Monthly Archives: December 2015

Longtime followers of this blog have probably been wondering what's been keeping me. Why have I not written about Fritz Feld, the prolific character actor who was seen constantly in movies from the silent era until around 1989? Well, wait no longer…

Fritz Feld was born in Germany in 1900. He made his first film there in 1917 and by 1929 was in the U.S. motion picture industry being directed by the likes of Cecil B. DeMille. Mr. Feld was in hundreds of movies and TV shows but here are the names of a few films you may know: Bringing Up Baby, At the Circus (with the Marx Brothers), The Phantom of the Opera (1943 version), Call Me Madam, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Pocketful of Miracles, Barefoot in the Park, Hello, Dolly!, The Sunshine Boys, The World's Greatest Lover and Mel Brooks's History of the World, Part I. His Internet Movie Database listing has 205 movie and TV show appearances and I'll bet it's far from complete. He passed away in 1993.

Feld played all kinds of roles but is best remembered for portraying a maître d'hôtel, a head waiter, a hotel manager or a butler. He was so perfect for these parts that it is said no one had to tell the casting folks to book Fritz Feld for them. They'd just see that the script called for a prissy head waiter and they'd call Fritz. And of course, directors would insist that he perform his trademark POP!

I never learned how to do this even though I was coached by the man himself. He would shape his mouth into an "O" and then slap it with the fingers of his hand — and out would come this loud "POP" sound. It was how the head waiter would signal lesser waiters to snap to attention…or something. Whatever it was, it was Fritz Feld's signature.

He was so well known for it that it was a gag in the Mel Brooks film, Silent Movie. Brooks, Marty Feldman and Dom DeLuise walk into a night club and they are greeted by the maître d' (guess who) who does a little bit extorting a tip from them. He also does his "POP" — except that since this is a silent movie, there is an actual title card that just reads "POP!"

Every filmgoer over a certain age got the joke because they all recognized him. They may not have known his name but they all thought, "Oh, there's that guy who always plays the maître d' and goes 'POP!'"

When I was growing up in West Los Angeles, Mr. Feld lived somewhere near us. I never knew exactly where but when I was walking around the neighborhood, he was often walking around the neighborhood. Our home was located near the Twentieth-Century Fox Studio and a number of the houses near us were occupied by folks who worked at Fox or had. For instance, our next door neighbor, Betty Lynn, was an actress for all the studios in town but when she and her parents had moved to Los Angeles and bought their house, she was a contract player at Fox. Perhaps that is why Mr. Feld chose that area.

I'm not sure why but even when I was around eleven, I knew who he was. I knew him by name and when I spotted him in a movie or TV show, I'd feel like I'd found an Easter Egg or something. And of course, I knew and tried to emulate his "POP!" How could you not attempt it?

When I passed him on the street, I'd do it for him — badly. To this day, I can't do it. But he was always delighted to be recognized and he'd do it back to me — properly and with uncanny volume. Sometimes, we'd stop and he'd tutor me in the fine art of POP!ping. I'd always tell him something like, "I saw you on The Danny Thomas Show last week" and he'd be so pleased that he had a fan of my age. Once in a while as we stood and talked, people in passing cars would recognize him and wave and he'd "POP" to them.

These encounters all took place before around 1968. I didn't see him on the street after that and I wondered if it was just chance or if maybe he'd moved away. I still saw him in plenty of movies and TV shows, though.

Around 1982, I was working on the Sunset-Gower lot in Hollywood — a facility that was formerly Columbia Pictures and which seemed to not have been cleaned or upgraded much since Frank Capra made Mr. Smith Goes to Washington there. One day as I was walking from my car to my office, I passed a little man and — three steps later — realized it was Fritz Feld! I scurried after him, stopped him and explained to him that I was that little kid he used to always see in our mutual neighborhood. "And I still can't do this," I told him as I demonstrated my anemic, soundless POP!

He laughed and we talked a bit. He said, "After my wife and I moved out to Brentwood, whenever I went for a walk, I would think, 'Oh, I miss my young fan.'" I told him I was sure that plenty of other people recognized him.

He said, "Yes, but an unusual thing happened. I am married a very lovely women, an actress. For years, anytime we went anywhere, people would recognize me and ignore her. Then one day, she did this commercial…it was for coffee. And then they had her back to do another one and another one…"

(Quick Annotation: Mr. Feld was married to Virginia Christine, who from 1965 until 1986 was seen incessantly as "Mrs. Olson" in ads for Folger's Coffee.)

He went on: "At first, I did not realize the power of a commercial like that. But before long, everyone was recognizing her and no one was recognizing me. It did not bother me until one time a woman in a store gushed over Virginia and then the woman turned to me and asked, 'So, what do you do?' And you know what I told her? I told her proudly, 'Madam, I do this!'"

And he made his POP! sound and I laughed. What a lovely man.

This Saturday at 1:30 PM, the Los Angeles County Art Museum is running It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Actually, the website says they're running Mad, Mad, Mad World but I assume that's just a typo and they're actually running the entire film — or at least the general release print. If you're interested, click on the word "website" in the previous sentence for info.

The last time I was in New York, the Stage Delicatessen and the Carnegie Deli were both open and thriving — two nearby competitors who both had partisans who'd tell you their favorite was the best in the world. I thought they were both great.

The Stage went out of business at the end of 2012 and the Carnegie has been shuttered since last April. The Carnegie's closure wasn't supposed to be permanent but it's starting to look that way. This article doubts it will open its doors again. How sad would that be?

Angie Drobnic Holan is an editor at Politifact, which weighs in on the truth or fibbery of politicians and pundits. I generally find them and most of the fact-checking sites fair and accurate, even when they proclaim my guy or gal a liar. Once in a while, I think they treat awkward phrasing as deliberate prevarication but generally, they're even-handed.

Ah, but one thing bothers me about these enterprises. I think they need to do a better job of not letting people reduce their findings to "Politician X was caught lying 78% of the time whereas Politician Y only lies 31% of the time." Their scoring has a lot to do with which statements they choose to check. Donald Trump's rating could go up or down depending on which of his more arguable statements they scrutinize. They point this out but then they do charts like the one in the linked article that makes it easy to overlook the selectivity of the process.

Jonathan Chait thinks the Paris Climate Deal will prove to be Barack Obama's greatest accomplishment. I guess that means we can count on certain people pledging to undo "every last word of it" just because it's that. I see and even talk with people who have legit, reasonable arguments against many things the Obama Administration has tried or accomplished. But I also see (and try to talk) with some who work backwards from the premise that we have to somehow undo his election, expunge every trace of his impact and maybe even rewrite the history books to say that he was never president. I can well imagine these people wanting to increase worldwide greenhouse-gas emissions just for that reason.

Robin Leach is reporting that Jubilee, the long-running show at Bally's in Las Vegas will close February 11, ending a 34-year run. It was the last show of its kind in town, maybe anywhere on this continent — a big revue featuring classic, undraped showgirls and a lot of spectacle. I hadn't seen it since its last few upgrades but much of it did not change…and even twenty years ago, it was old-fashioned and impersonal. Still, it's always sad to see a tradition go away…

Here's good advice from John Oliver. Come to think of it, any advice from John Oliver is probably good advice…

Jeff W. writes to ask…

I read your rant about how awful the layout and traffic are at the Los Angeles Convention Center. I get the feeling you have an anecdote you're hiding. Would you care to share it with us?

Well, since one of you asked: I think the last time I was down there was about ten years ago for a videogaming convention. I wouldn't have gone but a very nice (I wrongly thought) producer was about to make me a very nice (I wrongly thought) offer to write the scenario for a silly adventure videogame. We'd had two meetings in his office when suddenly he informed me I had to attend a meeting at this con at — shudder, shiver — the L.A. Convention Center. He insisted I be there at 3 PM sharp to meet with others involved in the project.

So I drove down there that day. I left plenty of time (I wrongly thought) to park and get to the meeting but there was no place to park, no how, no way. Every lot was jammed. The only exception seemed to be one lot directly across the street from the convention center but they wanted $50 to park there. Just as a matter of principle, I wasn't going to fork over that amount for a parking space that was usually eight bucks and overpriced at that.

At 3 PM, the producer cell-phoned me: "Where are you? Everyone's here." I told him I was circling the terrain, unable to find a spot to stash the auto. "Find a place," he yelled. "Park anywhere!" I told him the only option was the fifty dollar lot. He told me to park there and he'd reimburse me the money. Well, okay. The principle at stake suddenly seemed to be whether they'd get my money, not his. I parked, I paid, I went in.

It took me an awful long time to find and hike to the place where I could pick up my badge. It took an awfuler, longer time to get to the designated meeting place. One delay en route was a group of lovely young women who desperately wanted to undress me but I was able to avoid that.

The meeting took place in a little conference room built into the side of this particular videogame company's display. Eight people — one of them, me — crammed into a room about the size of one of those little Hershey bars — the kind you give out for Halloween. What was said? I have no idea. I was in the noisiest convention hall in the world with thousands of videogames all being demonstrated at maximum volume. Couldn't make out one word.

Since I heard absolutely nothing. I said absolutely nothing. After fifteen minutes, with my head feeling like Buddy Rich was doing an all-out drum solo on it, the meeting ended. The producer thanked me profusely for my invaluable contribution to the discussion — I think — and promised to be in touch. Three days later, he presented me with the formal offer for my services and I told him the amounts were insufficient by a couple of decimal places. This infuriated him and I not only didn't do the project but he never gave me my fifty dollars for parking.

It was an awful experience and obviously I'm not blaming all of this on the convention center…but the parking thing was their fault and from what others tell me, it's still a problem at times, plus it was a long, confusing walk from one place to another. Bet that hasn't changed either. Anyway, that's what happened the last time I was there, Jeff. Thanks for asking and —

Oh, wait. You're probably curious about the lovely young women who were eager to undress me. I sure would be if I was you reading this.

Actually, they were eager to undress almost any male walking into this convention. There were about half a dozen of them set up in a corridor there — all in their early twenties and looking stunning in cut-off jeans and tight t-shirts that promoted a new line of games. They were there, oh-so-ready to pounce on guys of a certain age. I'm not sure of the exact range but I was in it.

Their mission? To persuade you to remove whatever shirt you were wearing, which they would lovingly fold and pack in a bag for you. Then one of them would put one of their t-shirts — advertising what they were there to promote — on your torso.

The shirt removal and replacement would be done by one of the ladies in a little private tent they had there — just you and her inside. They all made it sound like a much sexier experience than it surely was. The best-looking one of them, selling this promotion a bit too aggressively, winked at me and said, "Who knows? Once we get in there, I may even want to change my shirt, too."

I said to her, "No, you won't." She said, "You're right, I won't. But it gets a lot of fellows into the tent. Don't you want to be alone in there with me?" She made a disparaging remark about my plain, advertising-free shirt and hinted at what fun she would have peeling it from my manly chest.

I said, "I'm sorry. My mother raised me to believe that if a woman ever removed my shirt, I'd have to do the decent thing and marry her."

She laughed and then, making sure no one around could hear, she whispered to me, "Come on…we get a commission for every shirt we get a guy to put on. Once you get inside, you can slip into the men's room and change back."

I don't know why but I said, "Have you got a 3X?" This was shortly before I lost all that weight in 2006. She checked and they were all out. I guess guys who go to videogaming conventions run kind of large. So I was off the hook and I hurried off to locate that meeting where I couldn't hear a damned thing.

On my way out, the same cute lady accosted me again and, forgetting they were out of my size, tried even harder to get me to let her put one on me. She stopped just short of inviting me to remove her shirt. I got out of there, thinking that even if she had offered that, the whole trip down to the convention center wouldn't have been worth my time. Not even if I hadn't had to shell out the friggin' fifty dollars.

Here's the current draft of the annual obit film from Turner Classic Movies. I say "current draft" because they always put these out early in December and then add in other folks who pass away before New Year's Day.

Naturally, the main topic of discussion about these is who was overlooked. Not featured in this are (among others) Martin Milner, Bud Yorkin, Dick Bakalyan and Stan Freberg. Stan was in several movies on-camera and if you count cartoon voicework, hundreds…

I haven't mentioned my knee here lately. It continues to heal, slowly but certainly. I thought I'd be more mobile by this many days since the second surgery but since things are moving in the right direction, I've decided to be fine with it. I get out once in a while but mostly I stay in, writing or visiting with chums who drop by, minimizing my trips up and down stairs, which is the main time I have any discomfort. I have stopped taking the industrial-strength pain-killers and now get by with a minor one that helps unstiffen the joint and make me ow less frequently.

The main concern is whether the infection will return. As you might recall, I picked up some bacillus during my first knee operation that after one month caused said knee to swell, ache and turn not just any pink but that deep, rich Susan G. Komen pink. A second operation was done to cleanse and since then, scientists have been attempting to identify just what it was that was growing inside me. The samples they extracted have stubbornly refused identification. They simply won't grow in the petri dishes…which may be a hopeful sign. If the thing won't grow in the lab, maybe it won't grow again in me.

Encouraging it to not grow within me are antibiotics. I take an oral one (Doxycycline) and then I'm nearing the end of a six-week daily regimen of an intravenous one (Ceftriaxone). Each day, a nice nurse drops by for ten minutes, checks my vitals and infuses me with the latter but that's almost over. So then it'll just be wait 'n' see if the pink comes back. If it does, I'm in for not one but perhaps two more surgeries. If it doesn't…Yay! The odds, I'm told, are in my favor but not by quite as wide a margin as I'd like.

If all goes well, I'll be walking normally by about New Year's, give or take a holiday. I dunno when I'll resume driving but that will be the marker that I'm really over this.

A friend of mine who has been told he needs the same surgery is reticent because of what happened to me. I tell him he shouldn't be. The odds of picking up an infection like this are, like the bacillus in question, very tiny. There's a risk of it in any kind of surgery and that's not a reason to never have surgery. The basic knee replacement procedure is sound and — assuming a skilled surgeon such as I had — not risky at all. Not having the surgery would in my case have been (eventually) a lot more painful and probably even riskier.

Folks ask if I'm angry and upset about all this. I don't see what the point of that would be. It wouldn't make my knee heal any faster. If something spills, you mop it up. If something breaks, you fix it. My knee went bad and I'm doing what it takes to make it and me functional again. And let's be honest: There are worse things that can happen to a guy who loves to write than to have to stay in all day. If and when I need to have the other knee switched for an artificial one, I may try to time it for when I'm ready to finish that novel I've been thinking about for decades.

I think I've been announced as a Special Guest at WonderCon, which is being held March 25-27 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. For those of you who came in late, WonderCon was originally a great con in Oakland, California and then it changed owners, moved to San Francisco and became an even greater con. It would probably still be in S.F. but one year, the Moscone Center in San Francisco did some remodeling and didn't have room that year for WonderCon…so the gathering relocated to Anaheim.

It was only supposed to be in Anaheim for the one year, then it would shift back to S.F. but two things happened. One was that it was an incredible success in Anaheim, more so than anyone expected. And the other thing was that even after the remodel was done, the con organizers had trouble getting workable dates at the Moscone. So WonderCon became an Anaheim convention and the idea was that if and when they could get decent dates in San Francisco, they'd consider having more WonderCons there in addition to Anaheim. That has not happened yet and may never happen.

This year though, they couldn't get good dates and ample room at the Anaheim Convention Center because it's being expanded. They're adding 200,000 square feet of additional exhibit space and there are also major upgrades to the parking situation and other improvements. If they could find a way to move it even farther from Disneyland, it would be even better but I guess that wasn't an option.

These renovations are expected to be completed in Summer of 2017, which causes us to ponder: What does that mean for that WonderCon 2017? Your guess is not only as good as mine but probably better. Some onlookers are suggesting that if the L.A. Convention Center works out next year, history will repeat itself and that is where WonderCon will stay. I have no opinion on this other than that I've always thought the L.A. Convention Center is a real terrible place with a confusing and fragmented floor plan, horrible parking and ghastly traffic for some distance in any direction.

I offer the following to give you pause on those last two points. To get to the convention center and park, you have to compete with those trying to get to and park for the Staples Center next door. The Staples Center seats 19,000 people and on March 25, there's an evening basketball game — the Lakers versus Denver. On March 26, there's an evening hockey match (Kings vs. Edmonton). And on March 27, there are two basketball games (Clippers vs. Denver in the afternoon, Lakers vs. Washington in the evening). So if any game is sold out, you have to avoid 18,999 people plus Billy Crystal.

Which would be bad enough even if the Staples Center was the only thing down there that attracts crowds. It isn't. Next door to that is L.A. Live, a huge entertainment complex that includes six live entertainment venues, a fourteen screen cinema and the Grammy Museum. There are also twenty restaurants, most of which are expensive and hard to get into during events. Does any of this sound a wee bit crowded?

Nonetheless, I will be there for WonderCon and I'm trying to decide whether to arrive by Uber or drone. The folks who run WonderCon put on really, really good conventions — they're the same people who bring you Comic-Con in San Diego — and it's always worth whatever hassle is involved in getting to one of their cons. I'm just anticipating way more than there should be.

Speaking of Comic-Con in San Diego! As you may know, there are always these issues about whether Comic-Con will stay there. The current contract runs through Comic-Con 2018 so we'll soon be hearing predictions it will move and rumors that other cities have an "in" to steal it away…and I'm sure there'll be those who think that larger facilities in L.A. or Anaheim will win the day. It will take a lot more of that than we've ever seen to get me to budge off my prediction that Comic-Con will remain right where it is for a long, long time.

But there have been problems as a planned expansion of the San Diego Convention Center was killed. Recently, a group unaffiliated with the con has been gathering signatures for a proposed ballot measure that would raise the city's hotel room tax to 15.5 percent. This initiative is being advertised as a way to fund the expansion, thereby keeping Comic-Con in S.D. It's a nice thought but there's some question as to whether the increased revenues it would bring in would actually go for that. On Friday, the convention issued this statement…

Comic-Con is not a party to the initiative and its passing will have no effect on the organization's decision to remain in San Diego. Comic-Con has stated in the past, and continues to believe, a contiguous, expanded convention center is one that will benefit the city best. It appears this ballot initiative does not favor that scenario.

In other words, while people are adding their names to petitions thinking they're keeping Comic-Con from moving away, they may be empowering other causes. Let the signer beware.

Each year, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS does many events to raise funds for its most worthy cause. My favorite — and I always wish I was in New York when these happen in December — is the annual Gypsy of the Year Awards show. There are only two performances mounted — at odd hours because most of the folks involved in this show are doing eight performances a week in some ongoing Broadway show. But they devote their so-called "free time" to writing and learning and performing special material for these two special performances, which are done largely for an industry audience.

Here's the opening number from this year's Gypsy of the Year Awards presentation. It's a very cute little dance number that I'm sure you'll enjoy…

Hey, can I bring up the Bill Cosby matter again? Cosby probably owes Donald Trump many thanks for grabbing all the headlines away but recently, this caught my eye. In the New Yorker recently, Jeffrey Toobin was listing some of the big legal stories to follow in 2016. This was one of them…

The comedian's reputation has been destroyed in the course of 2015, as dozens (dozens!) of women came forward to say that he had drugged and sexually assaulted them. Cosby's lawyers have denied most of the charges, when they have addressed them at all. But, in 2016, Cosby will suffer a lot more than bad publicity. A criminal investigation and multiple civil lawsuits are moving forward against him. The statute of limitations has been Cosby's ally throughout his legal troubles, but the number and magnitude of the allegations should overwhelm him this year. It's a good guess that Cosby will end 2016 in prison — and that he will end his life destitute.

Toobin's no dummy but prison and poverty sure have never seemed likely or even possible to me since the revelations started. Regarding the latter, Cosby has a net worth that's been estimated at $400 million. I would think you could pay a helluva lot of legal fees and outta-court settlements and maybe even endure one big loss to Gloria Allred and still have a nice chunk of that wad left over. But perhaps not.

As for what would land him behind bars, I'm assuming Toobin is thinking of the Chloe Goins matter. Her allegations of rape against Cosby apparently are not mooted by the Statute of Limitations but for a while, legal analysts were speculating that some of her own problems, including a reported arrest for prostitution, would cloud that matter and allow Cosby to skate by. Does Toobin now think that will not be the case? Does he think that public outrage over all the crimes that cannot be prosecuted will create a tsunami that will force the Goins case to go against Bill?

I have a hard time seeing all this happening but if Jeffrey Toobin thinks it is — well, maybe…

This is the next-to-last entry to Mark Evanier's list of the twenty top voice actors in American animated cartoons between 1928 and 1968. For more on this list, read this. To see all the listings posted to date, click here.

Most Famous Role: Yogi Bear.

Other Notable Roles: Huckleberry Hound, Dixie the Mouse, Mr. Jinks, Hokey Wolf, Quick Draw McGraw, Baba Looie, Super Snooper, Blabber Mouse, Augie Doggie, Snagglepuss, Wally Gator, Elroy Jetson, Lippy Lion, Captain Crunch and hundreds of others.

What He Did Besides Cartoon Voices: Not very much. Daws co-starred with Stan Freberg on Time for Beany, the groundbreaking puppet show on early TV.  Later, he was heard on Freberg's radio show and many of his records, some of which Daws co-wrote. Daws was also heard on hundreds of commercials, many of which he also wrote.

Why He's On This List: A lot of voice actors would tell you Daws was the best practitioner of their craft.  The Hanna-Barbera empire was largely built on his ability to make a character funny and expressive even when the script and animation didn't.

Fun Fact: Daws was one of the most beloved figures in the animation business and a very fine teacher of his profession.  Don Messick was once asked how he learned to do cartoon voices and he gave a very simple answer: "I worked with Daws Butler." Daws gave lessons for years in a little workshop out back behind his home. Many of today's top voice actors studied with him and the ones who never had that opportunity envy the ones who did.

Jonathan Chait thinks Republicans should encourage Donald Trump to run as a third-party Independent. The possible scenarios he lays out are interesting but I don't think anybody can guess what would really happen other than that the split of the right-wing vote would benefit the Democratic nominee. Then again, I don't think anyone can guess what would really happen if Trump were to not run as a third-party Independent…