Tuesday evening, I went to see the fabulous Shelly Goldstein perform her act to a delighted crowd at the Catalina Bar and Grill in Hollywood. The evening was a smashing success and when next she plays someplace you can see her, I'll tell you about that and about how good she is.
On my way in, I ran into a friend of mine named Saratoga Ballantine — an accomplished actress who has also co-directed a documentary I've been meaning to plug here. Saratoga and her friend Dea Lawrence made Troupers, a look at veteran show business performers, one of whom was Sara's father, The Amazing Carl Ballantine. They interviewed him and also Pat Carroll, Kaye Ballard, Bruce Kirby, Marvin Kaplan, Ivy Bethune, Justine Johnston, Allan Rich, Jane Kean, Harold Gould, Connie Sawyer and Betty Garrett. It's a terrific portrait of a kind of performer who is, sad to say, becoming extinct. The film is called Troupers.
Where can you see this film? Well, in Los Angeles it's running tonight (Thursday) on KCET, Channel 28 at 9 PM. If you're setting a TiVo or DVR, you may have to search for the name of the program on which it's airing, which is Open Call. Keep your eye out for it elsewhere as it's quite wonderful. The trailer here should give you some idea of how wonderful…