Monthly Archives: January 2005

My amigo Fred Hembeck has one of the best comics weblogs out there. He writes about his love of the medium. He offers up historical artifacts. He even prints Fred Hembeck cartoons.

In the middle category, he's currently offering two bits of funnybook history. One is this 1966 article on Will Eisner from the New York Herald-Tribune Sunday magazine section. The author, Marilyn Mercer, knew Eisner pretty well, having worked for him for years.

The other is this 1966 article by Nat Freedland, also from the New York Herald-Tribune Sunday magazine section. It's a profile of Stan Lee and, peripherally, Jack Kirby…and it was one of the dozen-or-so factors that destroyed that partnership. Jack was furious at how little he was mentioned, how unflattering the few mentions were, and most of all at how Stan was depicted as the sole genius of Marvel Comics. Jack's wife Roz read the article early the Sunday morning it came out, woke Jack up to read it…then Jack phoned Stan at home to wake him up and complain. Both men later recalled that the collaboration was never the same after that day, and it was more than just an injured ego at work.

Jack had then been promised he would soon receive a hefty raise and some bonus for the way his art was being used in Marvel merchandising. Shortly after the article came out, things changed. The raise turned out to be minimal and the bonus disappeared because (he said) Marvel's business folks elected to believe the article, or at least to use it as a reason to deny him his due. According to Jack, when he argued his worth to the company, someone there would cite Freedland's piece as independent verification of how things were. It pretty well firmed up Kirby's view that he was being swindled because he was contributing mightily to the creation of the characters and stories but being credited only for artwork. Not long after, in an attempt to appease Jack, the credits on most Marvel books were altered so they didn't say who did what. Instead of saying "Written by Stan Lee, Drawn by Jack Kirby," an issue of Fantastic Four would say something like "by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby" or "A Lee-Kirby Production." As far as I could tell, most readers did not appreciate the difference. They just figured it was a different way of saying Stan wrote it and Jack drew it. (The less-specific credit format had been used occasionally before Jack and a few other artists complained, but it became standard for a while in response to those complaints.)

There were other, more serious events that drove Kirby from Marvel a few years later…and I think I describe them all in the bio of Jack I hope to finish in the next year or three. But this had a major impact, and I'm sure we all thank Br'er Hembeck for making it available for us to read.

My buddy Andy Ihnatko has a viewing recommendation. I've found it's wise to just do whatever Andy tells you.

As you probably know, there was a nasty train wreck in Los Angeles the other day. I've never ridden an L.A. Metrolink train but I have friends who do ride them. Maybe that's why I find myself uncommonly chilled and saddened by the news reports, especially by the fact that it was the result of one man's thoughtless stupidity. The events of 9/11 were more horrifying than if the same amount of death and destruction had been caused by a hurricane because they weren't "Acts of God." Somebody actually caused that to happen. To make matters even worse, there are reports that the victims of the train accident may not be able to obtain compensation for their pain and medical expenses. The transit company might not be deemed at fault, and the party that was at fault has no money.

I wrote about the villain of this episode here. Now, I want to write about some heroes. The train wreck occurred right near a Costco store and the other day, The Los Angeles Times said this in an editorial…

Costco workers were the very first responders to the predawn tragedy on their doorstep. They rushed out in the dark and rain, toward flaming, smoking rubble.

I was joking about Costco here the other day but for some reason, I really like those stores. I feel demeaned when I visit my local K-Mart; like they figure I've got to be low class or I wouldn't be there. The two times I've ventured into a Walmart, I felt a mood of "Buy something chintzy and get out!" I've been to a nearby Target store about five times and never bought anything because I could never find the item I wanted, nor could I find someone who could help me locate it. And when I go to a Best Buy, which I did just the other day, I have the sense that every piece of merchandise I look at has been sold to someone else, returned, repackaged and put back on sale. Most of all — and perhaps the primary cause of all these other negative feelings — is that the employees of these other chains seem generally unhappy to be working where they're working. I don't know how pay scales run but the workers at Costco at least act like they're proud of their jobs and have some stake in the operation, whereas the employees at K-Mart act like they're there because Burger King wasn't hiring.

So I like the mood at Costco and I like the fact that they have things in mass quantities. I don't need (and therefore, don't buy) Kikkoman Soy Sauce in the 10-gallon drums they sell, but I always depart with a few hundred bucks worth of something that makes my life easier.

And I had this thought, which I hope doesn't sound too silly or too frivolous or disrespectful of a disaster. I wish the train wreck hadn't happened…but if it had to happen, and it couldn't happen right outside a hospital or fire station, those passengers were fortunate it happened outside a Costco. According to a TV report I saw, the Costco employees were hauling out cartons of first aid products and water and blankets, as well as tools that could be used to pry open doors and windows. A Costco has all that stuff. Someone rolled out a cart full of fire extinguishers which were quickly put to use. When fire fighters arrived, they used the store's oversized shopping carts to haul away debris and transport the injured, and employed equipment such as fork-lifts that Costco normally uses for moving crates around. It was a messy rescue operation but boy, was it well-supplied.

Here's an article about what the Costco employees did and here's another. And I just realized one reason why their actions made such a big impression on me. As I mentioned in this posting, I was in a Costco (a different one) the other day and I saw a small child injured. The kid's parents proceeded to do absolutely nothing, but a couple of Costco workers rushed over to help the boy and administer care. I was impressed with their swift action, their caring and with the fact that there was no hesitation to grab product off the shelves and use it to deal with an emergency. I don't know what it is about Costco's hiring policies but I think they get some real good people, and it makes me more eager to shop at those stores.

A reader who I'm not sure wanted his name used wrote and asked two questions about Johnny…

Since you were there at the taping, I'm wondering how Ed McMahon was able to exit his visit with Leno on Monday in time to be on Larry King's show. If I remember right, Tonight always starts taping at 5:30, which would've given Ed a scant 5 minutes between the end of his appearance with Leno and the start of Larry King's show at 6:00. Did Tonight alter its taping time, or is Larry King's CNN studio astonishingly close to Leno's?

I think Larry King does his show from a CNN building down on Sunset Boulevard, which at that time of day can be a 30-45 minute commute from Burbank, where Leno tapes. But Ed had plenty of time because The Tonight Show no longer tapes at 5:30. They moved to 5:00 and then to 4:00, in part because Mr. Leno sometimes likes to fly off to Vegas or some other city and do his act in the evening. So Ed walked out of the NBC studio around 4:30, and I believe he did a few other interviews there before heading down to see Larry.

I'm wondering if you have any industry insight as to why a few of the older Carson clips we've been seeing were apparently long ago transferred from their original video onto — of all things — film. (Examples: The late 1960s bit with George Gobel, Dean Martin, and Bob Hope, plus the circa 1972 Alpo commercial where Johnny had to stand in for the dog.)

Well, I can guess. As we all know, most of the tapes of Johnny's early shows were destroyed or erased years ago. Some of what remains of that era is because many shows were transferred to 16mm film via the old kinescope process. For those who don't know, back before video tape was perfected, the only way to preserve live TV shows was to have someone point a 16mm camera at a TV monitor and film the image. The procedure became obsolete when tape came in except that there were some foreign markets where the stations weren't equipped for tape, and if you wanted to sell your shows over there, you had to run kinescopes. So throughout the sixties and into the seventies, it was done with a number of live or taped TV shows, including Johnny's, so that they could be shown on U.S. military bases overseas. I suspect those filmed clips were taken from prints made for that purpose which someone found.

Joan Embrey from the San Diego Zoo, which probably means clips of Johnny with animals.

I remember some TV critic once wrote that the difference between Carson and Letterman is best demonstrated when they do animal segments. Carson lets the marmoset climb up on his head and Letterman makes fun of the trainer.

Here's a roundup of editorial cartoons about the passing of J. Carson. You may notice a certain repetition of a couple of ideas.

And here's a link to the cartoon by my pal, Mike Peters.

Richard Corliss of Time writes one of the best pieces I've read on Johnny, even if he does misspell "Slauson cut-off." He also notes that during much of the time Leno guest-hosted for Carson, he got higher ratings and better demographics. This is one of those facts that no one ever dared mention aloud when Johnny was alive.

Nick Clooney, who was the local news anchor whose broadcasts preceded Johnny in L.A. for years, writes about his encounters with Mr. Carson.

Every print interview Johnny Carson ever did seems to be turning up on the Internet these days. Here's one of the earliest — a 1967 chat he did with Alex Haley for Playboy. It's kind of interesting since it was done at a time when he hadn't been doing Tonight for much longer than Jack Paar had hosted and, despite a recent, messy renegotiation of his contract, he still wasn't being paid megabucks.

Frank Rich on what it means to support the troops.

And while we're at it, this article over on Salon [membership or watching ads required] says that wounded soldiers who are being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center have to pay for meals. I wish people in this country would get the idea that saying "I support the troops" is, literally, the least you can do. I mean, it's nice but on a list of things that could be done to benefit these people, thinking good thoughts is right at the bottom in terms of usefulness to their lives. Maybe we can change it to "I support giving the troops what they need."

William Saletan on how Democrats can win over pro-choice voters.

Leaving the subject of John W. Carson for a moment…I'm sure we're all properly horrified by the train derailment this morning in Los Angeles that has (so far) left ten people dead and at least 200 injured. It touched a little close to home for me because I have a friend who routinely takes one of those trains every weekday morning. I awoke to an e-mail that he sent to everyone in his address book saying, "I'm home today. I have the flu and I was feeling sorry for myself, but it turned out to be one of the luckiest breaks of my life." Also, if you read the reports, you'll see that it all happened right behind a Costco outlet, and the Costco employees stopped selling original Picassos and ran out to treat the injured. That's the Costco I most often visit when I'm in a Costco kind of mood…and I think next time I'm there, I'm going to stop every worker and express my admiration for their efforts.

According to reports, the accidents were caused by a man who was intent on killing himself. The guy had a police record for drug dealing and had tried slashing his wrists and stabbing himself in the chest. When those didn't work, he parked his Jeep Cherokee on the train tracks, but changed his mind at the last minute, got out and watched the trains hit it and derail. I don't want to be flippant about this but, boy, talk about a guy who can't do anything right.

The news report says he's been arrested, that he'll be charged with multiple homicides and that they currently have him on a "Suicide Watch." Yeah, right. Wouldn't want anything to happen to that lovely fellow. Let's make real sure he doesn't do anything crazy and hurt himself.

As I've mentioned here before, I have mixed feelings about the Death Penalty, especially because I think a lot of innocent people are wrongly convicted. An incident like this train disaster inflames the part of me that thinks if we're darn certain someone is guilty, the Death Penalty may make a lot of sense, and not just in the specific "first degree" situations to which it generally applies. (Amazingly, parking your SUV on railroad tracks and causing something like this probably wouldn't qualify.) But on top of it, I also believe that adults who are relatively sane should have the right to kill themselves. I figure: It's your life and if you want to end it, fine. There should be a little service where you can go, pay a couple of bucks and they'll check you out to make sure you're not just upset because the Lakers lost…then, if all is in order, they'll administer some quick, painless lethal injection or stick your toe in a light socket or make you eat tofu or whatever it takes.

This concept might horrify some but wouldn't that be better than forcing someone to park his car on railroad tracks or (as an acquaintance of mine once did), leap off the top of a Manhattan hotel in front of hundreds of traumatized spectators? In this case, it would also spare us wrestling with the morality of the Death Penalty and having a trial, and making survivors come in and testify and then keeping someone locked up forever. This guy who caused the wreck…we don't need to give this guy a trial. We just need to give him a very large bottle of strychnine — you can probably get them at Costco — and take him off that Suicide Watch.

I was going to try and get out of the Carson-linking business but this one's too good to deny you. An old friend of mine, Donna Schwartz Mills, wrote to thank me for all I've posted here and to tell me she has her own weblog where she's posting things about Johnny. Donna was on the Tonight Show staff for a number of years during the Carson Era, so her recollections are personal and quite interesting. Go to this posting and then use the links at the top of the page to read forward to the most recent.

And since I'm back doing this, I'll mention that Pat Sajak, who was among those who went up against Carson and failed, has written an article that's mostly about himself. It's also a little odd in its history. He says that in 1986, he was asked to guest-host for Johnny but that (a) there was a Writers Guild strike in progress and (b) the Directors Guild was also threatening to strike. The rest of the article may be true, and probably is, but neither of those unions entered into negotiations in 1986. The WGA struck in 1985 for 13 days and in 1988 for 22 weeks. The DGA negotiated a three-year contract in 1984 so they couldn't threaten a strike again until 1987…which they did. That was the year of the only DGA strike ever, which lasted all of five minutes. (I'm not kidding. Five minutes.) At no point during those years was there ever a moment when the WGA was on strike and the DGA was threatening to go out.

Comedian Larry Miller tells us about appearing with Johnny. And Rolling Stone has posted the text of a 1979 interview with Mr. C.

Veteran entertainment reporter Bob Thomas reports on the 100th birthday (today) of veteran character actor Charles Lane.

I'm going to stop posting about Johnny in the next day or so but I did want to make one point that absolutely no one seems to be making. It's that Johnny was an enormously powerful man to the point that very few folks in the industry were willing to ever get on his bad side. In one of the Associated Press obit pieces, I couldn't help but notice this paragraph…

Carson often had a cigarette in hand in the early years of "Tonight," eventually dropping the on-air habit when smoking on TV became frowned on. But he remained a heavy smoker for some years afterward, said a former associate who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Take a look at that. Johnny, who smoked constantly on network television for years, has died of emphysema…and one of his former (not even current) associates is still afraid to be quoted by name saying that the man remained a heavy smoker.

Johnny was quite beloved. I'm sure most of the glowing sentiments we're now hearing are heartfelt, and of course it would be rude to dwell on negatives when the body is still warm. Still, even before his death, people were only quietly (very quietly) whispering the "other" stories — the ones about ruthless (though usually not unethical) business dealings or, going back some years before his current marriage, of drinking and womanizing.

I'm not saying these stories are true. Some obviously are the bitter interpretations of people who felt Johnny should have had them on the show or allowed them into his tight circle of friends or otherwise aided them, but not all are as easily dismissed. I think anyone who ever got within six blocks of Mr. Carson will tell you privately that they heard such tales, and also that no one ever wanted to be quoted as telling them. When you kick the King, you have to be prepared to kill him…so you don't kick.

People did speak ill of him. Late in Carson's run, the entire media world forgot all the bad reviews that dismissed him as pandering to the Lowest Common Denominator. For instance, back when it was Cavett-vs.-Carson in late night, it was the intellectual who interviewed Noel Coward getting bested in the ratings by the low-class guy who did naughty double-entendre jokes and brought on animals to defecate on his desk.

Some of this Carson-bashing was simple snobbishness and some of it was the old tactic of getting attention by attacking the guy on top…but a lot of people just didn't like Johnny. They felt he smirked too much and went for easy laughs about squirrels warming their nuts, to say nothing of all that airtime spent coaxing airhead starlets to give salacious answers. At some point, the critical community gave up and declared he'd always been an integral part of Americana reflecting the national pulse…but he was not so universally beloved until near the end of his tenure.

Still, throughout, he was the most powerful man in show business. People who were in or around the field (and not already consigned to Carson's enemies list) were afraid to say anything that might have enraged The Legend. There are those who were at or around NBC during his reign who feel that the 30+ year marathon sprint was in no small part attributable to some of Carson's associates and employees; that, for example, Peter Lassally and/or Fred DeCordova kept the show working, that Talent Coordinator Jim McCawley deserves most of the credit for the discovery of new comedians, and that more of the best Carson "ad-libs" came from the writers than audiences could accept.

There are those who feel Johnny would not have been able to survive his last few years without Jay Leno keeping the ratings strong (and the demographics, younger) on the many nights he guest-hosted. Some would tell you that the mess over filling Johnny's chair after his departure was due to his refusal to ever plan for that day, forcing NBC to strategize with no clue as to when it might occur. These are all views that no one dared utter aloud when Johnny was around. Out of fear — and perhaps because some of us loved him on the show and wanted desperately to believe he was that nice, charming guy — he had to be the undisputed Monarch of Late Night, receiving all of the credit and none of the blame.

I write all this as a huge fan of the on-screen Carson. I am also an admirer of an aspect of Johnny's job which no one ever speaks of, which was his role as the guy ultimately in charge of the show's production. Others dealt with the network and talent coordinators and agents on a day-to-day basis but with an authority that flowed from him. When something was wanted, his people could call and say, "Johnny wants this," and they'd usually get it…and every now and then, Johnny himself had to get on the phone to someone high at NBC or at some agency and scare the hell out of them.

No matter how good one is in front of the camera, a long gig in show business has a lot to do with career management and knowing how to fight for the right things, and win. Carson knew how to do all that, which is why some said, "No one ever helped themselves in this business by pissing off Johnny Carson."

I don't know if his death means that people will become less afraid of telling "those stories" or suggesting there were other views of Carson. When Bob Hope died, a lot of folks thought we'd see an avalanche of books about the "real" Bob Hope…but we haven't, and he still remains more or less sacred. Perhaps Johnny will, as well. Even in an honest, warts-and-all accounting, he'd probably still come off as a god. Just maybe a slightly-more-human god.