NEWS from me

May 15, 2002 · 2:00 PM PDT · link

MY BUDDY Lou Mougin recently e-mailed me an excerpt from an old Dobie Gillis comic book that included a Hollywood gossip page. On it was the copy above left, which announced Hanna-Barbera commencing production on its first full-length feature, then called Whistle Your Way Back Home. By the time it came out, it was named Hey There, It's Yogi Bear, though it did contain a song called "Whistle Your Way Back Home." The list of folks who were working on the film is interesting...or, rather, it's interesting who isn't in this press release. Two of the main layout artists — Willie Ito and Jerry Eisenberg — aren't there, though they were responsible for many key sequences, including a musical number, "Go-go, St. Louis," which is easily the best thing in the picture.

Also absent (and uncredited on the finished film) are voice actors Howard Morris and Allan Melvin, who are heard in several roles near the end of the movie. The film was obviously recorded in three sections with Daws Butler (Yogi), Don Messick (Boo Boo and the Ranger) and Julie Bennett (Cindy Bear) working in all three. Hal Smith does the extra voices in the first third; Mel Blanc, J. Pat O'Malley and Jean Vander Pyl do extra voices in the second third; Morris and Melvin do extras in the final third. Three other performers — who, to my knowledge, have never been identified — provided the singing voices of Yogi, Boo Boo and Cindy, which I always thought was a huge mistake. Even at age 12, seeing this movie at the old Pickwood Theater near Pico and Westwood, I could tell those weren't the real voices of Yogi and his friends singing.

Also, the above press handout credits Joe Barbera and Warren Foster with the script, whereas the finished film credited the two of them plus Bill Hanna. And the movie also credits Marty Paich for songs, including the title song and one sung by James Darren (!) who also isn't mentioned in the above, presumably because they then hadn't thought of adding that song and hiring him. (Darren was then under contract to Columbia, which released the movie, so he probably didn't cost much.)

But the most interesting name that's not in the article — and I hadn't expected to see it — is that of Friz Freleng. 'Tis a little known fact that he was originally going to direct this particular movie and that he spent several months drawing and supervising the drawing of its storyboard. In 1963, when Warner Brothers began closing down its animation studio, Friz was looking for a place to go. Less than a year later, he and David DePatie would launch their own studio, DePatie-Freleng Productions. But in-between, Friz started working on the feature for Bill and Joe. This was kept secret at first because he was still on the WB payroll and perhaps violating some terms of his contract. Then, before it could be announced, he and DePatie got their operation up and running, so he left and, probably by mutual agreement, it was decided he would not receive credit on the picture.

Around 1980, DePatie-Freleng morphed into Marvel's animation studio, with Marvel acquiring some of its assets, including its building which soon burned to the ground. Shortly after that fire left him sans office, Friz briefly returned to Hanna-Barbera. He worked there for a week or three...or, at least, they assigned him an office and also gave one to John Dunn, who had been his main writer/storyman over the years. I'm not sure if they ever settled on any project for Friz to do there, or if they just talked for a few weeks before deciding it wouldn't fly. One day, suddenly, he and Dunn were gone, and that was that.

The one instance where I ever got to spend any quality time with Friz was his second or third day at H-B during that stopover. I was writing something for the studio at the time — Richie Rich, probably — and Barbera introduced me to Friz, hoping we'd hit it off and could work together on something. They got on the topic of Hey There, It's Yogi Bear and that's how I heard, from the two of them jointly, the story of his involvement. Friz kept saying how it would have been a better film — he may even have said, "a good film" — if he'd stayed on it. Joe, eager to humor an old friend, kept agreeing and joking about Friz abandoning them in their hour of need. I said I thought the end-product was a pretty good movie and Joe smiled at me, while Friz turned into Yosemite Sam and bellowed, only half in jest, that I didn't know what I was talking about. This, of course, is often so...but I don't think it was with regard to that movie. I think it's a pretty good film...except for when Yogi and Boo Boo sing.

May 14, 2002 · 2:30 AM PDT · link

IF YOU WERE ENTHRALLED by the Harpo voice clip I posted the other day, you oughta pay a visit to www.marx-brothers.org, one of the better Marxian websites out there. Matter of fact, the clip apparently originated there, and they have another Harpo audio file, along with plenty of info on the Brothers Marx. My apologies to the proprietor of that site if he feels I usurped his file but it was e-mailed to me from someone who got it from someone else who got it from someone else, etc. (You've all gotten those e-mails...)

And speaking of those funny boys named Marx, I recently came across a letter that was sent to me in 1972 by Alan Jay Lerner, who was best known for writing the book and lyrics for My Fair Lady, Camelot, Gigi and even a few shows that weren't classics. Here is an excerpt from that letter. The reference to Coco Chanel relates to Coco, a Broadway musical that Lerner had penned about the life of the great designer, the show Arthur Laurents wrote was Gypsy, and the show about the brothers' life was, of course, Minnie's Boys, which debuted in 1970 and didn't last long.

Groucho approached me about becoming involved in the show about his family but I declined, respectfully but with a silent note of terror. Having endured the angst of Coco Chanel approving my version of her life, I had no stomach for the interference he would surely bring to his project. He summoned me to his table one evening in Chasen's, told me that his show was floundering and that only I could salvage it. He also insisted on telling me the plot, which was not wholly flattering to his mother, at least as he described it. To this I replied that Arthur Laurents had just done a perfectly fine musical about a pushy stage mother and vaudeville, so why did the world need another? Groucho's reply was to the effect that the Marx Brothers were important and were loved, whereas Gypsy Rose Lee was a nobody. I did not suggest that the theatre-going public might have more interest in strippers than in vaudeville comedians.

Lerner was also probably the wrong person for Minnie's Boys because of the subject matter...though odder matches have occurred. He came very close to doing the Broadway musical of Li'l Abner, as described here.

May 14, 2002 · 12:30 AM PDT · link

I AM ABOUT to cost you at least a half-hour of on-line time, especially if you're interested in old show biz memorabilia — Bob Hope's, in particular. The Library of Congress is currently hosting an exhibition of Hope curios and they've put a few dozen items on their website. Browse around and you'll find photos, scripts for monologues, Bob's packing list for his U.S.O. tours...even his old business cards from vaudeville. There are notes and telegrams from Al Boasberg (mentioned here last week) suggesting gags to Mr. Hope. There are rundowns from vaudeville, radio and TV shows. There are also a number of non-Hope items you'll enjoy, including pages from radio scripts and vintage portraits and...oh, stop reading this and just go there. Here's the link. It'll make you want to jump on a plane, go back to D.C. and see the whole exhibit in person. I love this kind of stuff.

ABC HAS, as predicted here, announced they'll be replacing Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect with a talk show hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. (Apparently, that time slot can only go to a comedian who is known for making degrading remarks about women.)

On tonight's edition of his show, Maher started talking about failings of our current president and remarked, "If I had a longer show — and I hope to, soon..." He said it off-handedly but I suspect it was a calculated way of saying to his audience, "I can't say anything yet but we're in negotiations to do an hour-long show on another channel."

Maher's contract with ABC runs to the end of the year and it will probably be some time before the Kimmel show is ready to debut. If a deal for Bill Maher to move to HBO or Fox or even back to Comedy Central is announced in the next week or two, will ABC keep him on for seven more months? Especially if he no longer cares about pissing off that network? This could get interesting...

May 13, 2002 · 4:30 PM PDT · link

THE SCIENCE-FICTION NEWS ORGAN, Locus, is reporting that "Mr. Sci-Fi," Forrest J Ackerman is in Kaiser Hospital following either a stroke or a heart attack. First, they said he was — quote: "Not expected to recover." Now, they're saying he's "doing quite well." Obviously, at age 86, there is ample reason for his friends and fans to be saddened by the news. Forry was the man behind Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine — an odd compendium of monster photos, articles and pain-inducing puns that inspired a lot of 10-year-old kids to become filmmakers, authors and artists.

He was also a literary agent, a founding member of science-fiction fandom, an authority on science-fiction and horror, an author and many other things, including being the creator of the character, Vampirella and the curator of a house full of books and monster memorabilia.

Years ago, cartoonist Scott Shaw! launched a campaign to raise money for what still seems like a good cause. The idea was that when Forry died, he'd be stuffed, put on rollers and delivered to every comic book and science-fiction convention. There, a tape recorder would endlessly replay the eleven anecdotes he told at such affairs. Scott, if you're reading this...I think you ought to get the crusade going again. I'm in for twenty bucks.

May 13, 2002 · 2:30 AM PDT · link

HERE'S SOMETHING that's been floating around on the Internet for years. It's an excerpt from an old B.B.C. documentary...thirty seconds of Harpo Marx discussing a silly moment from his career. If you've heard it before, fine. If not...well, how often does one get to hear the voice of Harpo Marx? This is the man who, at his farewell live performance, walked up to the microphone and proclaimed to the audience, "Now, as I was about to say in 1918..." Actually, the usually-silent Mr. Marx spoke in a few documentary-type shorts and appeared in a number of stage performances of The Man Who Came to Dinner. (Co-authors George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart took turns playing Sheridan Whiteside, while Harpo played...well, the character based on Harpo.)

It has also been rumored that he spoke during a long-lost appearance on the daytime TV show, Art Linkletter's House Party. Linkletter has reportedly told inquiring Marx fans that he doesn't recall this but won't say for sure it did not happen. So maybe it did, maybe it didn't and maybe (my hunch:) it was some other, similar show.

Anyway, for now, the way to hear Harpo. It's a WAV file and you oughta be able hear it by left-clicking on the name or download it to your computer by right-clicking. It's about 338KB.

Harpo Speaks!

WE HEAR A LOT about how actors are paid (or overpaid) enormous salaries. Here, as a beacon of light, are some interesting stats from a report just released by the Screen Actors Guild...

23% of SAG members did not work during 1996-2000 and that 36% have worked less than five days in those five years. At the Hollywood branch, 26,331 of 63,745 members (41.3%) worked at least 30 days in 1996-2000, while another 2,217 (3.5%) had qualified for 10 years of pension and health benefits and another 2,011 (3.2%) had worked 10 or more days in 2000. Stats for all 117,135 SAG members showed 38.7% had worked 30 days, while another 3.4% qualified for 10 years of P&H and another 2.9% had worked 10 days in 2000.

Now, these numbers are a bit misleading because the Screen Actors Guild roster includes a number of people who consider themselves primarily writers or directors or something else. They may not have worked under the S.A.G. contract during a given period because they were tidily-employed in another capacity...or were acting on the stage or even on a TV show covered by A.F.T.R.A. Still, we have here some sobering figures to anyone who thinks acting is an easy way to Big Bucks. Not if you don't work for five years, it isn't.

TRIO, the Canadian TV channel that is mainly available via satellite dish, is running a Broadway salute this month with things like the recent PBS taping of Fosse and the concert version of Sweeney Todd. The most interesting, TiVo-worthy program is Broadway Legends, hosted by Matthew Broderick and featuring short interviews with the likes of S. Sondheim, N. Lane, N. Simon, J. Robards and many others. But the thing to really keep an eye out for is that, between shows, they sometimes run a little 4-minute featurette — an expanded version of the "Come Back to Broadway" commercial that was done last year to try and counteract the dip in theatre-going that followed 9/11. It's every star then playing in New York, congregated in Times Square, singing a rousing rendition of "New York, New York," and it's just a delight to watch.


There's a bottle of Clorox or Drano or some toxic liquid on stage. The host picks it up and drinks it. Someone — the star, a band member, the announcer — says they're going to do something amazing and then there's an obvious switch to a stuntman who performs the feat. (Variation: The old "Super Dave Osborne" gag of substituting the person for a dummy which is maimed, run over by a car, thrown off the roof, etc.) Fat guys in the crew with their shirts off. 80% of all jokes where the premise is that Bill Clinton is horny, George W. Bush is stupid, Al Gore is boring, Dick Cheney is having hourly heart attacks, Janet Reno is a man or Gary Condit is guilty. Sending a staff or audience member to a nearby store to buy something silly and/or just be real annoying. Look who's holding the cue cards! The announcer is (a) in drag, (b) constantly being molested by a stalker or (c) secretly doing something perverse in his dressing room or backstage. Hey, let's stop people on the street and ask them questions we know they won't be able to answer! (Or play a game we know they won't be able to win.) Going door-to-door and getting people to either dress up funny or welcome us like guests into their lives. And now, here's a has-been celebrity who will do any stupid thing we think up, just to get on the show...

May 12, 2002 · 1:00 PM PDT · link

LET'S GO to the mailbag...

Read your comments [over at TVBarn] about Jay and Dave both being in a rut and I agree completely. Enough already with how stupid people in the street are when you stick them in front of a camera. But the thing I miss are the new stand-up comics. Johnny introduced dozens (including Jay and Dave) and launched careers. Who have Jay and Dave introduced?

Not many...but here, I'll defend the guys. First off, Carson got his rep as a presenter of new stand-ups before 1980 when he cut the show from 90 to 60 minutes. The trim meant room for 1 or 2 fewer guests per night and therefore, less room for new comics. Secondly, when Johnny was showcasing stand-up comedians, he had one of the very few franchises in all of television that did that. His bookers were notorious for scouting the clubs, spotting promising comedians and telling them, "Keep working at it. If you continue to improve, we may book you with Johnny in a year or so." Both Letterman and Leno were told that at the Comedy Store, once upon a time. Today, a promising stand-up at the Store is pounced upon by many. By the time he or she could be "ready" for The Tonight Show, they've already done a half-hour Comedy Central Presents, spots on B.E.T., perhaps a Showtime special, etc. Comics today don't need the late night venues as they once did. They have too many other avenues.

Johnny's last few years, not many comedians got their Big Break on his program and, with the ones who did like Stephen Wright, there was a slight reversal of the process. Instead of waiting obediently for The Tonight Show to pronounce a comedian ready, the comedian would already have an agent and probably a manager who would negotiate with The Tonight Show: "Okay, he'll hold off doing any other shows until he does Johnny's if you guarantee him a proper showcase." A fellow named Jim McCawley — a nice but intense gent who worked for Carson — was the scout and negotiator in such situations. I knew him casually and watched him, over the years, lose a bit of his kingmaking status. Around '78, he'd walk into the Comedy Store and comedians would lick his loafers clean. If he said — and he did — "I think you may be ready for Johnny in six months...that is, if you don't do any other shows in the meantime," the comic swore to fend off Merv Griffin's bookers with a meat-ax.

But things changed. Once, all the comics wanted to debut with Johnny because all the recent success stories in comedy involved making your debut there. Before long though, you had guys like Andy Kaufman, Dennis Miller, Eddie Murphy, Sam Kinison and others who were doing quite well without a Carson christening. Around 1987, I saw McCawley in action at the Improv and, while he still wielded great power, the balance of it was not quite so lopsided. He had to convince comics (and their reps) that it was still their best option to allow The Tonight Show to introduce them to America. Some decided otherwise while others opted for Johnny simply because he was Johnny.

Lastly — and this may be Dave's and Jay's fault to some extent — I don't think their shows are as conducive to new stand-ups as Johnny's was, even in his hour-long days. Carson had a certain stature as Elder Statesman of comedy and, when he said, "Here's a bright new comic," the studio audience paid attention and tried to help out the newbie. When Dave or Jay book a stand-up...first of all, the spot is rushed. Secondly, the folks out front seem to think, "Huh? We have to listen to someone other than Dave [or Jay] for four minutes?" A comic I know who did Letterman once said that his spot got about a third the laughs it should have because the studio audience was so full of Dave fans who were all watching Dave, not him, while he was performing. His next time on, instead of working "in one," he sat in the guest's chair and did his material, chatting with Letterman. That worked better, he felt, because Dave was involved and the audience wasn't resenting him from taking the spotlight off their boy.

I'd like to see the late night shows bring us more great new comedians. But I'm afraid all the worthy ones now have sitcom development deals, long before Dave or Jay can get to them.

May 12, 2002 · 10:00 AM PDT · link

ONE OF THE THINGS I've been up to, lately: Later this year — November, I think — Watson-Guptill Books will issue the handsome volume you see at left — Mad Art, billed as "A visual celebration of the art of Mad Magazine and the idiots who create it." I've interviewed darn near everyone who's alive who ever drew a substantial number of pics for America's foremost humor publication, plus a fair amount of writers, editors, production folks and a few widows. The thing is full of insights, biographical info, examples of Mad artistry, previously-unpublished sketches and preliminary art...stuff like that. There's a press release up at the publisher's website — you can get to it by clicking here — and that's about all I have to say about it right now. Oh, wait...how about that terrific cover by Richard Williams? Neat, huh?

This may be my year for books. In addition to four or five Groo paperbacks and the collection of my POV columns (ad down below), I'm currently dickering for a book about the state of the comedy business, expanded from a couple of pieces I wrote last year for Comics Buyer's Guide.

And yes — to mass-answer a question that arrives almost daily via e-mail — I am still producing (that is to say, we are still doing) Volume III of Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America. And I'm doing other things, mostly for TV, but I think I've just reached the Internet Bandwidth Limit for self-promotion. One more plug and the entire World Wide Web crashes...

JOHN MAYO has posted a good report on last year's Comic-Con International, full of terrific photos and facts. You can read it by clicking here.

I LOVE PHOTOS of Zero Mostel. Has there ever been an actor with a more expressive face? Caricature artists love that puss. Mort Drucker and Al Hirschfeld — probably the two greatest practitioners of the art ever — both told me that Mostel was a particular favorite to draw. (I purchased the original art to a story in Mad Magazine called "Antenna on the Roof" in which Mr. Drucker elegantly captured the likeness of the gent. Looks like he had a lot of fun drawing it.)

This photo is from the movie version of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, a less-than-wonderful interpretation of the great play by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart. Mr. Gelbart once described it as, "The most painful experience...like being run over by a truck that then backed-up so it could run you over again." That it is at all viewable is largely because Mostel was always worth watching...quite an achievement in a film where three other great clowns — Phil Silvers, Jack Gilford and Buster Keaton — aren't worth watching. Keaton did a lot of dreadful low-budget "comedies" (I'm using the world loosely) in the sixties and got more laughs in any one of them than he does in this high-budget one.

Among the things that went wrong with this one...

The film is way overproduced. On stage, it was the only major musical ever to have only one set...and not a very fancy one, at that. In the movie, they tried to show us Ancient Rome in all its cluttered glory.
Any time you're discarding Stephen Sondheim songs, something is wrong. Very wrong.
Phil Silvers was cast as Marcus Lycus, a comparatively small part. They then proceeded to try and build up that role, which meant tossing out several important plot complications to make room for needless plot complications.
The director, Richard Lester, had become famous for a strange kind of cinematography and editing rhythm in which you are always conscious of the camera, and no attempt is made at seamless continuity. This style, which was so much fun in a few earlier movies like A Hard Day's Night, was already wearing out its welcome by the time Forum was filmed, and it was especially at odds with the material. In too many scenes, it is the film editor (or Lester) controlling the timing, not the comedians.
Lester (and the producer, Melvin Frank) also wanted to "open up" the film and include a big chariot race and elements of spectacle. That meant further corruptions of the plot to find reasons for such scenes...which, of course, were unnecessary distractions.

And there are about 11 dozen other things wrong with it, which brings us to this question. TV is on a kick of remaking musicals. Matthew Broderick and Kristin Chenoweth are appearing in a new version of The Music Man, which not one human being on this planet thought was poorly done the first time it was put on film. When will they start redoing some of the ones that could actually be improved in a new version? Forum would be a great place to start.

By the way: Turner Classic Movies is running the film with Zero next Sunday. If you watch, watch only for him.

THIS SITE was down for much of last night due to a one-two punch. My cable modem's company had an outage that disconnected most of their Los Angeles customers from the Internet for about ten hours. At the same time, the separate company that hosts this website was switching over to new servers. So I couldn't get on-line to update this site and even if I had been able to, it wasn't there.

Everything seems to be operational at the moment but, for an hour or so there last night, I was really baffled, trying to figure out if the problem was that the cable modem wasn't working or if it was because my hosting company was malfunctioning. First, I thought it was one, then the other...then the first cause, again, back and forth. It took a while to figure out that both were malfunctioning at the same time. Ah, the wonders of the Computer Age...

May 10, 2002 · 2:00 PM PDT · link

Your Tax Dollars At Work: In its January, 1958 issue, Mad Magazine featured a Monopoly-style game, the object of which was to avoid Selective Service. If you completed the game (which, of course, was not a playable game but just a batch of jokes), the "finish line" — seen at left — invited you to send to the head of the F.B.I., Mr. Hoover hisself, for your membership card in some spurious Draft Dodgers Society. Amazingly, like they had nothing better to do, the Federal Bureau of Investigation dispatched agents to the Mad offices to, basically, intimidate them into not doing anything like that again. Thereafter, they kept close tabs on the content of the magazine...which I guess is more important than tracking down murderers and racketeers. At least, it's safer. First time I heard this, I thought it was a joke or some gross exaggeration of reality...but it turned out to have been true. You can verify it via documents obtained by www.thesmokinggun.com, a well-known website that traffics in embarrassing paperwork.

You can actually read the F.B.I. file on-line by clicking here and you may want to browse that site a bit while you're over there. It's full of fun stuff including this peek at the contracts that various performers have (or had) for concert appearances, itemizing the perks they demand. Frank Sinatra, for instance, had to have in his dressing room, two egg salad sandwiches, two chicken salad sandwiches, two sliced turkey sandwiches, three cans of Campbell's Chicken Rice soup, 12 rolls of cherry LifeSavers, etc. Make sure you read the one for David Copperfield.

MY PAL PETER DAVID is a fine writer and a fine gentleman. He now has the beginnings of a fine website up at www.peterdavid.net, including an almost daily weblog. Well worth your clicking time.

THERE'S a new, nicely-designed Vegas Guide up at www.vegashotspots.com. I usually don't like sites that have audio tracks but this one goes nicely with the ambiance.

HERE'S THE COVER of the forthcoming DVD of 1776 — an odd choice of featured photo. The movie is low on romance and the only star who's likely to be familiar to today's buyers in William Daniels, who has the largest role...but I don't see him at all on the cover. On the other hand, it's nice to see that group shot at the bottom since it's from the "Cool, Conservative Men" number, which was cut from earlier releases and is restored for this one. So not only are they including it, they're featuring it. This is a pretty good film and what I find interesting about it is that halfway through — or, in the stage version at around intermission — you actually find yourself thinking, "They'll never succeed. They'll never get that country established!"

It's the story of how the Declaration of Independence came to be and how the original 13 colonies asserted their right to exit the grand British Empire. We all know that happened but the dramatics of 1776 are such that they encourage you to forget, just for the moment, that the United States of America did get founded. I also like that the whole thing ends, not on a note of flag-waving faux-patriotism but with the recognition that pain, suffering and sacrifice still lay ahead for the Founding Fathers and their countrymen. Some of the songs may not be all that we'd like them to be but, in the main, 1776 is a glorious thing to behold.

And, as predicted here, you can now pre-order it from Amazon.Com for less than the price at Movies Unlimited. Click here to do so. (I was wrong, by the way, when I said Amazon would be two bucks cheaper. It's four and a half.)

will be out in late July from TwoMorrows Publishing. You've been waiting for us to be wittier in announcing it will have some old columns, some new ones and illustrations by Sergio Aragonés. Well, you've been waiting with foolish expectations because this plug is no funnier than the previous ones. Sorry.