Monthly Archives: December 2003

Never switch midgets on an unruly crowd.

Over the next few days, I'm going to be recommending a number of books by friends of mine so you might want to start marking your Amazon wishlist. Today, we praise Looney Tunes: The Ultimate Visual Guide, which is a big, handsome and informative book by Jerry Beck. It's filled with rare artwork of Bugs and his pals, all wisely explained by Mr. Beck, who knows more about animation than any other author I've ever read. He manages to give you not only a real feel for these characters (and the way they should be drawn) but a good sense of the men who did the actual drawing. It's another one of those "must-have" volumes for your ever-expanding shelf on cartoon history. You can order a copy by clicking here…and do ignore the blurb on the Amazon page that makes it sound like Mel Blanc was one of the artists whose sketches are included in the book. Jerry didn't write that line. I trust.

Here's an example of the kind of cuts that Governor Schwarzenegger is proposing to make in California's spending.

The California State Senate rejected Governor Schwarzenegger's proposed $15 billion bond issue, which may be a good thing depending on what anyone comes up with to replace it. In the meantime, he had already reactivated a Gray Davis plan for the state to borrow $10.7 billion. When he was running for the office, Schwarzenegger criticized the Davis proposal as an example of fiscal incompetence. Now, it's looking pretty good to him, I guess.

Jonathan Chait offers an interesting way to look at the political philosophy of the Bush administration.

I doubt they'll admit it openly but a lot of Arnold Schwarzenegger supporters have to be disappointed with his answer to California's financial woes. Those I spoke to before the election had visions of him being a different kind of exec…someone who would "open the books" (as he kept promising to do in his commercials) and trim mountains of governmental fat and waste. Instead, he's done very little of that, and only in areas where we save small amounts of cash but do considerable harm to the lives of the disabled and poor. His main solution is no solution at all…a $15 billion deficit bond issue. In other words, we will deal with the fact that the state has no money by borrowing and running up the debt in a different way.

As brainstorms go, this isn't one. It's something Gray Davis could have done, though he'd have been accused of "mortgaging our children's future." Hell, Gary Coleman could have done the same thing. How much financial savvy does it take, when you've maxed out your credit card, to get a new credit card at a higher interest rate? It solves nothing.

But Arnold's still in his honeymoon phase so he'll probably get away with it. Besides, by and large, "fiscal responsibility" is one of those things that everyone tells pollsters they want, but when it's offered to them, they don't like what it involves. Better to keep running in the red and hope for a miracle.

Here's a nice piece (complete with clips) on Carl Stalling, the man who did such wonderful music for the classic Warner Brothers cartoons. Thanks for spotting it go to Bruce Reznick.

I happen to be a skeptic about things like E.S.P. and talking to the dead and flying saucers and such. I've never believed in the paranormal, and this view was further solidified when I worked for a time on a TV show that welcomed many of the folks who were then most prominent in claiming to be able to levitate things with their minds, bend spoons via telekinetic powers, converse with your late Uncle Myron, etc. Though their experiences were then the most celebrated exemplars of unearthly occurrence, they all struck me not only as fakes but as bad fakes, easily debunked by anyone with the slightest knowledge of magic tricks and no desperate desire to believe. About half, I would say, sincerely believed they could do what they claimed they could do. The other half gave you a wink that seemed to say, "Hey, I know it's bull but look how far it's gotten me."

I am not strident in my view. Up until the point where it starts becoming a con job, I think it's okay for people to believe what they want to believe. People in this world believe all sorts of non-psychic stuff that I think is dead wrong about politics and the Kennedy assassination and whether tofu is edible…so if someone wants to consult their horoscope, fine. Let them. I don't think that's always harmful…and if one of these days, someone does prove they can warp cutlery through sheer mental energy, I'm ready to believe. But I'm not there yet and one of the reasons I'm not there yet is the fine work of James Randi, aka The Amazing Randi. Once an accomplished magician, Randi now spends most of his time knocking down claims of ghost-sightings and spoon-bendings and the like. His James Randi Educational Foundation (there's the link) has a standing offer of one million bucks to anyone who can prove some power that Randi and his associates cannot disprove. So far, no one's come close.

One person who accepted Randi's challenge but has yet to submit herself to his tests is a lady named Sylvia Browne. According to the listing for Larry King Live (she's on tonight), "Best-selling author and psychic Sylvia Browne says she can talk to departed loved ones in the afterlife." The last time Larry had her on, or maybe the time before, Randi got on with her and made her look pretty unremarkable. He also got her to agree to submit to his testing but it's been more than two years now and she always seems to be too busy. Perhaps tonight, he'll crash the proceedings and pin her down to an appointment.

By the way: In a current essay on his site, Randi hails the Scooby Doo cartoon show because on it, the ghosts were always exposed as fake. Two points I would add: One is that in later episodes, long after I stopped writing for the Great Dane, Hanna-Barbera decided that formula had run dry. Well, actually, it ran dry after about the third episode but six or seven seasons later, they relaxed the rules and "real" ghosts and monsters began chasing Scooby and Shaggy through the old houses. Second point: I always thought it was a bit odd that the premise of that show was that there's no such thing as a ghost and that this is proven each week by a talking dog. Those standards of reality always seemed a bit askew, especially during the season where they had guest stars on the show like Speed Buggy (a talking car) and Jeannie (a genie) helping expose the phony ghosts. But like I say, if it works for you…

For ten years, comic fans in the New York area have been able to enjoy the almost-weekly radio show, 'Nuff Said, on which Ken Gale and either Ed Menje or Mercy Van Vlack have hosted the great, the near-great and even me. A pretty impressive roster of comic book and strip creators has graced their microphones, answering their questions and fielding calls from listeners…but it looks like it may be over. I say "looks like" because it's looked that way in the past but the hosts' determination has always prompted their radio station to find some odd-lot time period for the program. Lately though, it's been on hiatus and over at their website, Ken is now announcing that their recent involuntary hiatus has now become a cancellation. I hope it returns in some form and I hope the best interviews are properly archived and available for access. It was a great effort.

On the recommendation of my pal Jerry Beck, I ordered the above two books and they both came today. Both are authorized biographies of actors who were linked to Superman during their careers. Bob Holiday played the Man of Steel in the unsuccessful Broadway musical, It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman. Noel Neill played Lois Lane for several seasons on the Adventures of Superman TV show with George Reeves in that title role. Both books are nicely written, loaded with photos and scrapbook stuff from the actor's career, and each provides a nice insight into the performer's life with most of the pages going to their Superman period.

I found the Holiday book interesting because I really knew nothing about the man and precious little about the show. Turns out, he was an all-around entertainer with impressive credentials as a comedian and singer, and even had previous Broadway experience. (He was in Fiorello with Tom Bosley). I wish I could have seen the Superman musical in New York because, judging from a bare-bones regional production I saw once, it's a clever show that deserved a longer life. And I remember Holiday making the rounds of talk and game shows at the time and proving himself to be quite "right" in the costume both in physique and attitude.

And I found the Neill book interesting because while it dwells at length on her Lois years, it also places them in the proper context of her whole career…a career that was largely over by age 40 when the Superman show ceased production. She did not hesitate to tell her Boswell about her post-Lois years working as a secretary — at one point, she was a personal assistant to Tom Selleck — and she made something of a "comeback" in the seventies when college students were willing to fill auditoriums to hear the lady they'd all loved as Lois. She's always seemed like a classy lady and she deserved and got a classy bio. If a book about Noel Neill's life sounds intriguing to you, you won't be disappointed by this one.

You can order the Noel Neill book at Amazon for $17.47 but I'm going to suggest you purchase it instead from this website for $24.95 plus four dollars postage. If you do, it'll come autographed by Ms. Neill and her biographer, Larry Thomas Ward. That's worth the extra bucks, and I'm guessing Noel Neill makes more money that way. The Bob Holiday book (written with Chuck Harter) can be ordered here for twenty bucks plus postage. I think you'll enjoy them both and if you don't, you can always complain to Jerry Beck.

Mike Esposito has been in comics since 1947, occasionally as a penciller but mainly as an inker. For much of his career, he was teamed with his best friend, Ross Andru, on books like Wonder Woman and Metal Men, but also found time to ink most of the other major New York artists and to occasionally turn publisher. He and Andru made two attempts to put out their own books. In the fifties, they did Get Lost!, which was one of the best MAD knock-offs. Then in 1972, they briefly tried again with Up Your Nose. Over at Mike's website, you can read his bio, order re-creations of his work, and even read a copy of Up Your Nose.

But before you go there, drop by Adelaide Comics and read this long interview with Mike. He's a fascinating guy with a real love of the business he's been a part of for over half a century.

And here's another bit of irony in the Winnie the Pooh case. The lady suing Disney is supporting Michael Eisner in his current battle.

Cartoon Network is running Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol on December 10, which I guess means that NBC, which last year announced they'd be running it in prime-time but never did, won't be running it this year, either. The TiVo listing, like NBC's press release, erroneously lists June Foray in the voice cast.

Here's an Associated Press report, which I reprint in full…

LOS ANGELES (AP) – The holders of the North American rights to the Winnie the Pooh characters have hired celebrity attorney Johnny Cochran to represent them in their 12-year legal fight with The Walt Disney Co. The heirs of Stephen Slesinger have alleged that Disney owes them millions of dollars because they miscalculated royalties due from the sales of Pooh dolls, books and other merchandise for years. Disney has denied the allegations. The Slesinger's hiring of Cochran is the second major change in lawyers the family has made this year. Cochran will face Daniel Petrocelli, who represents Disney in the case.

All sorts of comments are possible but for now I'll just point out how odd it is that AP didn't note a large piece of irony here. Cochran is squaring off against Petrocelli, who won the civil case against O.J. Simpson.

Here's a treasure trove for those of you interested in cartoon voice work, past and present. Bob Bergen is one of the top practitioners of the art these days, carrying on several of Mel Blanc's characters (including the porcine one at right) and the great tradition set by Mel, Daws Butler, Paul Frees and folks like that. Over at his website, he's put up a number of MP3 audio clips about those gents and what he learned from them. Browse the entire site but don't miss the Cool Clips page, especially the little speech by Daws Butler and the rehearsals of Rocky and Bullwinkle readings. Bob's one of those actors who works all the time so it's nice he took time to make all this stuff available.