tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-226370892024-03-16T14:53:13.954-04:00Michael J. Hayde's BETTER LIVING THROUGH TELEVISIONA celebration of the history of Television - its highs, its lows - as perceived by myself.Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-85590953012063099482021-09-28T14:59:00.008-04:002021-09-28T16:08:38.324-04:00September 29 is National Silent Movie Day! <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj__bD6YmR0fXYukTz7mwd7qPIhdcsJqHm31cFJkjdMMt-bBRpACqwzNHKqbcIcQSyk8fyZNpJC0hrW_pviJFbFFmdR_LysP9fRf0KtNZ7ICSwfn6aRTxqx1wudla4pN-nR5RCZaw/s400/silent-movie-day-4-finished.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="300" height="397" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj__bD6YmR0fXYukTz7mwd7qPIhdcsJqHm31cFJkjdMMt-bBRpACqwzNHKqbcIcQSyk8fyZNpJC0hrW_pviJFbFFmdR_LysP9fRf0KtNZ7ICSwfn6aRTxqx1wudla4pN-nR5RCZaw/w298-h397/silent-movie-day-4-finished.jpg" width="298" /></a></div> </div>As part of the Silent Movie Day Blogathon, <b>Better Living Through Television</b> comes out of semi-retirement to post about TV and its relationship with silent film. Click on each image for a readable enlargement.<p></p><p>Vintage Mack Sennett comedies, of course, were seen in chopped-up highlights on HOWDY DOODY, and we've posted <a href="https://betterlivingtv.blogspot.com/2010/10/tv-needs-cartoons.html" target="_blank">before</a> on the silent animation that was being peddled by distributors for the earliest cartoon shows. As adult programming, silent movies had a harder row to hoe... although, on the local level, a few brave souls gave them a chance.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFg643TPNtvlP6aW1KKuTb4K-OiYFJy6DaYLC3SHlShJPhSpcG24ma9D7IKW_0uv3ug0br6FJEhJZZz3P0N0PXJOJysuTR7_4Ulg_waQwd6lM2V8XbxS3Cv0COrAP7DHhTtwQRmA/s971/The+Eagle+listing+TV+Guide.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="971" data-original-width="761" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFg643TPNtvlP6aW1KKuTb4K-OiYFJy6DaYLC3SHlShJPhSpcG24ma9D7IKW_0uv3ug0br6FJEhJZZz3P0N0PXJOJysuTR7_4Ulg_waQwd6lM2V8XbxS3Cv0COrAP7DHhTtwQRmA/s320/The+Eagle+listing+TV+Guide.jpg" width="251" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>On June 29, 1953, KRON-TV, San Francisco's NBC affiliate, aired THE EAGLE with Rudolph Valentino as a prime time entry. No ratings info is available, although the fact that it was slotted opposite I LOVE LUCY's second season finale strongly suggests that it was not a success.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7jCZ2CAWz7cqBWfNCbwKJGjN8IuYbymFl5H4Pf-r6YkKd0obdRKTmwlPYB9fvIrP5HePDZVMYGdQAJaxJIITn-KgUVkwfwiUjRmD8vC-Jn160J0Gv8ruv_6E5J3Onlm-rvumk5Q/s713/Mabel%2527s+Jealous+Romeo+11-30-1956.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="547" data-original-width="713" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7jCZ2CAWz7cqBWfNCbwKJGjN8IuYbymFl5H4Pf-r6YkKd0obdRKTmwlPYB9fvIrP5HePDZVMYGdQAJaxJIITn-KgUVkwfwiUjRmD8vC-Jn160J0Gv8ruv_6E5J3Onlm-rvumk5Q/s320/Mabel%2527s+Jealous+Romeo+11-30-1956.jpg" width="320" /></a> </div></div><div>During the last third of 1956, Steve Allen reduced his TONIGHT SHOW duties to three days per week (Ernie Kovacs hosted the other two), and the show was cut back from 90 minutes to an hour. WNBC in New York City took over the remaining half-hour with a local show called OLD, OLD STORY, consisting of early Hal Roach and Mack Sennett comedies, such as Sennett's LIZZIES OF THE FIELD (1924) and Roach's DODGE YOUR DEBTS (1921) (which starred Harold Lloyd's lesser known brother Gaylord). The listing above is for November 30, 1956 and if you're a silent comedy expert but don't recall that title, it's actually FATTY AND MABEL ADRIFT (1916), with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle reduced to "we'd better not publicize him so we don't get any nasty letters."</div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXazJWWa8ZEzschfAdf6cl2X6c6azHWMGtpR-2MX_65yO2NZaQz-50ybw05iPID3NdHaJcuN0uwhwPnDSJMTCXxFg8jDbn83ShSLcPF11oijBPfKwgi32euQqIS99raMMvngn1Sg/s2048/Mischief+Makers+ad+1961.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1514" data-original-width="2048" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXazJWWa8ZEzschfAdf6cl2X6c6azHWMGtpR-2MX_65yO2NZaQz-50ybw05iPID3NdHaJcuN0uwhwPnDSJMTCXxFg8jDbn83ShSLcPF11oijBPfKwgi32euQqIS99raMMvngn1Sg/w301-h223/Mischief+Makers+ad+1961.jpg" width="301" /></a></div>By 1961, Robert Youngson's two silent film compilations (THE GOLDEN AGE OF COMEDY and WHEN COMEDY WAS KING) had proved to be huge draws for kids, while on TV, both the Hal Roach "Little Rascals" and MGM "Our Gang" sound shorts were big successes. National Telepix put together two 78-episode series culled from various silent comedy series. The first, MISCHIEF MAKERS, came mainly from the silent Our Gang series produced by Roach. The second series, still untitled in this trade ad, was eventually called COMEDY CAPERS (featuring "Larry Seaman" among other unknowns).</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNGWKB91a6cFPhyMKkZ8lJlRzUU3GjEVgbbq8T2ikaSLHcak7yh1PyWnD5c6nQpYFqULsIu7Zs-sm2vipLjRcO8UKLBE4oYtoNtKgcDaMRJuux0jkhwmThB2afmVIHy6g7DvxZBQ/s1013/TVG+May+25+1961+%2528Silents+Please%2529.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="759" data-original-width="1013" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNGWKB91a6cFPhyMKkZ8lJlRzUU3GjEVgbbq8T2ikaSLHcak7yh1PyWnD5c6nQpYFqULsIu7Zs-sm2vipLjRcO8UKLBE4oYtoNtKgcDaMRJuux0jkhwmThB2afmVIHy6g7DvxZBQ/w300-h225/TVG+May+25+1961+%2528Silents+Please%2529.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div>The early sixties also presented some silent-based prime time shows of varying quality. FLICKER FLASHBACKS, produced by Jay Ward and his TV cartoon crew, used snippets from comedies, dramas and action pictures assembled in a half-hazard, frantic pace, along with "dialogue" and narration chock full of cheap laughs. More respectfully, SILENTS PLEASE used vintage footage to pay homage to the era and its stars. Neither series lasted very long.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWNhpR68zCLkj9SKwUzjkGWMBxeldnwLGMNLNsZsuoOc8jL4Bx1Q0WYcawm8AhZJmf1mNB2eXLiR2D6P4LkdpCEvcpXLpDSnx98KE-v95QE_zSYIiVRWjZpBfj8plLur78Urz6_Q/s1015/Toy+That+Grew+Up+%2528WNET%2529+7-8-1968.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWNhpR68zCLkj9SKwUzjkGWMBxeldnwLGMNLNsZsuoOc8jL4Bx1Q0WYcawm8AhZJmf1mNB2eXLiR2D6P4LkdpCEvcpXLpDSnx98KE-v95QE_zSYIiVRWjZpBfj8plLur78Urz6_Q/s1015/Toy+That+Grew+Up+%2528WNET%2529+7-8-1968.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1015" data-original-width="827" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWNhpR68zCLkj9SKwUzjkGWMBxeldnwLGMNLNsZsuoOc8jL4Bx1Q0WYcawm8AhZJmf1mNB2eXLiR2D6P4LkdpCEvcpXLpDSnx98KE-v95QE_zSYIiVRWjZpBfj8plLur78Urz6_Q/s320/Toy+That+Grew+Up+%2528WNET%2529+7-8-1968.jpg" width="261" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>When network TV gave up on silents, public (or educational) television picked up the slack. The WTTW, Chicago-produced series THE TOY THAT GREW UP, which debuted in July 1968, presented uncut features and short subjects in the same respectful manner as SILENTS PLEASE. Befitting its Public TV origins, host Don Ferris provided background information about the films and their stars.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNFG74aN7UwRo-0FmYLFEZwqEok20_k-3-FD5oQHO283aDPJ_kAFSAPT4549wSDsn5o4ZbhwoJiedfPv81ePoAqvm9ApJBgQ_10qUFk7cQts70aTENV7X4i0RJVkV227A5mumFog/s568/Days+of+Thrills+and+Laughter.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="568" data-original-width="312" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNFG74aN7UwRo-0FmYLFEZwqEok20_k-3-FD5oQHO283aDPJ_kAFSAPT4549wSDsn5o4ZbhwoJiedfPv81ePoAqvm9ApJBgQ_10qUFk7cQts70aTENV7X4i0RJVkV227A5mumFog/s320/Days+of+Thrills+and+Laughter.jpg" width="176" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>My initial exposure to Charlie Chaplin was in the November 9, 1969 broadcast of Youngson's 3rd feature, THE DAYS OF THRILLS AND LAUGHTER (1961). As I freely admitted in its introduction, my book <i><a href="https://bearmanor-digital.myshopify.com/products/chaplins-vintage-year-the-history-of-the-mutual-chaplin-specials-softcover-edition-by-michael-j-hayde?_pos=2&_sid=394dae904&_ss=r" target="_blank">CHAPLIN'S VINTAGE YEAR</a></i> got its title from the narration in this terrific compilation. I'm certain the excited 10-year-old that I was sat joyously in front of the set on this Sunday afternoon... and just as certain that I was not permitted to stay up for the 8:30 PM rebroadcast, given I had school the next morning!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-qz6fOwXeq5PhVNHFXnE3wxGMBv3VWAws47nvluDYRUDny2SY4N7yz0UE_qy3rioP1JwGwdgSdZiuw6eXzBXDtvL5XgV8GW6E3cZ7l3U8eZckj-DxeImHNLbOQrkjM7YCQAmPWA/s1205/Auburn+NY+Citizen+7-7-73+%2528Herb+Graff%2529.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1048" data-original-width="1205" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-qz6fOwXeq5PhVNHFXnE3wxGMBv3VWAws47nvluDYRUDny2SY4N7yz0UE_qy3rioP1JwGwdgSdZiuw6eXzBXDtvL5XgV8GW6E3cZ7l3U8eZckj-DxeImHNLbOQrkjM7YCQAmPWA/s320/Auburn+NY+Citizen+7-7-73+%2528Herb+Graff%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Around that same time, New York's Public TV station WNET-13 would run Chaplin comedies regularly on weekday afternoons during Christmas break and in the summer. These shows were hosted by Herb Graff, a faculty member of NYU and well-known silent comedy aficionado. In July 1973, Graff and WNET expanded the scope of this programming with a series that highlighted several comedians. This series provided my first exposure to Buster Keaton and Harry Langdon.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw-W20JgW3SSjIzp6uhXYBnOakc__Hc9-351JgbKurC1r7z1A3_VnzG10dhoncWSBu7wo920OKV5iCwi0XCF_LaJDxYQYTFBIE4I3-9b2KMw7HpkravxoGyrUbYC1Z0yp7Df2bmA/s681/Herald-Statesman+7-6-1971+%2528Silent+Years%2529.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw-W20JgW3SSjIzp6uhXYBnOakc__Hc9-351JgbKurC1r7z1A3_VnzG10dhoncWSBu7wo920OKV5iCwi0XCF_LaJDxYQYTFBIE4I3-9b2KMw7HpkravxoGyrUbYC1Z0yp7Df2bmA/s681/Herald-Statesman+7-6-1971+%2528Silent+Years%2529.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw-W20JgW3SSjIzp6uhXYBnOakc__Hc9-351JgbKurC1r7z1A3_VnzG10dhoncWSBu7wo920OKV5iCwi0XCF_LaJDxYQYTFBIE4I3-9b2KMw7HpkravxoGyrUbYC1Z0yp7Df2bmA/s681/Herald-Statesman+7-6-1971+%2528Silent+Years%2529.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="681" data-original-width="466" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw-W20JgW3SSjIzp6uhXYBnOakc__Hc9-351JgbKurC1r7z1A3_VnzG10dhoncWSBu7wo920OKV5iCwi0XCF_LaJDxYQYTFBIE4I3-9b2KMw7HpkravxoGyrUbYC1Z0yp7Df2bmA/s320/Herald-Statesman+7-6-1971+%2528Silent+Years%2529.jpg" width="219" /></a>Television's best-known silent film program is probably THE SILENT YEARS, produced for Public TV by renowned film collector and historian Paul Killiam (who'd been one of the contributors to SILENTS PLEASE), which debuted in NYC in July 1971. (What was it about July that Public TV thought ideal for silent film programming?) Fondly remembered for William Perry's fine piano scores and the erudite Orson Welles as host, THE SILENT YEARS introduced many future historians not only to comedic gems such as THE GOLD RUSH (1925) and THE GENERAL (1926), but also terrific exemplars of silent action-adventure (THE MARK OF ZORRO, 1920) and drama (ORPHANS OF THE STORM, 1922).</div></div>Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-11749680703625223772015-01-18T02:16:00.000-05:002015-01-18T09:43:07.455-05:00Speaking of the Marx Brothers...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5D2yZoGQLQMXUHrDVkokx9XOv9G95tr9KcTy-I48iKgJpOg5NBty1ISNn5RTrIUDC6x0aeeV77ERLkeLj95bFAKh9GCyFVU-9vG5PbHg8rPAlXBabfynrnZnQhBrqFglWKXNOqA/s1600/5+Marx+Bros+1957+02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5D2yZoGQLQMXUHrDVkokx9XOv9G95tr9KcTy-I48iKgJpOg5NBty1ISNn5RTrIUDC6x0aeeV77ERLkeLj95bFAKh9GCyFVU-9vG5PbHg8rPAlXBabfynrnZnQhBrqFglWKXNOqA/s1600/5+Marx+Bros+1957+02.jpg" height="252" width="400" /></a></div>
<i>TONIGHT: America After Dark</i> (NBC, Jan-July 1957) is pretty much regarded as one of television's great disasters. After Steve Allen and Ernie Kovacs gave up their respective hosting duties of the original <i>TONIGHT!</i> at the end of 1956, NBC's Pat Weaver tried turning it into a nocturnal <i>TODAY</i> show, with news, interviews and on-the-spot reporting of the country's night life, from coast-to-coast. Unfortunately, most of America had little interest in seeing what celebrities were up to while the rest of us working stiffs prepared to turn in. Ratings plummeted, and the network opted to get back to the original format of variety and talk, tapping Jack Paar to host. <i>America After Dark</i> went to that cathode ray graveyard where few have mourned it since.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBHlt2xvRJ3V1bf3HqyB9iAGpFCIGejwm40Fpb4sAbjV0Ew4hUxmuhKTKFzc8wX2YBTVFHPVY6x7v7R4vOXcwaPMUe4Hs9bLrLokMGRqf_v3ii28uAy0Qe3MDsGYPZ7qEYvQUt7g/s1600/5+Marx+Bros+1957.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBHlt2xvRJ3V1bf3HqyB9iAGpFCIGejwm40Fpb4sAbjV0Ew4hUxmuhKTKFzc8wX2YBTVFHPVY6x7v7R4vOXcwaPMUe4Hs9bLrLokMGRqf_v3ii28uAy0Qe3MDsGYPZ7qEYvQUt7g/s1600/5+Marx+Bros+1957.JPG" height="306" width="400" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAlOrhoNqA_YgcXuh_JWjkHqF_JjjKlwgfVTNUJ4HfDnIqxtOcK84P6JmvSoRfCGDjasphRwSBeXq1Gi7QGHlFwEmXOjHgS6QmuGn4kM0RVXGoJqHwdKN4Atm2szaUthGXRGVKQg/s1600/5+Marx+Bros+1957+03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAlOrhoNqA_YgcXuh_JWjkHqF_JjjKlwgfVTNUJ4HfDnIqxtOcK84P6JmvSoRfCGDjasphRwSBeXq1Gi7QGHlFwEmXOjHgS6QmuGn4kM0RVXGoJqHwdKN4Atm2szaUthGXRGVKQg/s1600/5+Marx+Bros+1957+03.jpg" height="258" width="320" /></a>One segment, however, is hotly desired by classic comedy fans. Chico Marx of the Marx Brothers had been touring in a play, Sylvia Regan's <i>The Fifth Season</i>, and he and the stock company would appear in Los Angeles beginning Monday evening, February 18. His four younger brothers, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo and Zeppo, would be in the audience, and NBC arranged for cameras and one of their emcees to be in Chico's dressing room for an informal post-performance reunion.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj084dbVRMuUKqtlCa439cOp1BNgUIli-zdQ10Sgmh3SR8faLfifmqGYafqO3Pxw8FLKPUrPw6F748pmkbyT-M4Hmsb_xUErULpLvZNvWCnTKZJOmcG4JZiA01WaGoiaYV91Y3cXg/s1600/5+Marx+Bros+1957+03a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj084dbVRMuUKqtlCa439cOp1BNgUIli-zdQ10Sgmh3SR8faLfifmqGYafqO3Pxw8FLKPUrPw6F748pmkbyT-M4Hmsb_xUErULpLvZNvWCnTKZJOmcG4JZiA01WaGoiaYV91Y3cXg/s1600/5+Marx+Bros+1957+03a.jpg" height="258" width="320" /></a></div>
To date, a kinescope has failed to turn up; all that exists are these five photographs taken during the course of the segment (or perhaps just before/after its telecast). Considering its plugging by newspaper TV columnists, who ordinarily had no interest in this show, it's entirely possible that someone, somewhere has a reel of audiotape with the soundtrack. Check your archives, folks!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiikSqWpY_TKEkC6S2B8oM8V9NSB3Nv7sQc9kiqlcdmaegV4tb7pDPrzXKm0zA6PWqd1ltYPDNy5AvW_Pr0-2eKdGzWRlIvgnVE0ZyYWLqC66Y1qO97CncWP5BcXxWzK_eWalGkZg/s1600/5+Marx+Bros+1957+04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiikSqWpY_TKEkC6S2B8oM8V9NSB3Nv7sQc9kiqlcdmaegV4tb7pDPrzXKm0zA6PWqd1ltYPDNy5AvW_Pr0-2eKdGzWRlIvgnVE0ZyYWLqC66Y1qO97CncWP5BcXxWzK_eWalGkZg/s1600/5+Marx+Bros+1957+04.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-35844424214524078272014-07-12T17:14:00.004-04:002014-07-12T23:40:32.199-04:00Answering GREENBRIAR PICTURE SHOWS<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yesterday my buddy John McElwee posted a gorgeous vintage newspaper ad from the pre-Chico era of <b><a href="http://www.greenbriarpictureshows.blogspot.com/2014/07/a-team-at-their-start.html"><span style="color: black;">The Marx Brothers</span></a></b> in vaudeville on his terrific blog, asking "if there
are any earlier newspaper ads with Marx imagery." I've not seen originals, of course, but have plumbed the depths of newspaper databases, mainly for my own entertainment but also with one eye toward a possible Marx tome. Here's a sampling of what emerged:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipkywll9I1QimSAbgzwtg5-nNZHbkyZ8nKVrmU5gZv8iGfCE7QJWZbsZZB-68Z8q0rOqHV2RfaW4bw-6dKGwAsahDl9DN0QqMUHi_gtBZ7u1wrxt5jKbWRPB-slDyd-vClGuulng/s1600/Atlanta+Constitution+2-14-09+picture+p14.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipkywll9I1QimSAbgzwtg5-nNZHbkyZ8nKVrmU5gZv8iGfCE7QJWZbsZZB-68Z8q0rOqHV2RfaW4bw-6dKGwAsahDl9DN0QqMUHi_gtBZ7u1wrxt5jKbWRPB-slDyd-vClGuulng/s1600/Atlanta+Constitution+2-14-09+picture+p14.JPG" height="400" width="370" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is from the <i>Atlanta Constitution</i> of Valentine's Day 1909; a mere 105 years ago, when the three Marxes were the Four Nightingales. That's Gummo, Lou Levy, Groucho and Harpo in the lower right photo. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Just ten months earlier they were two Marxes (sans Harpo) and Three Nightingales, here advertised in the Fitchburg (NY) Sentinel of April 16, 1908. Apparently, and despite the legend, comedy was a fixture of their act early on, hence the sub-billing as "The Merry Funsters"... or is it "Punsters"? (Probably not; no Chico yet.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRL_mfw8Zo4oAJrdIlPb16twBE4-rRUy6JM41Q8ynWZfWFAkKNJ2vycYjKaonhWjBff1j1xuxH-iCwrTXmLO4x-d8B1LleDnIHd8gmwqb51GLkWQZcd2g_f3GwEVEW4WPgTknXMQ/s1600/Fitchburg+Sentinel+4-16-08+advert+p6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRL_mfw8Zo4oAJrdIlPb16twBE4-rRUy6JM41Q8ynWZfWFAkKNJ2vycYjKaonhWjBff1j1xuxH-iCwrTXmLO4x-d8B1LleDnIHd8gmwqb51GLkWQZcd2g_f3GwEVEW4WPgTknXMQ/s1600/Fitchburg+Sentinel+4-16-08+advert+p6.JPG" height="400" width="333" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The titles listed at top were not acts, but the ditties to be featured in the "illustrated songs" portion. (If not for that last one, I would've been at a complete loss.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnhCUGxLF86De3AoW7KkFeGq-HRIHuK8JPrjA86o67q9SwAtoIXNFG5f9m1ldeSaQG5zI2OnriOg4pc4FZE4X5fjuPhnDe5rTLfFoVhKQJh8a0_gW9r1Z0a6pOmyDev1OFf2bPOg/s1600/Waterloo+(IA)+Times-Tribune+3-14-11+advert+p2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnhCUGxLF86De3AoW7KkFeGq-HRIHuK8JPrjA86o67q9SwAtoIXNFG5f9m1ldeSaQG5zI2OnriOg4pc4FZE4X5fjuPhnDe5rTLfFoVhKQJh8a0_gW9r1Z0a6pOmyDev1OFf2bPOg/s1600/Waterloo+(IA)+Times-Tribune+3-14-11+advert+p2.JPG" height="400" width="173" /></a>In <i>Harpo Speaks</i>, the "silent" brother's massive autobiography, an otherwise forgotten vaudevillian named Mons Herbert makes a cameo appearance. Mr. Herbert was evidently prone to wager his meager salary at the card table, which delighted Harpo as the poor fellow had a habit of tipping the quality of his hand by the number of gold teeth he'd flash. Onstage, according to Harpo, Herbert "blew up a turkey until music came out of its ass." This, as you can see, is barely hinted at in an ad for Waterloo Iowa's Orpheum bill of March 14, 1911. (Note too that in this early stage <i>Fun in Hi Skool</i> was also tltled "Skool Goils and Boiz.")</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmNw6lPPkZ-UbnLuvJfs5CHL7Ca0AxuONe0dSx7tyR1gfpbpO87zuncv8lwZR9kILkwLK3fEdcFHFmmCwfGagElATcwH599XoB0bEzFz0LW9tryS-_OTgDEKJegM3YRbjP8LtZ1Q/s1600/San+Antonio+Gazette+1-6-06+p8.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmNw6lPPkZ-UbnLuvJfs5CHL7Ca0AxuONe0dSx7tyR1gfpbpO87zuncv8lwZR9kILkwLK3fEdcFHFmmCwfGagElATcwH599XoB0bEzFz0LW9tryS-_OTgDEKJegM3YRbjP8LtZ1Q/s1600/San+Antonio+Gazette+1-6-06+p8.JPG" height="400" width="340" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">As is well known among Marxologists, Groucho - Julius, actually - was the first of the brothers to appear on stage. One of his earliest gigs was in support of Lily Seville in something called <i>The Lady and the Tiger</i>. This ad is from the <i>San Antonio Gazette</i> of January 6, 1906. Although their act is touted as "direct from Paris," Miss Seville and 15-year-old Master Marx are listed among the extra attractions at bottom, just before the illustrated songs and "Kinetograph Views," a pretentious term for "flickers."</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">My own favorite discovery comes from much later, when the Four Marx Brothers that we're used to seeing traveled to England in May 1922 - a journey that got them blackballed from big time vaudeville because they didn't clear it through the Keith-Orpheum booking office, which itself led indirectly to <i>I'll Say She Is</i> and Broadway stardom. Ancestry.com has yielded the brothers' passport photos. Chico and Groucho are each accompanied by the missus (evidently wives didn't get their own passports in 1922), while bachelors Zeppo and Harpo - the latter looking like he'd been out all night partying before sitting for his picture - are solo.</span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF3lEQm4iGfcN68oZb4I2MIroX1Y2VOl3ySzqvnHUZ5TIhlIMN1ZhwsN_jEiLwRj21UPoat8qcDzT0ZCswGx-wRmVb4z6PVgjMxeONBUon4U7G-LnREwubSQpXr798BcsRjcimYg/s1600/Marx+Bros+Passport+Photos+May+1922.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF3lEQm4iGfcN68oZb4I2MIroX1Y2VOl3ySzqvnHUZ5TIhlIMN1ZhwsN_jEiLwRj21UPoat8qcDzT0ZCswGx-wRmVb4z6PVgjMxeONBUon4U7G-LnREwubSQpXr798BcsRjcimYg/s1600/Marx+Bros+Passport+Photos+May+1922.JPG" height="393" width="400" /></a></div>
Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-80085282005633029682014-02-12T10:13:00.003-05:002014-02-12T10:24:24.269-05:00So Long, Shirley<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBLgjMsGMiMn57EMaD33sHa3OZyx-zpEoD1_AYOU5Vf4dj_PU652UROnWduUD37o1FmyU_wyzyp9r-2hESz3XXc09LDNWMQwGGbAeKMprDCh6NMnrNQMGhFNedxgMBCqVKv9QW4g/s1600/NTA+ad+1959.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBLgjMsGMiMn57EMaD33sHa3OZyx-zpEoD1_AYOU5Vf4dj_PU652UROnWduUD37o1FmyU_wyzyp9r-2hESz3XXc09LDNWMQwGGbAeKMprDCh6NMnrNQMGhFNedxgMBCqVKv9QW4g/s1600/NTA+ad+1959.jpg" height="400" width="301" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivEHVYvCe7EPum4qSpQlIaP7jv4jI7MxhmdFJ4ASnvS2e2Q7gBWzh99nGjrBwYyWyy7pPmz5rbLtwiYMpSsQ62DhQOjp9n_BemduQ9wHd0WUxEQqOBPyp-SfI2CpiewJzY2kmjzw/s1600/Photoplay+Baby+Burlesk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivEHVYvCe7EPum4qSpQlIaP7jv4jI7MxhmdFJ4ASnvS2e2Q7gBWzh99nGjrBwYyWyy7pPmz5rbLtwiYMpSsQ62DhQOjp9n_BemduQ9wHd0WUxEQqOBPyp-SfI2CpiewJzY2kmjzw/s1600/Photoplay+Baby+Burlesk.jpg" height="320" width="180" /></a>Shirley Temple, who passed away at age 85 this past Monday, was twice a showbiz phenomenon. The first reign has been pretty well covered by the obits: in the space of two years (1933-34) she shot like a rocket from "leading lady" of Educational Pictures' execrable "Baby Burlesk" one-reelers to number one box office attraction in the country, then held that position for four years straight.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdWEuZY3Ffo9zRNNte1_jbPli6HHYwuo5gOYBcGYudVHdOvPmjOVjmSZklrtgBh8aiMnhdTr2ew32iUyqf4yo93p40m52mD5_sbp-Wfh-ZRx1jeltZl3yW4xcrQLLTdl4fJDWSVQ/s1600/Picture+Play+1934.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdWEuZY3Ffo9zRNNte1_jbPli6HHYwuo5gOYBcGYudVHdOvPmjOVjmSZklrtgBh8aiMnhdTr2ew32iUyqf4yo93p40m52mD5_sbp-Wfh-ZRx1jeltZl3yW4xcrQLLTdl4fJDWSVQ/s1600/Picture+Play+1934.jpg" height="200" width="140" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Picture Play</i>, 1934</td></tr>
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Her second rise is less well-covered. In 1957, National Telefilm Associates (NTA), looking to build its own syndication network, leased a block of pre-'48 features from 20th Century-Fox, including four of Shirley's: <i>Captain January</i>, <i>Wee Willie Winkie</i>, <i>Heidi</i> and <i>Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm</i>. These were extracted from the main package and offered as "The Shirley Temple Film Festival" to national advertisers. Ideal Toys immediately signed on for one-third of the package. Reaction was so solid, NTA immediately added <i>Poor Little Rich Girl</i> and <i>Little Miss Broadway</i> to the lineup. By mid-1961, all of Shirley's Fox product was on the air, and local stations would keep the "Temple Film Festival" active into the 1970s.<br />
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My own experience was on Metromedia's WNEW-5 in New York City. In my preadolescence, Shirley graced Saturday afternoons as reliably as did Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall on Sundays for channel 5's "East Side Comedy" hour.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj_1s_iXCL4y_HjcHAoBrxNEOALm4ta2rjbLMCCU-IMdoRT9tryaJy_NPSkk1iNojq3aKa9C3rQziph6AUSfukgtF_TRK-LuyP1-PbcOyPFw0OcnlTOZb3GUFjRGD5moNlF1QQYw/s1600/Pie+Covered+Wagon.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj_1s_iXCL4y_HjcHAoBrxNEOALm4ta2rjbLMCCU-IMdoRT9tryaJy_NPSkk1iNojq3aKa9C3rQziph6AUSfukgtF_TRK-LuyP1-PbcOyPFw0OcnlTOZb3GUFjRGD5moNlF1QQYw/s1600/Pie+Covered+Wagon.JPG" height="400" width="335" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ken Films' releases were worth buying for the covers alone!</td></tr>
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Like any red-blooded youth, I developed a crush on the dimpled darling, albeit aware that it not only transcended distance but time as well. The closest I could get to everyday company with Shirley was via Ken Films' 8mm releases of four Baby Burlesk titles. The genuine Shirley Temple was by then engaged in her second vocation with the United Nations and was about to become - most unexpectedly - an empathetic torch carrier for sufferers of breast cancer.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQvz9XiTiALVBuE-Z_ftMUIBA6bXKy9BdaCP_iuul4jVY682E0CkCDNfgp5UIgdh0hWSi6Z5SUpLf-Vpp5YLKpwivStmwOWHt7VE3V3OK9o2TnE9-nUfdLddJ0_pLcuBBnl-yHPA/s1600/TV+Guide+1958.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQvz9XiTiALVBuE-Z_ftMUIBA6bXKy9BdaCP_iuul4jVY682E0CkCDNfgp5UIgdh0hWSi6Z5SUpLf-Vpp5YLKpwivStmwOWHt7VE3V3OK9o2TnE9-nUfdLddJ0_pLcuBBnl-yHPA/s1600/TV+Guide+1958.JPG" height="320" width="224" /></a>When her films first tallied up huge ratings and grosses in the late fifties, she signed on for a fairy tale program, <i>Shirley Temple's Storybook</i>, broadcast in color on NBC. Several of the tapes survive and were released to DVD in recent years, but as forshadowed by this 1958 <i>TV GUIDE</i> cover, it's the original, Depression-era Shirley that still gets the glory... and likely always will.Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-19951979016089188422013-11-20T09:15:00.000-05:002013-11-20T12:19:18.534-05:00Unfortunate Timing for TV GuideIt must've been a shock when viewers, consulting <i>TV Guide</i> for December 4, 1963, got an eyeful of this listing for The Kennedy Awards. The President, who'd been shot and killed in Dallas on November 22, had been scheduled to appear on this live broadcast of the awards named for his late elder brother.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUGcFWf34QkLGiiEsZOQ4I-9-QOxOxSpv_6Q0-TrlgM0oyFGRvJkRr3mB7ai61UWf4IbAQHKgYSuYLeKohhibpzo8B1zPvcMn8rko1uDMCzTvtIT3I-gzfLBeS688oM4Pu-VbC2A/s1600/TV+Guide+12-4-1963.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUGcFWf34QkLGiiEsZOQ4I-9-QOxOxSpv_6Q0-TrlgM0oyFGRvJkRr3mB7ai61UWf4IbAQHKgYSuYLeKohhibpzo8B1zPvcMn8rko1uDMCzTvtIT3I-gzfLBeS688oM4Pu-VbC2A/s400/TV+Guide+12-4-1963.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Needless to say, this was one show that <i>didn't </i>go on, local Metromedia stations subbing it with movies from their libraries. The issue in which this listing appeared went on sale the Thursday following the national - indeed, global - tragedy. If nothing else, it was a sobering lesson to a still-grieving public on how far in advance the listings section of the <i>Guide</i> went to press.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg57Jf7sNrQwfH8dhc-tB_gYRYJ13ktGzQNBfvBTHnH53VRrFNR342jBnpGRrINj1IQHnREKUXGdf5t0YNEqAYrWYCd1zGgq_rLRF6SJb7ScrOQHMRuDhyEuPY2ndAUDxt2wac17Q/s1600/Herald+Statesman+12-4-1963.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg57Jf7sNrQwfH8dhc-tB_gYRYJ13ktGzQNBfvBTHnH53VRrFNR342jBnpGRrINj1IQHnREKUXGdf5t0YNEqAYrWYCd1zGgq_rLRF6SJb7ScrOQHMRuDhyEuPY2ndAUDxt2wac17Q/s400/Herald+Statesman+12-4-1963.JPG" width="271" /></a>The 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination this weekend is, naturally, being marked with various tributes, news specials and documentaries. Many will focus on the man, others on the event. Hopefully time will be taken as well to speak of the masterful job television did in covering that horrific day and its aftermath. At least one hard-boiled TV critic, on the day the Kennedy Awards were to have aired, took time to toss a bouquet to the medium that set aside its "vast wasteland" for four days and united a planet in sorrow and tried to expedite its first steps toward healing.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEKNv4HJ6y54otVYcE587ZJCVXqsD_fCTsvIf4QST0-jwA-Q0EH-XyP7kwhhrii7Rh4xlTiKKO1PzEAAvhl1lV4hYpjZp8E-g9RLFEFmNYrk_JajpKpqOyaA_EpxHiVnjlEQpfKg/s1600/TV+Guide+01-25-1964.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEKNv4HJ6y54otVYcE587ZJCVXqsD_fCTsvIf4QST0-jwA-Q0EH-XyP7kwhhrii7Rh4xlTiKKO1PzEAAvhl1lV4hYpjZp8E-g9RLFEFmNYrk_JajpKpqOyaA_EpxHiVnjlEQpfKg/s200/TV+Guide+01-25-1964.JPG" width="140" /></a>A few weeks later, TV Guide would more than atone for its unintended gaffe with a commemorative issue recounting everything that had transpired before our eyes.<br />
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(A prior BLTT post looks at some of the <a href="http://betterlivingtv.blogspot.com/2010/02/best-on-record-1963-is-it-gone.html">programming that had been originally scheduled</a> that weekend.)<br />
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<br />Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-26262940718903530552013-11-09T19:43:00.002-05:002013-11-10T03:55:45.170-05:00The post-theatrical life of the Mutual-Chaplin Specials<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJj-vIWBZJYtRW6muwziZ-FGfxLPRbmvrcZMF3xtgFLTn5gQbPTMTgTApaUCP4roHVHRxLvRCH5uOvQTRggGKphAkJm5nPSlcDH91psjWwNFdswDhuwcellMZhmASZMrow6x0EAA/s1600/1943+ad+w-Chaplin+(Commonwealth).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJj-vIWBZJYtRW6muwziZ-FGfxLPRbmvrcZMF3xtgFLTn5gQbPTMTgTApaUCP4roHVHRxLvRCH5uOvQTRggGKphAkJm5nPSlcDH91psjWwNFdswDhuwcellMZhmASZMrow6x0EAA/s400/1943+ad+w-Chaplin+(Commonwealth).jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSczUBZGZdyJZOds9UGVXEJ2vnc9mwcoh266DGP_zQioYhyphenhyphenajFHyeYcYZ2mw8PLHsOgg2zsjZ3q7AI75ziu9vGYO1CHJb0wDuWcpoK4a6RuY_g7cM0ND_ZZp_qvYUmd1Ji2Kx2zg/s1600/Cover+art+FINAL+(low-res).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSczUBZGZdyJZOds9UGVXEJ2vnc9mwcoh266DGP_zQioYhyphenhyphenajFHyeYcYZ2mw8PLHsOgg2zsjZ3q7AI75ziu9vGYO1CHJb0wDuWcpoK4a6RuY_g7cM0ND_ZZp_qvYUmd1Ji2Kx2zg/s400/Cover+art+FINAL+(low-res).JPG" width="263" /></a>Poised to ship upon receipt of orders, the good folks at
BearManor Media have just published my latest book: <a href="http://www.bearmanormedia.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=699"> <i>CHAPLIN’S VINTAGE YEAR:
The History of the Mutual-Chaplin Specials</i></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Silent comedy aficionados need no introduction to this
subject.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For casual viewers: these are
twelve 2-reel comedies produced by Chaplin during 1916-17 that, quite frankly,
have been viewed by more eyes than any other cinematic work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider (at risk of morbidity): cemeteries
are choked with millions who didn’t live to see <i>The Sound of Music</i>, much
less <i>Star Wars</i> or <i>Harry Potter</i>, yet queued up at their local
nickelodeon box office, dimes in hand, just to watch these films, often more
than once.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
During their first release
cycle between 1916-18, they grossed $3.3 million when admissions were, on
average, .10-.15 cents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They came
around again, with new prints each time, in 1919, 1923, 1927, 1932 (with music
and sound courtesy of the Van Beuren studio’s Gene Rodemich and Winston
Sharples), 1941 (in two “streamlined” feature compilations of six shorts each)
and beyond, right up to today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Search
“Chaplin Mutual” on YouTube; you’ll find them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>CHAPLIN’S VINTAGE YEAR covers not only the making of those dozen gems,
but their selling (and re-selling) as well, into the 21<sup>st</sup> century,
and the restoration and Blu-ray release that is coming next year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Naturally, that history includes television.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s a bit more that can be told on that
subject, for which this blog is the perfect forum.</div>
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In March 1941, RKO Radio Pictures, which had acquired the
Chaplin Specials from its former shorts supplier the Van Beuren Corporation,
sold the negatives to Guaranteed Pictures Inc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Guaranteed had been formed in 1928 by Samuel Goldstein and Mortimer
Sikawitt, and mainly distributed independent features, mostly
foreign-made.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Four years after its
founding, the company financed the first Yiddish-language talking feature, <i>Joseph
in the Land of Egypt</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was mainly
a labor of love, yet hit big among its target audience, especially in Poland.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtlxp_po7dMFH_8znSfSVf4napM0Ivu78RPbZkNPmyt_oXEhNBZf1nWJwWZhH2juHiZ8ynlo3r97nn7ki4fHOo-WDukGridD2QZUR3DNRXWCOLAP2VYha0CZfjMvq2cE1gEeRGoA/s1600/Westerns+Serials+(Commonwealth)+1948+ad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtlxp_po7dMFH_8znSfSVf4napM0Ivu78RPbZkNPmyt_oXEhNBZf1nWJwWZhH2juHiZ8ynlo3r97nn7ki4fHOo-WDukGridD2QZUR3DNRXWCOLAP2VYha0CZfjMvq2cE1gEeRGoA/s400/Westerns+Serials+(Commonwealth)+1948+ad.jpg" width="273" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Typical low-budget Commonwealth fare.</i></td></tr>
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Eager to get into the non-theatrical business, by 1937
Goldstein and Sikawitt (who’d soon change his name to Mort Sackett) founded
Commonweath Pictures Corporation for 16mm road show distribution and home movie
sales.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They bought up theatrical films,
mostly low-budget scraps from dead studios or independent productions that had
been released by United Artists and RKO.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Naturally, after Guaranteed acquired the Chaplin Specials, Commonwealth
was assigned non-theatrical rights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
1947, the company branched into TV with Commonwealth Film and Television,
simply licensing its properties for the home screen.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJPiGl9ULO_piyF7BzwTt80Evt0xXA3klgLWivCJ2AHZBLlJyw7056uLyRAITuw3NsKZtmfdv2q8psNFzet1DYDnx97tia-V5_TowmBiy6I5Fwmji_x9E_XwooJVZ1F-uduawhdA/s1600/Easy+Street+blurb+1943+(Commonwealth).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJPiGl9ULO_piyF7BzwTt80Evt0xXA3klgLWivCJ2AHZBLlJyw7056uLyRAITuw3NsKZtmfdv2q8psNFzet1DYDnx97tia-V5_TowmBiy6I5Fwmji_x9E_XwooJVZ1F-uduawhdA/s400/Easy+Street+blurb+1943+(Commonwealth).jpg" width="211" /></a>Guaranteed had issued their two feature compilations in
April and August of 1941; limited releases to be sure, but all enormously
successful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In early 1943, Commonwealth
took the two 6-short features and reworked them into three 4-short featurettes
for non-theatrical release, and also made each individual short available.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Like every other buyer of the Mutual Chaplins, though,
Guaranteed needed to aggressively assert its legal ownership of the titles, as
hundreds of stray prints were still floating around for sale or lease.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In January 1942, action was brought against
the Movie Parade Theater in Los Angeles for unauthorized showing of a Mutual
short.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Theater owner Edward Kohn was
forced to pony up $3,500 in damages for screening his own 16mm print of <i>one</i>
film!</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqEEANYgb0PrEbKdblohxH3q6XCNc9hJ2kJxeof3Y0UsZKLXnLuOO95Oxz14H80tnCxR8ElE6qb-Ghijc1-cB7pnGL9Hitv7wQn-0RkeOERt4HhsoOAKmYQKWWJFSaYVFC-_Qdbg/s1600/Chaplin+Legal+FD+May+1941+(Guaranteed).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqEEANYgb0PrEbKdblohxH3q6XCNc9hJ2kJxeof3Y0UsZKLXnLuOO95Oxz14H80tnCxR8ElE6qb-Ghijc1-cB7pnGL9Hitv7wQn-0RkeOERt4HhsoOAKmYQKWWJFSaYVFC-_Qdbg/s400/Chaplin+Legal+FD+May+1941+(Guaranteed).jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Notice in the May 6, 1941 issue of</i> FILM DAILY.</td></tr>
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Unfortunately, no one seems to have told Goldstein, Sackett
or their lawyer that copyrights needed to be renewed after 28 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Van Beuren versions were never registered,
despite the synchronizing of music and sound that effectively turned them into
“new works.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consequently the
Mutual-Chaplins slipped into the public domain in the mid-1940s, and there was
little that Guaranteed or Commonwealth could do about it, not that they didn’t
try.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl6OK5K6sJmz47mvA8ymLsMQwfXEcZV6qj6BfI_f6rZAf0PSL9knO2n0HqCeiygWDiabhO8LoQzJm2gBDYDUwlgSYSx7y0MZH_jnaemuKsITbjdcMg9Q2bI5vkqC3OH3cUf_wNiA/s1600/1959+Sackett+letter+(Commonwealth).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl6OK5K6sJmz47mvA8ymLsMQwfXEcZV6qj6BfI_f6rZAf0PSL9knO2n0HqCeiygWDiabhO8LoQzJm2gBDYDUwlgSYSx7y0MZH_jnaemuKsITbjdcMg9Q2bI5vkqC3OH3cUf_wNiA/s400/1959+Sackett+letter+(Commonwealth).JPG" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Mort Sackett tries to assert his no-longer-applicable rights to the Mutual-Chaplins in 1959.</i></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilDtm8OAZNVVqIw7ldALNf78awV2hHqW7tAGkykOlfJgULQn-5bKLq0m2IcftC8BphXpXpnClkasOfK3fr44-hGmEhM3Y-h_eHRWZfbwci9RBl44RYnh2GN3y6D57LeBbjF3Af0g/s1600/1958+ad+(Commonwealth).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilDtm8OAZNVVqIw7ldALNf78awV2hHqW7tAGkykOlfJgULQn-5bKLq0m2IcftC8BphXpXpnClkasOfK3fr44-hGmEhM3Y-h_eHRWZfbwci9RBl44RYnh2GN3y6D57LeBbjF3Af0g/s320/1958+ad+(Commonwealth).jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Luckily, Commonwealth was a major TV distributor, thanks
mostly to their prodigious cartoon library, and it helped that they had the
best-looking elements on the Chaplin subjects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It doubly helped that they never bothered making dupe or 16mm negatives,
striking 16mm prints straight off the original 35mm pre-print materials.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Naturally this came at a cost to their
eventual preservation, but that was nobody’s concern in the late 1940s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh04Mef31OzNeGEhF9DPQ8___e2L4KXfF2iCq_6j5q9YTP82oy6RYJhstuRua47v18K-105XcGwGmrFaBYxNHSH-LrNom-qZlI8nghdRbmmGRLXcjPjAOabA2f-n2OHe4hNy88u0A/s1600/Sackett+(Commonwealth).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh04Mef31OzNeGEhF9DPQ8___e2L4KXfF2iCq_6j5q9YTP82oy6RYJhstuRua47v18K-105XcGwGmrFaBYxNHSH-LrNom-qZlI8nghdRbmmGRLXcjPjAOabA2f-n2OHe4hNy88u0A/s200/Sackett+(Commonwealth).jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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TV distribution of the Chaplins began around 1950.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In November of that year, Goldstein died in
a horrific crash on the Long Island Railroad, and it was the beginning of the
end for Commonwealth and Guaranteed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Three years later, Goldstein’s heirs would (unsuccessfully) sue for
control of the companies, claiming Sackett and his wife (who served as
treasurer) were intentionally mismanaging in order to lower share value.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In truth, Sackett was just incompetent; “one
of those bullying, cigar-chewing types,” according to film preservationist
David Shepard, who met him in the 1960s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Before cashing out at the end of that decade, <i>all</i> Commonwealth
properties would wind up in public domain hell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ve seen their titles over and over in the dollar bin: <i>The
Flying Deuces</i>, <i>Pot o’ Gold</i>, <i>Second Chorus</i>, ad infinitum.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs0zDhYfKO21u6COvBGO7PMRAm2qqx5Fzo_D3oIfqKnTA1w1Y6avnBfiKDax3oAccC_k5a5qefJ520-xDJD98_u1fio-98ZjdT21VRMcXPE5qdZIGeQabwJpcKTTfAXBY_nUM7Ow/s1600/Long+Island+Star+Journal+3-16-1950+(Video+Success+for+Chaplin).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs0zDhYfKO21u6COvBGO7PMRAm2qqx5Fzo_D3oIfqKnTA1w1Y6avnBfiKDax3oAccC_k5a5qefJ520-xDJD98_u1fio-98ZjdT21VRMcXPE5qdZIGeQabwJpcKTTfAXBY_nUM7Ow/s320/Long+Island+Star+Journal+3-16-1950+(Video+Success+for+Chaplin).JPG" width="212" /></a></div>
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Chaplin’s history on early TV was rather spotty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was a big hit in Los Angeles, but owing
to the legal and political allegations then hounding him, veterans and women’s groups
in other cities, including New York, forced his films from the air.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the end of the decade that opposition
began to recede and the Little Tramp gradually made his way back to the
tube.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZmf4pVyR85eNxSfVglG2OAK1tZ-c3majh1DNGp-fYNNv22IWzUoLMK0JGGk8fxxS1Sr_qRScbs_g67nLwvgzbIixPiwYZzfNOLkGAtRHfKhWA97bscJZlK8Y0PSTUm-ihqbXxJQ/s1600/Kingston+Daily+Freeman+1951+(Chaplin+TV).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="93" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZmf4pVyR85eNxSfVglG2OAK1tZ-c3majh1DNGp-fYNNv22IWzUoLMK0JGGk8fxxS1Sr_qRScbs_g67nLwvgzbIixPiwYZzfNOLkGAtRHfKhWA97bscJZlK8Y0PSTUm-ihqbXxJQ/s200/Kingston+Daily+Freeman+1951+(Chaplin+TV).JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO0dbNSZciouRXCLI1Yl8rBuXBT0_YH3XU1dC4UcmKSLkQQYd44YhYGchIrrcbHG_2RB7S_wL4xytJgLRyat7UaedKzrcaJWIATjzdJ3BlYjh5Tj4UXLW5MDmRKUpxkT71Xqderg/s1600/Variety+3-08-1963+(WORs+Chaplin+Specials).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO0dbNSZciouRXCLI1Yl8rBuXBT0_YH3XU1dC4UcmKSLkQQYd44YhYGchIrrcbHG_2RB7S_wL4xytJgLRyat7UaedKzrcaJWIATjzdJ3BlYjh5Tj4UXLW5MDmRKUpxkT71Xqderg/s200/Variety+3-08-1963+(WORs+Chaplin+Specials).JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1963, New York City’s WOR-TV
licensed the three Commonwealth compilations for their <i>Million Dollar Movie</i>
program, and held those rights for at least three years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The individual shorts turned up on public
television.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By 1972, of course, all was
forgiven and Chaplin returned to the U.S. in triumph to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Pl-qvA1X8">receive a special Academy Award</a>.<br />
<br />
Eventually Blackhawk Films bought the surviving
Commonwealth elements, which is another story, covered in detail in CHAPLIN’S
VINTAGE YEAR.</div>
Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-32314754189170208122013-08-18T14:26:00.000-04:002018-03-21T08:36:33.581-04:00BLUE RIBBON BLUES<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjArBRFtdgR-MEprw87zUo-3jlHBnefZr4mMjbmNG7hQB0vpaEJlOijtPOsTdIJsI3bpdHFDlibiW8gBwLCInm1JsfO1rSutHFhuvHDGtNqHHU1S119ChanLZsRoso16ZWExkz2CQ/s1600/Merrie_melodies_blueribbon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjArBRFtdgR-MEprw87zUo-3jlHBnefZr4mMjbmNG7hQB0vpaEJlOijtPOsTdIJsI3bpdHFDlibiW8gBwLCInm1JsfO1rSutHFhuvHDGtNqHHU1S119ChanLZsRoso16ZWExkz2CQ/s400/Merrie_melodies_blueribbon.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
By April 1943, Leon Schlesinger realized he could no longer
keep up the pace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The producer who’d
delivered 39 cartoons annually for the previous four seasons was looking at a
staff sharply reduced by war service coupled with an obligation to provide
“Private SNAFU” cartoons for the Signal Corps, plus his own declining health,
and decided to cut his theatrical output by a third.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, his distributor, Warner Bros., wanted to keep 39 reels
in the annual pipeline.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus was born
the BLUE RIBBON HIT PARADE.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEjxCtG_2Yv77gb5-UZQeJhGD4OjwK7Kv18pC-xk9dSbj3ZinKJha1ksiQdqlJDA-9WAQ8YFahMQnNFODBoFYV-lUJsZQBRUVWBhh5NmIvqO0q6XNL3yE1RcDxhGsUk6L_YdPSdQ/s1600/Film+Daily+Schlesinger+article+4-1943.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEjxCtG_2Yv77gb5-UZQeJhGD4OjwK7Kv18pC-xk9dSbj3ZinKJha1ksiQdqlJDA-9WAQ8YFahMQnNFODBoFYV-lUJsZQBRUVWBhh5NmIvqO0q6XNL3yE1RcDxhGsUk6L_YdPSdQ/s400/Film+Daily+Schlesinger+article+4-1943.JPG" width="285" /></a>The Blue Ribbon releases are the bane of animation
historians and purists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At least 279
cartoons were reissued under this banner, and of these, 160 were completely
shorn of their original title and credit cards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, no credits whatsoever appear on these eight score,
and the cuts were evidently made on their original negatives - a fact that sent
the earliest Warner animation scholars into conniptions that still resonate in
their nervous systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet the series
has its own story, one that speaks to the strength of Schlesinger’s output.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For one thing, thirteen annual Blue Ribbons carried a lower
price tag than the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies series.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This enabled independent houses that
otherwise couldn’t afford a Warner package to score some of the funniest shorts
on the market.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first series,
introduced in September 1943, was particularly golden: nine of the thirteen
titles had been directed by Fred “Tex” Avery, currently tearing up Loew’s
theater screens with his MGM output; and the group even included two Bugs
Bunnys: HIAWATHA’S RABBIT HUNT (1941) and A WILD HARE (1940), each an Academy
Award nominee.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In order to make up the lost revenue, new Bugs Bunny titles
were removed from the standard Merrie Melodies program beginning in February
1944, and given a series of their own: the Bugs Bunny Specials.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These, naturally, sold for a higher price.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Furthermore, Bugs’s output was exempted from the reissue series; if you
wanted one of his older titles, you could just book it separately at full
price.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the first season of
releases, the wascally wabbit wouldn’t return to the Hit Parade until 1957.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Blue Ribbons were the first cartoons to be reissued in a
program of their own, and their success led others to draw from the same
well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paramount tried reviving the Max
Fleischer Color Classics in January 1945, but this didn’t last beyond four
titles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Next, Columbia’s Color
Favorites debuted in October 1947, as did reissues of Disney cartoons by R.K.O.,
which were not part of a separate series.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>MGM followed suit in November with their Gold Medal Reprints
series.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Starting in 1948,
Universal-International reissued Walter Lantz “Cartunes” during the period
Lantz was contracted to United Artists, and continued doing so after he
returned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That same year, 20<sup>th</sup>
Century-Fox began mixing reissues into their program of Terrytoons
releases.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In October 1949, Paramount
tried again, inaugurating the Champions series, consisting mainly of Noveltoons
from earlier in the decade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a
year, color Popeye cartoons were substituted, and the series was eventually
renamed Popeye Champions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the conclusion of production for the 1943-44 season,
Schlesinger sold his studio directly to Warner Bros.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The company initially announced that the “Looney Tunes” and
“Merrie Melodies” monikers would be dropped in favor of a “Warner Bros.
Cartoon” logo for all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That idea was
scrapped, but from this point on the two series would be interchangeable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although the Tunes had graduated to full
color the year before, Schlesinger had kept Porky Pig and Daffy Duck as their
stars, while Bugs headlined in the Melodies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Blue Ribbons would eventually reissue color Looney Tunes titles, but
the series itself would always be heralded under the Melodies banner.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaVbzopCazVW14jrpEa7oW1Gv-Wjrs53WGh2pjxHmObxhqgrp4-jxsHvzcWkpg4WScdaPa1XUuPu855vVZ5GchitfXwTh7vqZs-L_60DV5_WSCB-fu8l8UKdEtrGuUUmu831xxtg/s1600/aap+ad+(Sponsor+1957).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaVbzopCazVW14jrpEa7oW1Gv-Wjrs53WGh2pjxHmObxhqgrp4-jxsHvzcWkpg4WScdaPa1XUuPu855vVZ5GchitfXwTh7vqZs-L_60DV5_WSCB-fu8l8UKdEtrGuUUmu831xxtg/s320/aap+ad+(Sponsor+1957).jpg" width="229" /></a>During the course of the 1955-56 release season, Warner
Bros. sold off their pre-’48 library, including color cartoons, to a television
distributor, <a href="http://betterlivingtv.blogspot.com/2010/10/tv-needs-cartoons.html"> Associated Artists Productions</a> (a.a.p.).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of the titles included in the deal were then in distribution
as Blue Ribbons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the 1956-57
season, the reissues would be limited to those copyrighted during or after
September 1948, and it was at this point the decision was made to keep the
original title and credit cards on view; only the opening rings and Merrie
Melodies cards would be replaced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Original end titles could remain, even if they closed under the Looney
Tunes banner, because there was no longer a need to replace cards that had credited
Schlesinger.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Beginning in September 1957, the season Bugs returned, the
annual Blue Ribbon output would grow to 16 titles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The series kept to this schedule until (apparently) the 1961-62
season, when it shrank back to thirteen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Hit Parade, along with all classic Warner cartoons, finally came to
an end after the 1963-64 release season.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>After this, the cartoon studio closed its doors for a while, reopening
briefly in the mid-1960s for some mostly abysmal productions that mercifully
ceased at the end of the decade.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Following is hopefully a complete list of Blue Ribbon
releases, mostly in order of reissue date.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Eight titles received two separate Blue Ribbon issues, which are
noted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of this information,
including production numbers, derives from the “Shorts Chart” published in the pages
of BOX OFFICE magazine, with the following exceptions:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Beginning with the 1955-56 season, the Shorts Chart only
published release month for the cartoons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For this and the following season, the exact release dates were taken
from David Mackey’s excellent <a href="http://davemackey.com/animation/wb/index.html"> WARNER BROS. CARTOONS FILMOGRAPHY AND TITLE CARD GALLERY</a> website.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mackey’s listings also
identified the final three titles of the 1956-57 season and the first three
titles of the 1957-58 season, which never appeared in the Chart. Lastly, my thanks to Dave Mackey for providing the last five titles of the 1959-60 season in a recent comment.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
BOX OFFICE did not publish the first five titles of the 1962-63 season.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The list concludes with 7 titles that
Mackey has identified as Blue Ribbons from the 1959-64 period, five of which
presumably slot into the open spaces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The two “leftover” titles are, at present, a mystery.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1943-44 </b>("Blue Ribbon Cartoon Reissues")<b>:</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9301: A Feud There Was
(11-Sept-1943)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9302: The Early Worm Gets the Bird (02-Oct-1943)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9303: My Little Buckaroo (06-Nov 1943) mis-titled “My Little
Buckeroo”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9304: The Fighting 69-1/2th (04-Dec-1943)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9305: Cross-Country Detours (15-Jan-1944)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9306: Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt (12-Feb-1944)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9307: The Bear’s Tale (11-Mar-1944)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9308: Sweet Sioux (08-Apr-1944)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9309: Of Fox and Hounds (13-May-1944)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9310: Thugs with Dirty Mugs (03-Jun-1944)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9311: A Wild Hare (17-Jun-1944) mis-titled “The Wild Hare”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9312: The Cat Came Back (15-Jul-1944)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9313: Isle of Pingo Pongo (19-Aug-1944)<b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1944-45:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1301: Let It Be Me (16-Sep-1944)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1302: September in the Rain (30-Sep-1944)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1303: Sunday Go to Meetin’ Time (28-Oct-1944)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1304: I Love to Singa (18-Nov-1944)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1305: Plenty of Money and You (09-Dec-1944)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1306: The Fella With a Fiddle (20-Jan-1945)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1307: When I Yoo Hoo (24-Feb-1945)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1308: I Only Have Eyes for You (17-Mar-1945)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1309: Ain’t We Got Fun (21-Apr-1945)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1310: I’m a Big Shot Now (04-Jun-1945)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1311: Speaking of the Weather (21-Jul-1945)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1312: Old Glory (25-Aug-1945)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1313: Busy Bakers (20-Oct-1945)<b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1945-46</b> (Now called the “Blue Ribbon Hit Parade”)<b>:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2301: A Sunbonnet Blue (17-Nov-1945)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2302: The Lyin’ Mouse (22-Dec-1945)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2303: The Good Egg (05-Jan-1946)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2304: The Trial of Mr. Wolf (09-Feb-1946)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2305: Little Lion Hunter (23-Mar-1946)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2306: Fresh Fish (06-Apr-1946)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2307: Daffy Duck and Egghead (20-Apr-1946)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2308: Katnip Kollege (04-May-1946)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2309: The Night Watchman (18-May-1946)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2310: Little Brother Rat (08-Jun-1946)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2311: Johnny Smith & Poker Huntas (22-Jun-1946)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2312: Robin Hood Makes Good (06-Jul-1946)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2313: Little Red Walking Hood (17-Aug-1946)<b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1946-47:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3301: Fox Pop (28-Sep-1946)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3302: The Wacky Worm (12-Oct-1946)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3303: You’re an Education (26-Oct-1946)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3304: Have You Got Any Castles? (01-Feb-1947)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3305: Pigs is Pigs (22-Feb-1947)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3306: The Cat’s Tale (29-Mar-1947)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3307: Goofy Groceries (19-Apr-1947)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3308: Doggone Modern (14-Jun-1947)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3309: The Sneezing Weasel (26-Jul-1947)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3310: Rhapsody in Rivets (16-Aug-1947)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3311: Sniffles Bells the Cat (20-Sep-1947)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3312: Cagey Canary (11-Oct-1947)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3313: Now That Summer is Gone (22-Nov-1947)<b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1947-48:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4301: Dangerous Dan McFoo (30-Jan-1948)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4302: Hobo Gadget Band (14-Feb-1948)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4303: Little Pancho Vanilla (20-Mar-1948)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4304: Don’t Look Now (10-Apr-1948)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4305: The Curious Puppy (24-Apr-1948)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4306: Circus Today (22-May-1948)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4307: Little Blabber Mouse (12-Jun-1948)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4308: The Squawkin’ Hawk (10-Jul-1948)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4309: A Tale of Two Kitties (31-Jul-1948)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4310: Pigs in a Polka (14-Aug-1948)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4311: Greetings Bait (28-Aug-1948)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4312: Hiss and Make Up (18-Sep-1948)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4313: Hollywood Steps Out (02-Oct-1948)<b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1948-49:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5301: An Itch in Time (30-Oct-1948)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5302: Fin ‘n’ Catty (11-Dec-1948)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5303: Bedtime For Sniffles (01-Jan-1949)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5304: Prest-o Chang-o (05-Feb-1949)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5305: Swooner Crooner (12-Feb-1949)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5306: Hop, Skip and a Chump (05-Mar-1949)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5307: He Was Her Man (02-Apr-1949)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5308: I Wanna Be a Sailor (20-Apr-1949)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5309: Flop Goes the Weasel (21-May-1949)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5310: Horton Hatches the Egg (18-Jun-1949)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5311: The Egg Collector (16-Jul-1949)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5312: The Mice Will Play (06-Aug-1949)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5313: Inki and the Mynah Bird (20-Aug-1949)<b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1949-50:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6301: Tom Thumb in Trouble (24-Sep-1949)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6302: Farm Frolics (15-Oct-1949)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6303: The Hep Cat (12-Nov-1949)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6304: Toy Trouble (31-Dec-1949)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6305: My Favorite Duck (28-Jan-1950)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6306: The Sheepish Wolf (04-Mar-1950)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6307: Double Chaser (25-Mar-1950)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6308: Fifth Column Mouse (22-Apr-1950)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6309: Inki and the Lion (20-May-1950)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6310: Tick Tock Tuckered (03-Jun-1950)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6311: Booby Hatched (01-Jul-1950)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6312: Trap Happy Porky (05-Aug-1950)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6313: Lost and Foundling (26-Aug-1950)<b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1950-51:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7301: Fagin’s Freshmen (16-Sep-1950)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7302: Slightly Daffy (14-Oct-1950)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7303: The Aristo-Cat (11-Nov-1950)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7304: The Unbearable Bear (09-Dec-1950)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7305: Duck Soup to Nuts (06-Jan-1951)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7306: Flowers for Madame (03-Feb-1951)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7307: Life With Feathers (03-Mar-1951)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7308: Peck Up Your Troubles (24-Mar-1951)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7309: Odor-Able Kitty (21-Apr-1951)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7310: Book Revue (19-May-1951) mis-titled “Book Review”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7311: Stage Fright (23-Jun-1951)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7312: Sioux Me (21-Jul-1951)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7313: The Stupid Cupid (01-Sep-1951)<b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1951-52:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8301: Holiday for Shoestrings (15-Sep-1951)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8302: The Lady in Red (13-Oct-1951)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8303: Sniffles and the Bookworm (10-Nov-1951)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8304: Goldilocks and the Jivin’ Bears (01-Dec-1951)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8305: Of Thee I Sting (12-Jan-1952)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8306: From Hand to Mouse (09-Feb-1952)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8307: Brave Little Bat (15-Mar-1952)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8308: Snow Time for Comedy (12-Apr-1952)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8309: Hush My Mouse (03-May-1952)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8310: Baby Bottleneck (14-Jun-1952)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8311: The Bug Parade (12-Jul-1952)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8312: Merrie Old Soul (02-Aug-1952)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8313: Fresh Airedale (30-Aug-1952)<b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1952-53:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9301: A Feud There Was (13-Sep-1952) 2<sup>nd</sup> BR
release</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9302: Daffy Doodles (11-Oct-1952)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9303: A Day at the Zoo (08-Nov-1952)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9304: The Early Worm Gets the Bird (29-Nov-1952) 2<sup>nd</sup>
BR release</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9305: A Tale of Two Mice (10-Jan-1953)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9306: The Bashful Buzzard (07-Feb-1953)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9307: The Country Mouse (14-Mar-1953)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9308: Little Dutch Plate (11-Apr-1953)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9309: Ain’t That Ducky (02-May-1953)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9310: Mighty Hunters (13-Jun-1953) (1st BR to retain the original title and credit card)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9311: The Fighting 69-1/2th (11-Jul-1953) 2<sup>nd</sup> BR
release</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9312: Sniffles Takes a Trip (01-Aug-1953)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9313: Wacky Wildlife (29-Aug-1953)<b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1953-54:</b> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1301: Old Glory (12-Sep-1953) 2<sup>nd</sup> BR release</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1302: Walky Talky Hawky (17-Oct-1953)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1303: Birth of a Notion (07-Nov-1953)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1304: Eager Beaver (28-Nov-1953)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1305: Scent-Imental Over You (26-Dec-1953)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1306: Of Fox and Hounds (06-Feb-1954) 2<sup>nd</sup> BR
release</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1307: Roughly Squeaking (27-Feb-1954)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1308: Hobo Bobo (03-Apr-1954)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1309: Gay Antics (24-Apr-1954)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1310: The Cat Came Back (05-Jun-1954) 2<sup>nd</sup> BR
release</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1311: One Meat Brawl (10-Jul-1954)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1312: Along Came Daffy (24-Jul-1954)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1313: Mouse Menace (14-Aug-1954)<b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1954-55:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2301: Rhapsody in Rivets (11-Sep-1954) 2<sup>nd</sup> BR
release</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2302: Inki at the Circus (16-Oct-1954)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2303: Foxy Duckling (06-Nov-1954)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2304: The Shell-Shocked Egg (27-Nov-1954)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2305: The Trial of Mr. Wolf (25-Dec-1954) 2<sup>nd</sup> BR release</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2306: Back Alley
Oproar (05-Feb-1955)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2307: You Were Never
Duckier (26-Feb-1955)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2308: House Hunting
Mice (02-Apr-1955)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2309: Crowing Pains
(23-Apr-1955)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2310: Hop, Look and
Listen (04-Jun-1955)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2311: Tweetie Pie
(25-Jun-1955)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2312: Goofy Gophers
(23-Jul-1955)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2313: What’s Brewin’
Bruin? (20-Aug-1955)<b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1955-56</b> (final season in which credits were
eliminated)<b>:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3301: Doggone Cats
(10-Sep-1955)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3302: The Rattled
Rooster (22-Oct-1955)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3303: Fair and
Worm-er (5?-Nov-1955)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3304: The
Mouse-Merized Cat (26-Nov-1955)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3305: The Foghorn
Leghorn (24-Dec-1955)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3306: Bone, Sweet
Bone (21-Jan-1956)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3307: I Taw a Putty
Tat (25-Feb-1956)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3308: Two Gophers
from Texas (31-Mar-1956)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3309: Kit for Cat
(21-Apr-1956)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3310: Scaredy Cat
(02-Jun-1956)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3311: A Horsefly
Fleas (07-Jul-1956)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3312: Little Orphan
Airedale (04-Aug-1956)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3313: Daffy Dilly
(18-Aug-1956)<b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1956-57</b> (First with original title cards and credits
intact)<b>:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4301: Mouse Mazurka
(15-Sep-1956)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4302: Paying the
Piper (20-Oct-1956)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4303: Daffy Duck
Hunt (17-Nov-1956)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4304: Henhouse
Henery (01-Dec-1956)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4305: Swallow The
Leader (19-Jan-1957)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4306 For
Scent-imental Reasons (02-Feb-1957)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4307: Mouse Wreckers
(09-Mar-1957)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4308: Dough for the
Do-Do (06-Apr-1957)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4309: Fast and
Furry-ous (27-Apr-1957)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4310: Bear Feat
(18-May-1957)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4311: Each Dawn I
Crow (15-Jun-1957)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4312: Bad Ol’ Putty
Tat (29-Jun-1957)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4313: Hippety Hopper
(24-Aug-1957)<b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1957-58:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5301: Hare Splitter
(Sept? 1957)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5302: Pop ‘Im Pop!
(Oct? 1957)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5303: His Bitter
Half (Oct? 1957)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5304: The Leghorn
Blows at Midnight (Nov 1957)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5305: The Pest That
Came to Dinner (Dec 1957)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5306: The
Hypo-Chondri-Cat (Dec 1957)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5307: Home, Tweet
Home (Jan 1958)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5308: Mississippi Hare
(Feb 1958)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5309: Caveman Inki
(Mar 1958)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5310: It’s Hummer
Time (Mar 1958)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5311: A Fractured
Leghorn (Apr 1958)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5312: The Scarlet
Pumpernickel (May 1958)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5313: All
A-bir-r-r-d! (Jun 1958)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5314: Awful Orphan
(Jul 1958)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5315: Rebel Rabbit
(Aug 1958)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5316: Stooge for a
Mouse (Aug 1958)<b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1958-59:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6301: Bowery Bugs
(Sept 1958)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6302: An Egg
Scramble (Oct 1958)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6303: Wise Quackers
(Oct 1958)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6304: Two’s a Crowd
(Nov 1958)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6305: Canary Row
(Dec 1958)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6306: Dog Collared
(Jan 1959)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6307: Fox in a Fix
(Jan 1959)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6308: My Bunny Lies
Over the Sea (Feb 1959)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6309: Golden Yeggs
(Mar 1959)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6310: Scent-imental
Romeo (Mar 1959)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6311: Canned Feud
(May 1959)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6312: Early to Bet
(May 1959)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6313: Boobs in the
Woods (Jun 1959)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6314: The
Bee-Deviled Bruin (Jul 1959)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6315: High-Diving
Hare (Jul 1959)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6316: Doggone South
(Aug 1959)<b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1959-60:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7301: Drip-Along
Daffy (Sept 1959)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7302: Often an
Orphan (Oct 1959)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7303: Putty Tat
Trouble (Oct 1959)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7304: Hot Cross
Bunny (Nov 1959)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7305: A Bear For
Punishment (Dec 1959)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7306: A Bone For a
Bone (Jan 1960)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7307: The Prize Pest
(Jan 1960)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7308: Tweety’s
S.O.S. (Feb 1960)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7309: Lovelorn
Leghorn (Mar 1960)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7310: Sleepytime
Possum (Apr 1960)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7311: Cheese Chasers
(Apr 1960)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7312: </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Who’s Kitten Who? (May 1960)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7313: </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Ducksters (Jun 1960)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7314: </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Chow Hound (Jul 1960)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7315: </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">French Rarebit (Aug 1960)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7316: </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">A Ham in a Role (Aug 1960)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1960-61:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8301: Room and Bird
(Sept 1960)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8302: Cracked Quack
(Oct 1960)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8303: His
Hare-Raising Tale (Oct 1960)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8304: Gift Wrapped
(Nov 1960)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8305: Little Beau
Pepe (Dec 1960)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8306: Tweet Tweet
Tweety (Dec 1960)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8307: Bunny Hugged
(Jan 1961)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8308: The Wearing of
the Grin (Feb 1961)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8309: Beep Beep (Mar
1961)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8310: Rabbit Fire
(Apr 1961)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8311: Feed the Kitty
(Apr 1961)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8312: The Lion’s
Busy (May 1961)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8313: Thumb Fun (Jun
1961)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8314: Corn Plastered
(Jul 1961)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8315: Kiddin’ the
Kitten (Aug 1961)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8316: Ballot Box
Bunny (Aug 1961)<b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1961-62:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9301: A Hound for
Trouble (Sept 1961)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9302: Strife With
Father (Sept 1961)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9303: The Grey
Hounded Hare (Oct 1961)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9304: Leghorn
Swaggled (Nov 1961)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9305: A Peck o’
Trouble (Dec 1961)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9306: Tom-Tom Tomcat
(Jan 1962)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9307:
Sock-a-Doodle-Do (Feb 1962)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9308: Rabbit Hood
(Mar 1962)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9309: Ain’t She
Tweet? (Apr 1962)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9310: Bye Bye
Bluebeard (May 1962)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9311: Homeless Hare
(Jun 1962)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9312: A Bird in a
Guilty Cage (Jul 1962)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9313: Fool Coverage
(Aug 1962)<b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1962-63:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1301: ?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1302: ?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1303: ?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1304: ?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1305: ?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1306: Dog Pounded
(Jan 1963)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1307: Cat-Tails for
Two (Feb 1963)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1308: Easy Peckin’s
(Mar 1963)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1309: No Barking
(Apr 1963)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1310: Upswept Hare
(May 1963)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1311: Bell-Hoppy
(Jun 1963)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1312: Satan’s
Waitin’ (Jul 1963)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1313: Big Top Bunny
(Aug 1963)</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1963-64:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2301: Yankee Dood It
(Sept 1963)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2302: Gone Batty
(Oct 1963)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2303: From A to
Z-z-z (Nov 1963)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2304: Tweet Zoo (Dec
1963)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2305: Weasel Stop
(Jan 1964)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2306: Tabasco Road
(Feb 1964)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2307: Greedy for
Tweety (Mar 1964)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2308: The High and
the Flighty (May 1964)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2309: Pests for
Guests (May 1964)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2310: Birds
Anonymous (Jun 1964)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2311: Raw! Raw!
Rooster! (Jul 1964)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2312: A Kiddie’s
Kitty (Aug 1964)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2313: Fox Terror
(Aug 1964)</span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Leftover Blue
Ribbons from the 1959-64 era, per Dave Mackey</b> (shown in original release order)<b>:</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Knights Must Fall</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Hurdy Gurdy Hare</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8-Ball Bunny</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">14 Carrot Rabbit</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Fowl Weather</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Muscle Tussle<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Design For Leaving</span></span></div>
</div>
Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-50489718991821969982012-12-23T19:26:00.001-05:002012-12-24T16:56:44.077-05:00Ghosts of Christmas Past<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhONubPyWqy6AuNxBCYEkSNw7VUQtte3GGgobO9ffoUaCgX1CwSQz_CL0o-IPiv7FZACeqSfxQwAA5GCIn5VyeT0ueTqwSIav50fLjPqPv7l5T7Od_7SDabYKDO2uxnFVMVQCpbTQ/s1600/RCA+ad+1955.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhONubPyWqy6AuNxBCYEkSNw7VUQtte3GGgobO9ffoUaCgX1CwSQz_CL0o-IPiv7FZACeqSfxQwAA5GCIn5VyeT0ueTqwSIav50fLjPqPv7l5T7Od_7SDabYKDO2uxnFVMVQCpbTQ/s640/RCA+ad+1955.JPG" width="440" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0QWW2PjhEskBktgSmvh1zgJpik8govDhUXpNSTq-R07n6hVohddyAncnAPkVbk0dwt5Rta-SOKuNEp5N3jEualoWmUxfOyAm8kRcWuLK154rua8uHRhBRlqk1n_5YkLQQqsXFmA/s1600/scrooge.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0QWW2PjhEskBktgSmvh1zgJpik8govDhUXpNSTq-R07n6hVohddyAncnAPkVbk0dwt5Rta-SOKuNEp5N3jEualoWmUxfOyAm8kRcWuLK154rua8uHRhBRlqk1n_5YkLQQqsXFmA/s200/scrooge.JPG" width="200" /></a>Television made Alastair Sim’s portrayal of Ebenezer Scrooge
into a classic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The British film
had been released theatrically in the U.S. in 1951, where it was soundly panned
by critics and ignored by audiences weaned on <a href="https://archive.org/details/CampbellPlayhouseAChristmasCarol12241939">Lionel Barrymore’s near-annual portrayal on radio</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Three years later,
it was put on the market for tele-airings, and Associated Artists Productions,
in its pre-<a href="http://betterlivingtv.blogspot.com/2010/10/tv-needs-cartoons.html">Bugs Bunny days</a>, snapped it up.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisv9G9D1Y9awplLTkpqR2eO1djPuc8c199BMEgesUIO9u_TXgrv73qZzv1dM34u28WD2XXAe52xKQg48uyEtusDEX9HX_tFAaUQRn0LBsjXswdRE4NSq_t8Blv9FqwYA69N71vHw/s1600/Brooklyn+Eagle+12-21-1954.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisv9G9D1Y9awplLTkpqR2eO1djPuc8c199BMEgesUIO9u_TXgrv73qZzv1dM34u28WD2XXAe52xKQg48uyEtusDEX9HX_tFAaUQRn0LBsjXswdRE4NSq_t8Blv9FqwYA69N71vHw/s320/Brooklyn+Eagle+12-21-1954.JPG" width="164" /></a>New York City’s WOR had recently inaugurated its “Million
Dollar Movie,” the program that aired a single film twice every weeknight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was <i>literal </i>competition for the movie
house: see the film at your convenience, and if you liked it, come see it
again, with only a handful of commercials subbing for the box office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>A Christmas Carol</i> turned up during the week
of December 20, 1954… and audiences have been charmed ever since.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Colorized” and B&W versions abound on
home video.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Blu-ray has <i>got</i> to be
just around the corner.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSG-byf1AJNXtTY_085e6wfRlwrjRDiZM-DVdmXJ5jEZ7IasKw16t5RhFbEwQGObQHNlRfyWYcnOYWGQdtKFlfb0SNDEUBnCXct1U6zNwIEazdsCbX2en4AAQmYHBhkB0JyRpw4w/s1600/Billboard+12-24-1955.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSG-byf1AJNXtTY_085e6wfRlwrjRDiZM-DVdmXJ5jEZ7IasKw16t5RhFbEwQGObQHNlRfyWYcnOYWGQdtKFlfb0SNDEUBnCXct1U6zNwIEazdsCbX2en4AAQmYHBhkB0JyRpw4w/s320/Billboard+12-24-1955.JPG" width="320" /></a> </div>
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Chrysler’s <i>Shower of Stars</i>, normally a variety show that
took over from the live drama series <i>Climax </i>every fourth week, slotted in a
filmed musical version of Dickens’ timeless tale for 1954’s Yuletide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Starring Fredric March as Scrooge and Basil
Rathbone as Marley’s Ghost, with a Bernard Hermann score, it became a CBS
perennial for a number of years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Although the show was committed to color film, it seems to circulate
only as a B&W kinescope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyone
know if the original is now just Eastman pink?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4ElZslt3UovwdHyR90tIq1ad0devAujKb5kV37Z23-SuFjrczQ-OprQ5jSVqfqzncFG6HTGeBp7IhOnGbXSSEFU9C6K25d-lwp8mGIFQhDkoisk2pB770F-bJ_3-tMRhLEHDx1w/s1600/Billboard+12-18-1954.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4ElZslt3UovwdHyR90tIq1ad0devAujKb5kV37Z23-SuFjrczQ-OprQ5jSVqfqzncFG6HTGeBp7IhOnGbXSSEFU9C6K25d-lwp8mGIFQhDkoisk2pB770F-bJ_3-tMRhLEHDx1w/s1600/Billboard+12-18-1954.JPG" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLj6S5r0FyqPuObcIRIhyphenhyphenJHjdd0I2uaBuhwJ6aA8vFpRk3CLdnICakz6bPMzvHU-IK5v1AGa3CmvxGd9uJI1timebBcNK6c9u_EU6nx9o7Uk6l3KEh0mAu1TiCiW-PvTr20C1ctQ/s1600/Sinatra+(1957).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLj6S5r0FyqPuObcIRIhyphenhyphenJHjdd0I2uaBuhwJ6aA8vFpRk3CLdnICakz6bPMzvHU-IK5v1AGa3CmvxGd9uJI1timebBcNK6c9u_EU6nx9o7Uk6l3KEh0mAu1TiCiW-PvTr20C1ctQ/s400/Sinatra+(1957).JPG" width="400" /></a>D'ja ever notice it's only at Christmastime we hear Sinatra and
Crosby (and Como, and Williams, and Cole, and all those other velvet voices)?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lately, even that tradition has been going the way
of the LP.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the joys of video has
been the resurrection of one-time-only gems, including the occasional holiday
special.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe this one will turn up
one day....</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzoPG8riNGwvs8RbsQvLqiBS-RFTQ62uj9-XV3O9onmacPKqZYF6M9CGS1KF84N8_qWfVcyjcGCfXLAD_Ji_HxqGt6w9yOgXW9p-xp3OYeRDlFUuLYmxq0l96-fUf3XL08DJww-w/s1600/magoo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzoPG8riNGwvs8RbsQvLqiBS-RFTQ62uj9-XV3O9onmacPKqZYF6M9CGS1KF84N8_qWfVcyjcGCfXLAD_Ji_HxqGt6w9yOgXW9p-xp3OYeRDlFUuLYmxq0l96-fUf3XL08DJww-w/s320/magoo.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig4ss6Jyb_t5S3Fs_4rwkmQW8wEX19l30Pu9NaqvDMAyoKs8jkNHneokslSWmaQDqFxloC5WeJMhXPhIAwVEzkCiFI2Qrm782zobV-NUWf0o5D7juBSPKSjKTuNYTOYRqcFs_Lcg/s1600/Mr+Magoo+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig4ss6Jyb_t5S3Fs_4rwkmQW8wEX19l30Pu9NaqvDMAyoKs8jkNHneokslSWmaQDqFxloC5WeJMhXPhIAwVEzkCiFI2Qrm782zobV-NUWf0o5D7juBSPKSjKTuNYTOYRqcFs_Lcg/s640/Mr+Magoo+1.JPG" width="249" /></a>The animated Christmas special entered the “modern era” with
Magoo in ’62.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Has it really been 50
years since we were introduced to razzleberry dressing, pens and pencibles, and
“I’m All Alone in the World”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would a
latter-day “holiday”-themed cartoon dare to include an original tune titled “The Lord’s Bright Blessing”? Although I find the "Back on Broadway" trappings to be superfluous (making the parts to edit in favor of more commercials nowadays a no-brainer), the show is easily the most entertaining piece UPA ever did in the Henry J. Saperstein era (no "Cholly" the houseboy here, praise the heavens). Courtesy of Classic Media, I'll be cuing it up Christmas Eve to celebrate its golden anniversary.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJRRZLFN9KTV6ye4cOgn3qqfuz7PgQ2SIqPVuYZcFbbTyCYWA1g7kT56QLxuQBft02M-sYUj8tFPIYcfO_FIHbXCBAm6YFSbd5xEYSg9aW36f3lRiaLTxDDrV88vZFkSt2CR9MzA/s1600/magoo+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJRRZLFN9KTV6ye4cOgn3qqfuz7PgQ2SIqPVuYZcFbbTyCYWA1g7kT56QLxuQBft02M-sYUj8tFPIYcfO_FIHbXCBAm6YFSbd5xEYSg9aW36f3lRiaLTxDDrV88vZFkSt2CR9MzA/s400/magoo+2.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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BETTER LIVING FOR TELEVISION wishes you and yours "a Christmas far more glorious than grand," and a happy, healthy, prosperous New Year.</div>
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Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-46758140490375223062011-12-07T19:54:00.013-05:002011-12-07T21:09:21.039-05:00R.I.P. Harry Morgan<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs-FUMzFdqs0ZpevosU-vdGsKbZH2nhC198L7nVZxKIxsngXlonw6g_H5SBCXEgEEGFYd_CfsN8xlIU6V-k84BthjQ5CIHc0gaWiI2Oo-QuwvdX9U9sX2DEZl8fj5MVBQflbb2qQ/s1600/Foreword+Pic.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 239px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5683554823256077794" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs-FUMzFdqs0ZpevosU-vdGsKbZH2nhC198L7nVZxKIxsngXlonw6g_H5SBCXEgEEGFYd_CfsN8xlIU6V-k84BthjQ5CIHc0gaWiI2Oo-QuwvdX9U9sX2DEZl8fj5MVBQflbb2qQ/s320/Foreword+Pic.jpg" border="0" /></a>Officer Bill Gannon has finally retired. Others around the web will write about Col. Sherman T. Potter, but I choose to pay homage to Mr. Morgan's second-best remembered role.<br /><div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi_4yKqV4q9aNt43owWl5xZgulYEv-SoXn9FDd0WI9EoJA9OM5755jSRNH3GKsw_zSpCQwNYHvH4es7WTO02VUDObGWWYu919OpFSaeljiJ0FmrPpwTPgixlGtiT7-irt7kDW0AA/s1600/dr1966b%2526w.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 146px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5683563883126526418" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi_4yKqV4q9aNt43owWl5xZgulYEv-SoXn9FDd0WI9EoJA9OM5755jSRNH3GKsw_zSpCQwNYHvH4es7WTO02VUDObGWWYu919OpFSaeljiJ0FmrPpwTPgixlGtiT7-irt7kDW0AA/s200/dr1966b%2526w.jpg" border="0" /></a>I interviewed Mr. Morgan in 1998 for my book, <em>My Name's </em><em>Friday</em>. Until that time it had never occurred to me that simply writing a book about <em>Dragnet </em>might be credential enough to speak with some of its participants.<br /><br />Back then, Kenneth Starr's investigation into President Clinton's indiscretions was in full bloom, and during a press conference, Mr. Starr made a comment that, like Sgt. Joe Friday, his interest was for "Just the facts, ma'am." "Let's don't have politics, let's don't have spin... let's let those facts come out." A writer from the <em>National Enquirer </em>thought it would be make a good story to get opinions about this from people involved with <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIdNr32y9ivHbBOC2wf1eZOWSZVHfrvqiFPp8pkbkMaR4JyFwLcxPokDGvIKP4iuIE_UkRzOeSwC-qfN0Okaqkgc_Yqg4WuUGBUvfOgv7vqRloZ4TN8cYSoQCzRvZbvnlD95PXgw/s1600/bigexplosion.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 152px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIdNr32y9ivHbBOC2wf1eZOWSZVHfrvqiFPp8pkbkMaR4JyFwLcxPokDGvIKP4iuIE_UkRzOeSwC-qfN0Okaqkgc_Yqg4WuUGBUvfOgv7vqRloZ4TN8cYSoQCzRvZbvnlD95PXgw/s200/bigexplosion.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5683568447869601522" border="0" /></a><em>Dragnet</em> in some way. He contacted Harry Morgan and, as I'd announced on badge714.com that I was writing a book on the show, he contacted me. When our interview was over, he graciously gave me Mr. Morgan's telephone number.</div><br />I think it took me at least a week to work up the nerve to dial it, and two or three messages left before we finally connected. Truth be told, I wasn't sure what to expect. I hadn't seen him on screen in quite a while, and the last time I did, I thought he'd looked pretty wan. I wondered if age had dimmed his faculties in some way.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN4mHKorNbkRZlawxzsPJq4L_pL9TvZ840Lnr_wT9EHqUdFBzw9WCLcIDWresxj9y_Oyf0_KzJSoqq0wOgrp1X-yZBFluvYe8Dl4hrSe1mQ950MQ1o4OP3lnlrmT2MgRHABzwrlA/s1600/DR-31.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN4mHKorNbkRZlawxzsPJq4L_pL9TvZ840Lnr_wT9EHqUdFBzw9WCLcIDWresxj9y_Oyf0_KzJSoqq0wOgrp1X-yZBFluvYe8Dl4hrSe1mQ950MQ1o4OP3lnlrmT2MgRHABzwrlA/s200/DR-31.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5683566504251693282" border="0" /></a><br /><div>I needn't have worried. The man was an absolute delight. He shared some marvelous anecdotes about working and socializing with Jack Webb, and even remembered doing some of the earliest <em>Dragnet </em>radio episodes. (Seek out <em>The Big Book </em>from 1950, where he portrays a scoutmaster attending a seminar that Friday and Romero are giving on keeping pornography out of schools.) He was well-aware that he'd been Webb's second <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSRcPcKCCTM9EMQpYrtVSr-BW5j8CfyA7dG0oAXkQAxYD8W8qm2TqA8N5t5WilSjrpDTSn4I2NKZ3SrRsO3qC5Ld2vtm1sDUfHOySrbEQcu7l8Z1ay49sSZwE6ggII9StaO8KgJw/s1600/FURJOB.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 168px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSRcPcKCCTM9EMQpYrtVSr-BW5j8CfyA7dG0oAXkQAxYD8W8qm2TqA8N5t5WilSjrpDTSn4I2NKZ3SrRsO3qC5Ld2vtm1sDUfHOySrbEQcu7l8Z1ay49sSZwE6ggII9StaO8KgJw/s200/FURJOB.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5683565485187539426" border="0" /></a>choice (Ben Alexander had just been hired for <em>Felony Squad</em>), and considered Webb's acting and directing styles "fascinating." He was also free with his opinions about different aspects of the show. My favorite quote was this one:</div><em><br />Jack and I wore the same clothes for the whole damn series. The same suit, the same shirt, the same tie, the same... well, maybe not the same underwear. But nobody ever said, 'Jesus, don't you guys ever change clothes?' It's funny how little an audience will notice.</em><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzvmv7DJSXWtoPUhsepoWj8EhSQzUX2HSZRyJ9MXW0DtFkCJXuB0bcqGCITHvUmT5kqAqTHoUU87bVgjMJoyVeHow0KDabmccbwLmdnc5ePggXclu1F9DPFPx1DaYD99LS1_1FdA/s1600/WHITMAN2.GIF"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzvmv7DJSXWtoPUhsepoWj8EhSQzUX2HSZRyJ9MXW0DtFkCJXuB0bcqGCITHvUmT5kqAqTHoUU87bVgjMJoyVeHow0KDabmccbwLmdnc5ePggXclu1F9DPFPx1DaYD99LS1_1FdA/s320/WHITMAN2.GIF" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5683567679823979218" border="0" /></a>Since confession is good for the soul, I might as well explain that Mr. Morgan did not "write" the Foreword for my book. I asked him if he'd be interested in doing so, and he graciously declined. However, when I asked if I could compile some of the more pertinent quotes about his work with Webb, and use <em>that </em>as a Foreword, he was agreeable. I sent him a draft; he made one correction, and that was that. When it was published, I mailed him four copies of the book: one for him and one for each of his three sons.<br /><br />Interviewing Mr. Morgan, and experiencing the gracious way he treated me, gave me the confidence to seek out other folks who'd appeared on <em>Dragnet</em> or in Webb's movies, or who worked <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdcWuw1Y_814o7C5QcV1k2XNuIL0wccHki1QtV0QFyol6udMIgHGTjf3B3N-fFKxhV_MsTZweWEo6HlvzV4YrJUF4srQthtgSp_2HhgJHE8sEOrCYG0i7BHlv3ZNFfbui1JHGQcA/s1600/PROPHET.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 159px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdcWuw1Y_814o7C5QcV1k2XNuIL0wccHki1QtV0QFyol6udMIgHGTjf3B3N-fFKxhV_MsTZweWEo6HlvzV4YrJUF4srQthtgSp_2HhgJHE8sEOrCYG0i7BHlv3ZNFfbui1JHGQcA/s200/PROPHET.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5683567236962265074" border="0" /></a>behind the scenes. As it happens, those interviews really <em>made</em> the book as successful as it was, and I'll always be grateful to Mr. Morgan for the jump-start.<br /><br />In particular, though, I'm grateful that Harry Morgan said "Yes" to Jack Webb when Ben Alexander had to say "No." Thanks for being Bill Gannon, Harry.<br /><br /></div></div>Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-59045358686347883182010-12-17T18:53:00.014-05:002015-12-03T12:37:41.995-05:00"Okay, Rudolph... Full Power!"<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiloalZzSfV_t3fZnaXER4Kc1-zlQiUmFU2LkAk87rCkJt8f3oL91PLrHO64zWo50xrC36SVLSp8QJYM1uyEhVvfO5Z05JI4Vc5uWz1W23LvgvA1skQFCdKUqCIj3ScSLYSbvLiDA/s1600/Winona+Sunday+News+12-06-1964+photo.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551807957371345026" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiloalZzSfV_t3fZnaXER4Kc1-zlQiUmFU2LkAk87rCkJt8f3oL91PLrHO64zWo50xrC36SVLSp8QJYM1uyEhVvfO5Z05JI4Vc5uWz1W23LvgvA1skQFCdKUqCIj3ScSLYSbvLiDA/s320/Winona+Sunday+News+12-06-1964+photo.JPG" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 290px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a> <br />
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<em><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAqf7XigV1qJ_DDHKgLHjDnkX4v8Hb7p_hZO8a8xqxtnStHbasLyIJnEOaWuZGI_Mk7P31guMnBrFIkzGO5oaMl6vVrhgxh-9FZcAi96_SsxV5PM-OGRJWnXH7ea9yRhGm7sG5MQ/s1600/Pasadena+Independent+Star-News+12-06-1964.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551813153955983970" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAqf7XigV1qJ_DDHKgLHjDnkX4v8Hb7p_hZO8a8xqxtnStHbasLyIJnEOaWuZGI_Mk7P31guMnBrFIkzGO5oaMl6vVrhgxh-9FZcAi96_SsxV5PM-OGRJWnXH7ea9yRhGm7sG5MQ/s320/Pasadena+Independent+Star-News+12-06-1964.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 122px;" /></a></em></div>
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<em>Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol</em> debuted two years' before, but Rankin-Bass's <em>Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer</em> is the earliest Christmas special I remember. "The most famous reindeer of all's" story premiered on December 6, 1964 as an entry in <em>General Electric's Fantasy Hour</em>, a series of color specials that aired on Sunday afternoon. Someone has posted the original opening and commercials (featuring Santa's elves) from that first appearance to YouTube:<br />
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QovoRux3EbA/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QovoRux3EbA?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR-3xwTSxytCek2s4JMPxXPkIr0Xi0dPDYTRE9FanoKPPm2ToIkZNxYbNT9rHci15O-Y-pnwnOMxoM2cYes_K2tcCQNuWoRy1gEECuZeQgA1Lphv4LQ3kjAhwu-WT0NTB5_ITjVw/s1600/Wisconsin+State+Journal+12-06-1964.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551812767478192418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR-3xwTSxytCek2s4JMPxXPkIr0Xi0dPDYTRE9FanoKPPm2ToIkZNxYbNT9rHci15O-Y-pnwnOMxoM2cYes_K2tcCQNuWoRy1gEECuZeQgA1Lphv4LQ3kjAhwu-WT0NTB5_ITjVw/s320/Wisconsin+State+Journal+12-06-1964.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 290px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 320px;" /></a></div>
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The closing includes a couple of nice shots of the voice cast. Jerry Beck, at his invaluable blog <a href="http://www.cartoonbrew.com/">Cartoon Brew</a>, has identified them. The first photo shows, from left to right, Janice Orenstein (Clarice), Paul Kliegman (Donner and the reindeer coach) and Paul Soles (Hermey). From left to right in the second photo: Soles, Billie Mae Richards (Rudolph), Carl Banas (Head Elf and Spotted Elephant) and Alfie Scopp (Charlie-in-the-Box).</div>
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I'd forgotten that this wasn't a prime-time entry, but its popularity ensured that it would become one for Christmas Future. It received a lot of press back in 1964, and more than one reviewer opined that we would see <em>Rudolph </em>annually... as indeed we have.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcBn2cHFZeco0cxo1rLHdQ5I79GcSAa5rfqF-4hl4yoqce9sQ_NwwzbffvDleUeCh1oVKzg7F37VZr2GfVCx-s1YHpP0qDvLkMaX9FJ1NewX87szRxihfjd6QNIaUwOa25DUav6A/s1600/Sheboygan+%2528WI%2529+Press+12-7-1964+%2528review%2529.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551807564307639906" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcBn2cHFZeco0cxo1rLHdQ5I79GcSAa5rfqF-4hl4yoqce9sQ_NwwzbffvDleUeCh1oVKzg7F37VZr2GfVCx-s1YHpP0qDvLkMaX9FJ1NewX87szRxihfjd6QNIaUwOa25DUav6A/s400/Sheboygan+%2528WI%2529+Press+12-7-1964+%2528review%2529.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 397px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 400px;" /></a></div>
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To all my readers: May you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous 2011. And to quote from the Christmas special I didn't see first, May God Bless Us, Every One.</div>
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Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-19794366614462022010-10-22T22:39:00.051-04:002013-02-14T21:49:37.975-05:00TV Needs Cartoons!<b>FEBRUARY 14, 2013:</b> Updated version with additons/corrections:<br />
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Here's a relic from TV's Golden Age that survived well into the cable/satellite era:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9kMGZo9it5mcwzvdjq2Cvg_FeiLKo-MKhu0yqilU0DrTR15KYgwzMDD3JtuAtSZJFrxaEniunQZGcuA-WureAul9zU-XGQOal2amDuvBlAbzjOr5bIpA-HoT6aVcO9U-tSfFvbQ/s1600/Billboard+09-05-1953+(Superman+cartoons).JPG"></a><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531076954441189650" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhToO2gkfHlaLW-ninMfx_6Vm4Kuq9X_bQZlgZnd6bMV8S-JBKhuyZP1wT5L7bye8I9ZEqBOCqPsCKNhMLZ1Jw1EAAcA3dhio4dY1_4vbpJKEbQ-mWwZHJ0J_frz8TVYkvigp64eA/s400/aap+logo.JPG" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 251px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 333px;" /><br />
In this digitally restored hi-def world, title cards from defunct TV film distribution firms are all but extinct. Ironically, the fact that they lived <i>this</i> long just demonstrates the apathy that subsequent owners held toward their animated property. Cartoons were so trivial, it mattered not they were heralded with company names that not only weren't yours but also long-since shuttered. In the case of Associated Artists Productions (a.a.p.), it was bought by United Artists<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjwRbUK1_ax6197oS2wlbCsJOGU2rhvbxLjddf1Hr_HyU38z9StSueCDSsEnlX_0X04Q6NwW5GFdxIew7bJXmDrRurW1dGZN10oKUzHtW-BneqMWtYDctRFHGU4RwBBSM36wCy1g/s1600/scrappy+title+card.JPG"></a> Television in 1958 (and actually became u.a.p. in trade ads). UA held the pre-'48 Warner Brothers and all theatrical <i>Popeye</i> cartoons, which had been a.a.p.'s most profitable prize, right through its 1981 merger with M.G.M., until Ted Turner acquired most of the library five years later. Even after Warners got their cartoons back in the '90's, the antiquated openings weren't excised until the studio's home video division started work on the <i>Looney Tunes Golden Collections</i>.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifV_BhMDoNArnNLd2q70g74O_L5PYzEU6ZCXaM1tNP6z_mZOA7TSnxnm-GzY1wFOh4W7DU-NeO-atkZV4dvqLfgfaObJ4DWwXQMvHEnqewUvZ3Q2kcwucWlp9O66D-_C-mTfvG-A/s1600/Commonwealth+Cartoon+Ad.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531781353410587346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifV_BhMDoNArnNLd2q70g74O_L5PYzEU6ZCXaM1tNP6z_mZOA7TSnxnm-GzY1wFOh4W7DU-NeO-atkZV4dvqLfgfaObJ4DWwXQMvHEnqewUvZ3Q2kcwucWlp9O66D-_C-mTfvG-A/s400/Commonwealth+Cartoon+Ad.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 400px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 89px;" /></a><br />
Associated Artists had acquired the cartoons on March 1, 1956, so the company was an ongoing concern for <i>only two years</i> after the titles were created. Yet the name lived on, year-after-year, decade-after-decade.<br />
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In truth, a.a.p.'s cartoon product was the summit of a long, hard climb for animation on TV. Theatrical 'toons of some nature were racing across home screens almost from the start. And they were, for a time, one of television's most desirable commodoties. In April 1953, <i>The Billboard</i> proclaimed: <b><i>"Stations in general appear to be buying cartoons today at a faster clip than ever before. According to best estimates, there are about 650 cartoons in TV distribution altogether. It would seem that the market could comfortably support as many as 1,000 cartoons, if not more. But at the moment, there is not another foot of cartoon in the offing."</i></b> In an in-depth article two months' later, <i>Billboard</i> would revise the figure upward to "about 800," but with a qualifyer: 90% of the total dated to the silent era.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnC8ydMjNkzSXYH-LjLhQ0DidWt_n5xHEfnHmQWOEWmmeth-kNvn4634imMSMXnE6wgiQCEsUFzYf14tMkNqAveOHz7zgVhXRXcrhHdeqb07bDZ5wIUPskPGNvDAxVP-UNvxo_DQ/s1600/official+logo.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531085514069359970" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnC8ydMjNkzSXYH-LjLhQ0DidWt_n5xHEfnHmQWOEWmmeth-kNvn4634imMSMXnE6wgiQCEsUFzYf14tMkNqAveOHz7zgVhXRXcrhHdeqb07bDZ5wIUPskPGNvDAxVP-UNvxo_DQ/s320/official+logo.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 233px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 290px;" /></a><br />
When Official Films licensed the original <i>Felix the Cat</i> library in early 1953, it was big news: there were reportedly around 200 titles in the Cat's canon. The problem was, since the films were nearly all silent, not every title was in fit condition for release. Official was only able to scrape together 35 Felix cartoons, supplementing the package with 50 other titles from its existing library. Nevertheless, sales were brisk; Official booked $15,000 from six stations during its first week of marketing.<br />
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So which cartoons entertained the first television generation, and who provided them... and <i>why</i>? <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9qAYn3tktpIVhS-0os883gjt1G9IxFRVsY7HOk1UBtV2jHOGbxOIcff50HPsDKz4VzrSBNO09Ei5ZPOuCiZj1hqPl9eCe3_B1U9HHqCOgzzU85eW12wiuixLAC7CTfMu8W881CQ/s1600/waifs+welcome+title+card.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531777567757270578" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9qAYn3tktpIVhS-0os883gjt1G9IxFRVsY7HOk1UBtV2jHOGbxOIcff50HPsDKz4VzrSBNO09Ei5ZPOuCiZj1hqPl9eCe3_B1U9HHqCOgzzU85eW12wiuixLAC7CTfMu8W881CQ/s200/waifs+welcome+title+card.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 154px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
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To begin with, it's helpful to remember that, in the silent days through the first talkie decade, no major Hollywood production company had its own cartoon division. Animation was handled by contractors, most of whom hired established artists, then aligned with a studio. <i>Felix the Cat</i> was owned by producer Pat Sullivan, who released through Margaret Winkler (1923-25), then Educational Pictures (1926-28) and finally Copley Pictures (1928-30). Walt Disney, after leaving producer Charles Mintz, was aligned with Pat Powers (1928-30), then Columbia (1930-32), United Artists (1932-36) and R.K.O. Radio (1936-56). Mintz was aligned with Universal (1927-29), then Columbia (1929-40). Walter Lantz provided Universal with cartoons after Mintz was <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkHrKqiPWjBn3EpmtBBxsHVCCZ21AD2B4bxGKhdGSy79yzaaBgHuJCbF95LXCHoTFA09Ub0UsUaLg_2NtR3ZIwzcvtvAkuc1XLSDwsz71niR5io7gEG4JdnU49ZtwhFv0RVC7gVw/s1600/Official+Ad.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531796428508513906" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkHrKqiPWjBn3EpmtBBxsHVCCZ21AD2B4bxGKhdGSy79yzaaBgHuJCbF95LXCHoTFA09Ub0UsUaLg_2NtR3ZIwzcvtvAkuc1XLSDwsz71niR5io7gEG4JdnU49ZtwhFv0RVC7gVw/s320/Official+Ad.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 224px;" /></a>released. When Ubbe Iwerks left Disney in 1930 to try independent production, he went with Powers, who subcontracted some of Iwerks' product to M.G.M. and released the rest through his own Celebrity Productions. In 1930, Leon Schlesinger contracted with two other renegade Disneyites, Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising, then sold their cartoons in turn to Warner Brothers. Harman and Ising would leave Schlesinger in 1933 to release through M.G.M., who in turn dumped Iwerks, who ended up taking on contracted work for Mintz and Schlesinger before giving up and going back to Disney. Paramount Pictures aligned itself with Max (<i>Out of the Inkwell</i>) Fleischer around 1927, then took control of his studio fifteen years later. Amadee J. Van Beuren had been in the cartoon business since the early 1920's, handling the business aspects of Fables Studio, which was run by Paul Terry until 1929. This studio's work was distributed by Pathe, which in 1928 merged with F.B.O. Pictures, RCA Photophone and the Keith-Orpheum theater circuit to become R.K.O. Radio. When R.K.O. signed Disney, Van Beuren closed up shop. As an independent producer, Terry released his "Terrytoons" through Educational Pictures; when Educational bit the dust in '37, he went directly to their distributor, 20th Century-Fox. <br />
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Now, if you thought <i>that </i>was confusing, let's discuss what happened to the cartoons!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQSdqhv1YKmXP_iZ0D6Blig7znsC3RKo45zBMCNyWOO6lpHmlolXMOenpCCwBKeTEkv3vXJtTFH8Ekq-fdXN7UGesSwcl-FLF8dH7x4rVqOpjaUKCBt6jQB4bxierAhdZL4MBn2Q/s1600/M&L+Billboard+03-29-1952+(Bray+cartoon+package).JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531780467827456098" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQSdqhv1YKmXP_iZ0D6Blig7znsC3RKo45zBMCNyWOO6lpHmlolXMOenpCCwBKeTEkv3vXJtTFH8Ekq-fdXN7UGesSwcl-FLF8dH7x4rVqOpjaUKCBt6jQB4bxierAhdZL4MBn2Q/s320/M&L+Billboard+03-29-1952+(Bray+cartoon+package).JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 320px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 126px;" /></a><br />
Two batches - the substantial Van Beuren backlog, which included Terry's work for the company, and the less-sizable Iwerks canon - had passed through various hands after those companies folded in the 1930's. Commonwealth Film and Television Inc. got the Iwerks films, as well as the final 13 of Van Beuren's <i>Rainbow Parade</i> series, and essentially all surviving silent <i>Aesop's Fables</i>. The remaining Van Beuren titles (earlier <i>Rainbow Parades, Cubby Bear, </i><i>The Little King</i> and [the human] <i>Tom & Jerry</i>), all sound, went to Walter O. Gutlohn, Inc., a non-theatrical distributor who evidently sub-leased them to Unity Television Corporation, as well as Official Films for their home movie division (although this didn't stop the latter company from also offering them to TV). Official changed <i>Tom & Jerry</i> to <i>Dick & Larry</i>, and <i>Rainbow Parades</i> to <i>Merry Tunes</i>. Sterling Television got ahold of the most ancient silent 'toons - the <i>Mutt & Jeffs</i> and <i>Bobby Bumps'</i> and <i>Out of the Inkwells</i> that had been sold to theaters on a state rights basis back in the late teens/early twenties, and signed a distribution deal with the granddaddy of cartoon production, John R. Bray (first employer of Fleischer, Terry and Lantz, among others), who'd <i>discontinued</i> theatrical animation by 1927!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyfdSlh_YYppueok-4pfkb-IS3ZiwJYfj4CFdxtrsjIzC5QGrqzPRVK1TmvHvSTedLOmdgfp0e2z2tQ4QQsq7YEE6Zw0eMVZG4QWPvosQOB_gBANoMbaIYMI5zWeIGxLXF1Sjlxg/s1600/Billboard+09-05-1953+(Superman+cartoons).JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531782156047000978" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyfdSlh_YYppueok-4pfkb-IS3ZiwJYfj4CFdxtrsjIzC5QGrqzPRVK1TmvHvSTedLOmdgfp0e2z2tQ4QQsq7YEE6Zw0eMVZG4QWPvosQOB_gBANoMbaIYMI5zWeIGxLXF1Sjlxg/s200/Billboard+09-05-1953+(Superman+cartoons).JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 200px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 139px;" /></a>The earliest batch of post-1940 cartoons to reach the air were the <i>Superman</i> shorts produced by Fleischer and Paramount's Famous Studios between 1941-43. <i>Superman's</i> parent company, National Comics, had acquired the shorts contractually, then sold them to Flamingo Films in May 1951, when the latter company licensed the distribution rights for a forthcoming <i>Adventures of Superman</i> TV series. When the live action series got a nationwide sponsor, Kellogg's cereals, Flamingo had to pull the cartoons from TV until a suitable sponsorship arrangement could be made (see article), lest the character become exclusive to two competing products.<br />
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For roughly seven years - from 1948 through '54 - that was the state of the cartoon on TV. There were a couple of primitive made-for-TV animated shows, namely <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3hHQvkUhJo%E2%80%9D">Crusader Rabbit</a></i> and <i><a href="http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=170717669624646">Jim & Judy in Teleland</a></i>, but no one was in any hurry to invest in TV cartoon production on a grand scale, not when puppet shows like <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6FFbvYeRwAUcJquXYUkdbdwc5KylBGBJRIiU2eCyQ5rAPi7Y7aQB7cUHwhb93b6h7vDDGCQjTiQeu30JvghiCstV4dHbCoTE8wfB0AQXrxe5pZ3VO3docvmCqj-2a2KQrRLUz9Q/s1600/Guild+LT+Ad.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531797347986594738" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6FFbvYeRwAUcJquXYUkdbdwc5KylBGBJRIiU2eCyQ5rAPi7Y7aQB7cUHwhb93b6h7vDDGCQjTiQeu30JvghiCstV4dHbCoTE8wfB0AQXrxe5pZ3VO3docvmCqj-2a2KQrRLUz9Q/s320/Guild+LT+Ad.JPG" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" width="320" /></a><i>Howdy Doody</i> and <i>Rootie Kazootie</i> were doing just fine. Although one New York area station was making a strong case to the contrary.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL0lRRGVfokZVrwjWSI0SCUGbKJWagHJZg-xtLvNUwHfFffrxk2W5TA6AJa8MulXR-3YWNNZaTLL9Krho7eAbSO8JiQlyUgohJE3DamYA6f4-W1v8LKw3A4cvsG22IvgP4sIfzXw/s1600/Junior+Frolics+1955.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL0lRRGVfokZVrwjWSI0SCUGbKJWagHJZg-xtLvNUwHfFffrxk2W5TA6AJa8MulXR-3YWNNZaTLL9Krho7eAbSO8JiQlyUgohJE3DamYA6f4-W1v8LKw3A4cvsG22IvgP4sIfzXw/s320/Junior+Frolics+1955.JPG" width="234" /></a></div>
Robert Paskow was the film programmer for WATV, Channel 13 in Newark, NJ. WATV usually ran seventh of the seven NYC-area VHF stations in ratings, a poor signal being the least of its problems. But one Channel 13 show was outpulling everyone else, even NBC's <i>Howdy Doody</i>: <i>Junior Frolics,</i> a cartoon program. Paskow began buying up all the cartoons he could get his hands on months before WATV made its May 1948 debut. By '53, he held about 650 titles; no other station in the U.S. had more. Paskow was such a good customer, he received permission from the distributors to edit their negatives, removing racial gags and adult imagery, which helps explain why so many silent cartoons that survive today are incomplete.<br />
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Film industry titans, poised for a theatrical exhibitor backlash, watched closely in the fall of 1954, when Disney dipped his toes into TV with a weekly series on the ABC network, <i>Disneyland</i>. Of course, Uncle Walt turned to his cartoon library from time-to-time in order to fill that hour.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjwRbUK1_ax6197oS2wlbCsJOGU2rhvbxLjddf1Hr_HyU38z9StSueCDSsEnlX_0X04Q6NwW5GFdxIew7bJXmDrRurW1dGZN10oKUzHtW-BneqMWtYDctRFHGU4RwBBSM36wCy1g/s1600/scrappy+title+card.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531786702371725442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjwRbUK1_ax6197oS2wlbCsJOGU2rhvbxLjddf1Hr_HyU38z9StSueCDSsEnlX_0X04Q6NwW5GFdxIew7bJXmDrRurW1dGZN10oKUzHtW-BneqMWtYDctRFHGU4RwBBSM36wCy1g/s200/scrappy+title+card.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 152px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 200px;" /></a> Disney suffered naught from his TV excursion, and studio execs quickly discovered that widescreen had lessened the demand for pictures filmed in the standard aperture ratio; in short, theater owners couldn't care less if TV bought up the old films. That December, there came a break in the animation dry spell. In separate deals, Columbia and Universal parted with some of their black & white material. Hygo Television bought Charles Mintz's <i>Krazy Kat</i> and <i>Scrappy</i> cartoons from Columbia, which totaled 156 titles, and Motion Pictures for Television got 179 Walter Lantz cartoons, mainly <i>Oswald the Rabbit</i>, but also <i>Pooch the Pup</i>, <i>Willie the Mouse</i> and <i>Meeny, Miney & Moe</i>. Paskow snapped up the Hygo package for <i>Junior Frolics</i> before the ink on the press release had dried.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKsD8ePwZyKIJL3Z6keOzl2YEHgYjcLeDKYvBhq7WDv6KEoIR_PvSSw60JruaY3aEZb4D54C0BEMo-K7JaBV7-kXyz8sYxNkHeBenfNLjyBPgCg3u9tP5utOjssOvQUaUuUggBXQ/s1600/guild+end+title.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531785454254245138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKsD8ePwZyKIJL3Z6keOzl2YEHgYjcLeDKYvBhq7WDv6KEoIR_PvSSw60JruaY3aEZb4D54C0BEMo-K7JaBV7-kXyz8sYxNkHeBenfNLjyBPgCg3u9tP5utOjssOvQUaUuUggBXQ/s200/guild+end+title.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 157px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>Two months later, Guild Films acquired 191 <i>Looney Tunes</i> from Warners. These were the black & white Schlesinger titles from 1930-43, mainly featuring <i>Porky Pig</i>, <i>Bosko</i>, <i>Buddy</i> and a handful of <i>Daffy Duck</i>. Warners' asking price was $1.2 million dollars (half up-front, half due in two years) plus 40% thereafter. Guild, which<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNYL9Xq35RnSeIMhBdrXggAhbzEAN-1F4SpVsOWoSo_nLe0CGIQiGzqxTydtdzKaAmb4gx6vy3LoMtRfmn9mbl9xfjqw3EiDlvX3ACjMAPz2W4URYyAfxKM935q-u3GaMvuqEazQ/s1600/Guild+LT+Ad+%232.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532089092207774370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNYL9Xq35RnSeIMhBdrXggAhbzEAN-1F4SpVsOWoSo_nLe0CGIQiGzqxTydtdzKaAmb4gx6vy3LoMtRfmn9mbl9xfjqw3EiDlvX3ACjMAPz2W4URYyAfxKM935q-u3GaMvuqEazQ/s200/Guild+LT+Ad+%232.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 206px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 190px;" /></a> netted over a million in sales after the first year, didn't suffer on their end. More importantly, the deal marked Warner's entry into television.<br />
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Finally, in December 1955, the dam burst. U.M.& M. - which was a combine of two movie advertising sales forces (<b>U</b>nited Film Service and <b>M</b>otion Picture Advertiser Service) and one TV film distributor (<b>M</b>inot TV) - bought Paramount's pre-'48 backlog of short subjects, which included 614 Fleischer and Famous cartoons; all except <i>Popeye the Sailor</i>, which was withdrawn pending further negotiations with King Features<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh60G3ceACwJLDvLJ79T5pE1R6xZ27u7M_vEp-UDQYgUEwGq6hy7swOgWpiunzEH7EdUg09aiNXiUW6-5ut4jq5sV5osCKil3FDluSW6ay0wjKXAqp0KkwmzA3dnsluS1X40Nc-oQ/s1600/um&m+logo.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531786228587449346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh60G3ceACwJLDvLJ79T5pE1R6xZ27u7M_vEp-UDQYgUEwGq6hy7swOgWpiunzEH7EdUg09aiNXiUW6-5ut4jq5sV5osCKil3FDluSW6ay0wjKXAqp0KkwmzA3dnsluS1X40Nc-oQ/s200/um&m+logo.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 154px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 200px;" /></a> Syndicate, who owned the character (the same battle as was fought over home video rights, except <i>that</i> dispute took a <i>quarter-century</i> to resolve). Within a single year, the cartoon marketplace had doubled... but the best was yet to come.<br />
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Associated Artists Productions got Warner's pre-'48 color cartoon library as of March 1, 1956, along with what was then considered the prize: the pre-'48 WB <i>features</i>. The company also got the live <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtPjg1VVnXvpSmEW9wal9WQy9h-2iqio6nZJG5OGDC0isfqRzueOtAw7cciNt8HoGSTklez0cYhmwB3vAWSgkkP62wYh468I-Wnisrp5FxBi8eR17N0M0jPw0Ia6lEPM-JmuWC4A/s1600/UM&M+Ad.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531789101336566306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtPjg1VVnXvpSmEW9wal9WQy9h-2iqio6nZJG5OGDC0isfqRzueOtAw7cciNt8HoGSTklez0cYhmwB3vAWSgkkP62wYh468I-Wnisrp5FxBi8eR17N0M0jPw0Ia6lEPM-JmuWC4A/s320/UM&M+Ad.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 266px;" /></a>action shorts, but never saw a need to distribute them, so profitable were the first two packages. Moneys earned by a.a.p. in the first half of the year enabled them to sew up the <i>Popeye</i> rights during the second. <i>Bugs Bunny</i> was cool, but the Sailor Man took TV by storm. Suddenly the highest-rated local kid's shows were those that included <i>Popeye</i>. In effect, a.a.p. had doomed everybody else's cartoon libraries, for only they had the <i>stars</i>. Nobody cared much about U.M.& M.'s <i>Screen Songs</i>, <i>Color Classics</i> or <i>Noveltoons</i>, and their only true "celebrity" - <i>Betty Boop</i> - was 99.9% black-and-white (and the best of her work was too risque for most kiddie shows). The monochrome issue eventually caught up with all the other distributors, although <i>Popeye's</i> star power carried <i>his</i> b&w output well into the '80s. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiX88JHrX5poBAFYCByW9pJQjPR7rw9gmOZObxjsFEhR8K958bPRyG7N3jVO1hGSRT77aeHeT6pfhed3Sz72JOCKed_we3cMXSpja2Ul_iBf11VIB1uOVl_NI_XODj9DjjM26dfw/s1600/Captain+X+and+Popeye+Lincoln+NE.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531803453862251266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiX88JHrX5poBAFYCByW9pJQjPR7rw9gmOZObxjsFEhR8K958bPRyG7N3jVO1hGSRT77aeHeT6pfhed3Sz72JOCKed_we3cMXSpja2Ul_iBf11VIB1uOVl_NI_XODj9DjjM26dfw/s320/Captain+X+and+Popeye+Lincoln+NE.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 220px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
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By the late 1950's, the writing was on the wall. As major studio features killed the haphazard movie packages of TV's first decade, so too did big cartoon stars doom the animated shorts of ancient days. M.G.M. put their backlog into syndication. CBS bought Terrytoons outright. Kellogg's picked up <i>Woody Woodpecker</i> and other Lantz stars for nationwide saturation over ABC in '57, and two years' hence, Mattel got the post-1949 Famous cartoons that had been sold to the Harvey comic book company, also placed on ABC. The final bell tolled in 1958, when M.G.M.'s former producer-director tandem of Joe Barbera and Bill Hanna contracted with Columbia's TV unit, Screen Gems (which had introduced its own cartoon backlog the year before, with relatively few takers) for a made-for-TV cartoon show, <i>Huckleberry Hound</i>. That led to a plethora of spin-offs and successors, including made-for-prime time cartoon sitcoms: revolutionary then, commonplace today.<br />
<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531795419647099586" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtef_wlnbygqw29fYrQXGdnMBTuLgtCdvCqeYydC2oiN7Q9kd3w5iXSgRU3pgtvCfRfwrwXrKjnqWTF8qw-PwNK_ZdHCKa91_Q6N46dMMVcdlA8BdHo9un9_5oPzooYu10TXdLjg/s400/Screen+Gems+cartoon+ad.JPG" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 281px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /><br />
But with this bounty came complacency, then neglect. Cartoons were moneymakers, sure, but hardly worth the kind of tender care that classic feature films were getting. Stories circulate about 16mm prints gathering dust in station closets because the 200 or so titles that were making the on-air rounds were good enough; no need to overtax the film guy. And the only signficance that the "a.a.p." intro held was the likelihood of seeing the zany Bugs and Daffy, not the suave rabbit or greedy, scheming duck of Saturday mornings.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxv3gEARogSRdtokG8sihRmzonmLv0ev9lWxWztAt8qUw6E30KQQE68GQ4M8a87wboglV5cHpPG_wAebIN-yOzR9DZVX5rCqF2peucM_OuwVzF8BIY15XHHRiq4m8sRTA54-VV5A/s1600/felix.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531797722196172578" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxv3gEARogSRdtokG8sihRmzonmLv0ev9lWxWztAt8qUw6E30KQQE68GQ4M8a87wboglV5cHpPG_wAebIN-yOzR9DZVX5rCqF2peucM_OuwVzF8BIY15XHHRiq4m8sRTA54-VV5A/s400/felix.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 217px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 246px;" /></a><br />
As for all those other cartoons - the ones animation historians like <a href="http://blogs.indiewire.com/leonardmaltin">Leonard Maltin</a>, <a href="http://www.cartoonresearch.com/">Jerry Beck</a> and <a href="http://www.michaelbarrier.com//">Michael Barrier</a> grew up with - most of them vanished into the mist of memory, waiting only for budget-line home video to bring them back to the marketplace, mainly in worn, choppy, faded prints that had once held the rapt attention of <i>Junior Frolics</i> viewers... and many, many others.<br />
UPDATE: Many thanks to those of you who shared this site on Facebook and elsewhere... never have I had an essay read by so many in so short a time. Also, I was remiss in not adding the following: To those cartoon enthusiasts that want to see what those old films looked like when they were entertaining theater audiences back in the day, these two resources are essential: <a href="http://www.inkwellimagesink.com/">Inkwell Images</a> and <a href="http://www.thunderbeananimation.com/">Thunderbean Animation</a>. Both have done outstanding work in restoring long-neglected titles and come highly recommended.Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-53503525758134163692010-09-27T14:29:00.010-04:002010-09-27T20:35:27.669-04:00Here a Nyuk, There a Nyuk, Everywhere a Nyuk-Nyuk!I've only written two books, but apparently that's celebrity enough for the privilege of mingling (mangling?) with the upper-echelon of high society. To wit: I met these three fine gentlemen at last weekend's <a href="http://www.midatlanticnostalgiaconvention.com/">Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention</a> in Hunt Valley, Maryland:<br /><br /><br /><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521663368976852626" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjknAk4PuLIBInI_TmMUXOgd_A9eSuNfIbAEtJwokuABsQlmrbvgn-HqV0mMubfhBT62-y1_U6bZYQKOQLKIR3m3hFIIcgRGyGOryMM5x6_qqJSxEzIWDJZz3uq_dItcf9vDzE_ZA/s400/DSCN2811.JPG" /><br />I'm thinking of having them rennovate my home... I'm sure they know what they're doing.<br /><br />Coming this season on BETTER LIVING THROUGH TELEVISION: Uncle Miltie, Groucho, a lengthy look at early TV's use of very old movies, and other stuff that will hopefully strike your fancy as much as mine.<br /><br />Many thanks for the (literally) thousands of you that have discovered this site while searching for <a href="http://betterlivingtv.blogspot.com/2010/02/martin-vs-lewis-round-one-march-1954.html">Dean & Jerry</a>, <a href="http://betterlivingtv.blogspot.com/2010/01/its-arthur-godfrey-time.html">Arthur & Julius</a>, <a href="http://betterlivingtv.blogspot.com/2010/06/charlie-chaplin-lost-and-found.html">Chaplin</a>, <a href="http://betterlivingtv.blogspot.com/2006/03/superman-goes-to-color.html">Superman</a>, <a href="http://betterlivingtv.blogspot.com/2009/05/restless-ballad-of-pernell-roberts.html">Adam Cartwright</a>, <a href="http://betterlivingtv.blogspot.com/2006/04/my-names-friday-5-years-later.html">Joe Friday</a> and that <a href="http://betterlivingtv.blogspot.com/2006/03/my-friend-teddy-quinn.html">cute kid from the aspirin commercial</a> (who was astonished when I told him I get hits on that 2006 post EVERY DAY).<br /><br /><p>'Til we meet again "In the Sweet Pie & Pie."</p>Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-40938739223894057202010-06-20T00:12:00.017-04:002010-06-21T19:59:15.572-04:00Another Super-Myth Busted!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1DNVPaOJsXBAy1xpSd64M7Rl5CD-9vFKmmd8MCgtetjGZ-j4WTqRXdRekGyY1d25Wm_3uorWp32G-A-q5A5nVR9weVsGFsUtbAJuNlZUqzFAV5Clx_zy-agMkt-329GuBTYs83A/s1600/Reeves+givaway.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 201px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484717924446512674" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1DNVPaOJsXBAy1xpSd64M7Rl5CD-9vFKmmd8MCgtetjGZ-j4WTqRXdRekGyY1d25Wm_3uorWp32G-A-q5A5nVR9weVsGFsUtbAJuNlZUqzFAV5Clx_zy-agMkt-329GuBTYs83A/s320/Reeves+givaway.JPG" /></a>Here's a news flash: George Reeves made dozens of personal appearances during his years as TV's Superman. HOLLYWOODLAND (2006) would have you believe that he hated doing them and in fact feared for his life... unwilling to perform in costume because some over-zealous child might be packing his dad's pistol. In fact the film actually depicts this mythical event, misleading viewers into thinking it did happen.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-7eKEwCLgNz6RDkIIE6gWxabY2IcYBYKEvOnVEVRTD9Lh8pdgpXk87gZkOwnNx2fE0_iAnc1lKOgzUjMFqBXYE-TaQRoe7XXzAlUm4PBwlnkJpHQPIrKxz5Bhxvp1qmaKvmG6zw/s1600/Walla+Walla+Union-Bulletin+5-9-1957.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 224px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484714646744654434" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-7eKEwCLgNz6RDkIIE6gWxabY2IcYBYKEvOnVEVRTD9Lh8pdgpXk87gZkOwnNx2fE0_iAnc1lKOgzUjMFqBXYE-TaQRoe7XXzAlUm4PBwlnkJpHQPIrKxz5Bhxvp1qmaKvmG6zw/s400/Walla+Walla+Union-Bulletin+5-9-1957.JPG" /></a>To be sure, Reeves appeared one-on-one in hospitals and schools dressed as Clark Kent, but this was for a strategic reason. As he told a reporter in 1957, "On these visits, I don't wear the suit with the muscles because the kids want me to do all sorts of things, like jumping out of windows. But I can't fly.... We have to be careful not to destroy any illusions."<br /><br />At county fairs, parades or department stores - where crowds could be controlled - Reeves willingly suited up. By 1955, when he began making these visits, <em>Adventures of Superman </em>was in production only for about seven weeks out of each year, and the extra money was welcome and relatively easy. Usually he spoke about safety and did a few judo falls, then handed out 5x7 pre-autographed photos, similar to the one seen at top.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHEJJpQZ7mpvVSPD6ww_9k4ITXNRtWgLl_WKcuz4RqmWwQxwPyXGJQzsdwm9kGjhF4VAH7NJZKwS7ongxmmr-EPLT4dxUUTZEorDd6sWpF66qxWPEK92IZm1IehzAoPwY-w9G40w/s1600/Middlesboro+(KY)+Daily+News+-+Aug+8+1957.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 298px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 390px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484714300077082626" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHEJJpQZ7mpvVSPD6ww_9k4ITXNRtWgLl_WKcuz4RqmWwQxwPyXGJQzsdwm9kGjhF4VAH7NJZKwS7ongxmmr-EPLT4dxUUTZEorDd6sWpF66qxWPEK92IZm1IehzAoPwY-w9G40w/s400/Middlesboro+(KY)+Daily+News+-+Aug+8+1957.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><div><div><div><div><div><div><div></div><div>In 1957, he tried something a little more ambitious: a full-fledged tour with a band of musicians, Noel (Lois Lane) Neill and national judo champion Gene LeBell, who portrayed "Mr. Kryptonite" (you can see his costume at the Super Museum in Metropolis, Illinois). As Clark Kent, Reeves sang and played stand-up bass with his combo; Neill sang as well until she was kidnapped by the super-villain, leading to a thrill-packed rescue by the Man of Steel. The show was a little <em>too</em> ambitious for its day... Reeves lost a lot of money when crowds failed to turn up during the tour's theater and civic auditorium dates.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWzx6-a5Cf2MH1a8jhIV4V7riaYxO-1szNPs0Zl0ijus8Je1S4kPqYcS6eLX5SgFoSMTktwMfCAmXQK_IaZY6XAYM1SapLCxQ4bG_9ogvOM8PsHsy-99jDn78bkQLWGNRzdU2JGA/s1600/Indiana+Eve+Gazzette+08-25-56+pic.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 196px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484714976013103666" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWzx6-a5Cf2MH1a8jhIV4V7riaYxO-1szNPs0Zl0ijus8Je1S4kPqYcS6eLX5SgFoSMTktwMfCAmXQK_IaZY6XAYM1SapLCxQ4bG_9ogvOM8PsHsy-99jDn78bkQLWGNRzdU2JGA/s400/Indiana+Eve+Gazzette+08-25-56+pic.JPG" /></a>A snippet of silent color footage from Reeves' appearance at the Indiana County Fair in Indiana, Pennsylvania, on Friday, August 24, 1956, can be <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tyZ2CsSw_Y">seen on YouTube</a>. The four-minute home movie mainly consists of excerpts from Wild Bill Cody's Western Show, but about 38 seconds in, you can see Clark Kent posing with Cody's 5-year-old daughter Mary Alice, followed by Superman handing out photos to a line of kids in front of the "Kiddie Kapers" stage upon which he'd just performed. The heavy-set man with his back to the camera, moving the kids along, is Reeves' manager, Art Weissman. Hopefully there's more filmed footage from Reeves' many Superman appearances to eventually be rediscovered and uploaded. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKuMVW_B2DB_XtcIdxdNDUTDGY3sJtRmlaEHc6bvps3Z-xPV1fbk1pHf6Zhcq4g3MN7mR9z2vht5qvn-865YfdhXgZRv15i0P2wxT-vyVDispeNROqWhpIXgXdASvxDXOpb9NEug/s1600/Indiana+Eve+Gazzette+08-25-56.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 166px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484719526109408818" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKuMVW_B2DB_XtcIdxdNDUTDGY3sJtRmlaEHc6bvps3Z-xPV1fbk1pHf6Zhcq4g3MN7mR9z2vht5qvn-865YfdhXgZRv15i0P2wxT-vyVDispeNROqWhpIXgXdASvxDXOpb9NEug/s200/Indiana+Eve+Gazzette+08-25-56.JPG" /></a><br /><br />"Wild Bill Cody" was actually actor and circus performer Fred Penniman, who put together the Western Show with his wife, Mamie Alice. The pair can be seen in the film doing their knife-throwing and whip-cracking acts. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk-jZISF35rogJo0-qoRRylxE47Fa-g8EwOWJtTaAPff9Q2bMZLuV5XruobgMRiPWjwW895gL98KX9Llyr22wwBl4x0LTGU47IovfM5KSZ_q0q8IGo95gnsW-rLnhYvAzTF6l6UQ/s1600/Burlington+(NC)+Daily+Times-News+6-08-1959+Wild+Bill+Cody.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 195px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484716638729517202" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk-jZISF35rogJo0-qoRRylxE47Fa-g8EwOWJtTaAPff9Q2bMZLuV5XruobgMRiPWjwW895gL98KX9Llyr22wwBl4x0LTGU47IovfM5KSZ_q0q8IGo95gnsW-rLnhYvAzTF6l6UQ/s320/Burlington+(NC)+Daily+Times-News+6-08-1959+Wild+Bill+Cody.JPG" /></a>In a tragic irony, Mrs. Penniman died when, during an appearance in Pittsburgh, a 9-year-old boy picked up one of two rifles used in the act, and asked his mother if he could play with it. The mother assumed they were stage props, but in fact the guns were real and had been loaded by Mrs. Penniman just moments before. The young boy pulled the trigger and a bullet struck and killed the 40-year-old actress, wife and mother. </div><br /><div>This happened on June 7, 1959. Nine days later, George Reeves would also be fatally struck down by a gunshot.</div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-23243042971235076432010-06-07T12:08:00.020-04:002010-06-29T22:39:00.961-04:00Charlie Chaplin: Lost and Found<img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 329px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 311px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480067345483617794" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-EI3debOUjIzzABHy-7wZbZjsiKuA3SaIFFJ_qMZ7kttD1hxxVF7G4-eePffIbuy_Lnf_nwvrimRsGsKSGpC6r5OFnm3ITDiWDB94sadn4gSkyMXtI0fgZLiJ3EW_j5emmxHGwQ/s400/Thief+Catcher+Syracuse.JPG" />Few things are more satisfying than watching an early Charlie Chaplin comedy... except for discovering one that's been lost for about 95 years.<br /><br />The blogosphere is abuzz with the news that <a href="http://slapsticon.org/">Slapsticon</a> - a four-day silent comedy festival held annually in what is practically my back yard, Rosslyn, VA - will be screening a previously unknown and undocumented comedy in which Chaplin appeared during his first few weeks at Keystone in early 1914. According to the press release, "The print of A THIEF CATCHER was discovered earlier this year by Film Historian / Preservationist Paul E. Gierucki, current head of restorations for CineMuseum LLC, and one of the 'Godfathers' of a group of Comedy Film Historians known as the 'Silent Comedy Mafia' who help to organize the yearly Slapsticon festivals." A frame grab from the film can be viewed <a href="http://slapsticon.org/ThiefCatcherGierucki.jpg">here</a>; it's clear that Chaplin had already adopted his "little tramp" mustache and makeup.<br /><br /><div><div><div><div><div><div><div>Via some websites that host old newspaper pages, I've come across a few vintage images for this film. The one at the top of this post is actually for a reissue release in May 1915, from the Syracuse (NY) Journal. Here are some other ads for the 1915 reissue:</div><div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh223jV2GSDe4uHFu2nqwjdYwZikw_cUJjRd5oMmuOixpo0ZxcMADANRBtDxU1SBOy4aEFhAkl-5Q8lMEaIhYsL8opD8GRB_Hbrp3Qb19Q8DbP2Y9UC4AU9k6xaMwxR6kUjaq4eXw/s1600/Thief+Catcher+Altoona+PA.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 221px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480068986329470962" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh223jV2GSDe4uHFu2nqwjdYwZikw_cUJjRd5oMmuOixpo0ZxcMADANRBtDxU1SBOy4aEFhAkl-5Q8lMEaIhYsL8opD8GRB_Hbrp3Qb19Q8DbP2Y9UC4AU9k6xaMwxR6kUjaq4eXw/s320/Thief+Catcher+Altoona+PA.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2dZvYKxm6AzLS-mOuOX4vEfJDy8iQZtCHUcUWJssqXUxLuqMjrL8OaPiULkVdd-vt2X9Nk0AVFHNIA1AA66oBvtMTa4HbPM07vkTNkpJPuJvRyz54ZZtYhNOh2tn_u9ts2XppOw/s1600/Thief+Catcher+Piqua+OH.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 134px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480070342328766162" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2dZvYKxm6AzLS-mOuOX4vEfJDy8iQZtCHUcUWJssqXUxLuqMjrL8OaPiULkVdd-vt2X9Nk0AVFHNIA1AA66oBvtMTa4HbPM07vkTNkpJPuJvRyz54ZZtYhNOh2tn_u9ts2XppOw/s320/Thief+Catcher+Piqua+OH.JPG" /></a></div><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 189px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480069880585233426" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkkhtJlsQjZh0Yo-E5VNIU7UVULXYSa6RN70YCMDMze_xF4kStliqyME4nraBecJY4mu5Hf18TAIaWUHadw7DQo7fVZ4ltBLyE2lGKoY8uOyrOEaFfWtqZ9-AVPC0k7izoRmThiw/s200/Thief+Catcher+Portsmouth+OH.JPG" /> <div></div><div></div><div>If the newspapers of the day can be considered a barometer, Chaplin's name was singled out from among his fellow Keystone players starting in May 1914, after he'd been in films about four months. His work in a two-reeler called <em>Caught in a Cabaret</em> - released on April 27 and which, until this discovery, was thought to be Chaplin's 12th picture - made audiences take notice; from that point on, Chaplin's films were usually promoted as such by the studio. By 1915, Charlie Chaplin was a known - and much anticipated - film favorite. The issue of the Portsmouth Ohio newspaper that yielded the blurb above listed four other Chaplin Keystones in various theatres during that same week. Even though Chaplin was by then working for the Essanay Company and turning out a new release every 3-4 weeks, patrons couldn't get enough and Keystone kept the pipeline filled with reissues. In 1919, a company called W.H. Productions reissued the Keystones and created new titles for most of them. This flooding of the marketplace is why nearly every Chaplin film survives, while the legacies of other Keystone stars (such as Charlie's brother, Syd) are incomplete.</div><br /><div></div><div><em>A Thief Catcher</em> was Chaplin's second, or third, or possibly fourth film. Its release was listed in this ad from the February 14, 1914 <em>New York Clipper,</em> a show business periodical:</div><div></div><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 380px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480106120410444946" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbHzhUavPwcniUWD-k8K_e-QL6IK8WPMtRadXL15MQTNxPE4A-qFKfFLocrDhQxskgrMb3EDsm4JRMPO-pJ-vHcDvu1oCiRnaTMI9aKFlwva4KgQDqhB0an6WO04dfrR18GPJYUw/s400/NY+Clipper+Feb+14,+1914.JPG" /> <div></div><div>This would make <em>A Thief Catcher </em>Chaplin's fourth Keystone to be released; his third, <em>Mabel's Strange Predicament</em>, was issued on February 9 and the next one, <em>Between Showers</em>, came out on the 28th. Chaplin's first film, in which he hadn't yet created his famous mustache, was shot during the week of January 5; his second release, <em>Kid's Auto Race</em>, was filmed in Venice, California on Saturday, January 10. <em>Mabel's Strange Predicament</em> was also started during that first full week of January, then presumably finished from Monday, January 12 through the morning of the 14th. That Wednesday afternoon, rain moved into the Los Angeles area and didn't depart until the 27th. It was a monumental, record-shattering series of storms, and suburbs such as Edendale, where the Keystone Studios were located, were particularly hard-hit. In fact, <em>Between Showers</em> makes use of a massive puddle, a remnant of the rainfall.</div><br /><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>Somewhere in there, as the <a href="http://www.silentcomedymafia.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=363">press release</a> affirms, <em>A Thief Catcher</em> was shot... possibly even before <em>Kid's Auto Race</em>.</div><br /><div></div><div></div><div>In keeping with the earliest days of Chaplin's career, newspaper ads from 1914 simply list the film as a "Keystone Comedy" with no players mentioned - even though Keystone's then-reigning star, Ford Sterling, was heading up the cast.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4GoPqdS84C93GnXdCyKTiT2nOb2keJZOBW0WheiBUMT7ph4K92RRJcceZw5IHXmPViBWt7JcfDGgJVIPbHr7Zr5N6Qt5fyhsNcwuatSkWDuv2D3O3UltRym_oORHpnPKosbnJpg/s1600/Thief+Catcher+1914.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 122px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480085544279692754" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4GoPqdS84C93GnXdCyKTiT2nOb2keJZOBW0WheiBUMT7ph4K92RRJcceZw5IHXmPViBWt7JcfDGgJVIPbHr7Zr5N6Qt5fyhsNcwuatSkWDuv2D3O3UltRym_oORHpnPKosbnJpg/s320/Thief+Catcher+1914.JPG" /></a><br /></div><div></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpBh4oSwfIOBSUOBtrWBm4rI1t-TveeOgAQeaa0DNoq3Kbhyphenhyphenu7XASXyhoJnFNR48zFyn3Q2hXEfgoFMW0SyY6kJgGmpwKturSzCceHxe9kJHvfnVZDJnMI8ecvWCbvgZZJIQ_5gA/s1600/Thief+Catcher+1914+(b).JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 268px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480084462910406434" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpBh4oSwfIOBSUOBtrWBm4rI1t-TveeOgAQeaa0DNoq3Kbhyphenhyphenu7XASXyhoJnFNR48zFyn3Q2hXEfgoFMW0SyY6kJgGmpwKturSzCceHxe9kJHvfnVZDJnMI8ecvWCbvgZZJIQ_5gA/s320/Thief+Catcher+1914+(b).JPG" /></a><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 160px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480084592646906594" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3559osOB8oPC2_2hlx1huuPhRpVGyKOa2eH2H9zKNvd_Fy968uQS3_k23d8-jlbrfp1fyzsSIdYx4NKaB7uUULyKnJd4wyKY1Fnw6pI_rBGsMp3zd2nU7nzqlIV1VFpvQ8dUadQ/s320/Thief+Catcher+1914+(c).JPG" />And so, if you've ever wanted to acquaint yourself with the world's finest film historians, you won't get a better opportunity than at the <a href="http://www.rosslynva.org/play/rosslyn-spectrum-Theater">Rosslyn Spectrum Theater</a> on the evening of July 17, for many of them will be surely be attending this monumental screening. </div><br /><div></div><div>And finally, if any of the "Silent Comedy Mafia" happen to be reading this... could <em>this</em> be the next "lost Chaplin" discovery?</div><br /><div></div><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 357px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480088554763336450" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMk_XRIo-5mZvA8PXuBE3TGE4t_1ehNTBc0M014YMygXJBllGCLvbEf1_5V4yBnPWupgZ9XEDvZcPAc7iIgyvZdp2BGcjSrJlKRVMg640fa5goMTb-izRl15CiV98RL_mkdW2Qpw/s400/Zu+Zu+8-11-1914.JPG" /></div></div></div></div></div>Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-61949653610532894992010-05-15T14:27:00.018-04:002010-10-06T16:21:48.530-04:00Video On Demand a'la 1965<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtcGPZQwbctJUM8qzIYyX9KlRXi5DqPMmKNuoN35upMYv-VRDHzkzQvsA9zbqgQqY7qzj-Aqs1P1dnyM9_ckWnvGfurCDyBsq3YE5lLEoLut7JQUgLstjMDiFaAJLWFdbWFE6BcQ/s1600/EasyShow+02.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 198px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471584647144836290" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtcGPZQwbctJUM8qzIYyX9KlRXi5DqPMmKNuoN35upMYv-VRDHzkzQvsA9zbqgQqY7qzj-Aqs1P1dnyM9_ckWnvGfurCDyBsq3YE5lLEoLut7JQUgLstjMDiFaAJLWFdbWFE6BcQ/s320/EasyShow+02.JPG" /></a> <div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div>I marvel at technology, and sometimes cower from it. Does anybody really believe that instant gratification 24/7 is good for the human psyche? If I want to see a favorite show, movie or cartoon, like as not I need only pop in a DVD and -voila! - it's there. If I don't have it, odds are it's on YouTube. Last month, I converted and downloaded 14 <a href="http://betterlivingtv.blogspot.com/2006/05/every-saturday-night-part-1.html"><em>Hootenanny</em></a> episodes (8 complete & 6 partials) onto my Ipod. From the moment VHS entered my life in 1983, finding at least one <em>Hoot</em> was one of my two Holy Grails; now I almost take them for granted, seeing as how <em>they're in my shirt pocket!</em> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIaRMTrKXHNmVbp7yJj_9Y3yRLOirvOs7jxh2WnUuE2sFYNFcyG6YFUKK6M71I_EHizE-zqxMeLjNQMzXbpW2m7jyXDuwOBCI-GJveb9rSYw4kwodDzwcLnyPhIjVR_AeJwD8Srw/s1600/EasyShow+01.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 181px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471583563781967186" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIaRMTrKXHNmVbp7yJj_9Y3yRLOirvOs7jxh2WnUuE2sFYNFcyG6YFUKK6M71I_EHizE-zqxMeLjNQMzXbpW2m7jyXDuwOBCI-GJveb9rSYw4kwodDzwcLnyPhIjVR_AeJwD8Srw/s320/EasyShow+01.JPG" /></a> (The second Grail was <a href="http://betterlivingtv.blogspot.com/2006/02/happy-birthday-johnny-cash.html"><em>The Johnny Cash Show</em></a>, and thanks to a friend I have all 58 of those.) Nearly all the great Warner Brothers cartoons are out, along with the best of Max Fleischer's Popeyes, all the Three Stooges shorts with Curly, the Little Rascals, <a href="http://betterlivingtv.blogspot.com/2006/06/george-reeves-your-candid-reporter.html"><em>Adventures of Superman</em></a>, the Chaplin Mutuals... pretty much everything that made the best video memories of my childhood. Even, heaven help me, <em>Diver Dan</em>.</div><div></div><br /><div>And yet... as Mr. Spock so aptly put it, "Having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true." And so most of what I own sits on a shelf gathering dust, and I find that I watch these shows about as often as I did when they were making the rounds of the local station schedules. And, truth be told, I don't enjoy any of them as much as I did the rinky-tinky little toy that I cherished from Day One: Kenner's Easy Show Projector.</div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLWzABKIRKmTggZ7MhqrAMaNvYcM8S2cqmMbdJXo_-BvyitL6VEEqEoW9EgW-0vrOgvV3ga-oYVZWyuk79hDq1KpLiiqA_XNME-vclhJMMWSQAeaV1Y4DqH7G6QeRjyLF9BFQ_kA/s1600/EasyShow+03.JPG"></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgod9asnMsnUYoDa3wHpjYvXqrRz5MHido028qepviV38c1IJ1CgG-CmE61ibwaXG9UkZA766M4WobPbJtX1_tdVExR4ANpAIt6useXvlW0KUilsPmC8a3vK3a-X2D6JFgVxjtOBg/s1600/EasyShow+1965+(1).jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 314px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471584292631008914" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgod9asnMsnUYoDa3wHpjYvXqrRz5MHido028qepviV38c1IJ1CgG-CmE61ibwaXG9UkZA766M4WobPbJtX1_tdVExR4ANpAIt6useXvlW0KUilsPmC8a3vK3a-X2D6JFgVxjtOBg/s320/EasyShow+1965+(1).jpg" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhfwdeSMwEWjt2KBlpReA3vygAqu2AqJHyDsOBUAlZsQARmC7j8fRULiENuSYqfv4MhFrInptikKUHTZuuEsl5syemA2NaEJOGkQ1BjUJh7viTUhvpmgxPSMdmqkaRyvBz8G87hQ/s1600/EasyShow+1965+(2).jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 301px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471584134300459858" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhfwdeSMwEWjt2KBlpReA3vygAqu2AqJHyDsOBUAlZsQARmC7j8fRULiENuSYqfv4MhFrInptikKUHTZuuEsl5syemA2NaEJOGkQ1BjUJh7viTUhvpmgxPSMdmqkaRyvBz8G87hQ/s320/EasyShow+1965+(2).jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div>This is me at 6 years old, opening and caressing that little blue darling on Christmas Day 1965. My cousins had Kenner's earlier Give-A-Show Projector, which was basically a slide show. The images were in color, but they didn't <em>move</em>, so who cared? Where were the sight gags? The action sequences? The Easy Show ran real <em>movies</em> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLWzABKIRKmTggZ7MhqrAMaNvYcM8S2cqmMbdJXo_-BvyitL6VEEqEoW9EgW-0vrOgvV3ga-oYVZWyuk79hDq1KpLiiqA_XNME-vclhJMMWSQAeaV1Y4DqH7G6QeRjyLF9BFQ_kA/s1600/EasyShow+03.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471583571068523666" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLWzABKIRKmTggZ7MhqrAMaNvYcM8S2cqmMbdJXo_-BvyitL6VEEqEoW9EgW-0vrOgvV3ga-oYVZWyuk79hDq1KpLiiqA_XNME-vclhJMMWSQAeaV1Y4DqH7G6QeRjyLF9BFQ_kA/s320/EasyShow+03.JPG" /></a>projected on a wall! Yes, they were in black-and-white, but so was our TV set. Sure, if you wanted brightness, you were limited to a postage-stamp sized image. But then, I'm not getting much bigger on my Ipod now!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuvTcAQxLM4jc2d3K9IKZVmCxLBKIL01MYGV7HI3-U7mi8LfE9kSFqjGU6lToRr3LMLJb1S8F9D2YOGU8-cVz2SwCyiBVDB_Ri2WPMLNe2GHZlbZs5aA9dLFu7UqvqL6XBo9Fm3w/s1600/EasyShow+06.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 266px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471583968615401826" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuvTcAQxLM4jc2d3K9IKZVmCxLBKIL01MYGV7HI3-U7mi8LfE9kSFqjGU6lToRr3LMLJb1S8F9D2YOGU8-cVz2SwCyiBVDB_Ri2WPMLNe2GHZlbZs5aA9dLFu7UqvqL6XBo9Fm3w/s320/EasyShow+06.JPG" /></a></div><div></div><br /><div>Three things made the Easy Show cool:</div><div></div><br /><div>1) It was film. There's something about handling film, holding it up to light and seeing all those separate images that pass through a shutter and merge with your brain to make magic. I was always careful not to let it get tangled, although as time passed and Kenner used cheaper stock, that became more difficult. And threading the projector was a point of pride. My friends used to struggle, but I - the least coordinated kid on the block when it came to sports - handled it like a pro.</div><br /><div></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjujoObXKQAUaZQo18_vrSyFj8z0AffVXaFpHGU2vnqurLFzKaoo5_9YEGaGIATY0IM3-MN01LVm6NF_oQcjZhWbgc-x_AZeIBHuyeafJ5nl_fWD6XumCN07-g31Q07HhdM8RbMIQ/s1600/EasyShow+07.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 279px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 145px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471584299281586610" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjujoObXKQAUaZQo18_vrSyFj8z0AffVXaFpHGU2vnqurLFzKaoo5_9YEGaGIATY0IM3-MN01LVm6NF_oQcjZhWbgc-x_AZeIBHuyeafJ5nl_fWD6XumCN07-g31Q07HhdM8RbMIQ/s320/EasyShow+07.JPG" /></a>2) It was versatile. Being a hand-cranked projector, I could run the film as fast, or as slow, as I wanted. One of my favorites - I must've bought one annually for as long as it was available<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi79OTi-LdZgN4NVB9xwbNq2to3TEg_QElJqH44n-n05FqRP_MtkEIICcJjv2UHwMup-SZ784wXE8UzbHLsmRuQJ3F_CkaZknaGgj2mu9cHPrli4vXADgG9hQngqoGdUD-vd09MQQ/s1600/EasyShow+08.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 252px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 220px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471583980508982082" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi79OTi-LdZgN4NVB9xwbNq2to3TEg_QElJqH44n-n05FqRP_MtkEIICcJjv2UHwMup-SZ784wXE8UzbHLsmRuQJ3F_CkaZknaGgj2mu9cHPrli4vXADgG9hQngqoGdUD-vd09MQQ/s320/EasyShow+08.JPG" /></a> - was the <em>Superman</em> episode "Beware the Wrecker." I'd crank the takeoff s-l-o-w-l-y. . . then run it backward and do it again, over and over, until it snapped. (Which is why I bought one annually.)</div><br /><div></div><div>3) It was affordable. Each new film cost about .79 cents, so whenever I got a dollar each from my grandfather and uncle, it was off to the store for a new cartridge or two.</div><br /><div></div><div>So, yes: video on demand has been part of my life since age 6. In theory, I didn't ever have to wait until 3:30 pm when <em>Bugs Bunny and Friends</em> came on <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipwr_W3EsuT83wy4M3iW_RAGG5bqAPkVj4IdcVgBR9g7-hukP3YEV4X6oQhMJK2ijrpMFbYyVtrRAGjydHRtlg48eiO56QznZe0Rx78Y3JE5IBL37bb6jnN_ZTfgJpxwfjdcnmSg/s1600/EasyShow+04.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 201px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471583580238973090" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipwr_W3EsuT83wy4M3iW_RAGG5bqAPkVj4IdcVgBR9g7-hukP3YEV4X6oQhMJK2ijrpMFbYyVtrRAGjydHRtlg48eiO56QznZe0Rx78Y3JE5IBL37bb6jnN_ZTfgJpxwfjdcnmSg/s320/EasyShow+04.JPG" /></a>if I wanted to enjoy Bugs Bunny and friends. But the limitations of the Easy Show - small, silent, flickering b&w images - ensured that I would still be parked in front of the set at 3:30 pm. No need for that today thanks to DVD technology, which explains in part why <em>Looney Tunes</em>, <em>Superman,</em> etc., aren't on commercial TV anymore. No longer there for our heirs to discover on their own after school... we have to <em>introduce</em> the kids to our childhood favorites; always risky, and usually unsatisfying for all parties.</div><br /><div></div><div>Have we gained or lost something in the last 45 years?</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-64630663284605258262010-03-24T01:13:00.025-04:002010-03-24T03:29:11.772-04:00Martin vs. Lewis, T.K.O. (June-July 1956)<img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452095629284649922" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj58g5p_s5VYE1E5HKs0hnzI9fe6mV-ejJr0QUVyrHXbIxrE-KfJBd0v_yOxObeK-bYl_SxQiUUdapcuJ_A_QtIEasOuMtz1YLBd_M7QMpxIHDoLr9VMAp-gcWAHatpjOdNrnDp-g/s320/09-76+Telethon+4.JPG" /> <div>November 13, 1955: The day after Jerry Lewis unexpectedly played a benefit performance as a solo – one specially requested of the team by Paramount’s chief, Y. Frank Freeman (the man who’d rescued the pair from the ire of the IRS), and despite Dean Martin’s verbal assurances that he’d be there – Martin & Lewis made their final starring appearance on the <em>Colgate Variety Hour</em>. Again the pair trotted out a specialized tune meant to reassure viewers, this one based on “Two Lost Souls” from <em>Damn Yankees</em>:<br /><br /><strong><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Mekl64kCIkvqGddHWCeZpj5atF9RCv7w4f7_jljeSuQnbRopd12s39HSFVduNYoRQw5PZC94G-xZFIqp9aaQ5ka-nyafBEkRuCunVrF-F7J_16jIjfWuLf8O24w6asAh_smUxA/s1600-h/11-18-55+Two+Lost+Souls+1.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 154px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452088947574281538" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Mekl64kCIkvqGddHWCeZpj5atF9RCv7w4f7_jljeSuQnbRopd12s39HSFVduNYoRQw5PZC94G-xZFIqp9aaQ5ka-nyafBEkRuCunVrF-F7J_16jIjfWuLf8O24w6asAh_smUxA/s200/11-18-55+Two+Lost+Souls+1.JPG" /></a>Dean:</strong> It’s Jerry and Dean, and no one in between,<br /><strong>Jerry:</strong> Like let’s say Gallagher and let’s say Shean.<br /><strong>Dean:</strong> Of course we complain; we fuss and strain,<br /><strong>Jerry:</strong> But after the fussin’ there’s always us’n.<br /><br /><strong>Dean:</strong> Ah, we’re two lost souls, each wedded to each,<br /><strong>Jerry:</strong> We go hand in hand, in all kinds of weather.<br /><strong>Dean:</strong> On the bottom or top,<br /><strong>Jerry:</strong> A hit or a flop,<br /><strong>Both:</strong> It’s both together.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRz75J5GTBtgSRhxwxKXFuZBkUMC9Ty7h1THJCPJIeeRtBVn1Npsp9pIv48f2Y25xcqebP-3wvk9HAEIwR8tUmV-eN6YKNiyVzYLwFXF_Bbei7tXbW29QgHsWRbJkBu1dGcl10hA/s1600-h/12-19-55+NBC+Press+Release.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 215px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452089482245463218" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRz75J5GTBtgSRhxwxKXFuZBkUMC9Ty7h1THJCPJIeeRtBVn1Npsp9pIv48f2Y25xcqebP-3wvk9HAEIwR8tUmV-eN6YKNiyVzYLwFXF_Bbei7tXbW29QgHsWRbJkBu1dGcl10hA/s320/12-19-55+NBC+Press+Release.JPG" /></a><br />But not for much longer. Eighteen months after Lewis had proclaimed “never in a million years” would the team split up, the only goal they shared was in desiring the swiftest, surest way to do just that.<br /><br />The obstacles, however, were formidable. First, they owed producer Hal Wallis four more pictures, and after the <em>Three-Ring Circus</em> debacle, Wallis had a stipulation included in their contract: Martin and Lewis could only appear in films as a team, no matter who produced them. Second, the pair would net $4 million in 1955 (grosses were in the neighborhood of $20 million), and that kind of money was awfully hard to walk away from. Third, and most especially, neither man was 100% confident of his ability to go it alone.<br /><br />Certainly Dean, if he’d put any stock into what critics had to say about his talents as an actor (“a competent straight man”) or singer (“he shouldn’t oughtta listen to any more Bing Crosby records”), would never have risked working outside the profitable confines of Martin & Lewis. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCMYKMlqihMp3en3ksgulP594YAYgrw-nE-4BslKL7r1ieX11Ix-HJHOQ6kd0gsvwEVMQS6_NFzDej8v_bYkRPvsDbjr7iFyj7g0JdNN3G9eNwqKJVnIYNEvsgWfPtuBVfUjyarg/s1600/Top+Secret+1959.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 253px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452097567799127346" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCMYKMlqihMp3en3ksgulP594YAYgrw-nE-4BslKL7r1ieX11Ix-HJHOQ6kd0gsvwEVMQS6_NFzDej8v_bYkRPvsDbjr7iFyj7g0JdNN3G9eNwqKJVnIYNEvsgWfPtuBVfUjyarg/s320/Top+Secret+1959.JPG" /></a>But he’d just scored his second big smash, “Memories are Made of This,” which would sit comfortably at number one on the Hit Parade at the start of 1956. More importantly, he was being openly courted by two studios for solo roles: Warner Brothers offered him <em>The Pajama Game</em> with Doris Day, while MGM wanted him for an original story, <em>Ten Thousand Bedrooms</em>. With all this looming, the thought of cavorting alongside the human monkey was becoming unbearable.<br /><br />For his part, Jerry shrewdly recognized how important their personal relationship was to their success. Without that undercurrent of love and admiration supporting their antics, it was only a matter of time until, as he put it, “we’d get knocked through the ropes like Joe Louis.” Believing the relationship could be salvaged, Jerry conceived the idea of doing a contemporary take on the Damon and Pythias story: two men whose friendship is tested when one lays his life on the line for the other. To drive the point home, Dean would play Mike Damon, sympathetic policeman<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZYoBkcJ3R0jB9K1g_xv8tIMdbLd5oRXecNGZEs95oXcglC48ZlKjc-ICSuTn7rQ3JywCwTrjuEhCV2n9-8fKf0zOoo21-Scoisu0z7QcZt0pEg8w04xRerikD1uFTnhfxogGWMg/s1600-h/11-18-55+Two+Lost+Souls+2.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 152px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452090041090762786" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZYoBkcJ3R0jB9K1g_xv8tIMdbLd5oRXecNGZEs95oXcglC48ZlKjc-ICSuTn7rQ3JywCwTrjuEhCV2n9-8fKf0zOoo21-Scoisu0z7QcZt0pEg8w04xRerikD1uFTnhfxogGWMg/s200/11-18-55+Two+Lost+Souls+2.JPG" /></a> and Jerry would be Sidney Pythias, juvenile delinquent. This would be their next York picture, after finishing their current assignment for Wallis, <em>Hollywood or Bust</em>.<br /><br />Unfortunately, Lewis assigned the writing of “Damon and Pythias” to his pal Don McGuire, the man who wrote <em>Three-Ring Circus</em>. McGuire’s opinion of Martin didn’t bode well for the project: “Dean was a terrible actor. He could barely talk. Jerry was the guy who made him a hit, made him funny.” Still, McGuire strove to create a story that gave both men “a close relationship;” meanwhile, Lewis campaigned with Freeman for the opportunity to direct the film.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWR401CaTdELR3kPI4B8SRBdFz9-hdVWdcmJfuLB7oimN0lIvUlapbRvj8s1SHWRBIs251zJwfbTv3baI6goeqTOPDzaRi8G2fAkuEipSAceNxfkOfZGD7FIyMtdV6wqeq_MrMsw/s1600-h/Hollywood+or+Bust+lobby.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 261px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452090551346932706" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWR401CaTdELR3kPI4B8SRBdFz9-hdVWdcmJfuLB7oimN0lIvUlapbRvj8s1SHWRBIs251zJwfbTv3baI6goeqTOPDzaRi8G2fAkuEipSAceNxfkOfZGD7FIyMtdV6wqeq_MrMsw/s320/Hollywood+or+Bust+lobby.JPG" /></a>If Jerry harbored any hope that the script would touch Dean’s heart and possibly rekindle their friendship, it was dashed almost as soon as Martin got hold of his copy. The next day, he let his partner know that he would in no way play a uniformed cop, claiming it was “low class.” Realizing that Martin didn’t read the script beyond his costume requirement, Lewis blew his stack: “Then we’ll have to get somebody else.” “Start looking, boy,” Martin retorted and stormed off.<br /><br />Not too long after this, the pair reported to work on <em>Hollywood or Bust</em>, only speaking to each other when cameras rolled. For the first few weeks, Lewis sabotaged the production, intentionally blowing lines and breaking character; partly to retaliate against Martin, but mostly with the intent to force Hal Wallis to renegotiate – or release them from – his restrictive <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjndnNVd7U8ZPrK86ZdOKbkoriZgvqHgB5QyGs8ipzk9qH8YtUwPCT4HK94hs_ygmsDV1XLPBnVdJipBY-HtiGcPM-YZF8z2tAAnD4RadGQ_rvvtM6G-dQV3LQtgN8Ia7Qj8pYkww/s1600/6-18-56+Breaking+Up.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 224px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452092486343367458" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjndnNVd7U8ZPrK86ZdOKbkoriZgvqHgB5QyGs8ipzk9qH8YtUwPCT4HK94hs_ygmsDV1XLPBnVdJipBY-HtiGcPM-YZF8z2tAAnD4RadGQ_rvvtM6G-dQV3LQtgN8Ia7Qj8pYkww/s320/6-18-56+Breaking+Up.JPG" /></a>contract. The gambit failed; director Frank Tashlin, no doubt with Wallis’ blessing, simply threw Lewis off the picture, forcing the comic’s hand.<br /><br />Chastened, Lewis returned to <em>Hollywood or Bust</em> and, in his words, “tried for the miracle.” “You know, it’s a hell of a thing,” he suddenly said to Martin during a break. “All I can think of is that what we do is not very important. Any two guys could have done it. But even the best of them wouldn’t have had what made us as big as we are.”<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtgFkoBkXFKIKTvMXm0PqEeZMWITxfCUUhu0QcRKreC-ptbjJqcAt16wvV42n6HLJo6aXkVECmEL7j1kOiSov6rmOTUsu5FQ36hrpsWok1XDs9mtjRrgJSwPUOMcz7M8G0HZ5nTA/s1600/6-19-56+Bacon+column.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 179px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452096095811028258" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtgFkoBkXFKIKTvMXm0PqEeZMWITxfCUUhu0QcRKreC-ptbjJqcAt16wvV42n6HLJo6aXkVECmEL7j1kOiSov6rmOTUsu5FQ36hrpsWok1XDs9mtjRrgJSwPUOMcz7M8G0HZ5nTA/s200/6-19-56+Bacon+column.JPG" /></a>“Yeah? What’s that?”<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg85zuTI-xRkiEJ8opZIEQVek8x1gZMMzpGDD3Yy-glH1jXcITt3FY8JWrZV6SeCg0tn5mB87x5D8xgVsRoI-OKcQAMNvJwdC0J-L47m-iFFGC5SeCCc6wJQTWoWxM8z9A23iR4bg/s1600/Today+Show+%231.JPG"></a>“Well, I think it’s the love that we had – that we still have – for each other.”<br /><br />Martin thought long and hard about what he had to say, then said it. “You can talk about love all you want. To me, you’re nothin’ but a (bleep)in’ dollar sign.”<br /><br />And that was it. Both men knew: it was over. Jerry went straight to Y. Frank Freeman for permission to make “Damon and Pythias” (which would eventually be titled <em>The Delicate Delinquent</em>) with another costar. The news broke on June 18.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLDyKbRjp7PQRsFSZbchfnOrJwP7B2ITEzMVewfEXRYzWRzeHrMmMy8HmV-i1rF8q2SivHX0GO_HUkD5IuGybEbVZE7xH4ddDpeJz5oVd0T1F6vf8AiIHtcTc2CUPvMYzneSqE1Q/s1600-h/Today+Show+%231.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 142px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452091566186217858" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLDyKbRjp7PQRsFSZbchfnOrJwP7B2ITEzMVewfEXRYzWRzeHrMmMy8HmV-i1rF8q2SivHX0GO_HUkD5IuGybEbVZE7xH4ddDpeJz5oVd0T1F6vf8AiIHtcTc2CUPvMYzneSqE1Q/s200/Today+Show+%231.JPG" /></a>Still, Dean and Jerry faced a month of confirmed personal appearances, which they met through sheer force of will. There were some rough patches, one of them being a <em>Today Show</em> appearance on June 26 (“Dean and I [could] hardly bear to look at each other,” remembered Lewis fifty years later; the kinescope bears him out).<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_GROHH6wdKLwqBZqcnspFvYoSmJpguy8N8fzeikKK5DlAK0MM0LbN252Ii8axeshvn7dWoz4kHgpIbkbaNGWG7E3eqCfGhdKj25ebPLWcqibuddx0TlVCfZ2b57dagLdoCY5yvg/s1600/Today+Show+%232.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 142px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452091467047780242" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_GROHH6wdKLwqBZqcnspFvYoSmJpguy8N8fzeikKK5DlAK0MM0LbN252Ii8axeshvn7dWoz4kHgpIbkbaNGWG7E3eqCfGhdKj25ebPLWcqibuddx0TlVCfZ2b57dagLdoCY5yvg/s200/Today+Show+%232.JPG" /></a> Serendipitously, their nightclub engagements were due to conclude on July 24 – exactly one day shy of ten years since their official teaming at Atlantic City’s 500 Club.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFIlgW10FAuaC4thHtAaq_dFHFeLQxtVoIZ2mvvVWPq9T7d-6X2TsyJOKM_jhv7hHjZZRAdkF-2r-vOzP6ers7baaqZOGdTT4hsvi3og_Xavv21y2JIEfTtlN7HUFm9i6701rxqA/s1600-h/Variety+6-26-56+Miffed+%26+Lousy.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 230px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452092992325915778" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFIlgW10FAuaC4thHtAaq_dFHFeLQxtVoIZ2mvvVWPq9T7d-6X2TsyJOKM_jhv7hHjZZRAdkF-2r-vOzP6ers7baaqZOGdTT4hsvi3og_Xavv21y2JIEfTtlN7HUFm9i6701rxqA/s320/Variety+6-26-56+Miffed+%26+Lousy.JPG" /></a>Those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo of Dean and Jerry Incorporated – Hal Wallis, NBC – were forcibly persuaded to renegotiate contracts. At the insistence of Freeman, Wallis permitted them one solo film each. Not until 1957 did he agree to let them meet the balance of their contract individually, thus getting six pictures for the price of three. NBC considered suing to keep the pair together, then discovered to their chagrin that their five-year deal was contractually with York Productions, with no stipulation that the company deliver Martin and Lewis as a team. The following year, Dean negotiated his own NBC deal and sold his share of York to Jerry, who in turn sold the company and their piece of the York films to Paramount.<br /><br />Over the years, each man would take credit for initiating the split, which was in essence the truth: Dean’s refusal to do <em>The Delicate Delinquent</em> would spark Jerry’s behind-the-scenes machinations to get them released from Wallis’ iron grip. Each man reached his individual goals: Dean became “a real actor” in such fine films as <em>The Young Lions</em>, <em>Some Came Running</em> and <em>Rio Bravo</em>, while Jerry made so much money for Paramount that owner Barney Balaban famously said, “If he wants to burn down the studio, I’ll hand him the match.” <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1KmTozu5dgfdPMQ2ZP86_xEP_dA3tnUmA1v_7yxyI11ZItg7GoQs_U2I9CxC5Pmj09lHPTNS7WOsxrzH6-L6EFUQQqlPqZFHvwDRWCkXVTLxLAnAjLOfcCHZ48gmp0Ep4bbWCtg/s1600/09-76+Telethon+2.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 193px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452093395724829778" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1KmTozu5dgfdPMQ2ZP86_xEP_dA3tnUmA1v_7yxyI11ZItg7GoQs_U2I9CxC5Pmj09lHPTNS7WOsxrzH6-L6EFUQQqlPqZFHvwDRWCkXVTLxLAnAjLOfcCHZ48gmp0Ep4bbWCtg/s200/09-76+Telethon+2.JPG" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbaKEhWTWeqoqBSjTEUREYDe3_uXZyA3A7fTvridkObhUdYvxqGmoGwUO0kb_Vgp2KLL0tqAtDIs89JV1Hwn1PmMJSNA7IDgOLutTmMDBZXN_zZYRwli1IQJuAIx2t0sTeL8gvGA/s1600/09-76+Telethon+3.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452094569584427810" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbaKEhWTWeqoqBSjTEUREYDe3_uXZyA3A7fTvridkObhUdYvxqGmoGwUO0kb_Vgp2KLL0tqAtDIs89JV1Hwn1PmMJSNA7IDgOLutTmMDBZXN_zZYRwli1IQJuAIx2t0sTeL8gvGA/s200/09-76+Telethon+3.JPG" /></a><br /><br />But it was live television that made Martin & Lewis superstars, so it was entirely fitting that their estrangement came to an end on live TV; in September 1976 during Lewis’ annual telethon for Muscular Dystrophy. The reunion, like the split, made headlines, and raised hopes that Dean and Jerry would again entertain together. It was not to be; Martin and Lewis would publicly reunite only once more, briefly on a Las Vegas stage in 1989 for Dean’s 72nd birthday. By then, life’s ebb and flow had washed away the pain and bitterness for both men, to where Dean could publicly assure Jerry, “I love you and I mean it.” Martin retired in 1991 and died four years later; Lewis continues to do what he loves: make others laugh, cry and cheer.<br /><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 314px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452095131781835394" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwPRxJS2OI24w-Vnj0AT9I-graxpc2DPHVN5E9lWGrEdT2oAhybE-Qvn3qgfXGEBgqQXHZ7yTCmLCe0phFaG1eHap-_JTGtuckAtsGoYDNd2KwD-3gEnO8f9XxxhU_OkYlbrSRag/s320/1989+Reunion.JPG" /> More than a half-century after their parting, how to sum up the appeal of Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis? Perhaps we should let them do it. Jerry: “Two guys who had more fun than the audience.” Dean: “With Jerry and me, it was mostly just doin’ what we felt. Those were great times.” Indeed they were. <img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 239px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452096568669137970" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMFyO_WJSngO2vpz_rAybKTt8svPnEk-Gp-_KpKd-A-phvwXWntFe2ZpJlZXdwLeFRpv_GfPDiDQQ79BYUSg0loKGQchrQgKom5luHBAmMGPsKHsyzdXq8S9P28zLnu2Xo4KNjUA/s320/11-18-55+Two+Lost+Souls+4.JPG" /></div>Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-88907315135933558682010-03-07T16:27:00.024-05:002013-07-01T13:38:07.071-04:00Martin vs. Lewis, Round Two (June-August 1955)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5s7tHiaprUqefP-bob__F5HaFruM86ByQLkPAsPwDbLRZemwFHEkx0cluKzfSayFSZV71rAJKkjJOM49So3V9LsmsbKxHCqPjsOyHMt_YafDSCSpL1i-HyHYZGmcfSHk9whiYgw/s1600-h/M&L+gag+pic+1949.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446054345537769634" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5s7tHiaprUqefP-bob__F5HaFruM86ByQLkPAsPwDbLRZemwFHEkx0cluKzfSayFSZV71rAJKkjJOM49So3V9LsmsbKxHCqPjsOyHMt_YafDSCSpL1i-HyHYZGmcfSHk9whiYgw/s320/M&L+gag+pic+1949.JPG" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 320px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 237px;" /></a> <br />
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June of 1955 was shaping up as a banner month for the money-making juggernaut that was Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis. On the 5th, they hosted the final <i>Colgate Comedy Hour</i>. Henceforth, the program would be known as the <i>Colgate Variety Hour</i>, and would be co-owned by NBC and the team’s own company, York Productions. Six days later, their newest film, "You’re Never Too Young" (co-owned by York Productions and Paramount Pictures), would have its gala premiere at Brown’s Hotel in the Catskills, where Lewis made his professional debut as a mere teen.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirEgbq-RLWOgM3Picu1VtIrRdIwmmYxs-eE5vE9oZNoXl0bqRa9UM2MPkgb792yBWWFW3t6x09tn5TMT3PgpUq3DGRPaEfCDn-H9IEN886PNlqQdkjuYnivmJw5-ZbvLBtry07Ow/s1600-h/M&L+serious+pic.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446054072960882818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirEgbq-RLWOgM3Picu1VtIrRdIwmmYxs-eE5vE9oZNoXl0bqRa9UM2MPkgb792yBWWFW3t6x09tn5TMT3PgpUq3DGRPaEfCDn-H9IEN886PNlqQdkjuYnivmJw5-ZbvLBtry07Ow/s400/M&L+serious+pic.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 400px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 296px;" /></a><br />
Since the accord reached in the spring of 1954, interaction between Martin and Lewis had been harmonious, if never quite as cozy as before. Arthur Penn, technical director for the latest season of <i>Comedy Hours</i>, could tell at least one of them was losing interest: "The only discomfort that was ever in evidence was when I would go into the dressing room, and I would see (Dean) drinking." Martin was nursing resentment along with libations, and it wasn’t long before all hell broke loose.<br />
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The team’s second, far more damaging feud began literally 48 hours after the completion of their <i>Colgate</i> segment, when Jerry, about to board a train that would take them to New York, was told by their press agent Jack Keller, "Your partner isn’t making the trip." There had been warning signs. When the Brown’s idea was first proposed, Martin rejected it on the grounds that the site played no part in <i>his</i> career. Keller recalled, "He didn't care if he owned a piece of the picture or not. He was being used, he felt, as the tail to wag the kite... being dragged in on Jerry's party." Since he wasn’t interested in suggesting an alternate venue, eventually Martin told his partner, "I don’t give a ---- where we hold it," and Lewis took this as a default approval to open the film at Brown’s.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnHesOvitCkUUaoaWHN5B2fgMtLiFBicSdp-4IVcRrVbkUwA-CPIwKdUzpQ7Y3Ro66_DHFb2oy3NdOIdtVAg3zV-ocHrgfHHzWpjkQsBNwY_mF5JePG8vdCXwaz7B__lTUco_73w/s1600-h/Variety+6-15-55.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446053810777878594" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnHesOvitCkUUaoaWHN5B2fgMtLiFBicSdp-4IVcRrVbkUwA-CPIwKdUzpQ7Y3Ro66_DHFb2oy3NdOIdtVAg3zV-ocHrgfHHzWpjkQsBNwY_mF5JePG8vdCXwaz7B__lTUco_73w/s320/Variety+6-15-55.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 274px;" /></a>Arriving in New York, Lewis (accompanied by his wife) rode by car to the hotel, brooding and weeping as he passed billboard after billboard advertising the team’s presence for the June 11 premiere. Meanwhile, Martin was talking to his agent about lining up a solo TV show “where I can sing more than two songs in an hour.” Then, after detailing the dispute with Jerry – along with his individual aspirations – to the press, Dean took off with his wife for a Hawaii vacation.<br />
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Lewis managed to get through the premiere, surrounded by over 100 newspaper reporters, with little more than a tearful "No comment" concerning his partner’s absence, and even narrated a Paramount newsreel of the event; but once home, he spent the next several days trying to get out of every contract to which Martin & Lewis were committed, tersely repeating "No comment" to any reporter that asked what was going on.<br />
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When Dean returned from his respite, and found that not only were there no offers for his own<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6fqv_eRDl7gSkOmYWm_fulp8D9EZJaEum5Z3PV4-pHdwujtfx16OlTtYzWZnCDO7PYI91BaM2bHcRiuTDMzbJAo9HdU3qQ9TsVOOXW8uRMN-rVSYBoc_15WEo51XBRs7osohhvg/s1600-h/6-7-55+M%26L+Dont+Blend.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446053380236532498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6fqv_eRDl7gSkOmYWm_fulp8D9EZJaEum5Z3PV4-pHdwujtfx16OlTtYzWZnCDO7PYI91BaM2bHcRiuTDMzbJAo9HdU3qQ9TsVOOXW8uRMN-rVSYBoc_15WEo51XBRs7osohhvg/s400/6-7-55+M%26L+Dont+Blend.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 400px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 96px;" /></a> show but also Jerry was angling for the dissolution of the team, he went into damage control mode. First, he had his attorney fire off a letter to MCA, Hal Wallis, Paramount and NBC that categorized his earlier comments as hearsay: "Gentlemen: Notwithstanding any statements or rumors which you may have heard to the contrary, please be advised that I recognize the existence of an employment contract with you dated September 1, 1954, and that I am and will continue to be and hold myself ready, willing and able to render and perform my services pursuant thereto."<br />
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Then, every reporter to which Jerry refused to comment found Dean more than willing to talk: "I don’t want to break up the team. It’s a damn fine living and I want to hold on to it." Or, "What’s the difference if we don’t chum around? To me, this isn’t a love affair; this is big business." And in every case, Martin referred to his partner as "the kid" or "the boy," never failing to point out that he was "ten years older" (actually nine). What had once been a term of endearment from his “older brother” now sounded condescending… and Lewis fumed. Their previous feud had lasted eight days. This one would exceed eight weeks.<br />
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At the beginning of August, Lloyd Shearer called on Jerry on behalf of <i>Parade</i> magazine, and caught him at the right – or wrong - moment. After assuring Shearer that a split was "inevitable," the cork flew out of Lewis’ bottle: "Dean was the guy who told the newspapers he was ready to do a single. Don’t forget that. I didn’t open my mouth. Now I will, and I want you should know the truth. This mess is my fault…. I made the mistake of worshipping this man. I thought more of Dean than my own wife, my own family. I accepted everything we did on his terms, his standards, his values. Now I’ve grown up. I (<i>sic</i>) got values of my own.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6feBJXC0rNBeLzuL-Wkld61oOmJWVCk7Q532TU9JX4W1zyzFAOzewbDqMauDAev14S07pLlqz6px2QO9h5Ekxhmj_Xa9hhkjyYC2PWgDcgnu_PXfR5cDYujNQI4drtyhgdACDog/s1600-h/8-4-55+Dean+is+Unhappy.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446053044707375682" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6feBJXC0rNBeLzuL-Wkld61oOmJWVCk7Q532TU9JX4W1zyzFAOzewbDqMauDAev14S07pLlqz6px2QO9h5Ekxhmj_Xa9hhkjyYC2PWgDcgnu_PXfR5cDYujNQI4drtyhgdACDog/s400/8-4-55+Dean+is+Unhappy.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 131px;" /></a>"A theatre-owner in Detroit, a guy who took care of us when we were struggling – he calls up. Business is lousy. He’s going broke. For old time’s sake, won’t we play his house? I’m ready to fly to Detroit in the morning. But I gotta turn the guy down. Why? Can I tell him my partner wants to play golf? It’s the same way with benefits. Hospitals, orphanages, worthwhile charities. They phone; will we give them a few minutes, a few hours? I’m dying to say ‘Yes’ – but I can’t unless I show up without my partner."<br />
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By now, Lewis was thoroughly lathered up: "I can’t tell you how deeply I feel about these things. Twenty-eight years old, and I’ve got ulcers and I spit blood and I can’t sleep and I lose weight. Who needs this? I don’t care if Patti and me (<i>sic</i>) gotta go back to a one-room apartment in Newark. I gotta live with my conscience. You can’t run a partnership, you can’t run your life without principles. And if the only principle in this setup is to make money and to hell with everything else, I’m not buying it."<br />
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Needless to say, Shearer found Martin just as eager to talk, particularly about money. "I think the kid’s bein’ silly. We gotta company together (with) one of the greatest deals of all time. Each of us gets $4,000 a week from TV. Then after five years, or six pictures, Paramount gives us five or six million bucks to split. Jer is willin’ to throw this out the window because I don’t love him. Who says I gotta love him? Business is business. Does Abbott love Costello? Why can’t we have a business-like partnership?"<br />
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With that question, Dean had effectively thrown down a gauntlet toward his sentimental partner, before letting his own cork fly: "To hear some of the gossip you’d think I was a criminal<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ3BcTXBPEgtQIoGrKBtROfhYOmk1Euon79ym52_8YT3tEmMgyFwa6arzYgKGpzKDVLmAIGsX6qIOgTux0j1X3arWk_RLyx6pZzjy5S4iTyxjqkNVBlJFjJ3nxR33_UaolCk_uRw/s1600-h/1955+That+Old+Feeling.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446052482764374402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ3BcTXBPEgtQIoGrKBtROfhYOmk1Euon79ym52_8YT3tEmMgyFwa6arzYgKGpzKDVLmAIGsX6qIOgTux0j1X3arWk_RLyx6pZzjy5S4iTyxjqkNVBlJFjJ3nxR33_UaolCk_uRw/s320/1955+That+Old+Feeling.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 320px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 239px;" /></a> ‘cause I don’t wanna work 365 days a year. I can’t help it if I’m not built like the kid. Jer’ll work 24 hours a day if you let him. He’ll put on a benefit for the kid who sells papers on the corner. I admire, respect him for it. But Jeez! He’s ten years younger’n me. I can’t take that routine. End of the day this guy jumpin’ up and down my back, I’m tired. I’m beat. I like to go home. I gotta wife, six kids. They’re entitled to my time, my companionship. I didn’t get married so that I could spend my life on the stage doin’ benefits for the campfire boys.<br />
<br />
"I can’t change the way I’m built to suit Jerry. They talk about my golf and all that. I never missed a show or rehearsal yet. Work is work an’ play is play, an’ a man’s gotta have time for both… for his family, his kids. A guy should be allowed to step into a church for a few minutes without playin’ a benefit."<br />
<br />
It was a blockbuster story, but before it saw print the situation had changed. Within days of Shearer’s questioning, Jerry contacted Paramount and NBC with assurances of fulfilling his end of the deal. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihXxmCRtgq26LdhnUeywczDUtgMq1fNco4WPhOkVDhVEmxG3etfqCTD3eKBeU9G8uszEulLLwmfFwzu-rKbZ0laxvHIezGqOB-xQfpagpOF-0ttIDXyn-VsVWM2-d37hyphenhyphenzqgSxpg/s1600-h/8-9-55+ML+to+Stick+Together.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446051909432996674" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihXxmCRtgq26LdhnUeywczDUtgMq1fNco4WPhOkVDhVEmxG3etfqCTD3eKBeU9G8uszEulLLwmfFwzu-rKbZ0laxvHIezGqOB-xQfpagpOF-0ttIDXyn-VsVWM2-d37hyphenhyphenzqgSxpg/s320/8-9-55+ML+to+Stick+Together.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 182px;" /></a>This sudden reconciliation was driven by an urgent need – the team had an outstanding tax debt of $650,000 that had come due. Lewis borrowed the money from the head of Paramount studios, Y. Frank Freeman, fully aware he’d need to continue working with Martin in order to pay it back. The official announcement came from Paramount on August 9 – unlike their first reconciliation, neither Dean nor Jerry was present at the press conference – and questions about the personal relationship between the two principles were answered, once again, with "No comment."<br />
<br />
Indeed, observers recognized that nothing much had been resolved between them. Preparing for the first <i>Colgate Variety Hour</i> of the season, Jerry continued to involve himself in every aspect of production, spending as little time rehearsing with Dean as he could get away with. At one point, Lewis ducked into the soundproof booth used in a sketch parodying CBS’s smash <i>$64,000 Question</i> to check the wiring on the floor. Martin was overheard muttering, "Maybe we’ll get a break; he’ll electrocute himself down there." <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi19DMKeGTsbIaeiFQ39y781if1vkSmXXzYHknr5P3bqL8s7M97s-xKomqeOsQ5qDAONPi2cm3hEpwjk0ktoddNkD5ub_hwr_gfdxWRZEAWVnxly6-Bmdp41AHxjG85NldPtV-bYw/s1600-h/9-18-55+Overacting.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446050777749460626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi19DMKeGTsbIaeiFQ39y781if1vkSmXXzYHknr5P3bqL8s7M97s-xKomqeOsQ5qDAONPi2cm3hEpwjk0ktoddNkD5ub_hwr_gfdxWRZEAWVnxly6-Bmdp41AHxjG85NldPtV-bYw/s320/9-18-55+Overacting.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 246px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
<br />
The sketch opened the show on September 18, their first appearance together since June’s <i>Colgate</i> program. Martin played the host of "The $64 Million Dollar Question," and Lewis the contestant, who correctly answers the 7-part, $32 million question about tobacco (in the booth that Martin fills with the smoke from six different cigarettes) by guessing. For the big money question, Lewis is forced into a huge tank of water, where he’s expected to remain submerged until ready to answer the question, which is on a scroll of paper about a half-mile long.<br />
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The sketch was well-written enough that the pair followed it almost to the letter... until Jerry got into the tank, and Dean proceeded to push him beneath the water while reading the question. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYhSKmmGh0zdJS6orq-hJSP-eXpORZRULbRAXpQqRvp0aALFfThaId1E7ze_Z0pI56HS6o3-8sQO35kDUuhhx0x-QTmmNq97hRk5GPOPRfXeNt7Qj9y1GP3TOSNTWdHSZxdSyyfQ/s1600-h/9-18-55+Feud+Is+Over+2.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446050232740864610" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYhSKmmGh0zdJS6orq-hJSP-eXpORZRULbRAXpQqRvp0aALFfThaId1E7ze_Z0pI56HS6o3-8sQO35kDUuhhx0x-QTmmNq97hRk5GPOPRfXeNt7Qj9y1GP3TOSNTWdHSZxdSyyfQ/s320/9-18-55+Feud+Is+Over+2.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 246px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 320px;" /></a>After the third dunking, Martin attempts to force his partner under again, but Lewis grasps the side of the tank. "Let me catch a breath here," he calls out. Pushed down again, Lewis returns with the old code phrase, "You’re overacting!" Down he goes again, and re-emerges with, "A joke’s a joke, but I’m drowning!" Now laughing along with the audience, Dean sends him under again. Jerry immediately pops up: "READ A LITTLE FASTER, WILL YA?" After one more submerging, Lewis grabs the tank and eyes Martin with suspicion: "Haven’t you heard? The feud is over!" The line stopped the show.<br />
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Lewis’s ad-lib wasn’t the only comment on the recent situation. Sammy Cahn wrote the lyrics for a special rendition of “Side By Side” performed after the second sketch; lyrics that completely trivialized the cause and scope of the event:<br />
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<b>Dean</b>: Oh, the road gets a little bit bumpy. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ6qyqE8LKnQru6-P82l5X7Wq5A52F_L7Ge-_hj7UIFe2vv8Sqy6YYRZQgykSD9uJ2m6vasiNVVdFog-LSezdBe7efOlPBY0ijsIrpvcOTPJlg9qdAje4YklomF23tLFdCbHDhRg/s1600-h/9-18-55+Side+by+Side.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446049587579777410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ6qyqE8LKnQru6-P82l5X7Wq5A52F_L7Ge-_hj7UIFe2vv8Sqy6YYRZQgykSD9uJ2m6vasiNVVdFog-LSezdBe7efOlPBY0ijsIrpvcOTPJlg9qdAje4YklomF23tLFdCbHDhRg/s320/9-18-55+Side+by+Side.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 246px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
<b>Jerry</b>: And our nerves get a little bit jumpy.<br />
<b>Dean</b>: We beef and complain!<br />
<b>Jerry</b>: But we remain...<br />
<b>Both</b>: SIDE BY SIDE!<br />
<br />
<b>Jerry</b>: There are times when his smile ain’t so sunny.<br />
<b>Dean</b>: Times when his fun isn’t funny.<br />
<b>Jerry</b>: So we fuss and we pout,<br />
<b>Dean</b>: But still we come out...<br />
<b>Both</b>: SIDE BY SIDE!<br />
<br />
<b>Dean</b>: Life can be demandin’.<br />
<b>Jerry</b>: Life isn’t always play.<br />
<b>Dean</b>: We reached an understandin’:<br />
<b>Jerry</b>: It’s gotta be HIS way!<br />
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<b>Dean</b>: There are some who had parted us neatly. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik_cJ6HOIYR5zMZ4i64ADhDLmrjC5dtLv0B4fsqUxPBS33RIZSIfsdJ80tpZ3B_fhpWI0ZgQW-5hHTOgCx87ahYeNp28eXZdULOk0RV4iWax69xwB4ICGhtBXqXiuGk1lKfYYbeQ/s1600-h/9-18-55+Side+by+Side+2.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446049103288720402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik_cJ6HOIYR5zMZ4i64ADhDLmrjC5dtLv0B4fsqUxPBS33RIZSIfsdJ80tpZ3B_fhpWI0ZgQW-5hHTOgCx87ahYeNp28eXZdULOk0RV4iWax69xwB4ICGhtBXqXiuGk1lKfYYbeQ/s320/9-18-55+Side+by+Side+2.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 245px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
<b>Jerry</b>: But we have fooled them completely.<br />
<b>Dean</b>: Had us both on the shelf!<br />
<b>Jerry</b>: Look for yourself:<br />
<b>Both</b>: SIDE BY SIDE!<br />
<br />
<b>Dean</b>: Like Topsy and like Eva, we’ll always roll along!<br />
<b>Jerry</b>: We had our own Geneva: He admitted that I was wrong!<br />
<br />
<b>Dean</b>: So, please allow us to sum up:<br />
<b>Jerry</b>: If ever a problem should come up...<br />
<b>Dean</b>: We’ll fight like before,<br />
<b>Jerry</b>: But after the war,<br />
<b>Both</b>: SIDE BY SIDE!<br />
<br />
The show received near-rave reviews, typical of which was <i>Variety’s</i>: "Except for the numerous commercials and one rock-n-roll number," wrote ‘Herm,’ "Martin & Lewis were on camera for the full hour and were socko all the way." All the critics <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3lBu4UBm7sD3qBHRSkEAe5hv3Wf5AUDT1pbYpw7EuKab3K7rO7g2uue7kbkKwsCIFnF0vFNd99K_1Bxb0JwRdqq88UMZvS-aWrXSrJkzfn8Xmi7gHCQbn6YbbdyGv7ITSuIFjKw/s1600-h/1955+Screen+Life+(Together+but...).JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446051328121182514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3lBu4UBm7sD3qBHRSkEAe5hv3Wf5AUDT1pbYpw7EuKab3K7rO7g2uue7kbkKwsCIFnF0vFNd99K_1Bxb0JwRdqq88UMZvS-aWrXSrJkzfn8Xmi7gHCQbn6YbbdyGv7ITSuIFjKw/s320/1955+Screen+Life+(Together+but...).JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 242px;" /></a>made mention of the feud references and the special “Side by Side,” with <i>TV Radio-Life’s</i> noting, "As a matter of fact, the boys made it<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb0MCBm1HUY0Ku3gFBfa8V-r5XL-jMVYaE2NgLxoOsag1hZo6gf6F8vHJMG8p_gFDSmAfRfjJe4yPDqJbhlYEnehl5A89f40AJJ5fS_9uKvRURfN58Tg0_zuxugRaUauFXH8Bu8w/s1600-h/1955+Screen+Life+(Together+but...).JPG"></a> clear to viewers that their feud was a thing of the past." ‘Herm,’ on the other hand, hedged his bets on that score: "Whatever the realities in the case, the boys worked together with as much rapport as ever."<br />
<br />
From the start of the team’s career, Lewis had touted the strength of their relationship as the key to their mass adulation. The undercurrent of mutual affection that drove their antics was such a keystone of the act, the public had no trouble carrying it over to their private lives. Seeing them on television making light of their "misunderstanding" with a special song convinced the audience that all was well again. But in truth the love affair had ended and "a business-like partnership" was exactly what Martin & Lewis would have for the next eleven months, until neither man could bear it any longer.<br />
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NEXT: <a href="http://betterlivingtv.blogspot.com/2010/03/martin-vs-lewis-tko-june-july-1956.html">T.K.O.</a> </div>
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Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-63334155606248425212010-02-26T12:51:00.036-05:002013-07-01T13:36:04.855-04:00Martin vs. Lewis, Round One (March 1954)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXKnMfywfcz4Y7fkh4bLTYNoKQFIflzsK0ksxiBDOsctA78jfnoyEF2EUxebmYFUN1Kefln97vaJG50zzmgfawjKjgH4h2EnFw7amHI7eJwYb1X4aQy5tdKe1hyphenhyphenkzCHp9rDWUh7g/s1600-h/1952+Whos+Who.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442667405817192530" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXKnMfywfcz4Y7fkh4bLTYNoKQFIflzsK0ksxiBDOsctA78jfnoyEF2EUxebmYFUN1Kefln97vaJG50zzmgfawjKjgH4h2EnFw7amHI7eJwYb1X4aQy5tdKe1hyphenhyphenkzCHp9rDWUh7g/s320/1952+Whos+Who.JPG" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 320px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 254px;" /></a> <br />
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Some 25 years ago, I was reading Phil Rosenthal, then the TV columnist for the <i>Los Angeles Herald-Examiner</i>. He mentioned catching “Living it Up” (1954) on TV over the weekend, and was puzzled as to how Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis could have been so fantastically popular during the 1950’s. I could relate, thinking back to my teen years when I'd watched “Jumping Jacks” (1952) one weekday afternoon and made the same observation.<br />
<br />
My mother set me straight: “You never got to see them on <i>The Colgate Comedy Hour</i>. It was a live variety show and they were hysterically funny on it.” Ignorant of such things as kinescopes, I assumed I would never have that pleasure. Leonard Maltin could only write about their films<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-oHBST6HDyC1wxr7mMf-qP1YQRRZXdwNq5XJNKx0_RPXuMuioCxnJxUaJtoLJK9GNmm9llJtTY0hv9kUwU8hQYvwkFKchRgcpXDGCWPDELwbAzuS55MPfWlfvJAx9rbUXxYDfUA/s1600-h/1952+Colgate+ad.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442667084856061026" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-oHBST6HDyC1wxr7mMf-qP1YQRRZXdwNq5XJNKx0_RPXuMuioCxnJxUaJtoLJK9GNmm9llJtTY0hv9kUwU8hQYvwkFKchRgcpXDGCWPDELwbAzuS55MPfWlfvJAx9rbUXxYDfUA/s320/1952+Colgate+ad.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 320px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 197px;" /></a> in his book “Movie Comedy Teams” (1970, in which he labeled “Living it Up,” “probably their best”), with <i>The Colgate Comedy Hour</i> limited to a paragraph not much more detailed than my mom’s recollection. As late as 1985, when Rosenthal dismissed them, the only Martin & Lewis to be had were their 16 theatrical features. Today, of course, it’s a different story: the <i>Colgates</i> are ubiquitous on bargain-basement DVDs and as accessible as a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=search_playlists&search_query=dean+martin+jerry+lewis+colgate&uni=1">YouTube search</a>.<br />
<br />
As I've written elsewhere, what made Martin & Lewis so dazzling, so captivating, is that each man made the other look positively brilliant. To discover their TV and, to a lesser extent, radio shows from the early fifties is to behold two guys in love with each other and their work, and having the time of their lives. Dean and Jerry created a symphony of slapstick that left audiences helpless with laughter – yet no matter how mad the hijinks, there was an undercurrent of mutual affection that won them a fulsome adoration other teams would never know. The two were the very definition of what we now term a <i>bromance </i>(although a few 1950's scandal sheets alleged the relationship veered into the forbidden zone). Watching the <i>Colgates</i>, you marvel at how often they keep <i>touching</i> each other. Laurel & Hardy, bedded down together for the night, didn't come into as much intimate contact as these two did just standing in front of the orchestra. And America adored it all; at their height, Martin & Lewis were the highest paid, most successful act in show business. The Smoothie from Steubenville and the Nebbish from Newark transcended any stage, screen or TV star you'd care to name.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzlnKi8-VFQ1jSQweVbGw3Tkgl9oHDzrX1vPFBIRD9f2AGx1Rm6oM1XY4WCl7NXD0SsG0jSgN6hqX6CuW-FVcVUGOyvSOKqonOwiSk9LAQpLFskLsawLMtNd2FKaj8HcYi-GqMzg/s1600-h/1951+1000+Jokes.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442666804107731794" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzlnKi8-VFQ1jSQweVbGw3Tkgl9oHDzrX1vPFBIRD9f2AGx1Rm6oM1XY4WCl7NXD0SsG0jSgN6hqX6CuW-FVcVUGOyvSOKqonOwiSk9LAQpLFskLsawLMtNd2FKaj8HcYi-GqMzg/s320/1951+1000+Jokes.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 251px;" /></a>Three generations have come along since Martin & Lewis went their separate ways. While a vociferous contingent of Dino fans would be horrified if their epitome of cool and suave had never parted from the screechy "Hey, La-a-a-d-y-y" guy, at the time it seemed unthinkable. The nation so loved Dean and Jerry that, even though they worked solo for 35 years, neither would ever be permitted to forget the other. During their first twenty years apart, when mutual animosity was at full strength, nothing brought a crowd to life faster than when one would mention his ex-partner.<br />
<br />
So how and why did this partnership, seemingly beloved on all sides, self-destruct? It's a question that has spurred interest for over a half-century. Even Lewis' heartfelt account of the team, "Dean & Me: A Love Story," doesn't tell the whole story. With this entry, we'll look at the first full-blown argument between Dean and Jerry, which took place 56 years ago this month.<br />
<br />
As late as 1952, both men were assuring Louella Parsons' readers that they'd never so much as raised their voices to one another. But apparently things had changed a short year later. Tension had been brewing between the two for several months, and by early '54, it spilled out into the open.<br />
<br />
To begin with, when "That's Amore" became Dean's first big smash near the end of 1953, it created<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGXwWo0d1yMx93JOVLBVI0adaMssU8fu3stireCHskw3lPaJ2ctCxOtlc4gKbblSYJ9u1Xy2NyWIg5qljzes6e0hghJ7OU-0GAHMe24p8OOrlkQ3_sjZv1czO1rDCRY8mCn_abSg/s1600-h/1-10-54+gold+record.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442665934149313026" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGXwWo0d1yMx93JOVLBVI0adaMssU8fu3stireCHskw3lPaJ2ctCxOtlc4gKbblSYJ9u1Xy2NyWIg5qljzes6e0hghJ7OU-0GAHMe24p8OOrlkQ3_sjZv1czO1rDCRY8mCn_abSg/s400/1-10-54+gold+record.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 307px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 400px;" /></a> a strain. Martin was justifiably proud of his accomplishment; it was something for which he'd been striving since before the team was born. Unfortunately, the insecurity within Lewis's psyche that had remained relatively under control during the glory years began to flare. Maybe Dean would decide that he didn't need Jerry anymore. Maybe Dean was beginning to listen to those hangers-on who enjoyed telling each one that he'd be an even bigger star without the other. This time, rather than talk out his feelings, Lewis began to brood - and to assert his presence in their act.<br />
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Near the start of the <i>Colgate</i> hour of January 10, 1954, Jerry presented Dean with a gold record for "That's Amore" with his warm congratulations. The conclusion of the show was something else again. The pair staged what appeared to be a mock argument, at which point Martin ordered his partner off the stage. Dean began singing "Amore," but Jerry returned, bribing the cameramen to move in and force Dean into a corner, whereupon Jerry climbed upon the <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9gpFpVgZuinMDW3iVP0UWZPRYYOCKVbtNBZRtgHU8DHIDZeNVTs2HPdwfLP3inxVKi5Pysh_fAKNv-vJ340UKlMQQJrzynT8JDqIaDXme7kHFl6cLh_PTGih2qWyPd-7WIJvHKw/s1600-h/1-10-54+close.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442665515969536210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9gpFpVgZuinMDW3iVP0UWZPRYYOCKVbtNBZRtgHU8DHIDZeNVTs2HPdwfLP3inxVKi5Pysh_fAKNv-vJ340UKlMQQJrzynT8JDqIaDXme7kHFl6cLh_PTGih2qWyPd-7WIJvHKw/s400/1-10-54+close.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 307px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 400px;" /></a>singer's back, smacked Dean's ears and pulled his hair while laughing manically. Dean tried to take it in stride, at one point calling out, "You're over-acting, Jerry," which was something of a code phrase used when one or the other was getting too rough. This time, Lewis didn't let up, and it's clear just before the fade-out that Martin was genuinely steamed.<br />
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In truth, Dean was growing weary of Jerry’s antics overshadowing the act, not to mention their hectic schedule, which left him little time to enjoy the fruits of success. He also couldn’t have been pleased when, in a fit of pique, Lewis dismissed their head writers, Ed Simmons and Norman Lear, shortly before the January 10 show; these were the guys who made sure <i>he</i> was funny, too. Additionally, Martin didn't understand Lewis' overt desire to bring pathos into their act, telling him, "Why don't you cut out this sad stuff and just be funny?" But his real bone of contention was their movies, the one element of their work destined for posterity. To the end of his days, Martin resented that most were cut from the same cloth: Jerry the innocent simpleton hero who carried the picture, and Dean the smooth sharpie who never seemed deserving of his partner's friendship, until the final reel when he suddenly became, in his words, "a right guy."<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmMo-KGCft6FUxH4ORFRH2kDqB_UwPW9KPXeBSSogAbtA4YPdnorXR4ZpAOs7_qgT2g143D_RelJnPzeRaz3nBdULvEjsZDjkNAjPTHoSpYRB1UQF8vW6U28rjb0nRalVo82hyphenhyphenDw/s1600-h/Variety+1-13-1954.JPG"></a><br />
Upon conclusion of the <i>Colgate</i> segment, the team went to New York for a two-week stint at th<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi16JTH1AYQlUT-RrJ0I_AndbwHJHxxt-Q28ROg4mRZSuWvyJWaqZNKeursiI0NNas9Kavi7gZm7ud9WjfeiBHa4sC3bTmZeMrx4TauJT_38ATwz7uP-nMHAL91XD_TazhgYMExBw/s1600-h/Variety+1-13-1954.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442668394216988962" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi16JTH1AYQlUT-RrJ0I_AndbwHJHxxt-Q28ROg4mRZSuWvyJWaqZNKeursiI0NNas9Kavi7gZm7ud9WjfeiBHa4sC3bTmZeMrx4TauJT_38ATwz7uP-nMHAL91XD_TazhgYMExBw/s400/Variety+1-13-1954.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 400px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 152px;" /></a>e Copacabana. On opening night, Hal Wallis and his partner Joe Hazen, along with their wives, enjoyed the performance from a ringside table. After the show, Wallis and Hazen met briefly with the team, setting up a luncheon meeting for the following day to discuss their next picture: "Big Top." The film had been in the planning stages for several weeks; the script written by Don McGuire, a friend and collaborator of Jerry’s since 1951.<br />
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When Wallis asked Martin if he’d be attending, Lewis kiddingly advised his partner: "You’d better let me go with him alone. I can get more out of him." Given his growing disenchantment with the status quo, perhaps that should have thrown up a red flag for Dino. Up to now, Martin had grudgingly accepted their scripts as the nature of the business, believing neither he nor Lewis were in a position to tempt the fate of the box office. But with a friend of Jerry’s as the lead writer, and with Jerry himself overseeing the results, perhaps he could expect something better this time. So Dean left the business to Jerry, who went over the script with Wallis and made several suggestions... for his own character.<br />
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On February 8, the scheduled first day of shooting, Wallis had the Clyde Beatty Circus, a fifteen-car train and eighty-five cast and crew members standing by on location in Phoenix, Arizona. All that was missing were the two stars, who refused to show up. The team’s agent, Herman Citron, told Wallis bluntly that Dean refused to do the script as written – this despite the fact that it contained several of Jerry’s suggestions - and Jerry wouldn’t do the film against Dean’s wishes.<br />
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McGuire and the team’s <i>Colgate</i> writers, Arthur Phillips and Harry Crane, sat down and hammered out further revisions, while Martin, Lewis and Citron met with Wallis. Lewis confessed, "I am enough of a ham that when you told me this business with the elephants and the other sequences, that I could only see what wonderful things I could do..." to the point where he completely overlooked his partner’s role, the conniving, slimy manager of the circus. It’s not recorded whether Dean opined on how well his partner was looking out for him, but he did make his objections known about the script. Wallis later wrote, "He said that he doesn’t want to play a cheat and doesn’t know what he is doing in the picture." The story had Dean singing only two songs: one to caged animals, the other to Jerry.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBwoWmAChGQDnodhg_4QSfUtQYFlId6UwAj1R6ndMxPVMSA0OEc2bO6d7ZRRu8eVM0zYh_0i4V_0AdTFHmzGa3AfG7ofXPuUiBGW0yjri5WgTcEN2_1v7AAJzJuaqt8ogZFwWWEQ/s1600-h/1954+Big+Top+TV-Movie+Screen+mag.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442661013596620994" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBwoWmAChGQDnodhg_4QSfUtQYFlId6UwAj1R6ndMxPVMSA0OEc2bO6d7ZRRu8eVM0zYh_0i4V_0AdTFHmzGa3AfG7ofXPuUiBGW0yjri5WgTcEN2_1v7AAJzJuaqt8ogZFwWWEQ/s320/1954+Big+Top+TV-Movie+Screen+mag.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 234px;" /></a>Lewis, Phillips and Crane spent one more long night penning revisions, with Martin once again deferring to his partner. The end result wasn’t much different, and Dean realized that it was endgame: with Jerry and their writers having turned in a final script, he’d have to go to work. But that didn’t mean he’d have to <i>like</i> it.<br />
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Shooting for the film, eventually titled "Three-Ring Circus," began in Phoenix on February 17. Two weeks went by before Martin was even needed for a scene, at which point some of the extras began wondering aloud about the size of his part and if he was still Jerry’s partner. (Note the attached page from <i>TV and Movie Screen</i>, a fan mag: a large shot of Lewis in character, a small inset of Martin waiting between takes.) Young children hired for an orphanage scene would gather around Jerry; some of them didn’t even know who Dean was. Lewis would later write, "It got pretty hairy. There were days when I thought Dean would ditch the whole package."<br />
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On March 3, Dean walked in on Jerry having his picture taken and being interviewed... alone. The easy-going Italian finally boiled over: "Hey, Jerry, what am I around here, a fifth wheel? If I’m not important to the act anymore, just let me know!" Reporters around the set got more from Martin: "I’m sick and tired of playing stooge to that crazy, mixed-up character!" Lewis retaliated with, "I’m fed up with my partner’s sensitivity. Everything I do is wrong. Anything happens he don’t (<i>sic</i>) like, he blames it on me. He hates me." The two stopped speaking and production nearly ground to a halt. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8ApPlyKxxZ1d14e-KOC-KgTV5trQ7EiIj0nT9aWLLBbZqigeTYrrV98XVNODuYdk2Il0jQ3uxU3RFXCAtrGEVf2AJDCbqBqM7RuVIVPdZQ9jjxMm6cJdAeakK-Qd5X5cx9VQHcA/s1600-h/LA+Daily+News+3-19-1954.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442659478253303010" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8ApPlyKxxZ1d14e-KOC-KgTV5trQ7EiIj0nT9aWLLBbZqigeTYrrV98XVNODuYdk2Il0jQ3uxU3RFXCAtrGEVf2AJDCbqBqM7RuVIVPdZQ9jjxMm6cJdAeakK-Qd5X5cx9VQHcA/s320/LA+Daily+News+3-19-1954.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 255px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
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This particular feud, the first to be reported, lasted nine days. On March 12, in a meeting at MCA, the pair were forcibly reminded of their various commitments and coerced into a cordial reconciliation. But four days later, when Dean didn’t appear at Jerry’s birthday party – because he hadn’t been invited – the gossip columns again speculated on Martin and Lewis’s rapidly diminishing future together. The two issued a press release on the 18th, in which Lewis stated, "We had a disagreement. Well, it wasn’t exactly a disagreement, it was a fight. It started when Dean called me a dope. I got mad and told him to prove it, and that’s what we fought about. He did." Martin asserted that the team would split "on July 25, 1996 – our Golden Anniversary."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu1-uDlcl4VpdNEsJ97Fvd0U_Uq24qz7IPYXDBe6jL_s1CHV-C2mJD-1UtfIqT_XjuGsilub2SIXAPrrkkyTDsxDkfKou5wdoh5w38BwWHuYP-5xpDn3wJyMWQXUFWRSO46m_J7A/s1600-h/TV+Guide+1954.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442656458742191170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu1-uDlcl4VpdNEsJ97Fvd0U_Uq24qz7IPYXDBe6jL_s1CHV-C2mJD-1UtfIqT_XjuGsilub2SIXAPrrkkyTDsxDkfKou5wdoh5w38BwWHuYP-5xpDn3wJyMWQXUFWRSO46m_J7A/s320/TV+Guide+1954.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 216px;" /></a>Needless to say, this lighthearted approach didn't keep reporters at bay, to the point where, on<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCW1pFaDr5l_3q5rJV_fqoG-dCk8A3B4bheXs-eL9hAHmwAKsMmx3uNvi3l7gEsAwm4CxxuLr62VITKNoV_Jtxlm9SZptX4BtpO59kIthQUZ2-GtYHF-LqXaQx1ySJLWMLAt8qAQ/s1600-h/TV+Guide+1954.JPG"></a> April 5, no less an authority than Groucho Marx felt compelled to write: "I've been reading in columns that there is ill feeling between you boys and that there's even a likelihood that you might go your separate ways. I hope this isn't true for you are awfully good together, and show business needs you.... If there is any ill feeling or bitterness between you, it will eventually affect your work. If that feeling does exist, sit down calmly together, alone - when I say alone, I mean no agents, no family, no one but you two - sit down alone, and talk it out."<br />
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Reportedly Marx sent the letter to both partners, but only Jerry replied, thanking Groucho profusely, noting "the sagacity of your words" and assuring him, "(I) have every intention of following your advice." And in fact Dean and Jerry did meet privately shortly thereafter, and things settled down.<br />
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Near the conclusion of shooting for "Three-Ring Circus," the two<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUx3QRexxn5c3Fs-x7hUJHJAv4pJ60I7zmWJYTktQUL6Khg9JdvwOO6mwWBqG8Ibh9ItLrv_had22SRom9g4JNukvevZaKaWe3vjor1VM1Flv610vEExzpMLFgwit-x8Khyphenhyphenn8qvA/s1600-h/1954+Will+Combo+Split.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442655156964699314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUx3QRexxn5c3Fs-x7hUJHJAv4pJ60I7zmWJYTktQUL6Khg9JdvwOO6mwWBqG8Ibh9ItLrv_had22SRom9g4JNukvevZaKaWe3vjor1VM1Flv610vEExzpMLFgwit-x8Khyphenhyphenn8qvA/s320/1954+Will+Combo+Split.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 206px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 320px;" /></a> men spoke with Maurice Zolotow, Hollywood correspondent for <i>The American Weekly</i>, a Sunday newspaper supplement. Dean instructed Zolotow to "write down this part word-for-word just like I say it. I know that individually, going it alone, we would not be as great as we are together." Martin added, "When we shook hands on our partnership, I said in my heart, this is forever, ‘til death do us part. It still goes! Sometimes he makes mistakes. Sometimes I make mistakes. But as long as people let us alone, the team of Martin & Lewis will go on."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY8jiju0pql_lD3tpMbHcDF_V6wYgHk0hKocVfPwcOoiyOKM1eFjsoJ-Hmcaju2eFEarz8HpXEzI2s8XO8_JsEmGtbWVD7t6fvS5xABpbl3QKZqoNPWMhiKFUfEnPJ0oyKZYs_lQ/s1600-h/1954+Smart+Move.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442661749227086466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY8jiju0pql_lD3tpMbHcDF_V6wYgHk0hKocVfPwcOoiyOKM1eFjsoJ-Hmcaju2eFEarz8HpXEzI2s8XO8_JsEmGtbWVD7t6fvS5xABpbl3QKZqoNPWMhiKFUfEnPJ0oyKZYs_lQ/s400/1954+Smart+Move.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 181px;" /></a>For his part, Lewis told Zolotow, "The closer you are to a person, the deeper the feelings. If the feelings are hard feelings, then they’re twice as hard. And if you’re emotional, like Dean and I are emotional, well, you can’t help flipping your lid sometimes. We yell at each other… and it gets in the papers. So from this they build up a story that we’re going to bust up. Never in a million years! Get this: we’re a partnership, a real partnership.<br />
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"This idea that I’m the funny guy and Dean is just a straight man is wrong. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHIaAXKd9XQ10ZVI_zmy-uUIum-c8uvwe6MiA6xmMW1ZEwisqHvt7OTq4ILHWLWUyMOEcAFkfAvokiPN0aklR7xBTZv2467piu73451oFw5diLktO9LX_4kni0jrzzLQU2vtLpDA/s1600-h/1954+Smart+Move.JPG"></a>People may not notice it, but he’s got as many joke lines as straight lines. I feed him as many straight lines on our television show as he feeds me. Both of us have a different style of playing comedy, but we’re both essential to each other’s success. Anyway," continued Lewis, "Dino means more to me than a partner in a two-act. Outside of my wonderful wife, Dean is the person I’ve been closest to in my whole life. We’re so close that our minds think like one mind. There’s a very deep and profound love between Dean and me, and our act is good only because of this feeling of closeness."<br />
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A bullet had been dodged and the partnership was again on an even keel, so far as the public knew. Their next <i>Colgate</i> appearance, on May 3, attempted to seal it via a <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5phN4zX4ih5GKOhh4WFd91FGG3zkFXAa8Tt1JWetx_7V7hgQQ5eJUkAG-yhLO8A9gZAvg1DxVgyE0F1Ed6nldmIkq0j7v84EvM4NeM2eJMPWfwWUNMezHTb0clq2t2sAuHWNfpg/s1600-h/1954+You%27re+the+Tops.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442654039890348722" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5phN4zX4ih5GKOhh4WFd91FGG3zkFXAa8Tt1JWetx_7V7hgQQ5eJUkAG-yhLO8A9gZAvg1DxVgyE0F1Ed6nldmIkq0j7v84EvM4NeM2eJMPWfwWUNMezHTb0clq2t2sAuHWNfpg/s320/1954+You%27re+the+Tops.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 278px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 320px;" /></a>celebration of the team's eighth anniversary, with a highly fictionalized depiction of how the two paired up that concluded with them singing a ditty entitled "We Belong Together." But intimates knew that nothing much had changed: Lewis still controlled the act, which saw more and more "sad stuff" for Jerry, while Dean's part in their next picture, "You're Never Too Young," was no improvement over "Three Ring Circus." Another confrontation was inevitable. </div>
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When it came, things really <i>did</i> change... but not for the better.<br />
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NEXT: <a href="http://betterlivingtv.blogspot.com/2010/03/martin-vs-lewis-round-two-june-august.html">Round Two</a>
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Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-29689562294450545022010-02-23T16:14:00.012-05:002010-02-23T17:14:34.037-05:00Yabba-Dabba-Dad! Happy Birthday, Pebbles Flintstone!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfuw4jabj4b06asFgLDsGWtTrrxx7yQvrKeNTDPQb7wn3izy9vAFg5VZkqoesdIiBVTmCyRKjdgr3HM7990Pww6mzsdjBZuci7seBFFS-f4n1zVRhMGdZ0HLbyOFJEVRcAaWx1Bg/s1600-h/tvg+2-16-1963.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 259px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441559137390042130" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfuw4jabj4b06asFgLDsGWtTrrxx7yQvrKeNTDPQb7wn3izy9vAFg5VZkqoesdIiBVTmCyRKjdgr3HM7990Pww6mzsdjBZuci7seBFFS-f4n1zVRhMGdZ0HLbyOFJEVRcAaWx1Bg/s400/tvg+2-16-1963.JPG" /></a><br /><div>One of my favorite blogs is "Yowp," described by its owner as "stuff about early Hanna-Barbera cartoons." <a href="http://yowpyowp.blogspot.com/2010/02/pebbles-first-words-buy-me.html">Today’s entry</a> covers the arrival of Fred and Wilma Flintstone's blessed event.</div><br /><div>Yes, Pebbles Flintstone was "born" 47 years ago this evening! Don't you feel old?</div><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOyNA_6uXSnX8UG_SV87dLjgznipM4oGWXe9WPcRALlU6L92QQBsL79Xoozya-LqcpZEMDa-k806Z48E_EkdWgr5cGSxZ64hPODWxm03P43bfePjW_v7CgylgM_a6innqTAzPOyA/s1600-h/tvg+2-22-1963.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 314px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441559283300520226" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOyNA_6uXSnX8UG_SV87dLjgznipM4oGWXe9WPcRALlU6L92QQBsL79Xoozya-LqcpZEMDa-k806Z48E_EkdWgr5cGSxZ64hPODWxm03P43bfePjW_v7CgylgM_a6innqTAzPOyA/s400/tvg+2-22-1963.JPG" /></a> "Yowp" goes into much detail about the merchandising of Pebbles Flintstone (and reaction to it) that is only hinted at in the above article.</div><br /><div>To be honest, I was never a big "Flintstones" fan when growing up. I watched the show from time-to-time, but if I laughed at all, it was more due to individual gags than to plot or characterization. Mostly I found the show as distasteful as its inspiration, "The Honeymooners." ("Scandalous," I heard someone say.) Yes, Jackie Gleason's masterpiece usually just annoys me. Despite posterity's apparent verdict, Norton and Kramden are <em>not</em> Laurel & Hardy: "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into" is a whole lot more clever and charming than, "One of these days, Alice... POW! Right in the kisser!" Comedies about dumb male heads of household, whether they're named Chester Reilly, Ralph Kramden, Archie Bunker or Homer Simpson just turn me off. Maybe it's because my role models were mainly strong men: Superman, Joe Friday... even Bugs Bunny was sly, not stupid. Maybe I have too much respect for the role of husband and father to enjoy seeing them portrayed as obnoxious (and bigoted) boors.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj11ZMWeeK3uZaxFGOZp2FhW-tiCwTdvTPczeBXQjeO0wNlUbjQs2GLrmulghBO7FPvJLdFeZHxlh055e8LRsDPUgrwxNMSZBzscCTp9mzEu2vDXzzloCRFHQQOsaT4UVdsC2nE-g/s1600-h/Variety+12-30-59.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 219px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441562052035329250" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj11ZMWeeK3uZaxFGOZp2FhW-tiCwTdvTPczeBXQjeO0wNlUbjQs2GLrmulghBO7FPvJLdFeZHxlh055e8LRsDPUgrwxNMSZBzscCTp9mzEu2vDXzzloCRFHQQOsaT4UVdsC2nE-g/s400/Variety+12-30-59.JPG" /></a> </div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, the anniversary of Pebbles' debut seemed like a good excuse to post that <em>TV<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiayk45F9hYTWNam-0usQISuH-ZrbORucyGUKoVFiSZOQ7Z76aKw4KpVGwo_j6GgjFMr1agF2RlvMqO3xMN_pqVdsuiJpOP1bx44ZXYVW0NL5iQrMnNW8zl0QaghE4d62iMKbYXVg/s1600-h/Variety+12-30-59.JPG"></a> Guide</em> article from the February 16, 1963 issue... and, for that matter, this article from the December 30, 1959 issue of <em>Variety</em>: </div><div><br /></div><div>If the headline is confusing, you should know that "The Flintstones" began life as "The Flagstones." King Features, who syndicated the "Hi and Lois" comic strip, claimed ownership of the name "Flagstone," thus the change. By the end of the 1950's Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera were the undisputed kings of television animation, enabling them to sell ABC-TV on a prime-time animated show (a 26-episode commitment, no less) with nothing more than a 5-minute demo reel and a handful of storyboards. I'm not sure anyone, even Matt Groening, has <em>that</em> kind of cache today.</div>Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-51843499114734691572010-02-18T10:27:00.027-05:002010-02-18T13:46:14.916-05:00"The Best on Record" (1963): Is It Gone?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg5g1rXIh1_mY1hVjt4RlTKg2wYJxPrMrmFDw18L1Hirh-f624mv7QFrHQwIw8tIgOOGqelWOj08CUIn9scgJBnzAjUcLNJZv4606mXqqgmRAJ5WM-DtiSimZrKf_FjMGTw8J0kw/s1600-h/TVG+ad+11-24-63.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 129px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439650318509680098" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg5g1rXIh1_mY1hVjt4RlTKg2wYJxPrMrmFDw18L1Hirh-f624mv7QFrHQwIw8tIgOOGqelWOj08CUIn9scgJBnzAjUcLNJZv4606mXqqgmRAJ5WM-DtiSimZrKf_FjMGTw8J0kw/s320/TVG+ad+11-24-63.jpg" /></a><br /><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div>The discovery of a <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jc7o6uCcN_wkyB_K7AHNF70CZzOQD9DTHA0G0">new clip of President Kennedy</a> in Dallas on November 22, 1963, sent me scurrying to the two <em>TV Guide</em> issues covering those infamous four days to see what <em>didn’t</em> air.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2HiIOLv4eVtpXZ43zH1pwYEsBydds4R77j9rwbz4hWZf_19QhtfeCB44QSR7pUgnq1dMP-sbkpxuDRfkYdUTDsDsuL4Z2HRqKiOZkR5c1BQrcIJm_Gi1Eb5k7ukA5ocYv-aagPQ/s1600-h/Nov+22+TVG+page.JPG"></a> The networks, of course, yanked regular programming within minutes of the gunfire on Friday afternoon and didn’t resume until after the President’s Arlington burial the following Monday. The aftermath of this singular tragedy came into our living rooms in real time, and united not just all Americans but all <em>nations</em>.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPW0Ch6s_VCpSBxw_hDkz0fBO-0SaiYLgwqITDtx-BlMHptodns_CXWeWI3d0j2tpC6M5BF4eZiPw8FrfFMSzDsIRZb26wGnUj3rjzO4hZ1FyO575stq3wLjgaE5jTr-v3SikzQg/s1600-h/Nov+22+TVG+page.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 206px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439646543644218530" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPW0Ch6s_VCpSBxw_hDkz0fBO-0SaiYLgwqITDtx-BlMHptodns_CXWeWI3d0j2tpC6M5BF4eZiPw8FrfFMSzDsIRZb26wGnUj3rjzO4hZ1FyO575stq3wLjgaE5jTr-v3SikzQg/s320/Nov+22+TVG+page.JPG" /></a> “Television,” said ABC news anchor Ron Cochran during the weekend, “had actually become the window on the world so many had hoped it might be one day.”<br /><br />As we resumed everyday life in the days ahead, so did TV. Most of the pre-empted programs appeared in December and the first two months of 1964. The <em>77 Sunset Strip </em>episode shown in this Friday page aired on January 3; The <em>Route 66</em> on January 24; "It's Mental Work" on December 20. The evening's scheduled foray into the <em>Twilight Zone</em>, "Night Call," finally appeared on <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3rgqc1k56kMKQzMFprKeghmbKIvQsU6CGITd5I2Yh_V9Z-Asotsj7QOnR0sVflxJCZFlclHRchRen-sRtBgqFHBsEJ-q6MI8ExhjgT6BNk4cTavl1XuVMh21FFbGluWgYx4Ix2A/s1600-h/Nov+23+TVG+pages.JPG"></a>February 7. <em>Ballad of a Country</em>, intriguing as it sounds, has vanished... at least from the depths of the worldwide web. If it was to be a live broadcast, perhaps that explains it. </div><div> </div><div>Debuting late night movies plugged on the Saturday pages here for the Baltimore-D.C. region would have to wait; the networks remained on the air with news coverage, affiliate revenues be damned.</div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAg2F9dMA5hXnBXaN4jv98lfWSkDRJ6lZaQu9Uy6yCqYp7vO7A5t9avK5lCw5E9e8svMxjNMC4gbnlDLw6Sk7HoEydgI-hk6dqYwuCqNvOAJnDkFdFJRRm_E_T8wjSCYznOyLzbg/s1600-h/Nov+23+TVG+pages.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 234px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439650575770735074" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAg2F9dMA5hXnBXaN4jv98lfWSkDRJ6lZaQu9Uy6yCqYp7vO7A5t9avK5lCw5E9e8svMxjNMC4gbnlDLw6Sk7HoEydgI-hk6dqYwuCqNvOAJnDkFdFJRRm_E_T8wjSCYznOyLzbg/s320/Nov+23+TVG+pages.JPG" /></a><br /><div></div><div>Of the Sunday programs, only <em>Ed Sullivan</em> was still live, so that particular lineup went by the wayside. Perhaps that was short-sighted; a little lightheartedness from Bert Lahr, Stiller & Meara and Topo Gigio might have given an emotionally drained viewing public some much needed relief. Most of the rest of Sunday was on film, while <em>Judy Garland</em> was videotaped... as much for her benefit as ours.</div><br /><div></div><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 319px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439648135318256738" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFKfhoq7kzo755lJKZjYSg-58sMEN3s9xfQcq_wuWL_7MxScojdenMTJXOMvHBrutj-PXYF2zsqx_wbY70itmDMkYlNYXtBZigNW-PDbhI2J5rR6fKbgypFVbeQ2X5KH1TSNcVaw/s320/Nov+24+TVG+pages.JPG" />Also taped, according to this Close-up blurb, was <em>The Best on Record</em>. Designed to honor past and present Grammy Award winners, it looks like a dynamite hour, filled with the kind of variety that actually graced top forty radio once upon a time. Is there a genre <em>not</em> represented here? Folkies like me could dig Peter, Paul & Mary and the New Christy Minstrels; Connie Francis and Steve & Eydie assumed the pop duties; Tony Bennett provided his signature tune; Homer & Jethro kicked in a little country corn. And look at the star-studded lineup just doing introductions!<br /><br /><div></div><div>If taped, did this extravaganza ever make it to air? There doesn't seem to be any evidence that it did. Possibly some of it was cannibalized for a May 1965 special of the same title; Bennett and Henry Mancini are listed for that one, along with those Liverpool upstarts, the Beatles. If it was ever broadcast, the earlier version would've been sanitized in the wake of that dark Friday afternoon, the "First Family" routine in line for the initial shearing. There's a story, possibly apocryphal, about Lenny Bruce's first club appearance following the assassination. A crowd sat on the edge of their seats, wondering how this most notorious of the "sick comics" would address the tender subject. Bruce looked over the audence for a few seconds with the most somber expression imaginable, and finally sighed, "Man, Vaughn Meader is <em>screwed</em>!"</div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7j_ssQppLY_t8sjXqZJ7sLwiKBPkOLhdi1KXoFnbJ_hILHnC9cbLQWSoSnCwh-Bun90zvG2VELDxvSqg1J3ShT7c6UDvJhuwdQW_uWg_H1u5P5I0cpGcHHAi02B9PYzTlUbhOKg/s1600-h/meader01.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 223px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439651250967466114" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7j_ssQppLY_t8sjXqZJ7sLwiKBPkOLhdi1KXoFnbJ_hILHnC9cbLQWSoSnCwh-Bun90zvG2VELDxvSqg1J3ShT7c6UDvJhuwdQW_uWg_H1u5P5I0cpGcHHAi02B9PYzTlUbhOKg/s320/meader01.JPG" /></a><br /><div></div><div>And so he was. Meader can be seen performing his Kennedy press conference shtick on Shout Factory's <em>Hootenanny</em> box set. The airdate for that clip was September 21, 1963... a scant two months before the world changed forever in front of his, and everybody else's, eyes.</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-61695157136366685222010-02-05T21:40:00.004-05:002010-02-05T21:49:41.061-05:00And Now, Here's a Message From One of Our Sponsors!Here, in the Mid-Atlantic region where I reside, it is snowing... and by all reports, it will continue snowing until tomorrow evening.<br /><br />So, to all my East Coast family and friends, may I say that this weekend (at least until Super Bowl Kick-off) would be an excellent time to kick back and curl up with a good book, like this one: <img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 267px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434956187161854002" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6iqQMb6YeGasl21fsN3nS_WPgtTKoE-zAnzTA-kn5MVWRVdLPo3yuvPykRRsYkxgpEfSds-5ke5a4Xwc_ah3VsSaQwHEtQhW2ypVlb978BtVULiMjHdMTRmR2s1OExD8lUW_dKw/s400/FoF_final+cvr_low+res.JPG" />Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-71968926401864706752010-01-12T00:59:00.029-05:002010-01-27T20:48:08.276-05:00"It's Arthur Godfrey Time!"<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt4oUx3L_LMlx9vBLJR_X7F5znOM63vcl2Kz8su-Ua_NQ7bssyLTff_kGXMxv0XcYDFjqOUPp5eBP50dQExI2FgQQR40eBBGbRrNkLTZmh0eViDh49rJ-vQGchsvEaOud_CIRnSw/s1600-h/titlecard.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 257px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425931355151527234" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt4oUx3L_LMlx9vBLJR_X7F5znOM63vcl2Kz8su-Ua_NQ7bssyLTff_kGXMxv0XcYDFjqOUPp5eBP50dQExI2FgQQR40eBBGbRrNkLTZmh0eViDh49rJ-vQGchsvEaOud_CIRnSw/s320/titlecard.JPG" /></a>After all the media hoopla and public dismay surrounding professional golfer Tiger Woods and his various indiscretions, it’s useful to remember that we’ve been down this road before.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizgQ_NhwzAz-KmAfb52JlTTVMI505TZd62KrlUxnSXNVT2ToMXr-vV4AGuGVGflUsVWrNGMqmra5PT5Ws-Lc7Ib5Hw73qJm8P82UHm-fGyzs17KlrtiAWJVOXP1fWdPtcPvvHSIw/s1600-h/Godfrey+Color.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 148px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425729597636965186" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizgQ_NhwzAz-KmAfb52JlTTVMI505TZd62KrlUxnSXNVT2ToMXr-vV4AGuGVGflUsVWrNGMqmra5PT5Ws-Lc7Ib5Hw73qJm8P82UHm-fGyzs17KlrtiAWJVOXP1fWdPtcPvvHSIw/s320/Godfrey+Color.jpg" /></a>Fifty-seven years ago, America was in the throes of its love affair with Arthur Godfrey. Tiger at his most influential couldn’t hold a candle to “the<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmGYqUQxR6KLhVxZSrniIhD9FGywfjFBVNp44jsSQJlo5SDnZNRWWNliU7V2Qf6jqJ8NiNbPr5eYrDDFcm8ifeUblXNtVv31y9gKUWjd30i2eawkf9Nek3w6n3cUTgHYr-cnNydQ/s1600-h/TV+Gude+cover+1-8-1955.jpg"></a> ol’ redhead.” Sponsors of all shapes and sizes were pounding on CBS doors trying to get a piece of the action. If anyone doubted that Godfrey was the undisputed king of radio and television, a brace of magazines and newspaper columnists would beg to differ. <em>TV Guide</em> labeled him, “Boyish, open-faced, apple-pie likable… television’s Huck Finn.” Attempting to pinpoint Godfrey’s unprecedented appeal, Ben Gross of the <em>New York Daily News</em>, wrote: “It is his friendliness, his good cheer, his small-boy mischievousness and his kindly philosophy… or maybe it’s his magnetism, his <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4C53ftmH5zkh6OhopI1FlllNOftYLVSvLMX1yNxrfTygY2jWeLlKzyMh-0HfIu3qnFt1Blw1dfvAqV5nxxSQSVO0-vP773etdGwvQ2-mrCjdrHAFloc6iWxjASLx9R1HAWJcM0w/s1600-h/Godfrey+Kleenex+ad+1953.jpg"></a>personal attractiveness.” <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVhE6mvXPVt7SwVKkrlUHzAlFidd59hBiT3Oqd6JtZd4ILEVVnJnu_nJzVE7ZYWKGe3hS0AGheNjAt0u5EQQCotfq__KVZsC3d3AfMDMnAGPj4e8y-sutZC_sTEK40Yj2gGWLctA/s1600-h/Godfrey+Kleenex+ad+1953.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 202px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425733677077760802" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVhE6mvXPVt7SwVKkrlUHzAlFidd59hBiT3Oqd6JtZd4ILEVVnJnu_nJzVE7ZYWKGe3hS0AGheNjAt0u5EQQCotfq__KVZsC3d3AfMDMnAGPj4e8y-sutZC_sTEK40Yj2gGWLctA/s320/Godfrey+Kleenex+ad+1953.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Whatever it was, by 1953, Godfrey accounted for 12% of CBS’ annual television revenues, according to Robert Metz’s book, <em>Reflections in a Bloodshot Eye</em>. He had two prime-time series: “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” on Monday evenings (the lead-in to “I Love Lucy”) and on Wednesday, “Arthur Godfrey and His Friends,” an hour-long variety series… although “variety” might be too strong a word. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSCN4AsP0vNwsDpXMU_yhowWWOcHn8XA4XoDUaDXwBFyshRVsqA8ie84ftqgVOVKRCWSZHrTNT-aNZuq1nocPly5s0UhSPzzVKKhLPjvdyBUtjhpUyU0AlS747YX7uILDgm7aWBQ/s1600-h/godfrey+screencap+2.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 158px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425931690128669234" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSCN4AsP0vNwsDpXMU_yhowWWOcHn8XA4XoDUaDXwBFyshRVsqA8ie84ftqgVOVKRCWSZHrTNT-aNZuq1nocPly5s0UhSPzzVKKhLPjvdyBUtjhpUyU0AlS747YX7uILDgm7aWBQ/s200/godfrey+screencap+2.JPG" /></a>Try to imagine tuning in weekly to see the same collection of singers and vocal groups – no vaudeville acts or celebrity guest stars, if you please; just Arthur and his “Little Godfreys” – alternately render a tune in between the host’s folksy banter and playful commercial spiels. Now imagine that this show is a top ten entry from 1951-54, while “Talent Scouts” – the “American Idol” of its day – is a top three show (#1 during 1951-52) during the same stretch. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUy8U6PNPpTfU0xGrHnPGkEtZvuZo1Ymt1_ewGuVCvgR3RUiMgKjaeaQStMWZ0TMbopIayS7k8AnMENpakJuSVY-3yY6n1e256bSvyW4J7neY8nwzUYKb80180Ecc2tPskezygRA/s1600-h/godfrey+screencap+3.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 157px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425931997844086210" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUy8U6PNPpTfU0xGrHnPGkEtZvuZo1Ymt1_ewGuVCvgR3RUiMgKjaeaQStMWZ0TMbopIayS7k8AnMENpakJuSVY-3yY6n1e256bSvyW4J7neY8nwzUYKb80180Ecc2tPskezygRA/s200/godfrey+screencap+3.JPG" /></a>At one point early on, CBS gave Godfrey 15 <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXHjRjd91oww7SRbx2WFKFYhu7f_VOJOYaN09sDCubvUL_NNwSK-3989XUzTL51lCoSv6ksioM_KO7c9k_hLHTqRSqIvFheEW3uqdLmvBEIqXKQs3RZ-dEhDrsTChlyqik1nxIwA/s1600-h/Godfrey+Cover+1953.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 253px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425730184920468882" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXHjRjd91oww7SRbx2WFKFYhu7f_VOJOYaN09sDCubvUL_NNwSK-3989XUzTL51lCoSv6ksioM_KO7c9k_hLHTqRSqIvFheEW3uqdLmvBEIqXKQs3RZ-dEhDrsTChlyqik1nxIwA/s320/Godfrey+Cover+1953.jpg" /></a>minutes of prime time twice weekly to give ukulele lessons!<br /><br />Then there was “Arthur Godfrey Time,” the 90-minute CBS weekday morning radio show simulcast on the TV network beginning in 1952. The show was only televised Monday through Thursday – on Friday, Godfrey hosted via remote from his Leesburg Virginia farm, which precluded any TV cameras. The show contained six 15-minute segments, each with a different sponsor, although Lipton Tea and Chesterfield cigarettes were mainstays (the latter until Godfrey went under the knife for lung <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4YjResJaulZdIb9OuY3DbDJpnSRDlAp1z9SREQWaEmvEHzT3UTkHOzlfAq1aIhAw8la5YlX_rSaus2lwDWYpis2N6g0KFxfoCywVu54ld_m4VVnHbEhXvtdDmG9T24tglov_71A/s1600-h/Godfrey+Cover+1952.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 251px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425729986961465346" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4YjResJaulZdIb9OuY3DbDJpnSRDlAp1z9SREQWaEmvEHzT3UTkHOzlfAq1aIhAw8la5YlX_rSaus2lwDWYpis2N6g0KFxfoCywVu54ld_m4VVnHbEhXvtdDmG9T24tglov_71A/s320/Godfrey+Cover+1952.jpg" /></a>cancer in 1959). Reportedly he refused to accept any sponsor whose product he didn’t personally endorse from his own experience… which ensured stockpiles of various freebees would make their way to Leesburg.<br /><br />But the bigger they are, the harder they fall… and it was the final segment of “Arthur Godfrey Time” on Monday, October 19, 1953, that concluded with Godfrey’s metaphoric golf club to the head. This was, of course, the broadcast in which he fired singer Julius La Rosa on the air. Although “fired” might be too strong a word as well.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCiILVOEssiTXkCWTXUcNa_Con8gmw7IL_zd5Yno64PCjrRd4YM8Dvu7gl4kZaPjlVYd8zLQqBvtnu640bWH8qykgTS0LocESiLnUSS8SBpncy3BUt7Ei-pZlLxgsSGyr-NYwyNw/s1600-h/Godfrey+Binghamton+Press+11-27-51.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 68px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 400px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425734038443583186" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCiILVOEssiTXkCWTXUcNa_Con8gmw7IL_zd5Yno64PCjrRd4YM8Dvu7gl4kZaPjlVYd8zLQqBvtnu640bWH8qykgTS0LocESiLnUSS8SBpncy3BUt7Ei-pZlLxgsSGyr-NYwyNw/s400/Godfrey+Binghamton+Press+11-27-51.JPG" /></a>La Rosa was a Brooklyn native who, while serving a stint in the Navy, auditioned for <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfEXbb5nQOX5x8DQ6t3q0qHgjnBgFKTe0tIR7eb5anb70Rv_RXcJAuy23x8Srje10i_AxRLCuA-P4KWkqQcdnGvgryadfKpprufgqWgZp6LiUta7dw5ACkjsHPGDoaTt1BDQNm4g/s1600-h/Godfrey+Binghamton+Press+11-27-51.JPG"></a>Godfrey on October 4, 1950. Impressed with the young sailor’s vocal gifts, Godfrey twice had him appear on “Talent Scouts” when on shore leave, and promised him a steady job upon his discharge. The young man happily took him up on this generous offer (see related article), and on November 17, 1951, Julius La Rosa became one of “the Little Godfreys,” with steady appearances on “Arthur Godfrey Time” and “Arthur Godfrey and His Friends.” With Godfrey’s orchestra leader, Archie Bleyer, La Rosa co-formed Cadence Records and recorded a string of hits. By mid-1953, the 23-year-old crooner’s fan mail was outdistancing that of his boss.<br /><br />That, however, may not have been the issue. According to La Rosa, he was forced to miss a ballet class (a Godfrey mandate to his entire on-air staff) due to a family crisis. The next day, he found a memo tacked to the staff bulletin board: “Since you felt your services weren’t required at the ballet lesson yesterday, you won’t be needed this morning on the show.” La Rosa tried to reach his boss at his hotel; he tried phoning… no luck. “I’m sure I’m in trouble,” concluded La Rosa, according to Max Wilk’s 1976 book, <em>The Golden Age of Television: Notes From the Survivors</em>. “What do you do when you’re in trouble in show business? You figure you need some muscle of your own, right? And you hire yourself an agent.” <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2lClol3hddw8-Lf42_l7RxQ6Ou_lhSnBar_cLnBh5VGhGFPlyHIYC1EsUvHRh6kdecFC7kNKWyAI_28hv2Gv8H_87eaLE7oAqRZaZ0qNBPGJ6ym3zdbynXlNvV8E0JICOva57rQ/s1600-h/godfrey+screencap+1.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 158px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425932859817940034" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2lClol3hddw8-Lf42_l7RxQ6Ou_lhSnBar_cLnBh5VGhGFPlyHIYC1EsUvHRh6kdecFC7kNKWyAI_28hv2Gv8H_87eaLE7oAqRZaZ0qNBPGJ6ym3zdbynXlNvV8E0JICOva57rQ/s200/godfrey+screencap+1.JPG" /></a><br /><br />With that move, La Rosa broke the unwritten commandment for Little Godfreys: Thou Shalt Not Acquire Outside Representation. And La Rosa picked a winner: Thom Rockwell, president of General Artists’ Corporation and personal agent for Perry Como. Said Godfrey at the time, “I had told (La Rosa) a long time ago one thing I wouldn’t stand for was outside interference by personal agents.” Before <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIZnN7d5AxU5_Wxwev0Hq285cJRc42e68Pa8zhvFU89qftp8lrT3dKolEmyBZnp3I2aHq9KPLlLHPXJCIUzrHFrTceAVysK__LPHn5tFvYHl-LMUd5cAzNWywrmrrKQlwigZaiXA/s1600-h/Little+Godfreys.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 269px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425731888090100610" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIZnN7d5AxU5_Wxwev0Hq285cJRc42e68Pa8zhvFU89qftp8lrT3dKolEmyBZnp3I2aHq9KPLlLHPXJCIUzrHFrTceAVysK__LPHn5tFvYHl-LMUd5cAzNWywrmrrKQlwigZaiXA/s320/Little+Godfreys.jpg" /></a>the ink had dried on La Rosa’s contract, Rockwell dashed off a letter to Godfrey and CBS informing them that he would henceforth be handling the singer’s affairs.<br /><br />La Rosa knew what was coming: “Now it was just a question of when. Rockwell’s letter was mailed, (Godfrey) got it maybe by the end of the week.” At which point, he went to Frank Stanton, president of CBS, seeking advice. Stanton’s suggestion: You hired him on the air, you can fire him the same way.<br /><br />Flash forward to the following Monday, October 19. La Rosa: “I get to work at the radio studio (for “Arthur Godfrey Time”). I was scheduled for the 10:15 segment, but one of the ways Godfrey would discipline you would be to keep you sitting around there, waiting to go on. It was his show – he pulled all the strings. All morning I sit there waiting, I’ve got two different songs to do.”<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLVbC0IljCyS585UFz0XFsUPawnZrycNzYmxdrE-nOJWzG3nioj0lo3PyPjUSFpRzAx4oMLvZLo4S2A2ZKeiObzNt59dpsY8on78dpDLDyPLvFPUXxNsLh1DOruCEwO2xDmfT7Mg/s1600-h/TV+Guide+10-19-53.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 201px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425734359989238786" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLVbC0IljCyS585UFz0XFsUPawnZrycNzYmxdrE-nOJWzG3nioj0lo3PyPjUSFpRzAx4oMLvZLo4S2A2ZKeiObzNt59dpsY8on78dpDLDyPLvFPUXxNsLh1DOruCEwO2xDmfT7Mg/s320/TV+Guide+10-19-53.jpg" /></a>With the clock closing in on 11:25, Godfrey finally told the studio audience, “I want you to meet a young man named Julius La Rosa.”<br /><br />Most sources declare that the telecast had ended by this point; that only the radio audience heard what was to follow. It appears, though, that while some CBS-TV affiliates only covered part of the day’s proceedings, others signed on for the full 90 minutes and would have carried the finale. As an example, according to this <em>TV Guide</em> page for that date, Buffalo’s channel 4 televised only the second half-hour, but Syracuse’s channel 8 aired the entire program.<br /><br />In any event, audio of the final five minutes survives and is in circulation. Some written accounts have Godfrey commenting on La Rosa’s rise to fame and snidely asking him, “This show must be a pain in the neck to you, huh?” or something similar, but the existing recording contains nothing of the sort. Rather, Godfrey assures the audience that their enthusiastic reception “pleases me mightily.” Arthur asks Julius, “How long ago did you come (to us)?”<br /><br /><em>Julius</em>: “November 17, 1951… it’ll be two years next month.”<br /><em>Arthur</em>: “Not quite two years… so it was about three years ago when I first met you.” <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx0Yt9wVWKPN-HTLZhJdAO0bnqLcYCIoLn4svKr9ldtxl-H9yXH-1gckPG6UHNiFLOTm4w8VA5pGEwcXn3nZIJqSwOWFjeeqC9M-7AkVfERTi5-AeRhMvIDnjavgt8MyoITGYeOQ/s1600-h/Godfrey+LaRosa.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 202px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425730560284973538" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx0Yt9wVWKPN-HTLZhJdAO0bnqLcYCIoLn4svKr9ldtxl-H9yXH-1gckPG6UHNiFLOTm4w8VA5pGEwcXn3nZIJqSwOWFjeeqC9M-7AkVfERTi5-AeRhMvIDnjavgt8MyoITGYeOQ/s320/Godfrey+LaRosa.jpg" /></a><br /><em>Julius</em>: “October 4th, 1950.”<br /><br />The audience laughs at Julius’ precise recollection, but his voice sounds tentative… like he’s bracing himself for what might follow. Godfrey continues, addressing the audience:<br /><br /><em>Arthur</em>: “When I first met Julie… I’ll never forget, when he first came up here, and I said to him, ‘When you get out of that man’s Navy, if you don’t want to stay in for thirty years, just come on up here, and I’ll give you a job,’ and he took me at my word. And he came and I put him to work, and immediately everybody loved him. And it has always done my heart good to see that you people saw the same quality in him that I saw. Which, if you have noticed, and I’m sure you have, is the same quality that I have in everybody in my cast. I picked ‘em all that way. Sure, he’s got a good voice, but lots of people have good voices. There’s something else that you like, which is a wonderful quality that is hard to get.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTTsEsvG1Wdt5QB-PndXGDaroSfjbL4zMaVX7VPUk9J1UInpbTUD4yI7zB0D4wGkYjdxHcztAUIavLgmaiGbvCKkINtOqtT_4RlFrGlSLklTwkNaEKi3RHZtouH2vCS_yzXyehyA/s1600-h/Godfrey+Brooklyn+Eagle+10-22-53.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 117px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425743381217395330" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTTsEsvG1Wdt5QB-PndXGDaroSfjbL4zMaVX7VPUk9J1UInpbTUD4yI7zB0D4wGkYjdxHcztAUIavLgmaiGbvCKkINtOqtT_4RlFrGlSLklTwkNaEKi3RHZtouH2vCS_yzXyehyA/s320/Godfrey+Brooklyn+Eagle+10-22-53.JPG" /></a>“I’ll never forget when he first came here and went to work steadily, he said to me, ‘Gee...” (<span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">to La Rosa</span>) Do you remember how you used to go (<span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">exaggerated Brooklyn accent</span>) ‘Chee!’ (<span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Audience laughs</span>) ‘I don’t know, with all those stars on the show.’ And I said to him, ‘Julie, you don’t know it, but I don’t have any stars in my show. In my show, we’re all just a nice big family of very nice people, like yourself. And you hold onto that quality and you’ll never have to worry about a thing; you’re just as big as anybody else. You just go on (and) try to improve yourself all the time and one day you’ll be the big star.’ And this boy in two years’ time has done this. He and Archie have their own recording company now and he’s gotten to be a great big name.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicXu3eVRzIxOhRY9fyVZ6Q8HR4heyne-1Ly31gqIzNzWK19BR-XZCdeqy3k1MHTOaleN0KNcTVVDUAbymAd-0StVMQkN2cI-6twUDDh-bF0yzFw9g2-9XmRIkwWf7p94T90fRGjQ/s1600-h/Godfrey+%28Unknown%29+10-21-53.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 243px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 260px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425736376841808402" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicXu3eVRzIxOhRY9fyVZ6Q8HR4heyne-1Ly31gqIzNzWK19BR-XZCdeqy3k1MHTOaleN0KNcTVVDUAbymAd-0StVMQkN2cI-6twUDDh-bF0yzFw9g2-9XmRIkwWf7p94T90fRGjQ/s320/Godfrey+%28Unknown%29+10-21-53.JPG" /></a><br />“And I would like Julius, if he would, to sing me that song called ‘Manhattan.’ Have you got that? Huh?”<br /><br /><em>Julius</em>: “Yes, sir.”<br /><em>Arthur</em>: “Sing me that.”<br /><br />Bleyer’s band struck up the tune and La Rosa sang. Applause… then it happened:<br /><br /><em>Arthur</em>: “Thanks ever so much, Julie. That was Julie’s swan song with us. He goes now out on his own, as his own star, soon to be seen in his own programs. And I know you wish him Godspeed, same as I do.”<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtwLCKt-2B-ck-pckBpzanDT7g9jRM2bl9brIGavhQqh1SXP4NCOQ526EWzsoooXpUg_SJC40AyCXBxVN5EFKrYihak93jKFAD70P664DC3MLh-9nA40_iMMZZRQNi7t_Be135LA/s1600-h/Godfrey+%28Unknown%29+prob+10-23-53.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 76px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425744007876780018" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtwLCKt-2B-ck-pckBpzanDT7g9jRM2bl9brIGavhQqh1SXP4NCOQ526EWzsoooXpUg_SJC40AyCXBxVN5EFKrYihak93jKFAD70P664DC3MLh-9nA40_iMMZZRQNi7t_Be135LA/s320/Godfrey+%28Unknown%29+prob+10-23-53.JPG" /></a>The audience can be heard registering their dismay at this news, but at that point, the sound cuts to the theme and Godfrey’s pre-recorded voice declaring, “This is the CBS radio network.” Apparently, TV stations still airing the simulcast cut off even sooner than that, right after the “swan song” remark. Later in the week, Godfrey told Edward R. Murrow, on the latter’s “Person-to-Person,” that he didn’t have enough time left for a full send-<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmAWNX8RnNFxgj9zEVhzkG1Yvkc5u53EV95ovkNGSqkdssIctX0E9il78kZAAHW5hIn0s5Gud8JU1UOsejadkWmTIcIUj8hNfesmVRP3TIWsjdfTjuIGd776tP5Sx3py8mg1NYaw/s1600-h/Godfrey+%28Unknown%29+prob+10-23-53.JPG"></a>off.<br /><br />Based on Godfrey’s build up of La Rosa’s star power during the broadcast, initial news reports assumed that the singer had requested his release, which was graciously granted. But Rockwell saw the chance for the kind of publicity money couldn’t buy. The next day, La Rosa told the press he was “a very confused guy,” not comprehending his dismissal at all, while Rockwell bragged, “Anyone who can make four thousand bucks for a one-night stand needs an agent. The kid is hot, there’s no question about it.”<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn4dRNC43nmNbDsl_VWbHpT6or0urvTf4e7ulsrPVCRCQHmqTzUUffJIrOqYXSd8ajfTQauSyzbEP2s40qFYUPMT8mHphyphenhyphenWox-X4L91GPP8i_Y0qlqte2lBHv0I3G1GTyrnsh_Lg/s1600-h/LaRosa+Sullivan.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 192px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 200px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425737893253186306" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn4dRNC43nmNbDsl_VWbHpT6or0urvTf4e7ulsrPVCRCQHmqTzUUffJIrOqYXSd8ajfTQauSyzbEP2s40qFYUPMT8mHphyphenhyphenWox-X4L91GPP8i_Y0qlqte2lBHv0I3G1GTyrnsh_Lg/s200/LaRosa+Sullivan.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Kid indeed. Twenty-three years later, La Rosa understood just how green he was: “Talk about twisted values. I was completely unprepared for what happened – the enormous impact the whole thing had.” Not two days after what was now reported as a public firing, Ed Sullivan – ever the opportunist – signed La Rosa for thirteen appearances on his “Toast of the Town.” “Again, I wasn’t prepared,” said La Rosa. “I felt like saying, ‘No, not thirteen times a year for all that money – please, let me go up to the mountains, let me do shows, clubs; let me learn what I’m doing first – order me back then.’” Not a chance; <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhZjuVqdYlFVZIEU_VP6SpJF7Nd5vHvydw1ORM5kzkPh_u9epQ3LnCsYIO-4YuTtQTbKki2ie_2bHYDLyhBCNyHfquq4M4-oSFyLt35oporbTYKtVAq0lBv2auayr3M1d4Mm6KWw/s1600-h/Godfrey+Schenectady+Gazette+10-22-53.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 136px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425735380044274290" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhZjuVqdYlFVZIEU_VP6SpJF7Nd5vHvydw1ORM5kzkPh_u9epQ3LnCsYIO-4YuTtQTbKki2ie_2bHYDLyhBCNyHfquq4M4-oSFyLt35oporbTYKtVAq0lBv2auayr3M1d4Mm6KWw/s320/Godfrey+Schenectady+Gazette+10-22-53.JPG" /></a>as Rockwell said, “the kid” was hot.<br /><br />Behind the scenes, Godfrey also released Archie Bleyer, ostensibly for paying more attention to his record company to the detriment of Godfrey’s programs, but primarily because Bleyer had used part of a two-week paid vacation to record Don McNeill, Godfrey’s long-time rival from ABC. In fact, this axe fell just hours after the “swan song” broadcast. “It really hurt,” Godfrey told the press. “I said, ‘Arch, I just fired Julie and it was like tearing my eyeballs out, and I guess you’re next.” With this news, the press went berserk; you can sample just a portion of their output here. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLSbufOqNdAgQpAxj21UdYCW3OEcg4Ai9RGNYUuKKbcNVxvlodrU-R_q-J_ZtWnElCYo6WNx7OrdTxHd8zTAVYZAkrwkyVEWWtOcJVeqksVyYpoEdAwVorIAxMbcyxsBf9V_ymgA/s1600-h/Godfrey+%28Unknown%29+10-23-53.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 109px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425744586175178242" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLSbufOqNdAgQpAxj21UdYCW3OEcg4Ai9RGNYUuKKbcNVxvlodrU-R_q-J_ZtWnElCYo6WNx7OrdTxHd8zTAVYZAkrwkyVEWWtOcJVeqksVyYpoEdAwVorIAxMbcyxsBf9V_ymgA/s320/Godfrey+%28Unknown%29+10-23-53.JPG" /></a><br /><br />With La Rosa’s “confused guy” coupled with Rockwell’s bluster, Godfrey’s temperature rose, and he felt compelled to make a public statement… which would become his metaphoric cell phone text to the mistress. “Whenever I take anybody on my shows, it’s because I go a little crazy about a quality I see in them which, for lack of a better word, I call ‘humility.’ I don’t have any real artists on my show…. I’ve felt that, rather than a good voice, a likable, lovable personality is more important.” Godfrey then explained that, with the hiring of an outside agent, it was clear to him that La Rosa had lost this quality.<br /><br />Meanwhile the public, after having gorged on all this coverage, eventually decided that if Arthur Godfrey was concerned about lost humility, perhaps he should start searching for his own. From this point on, the decline began. Both his night-time shows fell from the top ten – and “Godfrey and His Friends” dropped out of the top twenty – during the 1953-54 season, never to <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbACmEzZFySWsfYoRwpn-tN4-3lHsQVvrJps_B52noHFgi3SdZxPb1AaPjbahJnvTs2rsN0RGnpASjvtyMKuCiuwbTkKLKTW2GdgIk5MhDNmm98yOATOv6Y0nPy8jJNfWtdhgrjg/s1600-h/Godfrey+Binghamton+Press+11-4-53.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 143px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425739627998037746" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbACmEzZFySWsfYoRwpn-tN4-3lHsQVvrJps_B52noHFgi3SdZxPb1AaPjbahJnvTs2rsN0RGnpASjvtyMKuCiuwbTkKLKTW2GdgIk5MhDNmm98yOATOv6Y0nPy8jJNfWtdhgrjg/s200/Godfrey+Binghamton+Press+11-4-53.JPG" /></a>return. In April 1955, Godfrey went on another purge, firing several long-time “Little Godfreys” like Marion Marlowe, Lu Ann Simms, Haleloke and Bleyer’s successor, Jerry <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx7zQmb10PS8GdFgKwK_boUZyUOGvYawGVgvJpOpn3EOFZl9WtyyCDAXmaSeV-9_D1mUTGz-djKjzY7XPT901fYhpNQSO2f2ugW1ODZM7SLkrv-B4yYpUSHbjIBK9-LOAe394PCQ/s1600-h/Godfrey+Cover+1957.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 156px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425740301327588882" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx7zQmb10PS8GdFgKwK_boUZyUOGvYawGVgvJpOpn3EOFZl9WtyyCDAXmaSeV-9_D1mUTGz-djKjzY7XPT901fYhpNQSO2f2ugW1ODZM7SLkrv-B4yYpUSHbjIBK9-LOAe394PCQ/s200/Godfrey+Cover+1957.jpg" /></a>Bresler. For his troubles he received another round of bad press. Although other “Friends” would come along – notably Pat Boone and Carmel Quinn – they could not restore the show or its host to their former glory.<br /><br />“Arthur Godfrey and His Friends” left the air in the summer of 1957, and “Talent Scouts” a year later. At least a portion of “Arthur Godfrey Time” would be telecast until April 1959, while the radio show continued until 1972. Godfrey weaved in and out of<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmGYqUQxR6KLhVxZSrniIhD9FGywfjFBVNp44jsSQJlo5SDnZNRWWNliU7V2Qf6jqJ8NiNbPr5eYrDDFcm8ifeUblXNtVv31y9gKUWjd30i2eawkf9Nek3w6n3cUTgHYr-cnNydQ/s1600-h/TV+Gude+cover+1-8-1955.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 219px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425741041660356034" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmGYqUQxR6KLhVxZSrniIhD9FGywfjFBVNp44jsSQJlo5SDnZNRWWNliU7V2Qf6jqJ8NiNbPr5eYrDDFcm8ifeUblXNtVv31y9gKUWjd30i2eawkf9Nek3w6n3cUTgHYr-cnNydQ/s320/TV+Gude+cover+1-8-1955.jpg" /></a> TV during the 1960’s, hosting specials and variety shows like “Hollywood Palace.” His successful battle against lung cancer awarded him some long-lost respect, but he would never again command the power of the old days.<br /><br />Godfrey died in 1983, having long since been consigned to nostalgia retrospectives, trivia questions, and word-association games (the word being “humility”). Today, we look at the few kinescopes and listen to surviving broadcasts, and wonder what our grandparents were thinking, paying this guy so much attention and buying whatever he told them to. Armed with the La Rosa incident – and “Julie” remains to tell his side of the tale – and a few other latter-day recollections, posterity labels Arthur Godfrey an opinionated, hard-nosed, conceited S.O.B. of limited talent, who fooled the great unwashed with a generous helping of folksy charm, hopelessly outdated in these modern times. That may not be wholly true, but it’s the perception that sticks.<br /><br />Perhaps Tiger Woods should take note: no matter how great you think you are, the public is notoriously fickle when it comes to celebrities. The issue isn’t that they can’t or won’t forgive your foibles. The issue is that they can’t forgive themselves for being taken in by a carefully crafted image… and they’ll take that out on you. <img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 230px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425741667974120802" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLb9DApMqnBvDA-HjZ5TiXLeHrBDZ64hR7jRVXLZjuGl2HSCmey0MSiADXqm7Dto69CBxJjeNXWmEMTWkKQi4l4AWyUlrgOqF5RInT2m3flVEYBabn45eaYsEoZLVkr8OWSCx1aw/s320/Godfrey+55.jpg" />Arthur would know.Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-74743885895082130232009-09-23T22:23:00.011-04:002009-09-24T00:50:25.799-04:00Off to See the Wizard... Or Not: An Editorial<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYU-hd3Sq6Xe_aUUKu94Z0VZDuh_TFxxxSZEWG017m_ia3z5BAd6AXZbrq7jLIML00Yuz35E4UqEOmny88KSuZMSn4vGA33Suq9_2YhdapIBB-3CPtYp7YSeC24n4DlLh_5XPlWQ/s1600-h/woz_200x295.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 156px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 230px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384854429897203954" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYU-hd3Sq6Xe_aUUKu94Z0VZDuh_TFxxxSZEWG017m_ia3z5BAd6AXZbrq7jLIML00Yuz35E4UqEOmny88KSuZMSn4vGA33Suq9_2YhdapIBB-3CPtYp7YSeC24n4DlLh_5XPlWQ/s400/woz_200x295.jpg" /></a>Several weeks ago, at the recommendation of an old friend, I purchased tickets for my wife and I to see the special theatrical "<em>Wizard of Oz</em> 70th Anniversary Hi-Def Event." The applicable theatre nearest our home was the Regal Fairfax. The one-time showing was this evening at 7:00 pm. I left work a little early, took my wife to an inexpensive Chinese restaurant situated directly under the theatre, and went "off to see the Wizard."<br /><br />The theatre (okay, the auditorium known as "Theatre 9") was just about full. At about 6:58 pm, the lights dimmed slightly and the "Hi-Def Event" began with a special introduction by TCM's Robert Osborne.<br /><br />Only Mr. Osborne didn't look particularly "Hi-Def." In fact, Mr. Osborne came on rather slowly, moving and speaking in fits and starts. Some of the attendees laughed, but most were booing. Eventually, Osborne's voice became clear, even though his body was stiff and his lips weren't moving... but then, his physical presence made a mad rush to catch up to his vocalizing. The crowd settled back.<br /><br />But things still weren't right. Mr. Osborne's movements were rather jerky and most un-Hi-Def like. As a regular viewer of <em>NCIS</em>, I began to wonder if this "event" was being transmitted via remote from a Marine unit in Iraq. After about two minutes, Mr. Osborne yielded to a mini-documentary about <em>Oz</em> hosted by Angela Lansbury, and she too moved and spoke in the same halting manner. It all looked like a Netflix DVD that had gone through the mail a few too many times.<br /><br />About ten minutes into this travesty, I (and several others) went to the box office to inform a manager. (My contribution was to advise him to brace for a clamor of unhappy, refund-seeking <em>Oz</em>-ites should the actual film be as poor as the mini-doc.) When I returned to Theatre #9, several people were exiting, and the screen was almost blank... almost, except for a little digital clock and taskbar at bottom that probably looks a lot like the one at the bottom of your screen right now. My wife told me that they stopped the show shortly after I'd left, and that the next thing that popped up was a "Windows (Vista, XP, whatever)" logo, at which people laughed and snapped pictures with their cellphones. That image vanished, then everyone saw an "HP" logo. Presumably the special "Hi-Def Event" equipment was being rebooted.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj61qSUw_RXq3wfC825t6mBbOSAiltz4zsuZr3LUKo0Wt7YkD-rBH3q7iuQt-jNNmbsUF0xXvpKzH-fUEtY_MJeAQYBtaEYh5CKlqMcLioJ_YSBTmziwRTxPiu0BTdlZmwVHr-tUQ/s1600-h/woz_200x295.jpg"></a>After about a ten-minute wait, the program started over. And nothing had changed. Mr. Osborne made his slow-motion entrance, followed by words leaving his immobile face until his body rushed to catch up, followed by his herky-jerky movements preceding those of Ms. Lansbury. Whatever the problem was, it hadn't been corrected. This time, they turned it off about five minutes in.<br /><br />After another five minutes of waiting, a manager came in with a roll of free admission passes (not good for IMAX or "Special Events" like this one), and told us "they" were still trying to correct the problem and would "skip ahead" to the movie once it was fixed. While he was still passing out passes, the film began. Leo the M.G.M. lion began a roar that stopped and started and stopped and started... basically the poor beast moved in one-quarter time. My wife turned to me and said, "I can't sit through this anymore." Reasonably satisfied with the passes ("At least we can see <em>Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs </em>later this week"), we left at about 7:40 pm. As for the many who'd dropped 20-ish bucks on popcorn, drinks and candy, I doubt they were as pleased.<br /><br />My friends, I have seen the future of theatrical screenings... and right now it sucks.<br /><br />Obviously, I can't speak for everyone who turned out in theatres nationwide to view this thing. Perhaps the Regal Fairfax finally got it going just as my wife and I hit the stairway to the parking lot, and everyone who remained had a <em>wonderful Wizard of Oz</em> time. But I'm more than a little annoyed that nobody seemed to have tested anything beforehand to see if it worked. Was the HP equipment with "Windows whatever" capable of rendering a flawless Hi-Def show in a theatre, or was it better suited for PowerPoint presentations at my day job? To be honest, what little I saw of the opening titles (which, granted, are in sepia) looked no better or worse than the standard commercial DVD that I own... except that my DVD actually plays.<br /><br />Everyone has had a bad experience in a movie theatre. The picture goes out of focus, the framing goes askew, or the film jumps and suddenly the soundtrack is the sprocket holes. One time, at a showing of <em>Toy Story</em> at the local second-run house, the picture turned <em>upside-down</em> for the length of about a reel. (My daughter, suitably traumatized, refuses to patronize that theatre anymore.) But these problems are rare and usually fleeting; in any case, there are employees that know how to fix them. Tonight, the manager freely admitted that others were in charge of this "Hi-Def Event" - and whoever these specialists were, they hadn't been able to correct the problems after some forty minutes.<br /><br />So, if you attended a screening of this event anywhere, please post a comment and tell me your experience. Did the film run without incident? Did everyone have a good time? Was it worth the ten bucks? And, if you were at the Regal Fairfax, at what time (if any) did the show finally get rolling?<br /><br />As for me, I have a message for the folks at Warner Bros. and Turner Entertainment: the next time you want to present <em>The Wizard of Oz</em> "exactly as it was seen in movie theatres seventy years ago," as Mr. Osborne laboriously told us (twice), a genuine IB Tech print will do just fine.Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-40122670350501064282009-05-21T01:26:00.029-04:002011-11-15T22:42:25.933-05:00The Restless Ballad of Pernell Roberts, part two<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhitL9fYsmVDAU9xDR3p4q73It8oM7M0xgwZkWfJnpQaRfVbwesL_TyZ0qp27fCnEpv-O151-RoPs_abl1HzkYMozFFBSqufZdyRiqfvv6NUWc-N3w_3ZUtuGhB4ANCFqWxm0gM2w/s1600-h/Look+mag+1965.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 265px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338147528852947362" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhitL9fYsmVDAU9xDR3p4q73It8oM7M0xgwZkWfJnpQaRfVbwesL_TyZ0qp27fCnEpv-O151-RoPs_abl1HzkYMozFFBSqufZdyRiqfvv6NUWc-N3w_3ZUtuGhB4ANCFqWxm0gM2w/s320/Look+mag+1965.jpg" /></a><em>(Pernell) makes the whole show look bad. He’s so unprofessional. He complains that he’s just one-quarter of a character. Well, a lot depends on how much character you put in.</em> <br /><div><strong>Lorne Greene, 1964.<br /></strong><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSzRq7hyphenhypheniFdFNATDOOMF2bCNqYteOf0ZgilvBAwJNtEwhiF75i1wSKhamsceOX6syOHCzwR3ItJx8LkavnmrDOhRx9dWaoQcX2GcPtlXqdj4O9MEUcW5F7C1da3UfMluFUe-okQQ/s1600-h/TVGuide+65.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 222px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338151500040115106" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSzRq7hyphenhypheniFdFNATDOOMF2bCNqYteOf0ZgilvBAwJNtEwhiF75i1wSKhamsceOX6syOHCzwR3ItJx8LkavnmrDOhRx9dWaoQcX2GcPtlXqdj4O9MEUcW5F7C1da3UfMluFUe-okQQ/s320/TVGuide+65.jpg" /></a><br />Near the close of <em>Bonanza’s</em> 5th season, the network entered into negotiations with the cast for a contract renewal beyond season six. The four stars were then making $4,500 per episode, and three of them tasked their manager to seek a minimum of $6,500. The fourth, Pernell Roberts, had no intention of renewing for any price.<br /><br />When negotiations were over, the manager returned with a surprise: not only had he secured $10,500 per episode for each of the three returnees, he also got them a 100% residual for the first rerun. For the 33 episodes of the 1965-66 season, each man would make a minimum of $693,000. When the contract ended in 1970, between salaries and investments, the three were comfortably in the multi-millionaire class.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmeFwHWnb0t_0tz6T7A4mjGBrtTVY0kG_ejdggZgWrkfXcBPb81yIW7xLSrRhshfl0JEC5pbZ1eycusC0L1eEAPR5snCQLr2-OO9NBJ0Nu76pLcGnqXnblv4Rwpj34w2gfYQ8X0g/s1600-h/Horsebreaker.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 150px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338148250621516978" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmeFwHWnb0t_0tz6T7A4mjGBrtTVY0kG_ejdggZgWrkfXcBPb81yIW7xLSrRhshfl0JEC5pbZ1eycusC0L1eEAPR5snCQLr2-OO9NBJ0Nu76pLcGnqXnblv4Rwpj34w2gfYQ8X0g/s200/Horsebreaker.jpg" /></a>By the time the press unearthed these financial details, Roberts was long gone. And when he’d turn up in the road show company of some play, or in a guest shot on <em>The Big Valley</em> or <em>The Wild, Wild West</em> or <em>Mission:Impossible</em>, journalists would remind him – and us – of the big payday he’d scorned.<br /><br />“The last two years I have spent in a state of resignation, serving my time to the end of the contract,” said Roberts as season six began production. “I’m getting out as soon as it is contractually possible, which is next February (1965). The others in the cast <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimXr4LvsFm93QVSFdu33YrjzmW5d9q3J4abqc4xo1h8YX-paLqUSghGdp0z7gjri3WG_Ebpa6nt0RN0I9mCTiFOA_AjG4-DVqkGHXzU2DxcbYI7hmsuPBEc0gZDoIA7k292LmbiA/s1600-h/adamc.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 236px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338151649380687010" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimXr4LvsFm93QVSFdu33YrjzmW5d9q3J4abqc4xo1h8YX-paLqUSghGdp0z7gjri3WG_Ebpa6nt0RN0I9mCTiFOA_AjG4-DVqkGHXzU2DxcbYI7hmsuPBEc0gZDoIA7k292LmbiA/s320/adamc.JPG" /></a>decided to renew their contracts. That’s their business.” To a <em>Look</em> magazine reporter, Roberts clarified what “state of resignation” meant: “I don’t read (the scripts) anymore. I just get on, ask somebody for the lines and say them. That’s all the attention this kind of operation deserves.” Asked if he was worried about looking bad as an actor, he scoffed, “You can get up there and put out one tenth of what you’re capable of and they all think it’s great. No, I won’t try hard.”<br /><br /><em>TV Guide’s</em> Dwight Whitney, writing a piece on producer David Dortort, saw the latter's frustration when Roberts declared he wouldn’t memorize a speech for the episode “Right is the Fourth 'R,'” but simply read it. “What can (I) do?” asked the producer. “He says that Adam Cartwright would make notes.” When Whitney first spied him, the actor was “drawing heavy black lines through the dialogue with a stubby pencil.” Asked what he was doing with the script, Roberts replied, “Trying to get some kind of honesty into it.”<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPk2KnNYRT1H7fZdShaRD9Yg0XgwGtTLjc9wpN4aFeuBU7O7V6s2fk5wfFocKT_35-MCaXkQvdH-c4bFfGaKEV3d1ca5wwW7dpWoeYYPYEY7vB04Nk4tSpNipqrjlEt2EfoWiOJg/s1600-h/Adam&Laura.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 298px; CURSOR: pointer" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5339554461636703858" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPk2KnNYRT1H7fZdShaRD9Yg0XgwGtTLjc9wpN4aFeuBU7O7V6s2fk5wfFocKT_35-MCaXkQvdH-c4bFfGaKEV3d1ca5wwW7dpWoeYYPYEY7vB04Nk4tSpNipqrjlEt2EfoWiOJg/s320/Adam&Laura.jpg" /></a>Dortort bent over backward to keep Roberts interested. For season five, he created a romance between Adam and a young widow, Laura Dayton (Kathie Browne), then brought in Guy Williams (<em>Zorro</em>) to portray a new character, Ben Cartwright’s nephew, Will, who would presumably pick up the slack once Adam wed. The plan backfired. Roberts publicly declared he “didn’t have any feeling about a bride one way or another,” faithful viewers were aghast, and – most especially – Lorne Greene, Dan Blocker and Michael Landon didn’t cotton to the idea of another Cartwright. Dortort had no choice but to unravel the romance: Laura and Will fell in love and left the show.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIAmV0QcEFBeD22-DUSkjOluqY3eFQiGWR0dgKPMLEjyPswRPFdQxJe1t53eymfo_EUb8EZkIteKq7KGyJRDdn210IPrWkbJa8iZF3NI3Zyqp8qwiemy_-r-_oFD-Dj5CBoVfX7w/s1600-h/leaving.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; WIDTH: 227px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: pointer" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338258801616925714" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIAmV0QcEFBeD22-DUSkjOluqY3eFQiGWR0dgKPMLEjyPswRPFdQxJe1t53eymfo_EUb8EZkIteKq7KGyJRDdn210IPrWkbJa8iZF3NI3Zyqp8qwiemy_-r-_oFD-Dj5CBoVfX7w/s320/leaving.jpg" /></a><br />In January 1965, as Greene, Blocker and Landon celebrated their lucrative future, Roberts asked Dortort for an early release, so he could audition for Tyrone Guthrie’s repertory theatre group in New York City. Dortort granted the request, which is why Adam doesn’t appear in the season’s final five episodes. “The problems, all his rudeness, his impossible conduct and lack of professionalism,” Dortort told <em>TV Guide</em>, “I would forgive all that if he would come back. He is that good.”<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBS6xCLZAfIkzWkgbTo-tcrkhT9J7RazB9kWlogaITbelCUyvgp8YWMPH9oQiZSDwIjEwTbpDw1Gm2L8IxMZEXzu7gIYBZ0jLjbD2KY3kPfUDthqP6wG1CvgqIsZFaFHFaNEDNyQ/s1600-h/kingandi.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 165px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338150156754609042" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBS6xCLZAfIkzWkgbTo-tcrkhT9J7RazB9kWlogaITbelCUyvgp8YWMPH9oQiZSDwIjEwTbpDw1Gm2L8IxMZEXzu7gIYBZ0jLjbD2KY3kPfUDthqP6wG1CvgqIsZFaFHFaNEDNyQ/s320/kingandi.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Unfortunately for Roberts, Guthrie turned him down. Neither man ever <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqJ2XQKZzxosmOImdn7ezX2iFzG9Qm11A_883xD-Uk_5C6TWc_iMBT-BRCF_IuwKmxqKNjBrNfkcjj2B8uU4j8ROreQv9NlDBaz6k7-qslIP3_ClhVJzlM7kkJnjzXuaA7y30u7g/s1600-h/kingandi.jpg"></a>commented on the matter, but Guthrie would’ve had to have been deaf and blind to be unaware of Roberts’ attitude and misbehavior on <em>Bonanza</em> and didn't share Dortort's capacity for tolerance. Instead, Roberts settled for the role of King Arthur in a small tour of <em>Camelot</em>, followed by road show versions of Edward Albee’s <em>Tiny Alice</em>, William Gibson’s <em>Two For the Seesaw</em>, and the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical <em>The King and I.</em> After a year away from <em>Bonanza</em>, he was forced to accept guest shots in <em>The Virginian</em> and <em>The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.</em> “because I have to make a living like anyone else. It’s the business that I’m in and I don’t have to appreciate the artistic level of what I’m doing.”<br /><br />So it went for another 13 years.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0AcBP1SsyynlHhFwdAPzH6-qy_TXTg2KFGIZQd5jCfeS8CH_zg-6YbMiVa3HRGbXuDha4hXKJQTGRDsdA43KJ8zr4TWADGdnm9235MBucMpjNT-ZeFlN29pcf9jStPJ1Q1S2aGA/s1600-h/autographed.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 250px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338151980514982178" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0AcBP1SsyynlHhFwdAPzH6-qy_TXTg2KFGIZQd5jCfeS8CH_zg-6YbMiVa3HRGbXuDha4hXKJQTGRDsdA43KJ8zr4TWADGdnm9235MBucMpjNT-ZeFlN29pcf9jStPJ1Q1S2aGA/s320/autographed.jpg" /></a><em>Bonanza</em>, meanwhile, did just fine without Adam Cartwright, which Roberts had predicted would be the case: “I don’t think my absence from the show could destroy it. Those three other men are strong. I’ve heard the arguments that I am ‘destroying the image’ and ‘breaking up a winning combination.’ I don’t believe it. That is a money-oriented kind of thinking that lacks reality. There is another, more human approach that actors are expendable.” The show reached number one in the ratings during Roberts’ final season, stayed there for two additional years, and remained in the top ten through 1971. It took Dan Blocker’s untimely death in 1972 to end the Cartwrights’ saga.<br /><br />That same year, Roberts turned up in Washington DC in George Bernard Shaw’s <em>Captain Brassbound’s Conversion</em> with Ingrid Bergman. Commenting on the play’s characters, Roberts told reporter Richard Lebherz, “They’re not people. They are without sexuality, without passion. Just dolls. It’s true of so many kinds of drama and plays. That’s why I have trouble relating to the profession because it isn’t relevant. Very seldom is it, anymore.” By then, his greatest joy was overseas travel.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfnSjrb6WSBhJ4sxul3rLo06WKXfh6o75cyOUrl1JZToatDFY3QnybH1vwFrKnSmbGB65TyY3w6_1Zwg6CpNax3HbTYxFRYDNhnmUfGnl3JToFIXeE1G_vcuGu2xl6jBmD8fhdkg/s1600-h/jog.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 208px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338149231958742594" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfnSjrb6WSBhJ4sxul3rLo06WKXfh6o75cyOUrl1JZToatDFY3QnybH1vwFrKnSmbGB65TyY3w6_1Zwg6CpNax3HbTYxFRYDNhnmUfGnl3JToFIXeE1G_vcuGu2xl6jBmD8fhdkg/s320/jog.jpg" /></a><br />In 1979, after turning 51, Pernell Roberts returned to series television as <em>Trapper John, M.D.</em>, a spin-off from the highly successful <em>M*A*S*H</em>. Typically, he had no pretensions about why he took the role: “I wanted the security. It’s called covering your rear-end.” <em>Trapper John</em> ran seven seasons, during which Roberts took other TV roles (including a reunion with Lorne Greene on a two-part episode of <em>Vega$</em> in 1980), and even appeared twice on <em>Battle of the Network Stars</em> – a show that was, culturally speaking, only a step or two removed from “carnival freak on exhibition.”<br /><br />So, did Roberts win or lose his battle for “integrity” and “honesty” in his career? No doubt he would say he made the right choices all down the line, possibly even including the one in 1959 that tied him up for those six years. While he'd probably prefer his legacy to be as a fighter of causes (civil rights during the 1960's, better treatment for wounded war veterans in the '70's), it's a cinch that, for better or worse, Roberts will be remembered as Adam Cartwright. Looking back at <em>Bonanza</em> in <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2C9vegcwPOjVFno5pJ4A7LxqTObameEO_Z9XVZ7hy0iY3Gbe_YJn5gAjkBPL3y0mmznJ-ulC5JaKZ-s4MlOXIruZiDetBjETu6PydGAKP0svwF_ZfDKKVory28sAOdht52vUOjw/s1600-h/PRpromo.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 150px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338152257945370882" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2C9vegcwPOjVFno5pJ4A7LxqTObameEO_Z9XVZ7hy0iY3Gbe_YJn5gAjkBPL3y0mmznJ-ulC5JaKZ-s4MlOXIruZiDetBjETu6PydGAKP0svwF_ZfDKKVory28sAOdht52vUOjw/s200/PRpromo.jpg" /></a>1979, he philosophically concluded, “It wasn’t all black. There was good and bad in it (but) the balance wasn’t right for me.” That same year, <em>TV Guide’s</em> Anthony Cook wrote that, for Roberts, acting had eventually become “a convenient form of therapy – a way of re-creating the pyschodrama of his own deepest feelings. ‘And once you finish your therapy,’ he says, ‘you have no more need of it.’”<br /><br /><br /><div></div><br /><div>Possibly he foresaw this back in 1962: “Maybe if I was 45 I would figure I had a good thing here (on <em>Bonanza</em>). The work isn’t too tough and you can <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzgX0u7wmcefhzJ0Tze0daSx7O9a2JHHiHLo08tuXUYLzSq0LkTfAW_M77vl22drlgpMJRa4o4x3iJm6e9_BBLuOXr6hTsQM-zW8AjO4fVnaw-g0eSQCvAfxxDvTvTJ2pa18Zrrw/s1600-h/the_wink.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 150px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338152519789069106" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzgX0u7wmcefhzJ0Tze0daSx7O9a2JHHiHLo08tuXUYLzSq0LkTfAW_M77vl22drlgpMJRa4o4x3iJm6e9_BBLuOXr6hTsQM-zW8AjO4fVnaw-g0eSQCvAfxxDvTvTJ2pa18Zrrw/s200/the_wink.jpg" /></a>go out and pick up good money at rodeos and supermarket appearances. But I’m 33 now and I’ll be 36 at the end of this contract, which cuts that much more time off the years I need to be an actor.”<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRvSdR9vX4IS_Oqgg6Xq1RyaFLNIYWlKBLbxigtWlhB3vouXdEf0affu6K005c9ocFkwPUAgaBoJsSgBmNR-kPm4f6yrGvrFxkdvEH32zHn68EyafYQG_HfqQvKOkD6q8znokhrg/s1600-h/the_wink.jpg"></a><br />UPDATE: Roberts passed away on January 24, 2010, at the age of 81.</div></div>Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22637089.post-87440358713180245102009-05-16T22:07:00.026-04:002010-01-26T09:30:36.773-05:00The Restless Ballad of Pernell Roberts<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3u6Fdw8BarTqdnLzuViwW-E7YnNx55xPOLTPtl-jE12oo9VvXd8wCeD-0BQnW9L5Yc6iySIHTw5CF3-iJJqsepNOvIUk8AB_qS88ymhQr8c2sHwGwDhPTmSLD5Alm97309sbhYA/s1600-h/pernellroberts.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 148px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 200px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336612079417428082" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3u6Fdw8BarTqdnLzuViwW-E7YnNx55xPOLTPtl-jE12oo9VvXd8wCeD-0BQnW9L5Yc6iySIHTw5CF3-iJJqsepNOvIUk8AB_qS88ymhQr8c2sHwGwDhPTmSLD5Alm97309sbhYA/s200/pernellroberts.jpg" /></a><em>You only live once, and I’m about half way through it. Well, you find yourself compromising and compromising, and that’s admitting failure in a way. What I want is my freedom. Some people value security more, but I’m the other way.</em> <strong>Pernell Roberts, 1962</strong><br /><br />Back in high school, I’d read a book written in 1967 by a New York man who set up six TV sets in his apartment and watched all the commercial channels (CBS, NBC, ABC and three local stations) for a week. Although I’ve since forgotten both title and author (enlightenment from any knowledgeable reader is gratefully encouraged), one passage concerning Sunday evening at 9:00 pm has stayed with me:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj5RuSKCBCuctV2hqeU2rmt79JKZj2WRWu00-WptCxYG7d6hMnp4CJfqA5ypwq8u5M1RAUtK4CKQhm2KovvG1rzScuOMUrjEFmG2T51oMVKDGiXERE619YR3x-RxEp_Yvg4NAlvQ/s1600-h/pernell+rope.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 154px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336609800355680466" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj5RuSKCBCuctV2hqeU2rmt79JKZj2WRWu00-WptCxYG7d6hMnp4CJfqA5ypwq8u5M1RAUtK4CKQhm2KovvG1rzScuOMUrjEFmG2T51oMVKDGiXERE619YR3x-RxEp_Yvg4NAlvQ/s200/pernell+rope.jpg" /></a>“<em>Bonanza</em> on channel 4. Little Joe, Hoss and Pa. God, I miss Adam. He was the glue in this particular horse factory, and his evil, saturnine way was a pleasant contrast to the Ponderosa good guys. But they wrote ol’ Adam out of the show many moons ago, and we will have to do with Little Joe and Hoss for the action.”<br /><br />The exit of Pernell Roberts (Adam Cartwright) from <em>Bonanza</em> after its sixth season remains one of the most misunderstood actions in television land. Each year since 1961, TV columnists reported that Roberts was trying to leave; each September for four subsequent seasons, Roberts returned. Everyone assumed it was simply a money issue; either that, or Roberts’ gripes were the sniping of a TV actor with a massive ego problem. Clouding the issue was the fact that his departure wasn’t mentioned on the show. The others would make occasional references to Adam, but where he’d gone and why was never discussed.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDggbDhlm4te3AqzNSK_zH3pR2I4xi2LLo5B5jSQtc2TkoEUIWn2Tb5d3gstoTyamSM5E-pjrB52cEcrZqB0FHQG-E2Irt_fJLqBCMrfA4-BVCmafoR6ALYUt3EOwzO4h9WO9keA/s1600-h/04-18-59.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 80px; CURSOR: pointer" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337728335805472690" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDggbDhlm4te3AqzNSK_zH3pR2I4xi2LLo5B5jSQtc2TkoEUIWn2Tb5d3gstoTyamSM5E-pjrB52cEcrZqB0FHQG-E2Irt_fJLqBCMrfA4-BVCmafoR6ALYUt3EOwzO4h9WO9keA/s400/04-18-59.jpg" /></a> <div><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 148px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336619226687851634" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi92HMwSUsUrOswHPWLRJ-myBF6FNuBUN2_uzjE_vRmccO7Hj89dgLNMqRaqmeEk9efT5qNKWA93pfOsk-955JF9qxI-EPl_mmPIxMTT2ylYFnckIRDO20UvovsLnysGgniIsxeQg/s320/cast01.gif" /> <div><div><div><div></div><em>Bonanza</em> began 50 years ago come September; NBC’s big, color western intended to sell parent company RCA’s big color TVs. Producer David Dortort assembled a cast of unknowns in the belief that “television makes its own stars.” An indisputable point, but NBC was taking no chances, and filled up the early episodes with important stars: Yvonne DeCarlo, Howard Duff, Ida Lupino, Jack Carson. Consequently, the four Cartwrights bound together as tightly off-screen as on.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzuoVDLhSL_R8JiaNvxZHr8z9-MXJFcYmsx90x0I-uAheRiWeuoYknmNcMc-1HlMf62h3JFF-6SzdvjOMtd-kP-mtZ8xXki7Om-y2hSvL-G9ucgxTdWZN34qsn86TRJ4YX7bZPCw/s1600-h/hjba.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 160px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336611507966497202" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzuoVDLhSL_R8JiaNvxZHr8z9-MXJFcYmsx90x0I-uAheRiWeuoYknmNcMc-1HlMf62h3JFF-6SzdvjOMtd-kP-mtZ8xXki7Om-y2hSvL-G9ucgxTdWZN34qsn86TRJ4YX7bZPCw/s200/hjba.JPG" /></a>“(We) found ourselves fighting the star system because of all the outside names being brought in,” Roberts recalled three years later. “We found ourselves, at first, like supporting players. And the producer didn’t have the authority to change that.” At one point in early 1960, Lorne Greene walked into Dortort’s office and announced, in terms more earthy than the following, that the scripts written to date weren’t suitable as toilet paper. Luckily, the ratings also indicated that changes were needed. The main characters became more important, big name actors were forgotten, and by the end of its second season, <em>Bonanza</em> moved into the top 20. Chevrolet was interested in sponsoring the third year in Dinah Shore’s old timeslot: Sunday at 9. Even then, rumors flew that Roberts wasn’t interested in continuing. The rumors were true. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUyuun3UHjb-Je3N7aGRIW6PGbgGrkbJtBfj02niWi0KdIt36jWf3nVy7MRfIBYgEa4lObVhC54AK3iS6Qv9-GW8J8DpssYYdR0HYD_GxNIbCkfmtV1xFJkzrUdf2AXTpw-Uu7Lg/s1600-h/cycle.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 162px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 200px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336611688776377282" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUyuun3UHjb-Je3N7aGRIW6PGbgGrkbJtBfj02niWi0KdIt36jWf3nVy7MRfIBYgEa4lObVhC54AK3iS6Qv9-GW8J8DpssYYdR0HYD_GxNIbCkfmtV1xFJkzrUdf2AXTpw-Uu7Lg/s200/cycle.jpg" /></a><br /><br />“When NBC turned down my request for a contract release,” said Roberts at the time, “I understood their point of view. They were trying to deliver a neat package to a new sponsor, and I felt some responsibility.” Complicating matters, all four stars were offered a hefty raise, provided they extended their five-year contracts to six. “I had to sign for a sixth year to get a raise, but now I would prefer to be out entirely,” he moaned in early 1962. But in its Sunday slot, <em>Bonanza</em> thrived, becoming the network’s highest-rated series. NBC was loath to risk that success, especially since the show was all theirs.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh64QuN8D0eZPGz_rKvNmJRL33J2l7QxeR3JUKo7IXz91LTvM7vGhkQVI60HzcPpwyrNIMS-oIyv9l6GUjgb8BUQlGI463GNNJ02x8c-souc1EsZUxKddDiqHl-Rvhi4HCRpuRR8g/s1600-h/FourCartwrights.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 179px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336614560708454018" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh64QuN8D0eZPGz_rKvNmJRL33J2l7QxeR3JUKo7IXz91LTvM7vGhkQVI60HzcPpwyrNIMS-oIyv9l6GUjgb8BUQlGI463GNNJ02x8c-souc1EsZUxKddDiqHl-Rvhi4HCRpuRR8g/s200/FourCartwrights.jpg" /></a>What, exactly, was Roberts’ beef? “I wasn’t keen to do a series, but I was told there would be some honest writing and that the people producing it had integrity,” he told columnist Hal Humphrey. “What good is integrity if you don’t use it? <em>Bonanza</em> for the most part is bad literature and I’m tired of trying to hide in it.” To Bob Thomas, he added, “They told me the four characters would be sharply defined and the scripts carefully prepared. None of this was put on paper. None of it ever happened.” <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVNr65cqj2-Sdi_WTEuaakJnjbZBxvrpJnPWTuL97pnroMQ9THKDNEHMoxxNVTrN07uIc8i2_bR0mr0I2VuwIJzVh7rX-9ZjYtuTkKer-_Gg_O473JDK4KNrYb2jw0jsFHXTg9NA/s1600-h/Sterns.jpg"></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9L0bzqEYxhh71A1M45C5RcsyUUbMY_sXd-bC2b8bhQwZ6rAzO0RgSBXwGpCM7bNxNMKsoeljHqZnLKJMEsaD71wsNeMDH3MqwbdaVyGK0iX-c2OFpHBfK3JJyplnDavXFS8quCQ/s1600-h/Sterns.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 166px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336617003514950834" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9L0bzqEYxhh71A1M45C5RcsyUUbMY_sXd-bC2b8bhQwZ6rAzO0RgSBXwGpCM7bNxNMKsoeljHqZnLKJMEsaD71wsNeMDH3MqwbdaVyGK0iX-c2OFpHBfK3JJyplnDavXFS8quCQ/s320/Sterns.jpg" /></a><br />Personal appearances at fairs and rodeos also stuck in his craw: “First, there were the petty intrigues of the producers who thought they owned you and threw parties so I could meet all the grandmothers, nephews and cousins. (Then) they have you ride into the ring and titillate the <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeYQgz_322wk5wRYKfIFeyZ5jJcwSp2wrqSyOUXak9XZV1ZX2xj5mG_IGZ1UBTOYNh9dNMnpuniIMKNZ_bYPPYYjo8DiGikqKO4vQBpz7VoIq3RpNqhwdVdoltARcDBCl8K3v9mw/s1600-h/Sterns.jpg"></a>crowds by touching their outstretched hands along the fence. Then the joke telling time in the center, after wading through ankle-deep manure, followed by several hours of autographs. Afterwards, the cowboys, who really resented me for the money and popularity, would make cracks about actors.” Even though it paid “five and six thousand dollars a day,” Roberts made only four such appearances during his six years, refusing to do more. “I am an actor, not a carnival freak on exhibition.”<br /><br />Concluded the Georgia-born actor who took an early public stand against segregation and the Vietnam war: “<em>Bonanza</em> has touched on some interesting problems, but handled them conservatively.... There has been an obvious effort to play it safe, to make <em>Bonanza</em> a good family show that would offend no one and hit a consistent level of mediocrity.” </div><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPvozUoKewOwT5XAr2VXnBCRSIhl-QvMgRMC7VjYO2b-6FaM10hMmCEn6i0vZqn-YDxS7xuccC5cqmuKWB8zT_hQ_xW_0s3FZ7-3X6BY_MhmbNx9DmNxue0frRhkh540_l_QoQmQ/s1600-h/pernell+studio.gif"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 199px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336612569189197234" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPvozUoKewOwT5XAr2VXnBCRSIhl-QvMgRMC7VjYO2b-6FaM10hMmCEn6i0vZqn-YDxS7xuccC5cqmuKWB8zT_hQ_xW_0s3FZ7-3X6BY_MhmbNx9DmNxue0frRhkh540_l_QoQmQ/s200/pernell+studio.gif" /></a>Word got out in the middle of season three that Roberts was prepared to jump ship and go on suspension. But NBC played hardball: “(The network) said, ‘Sure, go ahead - if you never want to work again as an actor anywhere.” So Roberts – whose chief complaint about his employers was their lack of integrity – decided to retaliate with an egregious display of unprofessionalism: “I went to the producer and said I guessed I’d stay, but that, to preserve my sanity, I would continue walking through my part.” </div><div><br /></div><div></div><div>NEXT: <a href="http://betterlivingtv.blogspot.com/2009/05/restless-ballad-of-pernell-roberts-part.html">Consequences</a><br /></div><div></div></div></div></div>Michael J. Haydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072544837488259305noreply@blogger.com7