Monthly Archives: June 2016

Janet Waldo, whose career in entertainment stretched from motion pictures to radio to television to the world of cartoons, died this morning. The cause was a brain tumor and her age…well, no one's quite sure how old Janet was but she sure never looked or sounded it. Since she made her radio debut playing ingenue roles in 1940, it's safe to say she was in her nineties.

She was a distant relative of Ralph Waldo Emerson. She was the widow of writer Robert E. Lee, whose credits as a playwright included collaborating on Inherit the Wind, Auntie Mame, The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail and many others. Lee passed in 1994 and Janet kept his office intact in the home they shared together. Once when I visited her there, she made me sit in his writing chair and told me wonderful stories of this fine writer.

She appeared in more than two dozen movies but established herself in radio, mostly notably as the star of Meet Corliss Archer. Her most memorable role in television was probably the episode of I Love Lucy in which she played Peggy, a teenager with a crush on Ricky Ricardo.

In 1962, she spoke for Judy Jetson in the animated series, The Jetsons. It was her first cartoon but it launched an entire new career in that area, mainly working for Hanna-Barbera. She was Josie in Josie and the Pussycats, Penelope Pitstop in Wacky Races and The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, Granny Sweet in the Precious Pup cartoons and was heard in hundreds of other roles.

She continued voicing Judy Jetson in many incarnations of The Jetsons but in the 1990 animated feature, a controversy erupted. Janet recorded the speaking role of Judy and it was expected that the then-current pop sensation, Tiffany, would only supply the singing voice. Tiffany was signed but she and/or her managers reportedly insisted that Tiffany also replace the spoken lines. At the insistence of Universal Pictures, which was releasing the film, this was done. Janet was upset, though comforted by an incredible outpouring of support from her many fans. In 1997 at a retirement party for her frequent co-star Don Messick, Joe Barbera spoke and took the opportunity to apologize in front of most of the voiceover community to Janet for letting that happen. She forgave him and that more or less buried that matter.

Janet continued working until just a few years ago when illness prevented her from continuing. It was about the only thing that could. She was a wonderful lady and a great trouper and talent. I had the honor of working with her on several occasions and I can't think of anything she ever did wrong or anyone who knew her who did not absolutely adore her.

And as I said, I don't know how old she was. But I can tell you that well into her nineties, she could still sound like the teenage Judy Jetson. I think I'll just assume she was always that age.

I assume you've seen the news about the shooting last night in an Orlando nightclub. 50 dead. 53 more injured — and both those numbers may grow. This is horrible on two levels, the first of course being the shooting itself. The second is the rush — already in hyperspeed on the 'net — to spin this for political advantage.

It presents endless opportunities for that. It's about all sorts of topics in the news: Automatic weapons, Radical Islam, gays (it seems to have been a gay nightclub), immigration (maybe)…lots of elements there to play with, plus nobody with a cause wants to miss the chance to link theirs to "The Worst Shooting Attack in U.S. History." Or wait until they have more facts.

This is feeling to me like a good day to stay off the Internet. I'll probably be back later but not to write about this.

The (then) famous comic actors Ed Wynn and Jerry Colonna voiced the Mad Hatter and the March Hare (respectively) in Mr. Disney's 1951 animated movie of Alice in Wonderland. The two performers were filmed so the animators could study their gestures and expressions but it was generally assumed that these were separate duties; that they recorded their voices in one session and acted out the scenes in another. Apparently, no. The person who put this video together figured out that the audio from their on-camera filming was the audio in the cartoon…

Are voters this year more pissed-off than ever? Kevin Drum doesn't seem to think so…and to the extent, they might be, what accounts for that? Here's something he wrote to eliminate possible reasons…

I was chatting with a friend yesterday about the (alleged) anger of low-income whites this election season, and she asked what kinds of concrete, long-term trends might be responsible for this. Concrete in the sense of important, measurable stuff that truly makes people's lives worse. The truth is that I don't know of many. Crime is down. Teen pregnancy is down. Student test scores are up. Graduation rates are up. Illicit drug dependence is down (yes, really) and it's way down among teenagers. The growth rate of health care is on a multi-decade downward trend. The Great Recession did immense damage, but we've been recovering nicely for several years: growth is steady; unemployment is below 5 percent; inflation is below 2 percent; job openings are rising; and household debt, which has been trending downward for nearly a decade, is at its lowest point since 1980.

If you read his article, you'll see that Kevin came up with two (well, two and a half) reasons why voters might actually be more enraged than usual. I'd like to toss another one out for consideration. We're ending eight years of relative impotence for both sides.

Obama hasn't been able to do many of the things he wanted because of the Republicans and Republicans haven't been able to do many of the things they wanted because of Obama. Activists on both sides have been stewing, waiting for 2016 and fantasizing it was the year they'd nuke the other side and no longer have to settle for, at best, tiny victories. There's always some of that but because of the partisan gridlock, it's been worse than ever.

So you have a lot of leftie voters lining up for Bernie because Bernie was the guy who wasn't going to just give them tiny victories but big, sweeping revolutionary ones. Having been denied so long, they're hornier than ever to get things on their wishlists.

And you have a lot of rightie voters who were angry for eight years of the gay Muslim from Kenya pretending to be president. The thing they want most is to win and I think most of them looked over the field of candidates they were offered and saw Trump as the guy most likely to win — the guy who'd kick and scream and throw things and insult the people they hate…and win. It sure wasn't Jeb "Low Energy" Bush.

My theory is if along the way, there had been a lot of compromises and creative "working together" between Obama and Congress — if each side could have felt they were getting a good chunk of what they wanted — you wouldn't have as much rage. Some, just not as much. But we've reached the point where that's not possible so you have a lot of people who see it as all-out, kill-the-enemy war. They figure that's what it's going to take to accomplish anything.

So last night, I was watching a police chase on television. Here's the news flash on it…

A driver of a reportedly stolen car led police on a chase on Friday along Los Angeles freeways. The driver of the 1990s model Honda Accord traveled at high speeds, often followed only by a police helicopter.

The chase began in the north San Fernando Valley before heading into downtown Los Angeles and onto the 110 Freeway. He exited the freeway at Manchester and drove on surface streets in the Florence area before returning to the freeway, returning to the north.

And then afterwards, he fled through Coldwater Canyon where it was too foggy for the copters (TV or police) to track him from the air but cops on the ground nabbed him. He was taken into custody and I'm now imagining him appearing before a judge, accompanied by his attorney…

ATTORNEY: Your honor, my client wishes to plead Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity.

JUDGE: I see. Counselor, have you any proof that your client is insane?

ATTORNEY: Yes, your honor. Your honor, with all the other cars on the road to choose from, my client actually stole a 1990s model Honda Accord.

JUDGE: Case dismissed.

To get you in the mood for the Tony Awards on Sunday night, there's a medley/mashup of songs from shows currently playing on Broadway. It's performed by RANGE a Cappella and it's pretty darned good…

When I heard that Pat Buchanan is backing Donald Trump, I couldn't believe it. Pat Buchanan is still alive?

Apparently so because he wrote a column called "Why Trump Must Not Apologize." I gather he means for anything, even when he's wrong. There are people who believe that never admitting you're wrong is the same thing as being right.

And speaking of being wrong, I think Buchanan is wrong in that piece when he says…

…in rejecting demands that he apologize for his remarks about the La Raza judge presiding over the class-action suit against Trump University, the Donald is instinctively correct.

Assume, as we must, that Trump believes what he said.

Why, then, should he apologize for speaking the truth, as he sees it?

I don't know why we must assume Trump believes what he said. I rarely think any politician believes everything he or she says. One of the few might be Pat Buchanan, who ran for president three times and got zero electoral votes. There's a guy you want to listen to if you're interested in winning.

Frankly, I can't think of an actual presidential candidate who impresses me less than Trump does in the category of Believing What You're Saying. Those who want to do a wee bit better than Buchanan did all pander to some extent to the crowds before their podiums. This whole thing with the judge seems pretty simple: Trump's reputation is being sullied by this Trump University lawsuit and he stands a good chance of losing it so he needs an explanation for why it's rigged. Blaming a Mexican sits very well indeed with Trump's base.

Hey, I just Googled Buchanan's name to find out something I was going to write about here and I discovered that Ed Kilgore just wrote a terrific response to Buchanan's column. I don't have a strong finish for this so I'll just suggest you read him.

The wonderful folks who run Comic-Con International today announced…

Elliot S! Maggin, Richard E. Hughes to Receive 2016 Bill Finger Award

Comic-Con International is proud to announce that Elliot S! Maggin and Richard E. Hughes have been selected to receive the 2016 Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. The selection, made by a blue-ribbon committee chaired by writer-historian Mark Evanier, was unanimous.

"Once again, I asked on my blog for suggestions of worthy recipients," Evanier explains. "We wound up with a lot of worthy names from which to choose, but these two seemed the worthiest."

The Bill Finger Award was created in 2005 on the suggestion of comic book legend Jerry Robinson. "The premise of this award is to recognize writers for a body of work that has not received its rightful reward and/or recognition," Evanier explains. "Even though the late Bill Finger now finally receives recognition for his role in the creation of Batman, he's still the industry poster boy for writers not receiving proper reward or recognition." Evanier will present the awards during the Eisner Awards ceremony on the evening of Friday, July 22 at the San Diego Hilton Bayfront.

Elliot S! Maggin began his career the hard way, submitting a script completely on "spec" to DC Comics in 1971. Editor Julius Schwartz thought it was the best submission he'd seen in several decades and bought it. Before long, Maggin was writing for most of DC's star characters with a special emphasis on Superman. He has published several novels, including the upcoming Not My Closet and the soon to be re-released Superman: Miracle Monday. Among his other comic book credits are Green Arrow, Archie's Super-Teens, Batman, Justice League, Elseworlds, Hulk, Peter Parker, Strange Sports Stories, Wonder Woman, Shazam, Ellison's Dark Corridors, Star Raiders, Joker, and a bunch of others, including a Marvel Classics version of Homer's 24-book Iliad "crowbarred" (his term for what he did) into 48 pages. He has also taught at every grade level including adults, run twice for Congress, designed games and software, and raised horses, dogs, bees, and kids.

Richard E. Hughes (1909–1974) was one of the most prolific writers and editors to ever work in comics, so much so that his work was published under dozens of pen names ranging from "Ace Aquila" to "Zev Zimmer." Even "Richard E. Hughes" was a pen name for the man born Leo Rosenbaum. "Hughes" began writing for advertising and pulps in the 1930s, and his first known comic book credits were for Pine Comics where he co-created and wrote Doc Strange (no relation to the later Marvel hero) for Thrilling Comics #1 in 1940. His best-known character of that era was probably The Black Terror for Standard Comics. He eventually assumed the editor position for publisher Ben Sangor and helmed Sangor's American Comics Group, which published both funny comics and the first horror titles, such as Adventures Into the Unknown. Hughes wrote many of the scripts for years and almost all of them the last decade of ACG's existence. His best-known work came in a 1958 issue of Forbidden Worlds, where he wrote and co-created the Fat Fury, Herbie Popnecker, who later spun off into his own, well-remembered comic book series of the sixties, Herbie.

The Bill Finger Award honors the memory of William Finger (1914–1974), who was the first and, some say, most important writer of Batman. Many have called him the "unsung hero" of the character and have hailed his work not only on that iconic figure but on dozens of others, primarily for DC Comics.

In addition to Evanier, the selection committee consists of Charles Kochman (executive editor at Harry N. Abrams, book publisher), comic book writer Kurt Busiek, artist/historian Jim Amash, cartoonist Scott Shaw!, and writer/editor Marv Wolfman.

The major sponsor for the 2016 awards is DC Comics; supporting sponsors are Heritage Auctions and Maggie Thompson.

The Finger Award falls under the auspices of Comic-Con International: San Diego and is administered by Jackie Estrada. Additional information on the Finger Award can be found at this link.

Right after O.J. Simpson was acquitted of that infamous double murder, polls showed that about 70% of white people thought he was guilty whereas only around 20% of black people felt that way. Both numbers have risen steadily since then…and today, more than 50% of blacks think he dunnit. Here's more on that.

James Corden is in New York this week preparing to host the Tony Awards on Sunday night and going on every show he can to plug it. He even went on Seth Meyers' show despite the fact that his show is on opposite Seth's. Isn't this kind of thing a refreshing break from The Late Night Wars?

So after reading all sort of posts and articles about what's on the mind of Bernie Sanders, my impression is that, yes, he genuinely thinks he has somehow earned the right to the Democratic nomination by far exceeding what a grass roots, unfunded by Big Donors campaign should have accomplished. It's true that it's impressive and quite an achievement. It's not true that it — you'll excuse the verb — trumps actually getting more votes. His supporters keep reminding us that he won 22 states as if that's more than half.

At the same time though, he knows he's lost and he's keeping his campaign going because as long as he does, he (a) gets press coverage and (b) has something to trade. And he's going to trade it for various promises and concessions that will — he hopes — keep his party from inching back to the right and will make some of the items on his "to do" list come true.

At least, that's how it looks to me. He doesn't really think he can persuade Superdelegates to take the nomination from the person who got more votes and give it to the person who didn't. And maybe he's still thinking there's a chance of Hillary getting indicted on the e-mail thing but that seems like a longshot.

I have only the vaguest memory of The Garden of Allah, an overdecorated hotel at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Crescent Heights up in Hollywood. Before they tore the place down in 1959, it was the scene of countless anecdotes, all of them a little racy and with the general theme of debauchery in the entertainment industry. One fact which always gets omitted from its story is that the same year it was closed for good, a new tenant moved in next door: The Jay Ward cartoon studio. Jay once told me, "I got to Hollywood just as it stopped being fun!"

Donald Middleton of Houston was just sentenced to life in prison for driving while under the influence of alcohol. He had eight previous convictions for doing the same thing. I think the new sentence is at least five convictions too late.

This is a short 1939 documentary on how they made Popeye cartoons at the Max Fleischer Studio in Florida. The cartoon they're making in it is Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp, which was the third and final in a series of extra-long and color Popeye cartoons Fleischer produced. Max's brother Dave was credited as director but according to most reports, he was more like the producer on most projects.

The animation process depicted is very similar to the way other studios then worked with two exceptions. The Fleischers and their crew had designed a special camera that allowed them to put three-dimensional models in the backgrounds of some scenes. You can see it in action in this film. Also, at other studios, the voices were done before the animation. At the Fleischer Studios, they were done after which is why the lips rarely matched the dialogue.

Max and Dave moved their operation from Manhattan to Miami after a bitter 1937 labor dispute. The Miami studio opened in October of 1938 with most of its resources devoted to the animated feature, Gulliver's Travels. In May of 1941, Paramount Studios — which had been financing and distributing the Fleischer product — called in loans and effectively seized ownership of the animation company. Later that year, Max and his brother Dave had a major falling-out, refusing to work with each other any longer. At that point, Paramount got rid of both men. The business was renamed Famous Studios and in 1943, it was moved back to New York and turned into a very ordinary company. Here's a look at what it was like there before that happened…

I hope someday after this election is over, someone on the "inside" writes a credible account of the thought process in Bernie Sanders' decision to fight on to Philadelphia and not concede the race before.  None of the theories being advanced by outsiders make a lot of sense to me and I'm curious if there's some sort of outside-the-box strategy here or if it's just a stubborn emotional response.

Trump seems to be in trouble because of his attacks on that judge. Mr. Trump will be in and out of trouble a lot in the coming months. A writer named Noah Millman has an interesting theory about how and why Trump does things like that. Basically, it's that Trump operates from the premise that he always wins so when he loses, it has to be someone else's fault. And he'll say just about anything to keep that fantasy going.

This morning on CNN, I heard a Paul Ryan supporter (I guess) wonder aloud why Ryan endorsed Trump. Seems obvious to me. Ryan has legislation that he wants to get passed and he figures President Clinton won't sign it but President Trump probably will. Also, you don't get far doing anything in a political party if you turn on its nominee.

Amidst the bigger headlines last night, did anyone notice who the Republican candidate is for Barbara Boxer's Senate seat in California? There isn't one.

Frank Rich thinks that Hillary Clinton's best Trump-basher will not be her husband or Sanders or her running mate or even herself. It'll be President Obama. Well, he's good at it.