Frank Rich discusses how these days, no one takes responsibility for anything.
Quick question to ponder: He quotes Alan Greenspan, who's basically been in charge for our economy for many years now as saying, "I was right 70 percent of the time, but I was wrong 30 percent of the time." Would you entrust your body to a surgeon who admitted he was right 70 percent of the time but wrong 30 percent of the time?
My buddy Bruce Reznick sent me this link to another positive review of The Addams Family on Broadway. Of note is that it's by a Chicago critic discussing what was changed from when the show had its outta-town tryout in his city. Apparently, a lot is different.
I find myself intrigued by Harrah's "Buffet of Buffets" deal at their Vegas buffets — the one I mentioned here. The offer starts tomorrow and is for an indefinite period. It's an experiment and they'll keep it running until there's a good reason to stop it.
The pass is valid for any 24-hour period. If you buy one at 8 PM on Tuesday evening, you can eat at any of their seven spreads as many times as you like until 8 PM Wednesday evening. I don't know if that refers to admittance or actual dining. For instance, if you walk into a buffet at 7:55 PM Wednesday in that situation, can you eat for five minutes or for however long you want? I'm guessing the latter but it could be kinda funny if it's the former. Someone would come running up while you're loading more mashed potatoes onto your plate and yell, "Stop!"
Unlike some of the other day-pass buffet deals, this one does not allow you to just saunter into the buffet whenever you like. You have to wait in line with the customers who are buying one meal at a time. This also might make for some amusing situations. Let's say your pass expires in ten minutes and you get into a long line where people are fumbling for change and taking their time about paying. You could lose an entire free meal there.
You might also actually be able to eat for 24 continuous hours. One time when I was staying at Harrah's — this is more than ten years ago — I happened upon something with the ghastly name of the Graveyard Buffet. I was writing in my room all evening and around 3 AM when I finished the script, I decided to go down to the 24 hour Coffee Shop and grab a meal. To my surprise, the "we never close" restaurant was closed. A little sign announced that they had to shut down every so often for cleaning so instead, they were offering a "Graveyard Buffet" in the room that housed the usual buffet, which closed at 10 PM. I hustled over there and found a delightful spread of mostly Breakfasty items. It was open all night.
(And just to emphasize: That's what the sign called it — the "Graveyard Buffet." Sounds like a great place to eat, right? It's like going into a railroad station and seeing that you can get a meal at the "Terminal Diner.")
For some reason, these were never publicized, never advertised. I came across a similarly-unannounced Graveyard Buffet in a similar situation once at the Rio also, and I'm wondering if they still ever offer them. If so, your 24-hour buffet pass might just be good for a solid twenty-four hours of continuous buffeting. You could feast non-stop around the clock…which would be great because, after all, people in this country are not getting fat enough. Some of them can still fit through doorways.
I suspect this offer will do very well. Hundreds of people, probably into the thousands, go to one of the Harrah's buffets each evening for dinner. Let's say you patronize the one at Planet Hollywood, which is very popular and which costs $27.99 for one entrance. For only two bucks more, you can get the "Buffet of Buffets" pass which will let you dine tomorrow morning and afternoon at any Harrah's buffet. You could even squeeze in dinner tomorrow night if you plan it right.
Almost a whole day of all-you-can-eat dining for two dollars? Why wouldn't you grab that deal? Even if you'll only want to eat a modest breakfast and a light lunch tomorrow, it'll be a lot cheaper if you buy the pass. You can't get a meal off McDonald's Value Menu for two dollars and here's a chance to have darn near anything you want and as much of it as you want, unlimited beverages and desserts included.
Will people actually go into a buffet and eat a modest breakfast or a light lunch? I can imagine some figuring that since they can still go to other buffets later in the day, there's no need to try and clean out the one they're in. I can more readily imagine them succumbing to the allure of unlimited free food every time. There's also the revenge motive at a casino buffet: You often see people who've lost big at the tables trying to make it all back in pork roast and tepid sushi.
I don't know how this will play out. Might tourists be less inclined to see how much prime rib and shrimp they can cram into their tummies at one seating? Or will some decide to see if they really can eat continuously for every waking hour, starting at the Rio, pigging out there then taking the free shuttle over to Harrah's and the buffet there, then going next door to the Imperial Palace, dashing across Las Vegas Boulevard to Caesars, then crossing back to hit up the Flamingo and then work their way down the strip to Paris and then finishing up at Planet Hollywood? Harrah's Management may realize that they're creating a new, undesirable kind of Vegas visitor: People who are too damn busy eating to gamble.
I'm not even sure if I'll try this option my next trip to Vegas, assuming it's even still available. I kinda gave up buffets after my Gastric Bypass Surgery in '06 because they're no longer cost-efficient for me. I used to like them not because of quantity or even variety but because with all the odd food allergies I have, it's liberating to be able to control exactly what gets onto my plate. I've been to two buffets since the surgery and both made a nice profit off me since I didn't/couldn't eat anywhere near enough food to justify the price…not even at the $7.77 one.
Oddly enough, the deal here might fit in well with the way I eat now, which is 4-5 small meals a day as opposed to 2-3 normal-sized ones. If I were staying at a Harrah's property, and I often do, I really would just drop by for light meals. With a stomach the size of a hockey puck, I couldn't go whole-hog even if I wanted to. So this just might work. Then again, I'd probably have to fight long lines of people who were trying to see if they could make the circuit and hit up all seven Harrah's buffets in one day…and timing it all so they still have a shot at another meal tomorrow.
The witty Barry Mitchell chats, ever so briefly, with Meinhardt Raabe, the just-deceased Munchkin Coroner. The fellow doing the introducing is Jerry Maren, who was also in The Wizard of Oz and was also Little Oscar…
John Simon, who in his old age has started writing about the things he reviews instead of writing about himself, gave the only out-and-out rave I've seen for the new Addams Family musical. That might ordinarily mean it's doomed but it seems to have a hefty box office advance. So it might be around for a while.
Nice obit in the L.A. Times for our pal, Eddie Carroll. I am told that a public memorial service will be held in a week or three.
Hey, wanna see a 7-minute interview with Eddie where he discusses his Jack Benny impersonating? Here it is.
A week from tomorrow night! My pal Shelly Goldstein sings and delights at the world-famous Magic Castle in Hollywood! Tix are going fast but last I heard, there were still a few seats left. Do not miss this chance to hear a fabulous cabaret performer, visit the Magic Castle and, if you scan the audience, maybe even see me in a suit. Details here.
Meinhardt Raabe, the oldest surviving Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz, has died at the age of 94. Mr. Raabe played the Coroner who pronounced the Wicked Witch of the East deceased — I believe the official Cause of Death was that a house fell on her — and he "sang" the four lines that began, "As coroner, I must aver…" In truth, the voice you heard in the film was the sped sound of a vocalist named Rad Robinson, a member of the Ken Darby Singers, a singing group that was heard all throughout the film. Mr. Darby was the movie's Vocal Arranger.
Perhaps you didn't know that Mr. Raabe was dubbed. For much of his life, Mr. Raabe apparently didn't, either. He long assumed that it was his voice — electronically altered but his — heard on the soundtrack. It was only in later years that he was informed otherwise.
That's one of the things I find interesting about Meinhardt Raabe. Another is that in his senior decades, he found an amazing stardom and even made some serious dollars making personal appearances and doing autograph shows. I know some find that circuit depressing…and it is sad in a way to see someone who was briefly on a hit TV show of the sixties or in some long-ago movie now sitting behind a table somewhere, hoping someone will lay down $20 for their signature. But for some, it's a chance to be a bit of a star again and to make a bit of the money they're not making as their work is rerun and reissued and remonetized without residuals being paid. I'd think it was more depressing if they didn't have that opportunity.
Mr. Raabe turned his 13 seconds of screen time (plus a few crowd shots) into lasting fame and a bit of an income…and good for him. I saw him a couple times at comic and film conventions, striding about in a replica of his high-collared Coroner suit, thrilled that people cared who he was. He certainly didn't seem to mind answering the same questions over and over and over and over and over and over.
The one time we spoke, I avoided those stories and asked him about his stint as the first Little Oscar, the mascot for the Oscar Mayer meat company. In that capacity, he drove around the country in the first Wienermobile — the 1936 model seen above — making personal appearances for that brand of hot dogs. So did a number of other "little people" over the years…and I never quite understood the premise. I mean, if you had a company that made frankfurters and you wanted to sell the idea to parents that their kids would grow up to be big and strong if they ate your product, wouldn't you want someone tall as your spokesperson?
I'm guessing that wienermobile was the key to it. Once they'd decided to have such a vehicle, they realized it wouldn't look very impressive if their mascot was taller than it was…so the choice was to build a huge, expensive wienermobile or to hire a shorter mascot. As a kid, I saw the current model wienermobile in photos and on TV and for lack of scale, I imagined something like a Rose Parade float, immense in size. The day it finally came to the Food Giant near me, I thought we'd gotten the Cocktail Frank version.
Here's a photo of four Little Oscars — left to right, George A. Molchan, Joe White, Meinhardt Raabe and Jerry Maren. I'm guessing the towering presence in the middle of the photo is Mr. Oscar F. Mayer, himself. Maren is the one I remember in Los Angeles in the fifties. He was always popping up at L.A. supermarkets and on our local kids' shows. He appeared about every other week on Channel 9 with Engineer Bill, who always seemed to have it in for poor Jerry. One of the things Engineer Bill sold for a time on his show was a product called Silly Soap, which was basically shaving cream in a colorful aerosol package for kids. The ads encouraged you to spray your friends with Silly Soap and then hop into the tub and wash with it. The filmed commercials suggested you could sculpt it into a lovely hair style or a funny beard but you couldn't. Just another of the many lies children are told.
Engineer Bill seemed to have crates of it on his set and he would occasionally spray an off-camera stagehand with the stuff. When Little Oscar came on the show, the Engineer had an opportunity — one he could not resist — to foam someone on-camera. Not only that but half a can of Silly Soap could easily cover Jerry Maren, head to toe…so when he came on, trying to deliver his pitch for Oscar Mayer All-Meat Franks (no filler), he'd have to dodge Engineer Friggin' Bill, who'd be chasing him around the cheesy set with two cans of Silly Soap, one in each hand, determined at all costs to suds the midget.
Maren was a pro…a guy who's still with us and who's had an amazing career. He'd worked with the Marx Brothers. He'd worked on the Superman TV show. He was in The Wizard of Oz, too. He knew that the bit had to have a payoff; that the audience would be disappointed if he didn't get Silly Soaped. So he'd just try to avoid the inevitable until he was done selling hot dogs and then he'd let Engineer Bill cover him with shaving cream. When I saw him recently, we talked about that, the most dangerous assignment of his many years in show business.
When I discussed playing Little Oscar with Meinhardt Raabe, he had no tales of crazed kid show hosts trying to slather him with soap, silly or otherwise. He complained about kids poking him and how poorly he was paid and driving around in the hot, not-air-conditioned wienermobile to Godforsaken locations where boorish children threw things at you. I have no doubt it was a rough way to make a buck, and I'm sure Jerry Maren had all the same problems. But to Jerry, who was and is a genuine actor/performer, it was all part of show business, which is why he's worked in it his entire life. Still, I'm glad Mr. Raabe had his little piece of it. He sure did more with 13 dubbed seconds than anyone else ever has.
This runs close to an hour so you may not want to watch it…but if you do, here it is. It's an interview with the World's Foremost Authority, "Professor" Irwin Corey, on a cable access show. The interviewer is not likely to make Charlie Rose sweat the competition but Corey — at age 96 for cryin' out loud — is pretty sharp and pretty interesting. (And there's probably a freeze-frame below that reminds us of the first rule if you're going to do a TV interview show: Know enough about your guest to spell his name right.)
Recently, a number of hotels in Las Vegas have been experimenting with offering an "all-day buffet pass." You pay one price — usually $25-$30 — and you can dine as often as you like at the hotel's buffet, stuffing down as much grub as you can hold during the hours the buffet is open and operating.
Typical of these deals is the one at the Excalibur Hotel. It costs $29.95 and their buffet is open from 7 AM until 10 PM. If you have a wristband, you can come and go as you please…I guess. Their website says "Blackout periods may apply" but it doesn't say if that's their blackout period because the place is too crowded or your blackout period because you just had your 19th helping of Chocolate Hot Lava Cake. Anyway, it's not a bad deal monetarily. At the Excalibur Roundtable Buffet, breakfast is $14.99, lunch is $15.99 and dinner is $19.99. If you eat two meals, you at least break even and if you eat three or more, it's cheaper.
There are two drawbacks though, both of which are that you have to eat every meal at the Excalibur Buffet. One is that you can't wander very far around Vegas…not when your next meal is prepaid back at the Excalibur. And the other drawback is that you're eating at the Excalibur Buffet, which was designed (I suspect) to make your old high school cafeteria seem like a gourmet spread. I mean, I guess it's okay if you don't mind Jell-O that makes noise…even when no one is eating it.
The other "all day" options are pretty much the same…or were until today when the Harrah's chain announced a new All-Day-Dining Deal: $29.95 and it stretches across all the buffets at all the hotels Harrah's owns in Vegas. They own a lot of hotels and while some don't have buffets, many do. There's the one at Harrah's, the one at Planet Hollywood, the one at Paris, the one at the Imperial Palace, the one at Caesars Palace, the one at the Flamingo and the one at the Rio. The Rio actually has two buffets but their Seafood Buffet, which costs $39 a person is presumably not included in this deal.
Still, the dinner at the Planet Hollywood buffet is $27.99 and the one at Caesars is only a buck cheaper. So this is quite the bargain: Breakfast, lunch and dinner at Planet Ho purchased separately would run you $62. As long as you eat two meals a day in any of these places, you're saving money. You also, of course, have better food and a greater variety…so you're free to wander more of the Strip. Instead of needing to stick close to one hotel, you have seven where you can eat all you want whenever you feel like it.
Whether you should eat all you want whenever you feel like it is another matter. You shouldn't, of course. Then again, you probably shouldn't do several of the things you're likely to do in Vegas…and most of them will cost you a lot more money.
So…no matter who Barack Obama nominates to the Supreme Court, we're going to hear that the nominee is a Dangerous Soviet Socialist Nazi Radical…and I'm thinking he oughta nominate a Dangerous Soviet Socialist Nazi Radical. I mean, they're going to say that anyway so why not? And maybe one or two of them will figure out what a Socialist really is. The new definition seems to be any Democrat who wins an election.
A new musical opened on Broadway the other night — The Addams Family starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth. Some of the press releases assert it is based not so much on the classic television show as on the legendary cartoons Charles Addams drew for The New Yorker. That sounds like snobbery — "Oh, no! It isn't based on a TV series. It's based on something more cultural." — and also it's a fib. The musical is all about Gomez and Morticia and Lurch and Uncle Fester…characters who were named and developed from drawings for the TV show. The TV theme is even used in the stage version and most of the reviews say it gets the biggest reaction of the evening.
Most of the reviews also say it isn't a very good show. Ben Brantley in the New York Times called it "a genuinely ghastly musical." There was a time when if the Times said that about your show, you immediately posted the closing notice and looked for a job in some non-theatrical line of work. That power has considerably diminished but the near-unanimity of reviewers may have the same impact. Then again, it is a popular property and it does have Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth. I kinda hope it stays open at least until my next trip to New York, whenever that is. I'd like to see for myself how it is.
Here's yet another spiffy rendition of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and it's accompanied by wonderful animation…
A number of political websites are linking to this piece in The Economist and reproducing the chart below. I'm joining in because I think it's quite significant and says a lot about the big problems currently facing our country.
Folks were asked if they'd prefer to deal with the deficit by cutting spending or raising taxes. Cutting spending won big — 65% versus 5%. Okay…so what do you want to cut?
This roughly translates to "Nothing." The only thing a lot of people want to cut is Foreign Aid, which accounts for less than 1% of our spending. If you cut 50% of the budgets from the categories that got 25% or more in this vote, you might trim spending by another 4% or so. In other words, we want to cut spending but we don't want to cut spending.
Betcha within a week or so, someone puts up an interactive website where you get to see the deficit and then you click on, say, "Health Research" and then you say, "Cut it by 20%" and you see what that does to the deficit. Let me know if you come across such a site before I do. I doubt it will make a significant number of people understand the problem but it might make a slight dent.
The popular childrens' book author Betty Paraskevas has left us after a measly 81 years on this planet…not nearly long enough for the likes of her. I never had what I'm sure would have been the pleasure of meeting Betty in person but we had a long telephone acquaintance…and her son Michael (everyone calls him Mickey) is a good buddy. Together, Betty and Mickey created dozens of top-selling, treasured kids' books, many of which spawned sequels and several of which were later animated. The most popular series has probably been Maggie and the Ferocious Beast but I always told Betty that my favorite was Junior Kroll. She wrote 'em, Mickey illustrated them and the results were always magic.
Like I said, I never met Betty face-to-face. I'd speak to her every few months, mostly to answer questions about how the animation business operated or to just let her vent over the latest deal, the latest offer, the latest annoyance. She was feisty in a good way and creative in every way. Thanks, Mickey, for allowing me to get to know her, even that much. And keep those books in print so future generations can enjoy her wonderful stories.