In the glaring absence of anything remotely resembling good news, we attempt to celebrate the January 8th birthdays of David Bowie, Elvis Presley, Shirley Bassey and Little Anthony - and note that January 9 is (drum roll) National Balloon Ascension Day!
I'm not kidding, there is a National Balloon Ascension Day!
Funny, all this writer can think of on National Balloon Ascension Day is Frank Morgan and the ending of The Wizard Of Oz.
And THE RED BALLOON!
In cinematic tribute to National Balloon Ascension Day, here's all-time favorite Buster Keaton!
Buster co-stars with Mack Sennett Studio ingenue and star of the 1927 version of Chicago Phyllis Haver in THE BALLOONATIC (1923), second to last of the Keaton Productions silent short subjects.
Alas, did not find any interviews with Buster about the making of this high-flying comedy short. My guess is the self-effacing Keaton would say it was no big deal and that his talented technical director and prop master Fred Gabourie had everything ready to roll in short order.
Jumping from the early 1920s to the mid-1960's, way back in my elementary school days, many moons ago, loved hearing this catchy tune on the AM radio titled THE YELLOW BALLOON by . . . The Yellow Balloon, an uber-happy sunshine pop group led by actor Don Grady of My Three Sons fame.
If one ever finds a TV performance featuring The Yellow Balloon in which the guys aren't lip synching a la Milli Vannili or Ashlee Simpson (or Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa Simpson, or for that matter current Saturday Night Live stalwart Ashley Padilla), we'd love to see it. Once heard, those ever-bouncy 1960's ditties by such groups as The Yellow Balloon, The Mojo Men and The Left Banke prove most difficult to dislodge from the brain!
Also in 1966-1967, the pop group The 5th Dimension, featuring 5-part vocal harmonies, the equally catchy melodies by songwriter Jimmy Webb and mellifluous musicianship of studio virtuosos The Wrecking Crew, waxed poetic about beautiful balloons in the massive hit Up, Up and Away.
On the topic of balloons, the Charles Mintz Studio, producers of the Krazy Kat, Scrappy and Color Rhapsodies series for Columbia Pictures, made Looney Balloonists, which got run repeatedly on KTVU-TV's Captain Satellite Show in the early 1960's. This oddly charming cartoon features a peppy musical track by Joe DeNat and looks like the handiwork of the crew led by Ben Harrison and Manny Gould. Animators Allen Rose and Harry Love receive screen credit.
A balloony blog post would not be complete without the penultimate entry from the Ub Iwerks Studio's Comicolor series, the otherworldly and downright nightmarish BALLOON LAND.
Also known as THE PIN CUSHION MAN, this fever dream has scared the beejeesus out of numerous kids and their parents.
Thanks to 16mm and 8mm prints of Iwerks' Comicoior series by home movie distributor Castle Films, the evil pin cushion man's uber-villainy has reigned for decades.
Post-1965 audiences have seen this surreal masterpiece on the big screen as a direct result of it falling into the public domain long ago.
Respectful hat tips go to those godsends of pre-Turner Classic Movies times, repertory cinema and ragtag film collectors who rented cheap venues for the purpose of presenting classic movies and cartoons.
Happily for animation buffs, we hear a Blu-ray collection of Ub Iwerks' Comicolor cartoons is forthcoming. Until then, honor National Balloon Ascension Day by attending a Hot Air Balloon Festival and watching the following bits from Pixar's Up (2009) and Blake Edwards' wacky 1965 opus The Great Race.
Along with standup comedy by Jim Gaffigan.
In closing, the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog regret not finding a video clip of the bit from Charley Chase's hilarious 1928 film THE FAMILY GROUP which features a spectacular sight gag centered on balloons and hope we'll have it for the 2027 National Balloon Ascension Day post. RE: The Lot Of Fun, we extend thanks and a Max Linder top hat tip to Dave Lord Heath, a source of detailed Hal Roach Studios history.
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