Monthly Archives: October 2015

Galen Fott called this to my attention. The great poet Ogden Nash died on May 19, 1971. Cause of death? Eating cole slaw.

Pema Levy thinks the battle for the Republican nomination is going to wage on until March 15, 2016 and the Florida primary. That's 151 days from now.

Walt Hickey says one should not put much stock in the movie ratings on Fandango. I don't put much stock in any of them but Fandango does seem especially configured to get you to buy tickets to everything.

Floyd Norman remembers a mutual friend of ours, the late and wonderful Bob Ogle. I worked with Bob at Hanna-Barbera and I wish the cartoons had been as funny as he was.

Bob went into every meeting with what looked like a little memo pad but it was actually a pad of resignation letters he'd had printed up. I wish I could find the page from it he gave me. It said at the top, "I quit" and it then had a checklist of reasons like, "Inept management" and "Supervision by someone with no sense of humor." At any point during the meeting, he was likely to pull out the pad, check off the things that pissed him off, sign the bottom, hand it in and storm out of the room.

It was so funny that I think people tried to piss him off just so they could watch his performance and get one of his hundreds of resignation notices. No one ever took them seriously because everyone treasured Bob and his input. Does anyone reading this have one of those letters?

Whenever my pal Kliph Nesteroff and I get together, we talk about one of three things: Old Comedians, Older Comedians or Oldest Comedians. I once thought I knew as much about those topics as any human alive but through diligent, almost-obsessive research, Kliph has turned himself into the Doris Kearns Goodwin of guys who played the Catskills…and anywhere else funny people got on stage with an intention to amuse. I am agog at some of the stuff this fellow has researched.

Kliph could probably write eleven books about what he's learned but right now, we have to settle for one. Fortunately, it's a real good one. It's called The Comedians and if you have the slightest interest in that art form, it's a must-have. Here is an Amazon link to advance order a copy. It comes out November 3.

Comedy is a very peculiar profession, one filled with lots of unstable folks and even less stable venues in which to earn a living. Some practitioners never do earn a living while others earn mega-bucks and you can watch the neurosis swell with each newly-amassed million. Kliph covers all aspects of the business in a way that no one else ever has and I also like that he covers comedians you never (or barely) heard of. Great stuff. Please buy enough copies so that he'll continue his research and write at least ten more of these books.

At above left is the cover of Woody, a new biography of Woody Allen that might well be the best book that will ever have my surname on its cover and spine. Unfortunately, the surname in this case refers to my cousin David, who has previously authored acclaimed books on folks like Tony Bennett and Bobby Darin, and is now working the comedy beat. Just the story of how he wrangled one interview with Woody Allen and the answers to a number of his e-mailed questions is fascinating and so is the rest of this book.

David is an unabashed fan of Mr. Allen's but not the kind who's blind to flaws or shortcomings. This is not an authorized biography but it's also not one that Woody made any effort to stop or suppress. In the unlikely event Mr. Allen ever reads it, he will probably feel flattered, though not uncritically so. David, more so than anyone else I've read on this subject, manages to present a coherent, credible arc of Allen as both a filmmaker and a human being, discussing where those two roles have intersected and where they haven't. He spoke to many people who knew Woody well and delves deep, not as a seeker of scandal but as an investigative author.

Since you probably want to know this: David is of the view that Allen is Not Guilty of the molestation charges that have been hurled against him and makes a very solid case for that view. You may remember that I was at one point leaning towards but not wholly in that camp. David and my friend Steve Stoliar convinced me separately that I was leaning in the correct direction. Steve, by the way, is quoted in the book several times as am I. In case my personal interest here is not evident, I should also disclose that I am among those to whom the book is dedicated.

So I probably can't be as objective towards David's book as he is to his subject but I am confident that if you have any interest at all in Woody Allen, you will be fascinated by this book. It's by far the best thing that has ever been written about the man. The book officially comes out November 3rd and here's a link to order your copy. If you don't want to take my word for it, Liz Smith says "For any student of Woody — a man who simply won't, can't stop working and re-inventing — this book is gold." See? She knows.

Neil Gaiman on reading: Why it's important, why libraries are important and why there are no bad books for children to be reading. I wish I could think of something to add to what he says but he pretty much has it covered.

I'm going to try once again for minimal blogging today…although I've already posted more content than many blogs do in a week. My leg is healing very well but I need to be horizontal for most of this day — and when I'm not, I need to be wrapping up the Groo: Friends and Foes mini-series. I'll be back later, probably with recommendations for two great, must-buy books on comedy — my friend Kliph Nesteroff's book on comedians and my cousin David Evanier's book on one in particular, Woody Allen. See you in a while.

How late could Joe Biden enter the presidential race and still have a chance of winning? Interesting question. According to Margaret Hartmann, if he's gonna get in, he'd better get a move on.

The new anniversary Blu-Ray of Monty Python and the Holy Grail includes a lot of deleted footage. You can order a copy here but you don't have to in order to see all of the lost scenes. Some of them are on YouTube. Here's Terry Gilliam's deleted animation…

And have you noticed what a lousy job I'm doing of not writing much here today?

The Bleeding Cool website is reporting that DC is now listing the credits on at least some Batman comic books as "Batman created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger." I had not heard that announced in any official way but if it's true, great. That's close enough to the way the credits ought to read that this battle may be over.

As we mentioned back here, Bob Kane was voted a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As has just been announced, the ceremony will be a week from today — on Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 11:30 in the morning. The location is in front of the Guinness World Record Museum which is located at 6764 Hollywood Blvd. and the guest speakers will include filmmaker Zack Snyder and DC Entertainment Co-Publisher Jim Lee. The Batmobile from the new Batman v Superman movie will be also be there.

Anyone who wants to attend can do so, just by getting there early and finding a place to stand behind the barriers. The event will be live-streamed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame website. More details can be found on this page.

When the star was first announced, a number of folks were threatening to picket it with signs saying things like WHAT ABOUT BILL FINGER? As you probably know, Finger was the writer of the first Batman story and most of the formative ones and there seems to be a widespread belief that he was as much the creator of the property as Kane, if not more so. Kane himself in his autobiography said he should have given his old friend and collaborator a co-credit…but the fact is, he didn't. As far as I know, DC and its corporate overlords are still contractually obligated to credit Kane as the sole creator. The press release for Kane's star describes Kane as the creator but does include the following…

Batman's first adventure was called "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate," and was written by Kane's frequent collaborator, Bill Finger, who over the years would make many significant contributions to the Batman universe.

The press release also says, "Bob Kane continued to illustrate Batman's comic book adventures until his retirement in 1968," which of course is not true.

Last month, DC announced some sort of agreement with the family of Bill Finger (I assume that means his granddaughter) by which Finger will receive increased recognition for his contributions, including credit on the TV series Gotham and in the Batman v Superman movie. That is not the same as acknowledging Finger as co-creator but it is a major step.

Before that, I had been thinking that when Kane's star was unveiled, I'd round up a posse and make some signs and go protest the injustice to the late Mr. Finger. But the new arrangement to credit Finger in some ways wherever possible makes me a lot less militant on the matter…and the fact that I just had a new knee installed makes me unable to do all the walking and standing that a demonstration would involve. ..so I won't be there protesting. I still think though that if Kane deserves one, Finger deserves one. Maybe the next time a Batman movie is to be released, Time-Warner can use its considerable clout to arrange that.

Here's the flip side of that Fred Kaplan piece I posted last night. Daniel Larison thinks Hillary's foreign policy policies are very bad and that her opponents in the debate missed the opportunity to bring that out. I'm not sure who I think is right in this one but interestingly, both Kaplan and Larison are big approvers of the Iran deal.

I saw my surgeon yesterday about my new knee. The good news is that it's healing rapidly, way better than the norm. The bad news is that my lower leg is swollen due, I guess, to stuff from the knee draining downwards. He put a thing called a "gel cast" on my lower leg and ordered me to spend more time flat on my back, less time sitting at the computer for the next few days. I need to devote my computer time to an assignment so there may not be much opportunity for blogging through Friday when the gel cast comes off. Presumably, when it does, my leg will be in great shape.

Not much else to say about the debate. Everyone who doesn't seem to have a favorite candidate in the race thinks Hillary "won" by a handy margin and folks like Jonathan Chait believe she solidified her position as front-runner in a way that may keep Joe Biden out. Between Clinton, Sanders and Biden, I don't have a huge preference. I also wish that someday, we'd have presidential debates that are real debates instead of these little dueling 30-second sound bites.

I will be back when I can be back. And thanks to all who've sent good wishes for a speedy recovery. I think I'm having one. In the meantime, I get to use up more of these soup can graphics I made up. I have dozens of 'em.