The new year begins and with that we celebrate the natal anniversary of one of this blog's favorite silver screen comediennes, the very funny, talented, genuinely charming and unfairly maligned Marion Davies, born Marion Cecilia Douras in Brooklyn, NY on January 3, 1897.
It would take dozens of blog posts to scratch the surface of her life and times, relationship with newspaper publishing magnate/tycoon William Randolph Hearst, numerous movies and even lengthier list of philanthropic endeavors.
For a quick reminder of how funny she was, here's Marion, doing impersonations of fellow silent movie divas Mae Murray, Lillian Gish and Pola Negri in THE PATSY (1928).
Marion crammed two or three eventful lifetimes into her 64 years on this earth - Ziegfeld Follies showgirl, movie actress, humanitarian, San Simeon "hostess with the mostest," businesswoman/entrepreneur, activist and founder of The Marion Davies Children's Clinic.
Thankfully, Lara Gabrielle's book Captain of Her Soul: The Life of Marion Davies has done as detailed and thorough a job as humanly possible chronicling those many roles on and offscreen. It even got a most favorable review from Will Hearst, the grandson of William Randolph Hearst.
Hearst a.k.a. "W.R." launched Davies in movies in 1917 and preferred her as a grande dame in epic period pieces. On one hand, Hearst made it possible for Marion to be a movie star. On the other hand, in both strongly resisting featuring her in comedies and interfering with productions, Hearst also hindered the progress of her silver screen career.
That said, When Knighthood Was in Flower and Little Old New York were the biggest box-office hits of 1922-23. Hearst's hunches regarding the degree of Marion's onscreen charisma and star power turned out to be correct.
Beverly of Graustark, The Cardboard Lover, Enchantment, The Bride's Play, Lights of Old Broadway, Zander The Great, Yolanda, Beauty's Worth, The Restless Sex, The Red Mill, and Tillie The Toiler were also box-office hits.
This writer and silent film fan is partial to her end of silent era comedies directed by King Vidor, The Patsy and Show People - and extends big time thanks to the San Francisco Silent Film Festival for providing opportunities to see Marion get laughs on the big screen in these two terrific films.
The Patsy and Show People, both directed by King Vidor, are hilarious!
Marion co-stars with the larger-than-life Marie Dressler in the former and wry comic actor William Haines in the latter. Why Irving Thalberg did not propose a potential Marion Davies - Marie Dressler - Buster Keaton MGM feature as a possibility we'll never know.
Show People remains one of Marion's most memorable starring vehicles.
Marion followed her performances in The Red Mill, Tillie The Toiler, The Patsy and Show People with a successful transition to talkies, which included several musicals. She is among the numerous MGM stars to appear in The Hollywood Revue Of 1929, beginning at about 53 minutes, after Laurel & Hardy's segment.
Another celebrated pre-Code film, the Marion Davies vehicle It's A Wise Child, exists in a 35mm nitrate print at UCLA, but, due to rights issues, has been entirely out of circulation for decades. Asked the expert, Davies biographer and historian Lara Gabrielle about this and learned that it still can't be shown publicly because, while the rights still technically belong to the heirs of the fellow who wrote the play the screenplay was adapted from. . . there are no heirs.
It's A Wise Child was adapted from a play by Laurence E. Johnson, who died in 1933. Johnson's estate, however, still owns the rights to the movie. This, rather than risque content would appear to be why it was not among the films not chosen when the Metro-Goldwyn Mayer package of features was released to television. The account from one person who was seen UCLA's 35mm print, Nick Langdon of the Marion Davies tribute website, it is among her very best films.
Maybe this excellent Davies comedy will eventually be extricated from the legal entanglements and rights Twilight Zone and made available to the classic film loving public. Then again, maybe not. One would hope the rights issues could be resolved, 94 years after It's A Wise Child was produced.
She co-starred with then up-and-coming star Bing Crosby in one of his first feature films, Going Hollywood.
Marion Davies was the Turner Classic Movies star of the month a few years back and it's great that the intros and outros to her starring vehicles are still up on YouTube.
Thanks, Alicia Malone and TCM!
Marion finished her career at Warner Brothers, retiring from movies in 1937.
Marion Davies was among the great comediennes of motion pictures, whose sensibility would be a forerunner of the screwball comedy style that emerged as she was finishing her career in the mid-1930's.
This and Lara Gabrielle's biography go a long way to dispel the myths, misinformation, lies and b.s. - thanks, Mank - about Marion Davies, who is finally getting her due for her many contributions to the art of motion pictures more than 60 years after her passing. At least Orson Welles tried to correct the wrongs done by the otherwise marvelous Citizen Kane by writing the forward to the 1975 book of interviews with Marion, The Times We Had: Life With William Randolph Hearst.
For classic movie buffs and comedy geeks, especially silent era comedy geeks, the Christmas season invariably means mandatory viewing of classics by Hal Roach Studios (a.k.a. The Lot of Fun).
One of my greatest experiences watching movies was my first viewing, in an auditorium packed with cub scouts and their dads, all ROFL, of Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy, starring as incredibly inept Christmas tree salesmen in BIG BUSINESS (1929).
Starring the boys and nemesis Jimmie Finlayson, BIG BUSINESS was greeted with uproarious laughter from the scouts and their dads.
Another holiday must-see from Hal Roach Studios is There Ain't No Santa Claus, starring Charley Chase and Noah Young.
Could there be more jokes about ill-fitting Santa suits and ridiculously long beards? No.
Nobody combines the outrageously silly with nuanced character-based comedy quite like Charley.
This reminds the comedy-crazed rapscallions at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog that there is a new Blu-ray release of Charley's very funny silent 2-reelers, some featuring Babe Hardy in the supporting cast.
The press release elaborates: A collection of 15 all-time great silent-era comedy shorts starring one of the silent era's top stars.
Both Charley Chase and the Hal Roach Studios Golden Era was in the late 1920's, and 1927 was the year Charley Chase was the Lot of Fun's Number One star.
His films from that period, directed by his brother James Parrott and supervised by Leo McCarey, were not only some of his best but were also some of the greatest comedies from the silent era.
Most of these classic shorts have never been seen since their original release, and this set combines materials from film archives and private collections from around the world to bring these shorts together for the first time, all with wonderful accompaniment from Dr. Andrew Simpson, commentary tracks by noted Hal Roach Historian Richard M. Roberts, and restoration by the experts at CineMuseum LLC.
Preceding this selection of Charley's 20 minute comedy masterpieces on Blu-ray: Laurel & Hardy's incredibly funny silent slapstick fests of 1927-1928.
The latest Flicker Alley release, the 1928 L&H gems, packs quite the classic comedy punch.
This is our last post for 2024. We wish all a Merry Christmas- Happy Hanukkah - Cool Kwanzaa - Felicitous Festivus (retroactively) and shall return on January 3, 2025 with a post about silent screen comedy goddess Marion Davies.
Since we will not be able to attend Tommy Stathes' epic Christmas Cartoon Carnival: Santa Claus 4 U & Me program this coming Sunday at Rubulad in Brooklyn, and the annual winter edition of the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival has been cancelled (postponed for now, returning to Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California in spring 2025. . . we hope), the gang here shall try to get in at least a somewhat festive holiday mood by watching the following selection of Yuletide comedy sketches.
If you're in NYC and able to attend Christmas Cartoon Carnival: Santa Claus 4 U & Me at Rubulad (338 Flushing Avenue between Classon and Taffee in Brooklyn), here is the teaser trailer for the event.
There will be two shows and pianist Charlie Judkins shall provide excellent accompaniment for the silents.
In general, this blogger's all-time favorite Walter Lantz Cartunes were made in the 1940's.
When it comes to the early Woody Woodpecker, we love that cameo appearance (starting at 4:29) in the WW2 themed Swing Symphony cartoon 21 DOLLARS A DAY ONCE A MONTH.
Of the loony bird's adventures, we consider those directed by former Disney and Fleischer animator James "Shamus" Culhane to be tops.
Another former Disney animator, Dick Lundy, also directed a bunch of classic cartoons for Lantz.
We're fans of the Musical Miniatures series.
A talented crew of former Disney artists revisited their days working for the other Walt at the Lantz Studio with the following clever and entertaining Andy Panda cartoon, The Bandmaster, which includes animation by the legendary Fred Moore. It's arguably the best of the Musical Miniatures.
And, speaking of the Walter Lantz Studio's predecessors of Woody Woodpecker, wrote about OSWALD THE LUCKY RABBIT in one of the very first posts on this blog back in 2006. Read about the quite bizarre Ozzie opus THE HASH SHOP but had never seen it then. Now it is up on YouTube.
Since that day five or six lifetimes ago, somebody posted THE HASH SHOP among a slew of wonderfully weird Ozzie cartoons on YouTube.
Many moons ago, long ago and far away, my favorite way of getting LANTZ-ED was to watch The Woody Woodpecker Show on TV - and see none other than Walter Lantz, a terrific host. Loved those Moment With Walter Lantz segments!
Today, we conclude this salute to the woodpecker and Walter Lantz by tipping the Jimmie Hatlo top hat to the artists who made these excellent cartoons. . . to name just a few, the aforementioned Shamus Culhane and Dick Lundy, Bill Nolan, Tex Avery, Grim Natwick, Emery Hawkins, Manuel Moreno, Les Kline, Pat Matthews, Laverne Harding, Ben "Bugs" Hardaway, Milt Schaffer, Philip DeGuard, Art Heinemann, Alex Lovy, Don Patterson and music man Darrell Calker.
On December 1, 2024, the addled mind that writes this blog wanders to the question of who would be considered unequivocally the Godfathers of the Psychotronix Film Festival (which we hope just might MAYBE return to Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, CA sometime in early spring 2025).
One answer would be the highly original standup comedian and actor Dick Shawn, born on this day in 1923.
Many of us way back in the halcyon days of the 20th century first saw Dick Shawn dancing with the nimble and graceful Barrie Chase in It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World.
Shawn's character of Sylvester Marcus in It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World is the son of. . . an even more over-the-top character, played beyond the hilt by Ethel Merman.
And then there's Dick Shawn's performance as Lorenzo St. DuBois in Mel Brooks' 1968 movie The Producers.
Mark Evanier delves into the career and standup comedy of Dick Shawn, as well as the role of Lorenzo St. DuBois, in an outstanding post on his News From Me website. Unlike most of us writer/historian types, Mr. Evanier has the advantage of actually having seen Dick Shawn's standup act multiple times.
The earliest Dick Shawn appearances we've seen are from 1954-1955 on The Steve Allen Show.
It's true - Dick Shawn was a guest on The Judy Garland Show. These were two performers who went for broke; to use a hackneyed sports expression, they left it all on the playing field, only every time.
Didn't know there was still a Colgate Comedy Hour in 1967, but, instead of Bob Hope, Martin & Lewis, Eddie Cantor or Abbott & Costello as seen in its 1950's incarnation, here's Dick Shawn, introduced by another long-gone but not forgotten comedy great, Allan Sherman.
We especially love Mr. Shawn's role as Bing Bell the singing cowboy in the unique, inventive and comedian-packed 1972 western spoof Evil Roy Slade.
Dick Shawn appeared twice on the shows of Bill Boggs.
It is not lost upon us here that at the end of the following show, Dick Shawn shares the scene with a highly original and inventive standup comedian after his own heart, the indescribably hilarious Dana Gould.
Dick Shawn's last TV appearance would be on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on November 11, 1986.
In closing, we note that Madame Blogmeister saw Dick Shawn do a standup comedy set three months after this Tonight Show appearance, and noted that he was having difficulties just maintaining a basic level of coherence, so the heart condition that took him out just a few weeks later was not the only severe health issue he was suffering from. This brings to mind what happened to another highly unorthodox, creative and brilliant standup comedian, the great Jonathan Winters, who officially retired nine years before his passing in 2013.
Noting that Father Time, as always, is undefeated, we'll close this post with kudos, bravos and huzzahs to Dick Shawn and a clip of him demonstrating the latest and greatest dance craze, "The Cockamamie," on The Edie Adams Show.
Both yours truly and Madame Blogmeister did our civic duty and voted by mail last month.
Then we kicked back and relaxed with the following favorite election-themed tune, courtesy of intrepid Swing Ticket candidate Louis Jordan.
It's true - every presidential election, this way too well-informed for his own good political junkie and diehard classic comedy aficionado MUST watch the hilarious Moe, Larry and Shemp in Three Dark Horses!
No matter how many times I see this Three Stooges opus in which our knucklehead heroes unwittingly work for super-corrupt griftin' grabbin' graftin' slimeball politicos, the result, invariably, is me ROFL and LMFAO.
The 1952 Columbia 2-reeler opens with the line, "what we need are delegates who are too dumb to think and will do what we tell them." Could we get exponentially more stupid and politics even sleazier in the 72 years since slap happy Jules White and the Columbia Shorts Department produced this? YES!
To decompress after a ghastly and interminable election cycle, it is now time to watch a few classic animated cartoons, starting with the 1950's Famous Studios version of Popeye the Sailor.
In Popeye For President (1956), as usual, the voice acting by Jack Mercer (credited for story on this cartoon), Jackson Beck and Mae Questel is stellar.
Ever since I first saw it on TV way back in the 1960's enjoyed the musical cartoon Olive Oyl For President (1948). Voice actress and comedienne par excellence Mae Questel delivers the song with considerable gusto.
Little did I know, Olive Oyl For President was a very creative cheater, some it re-using ideas from the Fleischer Studios cartoon (which, incidentally, we post for EVERY election), the imaginative, clever and funny Betty Boop For President (1932).
What classic cartoon can we finish an Election Day post with? This one: Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam in BALLOT BOX BUNNY, directed by Friz Freleng.
Here, having voted via absentee ballot, the guy responsible for 1,368 posts (!!!) at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog sits quietly in front of NYC's Russ & Daughters, anticipates the absolutely amazing food within, and remembers the blazing greatness and mindblowing musical talent of the recently passed bandleader/composer/arranger/producer/brass virtuoso Quincy Jones.
Among a list of accomplishments way too lengthy to recount here, Quincy Jones led an astounding big band (especially astonishing on the two Live In Paris albums) in the early 1960's.
Not surprisingly, brilliant, inventive and memorable arrangements by Quincy Jones, as well as rip-roaring musicianship, are the order of the day.
Quincy leads a star-studded killer big band - and the existing footage of it in concert rivals The Atomic Count Basie for hard swingin' goodness.
Quincy's superlative arrangements would be heard a few years later when Mr. Jones conducted the Count Basie Orchestra for the epic Sinatra At The Sands concert album.
Any and all interviews with Mr. Jones are worth checking out.
Ranking high on the short list of great moments in television: Quincy's appearances on Late Night With David Letterman.
Quincy Jones also appeared on Conan O'Brien's show, our favorite of the more recent (post-Johnny Carson, post-NBC David Letterman) late night TV programs.
At Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, we extended a hat tip to the maestro of maestros in the following March 2021 post, which noted
that perennial favorites Albert Einstein, Steph Curry, Michael Caine and Quincy share a March 14 birthday.
We wish readers of Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog a Happy (and safe) Thanksgiving!
Can't imagine Halloween without Count Floyd - and here, the host of "Monster Chiller Horror Theater" introduces RUSH, the excellent progressive rock ensemble (Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee, Neal Peart).
Like Count Floyd, Vincent Price is always a key Halloween ingredient!
One of our favorite Roger Corman flicks is THE COMEDY OF TERRORS, co-starring Peter Lorre, Vincent Price and Boris Karloff.
When Vincent Price and Peter Lorre made a bunch of movies for Corman, it is apparent that they were trying to make each other laugh!
Between takes on THE COMEDY OF TERRORS, no doubt Boris Karloff enjoyed a nice hot cuppa joe.
Then there's the Corman adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's fever dream Masque Of The Red Death, in which I'm shocked, shocked that Vincent Price does not flat-out say "and because I'm so deliciously evil. . . "
And now for something completely different, this blogmeister is a big fan of comedienne Ana Gastayer's dead-on Martha Stewart impersonation and the following Halloween sketch.
On the topic of semi-spooky SNL sketches, it's true - we will NOT feature David S. Pumpkins this Halloween.
From SNL to stop-motion, here's THE OLD MAN & THE GOBLINS, a 1998 film by the stop-motion animators at Screen Novelties - Seamus Walsh, Chris Finnegan and Mark Caballero. It's got the Halloween spirit in a profound way. Love the tie-ins to O'Brien, Starewicz and Svankmajer.
Who made the most vividly Halloween-themed animation? Starewicz, of course!
Favorite Fleischer studio Halloween film? SWING YOU SINNERS!
Almost as cool as SWING YOU SINNERS: the 1933 Screen Song cartoon Boo, Boo, Theme Song.
Another Fleischer classic underscores the reality that if one happens to be an insect, by all means DON'T check into a hotel run by spiders! The Cobweb Hotel is also the diametric opposite of the mid-1930s trend of imitating Disney. Jack Mercer's voices, as always, are a hoot.
How can we properly finish a Happy Halloween post?
With elephants smashing pumpkins (not Billy Corgan & the Smashing Pumpkins but pachyderms) at the Oregon Zoo, that's how!
