I'm Learning To Share!

It's time to raise the Maypole!

2011-05-01T07:32:00.015-06:00

Tra-La, It's May! That Lusty Month of May!

May 1st has long signified many and diverse traditional celebrations all over the world.

The day has always put me in mind of Camelot's Julie Andrews, and in recent years Seattle's
Jason Webley - - but this year I've been pointed in the direction of Brooklyn's
Jonathan Coulton and a brilliant song from his 2003 album,
Space Monkey.

Many thanks to
my dear friend Oon
for turning me on
to "JoCo", this song, and the video below.

This song contains some strong and
charming language that may be NSFW.

No More Maury Chaykin (1949 - 2010)

2010-07-28T10:54:00.014-06:00

Character actor Maury Chaykin passes away on his birthday, in Toronto, at age 61.

- Read his obituary at CBC News.

Bye-Bye, 'That Guy'...

It was a pleasure to have drawn a bead on you over the course of many years and many memorable film and TV roles.

Your performances were so often beautifully larger-than-life,
even if the part was small.

- - Or perhaps, especially.

So sorry to see it cut short. Darn.

- Learn more about
Maury Chaykin at Wikipedia and IMDb.

El Bandito Jalapeno con El Accesorio Prominente, and other Taqueria Folk Art in San Francisco

2010-05-02T14:26:00.026-06:00

Walking along Mission Street in San Francisco on a recent afternoon, I did a serious double-take while passing by a colorful taqueria.
Visible through the open door of El Gran Taco Loco is this ▼ memorable image, painted on the wall...

Wow. So many questions.
Not just the jalapeno's 'stem', but the taco's eyeglasses, the gun - -
- - What exactly are we witness to in this scene?

Immediately I cursed myself for not having my camera with me.
Thinking about it this morning, I decided that others before me must have documented this fascinating piece of artwork.
- - And sure enough, that's just how amazing the internet is.

- Click here for another view of the above image. Larger, slightly different angle. (Source)

All of the images in this post come from the home page of Burritoeater.com, a site providing a valuable public service, having reviewed (and "mustache-rated") over 725 burritos (so far) all around the City and County of San Francisco, California.

I loves me a good burrito AND being transfixed by art, so clearly, there's much to explore...

(click on images to enlarge in a new window)

Alan Arkin sings: 'I Like You' b/w 'Barney's Love Song' (1966)

2010-02-28T13:21:00.016-07:00

The songs in the links posted below are from an old 45 of quirky but charming music originally heard as part of 'The Love Song of Barney Kempinski', a one-hour teleplay that aired on September 14th, 1966 as the premiere episode of an anthology TV series, ABC Stage 67.

For his performance in the title role, actor
Alan Arkin received an Emmy award nomination. (- - And has the program been seen since??)

- From the synopsis posted at TV.Com:
"Barney Kempinski, thirtyish and contentedly
self-unemployed, leaves his Lower East Side apartment smiling and happy.
"On this fine sunny day he is to be married - -
3 o'clock at City Hall - - to his girl Francine.
"In the few remaining hours of his bachelorhood, Barney goes off to tour the city and sing his love song - - exuberant, irresponsible and frequently dangerous - - to life, love and the city of
New York."

The photo at right, ▶
taken during production for 'Barney Kempinski' comes from a profile article on Arkin,
"Actor's Jump To The Top", that appeared in the July 22nd, 1966 issue of LIFE magazine.
- Click here to read that article.

Also appearing in the cast were John Gielgud,
Alan King, Lee Grant and Arlene Golonka.

(An item of note for those of who've never had the pleasure of seeing this production is that there's no listing of anyone in the cast playing the role of Barney's fiancé, Francine. Presumably the character doesn't appear in the story - - ?)

- Listen to:
Alan Arkin - I Like You
(Columbia Records 45, 1966)
(click for audio)

- Listen to:
Alan Arkin - Barney's Love Song
(Columbia Records 45, 1966)
(click for audio)

- Anyone who recalls having seen this program or has more information to share is invited to leave a comment. Better yet, if you know where / how to view 'The Love Song of Barney Kempinski' nowadays, it'd be great to hear from you. It might be fun and worth a pilgrimage to The Paley Center for Media someday to try and track it down in their archives, but in an ideal world it shouldn't have to come to that. (Don't get me started on my rant about how the history of television shouldn't be slipping into the realm of archaeology...)

Looking over highlights of Alan Arkin's career, the chronology of 'The Love Song of Barney Kempinski' falls in between Arkin's breakout film appearance in 'The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming' which had premiered just a few months earlier, and his villainous turn the following year opposite Audrey Hepburn in the thriller, 'Wait Until Dark'.

◀ At left; from the LIFE article, Arkin on set with
'Barney Kempinski' author Murray Schisgal.

Beginning in 1964, Arkin had appeared on Broadway in the original run of Schisgal's play, 'Luv', directed by Mike Nichols.

Nichols would direct Arkin again in the 1970 film, 'Catch-22'.

Both also shared roots to improvisational cabaret theater in Chicago; Alan Arkin with The Second City, and Mike Nichols to its precursor, The Compass Players.

Arkin's musical roots go back still further; at least as far as a folk-singing record, 'Once Over Lightly', released on the Elektra label in 1955. ▶

That release would lead him to the ranks of several folk groups before joining Second City, including
The Tarriers, Jeremy's Friends, and The Babysitters.

- Many of those early folk recordings can be heard at an Alan Arkin fansite (follow link), though you may want to beware of possible sporadic 'malware' warnings popping up...

(Please Note: In preparing this post, I was initially excited to have figured out the origins for 'I Like You', a song I'd heard years ago but had never known the story behind. While gathering information, further excitement arose upon finding not only a superior recording to the one I had, but the B-side of the record as well. Credit and many thanks for that goes to (like a) Fish Out Of Water, a wonderful blog of celebrity recordings. This post expands upon that one.)

"Where the Arkin is. On Columbia Records" - - Below, ▼ a print ad promoting the 45 and the TV program appeared in the September 17th, 1966 issue of Billboard Magazine.

Some - - NO MORE illustrations from Charles M. Schulz's 'Two-By-Fours' (1965)

2010-02-25T17:00:00.008-07:00

PLEASE NOTE: In accordance with a cease and desist message received from About Comics, current copyright holder for the images from Charles M. Schulz's 'Two-by-Fours' book, the color scans from a vintage copy of that book have been removed from this blog until further notice.

Thank you.

About Comics would also like you to know that their book 'Schulz's Youth' collects cartoons from both the 'Young Pillars' series and images from 'Two-by-Fours'.

*******************************************

This little book of child psychology for churchgoing folk was a collaboration between beloved cartoonist
Charles M. Schulz and writer Kenneth F. Hall.

It first appeared in the
mid-1960s, right around the same time Schulz was finishing up his run on 'Young Pillars', a comic strip with similar gently religious overtones, focused on teenagers.

Schulz' 'Peanuts' gang were certainly already hugely popular at the time, though it would still be a couple of years or so before they'd take over the planet and all its media.

If the lanky, elongated teens in 'Young Pillars' looked sort of like older versions of Charlie Brown and his friends, the 'Two-By-Fours' kids look sort of like kids who were their same age but who lived across town or went to a different school.

- A bit of text from the book's back cover ▲ and preface ▼ defining the concept...

"When a Two-by-Four is a piece of lumber, you can stack it on a neat pile or cut it to just the right length and nail it to a wall.

"But, the kind of Two-by-Four we discuss here (children living in their second, third, and fourth years) you can never quite nail down so permanently or stack up so neatly.

"In fact, these youngsters do not themselves have a clear picture of just who they are, and they do a lot of groping to try to discover the answer."

Fun to see Schulz working in a single-panel format, as opposed to his customary strip motif.

The vivid colors are reminiscent of those in his book Happiness is a Warm Puppy, and bring back memories of greeting cards and calendars of the era, or 'gift' books printed around the same time by Price/Stern/Sloan and other such publishers.

~~(click on any image to enlarge it in a new window)~~

~~(click on any image to enlarge it in a new window)~~

Some facts behind 'You Can Shave The Baby': The art of Zbigniew Libera

2010-02-22T05:58:00.018-07:00

Our internet is a fun and fascinating tool, but its laziness can be confounding.
Pertinent background information is so often avoided, or eschewed in favor of propagating misinformation.

A small case in point: Images of the oddly hairy baby doll shown below have been circulating on the web for several years now, most often presented as a lone, wacky 'WTF' photo, and almost always with the implication that it was spotted for sale in a marketplace for cheap Asian-produced toys.

Almost never mentioned is that
'You Can Shave The Baby' was never a
consumer item, but rather an art object created in 1995 by Zbigniew Libera, consisting of a set of ten matching dolls in ten matching cardboard boxes.

As described at the Polish artist's website;
"...His works - - photographs, video films, installations, objects and drawings - - piercingly and subversively (in an intellectual way) play with the stereotypes of contemporary culture."

In this vein of presenting 'transformed toys', Libera preceded 'You Can Shave The Baby' with 'Ken's Aunt' in 1994, a similar set of heavier-set Barbie-like dolls wearing unflattering foundation undergarments - -

(click on image to enlarge)

- - he followed in 1996 with perhaps his most famous and controversial work,
'Correcting Device:
LEGO Concentration Camp'
- - Three editions of 7 different highly customized boxed
Lego System sets.

From Zbigniew Libera's Artist's Statement included in an exhibition at The Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota:

"My ability to work with objects is taken from everyday urban contemporary life. In my study of the development of correctional devices and educational toys, I see such devices reveal more about a society and its mechanisms for creating and enforcing its norms than any study of society could.

"'Lego', a construction made partially from various Lego kits, takes us into a village with a mental hospital, Stalin's prison, World War II and Bosnian concentration camps. Thus, I feel I mix historical with contemporary references to represent our world, our little inferno, as built and sanctified by norms.

"'Eroica', is a four-boxed set of toy soldier-sized women figures. They are based on classical models.

"They are a reminder that in the 1990s no toy soldier set is complete without the inclusion of women, who have become the special targets of victimization in genocidal settings such as Bosnia, where rape camps have been well documented. Such is the fashion of 'heroic' actions of armies in genocidal and even less violent encounters where women are victims.

"During an academic conference in Brussels in December, 1997, an agitated audience, who felt that the Lego Concentration Camp was a real toy which was available for sale, demanded that I comment about why I constructed it.

"My response then, as it is now, was:
'I am from Poland. I've been poisoned.'"

- More Zbigniew Libera links are at Wikipedia.

(link:) 'I Love Ethel' - A trove of scrapbook photos, memorabilia and other treasures from the estate of Vivian Vance

2010-01-24T19:22:00.012-07:00

Follow link to read an article that ran last week in SF Gate:

"I Love Ethel - A Vivian Vance Archive Uncovered"

The photos posted here are taken from the large online gallery linked to the article.

Writer Bob Bragman's column, The Collective Mind is a regular feature geared to
Bay Area antique hunters and anyone who enjoys a good find.

In this installment, Bragman tells an interesting and circuitous tale of an antique dealer friend's connection to
New York publisher John Dodds, the husband of actress Vivian Vance, and of various items from the Vance/Dodds estate that were passed along after Dodds' death in 1986.

Furniture, artwork, and a scrapbook filled with clippings and personal photographs taken from various points in Vance's life and career - - all steeped in showbiz history.

Also included (and excerpted) is the manuscript for Viv's unpublished autobiography, including tales of troubled portions of her life and rumors about the nature of her relationship with co-star Lucille Ball.

Fascinating and well worth a look. Check it out!

(Big thanks to Joe Sixpack for the link)

Reasons To Be Cheerful: A triumphant return for The Castro Theatre's NOIR CITY Film Festival

2010-01-24T01:57:00.020-07:00

As I write this it's after midnight in the wee hours of Sunday morning, and I'm still buzzing from the superb double-feature I caught earlier this evening in the City at the historic Castro Theatre on the second night of NOIR CITY, The 8th Annual
San Francisco Film Noir Festival.

I'm hoping to get back over once or twice this next week to catch more of the festival before it's gone for another year...

Kicking off tonight's program was the impressive short embedded below, which intercuts clips from a few dozen classic Noir films, synched perfectly with Massive Attack's 'Angel' used as background score.

It was a huge crowd-pleaser for the packed house of Film Noir fanatics at The Castro...

'The Endless Night: a Valentine to Film Noir' was assembled by Serena Bramble, a 20-year-old studying psychology at Santa Rose Junior College.

Click here to read more about Ms. Bramble, the festival and its highlights.

Follow the video to its posting at YouTube, for notations listing all the films used as source material.

Plagiarism is The Sincerest Form of Bloggery - -

2010-01-22T10:18:00.006-07:00

- - or some such nonsense (and I should know).

Tee-hee, I'm honored...

'My Body': Buddhist wisdom meets gross-out novelty song, circa 1980

2010-01-07T11:06:00.003-07:00

I've just received word that the topic for next week's installment of The Contrast Podcast will be a return to songs pertaining to
Parts of The Body.

So far I've managed to take part in the previous 'body part' episodes, focusing on
The Eyes, The Skin, The Arms, The Lips, The Feet, The Stomach & Guts and The Heart, so I'd hate to miss out on doing The Hands next week.

When struck by the thought, "Eventually we'll run out of body parts and will have exhausted that topic", I got to thinking about songs on the topic of leaving the body behind.

I thought of 1968's 'Absolutely Free' by Frank Zappa & The Mothers, and then remembered this odd little novelty song, recorded by a Buddhist nun around 1980.

The LP, 'Awakening: Ancient Wisdom For Modern Ears' was an independent pressing originating from The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, a large Buddhist community and monastery near Ukiah, California.

"...Based On The Teachings Of Shakyamuni Buddha And The Venerable Teachings Of Master Hua", the album attempted to make some concepts and dogma more palatable to Western ears.

Carrying a folky / new age-y vibe overall, the music takes a couple of detours into other genres, including this peppy and charming number, with whimsical lyrics regarding the decay of the human body after the spirit departs.

From the LP
'Awakening: Ancient Wisdom For Modern Ears'
(Wondrous Sounds Records, circa 1980),
Listen to: Bhikshuni Heng Yin - My Body
(click for audio)

The singer, former bhikshuni (now Dharma Master) Heng Yin studied under Hsuan Hua and spent many years translating Buddhist texts.

- To hear more songs from the 'Awakening' album, click here.
I can recommend the selection 'Gotta Do Something/Might As Well Cultivate', which sounds slightly reminiscent of early releases of Timbuk 3 from the last half of the '80s.

A few Alan Dunn architectural cartoons from 'The Last Lath' (circa 1937 - 1947)

2009-12-23T00:42:00.006-07:00

Boy howdy, short of having someone explain why a joke is funny, there's nothing more entertaining than heavily dated old magazine cartoons in need of contextual footnotes...

Fortunately (or hopefully), the esoteric charm of this batch of panels may transcend their bygone topicality.

Cartoonist Alan Dunn (1900 – 1974) may still hold the record as the New Yorker's most prolific illustrator, responsible for 1906 cartoons and 9 covers during his tenure there, from 1926 - 1973.

Capitalizing on his background in design, Dunn also contributed many cartoons to Architectural Record, beginning in 1936.

A collection of those cartoons, 'The Last Lath' was first published in 1947.
In addition to lampooning the modern design trends and technologies of the 1930s and '40s, much of the humor centers around the terminology used by contractors and architects of the day, as well as realities like WWII-era material shortages and the post-war
housing boom.

- - Oh, and they're cool, too.

Probably there are very similar gag cartoons around today, just with more up-to-date buzzwords...

For a bit more about Alan Dunn, see also:

- A brief bio about Dunn and his wife, fellow New Yorker cartoonist, Mary Petty.

- Other Alan Dunn book covers displayed at Christopher Wheeler's Cartoon(ist) Gallery.

(click on images to enlarge in a new window)

Arnold Stang, 1918 - 2009

2009-12-22T10:44:00.011-07:00

Upon the recent news of his death at age 91, a moment please to celebrate the life and career of character actor and voice artist Arnold Stang.

A small round-up of links from the web:

- A New York Times obituary.

- A wonderful, rambling profile posted in 2007 at WFMU's Beware of the Blog.

- A remembrance, showbiz anecdotes and an old 'Herman and Katnip' cartoon at
Mark Evanier's News From Me.

- Click over to Flickr for
LORAC!'s Arnold Stang photoset.
Publicity shots, advertising, record covers, etc. A great collection.

- Mr. Stang's screen credits listed at IMDb.

- An entry at TV Party includes a RealPlayer clip from an unsold late-'50s TV pilot for 'The Arnold Stang Show'.

- The 1960 kiddie record 'Arnold Stang's Waggish Tales' found him telling the tales of Peter and The Wolf and Ferdinand the Bull with orchestral accompaniment.

As of this writing, the LP may be heard via
Do You Speak English ?

Hoyt Curtin Rocks: A few old Flintstones music cues

2009-12-13T21:13:00.015-07:00

When re-watching vintage 1960s episodes of 'The Flintstones', a heaping portion of the cozy,
comfort-food nostalgia it kindles comes from the familiar background music heard throughout the run of the series.
As with so much of the TV I was glued to in my youth, the soundtrack to the show has been part of the soundtrack to my life.

Hoyt Curtin had been Hanna-Barbera's primary composer and arranger, responsible not only for the Flintstones underscore and its immortal theme song, but for the music heard in almost all of the animation studio's many productions, from their origins in the mid-1950s until Curtin's retirement
in the '80s.

For a while, much of Curtin's H-B music was commercially available on various cartoon music CDs released by the Rhino label, but sadly and shockingly it looks like they've all lapsed out of print.

From one of those discs, the background music cues posted below all go back to the original Flintstones series.
As a finicky nerd, it had bothered me that Rhino had chosen to tack each of these brief themes onto the end of the 'primary' songs-from-the-series tracks, as sort of unlisted 'mystery bonus fun'.

- - So, for the sake of my own dork-tastic needs (and maybe even yours) I futzed with them, to bring some focus to just those Curtin instrumentals.

All of the listed titles are ones I made up, just as a referential aid for the different files, previously unnamed on the Rhino releases.

- If you have knowledge of any 'real' titles for these cuts, or have more info to share about Hoyt Curtin's cartoon music, please feel free to leave a comment on this post.

Enjoy!

(click for audio)

1. Reedy Saunter (1:22)
2. Quarry (0:30)
3. Short Chirpy Bridge (0:09)
4. Mischief March (0:23)
5. 'Oh Brother' Punchline (0:09)
6. Jaunty Stroll (0:55)
7. Harried Exit (0:11)
8. Brassy Exit Fanfare (0:10)
9. No Brakes! (1:00)
10. Bouncy Exit (0:18)
11. Driving Into Bedrock (0:41)
12. Stumbling Xylophone (0:27)
13. Morning After Pomp (0:32)
14. Walking Dino, Fred Follows (1:04)
15. Military Maneuvers (0:30)
16. Quizzical Exit Fanfare (0:07)

(click for audio)

- - OR click here to grab all 16 tracks in one 11.8 Mb zipfile.

- For a bit more of old Hanna-Barbera cartoon music by Hoyt Curtin, you might try here, or at a post about 'Jonny Quest' music at If I Only Had...

- And while listening to Flintstones music, you could do far worse than to peruse the dozens of fascinating Bedrock screen captures and other edifying wonders on display over at John K Stuff.

A World Without Lou Jacobi?!? (1913 - 2009)

2009-10-25T12:13:00.008-06:00

Another obit.

Actor Lou Jacobi has left this world, at age 95.

That's a good long run.

- Follow link to his obituary from The New York Times.

Five decades spent in showbiz.
Numerous appearances on stage, screen, TV - - and I'll wager that there is not one production among them that was not greatly improved by his presence.

Even just the sound of his distinctive voice - - I have fond memories of hearing him in the ensemble cast of some of Booker & Foster's silly comedy albums, like 'When You're In Love, The Whole World Is Jewish', or in the role of band leader Al Tijuana. ▶

- Click over to the 'Tijuana Brass Sound' box set post at WFMU's Beware of The Blog and you'll find numerous Al Tijuana cuts sprinkled throughout the available mp3s.

(At the very least, take a listen to the adaptation of
'Peter Gunn'.)

So:
A World Without Lou Jacobi In It?

Impossible to contemplate.

No thank you, I reject the notion.

His listing at IMDb tells me that it has been fifteen years since Lou Jacobi's last film credit, but I've enjoyed watching him on several occasions during that time.

I also see in that long list at IMDb that there are still many of his performances waiting for me in films I've not yet seen.

Thank you for everything Mr. Jacobi, I look forward to seeing you again soon.

- A YouTube clip embedded below: ▼

From 1971, a juicy Jacobi scene from Jules Feiffer's 'Little Murders', directed by Alan Arkin.

Jacobi plays the judge, reacting to news from engaged couple Marcia Rodd & Elliott Gould that they plan to omit God from their wedding vows...

Reasons To Be Cheerful: week of 10/23/09

2009-10-23T12:04:00.036-06:00

Hello again!
Yes, months have passed and there has been not a peep from this blog, and it's been many more months since I've posted any sort of regular 'Reasons To Be Cheerful' entry.

Simply put, things haven't been cheerful.
Mostly things have been difficult, mostly in the same ways they've been difficult for mostly everyone everywhere.
Perhaps you've noticed these things.

Personally, I hate reading blogs with excuses, so for me it's been easier to say nothing.

(Above: 'This Is Not A Peep'▲ found in the flickr stream of Coyote Crossing, via Aristocob)

Thanks to everyone who has written, whether wondering about my whereabouts, expressing concern or wishing well.

While all my stuff continues to sit boxed up in storage hundreds of miles away, for the forseeable future it seems the only stuff I can enjoy sharing with you on this blog are things I've bumped into recently, and stuff I can point you towards that I've seen on the interwebs.

But it's still great fun to share, so let's get to it!

1. Comic Soupy Sales crosses the finish line at age 83. Bon Voyage Soup!

- Follow link to the New York Times obituary.

At right is the cover image from an LP I had as a little kid, one that I played over and over again on my little variable-speed portable phonograph, although I'd never seen the TV show.

I'd never caught Soupy's schtick with Pookie or White Fang or the rest of his puppet friends, but was still fascinated and entertained.

- Follow another link to a nifty collection of Soupy Sales Memorabilia.

And so on to fashion - -

2. Perhaps photos of 'Woolies' have already found their way to you?

It was news to me, and to a friend who passed them along to me. She says she was innocently googling for information on knitting with wool and came across photos of wool fetishists in various parts of the world.

These photos are from a French fetishists forum (Not quite safe for work), as featured at Izismile.Com.

Whatever makes you happy is fine with me, but my first reaction was to naively wonder how long I could be able stand the heat and the itchiness - -

- - followed by wondering about how soon a fully wool body-suit would start to stink, how you deal with stains and are they machine washable.

Too practical, I know... I've heard it before...

3. And then there are the average people we see around us everyday as we set about our erranding...

The administrators at People of Walmart.Com are quick to stress that their site is not affiliated with Walmart.

We'll see how long that lasts as they continue this fascinating cultural anthropology project.

Folks from all over the U.S. are sending in photos they've taken of assorted "Wal-Creatures" they've encountered in the wild.

I'm sure I'd enjoy wandering the site more if the captions included for the photos weren't often so mean-spirited, but - -

- - even so...

... It can be...

... awfully...

... danged...

... difficult...

... to look away.

Compelling and important evidence!

Head over to
People of Walmart.Com and see for yourself.

4. Speaking of the rich pageantry of fancies and foibles found surrounding the human animal, the new Coen Brothers movie has opened.

Once again they've provided that brilliant balance of great story and visuals, superb casting and perfect left-field unpredictability that I always hope for in their films.

I'm so pleased that I managed to see 'A Serious Man' before I'd heard a thing about it.
No reviews, no synopsis, no mention of who was in it.

It won't happen very often, but I think that for most films (good, bad or indifferent) entering a theater without a clue is the best way to go, if you can possibly manage it.

Probably it helps if you have a good track record with the filmmakers.

As with other flicks from the Coens, 'A Serious Man' includes an interesting soundtrack with some note-worthy recordings.

It makes great use of several cuts from Jefferson Airplane's 'Surrealistic Pillow' album and a couple of other choice bits of '60s psychedelia, but the biggest surprise is a beautifully haunting vintage vocal piece sung in Yiddish by operatic baritone Sidor Belarsky.
◀

- Listen to Sidor Belarsky's 'Dem Milners Trern'
('The Miller's Tears') (click on link)

This film may not do for Mr. Belarsky and Yiddish Folk, Cantorial and Art Song what 'Oh Brother, Where Art Thou' did for Ralph Stanley and Bluegrass, but still it's always nice to see a little spotlight land on an artist that's off of most people's radar.

Follow these links for more:
- A nice little article from the San Francisco Examiner about Belarski (who died in 1975), his long and illustrious career, and his daughter's efforts to perpetuate his music.

- The Man & His Music, a tribute site.

- A Yiddish music archive, featuring mp3 download links for several of Sidor Belarsky's 78 RPM recordings.

- 'Dem Milners Trern' leads off Belarsky's LP 'Jewish Melodies', streaming in it's entirety on a page at Florida Atlantic University's Judaica Sound Archives.
Further investigation shows that 20 other Sidor Belarsky records may be heard there, in addition to over 8000 songs by dozens of other performers ranging not just from Jewish religious music and folk song, but klezmer, children's music, comedy records and more.

5. Speaking of vintage tuneage rediscovered, it's been out for a few months now, but I still can't stop listening to
Loudon Wainwright III's High Wide & Handsome -
The Charlie Poole Project.

- - Or trying to recommend it to people. (Thanks again to my pal Joe Sixpack for turning me on to it!)

From the website: "Loudon Wainwright III revisits the life, times, and recorded legacy of legendary singer and banjo picker Charlie Poole (1892-1931). ▼

"A grand gathering of songs both old and original..."

So not merely a collection of cover tunes, the 2-disc set also mingles in some new songs by Wainwright telling tales about the colorful life of Poole, as performed by Loudon and various musical friends and family members - - several assorted Wainwrights and Roches, Chris Thile of Nickel Creek and Geoff Muldaur from the old Kweskin Jug Band.

Some of LW3's fans may argue that it's not what they expected from him, but the whole project reeks of 'labor of love', and he's the perfect one to channel the spirit of a previous rowdy fellow troubadour.
Check it out!

- - And finally, a different stripe of musical archaeology, but nonetheless esoteric...

6. The lyrics to the theme from 'Mission Impossible'.

A little while back I was googling about while trying to remember obscure lyrics I'd heard to some old TV theme song or another, and found the best thing I could have hoped for;

'Seldom-Heard TV Theme Lyrics' posted at You Don't Have To Visit This Blog.

A 2006 post, and it looks like the blog may be dormant (a lot of that going around), but as of this writing, the download links are still active for a great mix of old TV themes - - most of which you never realized ever had lyrics.

The mix runs mostly to the 1960's and 70's, with a few more contemporary renditions or parodies thrown in.

In many cases, these television themes only had lyrics after the fact, a bit of padding on a record release trying to capitalize on a show's popularity - - Or perhaps adding extra verses to the short and familiar version sung on TV.

In some cases there had been lyrics all along, written for contractual or copyright reasons that were never used.
Usually it was the right choice, especially when the themes to many action series were inexplicably forced into the role of love songs when given the vocal treatment.

I urge you to investigate this group of tunes, and to try to keep your jaw off the floor while absorbing the lyrics to The 'Hogan's Heroes' March or 'The Odd Couple', or while listening to Sammy Davis, Jr. sing the theme from 'Hawaii Five-O'.

One oddball selection that's missing from the 'Seldom-Heard TV Theme Lyrics' mix is the amazing and twisted vocal rendition of the Mission: Impossible theme, performed by The Kane Triplets, a sister act popular in Vegas clubs and on The Ed Sullivan show in the 1960s.
Not sure when or how the vocal interpretation of composer Lalo Schifrin's familiar theme song came about, but the result needs to be heard.

- Listen to The Kane Triplets sing the 'Theme from Mission Impossible' at the Kane Triplets MySpace page, at the Kane Triplets website, or by clicking here.

The lyrics cruise past at a speedy clip, so you'll need to listen close to catch them all.

Looking around the web, it seems that most previous attempts to list these lyrics have either disappeared or were incorrect, so please allow me my attempt to keep them alive a little longer...

- 'Theme from Mission Impossible'

(verse 1)
Fly away
Disappear
I'll be there
Waiting

Run high
Run low
Don't stop
Go no matter where
You are bound
I'm around
Waiting

Hypnotized
On a string
Following
Wanting

Lead me there
Anywhere
I don't care
Cannot stop
And I won't stop
Till you're mine

(bridge)
I keep on dreaming of you
No doubt about it
You took my head and made it spin
Somewhere it's never been
I'm in the desert
The middle of nowhere
With no shoes I calmly bear
Burning coals of fire
But when I get through
That's when I'll begin to
undertake a mission that's impossible

(Repeat verse 1)

(Verse 2)
Run
Don't try to hide
Don't stay beside
I'm gonna get you

Get on a plane
Go far away
But any day
I'm gonna get you

Don't be afraid
If you may find
I'm on your mind
Don't try to fight it

Love's
A waiting fuse
You can't refuse
You're gonna light it

(outro)
Fly away
Disappear
I'll be there
Waiting

No matter where
You are bound
I'm around
Waiting

Time out from the muppets: Young Jim Henson's 'Tick-Tock Sick' (1960) and Time Piece (1965)

2009-07-19T10:39:00.021-06:00

As a young man, puppeteer
Jim Henson was bursting with creative ideas and wasted no time in making things happen.

In the mid-1950s, he was making puppets for children's television before he was out of high school.

He created his first muppet TV show, Sam and Friends, during his freshman year of college.
The five-minute program aired daily, and ran for six years.

Simultaneously, Henson's muppets were making other TV appearances on variety shows and in assorted commercials.

But it wasn't all about muppets all the time...

When Henson graduated from college in 1960, he was married, had a new-born daughter, and had been working in TV and advertising for several years. He was 23.

That same year, Jim Henson released an odd, jazzy little 45 single.
On the A-side, 'Tick-Tock Sick', he complains of being 'bugged' by the relentless ticking of the clock.

Listen to:
Jim Henson - Tick-Tock Sick
(Signature Records 45, 1960)
(click for audio)

(label image via Muppet Wiki)

On the flipside...

Listen to:
Jim Henson -
The Countryside
(Signature Records 45, 1960)
(click for audio)

Regarding this 45 and a recurring motif of 'racing time' in Henson's work, Karen Falk, historian and head archivist for The Jim Henson Company said:
"Jim Henson accomplished an amazing amount in his life, but given the large number of files on unrealized projects that are in the archives, he clearly didn't have enough time to do all that he wanted to do. And 'Tick-Tock Sick' tells us that he was already feeling the crunch just six years into his career."

As the 1960's progressed, amidst increasing exposure of The Muppets, Henson also began working with experimental film.

'Time Piece' was a short film that Henson wrote, produced, directed and starred in. He began production in 1964 and took about a year to finish, working on it in between TV projects.

It premiered at New York's Museum of Modern Art in May of 1965, traveled the film festival circuit, and was nominated for a Best Live Action Short Subject Oscar in 1966.

Incorporating animation, reverse motion, rapid edits and a rhythmic, percussive soundtrack by
Don Sebesky, 'Time Piece' continues some of the theme explored by 'Tick-Tock Sick' a few years earlier.

Below, ▼ view 'Time Piece'...

- This post is a companion piece to one posted at Video Cabinet in Limbo, also regarding Jim Henson's muppetless productions.
Follow link to: Richard Schaal in Jim Henson's teleplay, 'The Cube' (1969)

See also:
Circa 1965, Henson made two Muppets, Inc. industrial promo films pitching to Wilson's Meats, an advertising account, filmed in a tongue-in-cheek, mock-documentary style.
Follow links to:
- Wilson's Meats #1
- Wilson's Meats #2

"Tina Louise becomes Les Crane's Dream Bride" - 1966 magazine photo spread

2009-07-15T22:58:00.020-06:00

(A brief preamble: I was already thinking of our friend Gilligan and his blog, Retrospace, as I started preparations for this post, and that was before Gil was kind enough to bestow a Great Read Award upon ILTS this past Wednesday. The award's emblem of honor is posted towards the bottom of the lovely brown sidebar, big blushing thanks are extended to Mr. G, and this post is dedicated to him.)

This two-page article ran in the July, 1966 issue of TV Radio Mirror.

(Click on images to enlarge in a new window)

- Click here to view a super-sized image of page 1 in a new window.

- Click here to view a super-sized image of page 2 in a new window.

Actress Tina Louise and Radio & TV Talk Show Host Les Crane were married in Beverly Hills on Sunday, April 3rd, 1966.

In the early 1960s, Les Crane had hosted a late-night radio talk show in San Francisco, where he often stirred up controversy with his
left-wing liberal views and confrontational interview style.
In 1963, Crane took his show to New York City and to late-night television.

His big west coast movie career mentioned in the magazine article didn't go much beyond his supporting role in the film adaptation of Norman Mailer's
An American Dream.

By 1966, via her role as 'the movie star' on TV's Gilligan's Island,
Tina Louise had rocketed to a level of fame she'd not reached after fifteen years as a pin-up model, nightclub singer, and film & stage actress, though she was discomforted by the notion of being type-cast by her 'Ginger' portrayal.

When the sitcom was cancelled in 1967, she was quick in her attempts to distance herself from the role.

In the photo below, ▼ the newlyweds pose with Tina's co-star castaways...

...Though significant in his absence from the photo is 'The Professor', Russell Johnson.

What bit of behind-the-scenes intrigue can we infer from his not being present? Does it lend anything to the various sordid debates about the characters and cast of Gilligan's Island?

I prefer to believe that perhaps Russell Johnson was behind the camera, snapping the photograph with a camera he'd built out of a coconut shell and some beach glass.

At the time of the wedding, (Les Crane's third - - or perhaps fourth - - marriage) the tail end of the second season of Gilligan's Island was airing on Thursday nights, and presumably the cast was busy with production for the sitcom's third season episodes.

CBS then moved the show to Monday evenings, and cancelled the the series at the end of the third season.

Tina Louise had several TV and film appearances after 'getting off the island', often seeking out 'grittier' or more serious roles.

Les Crane returned to talk radio in Los Angeles in 1968.

Perhaps Crane's most often-noted achievement was his Grammy award-winning 1971 spoken-word recording of the prose poem (and popular
dorm-room poster) 'Desiderata'.

- Follow the link to
Richie Unterberger's liner notes to a re-release of the Les Crane LP that included his 'one-hit wonder' Top-10 single.

Tina Louise and Les Crane were divorced in 1974, the same year their daughter, Caprice Crane was born.
Not bad for a Hollywood marriage of that era.

Tina Louise never appeared in any of the Gilligan's Island TV movie reunions, though she's taken part in a few 'cast reunion' talk show appearances.

In the 1980's, Les Crane had great success after moving into the software industry, founding a company that made inter-active games and typing tutorials for PCs. He died in 2008, at age 74.

Lolitas - 'Fusée d'amour' (1989)

2009-07-09T09:49:00.012-06:00

Les Lolitas were a Berlin-based band who sang primarily in French.

Their sound was a combination of influences that included American garage rock, rockabilly and French yé-yé, played with a punk sensibility. They formed in the mid-1980s and split around 1993.

Lead singer Françoise Cactus met Brezel Göring soon after, and they founded the fabulous multi-lingual
French-German electronica pop/rock duo, Stereo Total.

'Fusée d'amour' was the third Lolitas LP, recorded in Memphis, Tennessee in August of 1988 and produced by music biz chameleon
Alex Chilton.
Chilton plays just a bit of piano on the album, as does his friend and fellow Memphis legend Jim Dickinson.

(click on image to enlarge in a new window)

On the album cover, from left to right:
Olga La Basse - bass

Coco Nut - guitar

Françoise Cactus - vocals, drums

Michele Tutti Frutti - guitar, harmonica

- Follow link to view track listing & production credits.

From the Lolitas album
'Fusée d'amour' (New Rose Records, 1989),
Listen to:

Mummy
La Fille Qui Se Promene Sur Les Rails
Joli Johnny
Les Cactus

(click for audio)

- - OR download the full album (16 tracks) in one 46.5 Mb zipfile.

See also:
- Les Lolitas on MySpace
- StereoBio, A history of Françoise Cactus
- Stereo Total website

- As of this writing, the rest of the Lolitas catalog (and a Coco Nut solo record) are posted at cosmozebra. (This post hopefully improves upon Cosmo's slightly noisy vinyl rip of 'Fusée d'amour' - - unless you're a fan of clicks and pops)

What's a few more old dusty Men's magazines between friends? (flickr link)

2009-07-06T23:17:00.011-06:00

(click on images to enlarge in a new window)

I've added just a few more old girlie mag cover scans to a big batch that I posted at Flickr almost a year ago...

- Please follow this link to my flickr set:
A 'Cover Gallery' of 1950s and '60s
Men's Magazines!
(50 images)

These late 1950s cover images allow the predominantly late '60s set to skew just a little earlier.

It's fun to see the relatively subtle (and tasteful) designs and color palette in the earlier covers give way to the kooky kraziness of the
High Sixties...

...Enjoy!

(click on images to enlarge in a new window)

-

Follow this link to my flickr set:
A 'Cover Gallery' of 1950s and '60s Men's Magazines!
(50 images)

Victor Borge mugs in 'Smörgås Borge' (1954 magazine photo-spread)

2009-07-05T04:24:00.005-06:00

When this photo feature appeared in the March, 1954 issue of Pageant Magazine, Danish comedian / pianist Victor Borge was a just a few months in to his 2½-year run of 849 performances on Broadway with his one-man show, Comedy In Music.

◀ (click on images to read enlarged text in a new window)

In 'Smörgås Borge', photographer Martin Iger captured Mr. Borge's visual reactions to various queries.

Seems like Mr. Iger may have drawn some influence from Philippe Halsman's 'The Frenchman', a 1949 book using a similar concept for portraits of French film star Fernandel.

(Follow link to the previously posted 'Two Special Faces Photographed: Fernandel reacts for Philippe Halsman, Anna Russell on Positive Stinking')

▲ (click on images to read enlarged text in a new window)

There is a wealth of Borge material available online, including plenty of video clips from various appearances throughout his long career.

- Follow link to a favorite, in which Borge discusses composing.

- Go to the Wikipedia entry for assorted links and tribute sites.

- Be sure to visit The Victor Borge Collection at Internet Archive. They've gathered over two dozen fine audio recordings to enjoy, including excerpts from Comedy In Music, and his famous routines 'Inflationary Language' and 'Phonetic Punctuation'.

- For further related facial studies on this blog, follow links to:
The previously mentioned Fernandel and Anna Russell post, and
'Zero Mostel's Face, Zero Mostel's Life'

Jerry Ross Symposium - 'Hope For The Best (Expect The Worst)' b/w 'First Love' (1971)

2009-07-02T17:59:00.036-06:00

In the early 1970s, record producer-promoter-song writer Jerry Ross tried on another hat, releasing a few records of lightly progressive pop and smoothed-out covers of rock hits, all crafted to be palatable for airplay on easy-listening radio stations.

This single release from early 1971 featured the theme from The Twelve Chairs, the second feature-length
Mel Brooks film, released the previous autumn.

In collaboration with his long-time 'house' composer John Morris, Mel's lyrics to the song are as timeless as ever...

Hope for the best, expect the worst
Some drink champagne, some die of thirst
No way of knowing
Which way it’s going
Hope for the best, expect the worst!

Hope for the best, expect the worst
The world’s a stage, we’re unrehearsed
Some reach the top, friends, while others drop, friends
Hope for the best, expect the worst!

I knew a man who saved a fortune that was splendid
Then he died the day he’d planned to go and spend it
Shouting “Live while you’re alive! No one will survive!”
Life is sorrow - - here today and gone tomorrow
Live while you’re alive, no one will survive - - there’s no guarantee

Hope for the best, expect the worst
You could be Tolstoy or Fannie Hurst
You take your chances, there are no answers
Hope for the best expect the worst!

I knew a man who saved a fortune that was splendid
Then he died the day he’d planned to go and spend it
Shouting “Live while you’re alive! No one will survive!”
Life is funny - - Spend your money! Spend your money!
Live while you’re alive, no one will survive - - there’s no guarantee  

Hope for the best, expect the worst 
The rich are blessed, the poor are cursed 
That is a fact, friends, the deck is stacked, friends

Hope for the best, expect the – -
(even with a good beginning, it’s not certain that you’re winning,
even with the best of chances, they can kick you in the pantses) 
Look out for the - - watch out for the worst!
Hey!

(The lyrics above are as heard during the film's opening credits. Not all of them are found on this Jerry Ross Symposium 45.)

(Note the title typo on the label!)
◀

Listen to:
Jerry Ross Symposium -
Hope For The Best (Expect The Worst)
(Colossus Records 45, 1971)
(click for audio)

Jerry Ross (not to be confused with an older showbiz Jerry Ross, the musical theater composer of Damn Yankees and The Pajama Game) had been a DJ and radio & TV announcer in Philadelphia in the late 1950s before becoming a record promoter there.

Branching off into composing and producing records, he also discovered teenage singer Kenneth Gamble.
Ross managed Gamble's career and was instrumental in teaming him with keyboardist Leon Huff.

The three collaborated as songwriters for several years before Gamble and Huff went on to huge fame as a team, writing and producing records, and helping to pioneer the 'Philly Soul' sound .

Ross went to New York in 1965 when he was hired as an A&R man by Mercury Records, where he soon had great success with acts like Jay & The Techniques, Spanky & Our Gang, Dee Dee Warwick, Jerry Butler, Keith, and Bobby Hebb.

Ross had also founded his own small record label, Heritage, in the early 1960s, releasing music by some of his Philadelphia acts.
He revived the label in 1968 after leaving Mercury, and put out records by Bill Deal and the Rhondels, Cherry People and
The Duprees, among others.

When a distribution deal with MGM ended around 1970, Ross went abroad to seek European distribution for the now independent Heritage label. While visiting Amsterdam he was taken with the Dutch music scene, and was able to secure the North American distribution rights for several acts.

Upon returning to the U.S., Ross started his new Colossus label (named after his miniature poodle) and began releasing records by his new 'Dutch Invasion' groups; Shocking Blue, The Tee Set, and The George Baker Selection.

Never one to put eggs in one basket, one function of his
'Jerry Ross Symposium' records was to provide MOR cover versions of hit songs by artists on his labels.

See also:
- Fellow music biz maven Artie Wayne interviews Jerry Ross at Spectropop.

- Jerry Ross at MySpace.

- As of this writing, the second Jerry Ross Symposium LP (with arrangements by Claus Ogerman) can be found at fullundie.

Chuck Sagle was the arranger / conductor on this single. As a bandleader, Sagle released a number of 'space-age pop' records in the '50s and '60s, often under his 'Carl Stevens' alias.

The flip-side of the 45 has sort of a 'Washington Square' / 'Midnight In Moscow' sound, accompanied by a watery shadow chorus.

Listen to:
Jerry Ross Symposium -
First Love
(Colossus Records 45, 1971)
(click for audio)

The Symposium performs the sentimental theme to the 1970 film First Love, written by
Don Black and composer
Mark London, who'd previously collaborated on 'To Sir With Love' in 1967.

Oscar-winner Don Black was the lyricist on many successful movie theme songs - - He worked with composer John Barry on 'Born Free' and several of the James Bond themes, including 'Thunderball' and 'Diamonds Are Forever', and he wrote Michael Jackson's hit, 'Ben' with Walter Scharf in 1972.

- Follow link to the Official Don Black Website.

'Percy' (magazine photo spread, 1971)

2009-07-01T19:36:00.011-06:00

Another early 1970s photo-feature (below) from the pages of the Brit movie magazine Film And Filming, this time from the March, 1971 issue.

The film is 'Percy', a racy & ribald comedy fairly typical of the era, starring Hywel Bennett as the recipient of the
first-ever penis transplant.

(click on images to engorge in a new window)

Co-starring Denholm Elliott, Elke Sommer and Britt Ekland, 'Percy' was for many years a notable curiosity, known primarily for its soundtrack by The Kinks, their final album recorded for the Pye record label.

As of this writing, you can hear a few of those Kinks soundtrack selections at YouTube;
-God's Children
-The Way Love Used To Be
-Animals In The Zoo
(You may also be able to find the rest of the album here.)

Both the soundtrack and the film itself were out-of-print rarities for many years, and so became much sought-after, each in their own way - - though in the case of the film itself, the general consensus has been that maybe it's best to remain curious, rather than actually viewing the thing...

- Follow links to read essays about the film at The Auteurs and at Mondo Digital.

- Photos of the film's cast can be seen at The Actors Compendium .

(click on images to enlarge in a new window)

Regardless of any of Percy's shortcomings, it didn't deter the filmmakers from coming back with a sequel, 'Percy's Progress' (a.k.a. 'It's Not the Size That Counts'), in 1974.

Hywel Bennett bowed out the second time around, but Elke Sommer and Denholm Elliott were back to reprise their roles, joined by no less than Vincent Price and Barry 'Dame Edna' Humphries.

Podcast on a Summer's Day...

2009-07-01T14:37:00.004-06:00

... or at least a day like today.

~~Like a lizard atop a wooden stump, there's a new link posted to a new 'I'm Learning To Share' podcast, and it's parked over near the top of the lovely brown sidebar.~~

(UPDATE: Another one gone. You might try poking around the audio annex...)

Parked, basking in the summer heat, sitting still and quiet until someone like you comes along to nudge it - -
- - Or to hear an interesting batch of music.

Either one...

Not enough people are talking about Judy Canova

2009-06-23T10:29:00.053-06:00

It's possible that not enough people are still talking about actress / singer Judy Canova, and maybe that situation can change...

While lying awake late the other night, unable to sleep again, as often happens in that situation I pulled my laptop close to me and dialed up the Old Time Radio library at Internet Archive. Wanting a break from my customary late-night streaming of old Jack Benny shows or Fibber McGee & Molly, this time I stumbled onto their stash of 1940s episodes of The Judy Canova Show.

The realization soon came to me that perhaps there hasn't been enough Judy Canova in my life.

Sure, I knew of her - - I could recognize the comedienne from old photos, remembered a bit about her country cornball schtick and its context - - But in hearing her vintage radio comedy, it dawned on me that I'd not actually witnessed much of her in performance over the years, and certainly not in a long while.

You are encouraged to investigate the
The Judy Canova Show for yourself. (follow link)

As of this writing, The Internet Archive has almost three dozen episodes available for listening, dating from 1943 to 1948.

The half-hour radio sitcom revolves around Judy, playing 'herself' as an uncultured bumpkin uprooted to Hollywood life as a popular actress and singer.
Broad but gentle humor that still engages, despite its dated or non-PC moments.

The supporting cast includes Ruby Dandridge (mother of Dorothy Dandridge) as Geranium, the maid, and Mel Blanc as Pedro, the Mexican gardener / chauffeur, speaking with the same comic accent he'd use occasionally on The Jack Benny Program that would eventually evolve into the cartoon voice of Speedy Gonzales. (Not surprisingly, Blanc also doubles for other character voices and sound effects)

In the episodes I've heard so far, I recognized voices of radio veteran Verna Felton, as well as
Sheldon Leonard. Great voices!

The program ran for twelve years, first airing on CBS in 1943 on Tuesday nights, before moving to Sunday nights on NBC in 1945. Other cast members during the show's run included Hans Conried, Joseph Kearns and Gale Gordon (the latter two who, among other roles, would both go on in later years to play Mr. Wilson opposite Jay North's 'Dennis The Menace' on television).

Prior to her own show on radio,
Judy Canova (1913 - 1983) had made regular appearances on many radio programs during the 1930's, most notably The Chase & Sanborn Hour with
Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy.

She'd also had several supporting roles in films during that time, while working as a contract player for Warner Bros. and Paramount.

Her show business career had begun while still a teenager in Florida, performing in a singing trio with her sister, Anne, and older brother, Zeke.
The vaudeville circuit led them from Florida to New York, where 'The Three Georgia Crackers' were 'discovered' by singer Rudy Valee.

Radio, stage and film appearances soon followed, eventually paring the act down to a solo.

Though Judy had originally intended to pursue a more serious singing career, her talent and personality mixed with her unconventional looks to type-cast her into a good-natured yokel persona that she honed during the vaudeville years and played to perfection for decades following.

Below, ▼ appearing in a scene with her siblings in the 1937 film 'Artists & Models',
it's easy to see why she stood out...

- Follow this link to the Turner Classic Movies website to view Judy singing in a bathtub scene from the same film, before sharing dialogue with a young Ida Lupino.

- Follow link to other Judy Canova film clips at TCM.

Though 'Hillbilly Humor' was nothing new, there's a quality to
Judy Canova (including and beyond the 'hick' factor) that can be seen in the performances of comediennes who followed after her in the 1940s, '50s and beyond, from Minnie Pearl and Dorothy Shay, to Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett.

In 1940, Judy Canova was offered a movie contract by
Republic Pictures.

'Scatterbrain' provided her first leading role, and she would star in 17 films in fifteen years while working for Republic.

- Follow this link to Judy Canova's IMDb listing.

It was the popularity of those 'B-movies' that helped to land her the radio series, which led her to greater popularity than her films.

(click on images to enlarge in a new window)

Below, ▼ a 1941 publicity shot (via Flickr) shows Canova posing with fellow Republic Pictures star, actor Tom Tyler, decked out for the adventure film serial Adventures of Captain Marvel, the very first film adaptation of a comic book super-hero.

Speaking of comic books, Judy starred in just a few issues of her own, published by Fox Comics in 1950.

Below left, ▼ issue #3 features cover art by
(then soon-to-be) comics legends Wally Wood and
Joe Orlando, just prior to their heyday producing artwork for EC Comics.

- Learn more at Hooray For Wally Wood! and at Oddball Comics.

Radio, film and numerous records made for
RCA-Victor and other labels made Canova a star throughout the 1940s and early '50s, as did a business sense that belied her standard performance persona.

Her contract with Republic Pictures ceased in 1955, the same year that her radio show ended.

Judy did transition to TV in the '50s, but through numerous guest appearances rather than starring vehicles. In addition, nightclub appearances and theatrical stage roles filled out the rest of her performance career, throughout the 1960s and into the '70s.

Below, ▼ In Hollywood with Liberace on
'The Colgate Comedy Hour', November 11, 1952.
(via LIFE Magazine)

- See also:
Articles at Brian's Drive-In Theater and at St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture.

◀ At left, Judy Canova at age 65, attending the National Film Society convention, May 1979, accompanied by her daughter, actress Diana Canova, Diana's partner, actor Steve Landesberg, and (on the right) Landesberg's mother.
(Photo by Alan Light,
click on image to enlarge in a new window)

UPDATE, 6.25.09: Big, big thanks to Matt for sending along a nice note that included 4 of his favorite tracks from an old 10-inch LP, 'Favorite Songs of Judy Canova'.

Sad but not terribly surprising, none of Judy's music is currently in print, at least here in the U.S. - -

- - And these great western-swingy tracks that Matt has provided weren't included on the last readily available CD collections of her work, so that makes them an extra-special treat for all of us!

Thanks for sharing, Matt!
It's kinda like Xmas or something...

Listen to:
Never Trust A Man
Bananas Ain't Got No Bonies
I Ain't Got Nobody
Twenty-five Chickens Thirty-five Cows

(click for audio)

UPDATE, 7.6.09: Thanks also to normadesmond for sending along a YouTube link to a video clip of
Judy Canova appearing on TV's 'What's My Line?' in 1954.
Norm uploaded it after seeing this post. Thanks for sharing!

Squirt in your eye (1945 print ad)

2009-06-14T22:12:00.019-06:00

(click on image to enlarge)

Squirt, the grapefruit soft drink, was introduced in 1938.

Their mascot,
'Little Squirt' began appearing in their advertisements and promotions in 1941.

Though the company changed hands many times over the decades, and the formula has changed a bit, Squirt soda is still around today.

- - But when was the last time you saw
'Little Squirt'?

Looks like there was a version of him still kicking around as late as the mid-1970s at least,
but since then?

Where do the old advertising mascots go to die?

David Essex in 'That'll Be The Day' & 'Stardust' (magazine photo spreads, 1973/74)

2009-06-08T00:04:00.019-06:00

The magazine articles below spotlighted a pair of British films that have largely remained underappreciated in the many years since their release.

The two-part gritty Rock & Roll fable helped to propel actor / singer David Essex to super-stardom in the U.K.

Released in 1973 and set in the late 1950s and early '60s (and featuring plenty of great period music), 'That'll Be The Day' tells the story of young
Jim McClain, who yearns for a glamorous life beyond the dead-end existence in which he lives.

The movie co-starred Ringo Starr (looking just right in Teddy Boy finery) as Jim's friend, Mike.
Also featured in the cast were 'genuine' musicians, singer Billy Fury and The Who's Keith Moon.

David Essex had his breakout success as a stage performer in 1971, when he starred in the London cast production of 'Godspell'.

During production of 'That'll Be The Day', Essex wrote his song 'Rock On', envisioning it for use in the film's soundtrack. After the song was rejected for the movie, he recorded and released a version that became a huge chart hit.
'Rock On' subsequently was added to the end credits of the American release of 'That'll Be The Day'.

The magazine piece below ▼ appeared in the May, 1973 issue of Films and Filming.
(click on images to enlarge in a new window)

In the 1974 sequel, 'Stardust', McClain's
Rock & Roll dreams are realized in the late 1960s and early '70s, but the accompanying hazards of fame and excess cause his life to implode.

Ringo Starr opted out of the second film, the role of Mike (now McClain's manager) taken over by British pop star Adam Faith.

Keith Moon returned to reprise his role, and performed on the soundtrack as a member of
The Stray Cats, McClain's band in the film.
Also appearing and performing in the band was Dave Edmunds, who'd had his earliest solo hits a couple of years prior, following his departure from Love Sculpture.
Edmunds' efforts in the film and on the soundtrack helped lead him further into his career as a record producer.
In a curious coincidence, Edmunds would go on to produce the first singles and albums by the 'other' Stray Cats, Brian Setzer's rockabilly revival group, in the early '80s.

Edmunds also spins some good stories about the perils of 'being taken under Keith Moon's wing' during production.

Read an interview;
'Dave Edmunds on Keith Moon' at Tony Fletcher's iJamming!

The magazine piece below ▼ appeared in the October, 1974 issue of Films and Filming.

(click on images to enlarge in a new window)

'Powder-Twist' automatic eye shadow (1973 print ad)

2009-06-07T15:26:00.005-06:00

"... The eye shadow of the future.
Make it yours today."

Times change, styles change, and change again.

(click on image to enlarge)

"Exactly enough" pre-measured color, you say - - ??

A relative term, surely.
Results may vary.

'Way too much' for some.

'Almost there' for others.

(Drag divas, glam rockers and circus clowns spring to mind.)

Video Cabinet: Sister Ray meets Larry W

2009-05-29T23:37:00.003-06:00

Darn that Hugh Toob anyway, for yanking this silly old mash-up favorite...

Fortunately it can still be found elsewhere - - for now.
Enjoy it while you can, and beware of pop-ups...

Ira Ironstrings Plays: With Matches (1959)

2009-05-10T00:58:00.021-06:00

Here's the second LP by Ira Ironstrings; The name was a pseudonym used on a string of albums recorded by bandleader / guitar innovator Alvino Rey.

In the earliest days of Warner Bros. Records, the label had something of an 'anything goes' attitude while they were establishing themselves.

Alvino Rey was brother-in-law to WB exec
Jim Conkling, and had the idea for recording campy, light-hearted (though not quite 'novelty') hi-fi Dixieland music.

The pseudonym was used because Rey was still under contract to Capitol Records, but the name and the mystery around it added to the fun.

Produced and arranged by Warren Barker, the quality of the music surpassed many expectations.

As part of the label's initial round of releases, the first album ('Ira Ironstrings Plays for People with $3.98') sold surprisingly well.

From the LP
'Ira Ironstrings Plays:
With Matches'
(Warner Bros. Records, 1959),
Listen to:

Heartaches
Ivory Rag
Twelfth Street Rag
Johnson Rag
Guitar Boogie
Third Man Theme

(click for audio)

- - OR download the full album (12 tracks) in one 57.6 Mb zipfile.

Click here to read back cover liner notes and full track listing.

The following year, Warner Bros. Records signed The Everly Brothers and released two Grammy-winning stand-up comedy LPs
by Bob Newhart.

See also:
- A previous post; from 1946, the Alvino Rey and his orchestra's recording of 'Sepulveda'.

- Alvino Rey featured in a post at Visual Guidance, Ltd.

- Speaking of the early days of Warner Bros Records, the previously-posted
'Music To Read Stan Cornyn's Liner Notes By'.

- Thanks to The Space Age Pop Music Page for valuable info.

Horlick's: Why? (1930 print ad)

2009-05-09T08:40:00.002-06:00

(click on image to enlarge in a new window)

Elegant composition in this 1930 magazine advertisement.
Simple but striking.

- - And not the first time that Horlicks had used the memorable
cow-as-billboard motif...

- example one (via)
- example two (via)

Horlicks malted milk powder is still popular in India and a few other parts of the world, but in the U.K. and the U.S. has mostly become a fond memory, a 'comfort food' relic of a bygone era.

In the 1870s, brothers William & James Horlick had emigrated from England and were manufacturing their milk drink as an artificial food for infants, and soon established a large factory in
Racine, Wisconsin.

By the early part of the 20th century, Horlicks (then spelled as Horlick's) was well-established internationally (including an early foothold in India), though in the U.S. it was outsold by its rival, Ovaltine.

Whether touted as a sleep-aid, a 'restorative', or nutrition supplement, Horlicks was used in interesting ways as an advertising sponsor over the years, associating itself at different times with radio programs like 'Lum and Abner' or in films with George Pal's animated Puppetoons or even by sending along crates of their product on a few polar expeditions.

More bits and pieces of Horlicks history (including the name standing in as a milder substitute for the British profanity 'bollocks') can be found via the Horlicks Wikipedia entry...

Does anyone remember 'Omicron'?

2009-05-07T15:03:00.010-06:00

Maybe you can help me to remember more about this old movie, or point towards a way to see it again - - ?

This is a film that I haven't seen in something like 35 or more years.
Several times since then I've wanted to watch it again, and I'm very curious if it's even half as entertaining as I remember it.

'Omicron' is an Italian science-fiction comedy that was first released in 1963.

It was directed by Ugo Gregoretti and starred Renato Salvatori as an alien being who's come to Earth and is inhabiting the body of a dead factory worker.
The alien (Omicron) is an advance scout for an invasion force, here to learn about humans and our way of life.

Until finding a few images (mostly here) I've seen very little mention of this movie over the course of several decades of 'film buffery'. Whatever happened to it?

My memories are a little dim. I saw it a couple times on TV when I was a kid, which means it probably aired on a weekend afternoon on a local station. It probably also means that the version I saw was dubbed into english.

- - And as this was all so long ago, it could likely mean that it's really not as good as what I'm remembering.

I recall Omicron being able to do everything very quickly.
Lots of racing around at top speed to comedic effect.
Omicron sitting down with a stack of books, flipping through the pages and quickly reacting with laughter and tears as he absorbs the text.
Omicron smoking entire cigarettes in one quick draw.

The few small descriptions of the film that I've found corroborate the vague memory that much of the story's draw comes from familiar 'fish out of water' formulas that we're accustomed to seeing anytime a naive outsider character is confronted with the complications and hypocrisy of modern life.

Omicron at work, Omicron falling in love, Omicron learning what it is to be human.

Over the years I've flashed on this film while viewing things like 'Starman', or 'Brother From Another Planet', or 'K-PAX' or even the sitcom '3rd Rock From The Sun'.
You know what I'm talking about.

Other assorted review snippets (and broken translations) about 'Omicron' mention the political backdrop of its humor, specific to Italy in the '60s and specific to the plotline of the resurrected factory worker becoming involved in a labor dispute.
Perhaps this has something to do with the film being so hard to find now? Maybe it hasn't aged well?

Is there a good reason that it's not available on video?

I also recall 'Omicron' having some sort of fun
"The End - - or is it?"-type of ending, always a good sign in an old sci-fi movie, if you ask me.

What can you tell me about 'Omicron'?
Researching it isn't easy when there seems to be so little information available and you don't read Italian.

I'd love to hear from anyone who remembers this movie, especially if you've seen it more recently than the early 1970s.
Is there something there? Should I see it again - - and hey, where/how would I do that?

Please leave a comment or drop an e-mail.

Stolen Sweaters at large in Europe! (1962 print ads)

2009-05-03T11:14:00.002-06:00

Stolen Sweaters you say?!? Alert Interpol!

Oh, no wait - - okay, I get it.

Helen Harper sweaters made of 'Acrilan' acrylic fibers manufactured by Chemstrand (a division of Monsanto), and fashioned to look like authentic regional garb from Ireland, Greece, Austria, Spain, England and Portugal.

This series of advertisements ran in the August, 1962 issue of Seventeen magazine.

As staged as these international location shoots were, it could have been interesting to see the 'outtakes' from these photo sessions...

(click on images to enlarge text)

Return of the podcast

2009-05-03T00:49:00.002-06:00

Happy to report the return of a semi-regular rotating feature - -

~~There's a link to a new In Crowd podcast posted atop the lovely brown sidebar.~~

The schizophonic mix of music represents samplings of things I've heard recently, and some other favorites that needed a good airing...

Enjoy!

(Update: This particular podcast has rotated out, replaced by a new one. But you might try taking a look over in the Audio Annex...)

'Blythe Danner On The Rise' (1970 magazine spread)

2009-05-03T00:15:00.003-06:00

Actress Blythe Danner had been performing on stage for about five years when the magazine article below appeared in the March, 1970 issue of Show magazine. She was just turning 27.
At the time she was receiving much acclaim for her Broadway debut in 'Butterflies Are Free', which had premiered the previous Fall.

She was still a newlywed, having married producer/director Bruce Paltrow on December 14, 1969 (see photo below), before he'd made the transition from theater to TV and film.

Soon after this article ran, Danner won a Tony Award for 'Butterflies Are Free', on April 19th, 1970.
The show finally closed on July 2nd, 1972, after 1128 performances.

(Click on images to enlarge and read text)

(Click on images to enlarge and read text)

Yes, magazines are curious things, and so were the 1970s.
Ms. Danner's rationale for avoiding nude scenes stands on the same page as a photo of her standing in her underwear.

Her 'upcoming film debut' mentioned in the article - - an adaptation of Walker Percy's 'The Moviegoer' - - never happened. The production fell through, and the film was never made.

During that time she had a few appearances in some
made-for-TV productions, and then made her film debut in 1972 in a dramatic thriller, 'To Kill a Clown', in which Alan Alda played a crazed Vietnam vet.

Having seen Blythe Danner on TV and in many films over the years, it's hard not to enjoy watching her.
She shines in meaty roles in high-quality productions, and she typically transcends the material she's given in the lesser ones.

Her prolific career has remained fairly well divided between stage, film and television over the years, though these days it seems like she's best known for being Gwyneth Paltrow's Mom.

Her husband, Bruce Paltrow, passed away in 2002.

- See also:
Blythe Danner listed at IMDb

Della Reese - The Troublemaker (1971)

2009-04-29T23:10:00.012-06:00

When this 45 was released in 1971, singer Della Reese was in a period of transition, adding 'actress / TV personality' to her list of achievements.

A couple of years prior, she became the first black woman in America to host her own television variety series, and in 1970 she was the first black woman to guest-host
Johnny Carson's Tonight Show.

Throughout the 1970s and well beyond,
Della Reese became a familiar sight on television, whether appearing as a panelist on game shows, in guest slots on dramas and sitcoms, parts in TV movies and several
co-starring roles in established series, all while still maintaining a touring schedule as a headlining nightclub singer.

Her ties with music began as a child, singing Gospel music in church.
At age thirteen she was 'discovered' by Mahalia Jackson and hired to be one of her backing singers.
After forming her own group, The Meditation Singers, she eventually moved into singing Jazz and Rhythm & Blues, and received a recording contract with Jubilee Records in 1953.
A move to the RCA label in 1959 yielded a great string of albums and some of her biggest hits.

Still active in her seventies, the actress / singer / minister now presides over her own church in Inglewood, California.

Listen to:
Della Reese - The Troublemaker
(Avco Embassy 45, 1971)
(click for audio)

'The Troublemaker' was later a hit for
Willie Nelson, when it became the title track to the gospel-themed LP he released in 1976 on the Columbia label (though it was recorded three years earlier for Atlantic).

Is the Della Reese version more successful in not telegraphing the 'surprise twist' ending of the song's lyrics? There could be an argument for that, but the difference in arrangement and the verve of her delivery make for an interesting change.

Perhaps you can help clear up the mystery of who was the first to record 'The Troublemaker' - -?

There were at least three versions of it released on 45, all in 1969.

- One by Chris Morgan (who he?), as 'Troublemaker' (one word) on a Bell label single produced by
Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers.

- One by Country singer Johnny Darrel, on United Artists, as 'Trouble Maker'.

- And one by Lee Hazlewood, on his own LHI label, as 'Trouble Maker'.

Who released their version first? And were there others?

Any information you can share is much appreciated, leave a comment or drop an e-mail. Thanks!

The song was written by Bruce Belland and Dave Somerville, former members of the pop vocal quartet The Four Preps.

Bruce Belland had been a founding member of the group, formed in the mid-1950s by four friends all enrolled at Hollywood High School. They enjoyed their greatest fame in the late '50s and early '60s. Their song '26 Miles (Santa Catalina)' reached #2 in the U.S. pop charts.

In the '50s, “Diamond” Dave Somerville had been the lead singer with Rock & Roll vocal group, The Diamonds (whose hits
included 'Little Darlin'' and 'The Stroll').

Somerville left The Diamonds in 1961 to pursue a solo career as a Folk artist (and sometime actor), changing his name to
David Troy. He joined The Four Preps in 1966, replacing one of the original members.

◀ At left: Belland & Somerville, sometime in the 1990s.

When The Four Preps disbanded in 1969, Belland & Somerville performed for a time as a duo.

According to Wikipedia, they appeared in concerts with Henry Mancini and Johnny Mathis, and were a regular act on the CBS-TV comedy series 'The Tim Conway Show'.

Judging by the song's lyrics, it seems likely that Belland & Somerville wrote 'The Troublemaker' sometime in this period, but there doesn't appear to be any evidence that they recorded it. Maybe it's something that they performed in concert or on TV? Again, feel free to chime in...

Belland & Somerville have each remained busy over the years, performing in various reunited configurations of their old groups, and in assorted solo projects, including successful ventures writing songs for TV and film.

- See also:
Another funky Della Reese 45 on Avco Embassy - - From 1970, a cover version of 'Compared To What' can be heard at Flea Market Funk. (follow link)

Search term: "Jughead's hat"

2009-04-27T21:37:00.073-06:00

The other night, while attending a small dinner party, the conversation turned suddenly to the subject of Jughead's trademark; his goofy, crown-like hat.

I was surprised to discover that I hadn't brought it up, given my Archie obsession (that I wasn't aware I had until relatively recently).

"Well no, I don't think it's meant to be a crown..."

"Like one of those paper ones, that comes from inside an exploding party favor - - ?"

"Um, more like, uh, a kind of beanie - - ? You can see them in old movies, old comics and stuff, so surely people must have actually worn them. I guess they were popular with kids in the 1930s or '40s, during the depression. Homemade from, uh, felt or - - leather, maybe? Encrusted with buttons or bottle caps or other bling. Think of 'The Little Rascals'. Kids shining shoes on street corners, or - - y'know, teen-age delinquents riding around in jalopies."

It was quickly agreed that probably some answers could be found online, probably even pictures of people actually wearing the things, and thus it was easy for the topic of conversation to quickly move elsewhere.

As you know, searching the internet does bring answers, but often not quite definitive, wholly satisfying ones.
- - And don't hold your breath waiting for definitive answers to appear here, either.
Close, maybe, but not quite.

In the case of 'the Jughead hat', certainly there are good pop culture examples of the popularity that style of cap once held with America's youth...

At right: ▶ detail from a 1945 print ad drawn by cartoonist William Steig.
(Via Weird Universe)

Below: ▼ Panel from
All-Star Comics #40 (1948),
The Justice Society of America fights juvenile delinquency in 'The Plight of the Nation!'
(via Comics Make No Sense)

Below: ▼ Cover art to Harvey Comics'
Little Audrey and Melvin #40 (1969).
Melvin might make a good stand-in for Jughead's young cousin, 'Souphead'.
Please note that the decorations on Melvin's hat are fundamentally identical to Jughead's standard doodads.
(click on image to enlarge)

In looking around for the real-world origins of this hat style, some answers presented themselves at Wikipedia's
'Jughead Jones' entry, a few came from the threads of a spirited discussion at The Fedora Lounge, while a great many more came from a 'Comic Book Legends Revealed' entry at
CBR's Comics Should Be Good!
(follow link, and many thanks to Brian Cronin)

Some historic context:
The Comics Should Be Good article reminds us that hats were once more popular in the U.S. than they are today.
At the beginning of the 20th century and for several decades after, with few exceptions all adults wore hats.

This made available a great number of old, worn-out hats for creative re-use, or as hand-me-downs from parents to their children.

Concurrently, many factory workers and laborers of the era wore beanies or skullcaps on the job for safety.

It kept grease and other gunk out of their hair, and kept their hair out of their eyes and out of the way.
A brimless hat was safer too, and didn't obscure one's field of vision.

◀ (1925 factory photo detail via Shorpy. Follow link.)

The standard men's fedora is a soft, felt hat that rose to widespread popularity beginning in the 1920s.

◀ In addition to being soft enough to roll up when not in use, a feature of the felt fedora was that it could be shaped and creased according to the desires of its wearer.

This made the fedora a prime candidate for anyone seeking to repurpose an old hat.

It appears that the first people to wear the original 'Jughead'-styled caps were auto mechanics, welders and other workmen who found they could get the same 'safety' function of a factory worker's beanie by altering an old worn-out fedora.

The 'inversion' method was to turn a fedora upside-down, push the hat's crown inside-out, then turn up the brim and trim away its excess with a scalloped cut.

Presto!
Form meets function elegantly, and
an iconic style is born.

- - And of course, style and elegance came naturally to Goober Pyle of TV's
'The Andy Griffith Show'... ▶

Kids began altering hand-me-down fedoras too, either to emulate their working class dads,
or to look cool (or both), and the fashion statement soon entered the pop-culture consciousness.

A symbol of youthful rebellion? Or worse ??
As far as popular media goes, it seems that before long the depiction of the 'Jughead' beanie could be used to symbolize (depending on the era and the age of the 'youth'), anything from a feisty kid to a badge of 'cool' or toughness, or even to a cliché signifying indolence or social deviancy.

◀ Towards the beginning of his long career of portraying
over-aged delinquents,
Leo Gorcey wore a similar beanie playing opposite James Cagney in the 1938 film, 'Angels with Dirty Faces'.

Moving along into his interminable string of East Side Kids & Bowery Boys movies, Gorcey would soon (literally) lose the beanie and replace it with a larger, more flamboyant hat that better marked him as a leader of men - - or at least, of men who sort of act like boys.

◀ Jumping ahead to 1974, in Charles Bronson's gritty action drama 'Death Wish', Jeff Goldblum wore the Jughead hat in his screen debut as the truly deviant 'Freak #1'.

(See more at He Shot Cyrus)

Our pal Jughead Jones first appeared (along with Archie Andrews and Betty Cooper) in the very first Archie comics story, in
Pep Comics #22, released in December of 1941.

In those early years (when all the characters looked a bit different), Juggy's hat usually was drawn to be a bit more recognizable as the modified fedora / beanie described above.

A cover image from 1946. ▶

As time went on and the model for the characters hit a stylized norm, artists drawing Jughead would increasingly use a sort of 'shorthand' in depicting his hat...

Above: ▲ 1955 and 1959.
At right: 1963. ▶
(click on images to enlarge)

It probably didn't help matters that the real-life model for the hat had fallen further and further out of vogue (or even general knowledge) over the years.

Certainly by now public recognition has declined steeply, as evidenced by dinnertable discussions everywhere;
"So what is up with that freaky hat that Jughead wears?"

Time marched on, the points on Jug's hat got higher, and it became less of what it started as, and more of its own,
unique whatever-the-heck it is.
The echoes of a court-jester's hat are there - - Jughead is the 'wise fool' character for the Riverdale crowd, after all...

Chatter around the web mentions that there have been times in recent history when the creators of Archie comics have tried to get rid of the hat, or 'update' it to today's ubiquitous baseball cap, but the fans still clamor for that 'crown-beanie thing'.

The comic books have at various times also tried to add special bits of trivia about the hat into the mythology, including it being a key to Jughead's 'powers' during the mid-1960s and the Archie gang's odd, bandwagon-jumping nod to the camp 'super-hero craze'.

Below: ▼ Transforming into 'Captain Hero' in 1966, via DIAL B for BLOG. (follow link)

Hmm, you don't see too many costumed heroes with hats. Masks, sure. Helmets, maybe...

Oh, so speaking of trivia - -
In wading through info on the web, I reserve the right to pick and choose what I believe
(and so should you).

- One bit of info about Jug's cap that I don't quite buy is the 'fact' that the dot and dash that became his standard decorations are meant to represent the morse code character for 'A', and the 'A' is for 'Archie'.
Yes, 'dot-dash' is 'A', and it may be another 'shorthand' instance as a handy insider guide to anyone hired to draw Archie comics, but I personally don't believe that a morse code 'A' was Jughead's intent, is all I'm saying.

- Another factoid that doesn't fly with me is from that original
Comics Should Be Good article. In summing up, it's mentioned that the term 'Jaghead' was once used for people who wore these "jagged beanies", and that may have been how Jughead first got his name when the character was created. It makes a pretty good story, but no, sorry, please show me I'm wrong, but it just doesn't sit right with me.

Further Confusions:
Complications over fully understanding the mysteries of the Jughead hat in our modern age come not only from the passage of time, but from the style of hat lacking a definitive name, and as a consequence of it being mass produced after its original handmade introduction to the world of style.

It was likely sometime in the 1930s when the original home-grown caps had caught on to the point that tailored versions for kids began to be manufactured and sold, billed as 'button beanies' or other such names.

◀ Whoopee hats (or Whoopee caps) shared the same basic configuration. They were part of a fad that appears to have peaked around 1929, mostly on college campuses.

They popped up in several popular songs of the day, including 'The Whoopee Hat Brigade', which was recorded by many different bands.

- You can hear a version from an old 78 by Harry Reser's Six Jumping Jacks and learn a bit more at Zorch's Inner Sanctum. (follow link)

Searching around today, you'll see variations on the basic shape being called palookaville caps,
devils caps, clubhouse hats, Kingpins, etc.
Like the Whoopee hat, many of them seem to share the characteristic of being garishly multi-colored, a quality they don't share with Jughead's hat - - which I'll venture was originally intended as the homemade fedora modification we've learned about, and not store-bought, because:

a) We know that Jughead seldom has any money, and
b) When he does, he's more likely to spend it on food than clothes.

The Jughead-styled cap is sometimes also identified as a dink or a rat cap, which are more typically identified as being related to the old tradition of the 'freshman beanie', a once-popular form of mild hazing on some college campuses that goes back at least as far as the beginning of the 20th century.

Running the search term "jughead's hat" (or other variations) and looking around online for some modern-day examples yields interesting results.

You'll see all manner of multi-colored, blinged-out versions, 'revivals' and lots of knitted caps that approximate the shape.

You'll also see a variety of custom jobs that range from high-quality couture that seems miles away from the 'Riverdale' look, to inspired home-craft projects from folks earnestly trying to bring themselves closer to their hero, Jughead.

Any insights you can share or pop media examples of the Jughead-styled hat down through the ages are most welcome. Leave a comment, drop a line...

UPDATE, 5.1.09: The sudden flurry of traffic this post has received has been fun to witness.
Check the comments here and the long discussion at MetaFilter for lots of interesting insights, observations and memories.
Great to read so many stories of people who wore these hats 'back in the day', either the hand-made versions or the store-bought variants.
Good to be reminded of Encyclopedia Brown's nemesis, Bugs Meany, who sported one - -
- - And cool to be shown the assorted Kellogg's Pep Pins that adorned many of the button beanies.

ADDENDUM, 6.9.09: Comments and e-mails continue to arrive, citing further instances of the hat in pop culture history.

Received a nice message from Alex Boese of
The Museum of Hoaxes.
He was kind enough to send along the image of a Sunday newspaper page from the Big Spring Daily Herald, dated October 9th, 1938. ▶

It contains an example of cartoonist H. T. Webster's cartoon series 'The Thrill That Comes Once In A Lifetime' (sometimes titled simply, 'The Thrill Of A Lifetime').

The panel shows a fedora conversion in action (though the result is a 'brim down' variant).

Thanks Alex!

A few more vintage H.T. Webster panels can be seen at
Yesterday's Papers.

6.23.09: Received a comment from Bob of Bob + Dusty's
Whirl-A-Go-Go that includes a link to his Flickr page featuring this old Russell Sambrook illustration.
◀
Thanks Bob!

6.26.09: Meanwhile, following up on the comment he left,
Owen has sent along his photos of the real deal, the hat he wore as a kid in the early 1950s, still in his possession, with some of the original doodads still attached!

(click on images to ENLARGE and get a good look) ▶

Owen adds some context - - "...as I wrote in the comments: born in '47, and this baby was a big part of my early childhood. My mother taught me how to sew the gumball-machine charms on it. This would have been until I was about 10, but obviously it has remained an icon and treasured.

"It looks as though some of the things have fallen off, and it also looks to me, now, as if some of those charms I sewed onto it are REALLY weird. What's with the Sacajewia-with-baby one? Or the flaky-foont-esque guy in the bathtub?

"I think the wooden bowling balls and bronzed baby shoes came with it."

Thanks for sharing, Owen! You must be the coolest kid on your block!

Help keep those cherubs neat-looking (1947 print ad)

2009-04-25T01:30:00.013-06:00

(Click on image to ENLARGE in a new window)

As it happens, the world in which we're living has made me so cynical and jaded that I can't look at this vintage, post WWII charitable plea without being amused.

I've become conditioned to read the term 'altar boy' as the set-up to a punch line.
How about you?

It doesn't help that my ignorant heathen curiosity is piqued by the mention of exotic cassocks and surplices - - to say nothing of trying to imagine really 'getting' the differences between dalmatics and chasubles and simars.

A rochet? The mozzetta??

Cinctures and tippets and albs! Oh my!!

Learn something new every day...
(ignorant heathen apologies available by request)

Changin' times in Riverdale: Funnybook life lessons from 1965 & 1972

2009-04-23T19:38:00.003-06:00

Here's another peek back at the manner in which the various Archie Comics titles of the 1960s and 70s displayed their particular reflection of that era.

It should fit right in with most of the other Riverdale-related posts on this blog, and the accompanying (occasionally expanding) flickr set; 'Archie comics of the 1960's as a mirror to fads, fashion and trends'. (follow links)

Archie and his pals gain some valuable insights in each of the two 'timelessly timely' tales shown below.

First, from 1965, it's a lesson regarding gender roles.

Then, in 1972, another father-son battle leads to learning a little perspective.

A valuable insight the reader can gain from reading both of these stories might be that the streets of Riverdale can be a dangerous place...

...But it's not all life lessons - - Dig those groovy fashions!

'The First Step', from Betty and Veronica #119 (1965)

⬅ (Click either on images or page numbers to open an ENLARGED page in a new window) ⬇

(page 1)
(page 2)
(page 3)
(page 4)
(page 5)
(page 6)

'My Fathers Eyes', from Life With Archie #118 (1972)

⬅ (Click either on images or page numbers to open an ENLARGED page in a new window) ⬇

(page 1)
(page 2)
(page 3)
(page 4)
(page 5)
(page 6)
(page 7)

Marcia Ball - 'Circuit Queen' LP (1978)

2009-04-22T21:51:00.008-06:00

Blues singer / pianist Marcia Ball has become something of an institution in Austin, Texas, and down in New Orleans, and at all the music festivals and venues she's played all over creation in the past thirty years or so, rocking audiences like a force of nature.

Born into a musical family, playing piano since childhood, she began playing professionally sometime during her college years in the late 1960s.
She went from playing in Gum, a psychedelic rock band in Louisiana to leading 'Freda and The Firedogs', a progressive country band in
Austin, Texas.

After that band's breakup, she began using her own name in her own band.

Her first solo LP was released in '78, and though a fine effort, it featured a country sound that (like Marcia herself, then ▼) bore little resemblance to the distinctive Gulf Coast R&B sound of the artist she'd become.

- Click here to see the full track listing, songwriter credits and session personnel for this album, featuring a fine array of musicians like Albert Lee,
Rodney Crowell, Buddy Emmons, Carlene Carter,
Janie Fricke, and Nicolette Larson.

From the Marcia Ball LP
'Circuit Queen' (Capitol Records LP, 1978),
Listen to:

Never Been Hurt
I'll Be Doggone
Circuit Queen
Big River
Good Times, Good Music, Good Friends

(click for audio)

- - OR download the full album (10 tracks) in one 68.4 Mb zipfile.

-See also: The Official Marcia Ball Web Site

Reasons To Be Cheerful: Isabel Samaras

2009-04-22T18:35:00.013-06:00

It was in a previous 'Reasons To Be Cheerful' post, a little over a year ago, that I happily reported that I'd found a new website for artist Isabel Samaras.

- That post mentioned how the various mythologies at play in her paintings had been changing in recent years; It also displayed a few examples, provided links to more, and excitedly mentioned that a book collecting her work was being planned. (Follow link)

Now here we are, Spring of '09, and I'm excited to have received word of an Isabel Samaras double-whammy in the offing...

◀Her long-awaited monograph from Chronicle Books, 'On Tender Hooks: The Art of Isabel Samaras' is due to make its appearance any day now, and looks lovely.

Chronicle is also simultaneously releasing a fancy limited edition of the book that's packaged with a print, and a handy paperback book of 30 Samaras postcards, which will surely feature some of her earlier 'classical' riffs on pop-culture icons.

But wait! There's more - -

A new series of Isabel Samaras paintings will be unveiled in a few weeks in
San Francisco!

- Into The Woodz: New Works by Isabel Samaras will show at The Shooting Gallery, 839 Larkin Street in San Francisco, from 5/9/2009 - 6/4/2009.

◀ The new paintings take the childrens classic 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears', and re-works it as a more contemporary romantic tale.

In a preview posting at her blog, i feel it too, Isabel gives some details:

"When I started working on the paintings for this show I was thinking about the Princess culture being sold to little girls – how your highest aspiration is to be rescued, married off and whisked away to a far off castle.

"But what happened to the girl who didn’t hook up with a Prince, who stayed in the woods?

"I wanted to explore that story, so for this show I picked Goldilocks, and as I so often do I created my own version of a happier ending — that the moment when she and Baby Bear lay eyes on each other it was love at first sight. (Goldy has definitely gone to the bears.)

"In my imagination the girl who stayed in the woods got to find herself after she got lost — she didn’t trade her identity in for a tiara, and she found true love (because love conquers all, even inter-species romance)."

- Read more of Isabel's thoughts about these paintings and sneak a few further peeks of them at her blog.

- Read more about the gallery show at Happenstand and at Juxtapoz.

Ruth Buzzi featured in Gene Kelly's 'Clownaround' (1972 theater program)

2009-04-19T15:03:00.019-06:00

Big thanks to my friend Big Dave for sharing this artifact from a notable theatrical flop.

Let's call this one a companion piece to my previously posted Ruth Buzzi 'shrine'.
(follow link)

At right, ▶
Ruth Buzzi astride 'Clownaround' co-star Dennis Allen.

Not too long ago, Big Dave and I were chatting about Ruth Buzzi (it's uncertain what triggered the discussion), and he mentioned that as a kid, he'd seen her perform live at The Oakland Coliseum Arena in 'Clownaround', a lavish musical stage extravaganza that featured real circus acts and was produced by
Gene Kelly.

A little research reveals that there may not be too many people around who can say that they saw 'Clownaround' - - and still have the program to prove it.

Despite big plans and high hopes for this family-themed spectacle to tour the country, it closed after only fourteen performances.

◀ Click on the image at left to see an enlarged scan of the program's cover, in all its blurry,
off-register misprinted glory.

Entertainment icon Gene Kelly was steeped in his director / producer / impresario mode in late 1971 when he was approached by the show's creators, the original idea being that Kelly would star in and choreograph the production.

Kelly was excited by the possibilities, and threw himself into the production whole-heartedly.
Billed as 'A Funny Kind of Musical for the Entire Family' mixed with circus themes, it was planned for the show to feature an enormous transformable 'Clown Machine' set /environment that actors, clowns and acrobats would perform atop and amidst.

Trouble for the show began during rehearsals in 1972, when Gene Kelly's second wife, Jeanne Coyne, was diagnosed with leukemia. He quickly withdrew from actiive participation in the production to be at her side.

Kelly's co-stars, both veterans of TV's 'Laugh-In' became the show's principals, along with "a cast of 70".

The show opened on April 27th, 1972 at the Oakland Coliseum. It played also at San Francisco's Cow Palace, and closed after only a few weeks.
Word is that the huge production ran out of money. It's also reported that two of the performers were seriously injured after falling from the 'Clown Machine' structure.

(Thanks to the site 'Gene Kelly, Creative Genius' for some valuable background information.)

(click on images to ENLARGE in a new window)

A further wrinkle to the 'Clownaround' saga is its ultra-rare original cast LP. ▶

Released on the RCA label, it was apparently only sold on-site at performances of the production.
After the show's quick close, all the unsold copies were reportedly melted down, leaving the notion of only 'dozens' of the album ever being issued.

Though it's also been reported that the music is 'less than stellar' (to put it charitably), the album has nevertheless become a much sought 'holy grail' item to collectors, fetching hundreds of dollars when one turns up.

Below, ▼ the Ruth Buzzi bio from the program.
(click on image to enlarge text)
Around the time of 'Clownaround' things were beginning to wind down on TV's 'Laugh-In'. Already past it's heyday, the series ended in 1973. Buzzi had several TV guest appearances throughout the rest of the '70s, including several revivals of her 'Gladys' character on various Dean Martin Roasts.
In 1975 she appeared opposite Jim Nabors on Sid & Marty Krofft's Saturday morning show,
'The Lost Saucer' for its one season run.

Below, ▼ it would appear that actor / comedian Dennis Allen was unfortunately at the apex of his professional career after he joined the cast of 'Laugh-In' in 1970.

Speaking of clowns, Dennis Allen had a memorable short clip that ran often on 'Sesame Street' in the 1970s, playing a sad-faced clown removing his makeup. (follow link)
Dennis Allen died of lung cancer in 1995.

Click on images below to get a better look at the stage show we never saw...

Below, more about some of the real circus acts who appeared in 'Clownaround'.
Click on images to enlarge text.

Gene Kelly's wife Jeanne passed away in 1973.
During the remainder of the '70s, Kelly made semi-regular TV appearances, continued some stage work, and was very successful with his involvement in the 'That's Entertainment' movies.

Below, more about the composer/lyricist team of Mark ("Moose") Charlap and Alvin Cooperman, set designer Sean Kenny, choreographer Howard Jeffrey, and the rest of the production staff.

(click on images to enlarge in a new window.)

Howard Duff: Tough? (1948 magazine spread)

2009-04-14T17:24:00.005-06:00

When the article below ran in the May, 1948 issue of Radio and TV Mirror magazine, actor Howard Duff (1913 - 1990) had been portraying detective Sam Spade in a weekly radio series for a couple of years.

(click on image to enlarge in a new window)

His popularity in that role would propel him further into a long career in films and TV in the 1950s and beyond.

Click here to enlarge page one of this article and read the text.

Follow links to continue reading the article in a new window:
- Part 2
- Part 3

'The Adventures of Sam Spade' premiered on radio in june of 1946, airing on Friday nights on the ABC network.

The hard-boiled detective's creator, mystery author Dashiell Hammett was marginally involved in the radio production, at least at the beginning.

With the relatively unknown Duff in the lead role, the series quickly caught on, and soon moved to a more prominent spot on Sunday evenings, now airing on CBS. It shifted networks again in 1949, moving over to NBC.

In 1950, both Howard Duff and Dashiell Hammett found their names appearing in 'Red Channels', the Hollywood Blacklisting-era pamphlet that listed entertainment industry professionals with supposed Communist ties.

Howard Duff was soon able to clear his name, but not before the Sam Spade show was brought to a sudden demise. The series would be revived for a final season, but without Howard Duff, and minus Dashiel Hammett's name.
This left Duff free to pursue more movie work, which led to several kick-ass film noir roles in the '50s, among other performances.

Following his "tempestuous" late 1940s relationship with actress Ava Gardner (between her marriages to Artie Shaw and Frank Sinatra, and somewhere amidst her relationship with Howard Hughes) Duff married actress/filmmaker Ida Lupino in 1951.

Episodes of 'The Adventures of Sam Spade' featuring Howard Duff can be heard online at a couple of 'Old Time Radio' locations:

-The Internet Archive has a couple of good stashes of episodes.

- The OTR.Network has a nice selection too, using Real Player and featuring sound quality that is perhaps a bit more consistent.

Chubby Checker meets Boyce & Hart: 'Lazy Elsie Molly' (1964)

2009-04-13T11:27:00.014-06:00

Singer Chubby Checker was a Philadelphia teen-ager still in high school when his recording career began.

In the late 1950s, his talent for mimicry of pop records caught the attention of Dick Clark, host of the American Bandstand TV show, still based in Philadelphia at the time.

Clark helped get him a contract with Cameo-Parkway records, and used him as something of a 'utility vocalist' from time to time on the Bandstand show, performing some of the rising chart hits of the day. Occasionally Mr. Checker performed more 'palatable' versions of popular songs from the R&B charts that were deemed too wild for the relatively conservative show.

Such was the case with 'The Twist', written and first recorded by Hank Ballard & The Midnighters, to moderate success.

But when Chubby Checker performed the song on Bandstand, he created a sensation by incorporating dance moves that Philadelphia teens had been doing to the Hank Ballard version.
Checker's subsequent 1960 cover recording of 'The Twist' was a smash hit, and he was at the forefront of a dance craze that swept America and the world in the sixties.

Other hit records followed for Mr. Checker, many of them capitalizing on other popular dances of the era, though none would quite reach the heights of his first chart-topper.

Some of his hit singles also began to incorporate more nonsensical lyrics and song titles, taken from folk songs and nursery rhymes, which is where the song featured here comes in.

'Lazy Elsie Molly' was only a minor hit, reaching #40 in the U.S. charts in 1964, but its bit of pop music history comes from it being the first commercial success for the songwriting team of Tommy Boyce and
Bobby Hart.

Boyce & Hart took an old Mother Goose rhyme, re-worked and embellished it, changed the title from 'Elsie Marley', set it to a melody reminiscent of Chubby's '62 hit, 'Limbo Rock', and came up with a song perfectly suited to be a new Chubby Checker single.

Listen to:
Chubby Checker - Lazy Elsie Molly
(Parkway Records 45, 1964)
(click for audio)

Prior to this single, Boyce and Hart had each had some fair amount of success (and failures) as writers and performers on their own. They met in Los Angeles in 1959.

(In the photo, ▶
Tommy Boyce is seated on the right,
with the guitar)

Following 'Lazy Elsie Molly' they had a much bigger hit with their song 'Come A Little Bit Closer', which became a top-ten record for
Jay and the Americans later that same year.

By the end of '65 they were working for
Don Kirshner, writing, producing and performing music for the TV pilot of what would become 'The Monkees'.

When the Monkees' TV series and records began appearing in 1966, essentially what we heard was Boyce & Hart (and their own band, The Candy Store Prophets) backing lead vocals by The Monkees.

It would get a little bit confusing as Monkeemania continued, but many of the Monkees songs we heard were written by Boyce and Hart, including 'Last Train to Clarksville', 'I Wanna Be Free', 'Valleri', and several that had initially been recorded by other bands, like 'Words' by The Leaves, 'Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day' by The Astronauts, 'I'm Gonna Buy Me A Dog' by The Gamma Goochee, and '(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone' by Paul Revere & the Raiders.

Beginning in 1967, Boyce and Hart began performing and releasing their own records as a duo, their biggest hit being 'I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight' in 1968.

Their music biz and TV connections continued to merge for the next few years, and they made several TV appearances, including guest shots on 'The Flying Nun',
'I Dream of Jeannie', and perhaps most memorably, on 'Bewitched', performing 'I'll Blow You A Kiss in the Wind'.

See also:
- Boyce and Hart at AllMusic.Com

- Boyce and Hart's single, 'Out & About' at The Devil's Music

- A site devoted to the 1970s post-Monkees group, Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart

See also:
- Chubby Checker at AllMusic.Com

- Chubby Checker was also featured in director Ron Mann's 1992 documentary film, 'Twist', a fun and fascinating movie, all about popular dance crazes and their effect on culture. Worth seeking out!

A recent visit to Prehistoric Gardens (flickr link)

2009-04-12T21:17:00.011-06:00

- Please follow link to my flickr set: 'Prehistoric Gardens, 3.29.09'
(29 photos)

Prehistoric Gardens is a roadside tourist attraction nestled in lush rainforest next to
U.S. 101 on the Oregon Coast Highway,
just a few miles south of the small town of
Port Orford and Humbug Mountain State Park, not quite 50 miles north of the California border.

Since 1953, visitors here have wandered among an assortment of full-sized dinosaur statues that look quite at home in this primeval paradise.

I was a toddler when my folks first brought me by, one Summer vacation en route to Grandma's house, long, long ago.

My innate love for 'dinosaur stuff' was fostered by further visits over the years, in an age when there was much less fodder available for the young dino-enthusiast.

Since the onset of my adult (?) years (also long ago), visits to Prehistoric Gardens have become much less frequent.
Twice a decade, maybe, if I'm lucky.

For me, it's still a thrilling and magical place.

The dinosaurs are like old friends, and it's always great to check in with them again, to see how they've changed (and so, how I've also changed) and to see what remains just the same.

Yes, the dinosaurs are still the big draw, but what really makes the place precious to me (and many others,
I'm sure) is the verdant setting.
All the best shades of Oregonian green, soft coastal air, and a spectacular array of rich and thriving foliage. At its very least, a perfect tonic for the road-weary traveler.

Things were quiet and soggy there during this most recent trip through. I was excited to see some of the dinosaurs dressed in new colors since my last visit.
As I once again walked around and said hello and grinned and breathed, I once again shot a batch of photos. I was very aware that I was likely shooting new versions of the same snapshots I'd taken several times before, so I tried to concentrate just a wee bit more upon the setting and not merely the subjects.

- Please follow link to my flickr set:
'Prehistoric Gardens, 3.29.09'

Hope you enjoy.

A few links for your further investigation:
- Also on flickr, TimSpfd's Prehistoric Gardens photo set has splendid shots of the park from 2002, featuring much better views of the dinosaurs than I've provided here, sporting that previous round of 'extreme' paint jobs. He also provides further PG flickr links of interest.

- Mary H's Prehistoric Gardens Fansite has some great pictures that go back further still to even earlier color schemes.

- Prehistoric Gardens listed at
Roadside Oddities and at
Roadside America.Com.

Tom Sinnickson illustrations for Dale Carnegie's 'How To Stop Worrying and Start Living' (1949)

2009-04-12T00:01:00.015-06:00

(click on images to ENLARGE in a new window)

These illustrations appeared in the October, 1949 issue of Liberty magazine, accompanying that month's featured 'condensed book'.

Most of artist
Tom Sinnickson's cartoony panels are lighthearted and playful (and delightfully incongruous when divorced from the main text), but the 'cover' and a couple of others effectively carry a darker feeling.

In the 1950s, Sinnickson illustrations turned up in many popular children's books, including some picture-book editions of various Wizard Of Oz stories for younger readers , 'A Child's Book of Planes', 'The Five Jolly Brothers', and several adaptations of older Raggedy Ann stories, all published by
Wonder Books.

Any other info you can share about Tom Sinnickson and his artwork is most welcome.
Please leave a comment or drop an e-mail.

'How to Stop Worrying and Start Living' was first published in
1948, written by American lecturer and pioneering
'self-help' author
Dale Carnegie. ▶

It was a
follow-up to his immensely popular book, 'How to Win Friends and Influence People', first published in 1936.

Those curious can read Carnegie's own summary to this book by following this link,
or one may click over to Google Books for
a preview of the current revised edition.

Skippies by Formfit: Nothing as comfortable - - ?!? (1954 print ad)

2009-04-11T11:06:00.001-06:00

(Click on image to ENLARGE in a new window)

Chicago's Formfit company began producing ladies' foundation garments in 1917, eventually branching out beyond corsets and girdles to manufacture other types of lingerie.

See also:
- Leif Peng shows several other period examples of 'That Formfit Look' and talks about the advertising strategies at play in an old post at his blog, Today's Inspiration.

- The site 'Mummy! Have you seen my Girdle?' also has much to say on the subject, and cites the Formfit brand often in its 'Past Times' section.

...and we're back

2009-04-10T23:59:00.001-06:00

Weeks & weeks later, and at last I'm ready to resume the bloggery I so enjoy.

The blog was in stasis, longer than I'd expected, just as I suspected it would be.

Many thanks to those who sent comments and other notes of concern. It was greatly appreciated.

Avoiding the boring details, the blog was down while I was away and traveling to take care of some tedious fluxed-up responsibilities elsewhere, and dealing with some pesky but thankfully minor health issues. Y'know, life stuff.

I hate explanations of inactivity in blogs almost as much as I hate to hear myself complain, but - - gee whiz, things have been extra challenging lately...

... maybe for you too? Who knew?!?

So, the blog is back 'live' again, and my desire is to keep it up and running at some kind of regular pace, and to keep sharing distractions and other essential nonsense that will be of interest to folks just like you.

We'll see how that goes. What happens next?

There are no guarantees, and it seems change is the only constant.

Thanks for your time, and thanks for stopping by.

Enough 'State of the Blog', back to the fun stuff!

2009-02-21T09:29:00.000-07:00

'Rock Threads': 1970 magazine photo-spread

2009-02-15T15:14:00.027-07:00

This article from the March, 1970 issue of Show magazine focused on a few L.A. and NYC fashion designers known for outfitting some of the more flamboyant pop stars of the day.

The images were shot by Raeanne Rubenstein, a noted celebrity photographer and more recently the editor of Dish Magazine.

The text was written by New York fashionista and Village Voice journalist Blair Sabol.
- You can learn more about Sabol by following the link to 'Profile In CourrÈges', a New York Times article from 2002.

(Click on images to ENLARGE in a new window.)

'Pamela Roselilly' was a ▶ professional name for
Pamela Courson, partner to The Doors'
Jim Morrison.

Her boutique Themis was a 'project' bankrolled by Morrison.

Patricia Butler's book, 'Angels Dance and Angels Die: The Tragic Romance of Pamela and Jim Morrison' (which can be previewed at Google Books) includes info about the Themis boutique, beginning on page 107.

- Raeanne Rubinstein talks about the Themis photoshoot for this article, beginning on page 111, in a section that includes more of her photos.

- Some of her Themis photos can also be seen at Child of the Moon.

- and here's a question: In the gathering above ▲, do you suppose that 'hanger-outer' Michael Bedard became poster artist / Animation Producer / children's book author Michael Bedard?
Looks like maybe, and the timing is about right...

◀ Mirandi Babitz (pictured with Steppenwolf's John Kay) had once been a friend of Pamela's and had also designed clothes for
Jim Morrison,
Eric Clapton and others.

Mirandi (sister of scenester / footnote
Eve Babitz) also figures into the 'Angels Dance and Angels Die' book, beginning on page 64.

Her own long and twisting path from the world of Rock 'n' Roll to becoming a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Torrance, California is summarized at her practice's website and in a 2008 article from the Wall Street Journal.

◀ ...And then there's Nudie Cohn (1902 - 1984), man among men, an institution, and the American Dream personified.

His Hollywood Western Wear 'Nudie Suits' are instantly recognizable, whether worn by the top Country Music stars back in the day, or 'up & coming' rock & rollers like Elvis,
Gram Parsons (pictured), or ZZ Top.

- Go check out Nudie's Official Website for more info and a gander at the galleries.

(Click on images to
ENLARGE in a new window.)

◀ Designers
Colette Mimram and
Stella Douglas (shown here with Johnny Winter) are perhaps most widely remembered for their friendship with
Jimi Hendrix during the final year or two of his life.

Hendrix frequented their New York boutique (Stella was also married to record producer Alan Douglas) and struck up a friendship, forming a small circle of friends that included Jimi's friend Deering Howe and culminated in a trip to Morocco in the Summer of 1969.

Some of those events are highlighted in a 2005 article that ran in Harp Magazine; Experience Unlimited: An Excerpt from 'Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of
Jimi Hendrix'.

◀ Okay, so a mention of promoter
Bill Graham's 'lost & found' fashion sense seems pretty apt; he was busy with other things.

My only personal memories of Graham's look are from the mid-1980s, when he'd occasionally jog from his hilltop estate to the record store where I worked in downtown Mill Valley.
He'd show up in his sweaty & smelly grey sweatpants and tee-shirt, pick up the new cassette by somebody he'd heard about, and then jog home.
Back to work...

Miles Davis
◀ and others knew where to find clothier Hernando Reinoso, but looking online these days there seems to be only a very few memories of his leather shop located on Christopher Street in New York City's West Village.

Poet e.e. cummings had once lived in the same building back in 1918, just a block away from the historic site where 1969's Stonewall riots originated.

(Click on images to ENLARGE in a new window.)

Some kinda podcast or 'nother...

2009-02-15T11:24:00.003-07:00

... or maybe something like a mixtape, 'cept it's here online.

Check out some musical selections that struck my fancy.

~~It's parked over near to the top of the lovely brown sidebar, and maybe you'll have your fancy struck as well.~~

Enjoy!

(Update: 'Nother podcast expired, but you might try looking for it at the Audio Annex...)

Gee, shucks, and thanks: It's The Dardos Award

2009-02-15T09:09:00.004-07:00

The innerweb never seems to tire of spraying its referential pointers everywhere, but I hope you'll please allow me just a moment to send profuse thanks to Gilligan at Retrospace, for having recently presented 'I'm Learning To Share' with
The Dardos Award.

The Dardos Award is described as: "An award given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web."

I'm appreciative and a bit humbled, as I know that my blog has really been running on fumes lately.

With this honor comes the responsibility of selecting five of my favorite bloggers to whom I may pass the award along, in accordance with the Dardos Award Rules:

1) Accept the award by posting it on your blog along with the name of the person that has granted the award and a link to his/her blog. 

2) Pass the Dardos Award to another five blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgement, remembering to contact each of them to let them know they have been selected for this award.

An honorary mention should of course go to Retrospace, not just as a 'thank you', but for its continued excellence in presenting fun and engaging nuggets of '60s and '70s pop culture that make for exactly the sort of thing I love to pore over online.

Choices, choices, choices.
My candidates represent a particular cross-section of an incomplete list of sites I visit fairly regularly.

Though I loves me a good blog that's chock full o' pretty pictures and not a lotta chatter, I'll choose to place emphasis on the writing aspect stated as a component of this award, and so choose a few favorites who regularly provide a pleasing balance of words and image in their blogs...

1. Isn't Life Terrible.
Don Brockway sums up his site perfectly: "Life can be terrible; life can be wonderful. The heights and depths of popular culture, with lots of listening - music, interviews, and stories... spiced with books, quizzes, video, pictures... even a little commentary."

2. ephemera.
'Exploring The World of Old Paper' - - Beautifully crafted, I always enjoy a visit to the rarified atmosphere of Marty Weil's world. Amazing.

3. Funky16Corners.
Music bloggery at its best. Larry Grogan writes from the heart about old-school soul music, shares the good shit and knows his stuff.
As if that weren't enough, also check out his Iron Leg and Paperback Rider.

4. Again With the Comics.
"Brian Hughes goes on and on about comics. If he loves comics so much, maybe he should just marry one."
Great choices with perfect commentary for those who are voracious and omnivorous when it comes to funny books.

5. Kindertrauma.
"Your Happy Childhood Ends Here."
More retro pop culturosity, but not in a good way.
From their manifesto, it's "...about the movies, books, and toys that scared you when you were a kid. It’s also about kids in scary movies, both as heroes and villains. And everything else that’s traumatic to a tyke! Through reviews, stories, artwork, and testimonials, we mean to remind you of all the things you once tried so hard to forget…"
Fascinating and chilling, and a truly important public resource!

The first appearance of Fruitman! (1967)

2009-02-02T21:43:00.005-07:00

As mentioned in the accompanying 'Bunny' comics post, I recently found a copy of issue #3.

In addition to assorted adventures of teen-queen Bunny and
her pals is the first story to feature Percival Pineapple, a.k.a. the heroic Fruitman!

Unlike most super-hero 'origin' stories, the folks at Harvey Comics chose not to tell us 'how our hero came to be', but rather to just jump in and let us enjoy the silliness - - umm, I mean the action.

Enjoy this thrilling introductory story, and for more background and more stories (including
'Fruitman in Israel') click over to a previous post; 'Sooper Hippie, Fruitman, and Bunny's Back Pages'.

Read 'Fruitman' ▶
from 'Bunny' issue #3 (1967)
▼
(click on links or images below to open pages in a new window)

(page 1) ▼▼
(page 2) ▼▼
(page 3) ▼▼
(page 4) ▼▼
(page 5) ▼▼
(page 6) ▼▼
(page 7) ▼▼

(click on links or images to open pages in a new window)

Bunny, 'Queen of the In-Crowd' in 'Watermelon Sellin'' (1967)

2009-02-02T21:28:00.007-07:00

I was very pleased recently to find another issue of 'Bunny', as published by Harvey Comics back in the swingin' '60s, full of more hip & zoovy super-fab teenage kicks!

Follow links to some previous 'Bunny' posts, if you missed them:

- '"She's Bunny, 'The Queen of The In Crowd!'" - 1960's 'Teen' comics from Harvey'

- 'Sooper Hippie, Fruitman, and Bunny's Back Pages'

- A Flickr gallery: ''Bunny' comics: Covers, Fashion Pages, and more'

In this issue's stand-out story, Bunny and her rival Esmeralda encounter the kooky world of advertising...

⬅ Read 'Watermelon Sellin'',
from issue #3 (1967)
⬇
(click on links to open pages in a new window)

(page 1)
(page 2)
(page 3)
(page 4)
(page 5)
(page 6)
(page 7)
(bonus epilogue:
'A Groovy TV Limerick')

Also:
See accompanying post for an exciting back-up feature from this same issue;
'The first appearance of Fruitman!'

'San Francisco Guys & Girls' b/w 'Mommy, Daddy Jog With Me' (1980)

2009-02-01T17:10:00.013-07:00

Curious and kitschy old 45's like this one are pretty much the epitome of the Thrift Store Find - - the sort of 'vanity project' record originally intended to be given as a gift or maybe a give-away 'premium'.

You might find it further down the road at a garage sale, but when it was new you probably never saw it at your local music emporium or heard it on your radio.

This 1980 single celebrates the city of
San Francisco in two similar songs that capitalized on that era's surge in the popularity of jogging, in the wake of efforts by running guru/author Jim Fixx and other fitness advocates of the time.

It sounds like it was recorded just for fun by non-professional musicians.

A bit of googling regarding the principal artists supports this theory, revealing very little to suggest that they stuck with the performing end of the music industry.

It appears that the Passantino family has a rich San Franciscan background, and that Regina's daughter Angelica has worked a bit in art history and acting in more recent years.
Since his performance on one side of this record, Konrad Dryden has distinguished himself as a classical music historian and author.

Listen to:
Konrad Dryden - San Francisco Guys & Girls
(Golden gate Records 45, 1980)
(click for audio)

Listen to:
Angelica Passantino -
Mommy, Daddy Jog With Me
(Golden gate Records 45, 1980)
(click for audio)

See also:
- Though you'll still see plenty of joggers in the vicinity of San Francisco's Marina Green, Crissy Field and its Presidio district, this record brings to mind the days when it was still a 'craze', and also the beginnings of the 'Parcourse' fitness trails, some of which appeared first in San Francisco and nearby cities.

- That 'newness' of jogging might for a few in turn conjure up a scene from Albert Brooks' cynical 1981 comedy 'Modern Romance'.
Click over to YouTube to watch the running store scene, in which Bob Einstein (a.k.a.
'Super Dave Osborne' and Brooks' real-life older brother) outfits Brooks with all the 'serious' equipment he'll need to 'start a new life'.

They don't make double-features like this anymore. (film print ads, 1971)

2009-01-31T22:10:00.007-07:00

(click on images to enlarge in a new window)

When these advertisements appeared in the UK in the March, 1971 issue of Films and Filming magazine, only the British-made 'The House That Dripped Blood' was making its premiere.

'Beyond the Valley of the Dolls' and 'Myra Breckinridge' and 'The Honeymoon Killers' had each had their distinctive initial runs in the U.S. almost a year prior.

'Davey' comic strips, 1946 - 1952

2009-01-29T00:02:00.002-07:00

'Davey' was a recurring comic strip that ran in issues of Extension Magazine, 'the Catholic Saturday Evening Post', appearing on its back page.

I scanned these from the same issues where I found the Bill O'Malley cartoons I've posted previously.

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Above, ▲ from August, 1946

I don't know a thing about 'Davey', or the strip's creator, Joseph Berger. I'd love to hear from anyone with any information to share on the topic.

Having only these five examples as references, the storyline of the strip is a bit mysterious.
The light-hearted lessons of the '46 strip above and the '52 strip at the bottom of the post are sandwiching a serialized plotline involving two sinister 'foreign agents'.
I guess we can assume that everything works out okay - -? (Though I notice that something has happened to Davey's eyes by '52 - - IF that's even the real Davey. Hmmm...)

That range in storylines and the nature of the relationship between wide-eyed Davey and Father Paul makes this strip seem like it may have been sort of a twist on Little Orphan Annie.
'Little Catholic Andy', if you will.

So is Davey an orphan? If not, where are his parents? He seems to be living with Father Paul, is that right? He's an altar boy, yes? And what did happen to his dog, Spot??
So many questions, and for now, so few answers...

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Above, ▲ from November, 1946

Above, ▲ from March, 1947

Above, ▲ from June, 1947

Above, ▲ from March, 1952

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Please drop a line or comment on this post if you have any insights regarding 'Davey' or cartoonist Joseph Berger!

Time to dig out the Groundhog Day Carols!

2009-01-28T00:07:00.011-07:00

Groundhog Day is coming around again; It's celebrated in the U.S. and Canada every February 2nd.

As folks begin to anxiously anticipate an end to the Winter season, it's time to haul out a traditional batch of tunes honoring an often under-appreciated friend of ours.

Whether viewed as folklore's harbinger of Spring or as maligned garden pest, whether as a euphemism for a
triflin' woman (?!?), as merely a handy lyrical device or just plain good eatin', the groundhog stands tall in American song.

HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!!

- Click here for a
big mess o' Groundhog Day Carols...
(posted for a limited time)

- ... and here's a playlist.
(follow link)

See also:
- Groundhog.Org: The Official Site of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club

'Think Spring!' - 1962 fashion spread

2009-01-26T22:17:00.008-07:00

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This article appeared in the January 1962 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine.

The layout and (of course) the fashions are very much of the era, and they're currently making me anxious for the return of 'Mad Men', coming back for its 3rd season this Summer.

(For more of 'Madmen' follow links, while they last.)

In addition to this spread, photographer Richard Heimann shot the cover images for several jazz and pop record jackets back around this same period.

Heimann was also the second husband of pioneering supermodel Carmen Dell'Orefice.

- Follow link to Fabulon for more of Carmen.

The outfits in the article are all touted as home sewing projects from Simplicity Patterns.

- Follow link to Cemetarian for more on the history of Simplicity.

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Scopitones in Archie comics, 1965

2009-01-19T18:34:00.021-07:00

I've been working on updating some of the previously posted Archie Comics-related material I've gathered here on the blog, adding some more examples of how those comic books mirrored various aspects of 1960s and '70s pop culture.

Here's a little preview
(more below), one that might benefit from just a little background info...

Scopitones were the name of one variety of 'film jukebox' that first appeared in the early 1960s. ▶

It's also the name of the films themselves, which were precursors to today's music videos.

They were popular in Europe and in the U.S. throughout the sixties, and on the wane by the seventies.

Scopitones weren't part of my experience at that time, but I've been a big fan of Scopitones.Com (sister site to Bedazzled!) for several years.

- Follow the link to Scopitones.Com NOW and watch some fascinating and groovy musical performances!

Betty and Veronica's brief interlude below at Pop's Chok'lit Shoppe occured in
Archie's Joke Book #93 (1965).

(Click on image to enlarge in a
new window) ▼

- Follow link to another informative site,
Scopitone Archive,
for a bit more history and background.

This week's Double Bummer; Ricardo's gone, McGoohan too.

2009-01-15T17:34:00.043-07:00

It's sad to have lost two charismatic fan-favorite actors this week.

It's sad and it's a shame that it's been their fate to have news of their passings lumped together more often than not, but that seems to be the way these things always go.

You can also be pretty sure that the headline in each of their obituaries will more often than not attempt to 'sum up' a long career with a catch-phrase or reference to just one of many roles they played in long and varied careers. Another shame.

The good news is that both of these actors leave behind ample evidence of a body of work that we all can enjoy for years to come. There's still much to revisit and to discover.

Thank you gentlemen, each of you, for a job well done.

Ricardo Montalbán, 1920 - 2009.

- An obituary. (follow links)

- Ricardo sings!
Click over to YouTube for a 'tribute' video that includes Mr. Montalbán performing
'Chihuahua Choo Choo' as its soundtrack.

Originally the song had been featured in a 1955 stage revue, 'That's Life'.
It was written by the Oscar-winning songwriting team of composer Jay Livingston and
lyricist Ray Evans, whose credits included 'Mona Lisa', 'Buttons And Bows', 'Silver Bells', 'Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)', and others.
Ricardo's recording first appeared on a 1957 LP, 'Premiere: The Top Motion Picture Stars of Hollywood Make Their Record Debut', arranged by Bob Thompson.

Patrick McGoohan, 1928 - 2009.

- An obituary (follow links)

- Follow link to YouTube for a film trailer to the 1962 drama 'All Night Long', an 'Othello' update featuring
Patrick McGoohan as a scheming
Jazz drummer...

'Spitting on The Sheriff': More Charles Rodrigues cartoons, circa 1966

2009-01-13T23:52:00.018-07:00

Hopefully you enjoyed the recent post of ''Strictly Personal' illustrations by Charles Rodrigues', because I've just stumbled onto an old paperback collecting some of his one-panel magazine cartoons.

- Follow the link to that previous post for some bio and background links about this cartoonist who was often known for his 'sick' material - - especially when he began working for National Lampoon in the 1970s.

'Spitting On The Sheriff And Other Diversions' was first published in paperback in 1966. ▶
According to Rodrigues' intro notes, many of the cartoons within had originally appeared in the magazines Stag, Male, Men, For Men Only, and Rogue, and some had never appeared in print before.

Scroll down for a few excerpts, click on the images to enlarge in a new window.

Truth be told, the reproduction of many of the cartoons in the book was pretty poor, so I've concentrated on some highlights that 'read' more clearly.

(Click on images to enlarge
in a new window)

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in a new window)

UPDATE, 7.11.09: A couple more specific cartoons added, by request of a reader with a long memory...

(link:) J.R. Williams' art and comics collages at Flickr

2009-01-11T20:31:00.002-07:00

(Reposted from 'Brief Window')

A treat to find new artwork by
Alternative Comix creator J.R. Williams!

- Follow this link to J.R. Williams' 'Cartoons and Comics' Flickr set.

I recall first seeing his comics in the pages of 'Weirdo' back in the '80s, and then in' Crap' and other titles in the '90s, but it seems like it's been a little while since running across his name.

(Not to be confused with the earlier
'Western' cartoonist of the same name)

Recent work on display at Flickr shows that he's been busy, and branching into fine art, but the comics background is still present.

Images rendered in ink, acrylics and watercolor mix with delightfully odd digital collages.

(Via Eye of the Goof)

See also:
- A December '08 interview with Williams at the Blah Blah Gallery blog.

- Another Flickr set; less comicky, more artsy, and very cool.
Follow link to J.R. Williams' 'Abstract/etc.' gallery. ▼