Mark Evanier's Blog, page 90

Mark's Xmas Video Countdown – #2

I'm declaring a tie for second place this year and also for first. These two videos have more or less taken turns being my #1 pick in years past and they both have fans among those who drive by this website. Since I get to make up the rules as I go along here, I'm disqualifying them from the top spot and awarding them both second place this year. Hope you enjoy 'em both. No, I know you'll enjoy them both…

Today's Video Link

This is not part of Mark's Xmas Video Countdown. It's just three divorced men singing a Christmas Carol…

Tuesday Afternoon

I'm spending Christmas Eve Day writing and hoping that Santa brings me a better ending for the piece I'm working on. But I have stuff here to post too, starting with these two items…

An old pal of mine, Steve Darnall, produces a very fine magazine called Nostalgia Digest, which is full of articles about old TV shows, old radio shows, old movies and the folks in them. He also hosts a weekly program of vintage radio shows broadcast live every Saturday from 1 to 5 PM Central Time on WDCB 90.9 FM in the Chicago area and at this website.

You can also hear each show a few days later on the Nostalgia Digest website and that's where at this moment, you can hear last Saturday's show. If you go there right now, it's the one labelled "Listen Now to Our Most Recent Broadcast." If you go there after next Saturday's show is posted, you'll have more trouble figuring out which one I'm calling to your attention.

On the episode I'm calling to your attention, Steve did a very fine reading of my oft-read, oft-plagiarized story about Mel Tormé. But he didn't steal it and I'm quite delighted with his presentation. If you want to hear it, it starts around 1:58:40.  While you're there, look into a subscription to Nostalgia Digest. I always find much to enjoy in each issue.

Meanwhile, in this post I showed you excerpts from a 2014 staging that the Actors Fund did with live actors performing Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. What I didn't show you because I didn't know they'd done it again in 2019 with a mostly-different cast, are these excerpts from the 2019 production…

My buddy Bob Elisberg was the first of many to send me that link and he also sent this: It's a recording (audio only) of an overture to the cartoon special that was recorded in case it was ever released as a soundtrack album…which it wasn't. Someday, someone's going to wise up and mount a real, Broadway-budgeted musical of that special but for now, here's the overture…

More Xmas goodies later.

A Memory Jogger – Part 2 of 4

If you haven't read Part One of this series, you might want to do that before you proceed.

When I was reading Dell Comics in the fifties, I had a favorite artist not only before I knew his name but before I was fully aware that comic books were drawn by anyone. Until about the age of six, I thought they just magically appeared…you know, the way cartoons on TV did. If I'd given the matter any thought, I might have suspected that the guy at the drug store where we bought my comic books was creating them when he was not busy filling prescriptions.

My favorite artist, it turned out, was a man named Dan Spiegle.

Oh, I liked other artists as well but Dan did a lot of adaptations of movies and TV shows and when he drew them, the people he drew not only looked like the people on the screen, they pretty much acted like them too. They had the perfect facial expressions and body english to go with what was in the word balloons over their heads. Even at a young age, I was more impressed by that than by an artist's ability to draw a cool-looking monster or a powerful fight scene. I would appreciate him even more when we began working together.

In 1962 when I was ten, some Dell Comics branched off and became Gold Key Comics (explanation here). Dan branched off with them and drew for Gold Key — Maverick, Korak, Space Family Robinson, lotsa Disney movies, etc.

In the seventies when I made little field trips up to the Santa Barbara area, as I explained in Part 1, I would always visit Dan Spiegle. He was as nice as he was talented and he was one of the most talented artists in the business.

The first time I made one of these expeditions to the Santa Barbara/Carpinteria area, some friends of mine and I first visited Dan. He was then drawing, among other assignments, the Scooby Doo comic book that I was writing for Gold Key Comics. We would later collaborate on a great many projects including Blackhawk for DC, Crossfire for Eclipse Comics and more Scooby Doo comics for several different publishers, not all of them in the United States. As you may have figured out, that's me on the left in the above photo and Dan on the right. We're in his studio in Carpinteria. It was a big shed amidst a forest of avocado trees.

At the time, I was unaware how close we would become and how often we'd work together…but if I'd known then, I would have been quite pleased. I had met him briefly before at Richard Kyle's bookshop in Long Beach…at its grand opening party, I think. That day in Carpinteria, Dan barbecued lunch for me and my friends — something else he did quite well — and we had a wonderful, long talk. Later, there were other visits and once or twice, we met Russell Myers at Santa's Kitchen, the restaurant at Santa Claus Lane, for lunch.

That work we did on Scooby Doo turned out to be the start of a about a forty-year relationship. I wrote and Dan drew stories published by Western Publishing, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Eclipse Comics, Archie Comics and several foreign publishers.

Not once was Dan late with anything. Not once did he disappoint me. And I can think of at least a half-dozen times when, on projects that did not involve me, he was a true hero producing superior work on impossible deadlines. Often, it was because some other artist had botched the work or could not possibly have gotten it done on time. He was just amazing…and we never had an argument of any kind.

Dan didn't live far from Santa Claus Lane…about three miles. It's impossible for me to think about the place without thinking about stopping there on the way to his home…or on the way home from his home…or eating there with him on some visit. The food was awful but the company was always gourmet quality. I can't tell you how much I miss that man.

Let Me Not Entertain You

Here's part of a message Audra McDonald posted online…

Hi friends! You know that nasty cold that's going around right now? Maybe some of you have it? Sore throat, cough, etc? No fun right? Well that little bugger is racing through the Broadway community right now too including here at Gypsy and including yours truly. So I'm hoping all of you that are coming to shows this holiday week and next can give a little grace to us folks up onstage and backstage as well.

If you bought your tickets through the box office or Telecharge, you're entitled to a refund or an exchange for some other night…and of course, you're outta luck if going to see the show tonight involved travel expenses, a hotel room, etc. Or if you just plain can't go any of those other nights for which you can exchange your tix. If you bought 'em off Stubhub or some other reseller…well, I dunno. It may depend on where those seats came from.

This kind of thing is, of course, unavoidable with live shows. Performers do get sick and there are various Acts o' God that cause performances to be cancelled. There was a lot of that during the main thrust of COVID and COVID may not be over yet. I have nothing clever or informative to say about any of this. I do know that there are people who won't buy tickets to the kind of show you don't want to attend if the S*T*A*R is out. Even if it's only a 2% chance, they don't want to take it.

I have been to shows when the star is out and occasionally seen a real terrific understudy. Audra probably has one — Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster had them for the revival of The Music Man and both went on at times — and I'm wondering if they could have done Gypsy tonight or if just too many cast members were ill. I guess I'm just happy I didn't say to Amber, "Hey, let's fly back to New York and see Audra McDonald do Gypsy two days before Christmas and I'll spend whatever it takes to get good seats!"

Mark's Xmas Video Countdown – #3

My three favorite Christmas TV cartoon specials are — and I don't have a preference among them — A Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. In 2014, The Actors Fund staged a one-performance-only benefit concert presentation of Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. I wish I'd been there to see it and so do you…but we do have a little montage of snippets from some of the songs and I'm declaring this #3 in our countdown. I'm not 100% sure but I believe that's Douglas Sills as Magoo/Scrooge and Joshua Henry as Bob Cratchit…

Today's Video Link

Here we have this year's edition of TCM Remembers, scrolling quickly through a list of folks in the movie business who died in the past year. I like these because they cover so many people who weren't actors. I think though sometimes these are a little too artsy-sombre and they get too carried away with graphics that don't have anything to do with the deceased people. Can someone explain to me why visuals of Richard Lewis and Bob Newhart are projected inside a train car?

Mark's Xmas Video Countdown – #4

Actor Barry Gordon was six years old when he recorded "Nuttin' for Christmas" in 1955. It immediately became a million-seller and other artists rushed out their versions of the tune. We'll get to my favorite in a second but first, here's the original…

Now then: My favorite was Stan Freberg's cover. Not that many years ago, it was turned into a very clever video by artist Doug Compton. Stan did the voice of the kid and the voice of the burglar…

Woody Fraser, R.I.P.

Woody Fraser died this morning at the age of 90. He was one of the most prolific TV producers in the business for several decades, specializing in talk and light news shows. A very partial list of his credits would include The Mike Douglas Show, The Dick Cavett Show, The Della Reese Show, The Bill Russell Show, The Virginia Graham Show, one of the many programs called The Steve Allen Show, Good Morning America, America Alive!, That's Incredible!, Those Amazing Animals, The Richard Simmons Show, Nightline, Life's Most Embarrassing Moments, Jimmy Breslin's People, On Trial, The Home Show, What Would You Do? and I don't know how many others.

In some cases, as with Mike Douglas and Richard Simmons, he discovered a talent and built a show around them. In other cases, he was hired to invent a show and a format and then pass it on to others. He "mentored" a staggering number of people who went on to successful careers in broadcasting. One of them was Roger Ailes.

I worked for Woody for several years and he was like the little girl in the rhyme: When he was good, he was very, very good…but he was not always good. He was good to me but not to everyone. It's going to take time to write something about him that celebrates the very good part without condoning or ignoring the other side. I'll get to it but maybe not for a while.

A Memory Jogger – Part 1 of 4

A whole batch o' memories were just seriously jostled loose when I came across the above photo on the 'net. It's of a little place called Santa Claus Lane that used to be along the west side of the 101 freeway between Santa Barbara and Carpinteria. It was kind of like a strip mall before I ever heard anyone use that term. Basically, it was a cluster of several small Santa-themed businesses side-by-side with a nice parking lot out front. If you were driving down the 101, especially when heading south, it was an easy place to pull into, use a bathroom, buy some snacks and/or sodas or mail letters.

Mailing letters was a big thing at Santa Claus Lane because they had a tiny post office and its postmark was "Santa Claus, CA." An awful lot of people would travel there just to mail out their Christmas cards with that stamped on them. It was always Christmas at Santa Claus Lane, 365 days a year, especially with that huge Santa figure you see in the photo setting the tone of the mall.

It's been a good half-century since I was there and I don't recall how many stores there were. In addition to the post office, there was a restaurant called Santa's Kitchen and at some point, it added on a bar called The Reindeer Room where, I guess, you were guaranteed to leave with a shiny nose.  There was a pottery shop and toy store and a juice bar.  The juice bar specialized in "date shakes" and also sold fruit you might give or send as a gift to someone…but mostly dates.

Somewhere in there, there were places you could purchase snacks and sodas and souvenirs of Santa Claus Lane. They sold a lot of postcards of the place and I found a few online with I'm using to illustrate this series of articles.  Here's one now…

There was also a little toy train which a very, very small child (smaller than I) might possibly have been able to ride around on a small track that encircled the property. That was if the train was working, which every time I was there, it was not. And there was also usually some guy on the premises in a shopworn Santa suit, wandering around posing for photos and, you could kinda tell, contemplating the career path that had brought him to that exalted, surely high-paying position.

In the sixties, my parents and I sometimes took vacations to the north…up to Carmel and/or Monterey and/or San Francisco. We passed Santa Claus Lane on the way up and the way back and we'd stop on the way up or the way back or both. We also stopped at Pea Soup Andersen's, a great restaurant that I wrote about back here. Don't hold me to this but I believe it was about fifty miles north of Santa Claus Lane on the 101.

I basically remember us stopping at Santa Claus Lane so I could use the bathroom and…well, from that time period, about all I recall is us stopping and me using the bathroom. I think we bought some snacks or drinks just to legitimize our use of the bathrooms.

But I also remember being there without my parents in the seventies…several times. There was a period when every few months, I would drive up there — often but not always with a carload of friends — to visit at least two of three people, all of whom were supremely talented. One was Dan Spiegle, one was Carl Barks and one was Russell Myers. I'll tell you about those visits in Parts 2, 3 and 4 of all this memory-jogging.

And we'll discuss what became of Santa Claus Lane, which (sadly) ain't there no mo'.  The Big Santa, thankfully, has survived and I have a hunch the guy in the ratty Santa costume is still wandering around on the property like a Japanese soldier who was never told the war was over.