Well, dear readers, I must hurry and write these here notes because today has turned into a very busy day and the day hasn’t even begun. Yesterday was also a very busy day and somewhat annoying and a bit of a rollercoaster ride, too. I do not like rollercoasters. Hence, I can live without days that are like rollercoaster rides. The first thing I did was got out of bed. I find it very difficult to jog whilst in bed, so instead I got up and jogged outside. The minute I returned, the phone started ringing and basically never stopped the entire livelong day. Somehow I managed to write a couple of pages (it felt great to get back to my new book, but took a while to get back in the swing of things, character-wise), and I wrote a bit more of what will be the final song in PennyO’s show. I managed to get in some food-time, and then it was back to answering e-mails and fielding phone calls and adding all sorts of appointments to the already busy week. The phone finally stopped ringing about seven and I was finally able to sit on my couch like so much fish. At nine, I did a live phone interview with radio personality Gregg Hunter, plugging the cabaret series. That was fun. Just prior to that, Mr. Matthew Ashford stopped by to pick up his DVDs. We had a nice chat, and we’re both looking forward to doing the Ray Courts Hollywood Collector’s Show this weekend (with Kevin Spirtas, as well). I had to order some Nudie Musical DVDs, and it’s going to be a horse race as to whether they’ll arrive on time. I don’t have many Kritzer books (three sets) but I have some Writer’s Blocks and some Rewinds to bring with. I may also try to print up some of the Tabitha photographs. I also have to locate all the other photos I have and I just don’t want to wait until the last minute to do all of that, because Friday is a completely crazy day, what with our cabaret series debuting that night with Miss Susan Egan.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Brute Force. It was quite a good picture – a prison drama/noir, directed by the excellent Jules Dassin (what a shame his career was ruined for many years by the shameful blacklist). Burt Lancaster is great, as always, and the rest of the cast is terrif, including Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford, Jeff Corey, Yvonne De Carlo, Ella Raines, Ann Blyth and others. The film introduced three new exciting screen personalities – Whit Bissell, Howard Duff, and Art Smith. The film has an excellent Miklos Rozsa score, too. The transfer is decent (it was in the first wave of DVD releases), and if you haven’t seen the film and can find the DVD, I think you’ll enjoy it. I also watched the first two episodes of Amazing Stories, which I got an advance copy of. I pretty much detested every episode of the show when it originally aired, but I figured that it probably has aged well. I figured wrong. The first two episodes are really quite bad in just about every way. Ghost Train is just silly and overblown, poorly scripted, and over-directed by Mr. Spielberg. It did have a nice score by John Williams. They spent a lot of money on these half-hour shows and it’s all there on the screen. The second episode, The Main Attraction, is grating and annoying, not necessarily in that order. Standard-issue direction by Matthew Robbins and a mediocre script by Brad Bird (who would go on to bigger and better things) and Mick Garris. Maybe there’ll be a gem or two amongst the rest of the episodes, but so far it’s exactly as I remembered it – just uninteresting, bloated, and poor. I think most of that can be laid at the feet of producers and creators John Falsey and Joshua Brand – just bland stuff.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because shortly I must go appear on a cable access TV show with our very own Miss Susan Egan – we’ll be plugging the cabaret series.
We had several winners in our Unseemly Trivia Contest. Here was the question:
This huge flop musical was adapted from a book, which had also previously been made into a film. It was presented by someone who had been very successful in another medium earlier in that decade. In the cast of the flop musical was someone who would go on to become a notable choreographer and director. Also in the cast was the offspring of a well-known motion picture star. Interestingly, said well-known motion picture star was also appearing on Broadway that same season in a successful show. Also in the cast was someone whose greatest notoriety would be from appearing in a classic television commercial with a classic one-liner. So:
Name the flop musical and the book it was adapted from.
Name the presenter and identify the other medium in which said presenter had been very successful.
Name the cast member who would go on to become a notable choreographer and director.
Name the cast member who was an offspring of a well-known motion picture star, name the motion picture star, and name the show in which the motion picture star was appearing that season.
Name the cast member whose greatest notoriety would be from appearing in a classic commercial, name the character said cast member played in the commercial, and quote the famous one-liner from the commercial.
And here are the answers:
Here’s Where I Belong/East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Mitch Miller – recording artist and TV variety show star
Graciela Daniele
Heather MacRae/Gordon MacRae/I Do! I Do! (with Carol Lawrence)
Dena Dietrich/Mother Nature/”It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.”
And our winners were TCB, Jrand, FJL, and Cillalaw. We put all our winners’ names into our Electronic Hat, which then chose our High Winner completely at random – TCB. If TCB will send his handy-dandy address he will receive a handy-dandy sparkling prize. Congratulations to one and all and also all and one, and I was very happy to see more than the usual suspects giving the contest a try.
So, today I’ll be appearing with Susan Egan on the Skip E. Lowe cable access TV show. Anyone who has ever seen Mr. Lowe knows that Mr. Martin Short’s Jiminy Glick was based on Mr. Lowe and his show. I’ve always enjoyed and been bemused by Mr. Lowe and even bought a signed copy of his book, The Boy With The Betty Grable Legs. I’ll have a full report for you upon my returning for which I know you’ll be yearning so keep the home fries burning.
After the show, I have to go over to LACC to check out the theater and see how the setting looks for our cabaret series, plus I have to check and make sure that the lighting is going to work for the shows in a general sort of way or, at the very least, in a sergeant sort of way. After that, I’ll be meeting my friend Judy Berg and another friend for some dinner on the West Side.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, do the Skip E. Lowe show, write, go to LACC, eat, and I’m sure there are a few other things I’ll have to do. Today’s topic of discussion: “Introducing” has always had a slightly magical ring to it, movie-wise. What are your all-time favorite “introducing” performances – where an actor or actress and the “introducing” card. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and if we don’t I will be using Brute Force, let me tell you that. Or, in my case, Bruce Force which, when you think about it, would have been a good film star name in the 50s.