That You? by Sam Bobrick and Ron Clark ran twelve performances on Broadway.  If you added up all the performances of all the productions it's had in regional theaters over the years, it probably beats out at least some of the shows in the Top Ten of this list.  Here's this list…

The Phantom of the Opera – 13,981 Chicago (1996 Revival) – 11,257 The Lion King – 10,881 Wicked – 8,418Cats – 7,485Les Misérables – 6,680A Chorus Line – 6,137Oh! Calcutta! (1976 revival) – 5,959Mamma Mia! – 5,758Beauty and the Beast – 5,461 The Book of Mormon – 5,271Rent – 5,123Jersey Boys – 4,642Miss Saigon – 4,092 Aladdin – 4,04542nd Street – 3,486 Hamilton – 3,485Grease – 3,388Fiddler on the Roof – 3,242Life with Father – 3,224Tobacco Road – 3,182Hello, Dolly! – 2,844My Fair Lady – 2,717Hairspray – 2,642Mary Poppins – 2,619Avenue Q – 2,534Kinky Boots – 2,507The Producers – 2,502Beautiful: The Carole King Musical – 2,416Cabaret (1998 Revival) – 2,377Annie – 2,377Man of La Mancha – 2,328Rock of Ages – 2,328Abie's Irish Rose – 2,327 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – 2,255Oklahoma! – 2,212Smokey Joe's Cafe – 2,036 Hadestown – 1,956Pippin – 1,944South Pacific – 1,925The Magic Show – 1,920Aida – 1,852Gemini – 1,819 Moulin Rouge! – 1,809Deathtrap – 1,793Harvey – 1,775Dancin' – 1,774La Cage aux Folles – 1,761Hair – 1,750The Wiz – 1,672Dear Evan Hansen – 1,672Come From Away – 1,669Born Yesterday – 1,642Crazy For You – 1,622Ain't Misbehavin’ – 1,604The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas – 1,584Monty Python's Spamalot – 1,575Mary, Mary – 1,572Evita – 1,567The Voice of the Turtle – 1,557Matilda The Musical – 1,554 Six: The Musical – 1,546Waitress – 1,544Jekyll & Hyde – 1,543Barefoot in the Park – 1,53242nd Street (2001 Revival) – 1,524Dreamgirls – 1,521Mame – 1,508Grease (1994 Revival) – 1,505Same Time, Next Year – 1,453Arsenic and Old Lace – 1,444The Sound of Music – 1,443 MJ The Musical – 1,422Me and My Girl – 1,420How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying – 1,417Hellzapoppin – 1,404The Music Man – 1,375Funny Girl – 1,348Mummenschanz – 1,326Oh! Calcutta! – 1,316Billy Elliot: The Musical – 1,312School of Rock: The Musical – 1,309Movin' Out – 1,303Brighton Beach Memoirs – 1,299Angel Street – 1,295Lightnin' – 1,291Promises, Promises – 1,281The King and I – 1,246Cactus Flower – 1,234Sleuth – 1,222Torch Song Trilogy – 1,2221776 – 1,217Equus – 1,209Sugar Babies – 1,208Guys and Dolls – 1,200In the Heights – 1,185Amadeus – 1,181Once – 1,168Memphis – 1,166Cabaret – 1,165Mister Roberts – 1,157Annie, Get Your Gun – 1,147Guys and Dolls (1992 Revival) – 1,143The Seven Year Itch – 1,141The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee – 1,136Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk – 1,135Butterflies Are Free – 1,128Pins and Needles – 1,108Plaza Suite – 1,097* & Juliet – 1,093Fosse – 1,093They’re Playing Our Song – 1,082Kiss Me, Kate – 1,077Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark – 1,066Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope – 1,065The Pajama Game – 1,063Shenandoah – 1,050Annie, Get Your Gun (1999 Revival) – 1,045The Teahouse of the August Moon – 1,027Les Misérables (2014 revival) – 1,024Damn Yankees – 1,019Grand Hotel – 1,017Contact – 1,010Never Too Late – 1,007Beatlemania – 1,005Newsies – 1,004

Today's Video Link

Composer Lalo Schifrin died on June 26. I had this video selected and formatted to post before I heard because this is such an important tune. Here, Mr. Schifrin and the Marseille Philarmonic Orchestra play his most popular composition — the theme from Mission Impossible. It's a great song.

Years ago, I was present for the implosion of one of the big hotels in Las Vegas. Just before they blew up the place, there was a huge fireworks show from its roof because, I guess, exploding a huge building wasn't spectacular enough. It was accompanied by this tune blasting from loudspeakers all over the area and everyone started yelling, "James Bond! James Bond!" But a bunch of us were correcting them and yelling, "No, Mission Impossible! Mission Impossible!" Here, in tribute to its composer, is that song…

A June Memory in July

OSo one day, my dear friend Carolyn and I were at a Red Lobster restaurant.  I think it was the one out in Canoga Park and I think this was in September of 2010.  We were in the area where you wait for the hostess to say "Your table is ready" and to escort you to it…when suddenly, who should we run into but June Foray and her sister?  June was delighted to see us and the feeling was mutual.  "What a lucky coincidence," someone said and we instantly decided to all dine together.

I informed the hostess that instead of two parties of two, we would instead be one party of four.  She said, "Well, in that case, it may be twenty minutes or more before we'll have a table for four available."  June said, "That'll be fine" but I insisted, "No, it will not be fine.  Do you know who this is?"  I motioned to June, who looked a bit uncomfortable at the fuss I was making.  I announced, "This is June Foray, the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Natasha of 'Boris and Natasha,' Granny on the 'Tweety and Sylvester' cartoons and so many more.  You can't keep an important person like June Foray waiting twenty minutes or more for a table!"

June whispered to me, "It's okay, Mark.  Don't make a scene."

I said, "This calls for a scene, June.  I will not stand for you being forced to stand like this."  I turned to the hostess and demanded that she seat our party immediately.  "You can't treat an important person like June Foray like this!"

Cringing, June said, "Please, Mark.  I don't mind waiting!"  And then the hostess said, "Well, maybe I could seat you in our private dining room here. It seats way more than four people…"

June said again, "I don't mind waiting" but I said, "Well, I do." And I ordered the hostess to take us immediately to the private dining room.  Despite June's insistence that this was not necessary, the hostess showed us to a private room.  As it turns out, the private room was occupied.  All but a few seats in it were occupied by friends of June who stood and yelled, "SURPRISE!"  Everyone was in on it, including the June's sister (who insisted they have dinner at that Red Lobster that evening) and the hostess (who was tipped well for playing her part just as we rehearsed it before the Foray sisters arrived).

There was a big banner that read "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JUNE!" and everyone there was wearing little cut-out paper hearts that proclaimed much the same thought and there was a big a cake about the size of the Birthday Girl.  Here's a photo of that Birthday Girl with the cake…

But we didn't eat the cake until after we'd eaten Cheddar Bay Biscuits and whatever else Red Lobster serves.  Then came the cake.  Then there were toasts and speeches.  The speeches were mostly funny but they were also about what a wonderful lady June was, short in stature but a giant in the talent department.  Then a lot of photos were taken.  Here's one of June with some other folks who supplied voices for cartoon characters…

The back row consists of Gregg Berger, Gary Owens and Will Ryan.  The front row is Bob Bergen, June and Janet Waldo.  Also present were other actors and some animators and a few animation historians and friends of June.  Everyone who ever loved cartoons was a friend of June.  And here's a photo of my wonderful companion Carolyn, June and myself…

I miss both of those wonderful ladies…and from the picture above, I also miss Gary, Will and Janet.  Carolyn, by the way, had a much better time than her expression in this photo would suggest.  She loved how we almost had to drag June into her Surprise Party and she loved how delighted June was to realize that I was not being a pain-in-the-butt to the nice hostess; that it was just a scene we staged to amuse her.

Carolyn took a piece of the birthday cake out to the hostess since she was, in a way, part of our celebration.  The hostess — I seem to recall her name was Amy — thanked Carolyn but asked if there was any way she could have June's autograph. And of course, that was quickly arranged. I had ticked off for her earlier, a list of just some of the characters June had voiced in her amazing career. When I got to Cindy Lou Who from the animated version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Amy trembled a bit and said, "Really?"

She told June, as she'd told me during our rehearsal, how much that cartoon had meant to her. She still watched it every Christmas because it connected her with memories of her family and watching it with grandparents and an uncle who were no longer around. And come to think of it, I probably like the story of June's party because it connects me with people who are no longer around and I never want to lose those memories.

June did the voice of Cindy Lou Who for Amy — and Amy could not have been more thrilled. And June was thrilled because Amy was thrilled and all of us there were thrilled because June was thrilled…and it was easily the best time I ever had at a Red Lobster. Everyone there enjoyed it and it wasn't just because of the Cheddar Bay Biscuits…although they were pretty good too.