Wow, it's soon to be May 2023 - and at long last classic film screenings are back in full swing. The KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival returns to Foothill College two weeks from today.
A week from today, on Saturday, May 6th, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival presents the sex, murder and Weimar Republic ennui-packed Pandora's Box, directed by G>W. Pabst, starring 1920's punk rocker Louise Brooks and accompanied by The Clubfoot Orchestra, at Oakland's Paramount Theatre. Also on Saturday, May 6th, if your preference is laughs, at 7:30 pm, the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum presents COMEDY SHORTS NIGHT.
Back on the big screen where they belong: the following quartet of comedy classics, accompanied by pianist Greg Pane.
Alas, plunging further into the 21st century means the losses of too many beloved figures from the 20th century. In 2022, standup comedians dropped like flies. In 2023 so far, it is incredible musicians - including pianist Ahmad Jamal, among of slew of all-time greats - the world is losing at an alarming rate.
The latest is the amazing vocalist-bandleader-activist-actor-director-producer-writer-humanitarian Harry Belafonte, who passed at 96.
Fortunately, Mr. Belafonte was nothing if not prolific and several excellent complete concerts of Harry's are up on YouTube. Tough to stay in a bad mood for long after listening to Belafonte's killer calypso!
It's time for a music post at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog! Today we pay tribute to the guitarist, vocalist, recording artist and consummate entertainer Glen Campbell (April 22, 1936 - August 8, 2017), seen here on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Have been reading writer Paul Sexton's excellent and scholarly article about Glen Campbell on the udiscover music website, while checking out compilations of Glen's guitar solos on YouTube.
Here's Glen, rocking the twelve-string big time in a duo with fellow stringed instrument virtuoso Roy Clark.
Before he hosted his own TV show and made memorable guest appearances on such popular programs as The Tonight Show and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Glen was one of the ace session musicians of the legendary Wrecking Crew, whose musical genius enlivened darn near every pop record to be waxed in Los Angeles throughout the 1960's.
Along with Louie Shelton, Tommy Tedesco and Barney Kessel, Glen was prominent among The Wrecking Crew's roster of ace guitarists.
For maestro Brian Wilson, The Wrecking Crew was his New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic!
Glen, session player of numerous Gold Star Studio recordings, toured with The Beach Boys in 1965 and played bass while Brian was busy writing new songs and arrangements for their next album, Pet Sounds. Brian produced a memorable single by Glen Campbell, backed by The Wrecking Crew.
The Wrecking Crew proved particularly mind-blowingly stellar on Good Vibrations, the Beach Boys' hit single and "pocket symphony," Brian Wilson's magnum opus between the epic Pet Sounds album and the unreleased (until 1993) SMiLE sessions.
In closing and in tribute to the great Glen Campbell, interview shows on late-night TV I liked a great deal included those of Tom Snyder, Bob Costas and Larry King. All interviewed Glen!
Thanks a million for the enduring great music, Glen Campbell and fellow Wrecking Crew stalwarts (Carol Kaye, Lyle Ritz, Don Randi, Hal Blaine, Earl Palmer and the aforementioned Louie Shelton and Tommy Tedesco, to name just a few).
Fondly remember the halcyon days before the narrowcasting that took hold in the 1980's when music in varied genres, from Sinatra to Roy Clark to Aretha Franklin to British invasion rock and pop bands to Count Basie & His Orchestra, could be seen on network television.
It's mid-April, those inevitable requests for tax filing extensions are in, big big big film events, principally the TCM Classic Film Festival are on - and we're cheap schlubs and not going.
So today, we celebrate the birthday of the only, the hilarious, one of the featured stars of Fred Karno's troupe, Charles Spencer Chaplin.
When it comes to birthdays of comedians and comediennes from the silent era - Charlie Chaplin today, talented actress and extremely reluctant comedienne Fay Tincher (a.k.a. Rowdy Ann on April 17, 1884 and that guy with the glasses who knew more about story construction than anyone in the business, Harold Lloyd, on April 20, 1993 - this week is a bonanza.
Noting that Kevin Brownlow and David Gill's superlative documentary Unknown Chaplin can be purchased on DVD, let us, first and foremost, take a look at The Little Tramp's first insouciant appearance in Charlie's second film, KID AUTO RACES AT VENICE.
In his silver screen debut, MAKING A LIVING, which is on the Chaplin At Keystone DVD set, Charlie plays a slick sharper, possibly based a bit on his pal Max Linder. Chaplin's co-star in MAKING A LIVING and KID AUTO RACES AT VENICE is Henry "Suicide" Lehrman, later responsible for some of the wildest, weirdest, most extreme and most bizarre comedy shorts ever as producer/director at L-Ko and Fox.
The aforementioned DVD set reveals that Charlie was already quite advanced in his visual comedy riffology very early in his movie career.
We love Mabel's Married Life and Mabel At The Wheel because Charlie shares the screen with the winsome and very funny comedienne "Madcap Mabel" Normand. Both richly deserved their inclusion in Leonard Maltin's book The Great Movie Comedians.
Chaplin didn't just play a part other than The Little Tramp in MAKING A LIVING and several of his Keystone Comedies. Charlie's dual role in the Fred Karno "Mumming Birds" troupe's performance of "A Night in an English Music Hall" was committed to celluloid in his Essanay 2-reeler A Night In The Show (1915). Charlie was preceded at Karno in this dual role by Billie "The Man From Nowhere" Ritchie and Billie Reeves.
Tough to pick a favorite (or two or three) from his 1916-1917 series for Mutual. . . Every one is amazing and Charlie's Fred Karno posse (Eric Campbell, Henry Bergman and Albert Austin) shine in supporting roles. Michael Hayde's excellent book Chaplin's Vintage Year: The History Of The Mutual Chaplin Specials delves into these outstanding films in depth.
ONE A.M. absolutely, positively floors this comedy buff, only every time. No doubt Buster Keaton studied ONE A.M. in detail - it's a good bet that the pal of Chaplin and Keaton (and Charlie's Keystone co-star in THE ROUNDERS) Roscoe Arbuckle arranged to borrow a 35mm print for that very purpose!
Charlie's Mutuals were followed by the First National series. Gotta love A DOG'S LIFE!
The Kid is not the first comedy feature film - the Drews' A Florida Enchantment and Mabel Normand's Mickey earn that honor - but it remains innovative for blending slapstick and pathos successfully.
The famous scene from The Gold Rush with Charlie's friend and co-star from Keystone, Mack "Ambrose" Swain, pokes fun at starvation and facing death - and gets big laughs.
One of my favorites from the Chaplin catalog is The Circus.
Saw CITY LIGHTS on the big screen during one of its revivals and was blown away by its brilliant comedy.
Love how an unwitting Charlie gets in the ring with another friend and former Keystone co-star Hank Mann in CITY LIGHTS. It's a Boxing Day favorite!
The gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog remain big fans of MODERN TIMES, the last film in which Charlie observed his Carmen Miranda rights and remained silent.
Was there a dry eye in Radio City Music Hall or any other massive theatre at the ending of MODERN TIMES? No.
As the gang here ponders a veritable slew of 2023 losses to art and culture, from MAD Magazine's genius of the fold-in and numerous Snappy Answers To Stupid Questions books, the incomparable Al Jaffee (who made it to 102) to way too many magical master maestros of music (Wayne Shorter, David Lindley, Burt Bacharach, Jeff Beck and Gary Rossington), a fitting response is to seek (and find) belly laughs by celebrating the life and amazing career of the guy who out-Sennetted Mack Sennett and put silver screen slapstick on the map in America.
Thanks for the laughs, Mr. Chaplin - we'll see you when the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum presents the 2023 edition of Charlie Chaplin Days. Cheers!
Wishing all a Happy Easter with the usual blend of cartoons, clips, tunes, vintage TV ads and live-action comedy, starting with . . . Jerry Lee Lewis!
On yesterday's Norman Bates Memorial Soundtrack Show on KFJC, host Robert Emmett played several ads for Easter Seals that were entirely unbeknownst to me. Having a developmentally disabled family member, I strongly support the organization and cause - and remain completely floored that Peter Falk did TV ads for them.
Peter Falk is a very good spokesperson for Easter Seals whether he is playing Columbo of not. A whole lot less successful at this, albeit equally enthusiastic, was. . . Joan Crawford.
More successful in his Easter Seals PSA than grande dame Joan: the excellent singer Tom Jones!
With that we turn to cartoons and watch Daffy Duck's Easter Special.
There won't be too many easter bunny cartoons in today's post, especially as Bugs Bunny in Easter Yeggs is not at the moment available online.
Only the briefest of clips from Easter Yeggs are available.
One assumes Easter Yeggs is on either a new or soon upcoming Blu-ray compilation of Warner Bros. cartoons.
In the past decade, New Looney Tunes produced by Warner Bros. Animation aired on Cartoon Network and Boomerang UK. The primary difference between these and the films of the Termite Terrace bunch is that the 21st century cartoons have a tendency to be very dialogue-heavy, even when old school slapstick gags are in the mix. Perhaps the consensus is that a modern audience cannot and will not sit through a cartoon that is primarily visual.
In our humble opinion, this approach has, many moons ago, worked extremely well in the era of made-for-TV limited animation, especially cartoons by Jay Ward Productions, Pantomine Pictures, and (at least in 1957-1962) Hanna-Barbera Productions. In the case of cartoons that utilize more full animation, this writer prefers less talk and more visuals (a.k.a. don't tell us, show us).
A particularly well-known Easter cartoon features Oswald The Lucky Rabbit, one of those characters (like Scrappy) that appeared in dozens of 1930's cartoons without ever quite finding the warm embrace of the mass audience. This Easter opus would be near the end of Ozzie's run as star of animated cartoons, first with Walt Disney Productions, then Winkler Pictures and Walter Lantz Productions/Universal.
This would be the last version of Ozzie for decades.
Walt Disney Productions brought him back, ever so briefly. Actually, this 21st century Oswald The Lucky Rabbit reboot sticks with the late 1920's design and works very well. . .
Ozzie (the Lucky Rabbit, not Osborne) did have cameo appearances in a latter-day series of Disney cartoons produced in 2013-2021.
Even as a middle-schooler in the late 1960's, this writer considered Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In entertaining but not nearly as good as The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Get Smart and The Dick Van Dyke Show. Nonetheless, Laugh-In did pay enough to get tough guy John Wayne onstage in a rabbit suit. When it comes to Easter blog posts, big guys wearing bunny rabbit outfits works!
After John Wayne in a rabbit costume, HOW can we finish up this Easter post? With comedian Bobby Moynihan wearing bunny ears as Drunk Uncle on Easter! Of the former SNL cast members, Bobby, Cheri Oteri from the very good mid-to-late 1990's cast and Bill Hader top the list of those I'd like to see return to host.
Yes, that's right, April Fool (1920) is a silent, but watch this great movie comedian, Lloyd Hamilton, directed by another great movie comedian, Charley Chase (a.k.a. Charles Parrott) work. Thanks to Huntley Film Archives for posting this!
