Monthly Archives: June 2006

Quite a few of you are suggesting that the lead raisin in the previous video is Barney Martin, who was probably best known as Jerry's pa on Seinfeld. And I see that a number of websites say that he played a raisin in a Post Raisin Bran commercial along with a couple of other actors who later somewhat well-known — David Doyle and Ken Olfson. I've looked at the spot a few times and it doesn't look like Barney Martin to me. He may be one of the other guys in the bowl or he may have been in another commercial in the same campaign. If you want to believe it's Barney Martin though, don't let me stop you.

Been kinda busy lately. Today, I visited my Public Storage lockers for the first time in about a year and discovered a roof leak had damaged about twenty boxes of goodies, including a crate of the first few issues of Groo. Hope that doesn't mean God is not a Sergio fan.

Last night, I went back to my friendly neighborhood Sav-on Drug Store which, to the confusion of elderly patrons everywhere, is becoming a CVS Pharmacy. A sign out front promises that the new establishment will have "More convenient hours." Since the place is now open 24 hours a day, every day of the year, I can't wait to see how they manage that.

I was there to pick up a renewal on a prescription and the man behind the counter fetched it and announced, "That'll be $91.88." I said…well, here. I'll let you listen in on what I said…

ME: What? I've been getting that prescription for two years and it's always been ten bucks.

PHARMACIST: (after consulting his computer) You're renewing it ahead of schedule. Your insurance doesn't pay unless you're within seven days of running out.

ME: And when will I be within seven days of running out?

PHARMACIST: (after consulting his computer again) June 20.

ME: It's 11:54 PM. In six minutes, it'll be June 20.

PHARMACIST: And in six minutes, it'll be ten dollars.

ME: I suppose there's no point in mentioning that I'm not going to be taking that pill tonight. I am just as "out of it" as I will be in six minutes.

PHARMACIST: Right. There's no point in mentioning that. At this moment, it's $91.88.

I went to the end of the line and saved eighty bucks. Makes you wonder what the mark-up is on these pills. And the funny/sad part of it is that this particular drug is also sold over-the-counter without a prescription for $23. I'd hate to think there are uninsured people out there who don't know that and are paying the $91.88, but I'll bet there are.

By the way, I'm told by several folks that not every Sav-on is becoming a CVS. Good for them. This conversion is already becoming way too traumatic for me.

This is a commercial for Post Raisin Bran starring a whole bunch of actors who had to go around for the next few months and answer the eternal actor question — "What have you done lately?" — by saying, "I played a raisin." I seem to recall that at least one of the thespians in this spot later became quite famous but I can't recall who it was, nor can I recognize anyone. But I do remember some rather successful actor on some talk show admitting to having been in this commercial.

I do recognize but cannot put a name to the lead singing voice which I'm pretty sure did not belong to the man on-camera mouthing to it. There was some New York-based vocalist who sang in hundreds of radio and TV commercials, and also on a lot of the kids' records done by one of several singing groups that went under the name of The Sandpipers. Isn't that same guy heard on the famous "Mighty Mouse" record that Andy Kaufman used to use in his act? I think so. As we learned back here, this batch of Sandpipers consisted of Mike Stewart, Ralph Nyland, Dick Byron and Bob Miller…so I'm going to throw caution to the wind and guess that one of them is the voice of the lead raisin in this spot. Give a listen.

My pal (and the hardest working man in the comic community, this time of year) Gary Sassaman finds an interesting example of an old pulp cover that was ripped-off for a classic cover on Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen. Mort Weisinger was the editor of Olsen at the time and Gary wonders if Mort had a hand in the creation of the original version, which appeared on the pulp magazine, Thrilling Wonder Stories. Answer: Yes. Thrilling Wonder Stories was published by Standard Magazines, and Weisinger was its editor from around 1936 through 1940. This is the July, 1940 issue so it was probably one of his last issues.

Betcha the Jimmy Olsen cover came about as follows. Weisinger used to use the children who lived in his neighborhood as a kind of unofficial "focus group." He'd take crates of comics home from the office and hand them out every Saturday afternoon at some specified time. But before he gave out the comics, he'd ask the kids which covers they liked, what they'd like to see Superman do, etc. One time, one of them said, "I wanna see Superman fight King Kong" and when all the others chimed in that that would be neat, Weisinger made a note to go to the office and order up a cover of Superman fighting a giant ape who was climbing a building. The script was later written around the cover.

So my guess here is that Weisinger had a copy of that pulp around and showed it to the neighborhood tots one Saturday. When he got an enthusiastic response, he took the pulp into the office, handed it to artist Curt Swan and said "Here, draw this but make the monster Jimmy Olsen!" Which would explain the similarities not only in idea but in composition. Swan was not the kind of artist who would have copied someone else's cover design in any way unless ordered to do so.

Quite a few pulp covers morphed into comic book covers, though usually not that blatantly. Quite a few comic writers were former pulp writers so a lot of ideas were recycled that way, as well. I'm sure there must be examples of some of those comic book ideas that came from the pulps going on to become a videogame or some other 21st century concoction. What goes around comes around and vice-versa.

A week or two ago, I linked to a clip from one of the Night of 100 Stars specials — a rather nice dance number filled with great dancers. Here are two more clips from what I believe is the same special. (And if so, I'm curious as to why Bob Fosse was in the one where the stars just walked out instead of the one where they danced, at least a little.) These are both more along the lines of most of the numbers on these specials as I recall them, with celebrities just coming out and receiving applause for doing darn near nothing besides showing up…although I must say that putting Burgess Meredith in a kick line is the very definition of Entertainment.

The first one I'll link to is a cavalcade of male celebrities to the tune of "One" from A Chorus Line. As I watched this, I was thinking that it was a slight misuse of that song, which was intended to spotlight the backup dancers and chorus and not a star…and of course, here it's used to spotlight nothing but stars who are being carried by the chorus. Notice how many of the celebs don't even know which way to walk until they are guided by their smiling Rockette partner. Anyway, I thought this was a perversion of the song "One" until I noticed that one of the guys who wrote the tune is among the stars…so I figure if it didn't bother him, it doesn't bother me. This is the clip in which Mr. Fosse appears, strutting out to the big song from a musical that he reportedly loathed with all his might. I won't tell you who the other people in the number are because the surprises are most of the fun. Here it is…

And now, here's another clip, this one featuring lovely female celebs of the day ('85, it says) modelling fashions and jewels. It's a nice segment even if it does look like some of the ladies are thinking to themselves, "What the hell am I doing here?" If this was taped the same day as the other number, I'm guessing that Fosse hit on at least half of them.

Continuing with our festival of great commercials, we have a musical minute for Ajax, the Foaming Cleanser…and no, I don't know who did the singing. Thurl Ravenscroft provided the bass voice in some of these but I don't think that's him in this one. The voiceover at the beginning and the speaking voice of the fat elf are by Paul Frees, and the little elf is June Foray. I'm working now with June on her autobiography and it's amazing how many things like this she did and can barely remember. Once you jostle her memory though, she can usually recall doing it. I'll try showing this to her in the next week or so and I'll let you know what, if anything, I learn.

Sorry but I just spotted this. The Sundance Channel is abandoning its reputation for quality programming! In about six hours (9:20 AM Eastern, 6:20 AM Pacific) they're running The Gong Show Movie, Chuck Barris's 1980 somewhat autobiographical and taste-numbing motion picture. Some of you will probably curse that you missed this chance to record it…and while it doesn't seem to be scheduled again, we'll keep an eye out and see if it is.

In the meantime, if you checked in here before bedtime and rushed to set your TiVo or VCR, just appreciate what a valuable service this website can be.

A retired Major General, John Batiste, writes about the ineptness of Donald Rumsfeld.

We all have the public issues that rankle us. One of mine is the ongoing (and increasingly successful) attempt to do away with the Inheritance Tax. I not only think it's wrong and unfair but I believe the argument for eliminating it is built on a structure of deliberate and calculated lies…starting with calling it "The Death Tax." In this article, Ellen Goodman explains why that's a dishonest way to put it and why the whole thing is a rotten idea.

And I'll link to an old article which ran in Slate and which did not prompt one rebuttal that I saw. Michael Kinsley wrote about how it's a lie to say that money taxed by the Inheritance Tax is money that's been "taxed twice."

I understand why very, very rich people are in favor of its repeal. If I stood to inherit billions, I'd sure prefer that no tax be paid on that money. Heck, I'd prefer that no tax be paid on the check I'm expecting from DC Comics and I'm sure the guy who cuts my lawn would prefer not to pay taxes on the money I pay him each month. But us non-billionaires don't have the clout and connections to ram through our exemption from taxes. So not only don't we get it but we'll probably end up paying in many ways for the tax cut for the super-rich.

Not long ago over lunch, back when I ate lunches, I got into this discussion with one of my more Conservative (and not rich) friends. I said that if the U.S. government was going to forgo a trillion dollars (or whatever eliminating the Inheritance Tax will cost us), I'd prefer that the cuts be spread out over the entire population and not all given to the family that owns Walmart. It seems to me that people who actually work are at least as deserving of tax relief as people who inherit it. My friend came back with the usual accusations that "my side" (I was talking about just me) loves taxes, would raise them as high as we could, wants to soak the rich, blah blah blah. I don't get why he feels this way. Isn't cutting taxes for everyone still cutting taxes? Apparently not. It's only a tax cut if it goes to people who don't need the money.

Last April, we had a brief discussion here and also here about the origin of the oft-bootlegged office poster with the laughing guys asking, "You want it WHEN?" A consensus emerged that it was the work of cartoonist Henry Syverson and that it probably derived from the laughing characters he drew for years, chuckling atop the cartoon page in each issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Well, Russ Maheras has just sent me the above scan from the March 29, 1958 issue. The heading is credited to Mr. Syverson so for me, that pretty much proves it. Thanks, Russ.

The next few days, I think I'm going to be linking to old commercials here. Today's is a spot produced by and starring the great Stan Freberg. Stan didn't exactly invent the funny commercial but he perfected the form to the point where other ad agencies used to (and may still) talk about doing "Freberg style" spots for their clients. No one else could ever quite pull it off because along with the more obvious shortcomings, they lacked Stan's courage and confidence. Who else could talk a sponsor into making a huge investment in commercials that didn't even mention the product's name out loud? But he did, as you'll see…

Most of the Sav-on drug stores which dot Southern California (and elsewhere) are all turning into CVS Pharmacies. The parent company of the latter purchased the former and I don't think they've gotten as far as changing the signs outside but legally, the change was official a few days ago.

Yesterday afternoon, I went into a store that said Sav-on on the outside and Sav-on all over the insides. I'm guessing that if you went around the store and counted, you'd find the name "Sav-on" at least a thousand times. Over the pharmacy, for instance, there was a huge, six-foot sign that said "Sav-On 24-Hour Pharmacy." Absolutely nothing else had changed except that taped to all the cash registers were little paper signs that said, "This is now a CVS Pharmacy," and then under that in smaller type, the signs explained that if you pay by check, you have to make the check payable to the new name, not the old.

Ahead of me in the one checkout line was a woman, perhaps seventy, who was utterly confused by all this. She had purchased a tube of Vagisil (I think it was) which her doctor told her to get at Sav-on. She'd found it on the shelf and carried it to the register…where she'd discovered, much to her horror, that she was not in a Sav-on. I had to stand and wait through about ten minutes of conversation, the last part of which went roughly like this…

LADY: Why does it say Sav-on if this is a CBS Pharmacy?

CLERK: CVS Pharmacy, ma'am. And it used to be a Sav-on but now it's a CVS Pharmacy.

LADY: Well then, I can't buy this here. My doctor told me to buy it at a Sav-on.

CLERK: This is the exact same store it always was.

LADY: If it's the exact same store, why isn't it a Sav-on?

CLERK: Because Sav-on was sold. And anyway, you can't buy it at a Sav-on. There are no more Sav-ons. They're all CVS now.

LADY: (getting panicked) But my doctor said I needed this and I had to buy it at a Sav-on…

At this point, I decide that if I'm ever going to make it out of this store, I'm going to need to step in and clear things up.

ME: Excuse me. Your doctor doesn't care where you purchase this item. It's the medicine that's important, not where you buy it. This is the exact same product they sold here when this was officially a Sav-on.

LADY: Then you think it would be safe to buy it here?

ME: Absolutely. For all intents and purposes, this is still a Sav-on.

LADY: Well, in that case, I'll buy it here. Thank you. [to Clerk:] I'm going to need to write a check.

CLERK: Certainly. Please make it out to "CVS Pharmacy."

LADY: But this man said this was still a Sav-on!

At this point, I gave up and went to another register. In a Walgreens.

Hey, for today's video link, how about a cartoon? How about a Tex Avery cartoon? This is Jerky Turkey, which was released to theaters on April 7, 1945…like you couldn't guess the approximate date from all the World War II references. It's another in the endless (for a time) stream of attempts to create a new Bugs Bunny by having a hapless character chase a crazy, carefree animal character who has the ability to defy all laws of physics and to pull explosives out of nowhere. Tex did a few of them, none of which evoked the magic he'd achieved with the wabbit in A Wild Hare.

Preston Blair, who we wrote about here, did a lot of the animation of the doughy pilgrim. And this particular print seems to have a few frames clipped out in and around some of the more "violent" jokes but I can't help that.

I've always found it interesting that these cartoons "work" for people too young to get a lot of the phrases and gags. The lineup to purchase cigarettes, of course, had to do with wartime shortages. The billboard that asks, "Was this trip really necessary?" is derived from the advertising campaigns at the time encouraging Americans to save gas and to ask, every time they traveled, "Is this trip really necessary?" I wonder if very small kids even know what the "1-A" notice means. I hope they never have to experience it first hand.

Okay, enough intro. Here's Jerky Turkey…

Ira Matetsky points out in an e-mail that Congressman Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia has a photo on his official website of himself with Stephen Colbert.

So what do we think? Did he not get that the interview he did with Colbert (this one) made him look like a clueless politico who can't get anything done? Or did someone in his office perhaps not watch it and put the pic on his website? Maybe they just think, "Heck, a celebrity's a celebrity." Beats me. All I know is if I were Congressguy Westmoreland, I'd want everyone to forget a.s.a.p. about that Colbert interview.

116 years ago today in Ulverston, England, a couple named Arthur and Madge Jefferson celebrated the birth of their son, Arthur Stanley Jefferson. When he turned to performing, he became Stan Jefferson and later, Stan Laurel. When he teamed up with a man named Oliver Norvell Hardy, he became immortal.

As I've written many times on this site (here, for instance), there's really nothing I enjoy watching more than Laurel and Hardy in their natural state, which is on film. And I don't even like slapstick all that much. I just like watching them: The way they move, the way they gesture, the way they react, the way they talk (if they talk), everything about them. Their gag men, with Laurel as lead gag man, crafted brilliant jokes and situations for them…but Stan and Ollie are even fascinating to watch when they're standing still.

Nothing I'm writing in this item is new or unique or unusual. Audiences have loved Laurel and Hardy since they first teamed and people yet to be born will love their films well into the future. But I noticed today was Stan's birthday and I thought I'd note it here. Because even writing about these guys is fun.

Jim Henson graduated from the University of Maryland. Not long ago, that institution decided to erect a statue of Henson and his froggy alter-ego on campus, and they produced a little fourteen minute documentary about it and him. Parts of this film are more about the statue than about Henson but it features a lot of people at the school and some of the Muppeteers talking about Jim and what his work meant to them. And the statue looks pretty neat.