Over at the Stars and Stripes website, they post old articles and photos from our nation's foremost military newspaper. Joel O'Brien calls my attention to this article and this photo from when animator Walter Lantz visited a school in Korea.
Monthly Archives: June 2005
Set the TiVo!
In case you're unaware, the Tony Awards tonight will be preceded by a one-hour special on the TV Guide Channel covering the arrivals. I just found this out so I figured I'd pass it on.
Guilting for Gelt
It's been many months since I formally solicited donations on this site…which may be why it's been many months since I've received many. In the last half-a-year, the number of visitors here has almost doubled while the "take" has dropped to a trickle. I'd like to see this site start paying for itself again, so I'm going to post a banner and hope it'll move some of you to send some bucks. If enough of you do, I'll be adding a few new departments to this site in the next month or two.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This solicitation does not apply to anyone who has sent me more than $200 in the past. I have a couple of loyal readers who, every time I ask for money, send me large amounts. I am more than appreciative and don't want any more of your money, people. In fact, I'll send it back if you send it. This means you too, Frank.
Okay, here's the banner…
Toad in a Hole
On Wednesday, I cautioned you all not to click on a link that would take you to an animation for a Crazy Frog. If you did, you might be interested in this article about the critter. Thanks to Alan Light for the links.
Award Winners
The Tony Awards are tomorrow night. I was going to post the winners after the ceremony but I expect to be busy then so here they are now…
- Best Musical: Spamalot
- Best Play: Doubt
- Best Revival of a Musical: La Cage aux Folles
- Best Revival of a Play: Twelve Angry Men
- Best Special Theatrical Event: 700 Sundays
- Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical: Norbert Leo Butz, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
- Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical: Victoria Clark, The Light in the Piazza
- Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play: Brían F. O'Byrne, Doubt
- Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play: Cherry Jones, Doubt
- Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical: Dan Fogler, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
- Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical: Sara Ramirez, Spamalot
- Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play: Michael Stuhlbarg, The Pillowman
- Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play: Adriane Lenox, Doubt
- Best Director of a Musical: Mike Nichols, Spamalot
- Best Director of a Play: Doug Hughes, Doubt
- Best Choreography: Jerry Mitchell, La Cage aux Folles
- Best Book of Musical: Rachel Sheinkin, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
- Best Original Score: Adam Guettel, The Light in the Piazza
- Best Scenic Design of a Musical: Michael Yeargan, The Light in the Piazza
- Best Scenic Design of a Play: Santo Loquasto, Glengarry Glen Ross
- Best Costume Design of a Musical: Catherine Zuber, The Light in the Piazza
- Best Costume Design of a Play: Jane Greenwood, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
- Best Lighting Design of a Musical: Christopher Akerlind, The Light in the Piazza
- Best Lighting Design of a Play: Brian MacDevitt, The Pillowman
- Best Orchestrations: Ted Sperling, Adam Guettel and Bruce Coughlin, The Light in the Piazza
Maybe I should have put up a SPOILER ALERT but I didn't feel like it. Enjoy the show even though you already know who's going to win.
Leon Askin, R.I.P.
Another great character actor has died. You might think of Leon Askin as being to Nazi officers what Fritz Feld was to maître d's, what Parley Baer was to small town mayors, what Jack Norton was to drunks, what Mary Wickes was to sharp-tongued housekeepers, what Eddie Deezen is to nerds, etc. Most folks probably remember Mr. Askin for his role as General Burkhalter on Hogan's Heroes but he actually played a wide range of non-Kraut roles in his long, illustrious career on stage and screen. A few years ago, I chanced across his website and found his bio fascinating. Now that he's passed away in his native Austria at age 97, the website will probably go away. Before it does, you might want to read up on Leon Askin, an actor who could do a lot more than threaten to send Colonel Klink to the Russian Front.
Dopey Drive
Donald Wildmon's American Family Association has for some time tried to run some sort of boycott against the Disney company for being "gay-friendly." Now, they're calling it off, citing some kind of vague, limited success. One suspects it's more a matter of them realizing their impact was microscopic and that it was time to claim some feeble gains, declare victory and get out before too many people noticed how ineffectual they were.
Actually, I think something like 99% of all boycotts are utterly ineffectual, except maybe to get the boycotters a few moments in the spotlight to express their outrage. Most Americans don't alter their buying patterns much, at least over so-called moral issues. Some of them will even write indignant "I'll never buy your product again" letters and then, on their way home from mailing the letter, stop off and pick up the product. It would not surprise me if the Disney organization noticed zero loss — and perhaps even an uptick — due to Wildmon's hysterical boycott.
Foto Blogging
So without a lot of time to write, I'm going to create the illusion of activity on this weblog by posting photos. This one was taken last weekend at the National Cartoonist Society get-together in Scottsdale, Arizona. The gent with the mustache is my collaborator of mucho años, Sergio Aragonés, who has been a mainstay of MAD Magazine since 1963. The man he's speaking with is Jack Davis, who was in MAD as of its first issue in 1952, and who went on to become one of the most popular commercial artists in the world. They're sharing a nice moment talking about something-or-other. Sneaking past them at left is Irwin Hasen, who was a great illustrator for DC Comics in the forties and early fifties, and who was later best known for the Dondi newspaper strip. Read more about Sergio here and about Irwin here, and one of these days, I've got to write something about Jack.
Friday Morning
First off, I'm way behind on responding to e-mail, and it'll probably get worse before it gets better. My ongoing apologies to those of you whose messages languish in my "to be answered" folder.
Secondly, I'm almost burned-out on reading about Mark "Deep Throat" Felt but this article by John W. Dean is of great interest to those of us who wallow in this stuff. Even more important is this list Dean has compiled of what Felt/Throat is known to have told Bob Woodward and how much of it was wrong. It may, however, have been close enough for government work.
The weekend rerun of an old Saturday Night Live is of little interest. It's a 1998 episode guest-hosted by Scott Wolf. But the following week, they jump back to 5/22/76 for one with Buck Henry and musical guest Gordon Lightfoot. It contains the "Talk Back" sketch which I thought was the funniest thing they did the first season. There's also an installment of "Samurai Tailor," Michael O'Donoghue doing his impression of Tony Orlando and Dawn having sharp steel needles plunged into their eye sockets, and Lorne Michaels upping his offer to The Beatles to reunite on SNL.
Sunday evening, we'll all be watching The Tony Awards, which I suspect means we'll see a lot of Eric Idle.
Some time next week, I'll probably be posting the schedule of events I'm hosting at this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego. Looks like there'll be fourteen of 'em — a new record for me and one that means I'll be spending all four days in various convention halls. Well, it beats trying to get a hotel room down there…
Back to a deadline…
Recommended Viewing
It's been a while since I mentioned The Daily Show With Jon Stewart since I figure if you're smart enough to find your way to this website, you're smart enough to watch that show regularly. But their coverage of the Deep Throat unmasking was especially funny and, thanks to a weblog called Crooks and Liars that offers video clips, I can point you to an online Daily Show excerpt. I can even offer you your choice of a QuickTime version or a Windows Media File. Enjoy.
Warning
GSN Info
This is for those of you watching the What's My Line? reruns on GSN. Tonight's episode has Bert Lahr as the Mystery Guest and tomorrow night's has Yul Brynner. Early Saturday AM, GSN will skip an episode with Robert Montgomery in order to present a tribute to the late Eddie Albert…episodes of game shows on which he appeared. Then the episode that airs early Sunday morning has George Gobel as the surprise celeb, and Monday morn we'll see Peter Lawford and Salvador Dali.
I've Run Out of Throat Puns
I have to admit that I'm really enjoying all the stories about Mark Felt and his actions as Deep Throat. I read every Watergate book, watched every documentary, talked at length with friends of similar interest. I even once had a bizarre lunch with the infamous Charles Colson, which I'll tell you about one of these days. Anyway, I find it all fascinating.
As I said earlier, I think it's premature to call Felt an out-and-out hero. We don't know all that much about his motives and just how much of what he told Bob Woodward was classified. But it's also ignoble to suddenly start damning the man with every conceivable negative interpretation of his actions. That's just Nixon People trying to spare themselves the discomfort of seeing themselves once again viewed as participants in villainy. Say what you will about him, Felt helped to expose a corruption that was creeping into the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the arguments that he was "disloyal" and a lawbreaker himself are basically arguments that he should have been a good, silent drone and allowed the plan to succeed.
That said, Felt may not be much of a hero, not for his Deep Throat activities but for some later twisting of the law. As this article in the Boston Globe notes, Felt engaged in some nefarious crimes and (irony alert!) illegal break-ins.
I'm not sure how I feel about either period of his life. I guess I feel I don't know enough to judge. But it does remind me that some people are not All Good or All Bad; that sometimes, they can be both at different times. Or even both at the same time.
A Howie Morris Story
In 1966, Hanna-Barbera produced a prime-time animated special that for some reason has not been rerun much since then, nor has it ever been released on home video. It should be, because I recall Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This? as a pretty good little story. It took the famous Lewis Carroll tale, updated it and put it into Hanna-Barbera style. There were some nice songs by the team of Lee Adams and Charles Strouse, who are today better known for writing the tunes for Bye Bye Birdie, Applause and many other shows. (One wonders if there was any connection between them doing this job and the fact that George Sidney, who directed the movie of Bye Bye Birdie, was then on the Hanna-Barbera Board of Directors). Bill "Jose Jiminez" Dana worked on the script and cast Jose as the White Knight.
The voice of Alice was provided by veteran radio/animation actress Janet Waldo, and it's worth noting that if they made this show today, there's no way Janet Waldo would have gotten the job. The lead voice would be by Britney Spears or Paris Hilton or someone else who was "hot" in some other venue. Actually, even then the trend to "celebrity voices" was starting. Sammy Davis Jr played the Cheshire Cat and in addition to Mr. Dana voicing his character, Zsa Zsa Gabor played the Queen of Hearts and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper had a cameo. The rest of the cast included folks who were otherwise in the H-B voice talent pool: Daws Butler, Don Messick, Harvey Korman, Allan Melvin…and Howie Morris as The White Rabbit. Howie had been on almost every Hanna-Barbera show in recent years, including The Jetsons, Atom Ant and The Flintstones.
(And speaking of Flintstones, there were two animated cameo guests in Alice: Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble showed up to perform one musical number. Alan Reed and Mel Blanc supplied their voices but the recently-deceased Henry Corden provided Fred's singing voice.)
Anyway, the Howie Morris story: Howie recorded his part in the special and a few weeks later, he was scheduled to come in and record another version of the voice track, this one to form a record album that H-B Records (the studio's own label) would release around the time the special aired. The entire thing had to be redone for the LP because (a) Sammy Davis was under contract to another record company so his voice couldn't be used and (b) some dialogue had to be changed so the story could be followed without the visuals. Scatman Crothers was hired to assume the role of the Cheshire Cat and a few other parts were changed. But Howie was supposed to repeat his role.
Unfortunately, Howie had a schedule conflict the day the record was supposed to be recorded. He was directing Hogan's Heroes or playing Ernest T. Bass on The Andy Griffith Show or something else…but it was a problem. He probably could have squeezed in the H-B recording on that date but it would have been an enormous inconvenience, and made for a very exhausting workday. His agent so informed the studio and it was agreed that Howie would be recorded on another day, apart from the other actors. This was a fairly common practice, and Howie was told that they were willing to make the accommodation since he was so good and since he had frequently juggled around his schedule when they needed him. Then, for reasons unknown, someone at the studio changed their mind about Waiting for Morris and the day they recorded the album, they had Don Messick perform the role of the White Rabbit.
Shortly after, Howie was in the studio to record something else and he innocently inquired when they wanted him to do the White Rabbit material for the record. Joe Barbera told him that it wouldn't be necessary; that Messick had already done it. Howie was angry. Words were exchanged with Mr. Barbera explaining that they couldn't wait for him and Mr. Morris explaining that he could have been there if someone hadn't assured him the recording could be done later. Tempers flared and Howie finally told Joe Barbera, "Go fuck yourself!" And he walked out of the building…and out of Hanna-Barbera forever, he thought.
Howie did not work for Hanna-Barbera again for years. Messick took over some of his roles, like Mr. Peebles the pet shop owner on Magilla Gorilla, as well as the voice of Atom Ant. Howie worked for Filmation Studios, where he played numerous roles, including Jughead, on the various Archie cartoon shows. In fact, he was on most of the Filmation shows for years, and also worked for Disney voicing Gopher in the Winnie the Pooh featurettes, and for other studios. Then one day, Hanna-Barbera called again.
When Howie told this story, he always said the job was for the Jetsons revival, which was done in 1985…but he'd worked for them again a few years before that. In 1979, for instance, Hanna-Barbera produced a live-action TV special called The Legends of the Superheroes with various actors playing DC comic book characters. Howie, in a fit of apt casting, played Dr. Sivana, the arch-enemy of Captain Marvel.
Whatever it was, there came a day when Howie returned to the H-B Studios for the first time in more than a decade. He was very nervous about running into Joe Barbera, fearing there would be some sort of angry confrontation. He got through his business without encountering J.B. and then, just as he was turning to leave, he looked down a hallway and saw the handsome figure of Joseph Barbera coming his way. "Howie," he heard Barbera call out. Howie froze in fear…but Barbera came up to him, gave him a big hug and told him how happy he was to see him again after all those years.
"You're not going to throw me out?" he asked Joe.
"Of course not, Howie. Why would I throw you out?"
Howie stammered, "Well…the last time I was here, I told you to go fuck yourself."
Barbera grinned and said, "I took your advice."
Grabbed by the Throat
I dunno about the other cable channels but MSNBC turned into the Bash Deep Throat Channel yesterday afternoon. They had three or four shows in a row on the unmasking of Mark Felt as the fabled secret source and Pat Buchanan was on every one of them to call Felt a "snake" or worse. At times, he was joined or spelled by other former Nixon aides, including David Gergen, G. Gordon Liddy, Monica Crowley and Chuck Colson, all suggesting that Felt had impure motives, that he disgraced his position, etc. One can understand a certain anger at the figurehead of Nixon's bringdown, but it seemed like a strained exercise. Any "whistleblower" is, almost by definition, going to cause his peers to feel betrayed. If nothing else, they have cause to be embarrassed that he did something to uncover wrongdoing while they supported it with their complicity.
For years after he got out of the slammer, Liddy was making the rounds of the talk shows, flogging his book and comparing John Dean to Judas Iscariot…an analogy which, as many interviewers pointed out, worked if you thought Richard Nixon was somehow comparable to Jesus Christ. Liddy kept saying that one of the lowest things one can do in the world is to "rat" on your friends, which struck me as a silly schoolyard comparison. You don't tell the teacher that Jimmy used too many paper towels in the little boys' room but if others are involved in serious crimes and you know about it, that's a different matter. One time, Liddy was advancing his view on Larry King's program and, in a rare instance of Mr. King challenging a guest, he asked how Liddy felt about some of John Gotti's men turning on him and testifying to help get him convicted. Were they "rats?" I remember the moment because it was one of those rare times on an interview show when you could see someone get knocked out. Liddy didn't have an answer.
Still, that seems to be the big complaint against Felt; that he was disloyal to the Bureau and/or Richard Nixon. I don't know that I buy any definition of loyalty that's remotely in that area. The FBI was being compromised. J. Edgar Hoover, who was too feisty and independent for any president to control, had died and his replacement was L. Patrick Gray, a virtual Nixon puppet who dealt with the Watergate scandal by keeping the White House briefed on the investigation and by destroying potentially incriminating documents. Felt's "sin" was not falling in line with an FBI that was moving in that direction.
I don't know that I'd call Mark Felt a "hero" — not without knowing more about his motives. But the rush by Nixon loyalists to tar his name is shameful. There was wrongdoing in that administration and if everyone had bought into their current definition of "loyalty," it would never have been exposed. Maybe that's all they wanted.