Okay, so Trump's running for the G.O.P. nomination, at least for now. I'm waiting for someone to ask him, "Are you in the race for keeps or are you in it until it's time to report for work on Celebrity Apprentice?" If I were a supporter of Mr. Trump — I suppose there are such people — I wouldn't lift a finger to help him or even begin hoping he'll win until I got the right answer to that question.
Worried about him maybe winning? Don't be. As Harry Enten notes, "Trump is the first candidate in modern presidential primary history to begin the campaign with a majority of his own party disliking him. A whopping 57 percent of Republicans have an unfavorable view of Trump, according to an average of the three most recent polls." And I have a feeling that as Republicans see him sucking up air time and attention and donations that could go to their first choice, the more that number will grow.
Trump, by the way, is the only person in the race I've ever been in the same room with. (I did see Hillary get out of a limo in New York once.) I was up at David Letterman's studio back in his NBC days when Trump was on. I saw him in the halls, yelling at people and being quite obnoxious, and then I was about twelve feet away when he was sitting in Dave's guest chair saying things that caused the audience to boo him. Do you remember that Monty Python sketch about eating dead relatives that ended with the studio audience rising from its seats and rushing up to strangle the actors? That came close to happening.
On another occasion, Trump and the current Mrs. Trump barged into a recording studio where I was working on some TV thing. They were in the wrong room and not at all apologetic for interrupting us.
These tiny brushes do not equate to me having any more insight into Trump than anyone else can get from watching him on television. But I sure didn't see anything to counteract the arrogant and nasty image he's carefully cultivated.
Michael Kinsley on how the old "wedge" issues aren't working for Republicans any longer and they have to come up with new ones. I'd like to see the next election turn on the question of whether the potato salad at Cassell's is made with horseradish or hot mustard. Whatever issue it is about probably won't be much more important.
Jonathan Chait thinks the key issue is or ought to be Paul Ryan's budget. If there's a Republican president and a Republican Senate to go along with the surely-Republican House, they ought to be able to pass Ryan's wish dream which I think is that the poor and middle class will not only pay all of the taxes with rich folks paying nothing but we'll all have to donate several hours a week to go over and trim the lawns and gardens of the 1%.
I used to write here about a place down on 6th Street in Los Angeles called Cassell's which served one of the world's great hamburgers. Though inconvenient as to location, parking and hours (they closed at 4 PM), I went there often, starting way back in the era when Mr. Cassell still owned and operated the place. He invented a unique grill and all sorts of grand recipes for mayo and potato salad and really wonderful lemonade and a few other items and it all made Cassell's a special dining experience. It wasn't just another hamburger place. At lunchtime, he literally had a line out the door.
The hamburgers were cheap and delicious. A lot of people called them the best in L.A. and while something like that could never be unanimous, people didn't look at you like you were crazy if you said that.
The old Cassell's
Some folks went for the potato salad which looked like mashed potatoes and which had a special "kick" to it. The big controversy was whether it was from horseradish or hot mustard. I don't know how many of them are still up but there used to be hysterical arguments on restaurant review websites over this with people swearing they knew the secret and calling anyone an idiot should they believe otherwise. One guy would say Mr. Cassell had personally told him it was horseradish and shown him the vegetables themselves…and then some other guy who hit him with every synonym there is for "liar" and insist that he'd worked there for a time and personally added the Coleman's Hot Mustard. The debates about Obamacare, Gay Marriage and Abortion are minor squabbles compared to that discussion.
I decided to remain agnostic on the subject lest someone take a swing at me. But then I never liked the potato salad as much as others did. To me, it was okay if you didn't get an overly-volcanic batch.
Over the years, the area changed — fewer companies full of employees who needed a place to lunch — and Cassell's did less and less business. Not long before he passed, Mr. Cassell sold out to a Korean family that kept the same location, facilities, menu and even the same guy manning the grill and cooking the burgers. Everything was the same…but it wasn't. Somehow — and I sure couldn't explain what it was — the place seemed less wonderful. The burgers were occasionally just as good and they hadn't changed the signature potato salad. But it all felt less special…like it was turning into just another hamburger place. A few years later, it closed and what remained of Cassell's was purchased by the company that was then refurbishing the nearby Normandie Hotel. They announced that Cassell's would be reborn as part of the Normandie.
And then we waited. For a lot longer than they said it would take.
The new Cassell's
Late last year, Cassell's reopened at the Normandie. Well, it's called Cassell's and they proudly display a lot of the old signage in what is a much nicer, newer room. They have the same potato salad and the burgers, we're told, are made with the same recipe using the same grinder and the same grill, though served on a different bun. But much is different.
The old place was set up cafeteria-style. You waited for your burger to be cooked, then moved down the line to dress it at a little mini salad bar of condiments and a few side dishes like cottage cheese, pineapple slices and — of course — the potato salad. The new place is all server-style. You order it, they bring it to you…so no all-you-can-eat side dishes. The menu and hours have been expanded so Cassell's can serve as the hotel's coffee shop. They now have milkshakes, cocktails, a lot more other menu items and even serve breakfast.
A week or two ago, my friend Paul Dini and I ventured down there to check it out and see how much of the old Cassell's remained. It turned out for me to be (a) the name, (b) the old signs placed around the new space, (c) the potato salad and (d) really nothing else. Paul had a lemonade that he thought was as good as what Mr. Cassell used to make. I believe his secret ingredient was actual lemons.
The hamburger I had was a decent one but I did not recognize a connection to the Cassell's burger of yore. It's a nice place that seems to serve decent chow but it is just another hamburger place. That's not to say I won't go back but if I do, I'm going to do it smart and not expect the old Cassell's. To do so would be to do a disservice to a nice new restaurant and also to myself. As I get older, I have to keep reminding myself that the world changes and if you expect it not to, you're setting yourself up for a lot of disappointment.
So Donald Trump has some sort of big announcement today, perhaps that he's entering the 2016 presidential race because, you know, they don't have quite enough candidates who don't have a chance of winning and he can't pass up an opportunity to promote himself. If that's it, then the question is whether he's serious enough to stay in past the moment when he'd have to either quit the campaign or quit Celebrity Apprentice. Me, I'm guessing he doesn't want to give up that show for the prestige of finishing in fifteenth place behind Carly Fiorina.
Besides, why does he want to be a candidate? Doesn't he know what a miserable life they lead? Just listen to Ted Cruz complain about it.
In 1927, very early in their teaming, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy made a rather famous short film called The Battle of the Century which featured an epic pie fight. The Boys didn't throw a lot of pies in their movies but in that one, they sure did. It was a two-reel comedy and the last half of the second reel was a street scene with dozens of people hurling hundreds of pies at one another.
Like most silent comedies, Battle of the Century was forgotten for a long time. In 1957, a man named Robert Youngson was assembling a compilation feature called The Golden Age of Comedy using clips of great silent movies. He got access to the negative of The Battle of the Century, duped the big fight at the end and used it in his film. What he didn't know was that in so doing, he was preserving that footage for all eternity. The negative was in bad shape and within a few years, it had completely decomposed. There was no other known copy of the film anywhere.
So it became a "lost film" but for the portions Youngson had saved. He had done some edits within the pie fight scene so he hadn't saved all of it but he had saved most of it…and for a long time, that was all we had. Laurel and Hardy fans wished, prayed and otherwise urged Fate (or something) to find a complete copy of the film but with each passing year, it looked more like an impossible dream.
But wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles! One day, a complete copy of the first reel turned up! It was a great find…and there was one added bit of film history, above and beyond the obvious. The first reel is about a prize fight with Laurel as a fighter and Hardy as his manager. In a few shots, a man is visible in the fight audience working as an extra. His name then was Louis Cristillo and years later, he would change his last name to Costello and team up with Bud Abbott. It's the only known path-crossing of Laurel and Hardy with Abbott and Costello.
Okay. So what we had then was the entire first reel and most of the last half of the second reel…not bad. Someone assembled a version of the film using all the footage known to exist plus stills and captions to explain the missing segments. That's the video I'm embedded below. It's the one we Laurel 'n' Hardy fans decided we'd have to live with since it was really, really unlikely that the rest of reel two would ever be located.
Well, guess what. The really, really unlikely thing has happened…or so we hear. According to this article, a good quality 16mm print of Reel Two has been found. This is such good news that some of us are worried it's a hoax of some kind. If it isn't, you may soon be able to watch a version of The Battle of the Century more complete than this one…
Mark Joseph Stern has a very silly article that asks the question, "Are Rumors About Lindsey Graham's Sexuality Hurting His Presidential Chances?" What's silly about it is that Lindsay Graham has never had any presidential chances to have hurt. If he were married with twelve kids, he might be polling at 2% instead of 1% — actually, he's polling at 1% in a poll with a 2-point of margin of error so his real number is somewhere between 3% and -1%. This man could easily hold his largest campaign rally in a Nissan Sentra…and have room in the glove compartment for all the Bobby Jindal supporters. Graham's problem has nothing to do with people thinking he's gay. He has the same problem as Jindal: Nobody wants him.
John Cleese and Eric Idle will soon begin touring with a two-person show. According to the press release, "The British icons will perform unforgettable sit-down comedy, blending scripted and improvised bits with storytelling, musical numbers, exclusive footage, aquatic juggling and an extended audience Q&A to craft a unique comedic experience with every performance." This sounds not all that different from the one-on-one conversation I witnessed last November but that was a great evening so if they come my way, I'll probably go.
So far though, the tour seems to involve Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Maryland. Here we have the dates and info. We shall see in which ways this tour wanders after that.
The other day we had a clip here of Yuan Zai, a baby panda born in the Taipei Zoo, and her mother, Yuan Yuan. Here, in Chinese, is a longer video about them. There's an option on the player to turn on English subtitles…
So what's ahead for Broadway? 27 shows have been announced for the coming season with what seem to be firm opening dates…which is a lot when you consider that in the season that just ended, there were 37 openings in total.
How many more than 27 there will be will depend to some extent, of course, on how well those 27 shows and the holdovers fare. Shows can't open unless they have a theater and you don't get a theater until something else closes. You may recall when Jerry Lewis was making those announcements of his Nutty Professor musical opening on Broadway, no one took them seriously because it never had a theater booked and when he gave dates, they never seemed to coincide with when some theater might be available. Almost needless to say, The Nutty Professor musical is not among the 27 that look firm for this season. (Even Jerry seems to have given up on that ever happening.)
The list of 27 includes a number of revivals including She Loves Me, Noises Off, The Color Purple, Falsettos, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and, of course, the biennial revival of Fiddler on the Roof. I'm confused because I thought revivals of Fiddler were supposed to alternate with revivals of Gypsy. There are also a lot of other revivals and some new shows that sound…well, interesting. Here's an article that gives the whole list.
I really liked the Jeff Ross special last night on Comedy Central. If you missed it, Ross — who bills himself as the Roastmaster General — went to Brazos County Jail, a maximum security facility in Texas, and did three shows for the convicts, two for men and one for women. Most of it involved "roasting" (i.e., insulting) them though there was clearly enough understanding and even a bit of affection coming from the guy that the convicts, at least in the show as edited, seemed to really like him. Before that, he mingled with some of them, ate as they did and talked with a number of them. He wrote up some of his observations here.
This may have been the first time some viewers got a glimpse of men and women in prison…at least, viewers who don't have MSNBC, which goes through periods of airing more about bad people in prison than they do about bad people in the Republican Party. I'm personally waiting for the moment that some Congressman whose improprieties are discussed on The Rachel Maddow Show winds up in one of the channel's "behind bars" documentaries.
I suspect a lot of people look at most prisoners and do not think, "There are human lives who could be rehabilitated and perhaps are even being over-punished by the inhuman living conditions." I suspect a lot think, "Good! Keep that walking trash in there where it can't hurt anybody." A condition of attending Ross's show was that an inmate had to have spotless behavior for the month before. I wonder how many prisoners were therefore excluded and if they were seen anywhere during the program.
Like you probably, I don't know a lot about prison conditions. Given how many convicts have been sprung from Death Row thanks to DNA evidence, I wonder how many people who were convicted of crimes other than murder by the same judicial system are also innocent. There must be some but no one cares. I have seen people who don't care how many bodies are tossed in the slammer, or how awful they have it in there, as long as the bodies we're talking about are poor and/or not white. And if you told them those guys might be innocent, the rationale would be, "Even if they're technically innocent of what they got busted for, they're surely guilty of something."
I'm glad Jeff Ross went on this adventure. I've always liked the guy. He's a gutsy comic who does insults with style and wit, and who makes bad taste work by making it really, really funny. His special is not currently scheduled for rerunning in the next few weeks and I'm wondering if there's a longer, unbleeped DVD on the way. If so, I'll let you know so you can order it…after I do.
CBS has pulled all clips of Late Show with David Letterman from its own website and from YouTube. This has prompted several furious postings on the Internet as well as a couple of complaints to me about how those ungrateful assholes at CBS have no respect for Dave's contribution or the devotion of his fans or something. One person wrote, "The second he's not making money for them, they couldn't care less about his work, those bastards."
Well, guess what. Everyone who thinks that way owes CBS an apology. CBS took the work down because they no longer control it. Their deal is over and Letterman's company Worldwide Pants now controls the digital rights to that material.
About once a year with some friend or acquaintance, I find myself in the awkward position of defending a big TV network that has been falsely accused. I have no love for those folks but I do not find them consistently evil or greedy or insensitive. Sometimes, sure. But sometimes when you think they've done something crappy to your favorite star or show, all they've done is abide by the contract with the star or show.
Sometimes too, they play Bad Cop for powerful stars or producers. A friend of mine was working on a show when suddenly, they were told, the network was demanding a major staff overhaul. A dozen or more people including my friend were suddenly terminated and told they had an hour or so to pack their belongings, pick up their final checks and leave the premises. It was very painful and, they felt, quite unfair. The Exec Producer — who was not among the ousted — agreed. He screamed about those slimeballs upstairs at the network, vowed to fight the decision…but ultimately, sadly, had to admit defeat.
Later, of course, my friend found out it was the Exec Producer who'd ordered the firings and gotten the network to take the blame for them. That kind of thing happens more often than you might think…though of course, networks folks are quite capable of being slimeballs on their own initiative.
I'm taking today off to tend to the few things in life more important than blogging. I do have lots more to say about the Jerry Seinfeld matter but that'll have to wait. (I want to talk about — among other aspects of this tepid controversy — how a lot of this is not an argument about taste or Free Speech but economics.) I also have a bunch of questions from folks about how residuals are figured and tracked and such.
We continue to prep for Comic-Con. Also, there seems to be a new flurry of articles from folks who are convinced Comic-Con will, should or must move from San Diego to some other city. I stand by my prediction that it won't unless someone on the business side of the Convention Center down there does something really, really stupid. Yes, there are convention centers that hold more people but except maybe for Vegas, none of them come with as much hotel room availability. Las Vegas has its own set of problems starting with the July weather and the fact that we could never be one-one-hundredth as important to that city as we are to San Diego.
Of possible interest to late night followers is this article which says that the folks who used to watch Mr. Letterman have not migrated to a Jimmy. They seem to have stopped watching late night talk shows. Assuming they don't all scurry back to watch Colbert, it wouldn't surprise me to see some channel other than CBS, NBC, ABC or Fox start thinking about a late night show for that audience. There are channels like MeTV that cultivate an older audience. The folks who sell Rascal scooters and "I've fallen and I can't get up" buttons need somewhere to advertise. It would be a lower-budget situation than what the big boys have but I'll betcha someone could make the math work on it.
Back tomorrow. Or sooner if I have to post a damned obit for someone.
One of the best shows I ever saw on Broadway was the 1997 revival of the musical, 1776. In fact, I saw it twice. The first time, it was not long after it opened and if memory serves me, I believe I took Catherine Gruenwald, the widow of my old pal, Marvel editor Mark Gruenwald. The theater was mobbed outside that night because some sort of celebration was being held with a marching band in colonial garb, and then the start of the show was delayed ten minutes so then-mayor Rudy Giuliani could give a speech. I have no idea what he was talking about and I didn't that evening, either.
Still, the show was quite excellent. Brent Spiner was John Adams, Pat Hingle was Benjamin Franklin, Merwin Foard was Richard Henry Lee, Dashiell Eaves was the courier who sings "Mama Look Sharp," Michael Cumpsty was John Dickinson and Gregg Edelman was Rutledge. They were all terrific and I was especially impressed at how Mr. Foard stopped the show with the "Lees of Old Virginia" number. On a later trip, I saw him do the male lead in a revival of Kiss Me, Kate, wrote on some Internet forum that he was terrific in that too, and got a nice e-mailed note of thanks from him.
Everyone in it was very good and I recall the mounting feeling throughout the play that we didn't really know the ending and that it would turn out that they failed to pass the Declaration of Independence and birth the United States of America. The storytelling was that good.
A few months later, I was back in New York with my friend Carolyn and I took her to see it because I knew she'd enjoy it and I'd enjoy it again. Spiner had been replaced by Michael McCormick and Hingle by David Huddleston. The show was still great and again at intermission, I had the ominous feeling that the Declaration of Independence would never get adopted and there'd never be an America. Whenever I watch the movie, which is often, I'm still surprised when they pull it off.
So here's a reel of brief clips from some of the musical numbers starring the first cast. The video quality isn't great but trust me: The show was.
