For those of you interested in the aspect of the Gary Condit mess that interests me: Bob Somerby, over at The Daily Howler, is running some of his terrific-as-always commentaries on the press coverage.  Pay special attention to the quotes from the police that Mr. Condit was cooperative and did not in any way impede their search for Chandra Levy.  These may or may not reflect the true situation but I'll betcha more Americans have heard that Chandra was pregnant — apparently, not true — than have heard that a cop said Condit told them everything they wanted to know.

And just to remind you: I don't know if Mr. Condit did something foul (beyond cheating on the missus) or didn't, nor do I much care.  But an awful lot of folks seem to have made up their minds based on some pretty questionable news reports.  And that's a bad way for the public dialogue to be conducted, even if it turns out that Condit did some or all of the bad things of which he's been accused.

I'm watching the Jerry Lewis Telethon and Mr. Lewis just said — and I quote:

I just looked in the front row and I realize that my nine-year-old daughter is here, and my six grandchildren, and each and every one of them are so healthy, they would make Vic Tanny look sick.

That's pretty healthy, to be able to make a guy who died in 1984 look like he's only sick.  Somebody, anybody — get Jerry a list of this century's topical references!

Terrific article about Nathan Lane in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine.  Here's a link that oughta be good for at least a few more days.  (You have to register for access to their site but it's free and well worth the time 'n' trouble.)

One of the essentials to the production of a good cartoon show is a good recording studio and a good sound engineer.  The studio where I've always preferred recording shows I produced or directed is Buzzy's, which is located on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood.  They have a great crew that really knows its business.

Unfortunately, that crew is one person smaller today.  Larry Lantz, who was at the console for thousands of cartoon shows, radio commercials and promos, died yesterday due to complications of Diabetes.  He was also a producer, a casting director and one of the truly nice men in our business.  You've heard many, many programs and ads that were as good as they were because Larry was as good as he was.  Which was pretty damned good.

Speaking of addictive games: Game Show Network has started running old episodes of Press Your Luck — a program I found almost impossible to not watch during the few years it graced CBS's daytime schedule.  The game is a bit complicated and, if you're coming to it fresh, you might want to brush up on the rules, which you can do at the website of one of its many fans.  What you'll find, not every day but quite often, is that the rules yield an amazing cliffhanger of an ending.  Someone did a real clever job of configuring this one.

By the way: If they keep running 'em two-a-day from where they started, Game Show Network will get to the infamous Michael Larsen episodes some time in mid-October.  Those are the ones where an unemployed ice cream truck driver from Ohio figured out a "pattern" in the game show and walked off with more than $110,000.  It made for one of the most amazing moments I've ever witnessed on teevee — one that so embarrassed CBS that they refused to allow the two half-hours to be rerun.  Just in case they're in the package GSN is airing, I'll alert you when we get closer to when they might pop up.

I've been kinda disappointed in myself for having any interest at all in the big Gary Condit brouhaha but I do, and I've recently decided why…

About Mr. Condit's sex life, I could care less and I wouldn't know Chandra Levy from Sandra Dee.  But I've grown increasingly disgusted with how this nation forms its opinions on public issues, and the role the media plays in that bizarre, tabloid ritual.  A large chunk of the U.S. has decided that Mr. Condit is a sleaze.  Some think he may be a murderer; others have decided he definitely is, and no further unfolding of facts is likely to convince them otherwise.  At the very least, they've decided, he lied to the Levy family about the affair and was not forthcoming to the police with information that might have helped locate the missing girl friend.

Now, some or all of the charges may be true.  And if it turns out he offed her, don't claim I ever thought he was innocent.  But given how many of the press reports have proven faulty, and how ambiguous or fourth-hand some of the "facts" are, I think it's too soon to be as sure as some people seem to be.  It's like: Condit comes across like a putz and he cheated on his wife…so any negative info about him must be true, no matter how flimsy its origin.  I'm also uncomfortable with how many of those denouncing Condit on TV seem to be saying, "Bill Clinton slipped away from us but this one won't!"  They seem to feel that proving you can drive someone from public life, without even waiting for a charge to be filed, is vital to some preservation of "values" in America.  I suspect that some of those demanding Condit's immediate resignation are, deep down, afraid that he future revelations might swing his way, so they have to get him out before that happens.

Here's a link to an article that Andrew Sullivan published in The New Republic.  Now, I rarely agree with much of what Mr. Sullivan has written and I think, in this piece, he goes too far in defending Condit and ignores a couple of key points.  But read it, not as a suggestion that Condit may be a total innocent, but as an argument that a lot of what's been said and printed about him is too shaky for anyone to have already handed down a final or near-final verdict…

…which, of course, doesn't mean that he didn't break some law.

I mentioned Edward Everett Horton in this space the other day and a couple of e-mails arrived asking who he was, or why I didn't mention that he was the narrator of Fractured Fairy Tales for Jay Ward.  Guess I figured that anyone who would waste even a second on this website would already know the latter fact.  As for who he was, he was a distinguished thespian, and here's a link to a website with a good bio of the man.  And if you want to look him up in the highly-fallible Internet Movie Database — which you can do by clicking here — you'll see that he had a pretty impressive list of films to his credit when he passed away.  Since then, a number of voiceover artists have done subtle rip-offs of his voice and style.

By the way: Amid Amidi reminds me that there's actually a street named for Mr. Horton.  Somewhere out in Encino — and only a block or so long — lies Edward Everett Horton Lane.  You can see it on Mapquest by clicking here.  (And while you're surfing: Amid is the publisher-editor of the splendid publication, Animation Blast, which you can sample and order over at www.AnimationBlast.com.)

I also mentioned that, with the announced closing of its Shubert Theatre in September of 2002, Los Angeles will really have a shortage of venues to house large theatrical productions, especially musicals.  As several e-mails reminded me, the muses have a way of balancing these things: We will soon have the Kodak Theatre, which is part of the huge complex currently being erected at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue.  (They apparently said, "Hey, let's pick an intersection that's already impossible to get through and put a huge attraction there!")

The theatre is said to be adjustable and in one configuration will seat 2100 people, which is what the Shubert holds.  The Kodak can also, they say, be expanded to 3500 seats for special events, such as the Academy Awards.  (Construction is supposed to be completed in time to house a production of Nutcracker Suite in November but theatrical events are also anticipated.  The Oscars will be there in April of next year.)

Actually, there's another reason why we might not be seeing a lot of big theatre in Los Angeles in the future.  That reason is Las Vegas.  As more and more mega-resorts are being announced for Vegas, one hears more and more talk of trying to bring theatre — live and legit — to the town.

Broadway-style shows are not unknown in Nevada but, in the past, they've usually been lower-class touring companies and/or stripped-down "tab" versions.  They reduce the size of the cast, cut a few numbers and skip the intermission…all to get the budget down and to get patrons back out into the casino quicker.  That is changing.  The recent run of Chicago at Mandalay Bay was a star-cast clone of what was playing on Broadway, and Forever Plaid ran several years at the Flamingo Hilton without a moment cut.  As Vegas goes increasingly upscale, and with $100+ ticket prices becoming more common, it's only a matter of time before we see more of this.  Almost all the new, large hotels (and those being planned) have showrooms that could accommodate almost any show currently playing the Great White Way and most were built with something of the sort in mind.

The moguls who control Vegas all fantasize about it becoming the most important place in the world for every conceivable kind of entertainment.  A few harbor fantasies of making the town as important for theatre as New York, if not surpassing it.  In the past, this has been mostly talk but, one of these days, it won't be.  Some show is going to be a smash hit on Broadway and then, instead of announcing its next production for L.A., Chicago or London, they'll accept some mega-offer — as only Vegas can generate when it wants to — to assemble a company to play Sin City.  Right now, if Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick (or even any other two big names) wanted to commit to a year of The Producers in another city, I'd bet some Vegas hotel could and maybe would offer twice as much as any other facility on this planet.

At the same time, we'll see a few hotels arranging deals to get shows heading for Broadway to try-out in Las Vegas.  The math makes too much sense for this not to happen and, in a way, it already has.  (A musical based on Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus recently shuttered, apparently unsuccessfully, at the Flamingo Hilton…and Jerry Herman is said to be writing his next show to debut in Vegas.)  At some point in the not-too-far-off future, this kind of thing will be made to work and, when it does, a lot of productions that might have played Los Angeles will instead detour to The Strip.  I predict.

I have nothing more to say about Gary Condit except to note the following two headlines that appeared the day after his interview with Connie Chung. I think they demonstrate what a fine job he did of not saying anything of substance.

Condit Refuses To Acknowledge Affair
By MICHAEL DOYLE, Bee Washington Bureau
(Published: Friday, August 24, 2001)
WASHINGTON — Ceres Rep. Gary Condit said Thursday that he and Chandra Levy "became very close," but he refused to acknowledge having an affair with the Modesto woman.

To read the complete story, click HERE

Condit Admits Affair With Levy
By KILEY RUSSELL, Associated Press Writer
(Published: Friday, August 24, 2001)
MODESTO, Calif. (AP) – Rep. Gary Condit acknowledged a five-month relationship with missing intern Chandra Levy but said he had no idea what happened to her when she disappeared nearly four months ago.

To read the complete story, click HERE

Remember that these two reporters were watching the same interview. How's that for having it both ways?

Quick theater review: The touring company of Kiss Me Kate is camped at the Shubert Theater in Los Angeles for next month or so.  This is the same production still playing on Broadway (though probably soon to close) where I saw it twice.  Since this is a touring company, we get different stars, the same costumes, the same arrangements, the same revised book, and approximations of the same direction and choreography.  The sets follow the same basic designs but have been simplified and downsized so they can be trucked from town to town.

I loved this show in New York but only liked it a lot in L.A., where the stars are Rex Smith and Rachel York.  Smith is good and York is great but the chemistry between them — so essential to this tale of a warring theatrical couple performing in a musicalization of The Taming of the Shrew — doesn't quite click.  But each scores with great solo turns, and the dance numbers are outstanding.  The Act Two opener — "Too Darn Hot" — is worth the price of admission alone and so is the performance of Nancy Anderson in the role of Bianca/Lois.  (I loved the lady who played it in N.Y. and Ms. Anderson is even better…)

So the news of what's on the stage is generally good.  What isn't good is the news that the Shubert Theatre has only a year to live before it will be razed to make room for a 15-story office building.  Playgoing in this town has been bad enough without losing the 2,100 seat Shubert where I saw Evita, A Chorus Line, Sunset Boulevard, 42nd Street, Ragtime and so many others.  Some folks had figured that whenever The Producers makes its way west, it would wind up at the Shubert, especially if The Lion King remains ensconced another year at the Pantages, as seems likely.  Los Angeles will probably lose a lot of great plays, simply because there's no place to play them.

I don't really know who Ron Newcomer is, other than that he loves to take photos of celebrities and have his picture taken with celebrities.  He's put a staggering number of such pics, taken over 25 years, on his website (here's the link) and I find it strangely hypnotic to browse through them.  The faces of the celebs change but, for some reason, Mr. Newcomer's never does.

At left above is the cover for the new DVD of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, which comes out September 18.  I must say I'm a little baffled by this design, which was also employed on one of the VHS releases.  See that photo at lower right?  Know who that is?  That's Edward Everett Horton, a wonderful character actor who is (a) just about totally unknown today and (b) in the movie for all of ten seconds.  So why does he have one of the largest photos while Spencer Tracy — the film's main star — has a small one and other stars, much better known than Mr. Horton, are absent?

The most logical explanation I can come up with is that whoever designed this thing thought it was a photo of Jimmy Durante.  Either that or this cover is the handiwork of Edward Everett Horton, Jr.

This is the "restored" version which, as you've all heard me say ad nauseum, is not really restored.  It's cobbled together from discarded scenes and out-takes.  I don't think much of it and, about a year ago when I finally got to sit and talk with Stanley Kramer for a time, he didn't seem to think much of it, either.  (I haven't written a column about that chat because, among other reasons, I can't figure out how to tell it so it sounds like something that could happen on this planet.  I had wanted for years to meet Mr. Kramer and ask him a few questions about Mad World but it never happened.  Then, when I went out to the Motion Picture Country Home to visit Pat McCormick, it turned out his roommate was Stanley Kramer and…well, it was a very odd afternoon because Pat can't talk since his stroke, and Mr. Kramer's memory kept coming and going.)

In any case: An overlong Mad World containing scenes that don't belong is still better than no Mad World.  And this DVD contains a good "Making of…" documentary, trailers and subtitles in English, French and Spanish.  So I'm buying one and if you want to, they're taking advance orders over at Amazon.Com, which you can reach by clicking here.

Excerpts from the 1999 Comic-Con International Panel with Chuck Cuidera and Will Eisner can be read by clicking here.  And an audio interview with Cuidera (as well as plenty of information on Blackhawk) can be found over on Dan Thompson's Unofficial Blackhawk Comics Website, which you can reach by clicking here.

Chuck Cuidera, who worked on the classic Golden Age comic books of Blackhawk and The Blue Beetle, passed away the night of August 25.  He was 86.  A native of Newark, New Jersey, Chuck was an excellent athlete who somehow found his way into the world of art, winning several scholarships and eventually graduating in 1939 from the prestigious Pratt Institute — an achievement of which he was very proud and which he would mention often.  He started in comics working for the notorious Victor Fox and while there, worked on the company's main super-hero, The Blue Beetle, which appeared in both comic books and strips signed "by Charles Nicholas."  (Cuidera's full name was Charles Nicholas Cuidera)  Others, including Jack Kirby, took over the strip, retaining the Nicholas by-line.

At times, Cuidera would claim to have created the character but the timing of its first appearance makes this assertion questionable, at best.  In any case, he soon migrated to Quality Comics, run by a man named Everett Arnold, known throughout the industry as "Busy" Arnold.  But most of Cuidera's early work was done in the shop of Will Eisner who was in partnership with Arnold, and it was there that Cuidera's most enduring feature, Blackhawk, was created.

Again, a bit of controversy would always surround who did what on Blackhawk.  Eisner recalled involvement in writing the first story, before handing the strip over to Dick French to write.  Cuidera said he created it, that Bob Powell wrote the first story and that subsequent scripts were by himself.  "I never drew a script by French," Chuck insisted when I interviewed him earlier this year.  "Powell wrote the first one and I wrote the rest until I went into the service."

Eisner later said of the dispute, "Whether or not Chuck Cuidera created or thought of Blackhawk to begin with is unimportant… the fact that Chuck Cuidera made Blackhawk what it was is the important thing, and therefore, he should get the credit."

What is less arguable was that Cuidera — apparently with some assistance — drew the first eleven stories that ran in Military Comics before heading off to war.  He served as a commando in the 36th Infantry Division's 143rd Regiment.  While stationed at Paul's Point, off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, a boat capsized during a GHQ problem and Chuck was credited with rescuing some 30 soldiers — a feat for which he was given the Soldier's Medal.  He was also rewarded with the approval of a previously-filed request to transfer to the Air Force.  By the time of his discharge, he had attained the rank of captain with the 8th Air Force division.

His replacement as Blackhawk artist, Reed Crandall, soon lifted the feature to new heights and became identified with it.  When Cuidera returned to comics work following his discharge, Crandall remained as lead artist on Blackhawk, and Chuck occasionally inked his work and drew back-up features, while devoting much of his time to a strip called Captain Triumph.  He also served for a time as Quality's Art Director, where he became known throughout the industry for his crusty, blunt management style.  One of Quality's artists, John Cassone, once told me, "Chuck really chewed you out if you drew something wrong or turned work in late."

In 1956, Quality Comics sold Blackhawk to DC, and the artists went with it: Dick Dillin as penciller, Cuidera as inker.  Chuck inked for other DC books over the next 14 years, including Hawkman, The Brave and the Bold and the ghost titles, but was increasingly unhappy with the business and its pay scales.  At the same time, he had become interested in SCUBA diving.  He successfully designed and marketed a quick-release weight belt for divers, and taught skin diving for the Y.M.C.A. all around New Jersey.

"I saw no future in comics," he explained in a recent interview.  In 1970, he was mulling an offer to become involved with city planning in his home town when he got into an argument with a DC editor over corrections to his artwork…an ironic turn of events, given Cuidera's own reputation as an art director.  It was at that point that Chuck Cuidera left comics and focused his energies elsewhere, soon losing all contact with the industry.  Years later, he retired to Florida with his wife.  Within the comic book field, he was believed to be deceased until, just a few years ago, Golden Age expert Dave Siegel tracked him down.

In 1999, Charles Nicholas Cuidera was a Guest of Honor at the Comic-Con International in San Diego and had such a good time that he came back again, this year.  At the '99 con, he was reunited with his old friend and employer, Will Eisner, for a historic panel on the origins of Blackhawk.

It was a pleasure to meet and interrogate such a pivotal figure in comic history.  Chuck had a hard-as-nails exterior but he was genuinely moved to discover that he had so many fans and to see so many of his old cohorts.  Alas, he did not live to see the hardcover Blackhawk Archives book which DC is issuing in September, reprinting his original eleven Blackhawk stories from Military Comics, as well as several by Crandall.

Still, he was delighted to hear that his work was being preserved in that manner, and that it would be devoured by a new generation.  And of course, he was well aware that the Blackhawks would long outlive their maker…

Absent a confession that he'd killed Chandra Levy and dumped her body into the gloppeta-gloppeta machine*, I thought Gary Condit did about as bad as humanly possible in his interview with Connie Chung the other night.  No, I take that back: He actually managed to do worse in the interview he did right after that with a local reporter in his home town of Modesto.  I caught it on my satellite dish…and he not only looked even sleazier, he made his performance with Ms. Chung look worse, because he kept robotically repeating the same answers he gave there, over and over, draining every last droplet of sincerity from them.

It was like a game we used to play in improv workshops where you're given two lines of dialogue and, no matter how the scene plays out, you have to answer with one or the other.  In Condit's case, they were "Out of respect for the wishes of the Levy family, I'm not going to get into that" and "I've been married for 34 years and I'm not a perfect man."  Since not one of the questions asked could have been a surprise to the guy, you'd think he'd at least have planned some different ways to not say anything.

I have relatively little interest in Mr. Condit and, while it would be nice to see Ms. Levy turn up alive and well, I have no more interest in her than I do in any of the hundreds of men and women who manage to vanish each year in this country without the media going on Red Alert.  The law enforcement officials who are charged with searching for Chandra Levy must feel trapped between the proverbial rock and hard place: They are incessantly hectored for not doing more to find her, but they know there's no acceptable answer to the question of why they're doing more to find her than they do to find anyone else.

What does interest me, sort of, about all this is how gleefully irresponsible the media has become in all this.  Bogus reports of other affairs…oddities in the Condit household…reports of phone calls that actually didn't take place?  Doesn't matter.  Condit, they've decided, is guilty of something; if he didn't break the law, he's at least a hypocritical wife-cheater…so he and his family are fair game and accuracy is not required, especially during Sweeps Week.  Early on, I had a faint hope that he'd turn out to be the Richard Jewell of Public Figures but there's no way that's gonna happen, no matter how this thing plays out.

What also interests me is this: Gary Condit is not some schmuck who got caught cheating on his wife.  He's a seasoned politician schmuck who got caught cheating on his wife.  He's experienced at evading dangerous questions and double-talking his way past topics he'd rather not address.  People are upset because they think he's weaseling past all the hard queries…but that's in the Job Description we've come to define for elected officials in this country.

We expect politicians to lie and evade and then, if they're people we like, we forgive evasive answers and fibbing as some necessity of elected office.  How many people do you know who were upset about all three of the following:  Bill Clinton's "I never had sex with that woman," George Bush's "I was not in those Iran-Contra meetings" and Ronald Reagan's "We did not trade arms for hostages"?  Most folks expressed outrage about one or two of those…but when it's their guy caught mutilating the truth, they rationalize or change the subject or say "The other guy did worse" or mutter, "Out of respect for the wishes of the Levy family, I'm not going to get into that."

Mr. Condit is being no less candid than most politicians in America if you ask them a question that they know will cost them votes.  If he really thinks he can survive and win re-election, it's probably because he knows that, in the end, honesty garners little reward at the ballot box.  I don't think it'll work this time…but, sad to say, it usually does.

(P.S.: For the funniest comment so far on it all, check out what Joshua Micah Marshall had to say by clicking here.)

*An obscure reference to a joke in the Jack Lemmon film, How To Murder Your Wife.

I've recommended articles by Joe Conason before and I'll highly recommend his current one.  It's about Dick Cheney stonewalling on his energy commission while Republicans are leaking details of Bill Clinton's confidential conversations with Ehud Barak.  Here's the link.

And another aspect of the same situation is covered over on Joshua Micah Marshall's Talking Points.  Go there by clicking here and read down the page a bit because he keeps adding new items at the top..