To celebrate World Gin Day, here's some W.C. Fields!
Followed by caricatures of Fields from classic cartoons.
And, inevitably, cartoons involving delirium tremens and elephants!
It just wouldn't be World Gin Day without cartoons starring drunken dogs!
The official World Gin Day website adds: Gin Day was established by England’s own connoisseur of the juniper-based drink, the Gin Monkey. Emma, the titular Gin Monkey, has been a huge fan of cocktails of all kinds and has worked throughout the Newcastle, London, and Leeds area in multiple cocktail bars. Taking this experience to the streets she created her Gin Monkey site, put together with the intent of saving intrepid bar-hoppers from finding the worst of the alcohol joints at their destination.
What is the best way to top off a selection of inebriated film clips curated specifically for World Gin Day? By an entire film about inebriation starring Charlie Chaplin!
After one doozy of a week, we at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog were wondering what the next blog post would cover. Thankfully, the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum and favorite authors Kliph Nesteroff, Ben Ohmart and Keith Scott have provided said topics for us! Turns out tomorrow is the natal anniversary of comic character actor and all-time great cartoon and radio voice artist Walter Tetley.
Mr. Tetley is best known today as the voice of Mr. Peabody's intrepid boy assistant Sherman.
He's also the voice of Felix The Cat in the Van Beuren Studio's Disney-fied revival in the Rainbow Parade series, the Walter Lantz Studio's Andy Panda, UPA's Dusty of The Circus for The Gerald McBoing-Boing Show and PG&E's energetic singing spokes-electron, the ELECTRIC Reddy Kilowatt, who should have played a solid body electric guitar featuring a bolt-on neck.
It would be a grotesque understatement to state that Walter Tetley was one of the hardest working radio actors not named Mel Blanc. He was a scream appearing with Jack Benny, Bob Hope and Burns & Allen, on satirist Fred Allen's Town Hall Tonight, as a key driver of the comedy in The Great Gildersleeve and as the not-so-secret weapon, a cleanup hitting laugh-getter, on The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show.
In addition, he has brief but very funny cameos in a gazillion movies, such as this one in the Abbott & Costello vehicle Who Done It.
The aforementioned and formidable Kliph Nesteroff penned, as one of his many excellent articles for WFMU's Beware Of The Blog, Credit Castrated: The Voice of Walter Tetley, a very good overview focusing on Mr. Tetley's numerous hilarious turns as radio's "mean widdle kid" and both varied and prolific work on records. (NOTE: posters on OTRCAT and YouTube have done us comedy and OTR fans a massive favor by compiling devastatingly funny turns in the Walter Tetley Radio Collection, including his memorable appearances on The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show)
Expert on old time radio and mid-20th century pop culture Ben Ohmart, with OTR archivist Charles Stumpf, penned an outstanding book, Walter Tetley: For Corn's Sake on the voice artist's life and times.
The description of Walter Tetley: For Corn's Sake elaborates: WALTER TETLEY (1915-1975) was the quintessential kid voice of radio. His distinguished voice career began in the early 1930s and lasted until radio s final years in the 1950s. He was also a very private person who never gave interviews, instead choosing to immerse himself in charity and voice work throughout most of his life. For the FIRST time in print finally a complete biography on one of radio s most beloved character actors. Including many RARE PHOTOS and THOUSANDS OF CREDITS, most of which have never been seen or discussed in any article or book. That is because this biography has been written with the aid of Walter s personal scrapbooks! From The Great Gildersleeve to Rocky and Bullwinkle's Peabody and Sherman and beyond. Includes a detailed account of Walter's 1930's public appearances.
It's tough to know where to start or where to end with Walter Tetley's career, given how, in addition to countless radio show roles, his cameos in movies and voice-overs on records are numerous. Among said credits, Walter was a favorite of Stan Freberg's. He's a hoot as the hipster in Yankee Doodle Go Home, from Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America volume 1: The Early Years (1961).
Wikipedia adds: In 1973 Tetley made an appearance on Rod Serling's radio series The Zero Hour. He could be heard in the "Princess Stakes Murder" episodes beginning the week of November 19.
So, a day before his birthday, Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog respectfully tips the battered showbiz top hat to the great Walter Tetley. Along with Mel Blanc, Danny Webb, Kent Rogers, June Foray, Bea Benaderet, Sara Berner, Don Messick, Daws Butler and Bill Scott, to name just a few, he is paramount among the ace voice-over artists we LOVE in classic cartoons!
The unparalleled queen of the animated screen - made of pen and ink, she will win you with a wink, ain't she cute, boop-oop-a-doop, sweet Betty - will be back on the big screen tomorrow afternoon, in new restorations of classic cartoons.
Sunday June 2nd at 3:00p.m. PST, our pals at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum present a classic Fleischer cartoon matinee, Betty Boop For President. Purchase tickets here.
Everybody's favorite flapper not named Clara Bow or Colleen Moore shall rock the Edison Theater in a selection of classic Max Fleischer Studio cartoons. Max' granddaughter Jane Fleischer hosts.
The program includes short presentations about the development of the design of Betty Boop and the inventiveness and creativity of Fleischer Studios by Ray Pointer, animation professional and author of The Art and Inventions of Max Fleischer: American Animation Pioneer, a superlative tome covering the filmmaking career, art and technological innovations of Max.
Today, we remember those who served - and those we miss - on Memorial Day weekend, with heaping helpings of fun and laughs. Many of us of a certain age had dads and moms who served with distinction in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and WACS.
Of all the classic film comedies about the military, this writer thinks it is good bet that their favorite - indeed, one of the very best comedies from the 1940's - would have been Howard Hawks' 1947 film I Was A Male War Bride. As great a light comedian as Cary Grant is, and he's terrific as usual in this, the stellar performance of Ann Sheridan puts this post WW2 comedy over the top.
No doubt a close runner-up for the greatest generation - and easily this blogger's WW2 vet father's fave - was Mister Roberts. Always enjoy watching it just because all-time greats Jack Lemmon, Henry Fonda, Jimmy Cagney and William Powell - we love 'em all - are in the same movie.
Can't have Memorial Day entertainment without a little slapstick, so next up is The Three Stooges in HALF SHOT SHOOTERS (1936). This Moe-Larry-Curly opus, directed by Jack "Preston Black" White, remains a momentous occasion in silver screen comedy, as it features the first appearance with the Stooges of all-star supporting player and perennial sultan of scorn Vernon Dent!
Universal's comedy team of Bud Abbott & Lou Costello practically specialized in service comedies.
All of them - Buck Privates, In The Navy, Keep 'Em Flying, Buck Privates Come Home - play very well on Memorial Day.
The A&C flick this classic movie fan has a soft spot for is The Time Of Their Lives. It isn't a service comedy per se but does feature an unusual storyline featuring Lou as a goofball ghost from, not World War I or World War II, but the Revolutionary War.
The gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog considers The Time Of Their Lives among Bud & Lou's best feature films and a good pick for Memorial Day weekend comedy.
To top off today's post, here's a very early Laurel & Hardy 2-reeler from 1927.
While pondering the slapstick of L&H and whether to follow the boys with Chaplin and Keaton, we wish all a happy Memorial Day weekend.
Capra worked for comedy-meisters Hal Roach and Mack Sennett and wrote gags for both the Our Gang series and the highly original, unorthodox comedian Harry Langdon.
Was thrilled and delighted to stay up way past my bedtime to see Capra, along with fellow directors Mel Brooks, Peter Bogdanovich and Robert Altman, on The Dick Cavett Show.
Later, after finding myself the only person in my high school class who did not think It's A Wonderful Life was an unbearably corny, hokey and interminable piece of crap, delved deeply into Capra's cinematic catalog. Fortunately, his best known flicks - Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, You Can't Take It With You, Meet John Doe - were shown frequently on TV way back when.
NOTE: for a fascinating bill, watch It's A Wonderful Life with Hitchcock's Rope or one of the Anthony Mann westerns starring Jimmy Stewart (more akin to the Jimmy from Vertigo than to the Jimmy who starred in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington) - then top it off with Frank Capra's WW2 documentaries from the Why We Fight series.
The Oscar-winning IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, which would now be described as a "rom-com," remains an all-time favorite film of the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog. It is both consistently funny start-to-finish and chock full of hilarious character actors.
By the time the 1980's rolled around, had seen numerous Frank Capra films, including the lesser-known Broadway Bill, thanks to repertory cinema retrospectives.
Also saw Mr. Capra on the NBC version of Late Night With David Letterman, the best show on the cathode ray tube not named Blackadder or SCTV at that time. Could Dave have been a crazed diehard classic movie buff? To paraphrase Gary Cooper in two aforementioned movies, yep.
In the 1990's, David Packard's Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, CA did this film buff a tremendous favor by presenting extended and absolutely epic Frank Capra retrospectives. Got to see a bunch of the Capra films which weren't seen often on TV - including Lady For A Day, The Bitter Tea Of General Yen, Lost Horizon and others - in vivid big screen glory.
The Bitter Tea Of General Yen is beautifully photographed, features the always intrepid Stanwyck (who made five feature films with Capra) and remains a fascinating and largely successful attempt to deliver cinematic high style a la Josef von Sternberg on a Columbia Pictures budget.
Bear in mind, as gorgeous a classic film as The Bitter Tea Of General Yen is, it definitely strays at times into the WTF category, even while its visual style successfully plunges into terrain only explored by F.W. Murnau and Josef von Sternberg.
The late Robert Osborne elaborates:
Favorite all the lesser known Frank Capra flicks? The Great Depression epic American Madness (1932), which explores themes seen later in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Meet John Doe and It's A Wonderful Life.
No, at least in this case, the term animal magnetism does not refer to the minor-key song by headbanging German hard rockers The Scorpions - or does it?
Your somewhat intrepid correspondent, back from a great time in Northern California co-presenting the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival at Foothill College with Robert Emmett, Mr. Lobo, Sci Fi Bob Ekman and Scott Moon, is now enjoying nice hot coffee in beautiful New York City and thinking about very odd silent movies.
Since this blogger is indeed wearing an official Silent Comedy Watch Party T-shirt (thank you, Marlene Weisman), it's time to watch an excellent presentation titled ANIMAL MAGNETISM: THE SILENT COMEDY MENAGERIE that author, SCWP co-curator and silent comedy expert Steve Massa created for the Silent Laughter festival held in November 2023 at The Cinema Museum, London.
Topic du jour: furry friends who starred in silent movies, with cool film clips accompanied by excellent music by Ethan Uslan and Meg Morley. This highly entertaining presentation features generous excerpts from terrific silent comedies, notably NIP & TUCK (a 1923 Mack Sennett opus featuring Billy Bevan, Harry Gribbon and scene-stealing Cameo the Dog). Steve outlines the various trends, besides not paying human actors, that brought dogs, cats, mules, spider monkeys, chimpanzees, orangutans, lions, bears and even freakin' elephants to the silver screen.
One of our all-time favorite furry friends in movies is Pepper The Cat, here co-starring with the great comedienne "Madcap Mabel" Normand. A cat who took direction? WTF? Watch and see - our mackerel tabby mascot Raymond, whose response is "cats rock and can do everything, while always looking fabulous" heartily approves! Alas, a bunch of dogs, cute but a lot less interesting than Pepper, end up as "the cavalry," rescuing a soon-to-be-lunch bird from the feline antagonist in this 1913 opus from Mack Sennett's Keystone.
And, speaking of Mack Sennett's Keystone Comedies, the mention of Luke recalls Roscoe Arbuckle in Fatty's Plucky Pup (1915).
And then there's the one, the only Pete The Pup, star first of the Buster Brown series (as Tige) and then a mainstay of Hal Roach Studio's Our Gang.
Here, the first Pete co-stars with the very funny acrobatic comedian (and future grizzled sidekick in westerns) Al St. John in Dynamite Doggie, directed by Roscoe Arbuckle and co-starring the second Mrs. Arbuckle, Doris Deane.
Producer Hal Roach, no fool, recruited Pete for Our Gang after seeing him in such films as Dynamite Doggie and the Stern Brothers' Buster Brown series. The following, Dog Heaven (1927) is one of the strangest and darkest Our Gang comedies and more akin to the comic sensibility of Michael "Mr. Mike" O' Donaghue than to any of the Hal Roach Studio gagmeisters.
The second Pete would enliven the talkie Our Gang comedies in such Depression-era favorites as The Pooch and For Pete's Sake.
Having enjoyed viewing a lightweight but funny William Powell flick on the SFO-JFK flight (yes, TCM was available) all this correspondent can think of is the best canine comic not named Cameo, the extraordinary Asta!
Asta was trained by the frequently hilarious comedienne and sometimes writer/producer of silents and early talkies (and frequent co-star of director-writer-comic Charley Chase at the Hal Roach studio) Gale Henry and her husband Henry East.
While the diehard classic movie mavens here at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog have not yet located any film footage - well, not yet - showing Gale appearing onscreen with one of the exceptionally talented canines she and Henry East trained, that said, it's as good an excuse as any to show more clips of the immortal Asta!
How funny was Gale Henry? Check out her dance in HIS WOODEN WEDDING (1925), which is just one of many memorable supporting roles she contributed to the classic Hal Roach comedies, both in silents and talkies, of comic genius Charley Chase. It's clear why Charley hired and re-hired Gale for comedy heavy lifting in his films; she was a scream!
Gale, the prolific comedienne and character actress who must have been among the key prototypes for the character of Olive Oyl in E.C. Segar's Thimble Theatre comic strip, remains one of the most unique talents in the history of movies.
We must respectfully tip our top hat (no doubt worn by some unfortunate mustached comic who got chased around by a lion in a Fox Sunshine comedy produced and directed by Henry "Suicide" Lehrman) to the super-talented Gale Henry, as well as all the many four-legged fur-bearing stars of the silver screen.
Today, we're substantially less than bright-eyed and bushy tailed after mucho big screen fun last night at the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival. It was a blast!
And yes, it's true - yours truly slipped a Scrappy cartoon into the extravaganza. What can we say? Love that crew featuring the brilliant Dick Huemer, Sid Marcus and Art Davis!
Do we love seeing the DC5 followed by Mickey Rooney Jr. singing Beatles hits, those guys with the high voices and skinny neckties (The Newbeats) and 1960's heartthrob Adam Faith, doing the bunny hop dance while singing a tune this music fan associates with John Lee Hooker, on SHINDIG? Yes!
A favorite in the program that yours truly didn't bring was the amazing Howdy Doody Presents A Trip To Funland, a 1953 Castle Films opus, which featured, along with Howdy Doody, Buffalo Bob and Clarabelle, scenes from the imaginative science fiction stop-motion animated film Kermesse fantastique, directed by József Misik for Joop Geesink's Dollywood studio.
Showed unintentionally hilarious Marlboro and L&M TV commercials in the extravaganza. Do we like cigarette ads too much? Yes.
Here are some additional nicotine-stained goodies filled with fine tobaccos, courtesy of Prelinger Archives.
The classic comedy fans who write this blog want to call attention to a Go Fund Me on behalf of one of our film historian pals, Nelson Hughes. $2000 more and the fundraiser will meet its goal.
Nelson has forgotten more than most of us know about classic comedy films and silent era knockabout and curated numerous wonderful programs for his That Slapstick Show! series in NYC. We especially like his programs of rare American silent comedies from the Library Of Congress (such as The Celebrity Roast Of Charley Chase) at Brooklyn's City Reliquary and Astoria's Q.E.D.
We enthusiastically support Go Fund Me on behalf of a splendid curator and showman who is among the key figures in the 21st century revival of WW1 era and 1920's Universal Pictures comedies.
In programs he curated, Nelson has brought attention to the slapstick comedy pioneer and producer-director-writer for Keystone, L-KO, Fox "Sunshine" and First National comedies Henry Lehrman (1881-1946).
Lehrman and Charlie Chaplin could not stand each other, but they did collaborate on Charlie's earliest films, such as his debut, Making A Living.
There's Charlie, in his tramp costume, thumbing his nose at the universe for the first time in Kid Auto Races At Venice.
Not many of Lehrman's Universal, L-KO, Fox and First National productions exist, but one that does is Almost A Scandal (1915), an L-KO (Lehrman Knock Out) comedy starring the up-to-no-good evil doppelganger of Chaplin, fellow Fred Karno troupe star Billie Ritchie. Both comedians wear that outfit but couldn't be more different; Billie's character is a scoundrel who makes Charlie look genteel by comparison!
Another is His Musical Sneeze (1919), produced by Lehrman and directed by Jack White (a.k.a. Preston Black, the future director of hilarious Three Stooges 2-reelers). There's a very goofy Lloyd Hamilton, supported by Virginia Rappe (the girlfriend of Henry Lehrman, seamstress and occasional actress now known as the unfortunate hard luck gal who shouldn't have attended that Labor Day 1921 party hosted by Roscoe Arbuckle at San Francisco's St. Francis Hotel) - and a storyline that looks like a prototype for Bugs Bunny cartoons. Did Tex Avery, Friz Freleng, Bob Clampett or Chuck Jones see this?
In closing, we encourage our readers to support this Go Fund Me for Nelson Hughes, an excellent curator and one of our colleagues and comrades in classic movies and silent cinema.
On May 4th in the year 2024, Sci Fi Bob Ekman, Paul F. Etcheverry, Scott Moon and Robert Emmett will be back at Foothill College!
WHY??? to retroactively celebrate May Day in the lovely Los Altos Hills with yet another KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival!
The all-16mm entertainment extravaganza, jam-packed with celluloid heroes and celluloid zeroes!
The show will feature the usual stuff we - and those who produced Mystery Science Theatre 3000, Cinematic Titanic, Cinema Insomnia and the MADS as well - adore.
That includes retro TV ads!
ESPECIALLY cigarette ads.
B, C, D and Z-movie trailers
The inevitable Soundies and Scopitones!
Incredibly Strange Cartoons, of course, will be on the menu.
Will the show be jam-packed with movie stars, CGI and cool effects? In a word - NO! Will there be anything in Mandarin? We're looking!
Shall we
toss a wide variety of films from different places, genres, techniques or time periods together into quite the kaleidoscopic cinema salad? Yes, definitely.
The KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival Saturday, May 4, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. Room 5015, A.K.A. Forum Classroom Foothill College campus 12345 El Monte Road
Los Altos Hills, CA 94022 (El Monte exit off of Highway 280)
NOTE: The perpetrators of this festival, this very Monday evening from 6pm tp 7pm PST, shall be on KFJC 89.7 FM to plug it shamelessly with co-founder Robert Emmett on his Thoughtline show.
Be seeing you at Foothill College! For more, see Scott Moon's sensational Psychotronix Film Festival website!
Born on this day in 1902: the "daredevil comedienne", stuntwoman and comic actress Wanda Wiley, star of very funny films for Century Comedies and J.R. Bray Productions. Starting her movie career doing stunt work in westerns, Wanda, a cross between the winsome comedienne and an action hero, made 50 films between 1924 and 1927.
A longer version of this Century Comedy, the wonderfully frantic A SPEEDY MARRIAGE, was featured in episode 78 of The Silent Comedy Watch Party. It's the last film and begins an hour and six minutes into the show. Thanks, Ben Model and Steve Massa!
Way too many silent movie comediennes were entirely ignored for decades and decades, primarily because they did not star in comedies produced by Hal Roach Studios and Mack Sennett or feature films.
The Century Comedies star and stuntlady is in the jaunty heroic mold of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. and Harold Lloyd, who she shares the 4/20 birthday with.
From San Antonio, Wanda Wiley's sensibility is that of gal next door who happens to be a daredevil, not dissimilar from Madcap Mabel Normand in A Dash Through The Clowds (1912) - and yes, she races cars in FLYING WHEELS!
She is not the traditional comedienne turned leading lady (Billie Rhodes, Bebe Daniels), the glamour girl who sometimes does pratfalls (Marion Davies, Carole Lombard), a feisty "don't you mess with me" firebrand (Fay Tincher) or the "baggy pants comedienne" persona seen from Gale Henry, Louise Fazenda and Alice Howell to Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett. Possibly Wanda's characterization was modeled on the ever-plucky Constance "Dutch" Talmadge, tied with Mabel Normand as silent cinema's top comedienne in feature films. She does share charisma, spunk and athleticism with Talmadge and Fay Tincher.
As seen in her extant films, WandaVision 1925 is a very cool place!
One of the funniest extant Wanda comedies remains the action-packed A Thrilling Romance. Here is a slightly truncated version.
A more complete version of A Thrilling Romance was featured, in between Jimmie Parrott and Buster Keaton, on episode 16 of The Silent Comedy Watch Party. It's the second film and begins at 39:23.
In 1926, Wanda appears to have been demoted from star of her own series to secondary player in a new series. Why? Who knows? This was not unheard of at Universal, where top comedienne Alice Howell transitioned from headliner to supporting player.
Perhaps the powers that were at Universal feared Wanda would ask for a raise and a promotion. The subsequent What Happened To Jane? series Wanda co-starred in shifts the focus to the male leads.
The much less talented and interesting (a.k.a. dull as dishwater) male leads make Wanda a second banana in the What Happened To Jane? series.
Yes, that's right, Universal and Stern Brothers productions discontinued Wanda Wiley's starring vehicles but, hoping to compete with Hal Roach's Our Gang, launched the successful Buster Brown comedies and then, aspiring to counter Sennett's The Smith Family series, followed it with the Newlyweds & Their Baby series, featuring Sunny Jim McKeen as Snookums. This series of short subjects (and Sunny Jim, the kid with the Ed Grimley hairdo) can be excruciating, and come across more as funny-weird than funny-humorous.
How Wanda Wiley, the personalty plus girl, did not attract the attention of Universal head Carl Laemmle and continue her career into talkies, we'll never know. This brings to mind the question of how many of the LOTS and LOTS of silent film comediennes starred for Universal and who produced these fast-paced, sight gag-filled 2-reelers.
The answer to the former includes Wanda Wiley, Alice Howell, Fay Tincher, Baby Peggy Montgomery, Edna Marion and many more. The answer to the latter would be Julius Stern and Abe Stern, the brother-in-laws of Carl Laemmle and producers of over 900 films, mostly comedies.
The outstanding cinema detective, author and film historian Thomas Reeder has focused two books on the comedy that emerged from Universal in the teens and 1920's - and the second one, Time is Money! The Century, Rainbow, and Stern Brothers Comedies of Julius and Abe Stern, covers their lives and movie career in detail. It would appear from the surviving footage that Wanda Wiley's best films were from the first year of her Universal series produced by the Stern brothers in 1924-1925.
Alas, and unfortunately, Hal Roach, Mack Sennett and Jack White (at Educational Pictures) did not step in at the point in 1927-1928 and hire Wanda to headline a series. Too bad - maybe the unexpected impact of The Jazz Singer was a factor. In a move that got me thinking of Paramount Pictures and the Fleischer brothers, Universal cut ties with the Stern Brothers in 1929.
Wanda made a few more movies, very briefly returned to vaudeville, then married well and gave up showbiz in 1933. There is a mention in Anthony Balducci's superlative book Lloyd Hamilton: Poor Boy Comedian of Silent Cinema of a severe accident on set in which Wanda was thrown from a horse. The response of famed superhero Captain Obvious would be that perhaps this was the reason Wanda did not continue in motion pictures. As athletic, fearless, intrepid and super-fit as Wanda was, getting thrown from a horse could emphatically influence one to seek a less dangerous line of work.
Additional battered top hat tips go to the April 20, 2023 post about Wanda from Travalanche and to Steve Massa, for writing his Slapstick Divas book about the many super-talented comediennes of silent pictures.
Bravos, kudos and huzzahs to Mr. Reeder, Mr. Massa, Mr. Ross (and The Lost Laugh) and, for much of the footage in today's post, the Library Of Congress. We at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog applaud the excellent research that has brought the spotlight back to Wanda Wiley, the superb daredevil comedienne. Now we'll watch a slew of super-talented comediennes and character actresses who are still with us in April 2024 get big laughs in the Palm Royale series.
