Well, dear readers, it is Tuesday. I know this because the Loud Mowers have arrived and awakened me out of a sound sleep. Frankly, I like a quiet sleep with no sound, and yet there I was, sound asleep until the sound of mowing. I then began to sing that great Rodgers and Hammerstein song, The Sound of Mowing:
My sleep is alive
With the sound of mowing…
Last night I dreamed I was at Manderley.
In my dream I was at home. Living across the street from me was Warren Beatty. I was at home, trying to sleep, but he came over and tried to leave something for me by the front door. I got up to see what it was, and it was some political thing which all the neighbors were asked to sign and then pass on. Then Warren’s houseguest, actor/director Tony Bill, came over to use the phone. He used the phone for about three hours. Then all of a sudden Harold Ramis came over. We were all sitting in the living room chatting about something or other, and I was telling Warren we had mutual friends. I then said that the person I’d really like to see is Susan Dey, that I hadn’t seen her in years. I asked everyone if they’d seen her. Harold Ramis said, “Well, yes, I saw her this morning, and I saw her an hour ago.” I looked at Harold Ramis curiously and replied, “Are you two married?” He chuckled and said yes, they were. I said I’d been going to all the Partridge Family reunions in the hopes of seeing her, but all I ever saw was Danny Bonaduce. Susan then arrived and we had a grand time catching up. Then, curiously, I heard the sound of mowing and I woke up. Wasn’t that a marvelous dream? I know why one component of the dream was on my mind (this will become apparent when I reveal the answer to the trivia contest) but where this other stuff came from I have no idea (I mean, Tony Bill??? Harold Ramis???).
Last night, prior to Manderley, I played poker with seven other people. First we ate dinner at Casa Vega where, as usual, I stuffed myself to the gills, whatever the hell that means. Then we all drove to some far-off land west of the Pecos and east of the sun. All I know is there were streets with names like Prairie Rd. and Cactus Ln. and Stallion Street and Bell Canyon. We drove up windy roads and in certain residences along the way I saw actual horses in people’s actual yards. Poker was fun, and I was the big winner for the night, pocketing winnings of ten count them ten dollars. Our stakes were our usual – quarter, half-dollar, dollar, but there were no big losers, so that was nice. Occasionally someone can drop forty or sixty dollars at one of these games, but the luck went around the table pretty evenly, and I think the most anyone lost was seventeen count them seventeen dollars.
They are still out there, mowing merrily, just like the Stephen Sondheim song:
See the pretty grass
Glistening in the morning dew
Merrily they mow the grass
Mow the grass
It’s very loud…
Well, perhaps we should all click on the Unseemly Button below whilst singing the great Schmidt and Jones song, Soon They’re Gonna Mow:
Soon they’re gonna mow
And I’ll hear it,
Soon they’re gonna mow
Really loud…
Our brand spanking new radio show is up, with Mr. Ron Pulliam’s favorite show tune choices, and I have read nary a word about it. Yes, Virginia, I have read nary a word so let’s remedy that situation, shall we?
We had many many many (that is three manys) correct answers to the Unseemly Trivia Contest – I knew it wasn’t that difficult, but I surely didn’t think it was as easy as it apparently was. The question was:
In the late fifties a then major playwright who was coming off two huge hits, wrote a then notoriously huge flop. This huge flop starred a young adult who was about to go onto major motion picture stardom, and in fact the motion picture which helped put that young adult on that journey was also written by this playwright. Also in the play were two other interesting cast members – one would go on to appear with the young adult some years later in one of the young adult’s most famous movies, a true motion picture classic. The other cast member was a very well-known performer who had appeared in a classic Broadway musical (doing a classic number) and who was not known for being a straight play performer.
Name the flop play.
Name the cast member who appeared alongside the motion picture star in the true motion picture classic.
Name the very well-known performer who’d appeared in a classic Broadway musical.
Unseemly Clue: This flop play was, a few years later, turned into an equally unsuccessful film, which used a different and more provocative and blatant title.
And the answers are:
The flop play: A Loss of Roses by William Inge, which starred Warren Beatty, who would shortly thereafter begin his rise to stardom by appearing in the film Splendor in the Grass, also written by Mr. Inge.
The cast member who appeared alongside Mr. Beatty: Michael J. Pollard, who would also appear with Mr. Beatty in Bonnie and Clyde.
The very well-known performer who’d appeared in a classic Broadway musical (doing a classic number): Carol Haney, The Pajama Game – Steam Heat.
The answer to the clue is The Stripper, a Fox film with Joanne Woodward.
Congratulations to all our High Winners: td, Arnold M. Brockman, Michael Shayne, William E. Lurie, Ron Pulliam, Dennis Clancy, Mark Rothman, William F. Orr, JMK, Steve Gurey, Stuart and the errant and truant Freedunit. We put all those names into our handy-dandy Electronic Hat and said hat randomly chose our Highest Winner, Mr. Dennis Clancy. If he would send us his handy-dandy address we shall be sending him a sparkling prize.
And yet, on they mow. Perhaps we should sing that great Irving Berlin song:
There’s no business like mow business
Like no business I know.
When your grass is long they start in mowing
This they do while you are sleeping sound.
They don’t stop, they simply keep on going
Then they start blowing the leaves around.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do – I have meetings to attend, I have places to go and people to see, I have things to eat, phone calls to make – in short, I must hit the road Jack, but I’ll be back. Today’s topic of discussion: I enjoyed our little trip down computer nostalgia lane, so let’s continue in that mode – What was the first stereo you owned all by yourself – it doesn’t matter who bought it, but it has to be one that was personally yours. I’ll start: I’ve told this story before, but my first record player was a Columbia House Stereophonic Record Player that I got by joining the Columbia Record Club in 1960. Up to then, all my recordings were played on the Hi-Fi machine in the den. The Hi-Fi machine was, of course, just that – Hi-Fi, not stereo. So hearing stereo sound in my own bedroom for the first time was absolutely thrilling – even on that cheap Columbia House Stereophonic Record Player. Your turn.