Monthly Archives: December 2021

"Mrs. Robinson" was one of several songs by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel that came outta nowhere and was suddenly being played 24/7 on every local radio station with a format that could accommodate it. I do not recall knowing at first that it was from a movie that had been released a few months before. I didn't get around to seeing The Graduate until it was playing as the bottom half of double features at local movie houses.

It was catchy the first dozen-or-so times we heard it. But since you heard it so relentlessly coming out of radios — yours and those of folks around you — we all got sick of it in a week to ten days. I remember not understanding some of the lyrics and discussing them with friends who didn't understand them either. Neither, I guess, did a man mentioned in the song. I stole this off Wikipedia…

References in the last verse to Joe DiMaggio are perhaps the most discussed. Simon, a fan of Mickey Mantle, was asked during an intermission on The Dick Cavett Show why Mantle was not mentioned in the song instead of DiMaggio. Simon replied, "It's about syllables, Dick. It's about how many beats there are." Simon happened to meet DiMaggio at a New York City restaurant in the 1970s, and the two immediately discussed the song. DiMaggio said "What I don't understand, is why you ask where I've gone. I just did a Mr. Coffee commercial, I'm a spokesman for the Bowery Savings Bank and I haven't gone anywhere!"

It seemed to me that the success of the song encouraged a lot of filmmakers to incorporate new, contemporary potential song hits into their movies…and encouraged recording artists to enter into such arrangements. The movie plugged the record and the record plugged the movie…and Joe DiMaggio.

This is the most popular thing I've ever posted on this weblog. In fact, it's so popular that proprietors of other sites have thought nothing of just copying the whole thing and posting it on their pages, often with no mention of me and with the implication that they are the "I" in this tale. Please don't do that — to me or anyone. By all means, post a link to it but don't just appropriate it and especially don't let people think it's your work. This is the season for giving, not taking.

Yes, it's true…and I was very happy to learn from two of Mel Tormé's kids that their father had happily told them of the incident. Hearing that was my present…

I want to tell you a story…

The scene is Farmers Market — the famed tourist mecca of Los Angeles. It's located but yards from the facility they call, "CBS Television City in Hollywood"…which, of course, is not in Hollywood but at least is very close.

Farmers Market is a quaint collection of bungalow stores, produce stalls and little stands where one can buy darn near anything edible one wishes to devour. You buy your pizza slice or sandwich or Chinese food or whatever at one of umpteen counters, then carry it on a tray to an open-air table for consumption.

During the Summer or on weekends, the place is full of families and tourists and Japanese tour groups. But this was a winter weekday, not long before Christmas, and the crowd was mostly older folks, dawdling over coffee and danish. For most of them, it's a good place to get a donut or a taco, to sit and read the paper.

For me, it's a good place to get out of the house and grab something to eat. I arrived, headed for my favorite barbecue stand and, en route, noticed that Mel Tormé was seated at one of the tables.

Mel Tormé. My favorite singer. Just sitting there, sipping a cup of coffee, munching on an English Muffin, reading The New York Times. Mel Tormé.

I had never met Mel Tormé. Alas, I still haven't and now I never will. He looked like he was engrossed in the paper that day so I didn't stop and say, "Excuse me, I just wanted to tell you how much I've enjoyed all your records." I wish I had.

Instead, I continued over to the BBQ place, got myself a chicken sandwich and settled down at a table to consume it. I was about halfway through when four Christmas carolers strolled by, singing "Let It Snow," a cappella.

They were young adults with strong, fine voices and they were all clad in splendid Victorian garb. The Market had hired them (I assume) to stroll about and sing for the diners — a little touch of the holidays.

"Let It Snow" concluded not far from me to polite applause from all within earshot. I waved the leader of the chorale over and directed his attention to Mr. Tormé, seated about twenty yards from me.

"That's Mel Tormé down there. Do you know who he is?"

The singer was about 25 so it didn't horrify me that he said, "No."

I asked, "Do you know 'The Christmas Song?'"

Again, a "No."

I said, "That's the one that starts, 'Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…'"

"Oh, yes," the caroler chirped. "Is that what it's called? 'The Christmas Song?'"

"That's the name," I explained. "And that man wrote it." The singer thanked me, returned to his group for a brief huddle…and then they strolled down towards Mel Tormé. I ditched the rest of my sandwich and followed, a few steps behind. As they reached their quarry, they began singing, "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…" directly to him.

A big smile formed on Mel Tormé's face — and it wasn't the only one around. Most of those sitting at nearby tables knew who he was and many seemed aware of the significance of singing that song to him. For those who didn't, there was a sudden flurry of whispers: "That's Mel Tormé…he wrote that…"

As the choir reached the last chorus or two of the song, Mel got to his feet and made a little gesture that meant, "Let me sing one chorus solo." The carolers — all still apparently unaware they were in the presence of one of the world's great singers — looked a bit uncomfortable. I'd bet at least a couple were thinking, "Oh, no…the little fat guy wants to sing."

But they stopped and the little fat guy started to sing…and, of course, out came this beautiful, melodic, perfectly-on-pitch voice. The look on the face of the singer I'd briefed was amazed at first…then properly impressed.

On Mr. Tormé's signal, they all joined in on the final lines: "Although it's been said, many times, many ways…Merry Christmas to you…" Big smiles all around.

And not just from them. I looked and at all the tables surrounding the impromptu performance, I saw huge grins of delight…which segued, as the song ended, into a huge burst of applause. The whole tune only lasted about two minutes but I doubt anyone who was there will ever forget it.

I have witnessed a number of thrilling "show business" moments — those incidents, far and few between, where all the little hairs on your epidermis snap to attention and tingle with joy. Usually, these occur on a screen or stage. I hadn't expected to experience one next to a falafel stand — but I did.

Tormé thanked the harmonizers for the serenade and one of the women said, "You really wrote that?"

He nodded. "A wonderful songwriter named Bob Wells and I wrote that…and, get this — we did it on the hottest day of the year in July. It was a way to cool down."

Then the gent I'd briefed said, "You know, you're not a bad singer." He actually said that to Mel Tormé.

Mel chuckled. He realized that these four young folks hadn't the velvet-foggiest notion who he was, above and beyond the fact that he'd worked on that classic carol. "Well," he said. "I've actually made a few records in my day…"

"Really?" the other man asked. "How many?"

Tormé smiled and said, "Ninety."

I probably own about half of them on vinyl and/or CD. For some reason, they sound better on vinyl. (My favorite was the album he made with Buddy Rich. Go ahead. Find me a better parlay of singer and drummer. I'll wait.)

Today, as I'm reading obits, I'm reminded of that moment. And I'm impressed to remember that Mel Tormé was also an accomplished author and actor. Mostly though, I'm recalling that pre-Christmas afternoon.

I love people who do something so well that you can't conceive of it being done better. Doesn't even have to be something important: Singing, dancing, plate-spinning, mooning your neighbor's cat, whatever. There is a certain beauty to doing almost anything to perfection.

No recording exists of that chorus that Mel Tormé sang for the other diners at Farmers Market but if you never believe another word I write, trust me on this. It was perfect. Absolutely perfect.

The next part of the Batman article will appear here tomorrow. Mark's too tired to finish it tonight.

I spent a delightful hour this afternoon guesting on Sid Krofft's weekly Sunday afternoon video podcast on Instagram. If you wanna watch it, I think this link will show it to you.

A screener DVD of Being the Ricardos showed up in my mailbox yesterday and I watched it last night. Didn't love it, didn't hate it. Some folks seem irate that Aaron Sorkin "fictionalized" Lucy, Desi, Bill Frawley, Vivian Vance, several writers and others, putting words they never said — and probably feelings they never had — into their mouths. Whether that should be done at all is a long argument that involves lots of examples.

The thought did occur to me though that Sorkin did nothing to the folks depicted in this movie that wasn't done to the lawmen and gangsters depicted for four seasons of the Untouchables TV series…executive produced by Desi Arnaz. The offspring of Mr. and Mrs. Arnaz have not only endorsed this new movie but served as its Executive Producers. So if they're not upset it was made, I'm not going to be upset it was made.

And yes, history had been revised and compressed and altered a lot. Every movie that depicts real events does this. My problem with Stan & Ollie, you may recall, was not so much that they tampered but that they created fake conflicts. In real life, Laurel and Hardy did not have fights like they did in the film. In real life, Lucy and Desi did fight a lot and they eventually ended the marriage.

So that didn't bother me a lot. Overall, I'd say I was a little more bothered by the anachronisms and tiny errors…like saying they were "taping" I Love Lucy at a time when shows were filmed, not taped. Or producer Jess Oppenheimer describing himself as "the showrunner." That noun was used to describe Aaron Sorkin when he did The West Wing in 1997. It was never used in the TV business in in earlier decades. There were a number of these and they would have been so simple to catch and release.

No, I think the reason I didn't love the film was that it was 125 minutes of mostly unhappy people arguing with each other. There didn't seem to be much upside or joy to starring in the #1 TV show in the country. Sorkin crammed a lot of events that occurred over several weeks into one week. That might have been okay but it means he crammed all the related arguments and anger and this person trying to control that person into one week and for me, that was just a little too much unpleasantness.

There were moments I liked and some stellar performances. Acting Oscars here and there would not surprise me. But what I got out of this movie — and I'm not saying this is actually true — is that it was no fun working on I Love Lucy or Being [Around] the Ricardos.

This is to remind everyone, myself included, that I will be a guest this afternoon on Sid Krofft's weekly Sunday afternoon video podcast. You should really be watching all of these because Sid, who with his brother Marty gave us H.R. Pufnstuf, Lidsville, Donnie & Marie, The Bugaloos, Pink Lady, The Brady Bunch Variety Show, The Krofft Supershow, Pryor's Place, Land of the Lost and so many more, is one of the most amazing human beings I have met in my years in show biz. He's also a wonderful, delightful man.

He does these shows every Sunday on Instagram. To watch — today or any time — go to Instagram and find Sid's page, which I think can be done by searching for "sidkrofft." If you do, I'll see you there at 3:00 PM West Coast Time.

Stephen Sondheim appeared on Stephen Colbert's show on September 16, 2021 for what turned out to be one of Sondheim's last public appearances. After he died, Colbert reran the interview. This version is about two minutes longer than when the conversation was first broadcast…

Which brings us to Part Four of this multi-part article about the day Batman changed forever, that day being (for me) Thursday, March 26, 1964. If you need to catch up, read Part One, then go read Part Two and Part Three. Preferably in that order.

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In the early sixties, DC Comics employed a squadron of editors, each of whom edited a batch of comics for the company. With occasional exceptions, each did his books with a small group of freelancers who didn't freelance much for other DC editors. For example, most of the comics edited by Julius Schwartz were written by Gardner Fox or John Broome. Joe Kubert and Russ Heath drew mostly for Robert Kanigher. As a reader then, it sometimes felt to me like DC was an aggregate of seven different companies. The books of each editor had a distinctive look and feel…and you could tell that the various editors there did not read each other's comics very often, if ever.

My favorites were probably the books edited by Schwartz. Just before the big change in Batman, he was editing the following comics for DC: The Atom (bi-monthly), Flash (8 issues a year), Green Lantern (8 a year), Justice League of America (8 a year), Mystery in Space (8 a year), Strange Adventures (monthly) and he'd just dropped The Brave and the Bold and added a new Hawkman comic (a bi-monthly) to his list.

That worked out to 56 issues per year — a little more than a book per week. Down the hall in Mort Weisinger's office from which the Superman books emanated, they put out the exact same number. Another longtime editor there, Jack Schiff, was in charge of Batman (8 a year), Blackhawk (monthly), Detective Comics (monthly) and World's Finest Comics (8 a year) for a total of 40 issues per year. A slightly easier workload. The other editors there were Murray Boltinoff, George Kashdan, Robert Kanigher and Lawrence Nadle.

The higher-ups at DC — Publisher Jack Liebowitz and Editorial Director Irwin Donenfeld — were aware they needed someone besides Jack Schiff to be in charge of the Batman books and Julie Schwartz, who was editing the most successful non-Superman super-hero comics for the company, seemed to be the guy. But they were also looking at Marvel's rising sales and some of their other titles' declining numbers and this seemed like a good time to swap a number of editors around.

At first, Julie balked at taking over Batman, partly over the added workload and partly because he was afraid his standing within the firm would suffer if he failed to reverse the downward trend of the Bat-Books. They solved the first qualm he had by taking away from him — quite against his wishes — Mystery in Space and Strange Adventures. These, they reassigned to Schiff…so Schwartz lost one monthly and one eight-per-year to Schiff and in exchange, he got one monthly and one eight-per-year…from Schiff.

Schiff also lost World's Finest Comics, the book featuring Superman-Batman team-ups. They moved it from the now-former Batman editor to the Superman editor. Weisinger objected to the added work though according to his friend Julie Schwartz, Mort loved the idea of controlling yet another comic with Superman in it.  He was not that happy that Justice League of America — in which the Man of Steel appeared sparingly — was outside his control.

And a few other books moved about. The monthly Blackhawk (also in need of a facelift) went from Schiff to Boltinoff. In exchange, all the "weird" anthology titles about ghosts and monsters were consolidated under Schiff. He got House of Secrets from Boltinoff. He took over House of Mystery and Tales of the Unexpected) from Kashdan. Kashdan also took over Sea Devils from Kanigher, freeing R.K. to launch a new bi-monthly war comic, Captain Storm.

You don't have to follow all that. I couldn't. I just pointed this out as a time of slight panic at DC. That's why they chose that moment to rotate editors on a dozen of their comics. And why there was a lot riding on Julius Schwartz bringing forth a new look for Batman.

It was easy enough to dump a lot of the sillier elements that had been brought to the property. Out went Batwoman, Batgirl, Bat-Hound, Bat-Mite and a lot (but not all) of the Bat-Paraphernalia. Batman and Robin would still ride about in the Batmobile but they ditched the Bat-Copters and a few other means of Bat-Conveyance. Schwartz put his two main writers, Fox and Broome, to work on scripts and there would also be some by Bill Finger, Ed Herron and Robert Kanigher. The stories emphasized the "detective" side of Batman as he battled villains who were colorful but not interplanetary.

But then came the hard part: The artwork. To be continued further.

Click here to jump to PART FIVE

The website Deadline says that rumors of the reopening of the Cinerama Dome are unfounded. Oh, well. To quote Dorothy Provine's character in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World: "It was a nice dream. It lasted almost five minutes."

Here's the third part of this essay. If you haven't read Part One yet, then you probably haven't read Part Two yet. Might be a good idea before you proceed…

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In the early sixties, sales on Batman and Detective Comics (which of course featured Batman) were falling. Some histories say both titles were on the verge of cancellation but the folks I talked to about this — folks who worked for DC back then — said it hadn't quite reached that stage yet…but why wait until it did? DC's other super-hero comics, some of them rather new, were in ascendance. Why were the Caped Crusader's numbers heading in the wrong direction?

As I mentioned in the last part, I think the stories had gotten very silly and lost the essence of the character. And I think the artwork was too cartoony by the standards of the day. Changing the stories was just a matter of deciding to change the stories; to not have Batman and Robin flying off to other planets or battling monsters. Changing the artwork was a little more of a problem. Bob Kane still had that contract that called for the bulk of the Batman art to be at least penciled by his "studio."

The folks at DC thought the "studio" was Bob Kane plus a team of assistants. In truth, the "studio" was a man named Sheldon Moldoff who worked for DC, mainly as an inker, when he wasn't ghosting for Kane. In fact, Moldoff had been drawing for DC Comics before there was a DC Comics. He worked for all the companies — two or three, depending on how you count — that merged to form the famous company. He had a page in Action Comics #1. He drew the first covers featuring the Golden-Age Flash and Green Lantern.

"Shelly," as he sometimes signed the work of his that he signed at all, worked briefly with Bob Kane in the earliest months of Batman, then left to pursue his own career. In 1953, he became Kane's primary ghost artist…a position that was a mixed blessing. The money was okay but just barely…and of course, there was no credit. There was also the matter of dealing with Kane, who could be very difficult. Decades later, Shelly would be sitting on panels at comic book conventions, moderated by me and others, with Jerry Robinson, Lew Schwartz, Jim Mooney, Dick Sprang and others who drew stories bearing Kane's signature…and they'd be talking about what a cheap pain-in-the-butt Bob Kane could be.

Then again, the position kept Moldoff fully employed during some rough years when even some of the best artists in comics couldn't get enough work and had to scramble to earn wages in other fields. So it was not without its advantages. He also worked on some of Kane's non-Batman, non-DC ventures, like a cartoon show Kane was involved with, Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse.

One artist ghosting for another was not uncommon nor was it automatically assumed the ghost was being wronged. Quite a few of the top newspaper strips were not the work of the guy who got the credit. For over twenty years, not one bit of the popular Mutt & Jeff strip was written or drawn by Bud Fisher, the guy who'd created it, the guy whose name was on it. He'd turned the job over to a cartoonist named Al Smith. Ham Fisher (no relation) only wrote or drew the strip that he allegedly wrote and drew, Joe Palooka, when one ghost quit and it took him a while to find another.

And Shelly did do work as himself, mainly inking for DC. Sometimes, they had him ink "Bob Kane" pencils that he'd drawn…which raised the interesting question, "Didn't the DC editors know?" Moldoff said they didn't…or if they did, they didn't say anything. I asked others who were around then and got answers ranging from "Everyone knew" to "No one had any idea."

The answer I got that seemed the most convincing to me came from DC editor George Kashdan. He said, "No one thought Kane did it all or even most of it. But Kane had this contract and it was easier to just do 'Don't ask, don't tell.' As long as the pages came in on time, which they almost always did, no one cared. I guess we figured Shelly was doing some of it and weren't shocked to hear he was doing all of it." (It has been my observation that a number of editors working in comics over the years had much less ability to recognize the styles of artists they hired than did some of us readers.)

It became an issue in 1963 when DC started talking about changing the look and feel of their Batman comics. How do you change the art when there's a contract that says you can't change the artist? We'll discuss what they did in the next chapter.

Click here to jump to PART FOUR

I will be quite pleased if this turns out to be true and if someone there is savvy enough to schedule It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World there soon after it reopens…

Hollywood's Cinerama Dome Plans to Reopen in 2022

Hollywood's historic Cinerama Dome theater has plans to reopen in 2022, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

On Dec. 16, a public notice of an application to sell alcoholic beverages was posted outside the theater, with the business name listed as Cinerama. Studio distribution sources confirmed the theater, built in 1963 by the Decurion Corporation, is preparing to resume showings, after having been dark since March of 2020.

Read the whole article here. Thanks to all the folks who sent me this in the last hour.

Stephen Sondheim appeared twice as a guest on The Colbert Report and I find those chats fascinating.  I actually found all the interviews Mr. Colbert did on that show fascinating because they were done with almost no prep or pre-interviews, and Colbert not only had to improvise his end of the conversation, he had to do so in character. A lot of folks who are considered expert at improvisational comedy marveled at his ability to do this.

He would tell the guest before the show something like, "I'm playing an idiot.  Don't be afraid to push back and treat me like one." This worked surprisingly well when he had on a guest with many areas of disagreement…and it was probably even harder for him to play that moron when the guest was someone he clearly admired, such as Sondheim.

Sondheim's first time on the show was 12/14/10 to plug the book Finishing the Hat and you can view that interview here.  Notice how much these guys liked each other and how Sondheim really seems to be enjoying himself.

He came back on 11/30/11 to promote the follow-up book and again, you can see how well these two men got along…

I am still limiting, and will continue to limit, the amount of this blog focusing on political matters, especially those pertaining to a certain persistent presence with the initials, "Donald Trump."  But I thought this was worth a link: Conservative pundit Jonah Goldberg explaining why he got the hell outta Fox News.  Brief summary: Too many people there were lying and a lot of them even knew they were lying.

The late George Carl — never to be confused with the late George Carlin — was one of my favorite performers. So was Mr. Carlin for that matter and I saw both of them perform glorious, not-to-be-forgotten sets in Las Vegas.

I was there with my buddy Len Wein — this was quite some time ago — and I insisted we go see the show at the Stardust, a revue that featured topless showgirls…and George Carl. I tried to explain why but it was hard to explain George Carl. I asked Len to trust me and I said something like, "Even if you hate the guy, there will still be topless showgirls." He agreed and so we sat there howling at Mr. Carl until Len managed to gasp, "I get it." He was even a bit disappointed when Carl left the stage and the topless showgirls came back on.

Here's George Carl on The Ed Sullivan Show for December 26, 1965. Sorry — no topless showgirls this time…