It's an early commercial for Kellogg's Sugar Frosted Flakes…which is what I'll always call them. Oh, they can take the world "sugar" off the box. They can even change the formula, as rumor has it they've done. They're still Sugar Frosted Flakes. Can't fool me.
That is, of course, the late Thurl Ravenscroft supplying the voice of Tony the Tiger. I'm not sure who the announcer is…sounds a little like Bud Sewell but maybe not. Give a listen.
I want to thank everyone who wrote notes of shock and regrets about Dave Stevens. I have more than eighty such e-mails so I may not get around to answering them all for a while.
I appreciate the thought and I hope this doesn't sound callous or rude but I'd really prefer that, instead of composing private messages to me, you spent the same energy posting to public forums, telling folks who might not fully realize, what a terrific human being and artist he was. I don't need to be told that…and I also feel uncomfy to be getting all these condolences when so many out there are in mourning for our pal. Dave had an awful lot of friends including — and my e-mailbox is crammed with proof of this — many he didn't even know.
Tomorrow on Stu's Show, our fave web-based radio program, host Stuart Shostak welcomes the amazing mouth of Fred Travalena. I love great impressionists and Fred's about as good as they get. In fact, he's pretty darn entertaining when he's singing or speaking in the voice of Fred Travalena, too. If you've never seen him perform live, you've missed something. Don't miss this chance to hear him interviewed…and put through his paces as Stu and his phone-in callers challenge Fred to summon up his great celebrity voice simulations. If you call in, ask him to do a little Sinatra.
Stu's Show airs live on Wednesday, then repeats throughout the week. This is not a podcast you can download or listen to whenever you want. It's like a radio broadcast only it's over the Internet and you can listen to it on your computer while you do other things on it. The show airs from 4 PM to 6 PM Pacific Time (7 PM to 9 PM Eastern) and you can listen in by going to the website of Shokus Internet Radio during those hours. You can also hear many wonderful things on S.I.R. at all hours of the day.
I'm sorry to say it's a Two Obits Day here at newsfromme.com.
Jerry Serpe, who may hold some record for the most comic books colored, died Monday in Florida. Serpe was a longtime employee of DC Comics, dating from the mid-forties. Before that, he worked for a company called Photochrome that handled coloring and color separation work on many of DC's publications, and when Photochrome went out of business, he and a man named Jack Adler moved over to work for DC.
Serpe colored thousands of comic books — issues of everything the company published during his tenure, and also did extensive production work, including art corrections and touch-ups. Few knew his name but every DC reader saw his handiwork and he even occasionally did a bit of artwork for public service or filler pages that ran in the company's books. For an extended period through the fifties and sixties, Adler was primarily in charge of the coloring of covers while Serpe supervised (and often, did) the coloring of the insides. For much of this time, DC did the color separations for the covers in-house, and Serpe did much of this work, as well.
In the late sixties, DC stopped doing color seps in-house and scaled back that department. Serpe seized on a fortuitous pension opportunity to leave the company. Thereafter, he ran an outside printing business and occasionally freelanced for DC. Eventually, he sold his interest in the printing company and began doing more freelance coloring but during the eighties, with so many new colorists entering the business, the available work declined.
Around that time, I was doing Blackhawk for DC with artist Dan Spiegle, and we had to pick a new colorist for the book. Several young and talented folks were suggested and even recommended but Dan was not always happy with the current trends in comic book coloring. I suggested he look through his pile of recent printed comics and see which coloring his work had received that pleased him. He did, deciding that a certain Sgt. Rock Annual had been tinted to his liking. It ran with no coloring credit so I called up Bob Rozakis, who was then in charge of DC's coloring department and told him, "Look that one up. Whoever colored it…that's the person we want." Bob checked the files and was delighted to find it was not one of the new kids but an old pro — Jerry Serpe, who wasn't doing much for the company by then.
Jerry colored the remaining issues of Blackhawk and did a fine job. When he got the gig, he called me up to say thanks. He was especially pleased that he'd won a "blind taste test" and been hired on nothing more than the merits of his work. And why not? It was always good.
[NOTE: I did a rewrite on this piece at 4:15 PM to correct some facts and add some details. Sadly, not a whole lot has ever been written about guys like Jerry Serpe so it's uncharted territory. Thanks to Paul Levitz for some info.]
Illustrator Dave Stevens, best known for his "good girl" art and The Rocketeer, died yesterday following a long, wrenching battle with Leukemia. Dave was born July 29, 1955 in Lynwood, California. He was raised in Portland, Oregon, then his family relocated to San Diego, where he attended San Diego City College and became involved in the early days of the San Diego Comic Book Convention, now known as the Comic-Con International. His skills as an artist were instantly evident to all, and he was encouraged by darn near every professional artist who attended the early cons, but especially by Jack Kirby and Russ Manning. In 1975, when Manning began editing a line of Tarzan comic books to be published in Europe, Dave got his first professional assignment, working on those comics and also assisting Russ with the Tarzan newspaper strip. Soon after, he worked on a few projects for Marvel (including the Star Wars comic book) and a number of underground comics. Later, he also worked with Russ on the Star Wars newspaper strip.
In 1977, Dave went to work for Hanna-Barbera where he drew storyboards and layouts, many of them for the Super Friends and Godzilla cartoon shows and bonded with veteran artist Doug Wildey, who produced the latter. Wildey and Stevens became close friends and in 1982, when Dave created his popular character, The Rocketeer, he modelled the character's sidekick, Peevy, on photos of Doug. Dave himself was Cliff Secord, who donned the mask of The Rocketeer, and other friends appeared in other guises.
The Rocketeer made Dave's reputation and also spawned a resurgence of interest in fifties' figure model Bettie Page, whose likeness Dave used for the strip's heroine. But the strip was not profitable for Dave, who was among the least prolific talents to ever attempt comic books. It wasn't so much that he was slow, as his friends joked, but that he was almost obsessively meticulous, doing days of study and sketching to create one panel, and doing many of them over and over. Even then, he was usually dissatisfied with what he produced and fiercely critical of the reproduction. Friends occasionally pitched in to help with the coloring but some begged off because they knew it was humanly impossible for anyone, including Dave himself, to produce coloring that he'd like. Eventually, he sold most of the rights to Disney for a Rocketeer movie that was produced in 1991. Dave served as a co-producer of the film and did a brief cameo, but the endeavor was not as lucrative for him as he'd hoped, and it pretty much ended Dave's interest in continuing the character.
Most of what Dave did after that fell into the general category of "glamour art," including portfolios and private commissions. Many of these were illustrations of Bettie Page who, though once thought deceased, turned out to be alive and living not all that far from Dave. They met and Dave became her friend and, though he was not wealthy, benefactor. Deciding that too many others had callously exploited her likeness, Dave voluntarily aided Ms. Page financially and even took to helping her in neighborly ways. One time, he told me — and without the slightest hint of resentment — "It's amazing. After years of fantasizing about this woman, I'm now driving her to cash her Social Security checks."
Dave was truly one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life…and was certainly among the most gifted. Our first encounter was at Jack Kirby's house around 1970 when he came to visit and show Jack some of his work. As I said, Kirby was very encouraging and he urged Dave not to try and draw like anyone else but to follow his own passions. This was advice Dave took to heart, which probably explains why he took so long with every drawing. They were rarely just jobs to Dave. Most of the time, what emerged from his drawing board or easel was a deeply personal effort. He was truly in love with every beautiful woman he drew, at least insofar as the paper versions were concerned. (Dave was married once…for six months to the prolific movie actress, Brinke Stevens, and she retained his last name after they divorced.)
Dave's illness these last few years was a poorly-kept secret among his friends, but he insisted that it be kept quiet, and struggled to make occasional public appearances. We tried to get together for dinner every month or so but it wound up being more like every six months. The last time, he joked that it was lucky he had such a reputation for slow production. Now that he was unable to work for weeks at a time, no one noticed that his output had declined. His main efforts went towards an "Art of Dave Stevens" book he was struggling to assemble. Mostly though that evening, we talked about comics and comic artists. Dave was a fan in the very best sense.
I don't really know how to end this and maybe I don't want to…because it will mean another level of loss regarding one of my closest friends. As long as I can keep writing about him, I feel he's still with me in some manner. And the thought of losing a great guy like Dave Stevens is just too, too sad. He was truly loved and admired by all who knew him. I'll post information about a memorial service, if and when I hear about that kind of thing.
Many websites this A.M. are featuring articles about "the controversy about Eliot Spitzer." What exactly is the controversy here? He got caught frequenting an expensive prostitute. He admitted it and apologized. He's dickering now for the best deal he can make to trade his resignation for a plea bargain on whatever crimes he might be charged with. When he gets it, which will probably be any day now, he'll quit and disappear from public life, probably forever but certainly for a long time.
The only "controversy" I see is over what percentage of his fall is due to personal immorality and what percentage is sheer stupidity. Otherwise, I think everyone's pretty much on the same page with this one.
I always liked the 1965 pop song, "Cara Mia" as recorded by Jay and the Americans. If you don't remember it, I'll refresh your memory. Here's that group performing it that year on the ABC teen music show, Shindig…
Okay now. The gentleman singing lead on this number is Jay Black, who'd changed his name from David Blatt when he joined the group. He was the second Jay in Jay and the Americans, having replaced the first guy (John "Jay" Traynor) in 1962. Bookings for the group declined in the early seventies and they went on to solo careers, reuniting occasionally for oldie shows. Around the turn of this century, they made a couple of memorable appearances on "oldies" specials and the clip below is them doing "Cara Mia" on one such program.
I think this is a great musical moment. Black's voice was obviously not what it once was but this is a very difficult song and it's amazing that, 35 or so years later, he sounded as good as he did. The crowd obviously recognized the feat they were hearing and responded accordingly…
In case you're interested, a group still tours by that name but it features a third Jay — John "Jay" Reincke. Black somehow wound up with ownership of the group's name but lost it in a 2006 bankruptcy filing. Some of the other members of the original group bought it and brought in Reincke and now they tour as Jay and the Americans while Jay Black tours with his own band and (I assume) sings a lot of the same tunes. Jay and the Americans had a stunning 21 records on the charts, including several Number Ones, so there's a lot of good material there to perform…enough for at least two Jays and maybe more.
Interview with me about my new book, Kirby: King of Comics over at ComicMix. I say a lot of stuff. I always do.
Okay, I've lost count. Who's had more shows cancelled now? Tucker Carlson or Dennis Miller?
Eliot Spitzer. I don't particularly care about the moral issue of whoring around like that…or at least, I think we have a great many public officials doing things that are vastly more despicable, some of which are even legal. What I do think though if that if your job is to do things like bust call girl rings and you think you can get away with being a client at the same time, you oughta lose your job just for reasons of pure stupidity.
A quick sweep of news sites shows a lot of reports that he'd be announcing his resignation at 7 PM tonight Eastern time. It's that time now, he doesn't seem to be resigning and it would appear those sites are going back and tempering those reports. How long do we think it'll be before they're announcing the resignation and getting it right?
And how happy do we think Larry Craig is about this? It oughta cut the jokes about him by at least two-thirds.
I used to have a close buddy who worked in aerospace and who was always pestering me to tell him little Show Biz News Items that weren't yet announced…things he could tell his co-workers and impress them. Every so often, I'd hear about some show being cancelled or some casting change before it became common knowledge. I'd tell him and then he'd tell all the folks at McDonnell-Douglas and he enjoyed this very much.
So now you remember when Shelley Long left Cheers? That was a big news story for a week or so there, and many were wondering who'd replace her. I was talking to one of the story editors on that series during this period (Cheri Steinkellner, who later became one of the producers there) and she told me that they'd just signed Kirstie Alley to more or less fill the slot Ms. Long had vacated. This had not been officially announced but it was not a secret and Cheri said it was okay to pass it on to l anyone I liked.
A few minutes later, with impeccable timing, my Aerospace Pal called to badger me for "inside info" he could spread at work. I told him about Kirstie Alley and he was ecstatic. It was a Sunday and I think he wanted to race to the office and camp outside so he could tell each and every employee as they arrived the next morning. I was thanked profusely.
Monday night, he called to thank me again. He'd told the news to everyone at the plant and had impressed the pants off of most of them. A few had questioned his info and without telling them how he knew it, he staked his reputation on it being true…and even staked some cash. Two co-workers had bet him a few dollars that it wasn't true and he'd taken the wager because he knew it was so. "Well," I said. "I'm glad you'll be making some bucks off Kirstie Alley's new contract." And I suddenly heard him cough and gasp.
"Kirstie Alley?" he moaned. "Did you tell me Kirstie Alley was joining the cast of Cheers?"
"Sure," I replied. "What did you tell everyone today?"
He coughed again and said, "I told them Ally Sheedy was joining the cast of Cheers."
Just finished a script and e-mailed it to the producer. You know, if I hadn't had to set all my clocks ahead over the weekend, I could have finished it at 4 AM.
Good night, Internet!
This clip is just thirty seconds from a Three Stooges short but it's an interesting thirty seconds.
As we all learned in college, the third member of that famed comedy trio kept changing over the years. Moe and Larry were the constants but different men at different times held the exalted status of Stooge #3. Shemp (brother of Moe) was originally in that slot when they were a stage act. He left and was replaced by another brother, Jerry, who shaved his head and called himself Curly. I always liked Shemp and sometimes even Joe Besser better but even I have to admit that Curly was, out and away, the most popular of the "third" Stooges.
In 1946, Curly began having prolonged periods of illness, and Shemp began filling in for him during the team's occasional live stage appearances. In May of that year, Curly suffered a stroke and Shemp replaced him in the films in what was intended to be a temporary arrangement during the recovery period. This did not happen. Jerry/Curly never got to a point where he and his doctors felt he could resume performing and he died in early 1952 without ever returning to the screen…
…with one exception. In the third Stooges short with Shemp, Curly made a brief cameo appearance. It was called Hold That Lion, and it was released in 1947. The same footage was also used in another Stooge film, Booty and the Beast, released one year after Curly's death.
Our clip today is that scene…the only on-screen appearance to my knowledge of Moe Howard, Shemp Howard and Curly Howard, all together. It came about, they say, because Curly was visiting the set and someone thought it might bolster his sagging spirits. The scene was written on the spot and one can only wonder what audiences of the day thought. Even though he'd let his hair grow to human length, Curly was pretty recognizable. I'm sure some moviegoers assumed Shemp had taken over because the other guy had died…and now, here the other guy was in another film. Without further delay, we bring you the relevant half a minute of that film…
The current issue of Washington Monthly is devoted to the topic of Torture and Why We Shouldn't Do That. A vast array of writers, including some Conservatives, argue that it robs us of the moral high ground, lowers our standing in the world and — perhaps worst of all — doesn't work.
Obviously, I agree. But would someone who doesn't like to suggest some counter-argument articles to which I could link? I'm kinda hoping for one that isn't based around some "what if?" that sounds like a rejected 007 plot with an atom bomb set to explode at the Rose Bowl and the only way to stop it is to get a pair of needlenose pliers and yank out the fingernails of some enemy spy we've captured.
I've received a lot of contradictory e-mails from folks discussing the name of the Disney TV series on which the Texas John Slaughter episodes aired. All the folks who told me it was The Wonderful World of Disney or Disney's Wonderful World of Color or any other such permutation were wrong. I was also wrong when I said it was Disneyland, though I have a great excuse: The back of that Texas John Slaughter still I featured in this post said it was from the TV series, Disneyland.
The definitive answer comes from my old chum, Bill Cotter, who authored the (emphasis on "the") book on the subject, The Wonderful World of Disney Television. Bill's book is now out of print but that link will take you to an Amazon page via which you can usually snag a used copy for a reasonable price…and if you're interested in the subject, you should. Bill writes me to say…
10/31/058 was the debut of the show, and it was on Walt Disney Presents. This was the name of the anthology series between the two previously mentioned titles [Disneyland and The Wonderful World of Color], and it was used for three seasons (1958-1959, 1959-1960 and 1960-1961). After that it was on to color, and no more Texas John Slaughters, sad to say. That arc was one of my favorites of the time.
Bill also directs me (and therefore, you) to this page on his website which lists what was on those shows and when. This should settle matters.