Hello. One of these days, the way voting will work is that you will send in your ballot via mail or some sort of online website…and before you tell me that online voting cannot be error-free or tamper-free, remember that (a) neither is the old polling place method and (b) companies like Wells Fargo and American Express can make online banking error-free enough and tamper-free enough to use it to move zillions of dollars around. At some point, you have to trust some arrangement to count your vote.
After your ballot is officially received, you can receive a little e-mail or log into a site like I just did that told me…
And I could then request that since my ballot is in, I receive no more mail trying to sway my vote, no more robocalls, no more door-to-door persuaders, no more political ads on my computer screen or my TV screen, no more messages from Donald Trump thanking me for the past support I've never given him, no more political commercials if I turn on my radio, no more leaflets on my front gate and I don't have to look at billboards, bumper stickers, skywriting or your lawn signs. It would be a felony with a stiff minimum sentence — oh say, ten years behind bars answering support questions for Brother Printers — if you show me any trace of the election. Or is that too lenient?
I asked Leonard Maltin if he ever met Paul Frees on live Instagram/Facebook chat Sunday and he said no. Leonard mentioned your name and he said you haven't twirked with him either. Is this true and if it's not, do you have any Paul Frees stories that you can share?
Well, I'm not sure anyone ever met Paul Frees on live Instagram/Facebook chat on Sunday but I think I know what you're asking. I "met" Paul Frees on the phone for brief (very brief) conversations twice but never in person and never for very long.
I have always felt truly fortunate that I grew up on cartoons with voices by Mel Blanc, Daws Butler, June Foray, Don Messick, Stan Freberg, Bill Scott, Jimmy Weldon, Julie Bennett, Shepard Menken, Dick Beals, Gary Owens, Chuck McCann, Frank Buxton, Arnold Stang, Marvin Kaplan and a few others…and in my alleged adulthood, got to meet and work with Mel Blanc, Daws Butler, June Foray, Don Messick, Stan Freberg, Bill Scott, Jimmy Weldon, Julie Bennett, Shepard Menken, Dick Beals, Gary Owens, Chuck McCann, Frank Buxton, Arnold Stang, Marvin Kaplan and a few others. I'm sure everyone reading this can understand why that would be meaningful on several levels.
By the time I got into the animation business, Paul Frees had largely gotten out…and had totally gotten out of Los Angeles. He'd moved up to Tiburon, California, which is near San Francisco. He said the air there was much better for him and June told me that Paul had reached the stage in his life where he had an awful lot of money and not an awful lot of desire to work.
He did work once in a while. If you offered him enough money, he might (might!) agree to go to a studio somewhere near his home and record there. June told me that on rare occasions, someone would offer Paul so much loot that he'd fly down to Los Angeles to record something, record it and then fly right back. I recall her complaining once, "He was down here last week for three hours and he wouldn't even delay his flight home to have lunch with me."
One time when I was visiting Daws Butler (one of the nicest and most talented people I ever met), we got to talking about Paul and he spent a lot of time telling me how great Paul was. Before I left, the phone rang and it was Paul…and Daws put me on the line with him for a few minutes. Paul spent most of that time telling me how great Daws was.
Paul Frees
At the time, I was head writer for a program called The Krofft Superstar Hour which ran on NBC on Saturday mornings for not-very-long. We were taping shows and our cast included Lennie Weinrib and Walker Edmiston, who worked off-camera supplying the voices of many of the Krofft characters. Lennie and Walker were two more guys I knew from their voicework when I was younger, though both of them did more on-camera work than off. Walker, who I wrote about here and here and other places, had a great kids' show on local TV in Los Angeles for a time.
At the time, he was supplying the voice of Ludwig Von Drake for a series of educational filmstrips or recordings or something that some division of Disney was doing. Mr. Frees, of course, had originated the role of the eminent Professor Von Drake but he wasn't tempted by the scale fee that Disney was offering for these projects. Walker, who did a pretty fair imitation of Paul's voice as Ludwig, was the go-to second choice.
Most voice actors work under an unwritten Code of Honor not to imitate another voice actor while that person is alive and possibly available. Walker abided strenuously by that rule. So what would happen is that Disney would call and ask him if he could come in next Tuesday and record a few tracks for them and Walker would say — every single time — "I can but I have to check with Paul first."
Walker Edmiston
The guy at Disney would say, "Walker, you don't have to check with Paul. He's fine with you doing this for us. He's said yes the last twenty-three times you asked him." Which was true but Walker felt he still had to check with Paul. He'd call Paul and Paul would say "Fine" and Walker would thank him and go in and do what Disney needed him to do as Ludwig..
A week or two after my chat with Frees at Daws' home, Walker came into my office where we were doing The Krofft Superstar Hour. We were on a break from taping and he asked if he could use my phone to call Paul Frees up in Tiburon. I said, "Yes, if I can say hello to him." Walker called, got Paul's permission to talk like him and then put me on the speakerphone.
Paul remembered me from the call with Daws and in that second (again, brief) conversation, I asked him about doing his impression of Peter Lorre on a Spike Jones record. Paul told me how he'd do anything for Spike and how when he met Peter Lorre, Mr. Lorre said, "You sound more like me than I do" and they spent some time teaching each other how to sound more like Peter Lorre.
Paul, Spike and Peter
The story was told, of course, with Paul playing both roles. He played Paul Frees imitating Peter Lorre and he also played Peter Lorre talking the way he really talked…and he even played Peter Lorre trying to sound more like Paul Frees imitating Peter Lorre. It was one of the many "Boy, do I wish I'd had a tape recorder running" moments of my life.
The call ended soon after and that was my last-ever contact with Paul Frees, who passed away in 1986. Before he went back to work that day, Walker demonstrated for me how he occasionally did Peter Lorre and said that what he (and everyone else who imitated Peter Lorre) was doing was an imitation of Paul Frees imitating Peter Lorre. Walker did that in a lot of cartoons so somewhere out there, there's probably someone who thinks they do a great imitation of Peter Lorre but they're really doing an imitation of Walker Edmiston doing an imitation of Paul Frees doing an imitation of Peter Lorre.
Here is the Spike Jones record on which Paul Frees imitated Peter Lorre. Paul's part starts around a minute and a half into it but for the full effect, listen to the whole thing…
Okay, I watched it. I agree with what seems to be the consensus, at least of commentators I've come across. Trump may have helped himself with a few voters by not being such a maniac but he's running out of time to correct the trajectory of this election and he didn't do that. Biden helped himself more by continuing to be more presidential, by continuing to disprove the claims that he's senile and out of it, and by simply running out the clock. This thing has already been decided — in voters' minds if not in early voting.
None of the stuff about Hunter Biden or the alleged dirty-dealing of Joe changes anything. First off, folks don't understand it. Secondly, it doesn't fit the picture that even those who don't like Joe Biden's politics have of the man himself. Thirdly, he's not the one fighting like mad to hide his personal financial information. Fourth, it's all from dubious sources and most of it came from outta nowhere just when the folks spreading it were desperate for something like this.
And fifth and most important: None of it makes Donald Trump a better president. The largest part of the Biden-Harris vote is simply people who think Trump has been very bad for this country, both in terms of honesty and competence, and that it can't endure four more years of him. Even if Biden's son is as corrupt as Trump and Giuliani insist, that doesn't make Trump a good chief exec. The voters who think he botched the COVID-19 response and has inflamed racial tensions still think he botched the COVID-19 response and has inflamed racial tensions.
Everyone's saying Trump's trying hard to replicate 2016 but it isn't 2016. Then he was running to say we needed an outsider to change the direction of this country. Now, he's saying we need the same leadership we've had for four years so as to not change the direction of this country. It pretty much comes down to that.
I didn't watch it. Well, I took a couple of brief peeks but basically, I didn't watch it…so if you came to this site to read what I had to say about it, what I have to say about it is that I didn't watch it.
The last few days, I've been logjammed on a script and writing less-pressing things than what I should have been working on. I finally got unlogjammed and around an hour before Debate Time, I decided not to spoil it by watching Donald Trump try to convince America that there will be no COVID-19 and a great replacement for Obamacare just as soon as he gets re-elected. The man is bad at so many things let's acknowledge how expert he is at being a major distraction. Besides, I figured, the debate will be watchable on YouTube and a hundred other places for the rest of my life. No reason to spoil my writing momentum by watching it now.
Writing this is also a distraction. I'll be back as soon as I get more pages done. In the meantime, I'll bet you can spend hours reading Fact Checks.
Today is the MOST important day in this Election so far.
The FINAL Presidential Debate is TONIGHT and President Trump is going to have to overcome OBSTRUCTION from the biased Debate Commission. They're threatening to cut his microphone for TELLING THE TRUTH and they CHANGED the topics.
It's obvious they want Sleepy Joe to win. But, the President has never let Left-wing media bias stop him before and he's not going to start now. President Trump wants to do something so HUGE that even the Do Nothing Democrats and Fake News won't be able to SILENCE US.
The President of the United States wants TODAY to be our best fundraising day EVER!
We know this is a big goal, but you've NEVER let him down before, and we know you never will. It's going to take EVERY supporter stepping up if we're going to succeed, and President Trump needs to know that he can count on you, Mark.
For the NEXT HOUR, ALL gifts will be 800%-MATCHED!
Please contribute ANY AMOUNT IMMEDIATELY to have your contribution 800%-MATCHED so we can CRUSH our goal. >>
The Debate Commission is biased. The Moderator, of course, is biased. Any reporters or commentators who say Trump isn't great and perfect and always right? Biased. And I've never let Donald Trump down before and I never will.
Election Day looms before us and many voices are warning us that it could be many days after November 3 that we know who won. Well, maybe. It has a lot to do with how long it takes certain states to count their ballots and announce the totals. If the states where Trump is expected to do well report in first, he could well take an early lead. There could also be court challenges and other matters that challenge or halt the counting. There could be recounts.
On the other hand, there are a lot of "must win" states for Trump like Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania. Presently, the forecast by The Economist gives Biden a 67% chance of carrying Arizona, a 78% chance of carrying Florida and a 90% chance of carrying Pennsylvania. Nate Silver's 538 site, using a different model, pegs those numbers at 68%, 72% and 86%…not that far off. If/when one of those three states reports a Biden victory, it's just about over for Donald. Watch this video and see how a member of Mr. Silver's squadron explains it…
So what do we think will happen in the final debate tonight? We can expect Trump to be Trump because, despite all the pundit talk over the last four years of him "pivoting" or putting on a different face for a certain purpose, he's never shown that he knows how to be anything but the Trump that thrills his base. So he'll be asked about Health Care and he'll rant about Hunter Biden. And he'll be asked about COVID-19 and he'll yell he's done everything right and he'll bitch the press hasn't asked "Sleepy Joe" about various imagined scandals.
He's really not running against Joe Biden, you know. He's running against The Press and all those powerful forces that have conspired to make him look like an outta-control, self-obsessed, incompetent liar. That seems to be his closing argument; that and the claim that The Pandemic is almost over.
And I'm absolutely not ruling out something bizarre like Trump walking off the debate or refusing to participate or showing up for it dressed as Katharine Hepburn or something…
The other day here, I told you that Garrett Thomas was one of my favorite magicians. Want to see him do another trick? He doesn't do one in this video but if you get a deck of cards and a note pad and pen, and if you follow his instructions precisely, you can do one…
Okay…someone who's going to vote for this man, write in and explain this to me…
Mark,
We have exciting news.
The FINAL debate between President Trump and Sleepy Joe Biden is TOMORROW.
President Trump knows he can't WIN AGAIN without you, so he's requested that we reach out to a few of his TOP supporters, like YOU, to become a Presidential Debate Member.
As a member, not only will the President turn to YOU for input, but your name will be broadcast LIVE during the debate for the ENTIRE world to see.
We're only offering this to a few of the President's most trusted supporters, like YOU. Spots are limited.
This is your chance to stand with President Trump and show the world that the Silent Majority will NOT be SILENCED!
We're sending him an updated roster soon and we want to make sure he sees YOUR NAME.
Contribute ANY AMOUNT RIGHT NOW to get on the Presidential Debate Membership roster and your name will be displayed LIVE during the debate tomorrow.
Thank you,
Team Trump 2020
So I'm guessing the "input" he's going to turn to me for will be to send questions which I am to answer while donating more money, and my name will be shown on some sort of YouTube broadcast of the debate on some Trump channel there. Is that it? And does he really think that he won that first debate but can't possibly win the one tomorrow night without my help…which by the way, he's not going to get.
And how is he making all these campaign appearances when he's studying roster after roster hoping to find my name on it? Someone…please help me.
I suppose a fitting tribute to James "The Amazing" Randi would be to be very, very skeptical about reports that he has died at the age of 92. But Penn Jillette has tweeted it's true and if you can't believe one liar and con-artist about another, who can you believe?
If you weren't familiar with the work of Mr. Randi, he was a magician for many years — that's where the "Amazing" in his name came from — but he turned into a guy whose specialty was educating the world to scams and hoaxes and rackets like charging people to communicate with their dead loved ones or claiming to be able to read minds. He didn't much like the word "debunker" but that's what he was, exposing psychic faith healers and other frauds.
I was honored to be part of a group that dined with him one night at the Magic Castle. No one at the table except Randi said much because he was such a fascinating conversationalist with insights and opinions and anecdotes that we all found riveting. I know his work will live on because I know how many others in and around the world of magic were inspired by him…and like me, are very, very sorry he's not around any longer. Unless this is a scam and he is.
I feel sorry for Rudy Giuliani and feel he's been mistreated, perhaps illegally, even though I know he would love and defend every bit of it if it had been done to a political opponent.
