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!
Before the great and prolific Mark Sandrich (October 26, 1900 - March 4, 1945) became the premier director of classic 1930's movie musicals, including several boffo Astaire & Rogers flicks (The Gay Divorcee, Top Hat, Follow The Fleet, Shall We Dance, Carefree), he was responsible for making fast and very funny 2-reel comedies for RKO. Several short subjects Sandrich directed starred the aggressively zany, randy and exceedingly pre-Code comedy team of Bobby Clark & Paul McCullough.
Clark & McCullough emphatically give the bird to the world as they pose as various professions, always under false pretenses, in these RKO comedies. Jitters The Butler co-stars the always dignified Robert Grieg (a memorable co-star in the Marx Brothers' 1930 film of ANIMAL CRACKERS) as the funniest - and the most enthusiastically masochistic - of professional manservants.
The Iceman's Ball features a rather amazing cast of 2-reel comedy royalty, including Billy Franey, Laurel & Hardy nemesis Jimmie Finlayson, 3 Stooges arch-nemesis Vernon Dent and perennial cop Fred Kelsey. All the players make sure that the essential premise - the always brazen Clark & McCullough masquerade as cops to pick up girls and crash all the local parties - is also a riot.
Prior to his smashing success as RKO musicals king, Mark Sandrich successfully delivered both key elements of Clark & McCullough's humor, the ultra-zany and that sense of the dark and disturbing, to the silver screen.
C & McC possess a dark sensibility well beyond even that of the early 1930's Marx Brothers, who also gave the world the bird. . . at least until they ended up at MGM.
There is always an palpable uneasiness intertwined with C&McC's distinctive comic anarchy, and not just due to the troubled Paul McCullough's suicide in March 1936.
After directing Bobby & Paul's go-for-broke wacky antics and musical short subjects featuring bandleader Phil Harris (pre-Jack Benny) but before helming Fred & Ginger musicals, Mr. Sandrich made very funny films with a goofier (and substantially less dark) comedy team, Bert Wheeler & Robert Woolsey.
These include two of our all-time favorite classic comedies, Cockeyed Cavaliers and Hips Hips Hooray.
First and foremost, let's plug some cool screenings.
It's no surprise to readers of Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog that we're big fans of Halloween cartoons and Frankenstein (both young and not-so-young).
A Sunday matinee selection of spooky stop-motion madness in GLORIOUS 16mm, Peculiar Puppets vol. VII, shall be the order of the day tomorrow at Roxy Cinema NYC tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 p.m. EST.
The press release elaborates:
Roxy Cinema hereby presents a seventh retrospective screening featuring various peculiar examples of puppet films from the 1930s through the 1950s+.
This particular showcase features spooky subjects in celebration of the Halloween season. Warning: You may find some of the offerings to be rather creepy, possibly unsettling, and even potentially controversial!
Ten days later on October 30, there shall be a Halloween cartoon program at Manhattan's Metrograph on 7 Ludlow Street. Showtime is 5:15pm. NYC aficionados of vintage animation and classic movies, check these Cartoon Carnival shows out!
Also of note: October 20 is National Chicken & Waffles Day.
Not DON & WAFFLES Day, but National Chicken & Waffles Day!
One way to start celebrating National Chicken & Waffles Day is to watch the following cheesy commercial from the even cheesier early 1970's. This one's cheesy enough to be MST-3K worthy.
Since we did not include Jay Ward ads in recent posts featuring a slew of animated TV commercials, here are two excellent ads for Aunt Jemima Frozen Waffles featuring our breakfast pals, Professor Goody and Wallace The Waffle Whiffer.
The best Chicken + Waffles combo this writer/waffle enthusiast has sampled was at a long-gone but incredible restaurant (the name of which utterly escapes me) in Oakland, CA. The food was outstanding!
That said, the famous Chicken & Waffles chain remains Roscoe's in L.A.
Not surprisingly, there are numerous videos on YouTube about how to prepare chicken & waffles.
There are more chicken & waffle recipes on YouTube than one can actually watch or eat in a reasonable time frame.
Our favorite is invariably Alton Brown, here with the chefs of Cutthroat Kitchen.
First and foremost, it's Tea Time with Ted Eshbaugh, who spun off the glum gloomy gus guys from The Sunshine Makers for this industrial film extolling the virtues of a cuppa hot tea.
Seared into my consciousness as well as the very souls of numerous individuals in my age group: the following much televised Chef Boy Ar Dee spot for Beefaroni and Beef-o-getti.
Levis produced these early 1970's time capsule ads, designed with psychedelic style by Chris Blum.
The following Levis commercial would go perfectly with that advertising film Johnny Carson made plugging his clothing line.
The Simpsons, not surprisingly, starred in commercials. . . LOTS of commercials.
As The Simpsons and Ren & Stimpy were going great guns at the same time, that brings to mind the following question. . . Did Spümcø and John K make commercials? Yes - here are two very good ads Spümcø produced for OLD NAVY.
One source of fantastic stop-motion commercials is the Dutch Animation Project. This masterpiece for White Horse Whiskey would be this scribe's pick for the coolest ad ever.
LOVE this Quaker Oats commercial by Joop Geesink's Dollywood studio.
On Cartoon Research on a Thunderbean Thursday, Steve Stanchield posted the following trio of humdinger animated commercials mastered from 35mm, including a BRYLCREEM ad animated by Fleischer Studio stalwart Bill Sturm (who I did not know worked with stop-motion) and one for motor oil by Ub Iwerks' Animated Cartoon Films studio.
Closing today's post: a selection of pretty darn spectacular ads by the ridiculously talented Canadian-British director, educator, animator, draftsman/illustrator supreme, voice actor and Who Framed Roger Rabbit contributor Richard Williams (1933-2019) of The Thief And The Cobbler fame.
Continuing a thread about vintage TV ads we last did on September 8, today's post delves into 1950's and 1960's Commercial Land, specifically cigarettes.
To get in the mood, it's time for a cuppa joe from Conquistador Coffee!
Since the September 8 post started with animated ads, here are some very good ones plugging Lucky "LSMFT" Strikes.
While I don't know offhand who produced the stylish "It's Light Up Time" ads, they are the epitome of the prevalent 1950's graphic design style in animation, especially commercials, known as Cartoon Modern.
Not sure if a showbiz celebrity is one of the dancing Old Gold cigarette packs in this ad, but that's how we'll start the Celebrity Cigarette Commercials compendium. Didn't Mary Tyler Moore act as a dancing cigarette pack in one of these ads?
With a few cups of java from a roaster other than Conquistador Coffee now consumed, we now watch a Winston Cigarettes ad from the Beverly Hillbillies TV show starring Buddy Ebsen and Irene Ryan.
In another Beverly Hillbillies Winstons ad, Bea Benaderet joins the cast.
Here, a manufuctured couple (Rob & Laura Petrie played by Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore, who previously starred in the Happy Hotpoint ads) and a real one, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, adeptly sell smokes!
The Jack Benny Program on radio and TV was sponsored by Lucky Strikes.
In the early 1950's live Jack Benny shows, guest stars at times delivered the commercials, giving announcer Don Wilson a rare breather. In this case, the great Humphrey Bogart does the honors.
While the following celebrity ads compilation mostly consists of car commercials, there is a great Viceroy Cigarettes ad starring a pre-Batgirl Yvonne Craig; yes, Viceroy's got the taste that's right. It's the third one in the mix and starts at 1:00.
Here, the excellent vocalist and actress Julie London sings one of the Marlboro jingles ("you've got a lot to like with a Marlboro, filter, flavor, flip-top box). Later in the compilation, actor/writer Dennis O' Keefe stars in a bunch of commercials for Camel Cigarettes, as opposed to slapping guys around or terrorizing Ann Sheridan in a hard-boiled film noir thriller.
In closing, we extend a prominent top hat tip to Tim Romano for the following terrific compilation of commercials, mastered from 35mm.
As the distressingly knowledgeable 20th century history-savvy gang here inhabits what appears to be a permanent state of worry, tension and fear these days, we note that autumn shall soon end and winter will be upon us soon. The month of September is ending shortly, so today, we pay tribute to "Fall."
We'll start celebrating the season change with a Warner Bros. cartoon, the first but not the last on the topic of gambling; the 1951 Merrie Melodie Early To Bet, directed by Robert McKimson, cleverly and literally visualizes the gambling bug. Don't know if Frank "Tish Tash" Tashlin was into gambling, but we do know that at the very least three of our all-time favorite comedians, Phil Silvers, Ernie Kovacs and Norm MacDonald, were.
NOW THAT SUMMER IS GONE would be a fantastic companion to the Twilight Zone episode THE FEVER featuring the great Everett Sloane as a super-strict and super insufferable Calvinist moralist who goes to Vegas on vacation and gets utterly obsessed with slot machines and casino gambling.
Next, we'll answer the question of how many versions of the minor-key tune Autumn Leaves we can post. We'll start with mighty guitar geniuses Jimmy Bruno and Frank Vignola!
Vocalists want equal time!
As do tenor saxophonists. . . I saw this guy, Johnny Griffin, play a slightly less uptempo version of this song as the opener of his first rip-roaring set at San Francisco's Keystone Korner (750 Vallejo Street) on Thanksgiving night, 1978.
As a scandal involving our idiot Empire State mayor ensues, it's as good an excuse as any to go through a slew of good renditions of the song Autumn In New York, composed by the formidabke Vernon Duke in 1934. The dynamic duo of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong kick off the explorations of Autumn in New York with their customary brilliance.
Bud Powell could play both classical and jazz music with ridiculous technical facility and a haunting soulfulness.
Chet Baker gives us cool school Autumn On New York.
Invariably, tenor saxophonists will have the last word. Looks like John "Blue Train" Coltrane and "Stan The Man" Getz are accompanied by the A-1 rhythm section of Wynton Kelly (piano), Paul Chambers (acoustic bass) and Jimmy Cobb (drums). Everybody sounds great.
The Psychotronix Film Festival has been producing movie events in various venues since 1992 - and shall return to the Orinda Theatre at 2 Orinda Theatre Square (Moraga Way and Brookwood Road) with an improvised, sometimes ragtag, all over the map but highly entertaining lineup of films this Saturday night.
These films include 1950's commercials and "educational" films, the most bizarre obscure classic cartoons, trailers from the worst movies, the campiest musical shorts and TV programs that aired once or should never have aired.
The gang that produces these extravaganzas on glorious 16mm film started as DIY archivists/curators/showmen way back in the 1980's and worked on film presentations in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento for several years prior to producing the first Psychotronix Film Festival at Foothill College, benefitting KFJC, in December 1992.
Rather amazingly, 32 years later, the Psychotronix gang keeps schlepping 16mm Kodak Pageants and reels in the service of big screen fun, featuring a different mix at every show, which is never repeated - and a new celluloid configuration will be hitting the big screen at the Orinda Theatre.
Said mix includes. . . TV ads!
Vintage car commercials!
Cheesy TV show openings!
Toy commercials!
Trailers from bad movies!
Musical short subjects!
And, invariably, Incredibly Strange Cartoons.
Again, the Psychotronix Film Festival, featuring "16MM Film, The Vinyl of Visuals," returns to bring its highly distinctive variant of big screen fun to the Orinda Theatre at 2 Orinda Theatre Square (Moraga Way and Brookwood Road) Saturday night, September 28, 2024 at 8:30 P.M.
Thanks, Sci Fi Bob Ekman, Scott Moon and Robert Emmett for your good work over these past three decades - and thanks to the Orinda Theatre.
