Monthly Archives: May 2007

From Tom Cohen…

Longtime reader, first time e-mailer (as they say). I'm a big Dean Martin fan who is unfortunately too young to have seen him perform in his prime. I've seen this particular video before (and yes, it is very sad) and it is indeed from Dean's last appearance on the Together Again tour at the Oakland Coliseum. Somewhere I have a tape with the full performance plus the press conference the Pack did at Chasen's to announce the tour.

You know, I never got to see Dean in his prime, either…at least not on a stage. I did see him taping his TV show a few times in what was arguably his prime. I wonder if the Greg Garrison estate or his company has much or any footage of outtakes and Dean screwing around on the set between (and sometimes during) a song or sketch. That was, as you might imagine, at least as entertaining as the actual show.

And this is from Brad Ferguson…

Despite Phil De Croocq's observation that the clip isn't from the "Together Again" tour, you see Sammy come out to perform at the end of Dean's set, and there's no big ooooh and aaaah of surprise from the audience when he does, as you might expect if this were a Dean show in Vegas, and Sammy just suddenly showed up.

I noticed that some of the camera shots were from the audience, and that the shot would be blocked by people getting up and down and walking past.

You said that the tour was supposed to culminate in an HBO special. I think HBO shot this earlier in the tour, on the cheap, just to see how the guys would look. I know HBO would do that sort of thing in preparation for the one-man shows they used to carry (Soupy Sales is one example I know about).

That sounds logical. It's hard to imagine anyone getting away with shooting a bootleg video at a Dean/Sammy concert, especially if Frank was also on the bill…although it has been done. Does Tom or anyone know for sure?

If you're within ten years of my age, you probably remember this old commercial for Kellogg's Corn Flakes featuring the country-western comedy duo, Homer and Jethro. Time was, you couldn't watch a kids' show without seeing it and it quickly became embedded forever in my cranium. It didn't prompt me to buy Kellogg's Corn Flakes and it sure didn't get me to start collecting Homer and Jethro albums. But I think I did get a remote control with a mute button.

Got a lot of messages about that Dean Martin clip. Here's one from Phil De Croocq…

I was fortunate enough to see what was the second-to-last show on that Frank, Dean and Sammy tour. It was at The Chicago Theatre on State St. here in Chicago, as was the final show for the three of them. It was almost 20 years ago, of course. But I do remember how good they all sounded and performed, especially Sammy. He opened the show and did a set. Then Dean came out and did a set. There was an intermission, then Frank came out and did a set. Then they all performed together. It was a fantastic show.

After watching that clip a few times, this wasn't the Dean Martin I saw that night. And that isn't The Chicago Theatre. In fact, there was no type of video production or cameras set up at that show.

I believe they used the story that Dean came down with some sort of kidney trouble and couldn't continue with the tour. And he must have made a miraculous recovery, as he performed at Bally's in Vegas a couple months later. Dean continued to perform at Bally's in Vegas and Atlantic City for awhile after leaving the Rat Pack Reunion tour. I'm guessing this clip was from one of those Vegas or AC shows.

Here's an interesting sidenote: That same week, Tom Dreesen did a series of pilots for a late-night talk show here at WLS, the ABC network o/o station here in Chicago. I don't know if they were for ABC or syndication, and I don't know if they were seen outside of the Chicago market. His guests for the first show were to be Frank, Dean and Sammy.

The tour busted-out Sunday night. Dreesen's first show was taping on Monday. Dean was already back in California, and Frank and Sammy canceled "out of concern" for their ill friend Dean. So the guests that first night were Altovise (Mrs. Sammy) Davis and Barbara (Mrs. Frank) Sinatra. Not exactly the kind of show that turns a pilot into a series. But the Dreesen show was still better than the Jerry Lewis/Charlie Callas talkshow failure. I have a pretty wacky Charlie Callas story if I ever see his name pop-up on your weblog.

Yeah, the clip couldn't have been from the Frank/Dino/Sammy tour and been Dean's last public performance since he did play at least one later stay at Bally's in Vegas. It doesn't look like it's from Bally's. So does anyone have any firmer idea of where it is from?

I hadn't heard about that Dreesen pilot but I'm sorry to hear that. Tom's a good guy and he actually would have hosted (and still could host) a pretty good talk show. Many moons ago, I wrote a sitcom pilot that was to star Tom. It was a deal he got as a kind of consolation prize when he was fired from the pilot of Hello, Larry. (Ron Liebman was fired before him. Tom replaced Ron and then McLean Stevenson replaced Tom.) Of all the projects I've done that never went the distance, I think the Tom Dreesen pilot is the one that disappointed me the most. It was a great idea for a show — mostly Tom's idea, by the way — and he would have been terrific in it.

(To give you an idea of what a great, smart guy Tom is: We had a recurring role in it that called for a crotchety old man. Tom suggested a fellow some of you may remember named Leonard Barr — a stand-up comic who, getting back on topic, was Dean Martin's uncle. Leonard is, like Irv Benson, kind of forgotten, even on the Internet. But he was very funny and when a network guy said to Tom, "You know, he'll steal the show from you," Tom replied, "Fine. I don't care who gets the laughs so long as it's a good show." I've worked with comedians who would slit a major artery before they'd say something like that.)

Anyway, that show never made it to tape day due to a contract snag that had nothing to do with Tom or me. Since Hello, Larry was also a dud, it's sad to hear Tom had three pilot fiascos. He deserves better luck than that.

And hey, what has happened to Charlie Callas? Last time I saw him perform anywhere, I think, he was on a short-lived sitcom that no one saw. I only saw it because I was dating a lady who was on it…and that was twenty years ago. He seems to have had a few small parts in a few things since then but a guy who's that funny oughta be around more. His website doesn't seem to have been updated for a long time and I think he's even missed the last few Jerry Lewis Telethons. Hope he's okay. Any Charlie Callas info or anecdotes will be most welcome on this site.

This may be a little tough for some people to watch. In 1988, there was a tour called "Together Again" with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr and — briefly — Dean Martin. It was supposed to be the three of them for the entire run culminating in a big performance taped for HBO…but after a week or so, Dean was gone, the HBO taping was cancelled and Liza Minnelli took his place for the remainder of the tour.

There are many stories about what happened — tales of Dino and Frank getting angry at each other — but clearly the underlying problem was that Dean wasn't Dean. His heart certainly wasn't in it. It was less than a year since his son Dean Paul had been killed in an air crash, and friends of the family said Dad just never recovered from that loss. Beyond that, his health and voice were poor. He did the performances he did, and several press events, with an attitude of "Why are we doing this?"

This clip purports to be the last ten minutes of Dean's last appearance on that tour. I don't guarantee that's so but he sure looks like a guy long past the time he should have retired. I suppose you can view this video — if you view it at all — one of two ways. It could be a sad spectacle of Dean at an age where he was just too old to be Dean Martin. Or it could be a testimony to the fact that his stardom and natural charisma would carry him through a performance. I imagine some in the live audience were willing to forgive his faltering and others weren't, especially considering the ticket prices.

Dean lived another seven years after this but did almost no performing. A friend of mine who knew him during his last years told me that it was on this tour that Dino realized there was no point. He had more than enough money and had long since stopped enjoying the job. More significantly, the friend said, Martin realized he'd become one of those performers he'd always mocked for not knowing it was time to get off the stage. Here's Dean before he realized that…

You get the idea that the man's just plain giddy that he's no longer regarded as our worst recent president?

Fred Kaplan discusses Bush's new plan for Iraq…and what a surprise! It's the same as his last new plan for Iraq! And his new plan before that and his new plan before that…

What was that definition of "insanity" again?

My pal Ken Plume does a nice interview with Berke Breathed, the man who brought you the Bloom County newspaper strip and Opus the Penguin and various ancillary exploits.

I am posting the following in my capacity as an advisor of some kind to the project in question and also as a devout, long-time fan of the newspaper strip in question…

CALLING ALL POGO FANS & COLLECTORS

We are requesting the help of Pogo collectors who may have original art or high quality reproductions of Walt Kelly's Pogo strip.

We are currently assembling Walt Kelly's POGO: The Complete Daily & Sunday Strips. We are looking for the best possible black-and-white reproduction of both Sundays and dailies — especially the Sundays. If you have original art or proofs that you would be willing to let us scan, we would be grateful if you'd contact us. You may e-mail me directly at groth@fantagraphics.com (Please put POGO in the header). Thank you.

Gary Groth
Fantagraphics Books

If you can help, please do. If you can't help, just order the books. They're gonna be great.

Incidentally, Tom Richmond's weblog (which I just mentioned) is currently addressing a topic currently being discussed on many a blog. There's a video making the rounds that does a nice, albeit unauthorized job of animating Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes property. A lot of folks seem to think this is Fair Use. After all, the person who did it isn't making any money off it and since Watterson has declined to animate his characters, it's not infringing on his business plans.

I disagree strongly. I think it's theft, copyright infringement, disrespectful to Watterson and just plain wrong. That someone isn't making any money off some transgression is irrelevant. If I print up and start giving away free copies of your copyrighted novel, the fact that I'm not profiting does not lessen the damage to you and your work. And besides, I may be profiting in non-monetary ways, just as the guy who animated that Calvin & Hobbes bootleg is using Watterson's artistry and rep to make himself look good and to get attention. The fact that Watterson isn't (currently) interested in animating his characters is also irrelevant. Not animating them — and controlling their every appearance — is part of his business plan. It may not be how you or I think the property should be managed but our opinion doesn't count. We don't own it. He does.

A lot of my friends have looked at MAD Magazine the last few years and felt estranged. It's like, "Where's Jack Davis? Where's Dave Berg? Where's Antonio Prohias?" Well, Davis is retired and the other guys are enjoying what Jonathan Winters calls "The Permanent Dirt Nap." But the current issue might feel more familiar to long-time readers. Like every issue, there are cartoons by that Sergio Aragonés guy (when will he get a real job?) and a Fold-In by Al Jaffee, but there's also an article drawn by Paul Coker and a TV parody — of one of the C.S.I. shows — by Arnie Kogen and Mort Drucker. Mort's still got it and so has Arnie.
There's also a parody of Dog the Bounty Hunter drawn by Tom Richmond, who's become the magazine's "new generation" star caricaturist. Tom is not only skilled at drawing but he's skilled at sharing his skills and teaching others. His weblog is full of great tips and glimpses of work in progress…and he's assembled a video that shows how he colors his drawings and that's our video link for today. (By the way: Tom's coloring in a caricature of himself. He's one of the very few cartoonists I've ever seen who draws himself to look worse than he actually is.) Here's that lesson…

This piece by Gary Kamiya asks the musical question, "Why hasn't Bush been impeached?" and gives a number of possible answers. Some, I agree with and some, I don't — but I think all are worth discussing. Oddly enough, Kamiya gives little or no consideration to two reasons that I'd think would be near the top of almost anyone's list. One is the futility of ousting Bush only to wind up with Cheney…or the messiness of getting rid of both to wind up with Nancy Pelosi. Ms. Pelosi may or may not be a good Speaker of the House — I don't know — but she sure doesn't impress most Americans as having the chops, as they say, to be Prez. (And yes, the case can be made that a caretaker Chief Exec would be better than what we have now. But in wartime, that has its dangers and the main point is that the cry for impeachment would be louder if the replacement seemed more like presidential material.)

And the second point is that many of the people who would lead a genuine Bush Impeachment haven't recovered from their disgust at the Clinton attempt. In some cases, the disgust has probably grown greater as they've seen people who screamed "Rule of Law" and made moral condemnations at a fib over sex now look the other way at vastly more serious allegations. That whole episode made the idea of impeaching a president seem sleazy.

Anyway, read Kamiya. See what you think. I think he's on to something with the observations about Bush's war arising from a national yearning for revenge and how some people can't get too mad at him for attacking the wrong enemy. After all, he attacked someone and a lot of Americans either feel complicit or figure someone was better than no one.

This morning, I remembered one more time I saw Irv Benson perform. It was in the early-to-mid eighties in Las Vegas. My friend Marv Wolfman and I were in town for a comic book distributors' meeting and I insisted we go to the Union Plaza Hotel downtown (It's now just The Plaza) to see what turned out to be a very odd production of my favorite musical, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. It starred Alan Young, who later told me he was a last minute replacement for someone else who'd dropped out. He was very good, by the way.

It was a real Vegas production. A couple of roles and about a half hour had been eliminated, and the courtesans in the play were a little nuder than you might see in any other venue. Irv Benson was playing the role of Erroneous, the befuddled old man abroad now in search of his children, stolen in infancy by pirates. But though the rest of the show had been drastically trimmed, the part of Erroneous had been beefed up. Each time the character entered, he stopped and went into a small chunk of Irv Benson's Vegas/Reno act. For no visible reason, there on the street in Ancient Rome, there were jokes about slot machines and breasts and, of course, Liberace. In the eighties, you weren't allowed to set foot on a Nevada stage without at least one joke about Liberace.

At the end of the show, Mr. Young came out and did about a five minute monologue that commenced with, "Yes, he's working without the horse." He talked about Mr. Ed a little…and as he later told me, audiences expected that. Alan Young often toured in various plays — usually Showboat — and attendees didn't seem to feel the evening was complete unless Wilbur Post had alluded to his horsey friend. After that, Marv and I left and I explained to him how little the show we'd just seen resembled the actual musical by Stephen Sondheim, Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove.

A week later back in L.A., I ran into Gelbart in a car wash and told him about the bizarre production I'd witnessed. He apparently called up and threatened to have the show closed if they departed so drastically from his text…but by then, they were within days of closing anyway so the whole matter was moot.

The next time Marv and I were in Vegas, Irv Benson was in that Minsky's show at the Hacienda. I persuaded Mr. Wolfman and our mutual pal Len Wein to go see Irv in his natural habitat. Actually, what I told them to get them to go was that the show had naked women in it…but like me, they enjoyed Benson and his partner Dexter Maitland even more than they enjoyed the naked women. That may have been because the ladies were about the same age as Irv's material.

The guy on the right in the photo above is a great old comedian named Irv Benson. I'm posting this because there doesn't seem to be anything on the Internet about Irv Benson, apart from a few things I put there…so to begin rectifying that omission, let me tell you everything I know about Irv Benson.

Irv Benson was the last of the Minsky's Burlesque comedians. He was born in 1914 and I have no idea if he's still alive. He was playing in Las Vegas and Reno until around 1990, usually paired with a charming gent named Dexter Maitland, who was the last straight man from the Minsky's circuit. Their last gig was at the Hacienda Hotel in Vegas where they filled time between strippers in the Minsky's Burlesque Revue there. (When it closed, the next occupant of the Hacienda showroom was Lance Burton in his first starring show.) In the late eighties, I spent an evening backstage there with Mr. Maitland, hearing great stories about his long, long career. Unfortunately, I only got to say a brief hello to Benson that night and never had the opportunity to actually converse with him. A few years earlier, I'd seen the two of them at the Sahara in Reno, starring with the singing team of Sandler & Young, along with a bevy of Penthouse models, in the Penthouse Pet Revue. Benson and Maitland were very funny performing very old material.

I only know of three places Irv Benson appeared on television. In the sixties, when he hosted Hollywood Palace and his own variety show, Milton Berle always used Benson. Irv would be in a box seat or in the audience, appearing in the guise of a character named Sidney Spritzer. Mr. Spritzer enjoying heckling Mr. Berle. One joke that they did every time was when Benson/Spritzer would tell Uncle Miltie, "You're too close to the microphone!" Berle would ask, "How far should I be?" And Irv would answer, "You got a car?"

Apart from a bit part in one episode of Happy Days, the only other times I ever saw Irv on TV were on The Tonight Show. Johnny Carson was reportedly a huge fan of Benson and also of a couple of other Minsky's veterans who worked Vegas in the fifties and sixties — Hank Henry and Tommy "Moe" Raft. I don't think Johnny ever had them on his show but he booked Benson about a dozen times and played "straight" for him. In the above frame grab, Johnny has just asked Irv if he and his wife have any children, and Irv just replied, "Are you kidding? I won't even drink her coffee!" Bada-boom!

And that's just about everything I know about Irv Benson…a very funny man and the last of a now-extinct breed. I'm posting this in the hope that someone out there knows and will tell me more. And also because I thought there oughta be something on the Internet about Irv Benson.

I haven't been all that amused by David Letterman's show for quite some time…but this recent bit made me laugh out loud for some reason. Ignore the weird video at the beginning. It'll clear up in a few seconds.

And can you imagine what would happen if the day they were doing this, Steve Ditko suddenly got the urge for a Jamba Juice and went into that store?

I also enjoyed a game they played another night called "Please Stop Calling Me Mitt." What I find even funnier than the game is that the YouTube video of it seems to have been uploaded by the Mitt Romney campaign.

A reader of this site named Maxwell writes to ask…

I'm a relatively new member of the Writers Guild of America. If there's a strike as you're predicting, it will be my first strike. The other day, I received a packet which I suppose you also received. It asks me to vote on something called a Pattern of Demands. It's kind of a wish list of things the Guild would like to win for us in the upcoming negotiations but I'm afraid I don't understand why I have to vote on this. What's the opposition to this? I'm sure you can explain.

I'll try. You're making the mistake of assuming it means something. It really doesn't, except maybe in a symbolic sense. It's a way of giving our Negotiating Committee a little more sense of authority to speak for us when it sits down at the bargaining table. In a way, it puts them on a similar footing with the other side. We negotiate with representatives of the producers who can and will say, "Our employers have authorized us to go this far and no farther." Because the Pattern of Demands will pass with an overwhelming majority, our reps will be able to say, "Our members have demanded we get some of this."

That's about all it means and some years, that isn't much. We've had negotiations where the producers, in effect, walked in and gave us what they said was their Final Offer and then refused to listen to any demands. (One thing to always remember: The last time they did that, that "Final Offer" was the first of about eight. I believe there was even an "Absolutely Final Offer" well before we got to the one we accepted.)

As always, the Pattern of Demands proposal is a list of things that no WGA member would contest, except maybe to complain about what isn't on there. The second item, for instance, is "Increase initial compensation in all areas" and this will come as a shock to no one. I don't think there's ever been a labor organization that went into negotiations to demand rollbacks. So the P.O.D. will pass with a huge majority and there'll be industry press coverage that suggests a massive vote of confidence for our Negotiating Committee…and then they'll go in and get whatever they can get. Just vote "yes" and send the thing back.

By the way: I'm not exactly predicting there will be a strike, although I may have said as much. I'm predicting there will be a massive collision of the WGA demanding we get more and the producers demanding we get less. Prepare to hear men who take home $50+ million a year tell us that the business is "sluggish" and that everyone has to take less. It all usually means a strike but it could also, at least in theory, mean the WGA buckling and caving in. I don't think that'll happen though…so get ready for some serious picketing. New technology and methods of distribution have simply rendered the old business models (and therefore, guild contracts to address them) obsolete. If we don't catch up now, it'll be even bloodier to reconfigure our role in the industry later.