Thinking of phenomenons no longer seen in 2024, the world’s fair and/or exposition, beginning in 1791 and extremely popular internationally through the 19th century and first half of the 20th century, is seldom found in 21st century United States of America. The World's Fairs were incredible, massive global events spotlighting new technologies, and the posters promoting them are frequently astonishing.
The list of expos, those chronicles of technological progress, remains quite impressive. While the fledgling United States was embroiled in civil war and reconstruction, epic expos rocked the world from Canada to New Zealand. Grant Wong's article The Rise & Fall Of World’s Fairs from the outstanding Smithsonian Magazine and several favorite animated films piqued my interest in this topic. The pixillated Pete-Roleum and His Cousins was produced by stop-motion master Charley Bowers and acclaimed feature film director Joseph Losey for the Standard Oil exhibit at the 1939 New York World's Fair.
Then there are two all-time favorite cartoons, one from Fleischer, the other from Charles Mintz Studio. Fleischer Studios made some terrific cartoons as part of its Max Fleischer Color Classics series - and All's Fair At The Fair is one of the very best. This features the Fleischer Studio's keen interest in futurism, robots and gadgetry - and turns put to be a rather charming and sweet cartoon.
Among this animation buff's three or four favorite Scrappy cartoons, all from that 1931-1933 peak period in the series: The World's Affair (1933). Love the very funny futuristic gags and caricatures!
The World's Fair that Mintz Studio animators Dick Huemer, Art Davis and Sid Marcus referred to - and had a great time in the process - was the 1933-1934 in Chicago, that toddlin' town.
The earliest footage this blogger has found is from 1915.
Fatty and Mabel at the 1915 San Francisco World's Fair is a very enjoyable film. The two Keystone Comedies stars were at that time Hollywood royality and only equalled or exceeded by Charlie Chaplin. Their playfulness, chemistry, charisma and charm is on display here in this reel.
While the World's Fairs are mostly a thing of the deep past, there is luckily amazing historic footage from the expos up on YouTube. The Martens family has generously posted home movies from the 1939 New York World's Fair, shot in glorious Kodachrome. Nice work, Gustave Martens!
We thank those who brought their Brownie movie cameras to these epic events. Here, from beautiful Brussels, again in lovely Kodachrome and glorious 8mm - World's Fair, Expo 58.
From the lifetimes of the "okay, boomer" crew such as this correspondent, the three World's Fairs actually remembered are the 1962 Seattle extravaganza, known for the epic space needle. . .
Followed by the 1964-1965 World's Fair in New York.
The collaboration between urban planner Robert Moses and Walt Disney dominated the NY World's Fair.
An important sub-topic is the infuence of World's Fairs in general on Walt Disney, Disneyland and Disney World. The "it's a big big beautiful tomorrow" exhibit from Disneyland has a strong World's Fair vibe about it.
Loved seeing such Disney TV programs as the following as a youngster. My response: dinosaurs - COOL! Walt was a surprisingly good on-camera host.
And last but not least, there was EXPO 67 in excellent Montreal, Canada.
As usual, we're a bit tongue-tied for an ending here. Long before the advent of the internet, expos were few and far between in America, with the 1950's being the last decade of heydey in the United States. Haven't seen one in the U.S. since 1984, the year the Apple computer emerged from Silicon Valley garages. For more, watch the following superb documentaries!
Powerhouse comedian Chris Farley (February 15, 1964 - December 18, 1997) of Saturday Night Live and Second City Chicago fame has been gone a long time but still makes this writer laugh out loud.
Especially noteworthy: the Schiller Visions decaf coffee crystals sketch. . . No decaf for Chris!
With apologies to Tony Robbins, Matt Foley is by far my favorite motivational speaker!
A key assist on the following sketch, featuring Chris' proudly and defiantly unkempt "Bennett Brauer" character, goes to fellow comic and stalwart SNL cast member Kevin Nealon.
Particularly enjoyed the sketches in which Chris co-starred with Phil Hartman, arguably one of the greatest comic character actors ever in the Saturday Night Live cast.
The larger-than-life comedian's appearances on late night talk shows, especially those of David Letterman and Conan O'Brien, are frequently memorable.
Of his movies, Tommy Boy would be the one in which Chris transitions from pure Roscoe Arbuckle style slapstick to character actor in the same film. In addition to Farley's signature physical comedy, there is a vulnerability and likability.
He works quite well, especially in Tommy Boy, with SNL co-star and friend David Spade.
Adam Sandler paid tribute to his friend with this song.
Had Chris survived "comedians' disease" - which has been seen from silent movie comedians Lloyd Hamilton, Jimmie Adams, Charley Chase and bis brother, director/comic James Parrott to hard-partying standup comics too numerous to recount to Saturday Night Live's John Belushi - a second career excelling in character parts, a la John Candy, may well have been on the horizon.
Today's post (the second music-themed one of 2024) shall delve into classic 1950's style rock n' roll and rockabilly. One of the very best early rockers was Gene Vincent (February 11, 1935 - October 12, 1971).
My personal favorite Gene Vincent clip is that of he and his excellent band performing in Brussels in 1963. TRUST ME, to get the opportunity to rock out like this, literally lying down on the stage while soloing at high intensity on those Fender axes, is every guitarist's dream come true.
More importantly, the preceding clip also illustrates that, due to severe injuries he suffered in motorcycle and automobile accidents, Gene pushed through difficulties and an extraordinary amount of physical pain all the time.
Paul McCartney, who crossed paths with him often during the Beatles' early days, remembers Gene.
Gene's band The Blue Caps were among the great early rock groups and featured guitarist Cliff Gallop.
Gene and The Blue Caps followed Elvis Presley in appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show.
The Stray Cats paid tribute to Gene and Eddie "Summertime Blues" Cochran with the following excellent tune, GENE & EDDIE.
Not surprisingly, the Stray Cats' rendition of Gene's biggest hit, Be Bop A Lula, is not too shabby!
The tune that Gene and Eddie did together, WHITE LIGHTNING, remains one of the blazing early rock classics.
Gene and Eddie often performed together.
Now let's hear the original, which appeared in Frank Tashlin's brilliant, prescient and often satiric 1956 movie The Girl Can't Help It.
John Waters, an enthusiastic fan of The Girl Can't Help It, agrees and clearly enjoys both the rock n' roll and the gnarly quality of Gene and he Blue Caps.
Turns out both Gene and Eddie were in The Girl Can't Help It. Eddie's performance of 20 Flight Rock inspired rockers in movie theaters around the world.
Fortunately, some good documentaries were produced covering the life and career of Gene Vincent.
The last Gene Vincent performance I have seen is his set from the 1969 Isle of Wight festival. While early rock n'roll and rockability had long since given way in popularity by then to psychedelia and prog rock, who cares - Gene still sounds great.
This Isle of Wight performance is also seen in the following documentary, Gene Vincent: The Rock N' Roll Singer.
Rockabilly fans, go for that double dose of Stray Cats, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Carl Perkins, Sun Records era Elvis and early Beatles with gusto. Football fans, enjoy the 58th Super Bowl.
Pleased to see that my hometown team, the San Francisco 49ers, shall be in the game. I'm hoping for an exciting, high scoring and touchdown-filled contest that goes into overtime! Many outstanding players - tight ends George Kittle and Travis Kelce, running back Christian McCaffrey, wide receivers Rashee Rice, Deebo Samuels and Brandon Aiyuk and, last but not least, top-notch quarterbacks Patrick "MVP" Mahomes and the unassuming but remarkably effective Brock "underestimate me at your peril" Purdy - will rock the gridiron in Vegas.
Today we respectfully tip the Max Linder top hat to one of the all-time greats from the cartoon voice world, the super-talented character actress Janet Waldo (a.k.a. Janet Waldo Lee), born on this day in 1919.
The cornucopia of clips presented here barely scratch the surface regarding her 5+ decade career in radio, television and as, along with June Foray, Martha Wentworth and Sara Berner, one of the top female voice artists in animated cartoons.
While diehard animation fans know all about the numerous roles Janet Waldo crushed in animated cartoons, especially those of Hanna-Barbera Productions, what is less known is that she also had a prolific career as an on-camera character actress in television and guest starred, as she had on radio, in many programs.
Lucille Ball was definitely a Janet Waldo fan and cast her in both I Love Lucy and The Lucy Show.
Fortunately, Janet lived to be 97 and did lots of interviews over the decades.
