This afternoon, I attended a lovely private memorial for Janet Waldo, the wonderful cartoon voice actress best known for playing Judy Jetson and Penelope Pitstop, along with many, many others. The home she lived in was filled with family, friends and some very fine caterers and her loved ones (by relation) threw a perfect party for her loved ones (not by relation). I won't start naming who was there but I did spend a very nice time chatting with the lovely Jackie Joseph, who along with all her very fine TV and movie work was in the voice cast of the Josie and the Pussycats cartoon show with Janet.
There were wonderful clips of Janet's long, long careers including some amazing screen tests she did for Paramount long, long ago. She was a fine actress but as her kids noted, she didn't like appearing on camera. She much preferred to do her acting on radio and later on animated cartoons. She was sure good at it and, as the mood of the room today made clear, very much beloved.
In other news: I'm getting lots of questions about the new autograph law and I can't answer a one of them. My answer to all is I Don't Know…and one of these days, I'm going to write a piece here about the power and frequent accuracy of I Don't Know as an answer. Too many people who don't know don't like to admit it…or they say "I don't know" and then they launch into wild, baseless speculation. In this case, I Don't Know is my answer. And the fact that there seems to be so much that We Don't Know is a good indicator to me that there's a lot wrong with this law.
Several folks though did suggest I link to this article about how much cash some celebrities are now hauling home from autograph shows. I don't want to say this too loudly but I have a hunch we're going to be hearing a lot more about this industry soon…in news reports that will include mentions of the Internal Revenue Service.
Should you be interested in reports of corruption on the part of Donald Trump, the name to watch for is David Fahrenthold, who is digging up immense amounts of scandal over at the Washington Post. Trump and his forces are dismissing everything as lies and/or Election Year Shenanigans…but if they had this kind of stuff on Hillary Clinton, they'd be calling for her immediate incarceration. As Fahrenthold sure seems to have solid proof of the shady, often illegal dealings. You can follow him on Twitter here or read his pieces for the Post here.
Real early Tuesday morning — starting at 7:30 AM on my set — Turner Classic Movies is running four of the first five features that Buster Keaton starred in for MGM. The first and best is The Cameraman, which was followed by his last silent feature, Spite Marriage. Keaton's grand career as a maker of great comedies ended about the time he moved to MGM — or rather, was moved against his own wishes.
Sound came in, the studio interfered mightily and Keaton made a shambles of his personal life and began drinking heavily. The cause-and-effect relationships between those factors can be debated but clearly, his once-brilliant work went downhill. His third MGM film (and his first talkie) was Free and Easy, which TCM is showing. It shows a great talent losing his way. Then he made Doughboys, which TCM is not showing Tuesday and which was a little better. Then he made Parlor, Bedroom and Bath, which they are showing and which was quite a fall, even from as recently as The Cameraman.
Nothing he did was ever without interest or wonderful moments so you have a choice. You can watch to see the great bits or you can watch to see the great comedian grow less great before your eyes. I'd suggest you TiVo or DVR all four, then watch them in the reverse order.