Monthly Archives: February 2002

Jack Swersie is a comedian who juggles Spam luncheon meat, as well as more conventional items.  Over at his website, he has an interesting journal giving his impressions of every celebrity with whom he's ever shared a bill.  I stumbled on the page by accident and enjoyed perusing it.  Perhaps you will, as well.

Just spent an hour I could ill afford reading interesting articles and looking at pretty pictures at www.comicartville.com, a terrific compendium of comic art history.  At the moment, they have — among other goodies — a lovely gallery of Alex Toth art, a good article about Doug Wildey's career, a memoir by Shel Dorf about lettering for Milton Caniff, a discussion of Russ Heath's art and an essay on Al Williamson's art for the Flash Gordon comic book.  The above illo was cribbed from the Williamson piece.

Nothing more I need to add.  If any of those names mean anything to you, click on the link and go spend an hour you probably can't afford, either.

There's a wonderful reward that one derives from operating a site like this.  It's hearing from (a) old friends you haven't heard from in years and (b) people you always admired.  I've had plenty in both categories but a biggie in the latter came the other day with a lovely e-mail from Peter and Alice Gowland.  At various times earlier in my ongoing childhood, I wanted to be Rob Petrie, Stan Freberg, Bob Clampett, Al Feldstein and Peter Gowland.  The last of these was not merely because Mr. Gowland got paid for taking pictures of beautiful women in little or no clothing (although that would have been quite sufficient) but because, of all the folks who did that, he actually seemed to do a lot more than just hire gorgeous women and light them correctly.

I appreciated the work of other glamour photographers but Gowland consistently worked a magic that others could only occasionally touch upon.  You wanna see what I'm babbling about?  Go to his site — it's, as you've probably guessed, www.petergowland.com — and browse a few of his galleries.  Note how he (and his partner/spouse, Alice) always caught something about their subjects' faces that was strikingly human.  Even the ladies with the most spectacular, undraped physiques were sexiest from the neck up.  And while you're there, tear yourself away from the pages of bikini babes and look at the shots of Hollywood celebs and such.  Isn't that the best picture of Alfred Hitchcock you ever saw?

Mr. Gowland was mentioned in an article I posted here about the store where I used to buy my comic books, Pico Drugs.  It was near the corner of Pico and Overland in West L.A. and I was astounded one day to discover Gowland's studio right around the corner on Overland.  (He has some pictures of that building on his site, on this page.)  The mention seems to have drawn the Gowlands to this site, which is great…because they sent me a fan letter and I got to send them an even gushier fan letter and, boy, I think I've now "connected" with every one of my childhood heroes who lived into my alleged adulthood.  Wheeee!

Another nice "connect" via website: My obit on Billy Barty caught the eye of some folks who are assembling an authorized biography.  They asked if they could include my piece in the book and, yes, of course they can.  I'll announce here when it's published and where you can snag a copy.

Steven Webber, — best known for his role on Wings — is the new Leo Bloom in the Broadway company of The Producers.  Again, we have no comment other than that the folks running the show haven't made any serious missteps yet, so it's unlikely this is the first.  What I find more interesting to discuss is to what extent, if any, the success of this show connects with, or perhaps will be perpetuated by the headlines over, first dot-coms turning out to be ponzi schemes and now companies the size and seeming stability of Enron.

Over on his site, my pal Jay Zilber quotes our discussion here of the new Bialystock and then writes…

A snarky aside: I'm just waiting for it to dawn on Maureen Dowd that there's grist for a whole 750-word column to be had, by drawing comparisons between The Producers and the Enron saga. "Do you realize," the Leo Bloom character would say in an unguarded moment of creative accounting theorizing, "that under the right conditions, you could make more money bankrupting a company than if you produced something of value!" (Or is that just so obvious that even Ms. Dowd can resist the temptation?)

I actually mentioned something like this a year or three ago in one of the many columns I haven't posted here.  I suggested that if Mel Brooks were to update his classic film — not that this would have been a good idea — it would be about Bialystock and Bloom selling shares in www.springtime4hitler.com.  (Don't bother try to go to that URL, by the way.  The name's registered but it doesn't connect to anything.)

It applies to Enron, too.  One thing that this mess is bringing to light is the extent to which some companies seem to exist only to make short-term zillions for their top executives and no one else.  The comic book, animation and even live-action entertainment industries have all suffered to some extent the last few years from situations where the highest-ranking officers have taken home huge checks.  The salaries and bonuses were tolerated because of apparent success…and by the time some or all of that success was found to be illusory, the officers had cashed in their stock options and fled.  Not that long ago, the current boss of an animation studio admitted to me that he wasn't interested in the long-range health of his company.  He has no plans to stick around.  He just wants to make a huge splash this year, get what he can get…and then get out.  If the company crumbles in a couple of years, it won't matter to him.  He'll be gone.

The machinations of Bialystock and Bloom in The Producers only differ slightly from that strategy.  Instead of not caring if there is failure, they actively covet it.  Other than that, the modus operandi is the same: The guys who set up the pyramid flee to Rio with the bucks while the investors get bupkis.  For the animation business, this is especially deadly since the making of cartoons (features, especially) requires long-term investment.

Therein lies a maddening conflict.  Animation is traditionally one of the safest of all show business investments.  In the age of home video and cable, a cartoon has to be pretty lousy (or its marketers, uncommonly inept) not to turn a profit.  But it isn't a quick profit.  Tomorrow, if you and I came up with something that was certain to be the next Lion King, a lot of studios wouldn't touch it.  Making it would take a huge output of current cash and even if that money would be recouped twenty times over, it would take 3-4 years.  At some studios, the person with the power to greenlight doesn't figure on being there in 3 years.  He just wants the books to look good for the next few quarters so he can justify, at least for a while, that platinum-lined contract with a golden parachute attached.

The tale of Enron is nothing new.  We've seen it for years in the entertainment industry, especially in content-themed dot-coms.  What's new is that someone is finally noticing that when these companies crash and burn, they take peoples' lives with them. Somehow, this time, I don't think the investors will be as forgiving as the Little Old Ladies who got screwed two ways by Max Bialystock.

My longtime friend has just been promoted to both President and Publisher of DC Comics (For details, click here).  I forget which one he was before but he's both now.  I have a tendency to claim that most senior execs of publishing firms are weasely, lying incompetents.  This is because most are.  Paul is that rare exception.  In fact — keying off the above remarks — one of the reasons there's still a DC Comics is because of some smart moves that Paul made ten or more years ago.

All right! We get to combine almost all of this website's areas of interest in this one: In the last two years, the slot machine industry has introduced more new slots than in the twenty years preceding, most of them themed to TV shows or other known properties. So we now have slots based on game shows (Wheel of Fortune, To Tell the Truth, Press Your Luck, etc.) and old sitcoms (The Munsters, I Dream of Jeannie, others) and even comic books and strips.  You won't find all of these in Las Vegas.  A Nevada gaming regulation prohibits gambling equipment from utilizing characters or images that are known to appeal to children.  Just how they decide this is beyond me.  They're allowing the Betty Boop and Blondie slot machines but not the Popeye ones…though they are or will be plentiful in casinos outside the state.  In the meantime, would you like to see a preview of the animation on the Popeye machine?  I thought you would.  For a peek at what you'll see on the one-armed bandit devoted to the one-eyed sailor, click here.  That link will take you to the site of the game's manufacturer where you can select a little video to watch on your screen.  And if you snoop around over there, you'll also find demos for some of their other machines.  It's a much cheaper way to see what they can do than playing them.

• State of the Enron by Frank Rich, New York Times
• The Bush Shell Game by Molly Ivins, Creators Syndicate
• Tortured Thought by William F. Buckley, Jr.
• An Orgy of Defense Spending by Robert Scheer, Los Angeles Times
• Lay: Have a Nice Cruise by Murray Waas
• Kenny Boy's Quiet, With Good Reason by Joe Conason, New York Observer

Okay, so British actor Henry Goodman will be taking over for Nathan Lane in The Producers, opposite a Leo Bloom to be named later.  The AP news story says this will be Goodman's Broadway debut but, in fact, he was there in the play Art a few years ago.  Having never seen Mr. Goodman in anything, I have no idea how he'll be except, of course, you have to figure the producers of The Producers looked long and hard, and had their pick of darn near everyone.  In the meantime, gossip columnist Liz Smith says that Jason Alexander and Martin Short are pretty much a lock for the West Coast production, whenever that occurs, though she presently seems to be the only one who thinks so.  It sounds so obvious that I'm a bit skeptical…

Every so often, we come across photos that we think need to be shared.  Here we have one of the few pics I've ever seen of the Hurwitz boys — Jerry, Samuel and Maurice, better known as Curly, Shemp and Moe…members of the Three Stooges, but not all at the same time.  (To see a larger version of the picture, click above where it says.)  At no point was the Stooges' act actually comprised of the three brothers.  Shemp appeared in various permutations of the team when they were in vaudeville, providing comic relief to the terminally unfunny Ted Healy, who fronted the act.  Then Shemp left to go it alone and Jerry/Curly took his place.

Eventually, sans Healy, The Three Stooges (Curly and Moe, plus Larry Fine) began making shorts for Columbia.  Then Curly suffered a stroke and had to give up performing.

Many years ago, an actress named Carlotta Monti (now best recalled as the mistress of W.C. Fields) told me that Shemp had returned to the act largely under duress.  She said — and this differs slightly from the way the tale is usually told — that when Curly took ill, Moe initially did all he could to keep it secret, lest it mean unemployment for the act.  Eventually though, he had to tell the Columbia Studios biggies that Curly would not be reporting for their next picture, at which point the arguments began.

According to Ms. Monti, who was apparently a close friend of Shemp's, Moe initially wanted to change the act to The Two Stooges but Columbia would have none of that.  "Theaters will want to pay two-thirds as much for the films," they joked, though their main concern was that Moe and Larry couldn't carry a film.  The studio wanted to hire a rotund comic — someone built somewhat like Curly — so that the change would be less blatant and so that old stock footage of Curly (or his stuntman) could be reused.  Already, to save money, a lot of the Stooges films were recycling earlier scenes.

At this, Moe balked.  He didn't want a stranger in "his" act.  Moreover, Ms. Monti claimed, they were then trying to keep Jerry's spirits up by telling him that if and when he got better, he could return to work.  Moe suggested that they have Shemp fill in and then, when Curly was ready, it would be easier to have a brother step aside than to dump a non-kin Stooge.  "Everyone knew Jerry would never work again," Ms. Monti told me.  "But deep down, Moe didn't want to believe it."

Shemp was already making a name for himself as a solo comic and, when Moe nominated his sibling, the boys at Columbia grudgingly said they'd accept him…though they did have the concern that Shemp wasn't as physical as Curly and also that he looked too much like Moe.  At this point, Moe and other members of the Howard (formerly Hurwitz) family confronted Shemp, who wasn't wild about giving up his solo career, mainly in features, to sign on with an act that did low-budget shorts.  But he was told that "for the good of the family," he had to, and so he did.  Curly never did get better enough to reclaim his old position, but he did do one cameo in a short called Hold That Lion.  (The footage was reused six years later in Booty and the Beast, released after Curly's death.)

A few years later, Shemp died but they didn't immediately replace him.  In a somewhat ghoulish procedure, the Stooges actually made four shorts by having Moe and Larry appear in new scenes — some with Shemp's stand-in, Joe Palma, who kept his back to the camera — and integrating them with old footage.  Finally, Joe Besser was hired as the third Stooge and he finished out the team's time at Columbia.  Joe De Rita eventually replaced Besser.

That's the tale of the Hurwitz Brothers.  I'm Mark Evanier with your Hollywood Minute.

Anyone get the feeling that the current behind-the-scenes scrambling among the Enron biggies is all about determining who's going to be the scapegoat?  I mean, they can't all have been "out of the loop," right?  That excuse only works if someone falls (or is shoved) onto his sword.  In the meantime, the excuse of, "Enron never received any special treatment from the government" seems to not be playing in Peoria.  Lists keep popping up of favors and helpful legislation.  Here's one from Common Cause that's already two weeks out of date.

My pal Russell Myers has been drawing Broom-Hilda for close to 32 years with no end in sight.  He just signed another ten year contract and, even if he quit tomorrow, he's always about a year ahead on the thing.  One day, about a decade ago, we were talking on the phone and he said, "I've gotta go.  I have a deadline crisis."  And for him, it was a crisis: He'd been ill or playing hooky or something and, somehow, a chunk of his lead had evaporated and he was only (gasp!) ten months ahead.  There are syndicated artists who go their entire careers without ever getting as much as a month ahead…and here's Myers fretting because he doesn't have his usual year-long stockpile.

Anyway, I've always enjoyed the adventures of the short little witch lady and often make a point of checking out her exploits…which you can do at the syndicate's website.  You can also read a nice on-line chat/interview with her maker by clicking on this link.  Do one or the other.

Woke up this morning to fifteen (count 'em — 15) e-mails from folks who noted I'd written the following in the previous news item…

But what he lacked in talent, Burton more than made up for via sheer talent and ingenuity.

I've corrected the line.  Thanks to the lot of you and I wish I could blame it all on some HTML coding error or something.  If you spot an error, don't hesitate to let me know.

More thoughts about Chuck Jones, who passed away last Friday at the age of 89.  It's a jolt to realize that all of the major directors of the classic Warner Brothers cartoons are gone: Bob Clampett, Tex Avery, Robert McKimson, Friz Freleng and now Chuck.  (That's Friz with Chuck in this news photo I found.  I suspect, given what I recall of their relative heights, Friz was standing on something — probably an animator — when this picture was taken.)  Norman McCabe, who directed 11 WB cartoons during World War II, is still with us but I'd bet even he would agree that, with the lost of Jones, an era has passed.

Chuck Jones directed several hundred cartoons in his lifetime.  He directed poor cartoons, good cartoons and an astounding number of the best cartoons ever made.  An oft-heard remark among animation buffs is, "I never thought of Jones as my favorite director…but when I sat down and made a list of my favorite cartoons, I found more of his films than anyone else's."  I agree with those who feel that What's Opera, Doc? has been praised far beyond its worth but leave that aside — in fact, toss out One Froggy Evening, Chow Hound, Rabbit Seasoning, Duck Amuck, Duck Dodgers, Rabbit Punch, Cheese Chasers, Robin Hood Daffy and all the Road Runner cartoons.  Throw away any fifty great Chuck Jones cartoons, look at what's left and you still have an incredible body, not just of work but of timeless work.

Chuck, we can all be happy to remember, lived to see it discovered anew by several generations, each of which appreciated it as not just entertainment but as an integral part of their ongoing childhoods.  When I do chalk talks on cartooning at schools, the kids invariably shout catch-phrases from the films — and that is not a shallow measure of something's worth.  When you say, "I knew I shoulda turned left at Albuquerque," people smile and even laugh, because it reminds them of a wonderful cartoon that made them smile and even laugh.  Does anyone doubt they'll be smiling and laughing at The Rabbit of Seville and other great Chuck Jones cartoons a hundred years from now?  (That's about when Warner Home Video will probably start releasing them on DVD…)

Early in the nineties, there was a period wherein I found myself routinely commuting to Las Vegas for odd combinations of biz and pleasure.  During this time, I paid no less than a half-dozen visits to the Hacienda to see Lance Burton in a show that was short on price tag (approx. $20) and budget (not many sets, some of them leftover from a shopworn Minsky's Burlesque revue that had preceded him at the shopworn — now extinct — casino).  But what he lacked in funds, Burton more than made up for via sheer talent and ingenuity.  I've seen enough magicians to know when I'm watching the very best…and Lance Burton was and is the very best.  His little show was so good that no one was surprised when he signed a multi-million buck, 10-year deal with a new hotel that was then under construction.  In fact, the showroom at the Monte Carlo was named for him and designed to his specifications and now he performs there.

A great show it is…a bit less charming than the one at the Hacienda because, among other differences, it lacks intimacy and underdog status.  But magic doesn't get much better than what Mr. Burton offers on that stage.

All of this is a roundabout way of leading up to a recommendation.  I just got a copy of Lance Burton: Secrets of Magic, a low-priced (under 12 bucks) DVD that you can purchase from Amazon-dot-com by clicking on the picture above.  It's really a bargain for magic fans, as it contains two of those fine NBC specials that Lance did a few years back, plus another magic special that he's in but does not headline, as well as a few extras.  The magic is terrific and it's photographed with great integrity, meaning that the director didn't "help" the magician by doing little time compressions or cutaways to omit what you might have caught, had you been there live.  I believe this DVD is on closeout, having been discontinued, so if you want one, buy now.