Monthly Archives: June 2011

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has posted an incredible online library of artifacts of Hollywood and World War II — photos, articles, film clips, etc. Don't click over there unless you're prepared to spend at least an hour browsing. I was going to link you directly to it but instead I think I'll link to Leonard Maltin and let him tell you all about it first.

My buddy Vince Waldron notes that on Monday, June 6, Turner Classic Movies is running North to Alaska, Operation Madball, Five Golden Hours, It Happened to Jane and Bell, Book and Candle. Those are about half of the movies in which the legendary Ernie Kovacs ever appeared. And while he's not legendary for his films so much as for his TV work, it's still great to see him in these. Of them, he only really stars in Five Golden Hours — not a great film — but the rest have him in large supporting roles, often backstopping Jack Lemmon. It Happened to Jane is a pretty good, underrated film though not so much because of Ernie. Check out some or all of these.

Chuck Lorre was not at the Van Dyke/Reiner evening. My pal Lee Aronsohn was. At the event, he introduced himself to Dick Van Dyke as the Executive Producer of Two and a Half Men…which he is. Someone apparently overheard only the credit and thought, "Oh, that must be Chuck Lorre!" and told others. There's a good example of how misinformation spreads.

It's a program/app that I can access on my home computer, my iPad and my iPhone, keeping them all in sync. It's mainly a notes program but you can use it as a journal or diary and also make "to do" lists with it. You'll can adjust fonts and you also have no problem exporting its data when you later want to switch to some other program. Oh…and I'd like password protection, too.

I've tried Evernote and it does a lot of that but it seems weak on the export capability and there doesn't seem to be any way of adjusting font size or page format, such as for lists. I could live with it but before I start pumping data into it, I'd like to see if there isn't something better. Anyone have a suggestion?

Had a great evening last evening courtesy of Writers Bloc, the local non-profit literary organization that stages must-attend author events. Last night, it was Carl Reiner interviewing Dick Van Dyke…and how could that not be wonderful? Amusingly, Mr. Reiner decided to skip most talk of Mary Poppins, Bye Bye Birdie and even The Dick Van Dyke Show and instead focus on the less-discussed moment in Mr. Van Dyke's life with special emphasis on his failures. There weren't many (hosting The CBS Morning Show, a couple of movies…) so the topic kept drifting back to successes but certainly not all of them. I'm not quite sure why but there was no mention whatsoever of Diagnosis: Murder, which Dick only did for eight seasons.

What was mentioned incessantly was how much Reiner and Van Dyke love and respect each other. It kept coming up over and over again. Dick also kept insisting that his successes were all mostly a matter of luck…of just being in the right place at the right time. Carl disagreed with the premise and when Dick said, "He [meaning Carl] just plucked me out of obscurity and put me on his show," Carl responded with "No, I found you on the Broadway stage starring in Bye Bye Birdie."

The place was packed, not only with Dick Van Dyke Show fans but also two more cast members — Rose Marie was there as was Larry Mazzeo, who under his stage name of Larry Matthews played Ritchie Rosebud Petrie. I had dinner with Rose a few weeks ago and despite being confined to a wheelchair, she's still Sally Rogers and as sharp as ever.

And the place was also packed with comedy writers and producers and actors. Someone told me Chuck Lorre was even there. Oh — and you know who else was there? Barbara Bain. She was not only in one episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show as an actress but she had another important function. She was such a fine laugher that, Reiner explained, they'd try to get her in the audience and seat her near the microphones that picked up the chortles of those in the bleachers. Those laugh tracks, he said, were later used by the infamous Charlie Douglass, who for a long time was Hollywood's Wizard of Canned Laughter, supplying laugh tracks for other shows. So Ms. Bain's laughter was heard not only on the Van Dyke show but countless others. (I suppose mine could even be in there if they used the audience reactions to the one episode I saw filmed.)

Trying to remember other stuff…it almost didn't matter what they said. It was just so great to see the rapport between the two of them. And afterwards, Dick signed his new book for a very long line of folks who went home very happy.

I've long been an attendee and cheerleader for Writers Bloc events. Last evening, I especially noticed the incredible skill and organizing capabilities of its CEO, Andrea Grossman. I think I know what it takes to put on something like that and it isn't easy to do badly, let alone well. Andrea does it very well indeed, which is why I always have such a good time at these events. Everyone seems to. I already told you about their upcoming, sure-to-sell-out one with Albert Brooks on June 28. I'll keep telling you about what they have coming up but don't trust me. If you dwell close enough to attend these things, check out their website and get on their mailing list.