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.
It's October 4th, so we have no choice but to pay tribute to Buster Keaton on his birthday.
Buster Keaton's half century in movies and TV remains quite remarkable and encompasses everything from Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle in ROUGH HOUSE and Chaplin's LIMELIGHT to THE TWILIGHT ZONE.
The diehard film buffs at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog regard Buster Keaton as the greatest movie comedian, filmmaker and gag writer of all, a singular comic genius.
At the turn of the 20th century in The Three Keatons, Buster was a vaudeville star, as the acrobatic little kid who got thrashed repeatedly in crowd-pleasing mayhem onstage.
Buster began his movie career in a series of short subjects for Comique Productions as a supporting player with slapstick comedian Roscoe Arbuckle, the rotund yet extremely agile star of Mack Sennett's Keystone.
After Paramount Pictures signed the aforementioned Roscoe Arbuckle to headline feature films, Buster inherited the big guy's studio and would launch his own starring series.
Buster assembled a staff of top comedy writers, including Jean Havez and Clyde Bruckman.
The Buster Keaton Productions team would go on to produce short subjects, followed by features.
The transition from independent producer to star for MGM in 1928 would be disastrous, but at first, in silents, such good movies as The Cameraman resulted, even with a Buster Keaton who was no longer directing and producing.
He would end up more as an MGM contract player than the exceptional comedy creator and director he was in silents.
The Cameraman is the one Keaton starring vehicle that combines the big budget gloss of MGM with Buster's inventive ideas and storytelling prowess.
Buster ultimately transitioned from one of his best films, The Cameraman to a series in which he was teamed with wisecracking Jimmy Durante. While we love both Buster and Schnozzola, the teaming doesn't do justice to either comedian.
While Buster's MGM talkies were not masterpieces as his silent features were, some were at least decent enough and entertaining.
For some reason, the powers that were at MGM had the notion that presenting Buster as an idiot, rather than the low-key yet resourceful fellow from such silents as The General, meant surefire laughs.
Would assume from this inexplicable approach that Irving Thalberg, a man with frequently extremely accurate instincts about entertainment, was not involved directly with Buster's MGM features other than The Cameraman.
Buster enters this excerpt from the 1932 MGM feature The Passionate Plumber at 6:29.
Even the worst of the MGM features, What! No Beer? (1933), has its moments, regardless of how baked Buster looks throughout.
Buster transitioned to starring in 2-reelers for Educational Pictures in 1934.
In Educational Pictures' 1920's heydey, such comedians as Al St. John, Lupino Lane and Lloyd Hamilton starred in series.
While Harry Langdon made very good Educational Pictures sound comedies (The Big Flash, Knight Duty) in 1932-1933, by the time Buster arrived there, the company was on the downside.
That said, there is something impressive about Buster making very entertaining comedy shorts on miniscule budgets and extremely tight shooting schedules.
After starring in 16 short subjects for Educational, Buster moved on to the Columbia Shorts Department.
In general, the less said about the Buster Columbias, the better.
There are very funny bits throughout and excellent work by the Columbia Shorts Department stock company (Lorna Gray in particular).
While Buster's performances and physical comedy are very good and some of the 2-reelers are okay, the only comics who truly fit Jules White's slam-bang slapstick format at Columbia remain The Three Stooges.
This year's National Silent Movie Day is on Monday, September 29.
Indeed, the looming end of fall and unwelcome beginning of winter means National Silent Movie Day. The following promo's misinformation - my responses include what do you mean silent movie overacting? ever seen Buster Keaton or Lloyd Hamilton? have you heard of Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew? WTF? - and what sounds like a bogus AI narrator leaves a great deal to be desired, but at least this video tepidly expresses enthusiasm for silent films.
So, on this truly saturnine Saturday in godawful 2025, let's jump the gun and celebrate National Silent Movie Day with cool classic comedies!
As we're suckers for comedy films at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, only always, here's yet another favorite movie comedian, the aforementioned and original Lloyd "Ham" Hamilton!
We go for Buster Keaton as enthusiastically as sci-fi aficionados go for Star Trek and Star Wars!
Charley Chase is a perennial favorite.
The recent release of Chase's 1927 silents on Blu-ray is a comedy treasure trove.
And then there's Laurel & Hardy. . .
Our favorite of all movie comedy teams!
Stan and Babe will soon be on a much awaited Blu-ray, Laurel & Hardy, Year Three: The Newly Restored 1929 Silents.
And then there's our favorite comedienne of silents and early talkies, the winsome, witty and frequently hilarious Marion Davies. She did amazing, hilarious work in silents - how William Randolph Hearst didn't comprehend that Marion was a gifted comedienne, we'll never know.
We love When Knighthood Was In Flower, Show People and The Patsy!
Of course, we also love cartoons and there were some terrific silents, well before Disney's emergence in 1925-1927.
We especially enjoy Earl Hurd's Bobby Bumps series.
Earl Hurd's animation of Bobby Bumps was way ahead of the curve in the World War I era.
As always, we're suckers for the Fleischer Studio, Out Of The Inkwell and the subsequent Inkwell Imps!
With an enthusiastic binge-watching of Fleischer cartoons and a shout-out to Mr. Chaplin in the following clip, we say Happy National Silent Movie Day two days early!
For further celebration of National Silent Movie Day, we shall check out what Fritzi Kramer at Movies Silently will be posting; she has been doing outstanding work for many years now, as has Lea Stans at Silent-ology.
Don’t know what Imogen Sara Smith is working on these days; might be upcoming books on silents, might be a deep dive into pre-Code cinema or articles for NOIR CITY magazine. She ranks high atop the list of the best of the best film historians and remains the only author to wrote about both Charley Chase and Charley Bowers.
Another terrific author and film historian, Ben Model, has an excellent new book, The Silent Film Universe.
We at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog are enjoying this book immensely; by all means, read it to celebrate National Silent Movie Day. Excellent work, Ben!
After almost 19 years writing Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, this is post #1400.
While, admittedly and embarrassingly, I deleted at least two or three posts due to laughably egregious errors, shall proclaim this Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog entry to officially be the 14 hundredth! Yay!
How does the blogmeister feel about writing post #1400? Feel like Virginia O'Brien, the deadpan diva, in this great song from PANAMA HATTIE, which should begin with her slapping overbearing Red Skelton across his overacting kisser (and, bear in mind, we like him as Red Skeleton in the Tex Avery MGM cartoon WHO KILLED WHO).
So this blog shall celebrate post #1400 without bubbly (thanks T2 diabetes, ya rat bastard). We'll start with some supercharged improvisational proto-metal British rock from Deep Purple, live in Belgium. Yes, indeedy, Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord and Ian Paice had chops.
How will we celebrate the silver screen stuff we love, while also kicking ourselves for missing the 80th anniversary of the execution of Benito Mussolini and Clara Petacci on April 28. With a respectful nod to the enduring classic movie genre that broke big time during World War II, film noir.
The Burt Lancaster starring vehicle Brute Force is an inspired cross between Jimmy Cagney style caper thriller and film noir.
Nearly eight decades after noir's heydey, celluloid heroes Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame still bring the heat.
Don't recall any other noirs featuring larger-than-life Charles Laughton (except the harrowing tale of evil he directed, Night Of The Hunter), but the following classic, THE BIG CLOCK, is a chiaroscuro dilly and post 1400 worthy.
Prominent in the "silver screen stuff we love" category is silent era comedy. Here are several all-time favorites from all-time favorite silent movie comedians, starting with Buster Keaton in ONE WEEK.
Next up: vintage musical short subjects from way back when Sammy Davis, Jr. thrilled vaudeville as a ridiculously talented child entertainer and Frank Sinatra was studying the phrasing of Bing Crosby and Russ Colombo. Especially love those pre-Code musical short subjects, especially Vitaphone's Melody Masters series.
Here, in the 1932 Vitaphone musical classic, The Yacht Party, the mindblowingly limber Melissa Mason does her best terpsichorean triple-jointed impersonation of the even more mindblowingly limber and quadruple-jointed comedienne Charlotte Greenwood. All we can say is "go, Melissa, go!"
The following Vitaphone 1-reelers present absolutely amazing and talent-filled mini musicals, the glaring preponderance of 1920's and early 1930's style racial stereotype bits notwithstanding. That's The Spirit stars the comedy team of Flournoy Miller & Mantan Moreland (yes, that guy, Sidney Toler's sidekick in Charlie Chan flicks), The Washboard Serenaders, powerhouse singer/tapdancer/actress Cora La Redd and Noble Sissle's red-hot swing band.
Alas, as there was still a color line, big time, in 1932, Cora La Redd, who would have mopped up the floor with all tapdancers not named Eleanor Powell and given the Sophie Tuckers of the world a run for their money, did not subsequently get to appear, even briefly, in RKO, Paramount and MGM musicals.
Backing actress of stage and screen, vocalist and dancer Nina Mae McKinney, star of King Vidor's Hallelujah, Eubie Blake's band headlined the following 1932 Vitaphone short. The super-talented kids whose exceptional dancing brings this Vitaphone Melody Master to a rousing finish:
The Nicholas Brothers.
Another of Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog's all-time favorite films is Smash Your Baggage (1932), starring Small's Paradise Entertainers. Jazz legend Roy Eldridge is in the band!
Lupe's co-star in this terrific comedy is the fast talking EPITOME of pre-Code. . . the one, the only Lee Tracy.
Also on hand: the familiar croaking voice of Eugene Palette.
Of course, the pre-Code flick we REALLY want to see is Convention City (1933).
The phrase pre-Code and the names of splendid actresses, Aline MacMahon and Ann Dvorak mean the gang here is watching this movie! And it features screen immortal Lyle Talbot, two decades before Plan 9 From Outer Space, as an oily rat bastard!
Of course, we also love pre-Code cartoons, even those Ub Iwerks Studio productions starring Willie Whopper!
Watching Iwerks Studio cartoons, must extend kudos, bravos and huzzahs to animators Grim Natwick, Shamus Culhane, Berny Wolf and music director Carl Stalling.
Also love the very pre-Code version of Tom & Jerry by New York's Van Beuren Studio.
Any Fleischer Talkartoon featuring Betty Boop, Koko and Bimbo is sure to be a winner.
Always liked this 1932 Screen Song featuring Betty Boop as a mermaid and using a certain Bert Kalmar & Harry Ruby ditty from the Marx Brothers opus Horse Feathers.
What's the best way to finish post #1400? Warner Brothers cartoons!
Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog extends multiple hat tips to the directors of these cartoons, Bob Clampett and Frank "Tish Tash" Tashlin. Love those guys!
It's the sincere hope of the gang here that we shall be lucky enough to still be alive, kicking (even slowly) and blogging for post #1500 down the road.
MLB spring training has started in Scottsdale, not far from where the Arizona Diamondbacks play, but all I can think of is that episode of The Munsters in which Herman swings the bat.
Significantly less big-budget than Pixar's recent baseball-related TV series WIN OR LOSE but equally satisfying is Pantomine Pictures' funny and satiric Roger Ramjet.
The Roger Ramjet cartoons were produced back in the 1960's halcyon days when MLB Hall Of Famers Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Frank Robinson and Mickey Mantle were tearing it up on the diamond.
We love a lesser known albeit genuinely charming classic from the Looney Tunes Merrie Melodies archives, HOBO BOBO (1947).
The knowledgeable and entertaining Toon Heads at Anthony's Animation Talk reviewed this very enjoyable cartoon, directed by Robert McKimson.
Friz Freleng and his talented crew made several outstanding baseball cartoons.
Arguably the greatest of all animated cartoons about the sport is BASEBALL BUGS (1946), still unsurpassed after all these decades.
Not as well known but also wonderful is Freleng's 1936 Merrie Melodie The Boulevardier From The Bronx.
Its star is a rooster variant on flashy St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Dizzy Dean.
When the topic of baseball comes up, the first person from the world of entertainment one thinks of is Buster Keaton.
Knowing Buster's love of the game, it seems rather amazing that Buster did not devote an entire feature film to baseball. Hollywood legend has it that the first question in a job interview with Buster Keaton Productions was "do you play baseball?" One imagines an incredible action-packed comedy feature co-starring Buster with his mentor Roscoe Arbuckle, Roscoe's ever-acrobatic and quadruple-jointed nephew, Al St. John, and the ever-menacing Big Joe Roberts as the umpire.
That said, this entry from Buster's mid-1930's series of Educational Pictures comedy shorts, One Run Elmer, threadbare budget notwithstanding, has its charms. It's impossible for Keaton to be anything but fascinating onscreen.
Another baseball-loving movie comedian was vaudeville star, singer and rubber-legged eccentric dancer Joe E. Brown.
He's best known today for his key role as "wild and crazy guy" Osgood Fielding III in Some Like It Hot (1959).
Joe both worked as a broadcaster for the New York Yankees and starred in immensely entertaining baseball comedies, Elmer The Great and Alibi Ike.
The latter is my favorite of the two and a terrific showcase for the gangly but athletic comic.
