With apologies to author Judith Viorst for stealing her phrase, it has been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad stretch of days in an what has been an unrelentingly lousy year thus far. Just when a momentary respite from the unending horrid, vile, appalling, sickening, disgusting current events is desperately needed, there's the news that Sly Stone and Brian Wilson, two GIANTS, innovative composer/arranger/performer/bandeaders gifted in leading one's heart, soul and consciousness to a better place, passed within the same 48 hours. . . WHAT? THAT CAN'T BE!
At least Sly lived long enough to finish his memoirs and receive rousing recognition from music fans and prominent musicians in the last decade of his life.
Sly Stone, a brilliant musician and arranger who's on the funk Mount Rushmore with James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, George Clinton and Prince (wonder if Prince met Sly), sure made the rounds in his heydey. His importance cannot be overstated. Must buy this release of a set Sly and his first version of The Family Stone performed in my old stomping grounds, Redwood City, CA. Sly was already a bonafide Bay Area celebrity from his successful stints as a deejay on KSOL and KDIA.
Sly & The Family Stone, featuring Larry Graham (electric bass), Cynthia Robinson (trumpet), Rose Stone (keyboards, vocals), Freddie Stone (electric guitar), Greg Arrico (drums) and Jerry Martini (saxophones), were a devastating powerhouse band from the git-go.
Here's Sly with Dick Cavett.
And David Letterman. . .
Sly & The Family Stone were inducted into The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1993 at long last - and that was overdue. Sly makes an appearance at the end of the clip, following his bandmates, including the outstanding vocalist-bandleader-songwriter-bassist Larry Graham.
As all who have seen the fantastic Summer Of Soul can attest, Questlove is a superlative documentary filmmaker.
This music aficionado's favorite Sly record? The 1973 album FRESH, which presents a stripped-down yet ingenious version of the essential sound, minimalistic and beautiful.
Another composer/pianist/arranger/bandleader of astounding abilities was Brian Wilson, the master of symphonic pop. While I knew he was seriously ill and that Brian's wife Melinda passed last year, this still came as a shock.
Indeed, when heard on headphones, the "pocket symphonies" on the original SMILE sessions can be quite astonishing.
After The Beach Boys hit a lengthy stretch of creative stagnation following the departure of Carl Wilson and the untimely, tragic passing of Dennis Wilson, Brian quite fortunately got to enjoy an extended comeback in the 1990's and oughts, backed by The Wondermints (Darian Sahanaja, Mike D'Amico, Probyn Gregory and the late Nick Walusko), percussionist Nelson Bragg, multi-instrumentalist Paul von Mertens and the late, great Beach Boys tours veteran Geoffrey Foskett.
In this clip, Brian's pal Sir Paul McCartney inducted him into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.
Much enjoy this tune Brian and Burt wrote together.
Here's a documentary, Pet Stories, about the making of Pet Sounds, which, along with the 1966-1967 Smile sessions, remains this music fan's favorite Brian Wilson/Beach Boys album.
Pet Stories could only be equalled by the following, Brian Wilson & The Story Of Smile.
AND, of course, Smile itself, as performed by Brian and The Wondermints.
Much enjoy the interviews in which Brian talks music!
In closing, this blogger got a chance to meet Brian and his bandmate and the aforementioned "CEO of falsetto" Geoff Foskett at a record signing in San Francisco, made sure to tell him that his music got me through tough times. Brian's response: a smile and "thanks, man!"
Unfortunately, I never got to see Sly Stone in concert - he retired right before I started seeing tons of live music performances - or meet him. Sly did occasionally do interviews, but one would imagine that due to the many bad things that happened to him and individuals who did him wrong over the decades, perhaps he'd be a tad reticent. Thankfully, Sly's three children did a great deal to assist him. All the thanks in the universe to all the master musicians noted in this post!
Now how does National Name Your Poison Day relate to this blog? Well, frankly, it's as good an excuse as any to post a bunch of classic cartoons that feature inebriation, a well as clips of great movie comedians delving into that topic (at least onscreen).
One film that never fails to get me ROFL is Laurel & Hardy in BLOTTO.
In this classic 1930 short, the boys think they're brazenly putting one over on their wives by sneaking out to get smashed on bathtub booze.
The greatest cartoon involving altered states would be. . .
Of course, for this blog, National Name Your Poison Day means Prohibition-era cartoons, starting with Fleischer Studios.
Felix the Cat stars in one of the very best in that mind-bending genre. Otto Messmer and crew always deliver the goods - and producer/promoter Pat Sullivan very likely was stone drunk somewhere during the making of this cartoon.
Hands-down, this writer's favorite of all the early Harmon-Ising Merrie Melodies is YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOIN' (1931). The unabashed inebriates who heckle the cartoon's plucky protagonist, "Piggy," resemble characters from another great early Merrie Melodie, GOOPY GEER (1932).
In WISE QUACKS (1939) just one of many outstanding cartoons directed by Bob Clampett, Daffy Duck is a tad nervous about becoming a father and relieves stress by getting hammered on "corn juice." It creatively re-uses segments from the brilliant 1936 Looney Tune directed by Frank Tashlin cartoon, PORKY'S POULTRY PLANT and, as is the case with Clampett's crew, animated with a certain crazed glee. This review by the gang at Anthony's Animation Talk gets into the nuances.
Yes, even dogs get obliterated in Columbia cartoons from both the Charles Mintz and Screen Gems studios and dont ask how Rover got blitzed on local anesthetic in the following opus. If it's jokes about hallucinations and dangerous levels of inebriation you want, look no further than the work of director/gagman Sid Marcus!
Is it possible to make an entire cartoon about a cat who gets wasted on pickled herring? Yes. That might not be a good idea, but it's possible.
Are there any cartoons for National Name Your Poison Day that don't involve booze? Yes, this way-out 1938 Hugh Harman MGM cartoon, Pipe Dreams.
This "goodie goodie monkeys" opus definitely anticipates the hippie era by almost three decades, especially the scene with the simian trio taking hits off a pipe like Dennis Hopper thirty years later.
What was in that Helz Fire tobacco?
These monkeys act like they're smoking kif!
Any letters between MGM brass and Hugh Harman demanding an explanation for this cartoon must be hilarious - and we all know darn well that Harman ignored them!
Hugh Harman made some wonderful weird cartoons, including all three of the Gothic ones featuring the "goodie goodie monkeys."
In closing, noting that there is a dark side to National Name Your Poison Day, here's the late, great Robin Williams making comedy out of the painful realities of alcoholism and jumping into the flaming center of that volcano (in a definitely NSFW clip).
Now, amazingly, the middle of the year is upon us and Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog realizes that May 31 and June 1 brought the world two blazing comedy greats, Fred Allen, born on this day in 1894, and the funniest blonde not named Marion Davies to ever hit the silver screen, Marilyn Monroe, born on June 1, 1926.
The mindbogglingly witty Fred Allen, performer/satirist/writer supreme, personified comedy genius on radio.
Only always, this dyed-in-the-wool comedy aficionado marvels at how Fred and his pal Jack Benny consistently do with radio what Kovacs subsequently did with television.
These guys and their pals George Burns & Gracie Allen mastered the art of radio comedy as expertly as Jack's hero, Isaac Stern, rocked the Stradivarius. They even appeared in a couple of movies together (Love Thy Neighbor, It's In The Bag), thanks to their popularity on radio.
The only way Jack's radio show can be equalled is with the absurdist feature film, It's In The Bag (1945), starring Fred Allen, Jack Benny and a slew of hilarious character actors in a storyline that anticipates the Mel Brooks film The 12 Chairs made 25 years later.
After his Allen's Alley radio show went off the air in 1949, Fred made numerous appearances on television, most frequently on WHAT'S MY LINE, during the early days of the medium. While he was imaginative and funny on TV, radio comedy was Allen's strong suit.
Nonetheless, Fred Allen and Groucho Marx together on What's My Line is a comedy grand slam.
Had Fred, who passed at 61 on March 17, 1956, lived another decade, it is likely he would have left his distinctive satiric mark on television, possibly in the American version of That Was The Week That Was.
This blog now transitions from our favorites Ernie (Kovacs) and Edie (Adams) . . .
To favorites named Stubby, Soupy, Pinky and Andy!
We're big fans of the chubby yet dapper entertainer Stubby Kaye. Here's the irrepressible Stubby extolling the accomplishments of "Jubilation T. Cornpone" in the 1959 movie of Al Capp's comic strip Lil' Abner.
Now watch Stubby crush it as Nicely Nicely in Guys & Dolls!
Stubby was so cool, he recorded an album titled Music For Chubby Lovers. As a short chubby guy (and much closer to resembling Stubby than Frank Sinatra of Songs For Swingin' Lovers fame) I think this is great!
Vividly recall seeing a game show for kids on TV back when I was 8 years old - and did not see said program again until 61 years later on YouTube. This elaborate kidvid program was titled SHENANIGANS and sponsored by toy-meisters Milton Bradley. The host was - drum roll - Stubby Kaye!
Was there anyone who hosted kids' shows at that time this blogger liked as much as Stubby Kaye (including local San Francisco Bay Area TV hosts Mayor Art, Marshall J and Captain Satellite)? Heck, yeah - the goofy and always wacky Soupy Sales!
Soupy packs an impressive quantity of 100 proof silliness into the briefest of bits - and sustains the unabashed lunacy over a half-hour show.
Soupy very likely was inspired to enter by the popular kidvid shows by the alarmingly energetic but upbeat and likeable burlesque comedian and tap dancer Pinky Lee.
Pinky was something of a king of kidvid in the 1950's and often booked interesting acts on his show, such as the gal here with her trained dogs.
As fate would have it, one of the films I have sought out to spring on a unsuspecting Psychotronix Film Festival audience (but never actually landed) was the 1937 Educational Pictures 1-reeler Dental Follies starring Pinky Lee and directed by Christie Comedies mainstay William Watson. It's not as funny and unrelentingly bizarre as the three Jefferson Machamer's Gags N' Gals 2-reelers produced by Al Christie for Educational in 1936-1938 but still pretty good.
A competitor of Soupy and Pinky in the kidvid universe was Andy's Gang, hosted by Andy Devine.
A favorite bit from Andy's Gang is the Squeaky's Circus segment.
For some reason, Andy Devine and Andy's Gang get me thinking of . . . Andy Kaufman.
There was a meeting of one of Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog's all-time favorite movie directors and favorite comedians when Andy was a guest on an unsold pilot, Orson Welles' talk show. Not surprisingly, Orson, an avid fan of comedy and comedians, is a very good interviewer and manages to disarm Andy.
Welles, a magician and provocateur himself, understands and respects Kaufman's derring-do as an actor, comedian and performance artist, so this the only time this writer has ever seen a talk show which offers a glimpse of Andy the person as opposed to Andy the performer.
And then, while fondly remembering Stubby Kaye, Pinky Lee, Soupy Sales, Andy Devine and Andy Kaufman - and with apologies to late-night TV sidekick supreme Andy Richter and Mack Sennett Studio/Columbia Shorts Department slapstick king Andy Clyde - we now direct the spotlight to Paul Reubens a.k.a. Pee-Wee Herman, star of the greatest kidvid show in the history of television, Pee-wee's Playhouse and member of The Groundlings. Do we believe Pee-wee was profoundly influenced by Pinky Lee, 1950's kidvid and 1930's radio comedian Joe Penner? Yes.
The gang at Way Too Damn Too Lazy To Write A Blog regard the epic feature comedy Pee-Wee's Big Adventure as a high holy water mark for both Mr. Reubens and director Tim Burton.
Pee-wee's appearahces on late night TV, especially with David Letterman and Conan O' Brien, were invariably memorable.
Want to see the following documentary, Pee-wee As Himself very much. Like the late, great Mr. Reubens, it looks like tons of fun.
What's the best way to follow up these clips? With the first episode of Pee-wee's Playhouse!
In closing today's post, we express appreciation for the chuckles, chortles, guffaws, laughs and good entertainment provided by Stubby, Soupy, Pinky, Andy and Pee-Wee. As the talented, funny and reliable performers George Wendt (of Cheers and Second City Chicago) and comedienne/cartoon voice artist Ruth Buzzi passed recently, the world's rations of belly laughs have taken a most unwelcome hit at the worst possible time.
Still enjoying extended binge-watching of TV shows starring Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams!
Every time it seems like an overdose of Ernie & Edie is imminent, one finds, watches and loves a few more absolutely amazing sketches.
The Ernie & Edie musical sketches are invariably amazing.
"Take A Good Look", still the weirdest of all game shows, absolutely floors me!
Even the commercials crack me up!
Also still flooring me after countless viewings: pretty much everything in the 1961 Kovacs ABC specials which followed Take A Good Look and aired at 10:30 p.m. on Thursday nights.
After first discovering Ernies last TV series back in the 1970's thanks to the Best Of Ernie Kovacs shows, the gang here finds Ernie and crew - Edie Adams, Bill Wendell, Jolene Brand, Bobby Lauher, Joe Mikolas, Maggi Brown - genuinely surreal while hilarious and at times, such as the following piece, also evocative and dramatic.
Ernie and Edie's musical sketches are some of their very best. Here, the dynamic duo skewers "Tannhouser."
Have a funny feeling that Mel Brooks and Madeline Kahn saw Edie's bravura rendition of Victor Herbert's "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life."
Here, Edie does her best impersonation of the staggeringly tone-deaf vocalist and socialite Florence Foster Jenkins. Could Flo have been the actual prototype for Citizen Kane's doomed (and even more staggeringly tone deaf) Susan Alexander?
Edie went on to host two variety shows in 1962-1964.
Here's Edie and The Edie Adams Show feature talented comics Don Rickles, Dick Shawn) and excellent jazz ensembles.
Edie introduces Duke Ellington!
Is there any film clip that includes Don Rickles, Laurindo Almeida AND Stan Getz? Yes, this one from the Here's Edie show!
Of course, with both series, Edie starred in vintage Muriel Cigars commercials.
Edie went on to appear as a guest star on mid and late 1960s variety programs, including The Dean Martin Show.
She continued as the spokes-model for Muriel Cigars, which led to more terrific commercials.
In the early 1980's, Edie appeared on Late Night With David Letterman several times during its first two seasons on NBC. I give Mr. Letterman tons of credit for having numerous comedy greats on his many programs, starting with his 1980 morning show.
Ernie's announcer and periodic sketch player from his 1950's NBC shows, Bill Wendell, was also the announcer for Late Night With David Letterman.
As he did on the NBC Ernie Kovacs shows, Bill Wendell got to make on-camera appearances.
In closing, here's KOVACS ON MUSIC, the Association For Recorded Sound Collections' centenary tribute to Ernie, presented by Kovacs-philes Seth B. Winner and Ben Model.
"Some years ago I had a complete nervous breakdown, was dead broke and had to be put in a charity ward with 30 others. I was there 18 months and doctors didn`t give me long to live. So now each day to me is a special dividend, so I live it to the hilt". Ernie Kovacs
Remembered most for his remarkably inventive TV work, in front of and behind the camera, Ernie Kovacs (1919-1962) possessed a unique sensibility and gag mind that was out of the box, WAY out of the box, in another universe - and frequently on the dark side.
Even Ernie's unique game show Take A Good Look, featuring ace Kovacs Show repertory players Bobby Lauher and Jolene Brand, was the most mind-bending interpretation of that format imaginable.
Kovacs was also quite funny in the handful of movies he appeared in.
Then, in the 1950's - early 1960's and now, Ernie remains the unequalled jedi master of the "orthicon tube". No one has even come close.
These micro-musicals were in Ernie's last series of eight specials for ABC, produced in 1961. His co-stars include the aforementioned Bobby Lauher and Jolene Brand, along with Joe Mikolas and Maggi Brown: comedy heroes all.
Thanks, Ernie - and a big time thanks to Edie Adams for her outstanding onscreen contributions to The Ernie Kovacs Show and equally outstanding (and tireless) efforts she made decades later to preserve Ernie's pioneering work in television. She was a brilliant performer, comedienne and vocalist, but also a hero of film preservation.
One wonders just how many Ernie Kovacs Show and Here's Edie videotapes she personally rescued from being taped over or tossed in the East River!
We raise our mugs, tumblers and Percy Dovetonsils approved champagne flutes to Ernie and Edie! In closing, the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog must note that we absolutely LOVE Ernie's song Hot Cakes & Sausage, a great, witty and jaunty tune to start any day with.
Who's the individual cited most often here at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog? The unimaginably imaginative Ernie Kovacs.
Here's an excerpt from Ernie's first version of The Silent Show.
Ernie's Howdy Doody sendup, The Howdy Deedy Show, features hard-drinking host Miklos Molnar.
LOVE "The Kapusta Kid in Outer Space," seen here on the NBC Morning Show that aired on December 19, 1955.
Ernie's NBC shows still exist, largely thanks to the tireless efforts of the late, great Edie Adams.
Edie, who married Ernie in 1954, was the intrepid co-star and musical guest throughout the NBC years and up through the unorthodox ABC game show, Take A Good Look. Her rendition of Davy Crockett, King Of The Wild Frontier in the style of Marilyn Monroe never fails to get me ROFL.
Here's The Ernie Kovacs Show from July 2, 1956
And July 16, 1956
And July 30, 1956
And August 6 1956
And September 3, 1956
Too bad Kovacs' 1954 DuMont Network programs remain lost kinescopes. At least Ernie Kovacs' 1961 ABC specials exist; these express Ernie's unique sensibility, much along the lines of an animator or experimental filmmaker and very different from the approach of his TV comedy contemporaries (Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Milton Berle).
