Monthly Archives: September 2012

Fred Kaplan notes how it's now the Democratic Party that's talking tough about fighting terrorism, saluting our fighting men and women, and generally kicking ass on foreign policy. I suspect though that Democrats could go out and personally strangle every last member of Al Qeada and many American would still insist Dems were weak on defense and it's the G.O.P. that's tough.

Let us resume our Billy Crystal Oscar Monologue Film Festival. Here's 1997…

Robert Rose has a great answer for the question about what old show he'd like to see…

No question for me: The Marx Brothers in I'll Say She Is, their first Broadway show, which (as I'm sure you know) was never filmed and turned them into major stars.

Okay, I officially steal that answer for mine. Or even the original Cocoanuts or Animal Crackers. Great thought.

The editors of Playbill asked a whole buncha actors, "If you had a time machine in which you could go back and see any Broadway show, which one would it be?" Here are their responses. If they'd asked me, I'd have picked the same one as Josh Gad: The original A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Zero Mostel. But The Music Man with Robert Preston is awfully tempting, as is the original company of My Fair Lady…or maybe Matthau and Carney in The Odd Couple.

Today is the 75th birthday of my best friend in the Male Division, Sergio Aragonés.  As a gift, I'm giving him the smile I know he'll have when he sees this photo I took of him and a man he loved very much, the late Joe Kubert.  And take a good look at this one, people.  You may never again see a photo with two guys who draw as fast and as naturally as these men.  Or are as beloved.

I have known Sergio since 1969.  I think in that time, I've encountered one instance of someone who didn't like him…and the disliker almost admitted the reason that was obvious to all: Pure jealousy.  He was envious of how popular Sergio was as both a creator of mirth-inducing sketches and as a human being who was fun to be around.  That's about the only reason I can imagine for anyone to dislike my friend.

Recently on Facebook, someone asked me when I was going to hire Sergio to do voicework on one of my cartoon shows.  I fired back, "When he learns to speak English" and of course, someone didn't get that was a joke and wrote me, "Doesn't Sergio speak English?"  Answer: Yes…and many other languages as well.  It was almost a waste of time for him to learn some of them because he communicates so well with anyone via his drawings.  I just kid him about his English because a guy like that…well, you have to kid him about something and I couldn't find anything else.  Sergio, if you'd like to give me a gift on my birthday next March, how about a flaw?  Yours, not mine.  I already have enough of mine.

Michael Kinsley on the Republican interest in lowering the National Debt. It seems to only be there when there's a Democrat in the Oval Office.

Boy, Bill Clinton is a good speaker. I haven't had much time to watch either convention but I squeezed in a peek at what the former president had to say…which reminds me: Is it true that this is the first time a former president has nominated someone else? Wolf Blitzer said it was but, you know, he's Wolf Blitzer. Wonder why the Republicans didn't bring George W. Bush out to place the name of Mitt Romney in nomination.

We don't get a lot of great orators in politics these days. I'm assuming there was someone between Reagan and Clinton who did equivalent magic at the lectern but I can't come up with a name right now. Clinton is especially skilled at somehow looking you right in the eye when he talks to you even when he's on TV and you're someplace else. He's also real good at explaining things without sounding condescending and doing so in terms that everyone can understand. Reagan to me always sounded like he didn't have a lot of respect for his audience but I know most listeners didn't feel that way. And both are/were good at sticking a stiletto in their enemies without coming across like bad guys.

I suppose Clinton will be criticized for going on so long but heck, it's the Democratic National Convention and they loved having him up there. If he'd talked less, the time would just have gone to someone more boring and less consequential. And it takes time to touch all those bases.

Hard to believe but forty years ago today, The New Price is Right debuted as a half-hour on the CBS daytime schedule. There had been a previous Price is Right with Bill Cullen but now the program had been revamped and it had Bob Barker as its host. I doubt anyone imagined it would still be on four years later, let alone four decades.

This is the first episode as it aired on 9/4/72. As you'll see they didn't have all the bugs out but it's a fast-moving show that was off to a good start. Mr. Barker is the host, Johnny Olson is the announcer and the prize models are Anitra Ford and Janice Pennington…

In 1939, the legendary restaurateur Pasquale "Patsy" D'Amore came to L.A. from New York and with his brother Franklyn, opened Casa D'Amore on Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood.  There, they served the first pizza in Los Angeles to the likes of Frank Sinatra, Joe DiMaggio, Tommy Dorsey and Dick Powell.

In 1949, he opened Patsy D'Amore's Pizza in the famous Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax.  The place was such a success that a year later, he opened the Villa Capri on McCadden Street in Hollywood. In 1957, it relocated to a larger, plusher building a few blocks away at 6735 Yucca, one block north of Hollywood Boulevard.  The new Villa Capri became a favorite of movie stars, including James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and Jimmy Durante.  Durante was there so often that a private banquet room was named for him.

But the big star of the Villa Capri was Sinatra.  That was, if you don't count Patsy, who was much loved by the cliente.  But with the Capitol Records building only a few blocks away, Frank practically used the restaurant as his clubhouse, dining there often and throwing lavish parties.  When he recorded the song, "The Isle of Capri," he snuck a mention of the Villa Capri into its lyrics.  It is said that in 1960, when Sinatra threw his support behind John F. Kennedy for president, he held planning sessions there to figure out how to mobilize show business to help J.F.K.

D'Amore passed away in 1975, by which time the area around the Villa Capri had deteriorated.  By then, for reasons unknown, Sinatra had shifted his main patronage to Matteo's in Westwood.  Joe Barbera (of Hanna-Barbera) used to lunch there almost every day, often taking Yours Truly.  In 1982, shortly after it was used as a location for the movie Body Heat, the building was turned into a radio station and later an office complex before it was bulldozed in 2005.  Still, the cuisine of the late Patsy D'Amore lives on.  His family still owns and manages the Patsy's Pizza stand in Farmers Market.  A photo behind the counter proudly shows Patsy on the set of the movie Guys and Dolls, chatting with Sinatra.

My pal Aaron Barnhart tells what he's been up to, why he's leaving his job at the Kansas City Star and where he's heading. We all wish him only the best.

Thanks to Greg Ehrbar, I can alert you to a new BBC radio documentary on the life of the great Stan Laurel. Go listen to it here before they take it away from us. Thanks, Greg.

Leonard Maltin clues us in about a Mack Sennett festival on Turner Classic Movies this month. There were some pretty remarkable movies made at Sennett's studio at a time when moving pictures were still figuring out how to move. Take a look.

We interrupt our cavalcade of Billy Crystal Oscar monologues to bring you this commercial message…

The superlative Heidi MacDonald discusses possible locations for WonderCon apart from Anaheim. One thing I've learned over the years about conventions is that they're a lot more difficult to arrange than people think, especially the big ones. Every so often, a friend says of the one in San Diego, "Aah, they should just move it to Vegas," as if that's as simple as using your Southwest Airlines App to change a flight itinerary. Heidi did some good research and reveals that Anaheim is looking like the only practical venue. That is, unless the folks who run the Moscone Center wise up and embrace WonderCon instead of treating it like a teenager with a standby air ticket.

I don't think Sacramento would work. Why? Because it's Sacramento. No one wants to go to Sacramento. Even people who are elected to state-wide office in California balk when they realize it means moving to Sacramento. I mean, I'm sure it's a lovely town and all but I think you have to stage a big convention in a city that has something else to offer besides that big convention. San Diego has the zoo and the harbor and quick access to Tijuana. Anaheim has Disneyland and all the touristy-type attractions that have been established in its proximity. San Francisco has San Francisco. I can't think of a thing Sacramento has that most of us can't get at home except for government offices. No one reading this has ever said, "Hey, you know where I'd really like to vacation some day? Sacramento." Also, it's a long, tedious drive from everywhere except maybe from Sacramento.

There's some merit to Heidi's idea about eschewing convention centers and staging the con in an aggregate of hotels. I just think you'd have to get a running start of several years to coordinate several hotels. They all have cons booked years in advance and it might be tough to achieve simultaneous booking and find a weekend they all had open. Also, some hotels wouldn't want WonderCon as we do not tend to be huge spenders on expense accounts. I suspect the conventions that sprawl across multiple hotels are mostly ones that started as small cons in one hotel and then expanded over several years…which is not applicable to WonderCon.

Heidi didn't mention Las Vegas or Los Angeles but I will. They're the two cities on the planet I know best and I think they'd both be disasters for WonderCon…or Comic-Con for that matter. Vegas has the wrong vibe and too much else competing for tourist money. It's also very hot at times. Like now, for instance. Or next month or last month or most months.

Los Angeles? Start with the fact that the L.A. Convention Center is horrible. It's gigantic and not in a way that makes good use of all that space. The (mostly) huge exhibit halls are a long way from each other, reached via confusing corridors. The street traffic, owing to all the nearby attractions that draw huge crowds, is terrible. The parking is worse. There are few hotels within walking distance and nothing comparable to the San Diego trolley system to bring folks in from faraway hotels…all of which would be too scattered to make a shuttle bus system feasible. The place is also beastly expensive and I could go on and on but since it's not an option, I won't.

Last time I wrote on this topic, I said that I thought Anaheim would be a bad place for the Comic-Con to relocate if it ever had to relocate. That was before this year's Wondercon was held there and I have to say I liked the facility more than I'd expected. There were dreadful traffic problems but (a) some of that was due to rain and (b) Comic-Con has dreadful traffic problems, too. But I want to retract about 50% of what I said about it before, which is not to say I don't still hope Comic-Con stays in San Diego and there are once again WonderCons at the Moscone.