That's right - there actually is a National Spumoni Day, August 21!
The Zack's Beyond Our Plate YouTube channel refers to the Italian dessert as The Magic Of Spumoni!
Love spumoni and ice cream in general? Yes!
Indeed, lots of us like ice cream a great deal. This fact was most eloquently expressed by comedy king Eddie Murphy.
Naturally, spumoni and ice cream have found their way to the cartoon world, especially in vintage 1950's TV commercials. Found a few on the Thunderbean VideoCartoon Commercials Blu-rays.
To suggest that Homer Simpson and Spongebob are ice cream fans would be quite the understatement. Without a doubt, Homer could go for some spumoni 365 days a year!
Thanks to an animation genre started by the Walt Disney Silly Symphonies, cartoons back in the 1930's were almost as dessert-obsessed as The Simpsons and Spongebob Squarepants decades later. Importantly, the denizens of Cartoonland can eat unlimited ice cream and not gain weight!
A fantasy world filled with ice cream and other confections transporting 1930's movie audiences away from The Great Depression and directly to Happyland is particularly notable in the Max Fleischer Color Classic SOMEWHERE IN DREAMLAND.
Love the message stressing pitching in to help neighbors that characterizes this Great Depression opus, as well as the inventive 3-D stereoptical process backgrounds seen in many 1936 Fleischer Studio cartoons.
Since this blog has been primarily focused on movie comedians over the past 3-4 months, we'll close today's post with one of the comics featured in Leonard Maltin's books THE GREAT MOVIE SHORTS and THE GREAT MOVIE COMEDIANS, that stalwart from the Hal Roach Studio (a.k.a. The Lot Of Fun), Charley Chase, in the following ice cream-laden opus, I'll Take Vanilla. He is supported adeptly by Our Gang's inimitable Tommy "Butch" Bond, who could play an obnoxious brat better than Jane Withers!
Big time thanks again to Kit Parker, Richard M. Roberts and others at The Sprocket Vault for making these classic 20th century Hal Roach Studio comedies available on Blu-ray here in the misbegotten 21st century!
How the blog somehow missed the centenary of the birth of wacky, imaginative and marvelously goofy comedian Milton Supman, known professionally as Soupy Sales, back on January 8, we'll never know!
Oh well, at least Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog remembered our pals Dick Van Dyke and Mel Brooks, both of whom lived to see that 100th birthday.
Let's rectify that grevious error of overlooking the fabulous Soupy Sales RIGHT NOW, shall we!
Soupy was an avid jazz and blues fan, so the guest on the following show is virtuoso guitarist, master of the Gibson ES-335 and king of vibrato B.B. King.
Soupy Sales is responsible for the ONLY television appearance of trumpet genius Clifford Brown!
Entertainer Trini Lopez and Rat Packers Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. co-star in the following Soupy Sales Show! Where's Dino?
Even Alice "Welcome To My Nightmare" Cooper was a guest on The Soupy Sales Show!
Must buy the following DVDs from RHINO VIDEO!
Undoubtedly, music mavens, jazz and blues fans, and the comedy-centric love him! The splendid Detroit Historical Society website adds:
Soupy Sales was a lifelong jazz fan who used his late-night Detroit program, Soupy's On, to champion legendary jazz artists. Hosted a late-night adult-oriented talk show in Detroit during the 1950s. Partnered with local venues like Baker's Keyboard Lounge to feature touring acts. Used Charlie Parker's "Yardbird Suite" as his theme song. Featured heavyweights like Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, and Louis Armstrong.
The gang here at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog love jazz, blues, rock n'roll, comedy, Soupy and his talented rocker sons Hunt and Tony.
The Sales brothers:
Formed the teen band Tony and the Tigers as children and secured a record deal by age 11
Todd Rundgren: Played on Todd Rundgren's early 1970s albums, backing the hit "We Gotta Get You a Woman".
Provided the iconic, driving rhythm section and famous drum groove on Iggy Pop's 1977 album Lust for Life.
Tin Machine: Reunited as the rhythmic backbone for David Bowie’s hard rock project alongside guitarist Reeves Gabrels from 1988 to 1992.
Today's hat tip goes to one of a favorite comedian and wordsmiths from my misspent youth, a TV producer who was also a lyricist, musician, satirist and prolific recording artist, the great Allan Sherman (1924-1973).
Here, Allan Sherman is the guest on The Mike Douglas Show, a very popular 1960's - early 1970s daytime TV variety program.
Allan goes international with British pop group Herman's Hermits.
Mr. Sherman was a frequent guest on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Dean Martin Show in 1965-1968.
Well, whatdaya know - found The Allan Sherman Show (1968) on Internet Archive - yippee kai-yoh kai-yay!
Love seeing Allan Sherman meet Hans Conreid in a Jay Ward Production! Allan enters at 13:52, after Fractured Flickers has thoroughly spoofed cowboy William S. Hart.
The latest Allan Sherman material this scribe has seen is the following 1970 appearance at UCLA.
We at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog respectfully tip our hats to Allan Sherman - and an old friend who gave us a splendid 120 minute cassette of the song parody king in concert way back when. Miss you!
