Monthly Archives: July 2003

Daniel Frank (whose weblog I hope you visit when you leave here) writes to ask, "So what was the surprise at the curtain call of The Music Man?" (This is the Broadway revival from 2000 he's asking about.) Well, it wasn't all that huge a deal. The cast members marched out in snazzy band uniforms, almost all of them carrying trombones, and played a lusty but amateurish version of "76 You-Know-Whats." It had a certain fun charm to it, but I don't think it lived up to the promises of something unprecedented.

The curtain call of The Music Man is traditionally a real audience-pleaser. To his dying day, composer Meredith Willson used to insist that there had never been a production of the show anywhere at any time where the audience did not break into rhythmic clapping with the playing of "76 Trombones" as the cast took its bows. One suspects that at least once in all the skillions of performances of the show in everything from Broadway theaters to elementary school auditoriums, there might have been one where the audience was too busy walking out or demanding refunds or something…but perhaps Mr. Willson never encountered this. Or maybe he just saw only the good in them. The story goes that he took in the show hundreds of times as staged by various theatrical companies and community colleges and such, and that he sent every single one of them a telegram that said, "That was the finest production of The Music Man I have ever seen." Perhaps they all were.

Anyway, when the show gets staged at a school that has a marching band, it is not at all unusual for someone to get the bright idea to have the band march through the hall as part of the finale. So what they did on Broadway wasn't all that revolutionary.

Incidentally, I can't find it at the moment but there used to be a wonderful website which featured a bevy of production memos about the making of the movie of The Music Man. One which I found intriguing was from the director, Morton Da Costa, saying he'd decided that the role of Marcellus should be played by Stubby Kaye. We of course all loved Buddy Hackett in the role but I sure don't think Stubby would have been bad. Jack L. Warner, of course, once had his heart set on Frank Sinatra as Professor Harold Hill but finally bowed to pressure from darn near everyone on the planet and hired Robert Preston. If he'd wound up with Sinatra and Hackett, he might as well have gotten Shirley MacLaine to play Marion, Joey Bishop to be the Mayor and moved the whole thing to Vegas. As they said when they changed the family in Come Blow Your Horn from Jewish to Italian so they could cast Frank, "It's a small change."

Oh — and while I was looking (to no avail) for the site with the Da Costa memos, I came across this wonderful offering. It's a compendium of obscure names and terms that turn up in the text of The Music Man, along with explanations of what they all mean. They even note, as many of us comic book historians have, that the line in "Ya Got Trouble" about kids reading Cap'n Billy's Whiz Bang is an anachronism since The Music Man is set in 1912 and Cap'n Billy didn't start whizzing or banging until 1919.

Jerry Kupcinet has some nice memories of the departed Mr. Hackett.

In the spirit of what I said earlier about George M. Cohan, here's Frank Rich on the kind of phony, exploitive actions that are too often passed off as patriotism in this country.

Just added the illustrious Joe Alaskey to the Cartoon Voice Panel, which is currently scheduled for 3:30 on Saturday afternoon. I say "currently" because we may wind up moving it a half hour later. Details here in a day or three.

Joe is currently the voice of Daffy Duck and many of the great Warner Brothers characters once voiced by the immortal Mel Blanc. I'm going to try to get him to do some of his non-Mel voices for us, as well. He's one of the best in the business and I'm thrilled he'll be joining our little vocal gangbang.

One of the panels I'm really looking forward to at the Comic-Con International in San Diego is the one we're doing at 10:30 on Saturday morning (July 19) in Room 8. It's on the history of Western Publishing Company, which produced the contents of Dell Comics (until around 1962) and Gold Key Comics (thereafter). If you're baffled — as so many seem to be — about the history of this unique company, this article that I wrote will explain a teensy bit of it to you and you can learn a little more at the panel. Actually, I'm hoping this will be the first of several annual panels on the topic, as there are a couple of folks I'd love to interview about Western but they're unable to make it this year. But we'll have plenty to discuss without them. We'll have Paul Norris and Mike Royer, both of whom did tons of comics for Western Publishing's West Coast office (as did I) and we'll have Len Wein and Frank Bolle, both of whom worked for the company's East Coast office. And we'll have collector/historian Maggie Thompson and I'm hoping for a few more last-minute additions.

If we all do our job, you'll get the beginnings of a portrait of an amazing company — one that often thought more like printers than publishers, and more like book publishers than comic book publishers. I am a big believer in the philosophy that the company does not create the comic; people do. In the field, we too often speak of "DC did this" or "Marvel did this," when it would be vastly more accurate to speak of specific human beings working for those companies doing such things…people who change from time to time. I recently read an as-yet-unpublished article by someone analyzing Marvel's business strategies over the last half-century as if that plan all came from one mind with one philosophy of publishing. (Marvel has rarely had one mindset at a given time, let alone over an extended period, and quite a few folks who've gotten into positions of power there have been of the mind that their predecessors were complete idiots who were mismanaging the firm into oblivion.)

All that said, there is a rough continuity of thought behind how Western operated — or at least, some prevailing views that ran very much counter to what the boys at DC, Marvel or other companies were then thinking. So we'll talk about that. And we'll talk about Carl Barks and Disney Comics in general. And Magnus, Robot Fighter. And Tarzan and Korak. And Star Trek. And Little Lulu and John Stanley and Oscar LeBeck and Chase Craig and Harvey Eisenberg and Dr. Solar and Walt Kelly and Roger Armstrong and Pete Alvarado and Hanna-Barbera comics and Dan Spiegle and Woody Woodpecker and Russ Manning and Paul S. Newman and Gaylord DuBois and Wally Green and all those movie and TV adaptations and…

Boy, this is sounding like it's going to have to be a couple of annual panels. Be there for the first of them.

Watched Yankee Doodle Dandy last evening for maybe the eightieth time. I have it on Laserdisc so I could have watched it whenever I thought of it…but Turner Classic Movies was running it so I had TiVo grab a copy — and don't you sometimes feel dumb watching a free telecast of a movie for which you paid good money? Anyway, I did enjoy it. I think I had trouble appreciating this movie back in the seventies because I'd read a couple of biographies of George M. Cohan, and a series of letters that George S. Kaufman had written to a friend about his many troubles with Cohan. They all made Cohan sound like a pretty nasty man who waved the flag to mask selfish goals. That's a personal peeve of mine — shallow, self-interests disguised as patriotism — so I was disinclined to view Mr. Cohan in a favorable light.

I was also acutely aware of how little the movie resembled his actual life. One does not expect a Hollywood bio-film to reflect reality 100% or even 80% but this one was so far down the accuracy scale that it seemed like its makers had said, "Well, we can't tell the truth about this bastard so let's make up something." He wasn't even born on the Fourth of July, you know.

So why have I seen it so many times? I think it's because I like it a wee bit more with each viewing, which doesn't happen with many pictures. Jimmy Cagney is so darn good in it — acting, as well as singing and dancing — that he forces you to love the guy he's playing, and I care less and less each time that it isn't the real Cohan. Cagney just eclipses the real guy to the point where if you today mention George M. Cohan to people and they happen to recognize the name, they think of Cagney. In Funny Girl, Barbra Streisand may have supplanted the genuine Fannie Brice, but that would be the only other time I can think of that happening; of the real star being obliterated by the person playing them. Obviously, some of that has to do with the general unavailability of real Cohan or Brice performances but not completely. Those have been the only two times (unless you can think of another) where the person playing a supposedly-great star was a lot more talented — and a bigger star — than the person they were portraying.

Cohan himself did make a few movie appearances, by the way. Given his success on the stage, you have to figure that something just plain didn't translate. Either film didn't capture any trace of his talent or it had atrophied by the time he reached Hollywood. But like a few other (allegedly) great stage performers in early film, he sure doesn't come off as a star of any magical ability. If I were him, I'd much rather people think I was Jimmy Cagney.

The best-known Bushman in the world — actually, the only known Bushman in the world — has died. N!xau was the star of a very wonderful movie called The Gods Must be Crazy. Here's a link to an obit.

Are classic movies being altered (and even ruined) when transferred to digital format and "restored?" Some people in this article think so.

I enjoy watching Whose Line Is It Anyway? I don't think the improv is as unplanned as they make it out to be…especially whatever Drew Carey does at the end. But I find most of the performers to be very good at what they do. And no one's funnier than Colin Mochrie, subject of this website.

The Thing or the Hulk? I don't know and I don't care. But Frank Rich thinks he knows who's stronger than the Hulk: Harry Potter.

I'm watching a PBS Special at the moment with Craig Bierko, who starred in the revival of The Music Man on Broadway, performing "76 Trombones." I saw this show in New York and enjoyed it tremendously. But seeing him just now reminded me of one of the funniest things I've ever seen posted on the Internet. Odds are, most of you won't find this funny but I do and it's my weblog so I'm going to quote it here. This occurred on a theater newsgroup (rec.arts.theatre.musicals) in March of 2000. The Music Man revival was then pending and someone with an "in" to the production posted the following message…

I met a charming young lady this weekend — Cynthia Leigh Heim — who is in the ensemble of Music Man. She says Craig Bierko is terrific in the role and great to work with, and that Stroman's choreography is clever and tricky to execute. I asked for a "scoop" that I could post on RATM! She said that there will be a surprise at the curtain call which will be unlike any curtain call we've ever seen. She wouldn't tell me more, as they've been sworn to secrecy!

A few hours later, someone named Dave Barton posted the following in reply…

They will announce from the stage that everyone in the audience should look under their seats. 76 people will actually find trombones waiting for them. Each person with a trombone will then rise. Harold Hill will give them a 19 second lesson in the "Think Method," and then they will break into the score from Chicago.

I don't know why but that struck me as incredibly funny. I not only laughed for five minutes when I read it but later that year, sitting in the Neil Simon Theater watching the finale (which was, alas, not as Mr. Barton described) I remembered it and started laughing uncontrollably. I'm laughing now as I read it again. I'm not a well person.

Meanwhile, at this moment on the PBS Special, they have Barry Bostwick singing our National Anthem — and in the shot, you can clearly see a cue card person holding up the lyrics for him and changing the cards after each line. Now, I could sing this song from memory when I was seven years old and I have a hunch Mr. Bostwick knows the words. But every few years when some star is called upon to perform it on TV (usually live TV), they go blank and flub the words. (I once heard someone refer to it as "pulling a Robert Goulet.") It brings great ridicule along with letters and editorials that question the singer's patriotism and suggest that they go live in Russia. So I think performers have all learned: Yes, you're absolutely positive you know it and could do it in your sleep. But don't take any chances…

Hope you're having a safe and sane Fourth.

On Monday, TV Land is rerunning one of my favorite episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show (as you know, is one of my favorite TV shows). The episode in question is "The Masterpiece," which is the one where Rob and Laura accidentally purchase a painting by the great artist, Artanis, at an auction. It's a funny tale but interest is enhanced by the presence of two great comic actors, both of whom also distinguised themselves in the world of cartoon voicing. The auctioneer is played by Alan Reed, better known to all as the voice of Fred Flintstone. And the art expert who comes to examine the Artanis is the wonderful Howie Morris. In 1963 when he filmed this guest appearance, he was also directing episodes of the Van Dyke program, guesting occasionally on The Andy Griffith Show — as the uneducated Ernest T. Bass) — and doing many other on-camera roles. (The same year, he appeared in an episode of The Twilight Zone, and in the immortal Jerry Lewis film, The Nutty Professor.) In addition to all that, he was doing voices for Hanna-Barbera on The Flintstones and Magilla Gorilla. He claims his first job for H-B was the episode of The Jetsons where he played rock star Jet Screamer and sang, "Eep Op Ork." A lovely man.

Also: On Wednesday, TV Land is rerunning an episode of Fantasy Island with Phil Silvers as a has-been vaudevillian. I barely remember the episode from when it first aired in '78 but I recall feeling both sorry for his obviously-diminished energy, and pleased to see he was still able to deliver a performance. You may or may not want to watch. If you don't, I'll understand.

Yeah, I know I'm running way behind on these. So call a lawyer and sue me, sue me, what can you do me? Today, in honor of what day it is, I thought I'd link to a page over at the Washington Post that's full of drawings by and tributes to the late, great Herblock. I never quite "got" him on an individual basis; not until I studied the body of work and viewed it as the 50+ year chronicle of the American scene. He was a reporter first and a cartoonist second, and that's just fine. Here's the link.

How come no TV station on my DirecTV satellite dish is running the movie 1776 today? Not only does this mean I have to go downstairs and get the DVD but I can't recommend you tune in and watch one of my favorite movies. It's positively unAmerican.

Oh, well. Turner Classic Movies is running Yankee Doodle Dandy this evening, but that's really not about America. It's about watching Jimmy Cagney.

This article in the Los Angeles Times is headlined, "Slim Majority of Voters Backs Davis Recall." But aren't these polls pretty close to meaningless until such time as people see who else is going to be on the ballot? It's one thing to say you don't like the guy; another to say you'd prefer Candidate X. Once we know who we might be able to pick from to replace Davis, might he not look a lot better or worse to most voters? I don't think you can ever unseat an incumbent just by drumming up dislike of him. There has to be an alternative who could be a distinct improvement.

This is why I don't put much stock in these polls that tell us how much of the country would back Bush if the election were held tomorrow. They might be meaningful if the election were being held tomorrow but it isn't. By the time it is, the whole dynamic of the race will be different…including the possibility that some Democrat will have gained some real name recognition and made his case to the American people. I know that's looking increasingly unlikely but it just might happen. And if it does, it'll drive support for G.W.B. up or down depending on who that Democrat is and what that case is…and maybe even on where the economy and the war on terrorism stand at that moment.

But people love to read polls. So let's not let the fact that one whole side of the ballot is still a big Question Mark stop us from having a poll.