My Favorite Psychotronic Iconoclastic Comedy Team from the pre-Code Era

"Ultimately, the team's output for RKO is a mixed bag that seems to be something of a Rorschach test for classic comedy fans." Aaron Neathery, film historian

Tied with The Brothers Marx, Bert Wheeler & Robert Woolsey and such fast-talking dames as Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell as my pre-Code movie favorites, the comedy team of Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough make me laugh out loud, for reasons - to paraphrase Pete Townshend and The Who - I can't explain.




Their comic style  is, to say the least, aggressively un-cuddly and as anarchic as Olsen & Johnson, The Marx Bros. and The Three Stooges.

And I repeat, Clark & McCullough are not cute in any way, shape or form.



Even now, in 21st century, the most diehard classic film buffs and comedy geeks will either be in utter hysterics or register blank, uncomprehending stares at the team's stark raving mad antics.



Bobby Clark (1888-1960) and Paul McCullough (1883-1936) started their showbiz career as teenagers. Their hard knocks-filled path culminated in starring on Broadway in The Ramblers and George Gershwin's Strike Up The Band.





As production of early talkies proved quite the opportunity for vaudeville and Broadway acts, the team was signed by Fox to appear in two-reel comedies and featurettes, starting in 1928.







Only two entries from Clark and McCullough's Fox series, The Belle Of Samoa and Waltzing Around, still exist.



The former, in this 21st century world now available via YouTube, is a fascinating 1920's vaudeville time capsule.



The latter exists in 16mm home movie prints and, from the accounts and reviews of those who have seen it, gives Paul McCullough is much more of a focal role than he would in the team's later films.





Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough subsequently starred in 21 comedy shorts for RKO Radio Pictures in 1931-1935. I personally find the RKO Radio Pictures comedies of Clark & McCullough hilarious, much in the take-no-prisoners spirit of the pre-MGM Marx Brothers.



In particular, I like their 1934 opus, Odor In The Court.







Several of the funniest entries in the team's RKO series were directed by Mark Sandrich, who later was at the helm for a wildly successful series of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals.



Clark & McCullough have been in the "lesser known movie comedy teams" category for one principal reason, besides the fact that they never starred in a feature film: Paul McCullough's suicide in 1936.



Even jaded, diehard 1930's movie comedy buffs watch their films and ask "why doesn't Paul have more to do?" and "isn't Bobby running roughshod over Paul?"



Unfortunately, the answer is often yes - and the chemistry between the boys onscreen appears uneasy at best. It is said that he is more of an equal partner in their early films for Fox than in the later RKO series, where Paul frequently has little to do other than be Bobby's straight man.



After his partner's death, Bobby Clark retired briefly before returning to the stage and pursuing a successful career as a solo comedian.


Bobby only once appeared in a movie again, in The Goldwyn Follies.



While these aren’t the easiest films in the world to see, there are DVDs of Clark & McCullough comedies available from A-1 Video, as well as Encore Entertainment and Looser Than Loose.



Am I thankful for DIY classic film preservationists and historians who have kept Clark & McCullough's onscreen legacy alive. YES!

More Psychotronic Cartoons By New York's Van Beuren Studio

Here's Gypped In Egypt, a 1929 B&W classic from those prolific purveyors of low-budget surrealism, the ex-Paul Terry staffers of New York's Van Beuren Studio. Utterly jam-packed with that distinctive early sound era blend of laughs and utter bizarreness, it's just one of at least eight Van Beuren cartoons that consist entirely of all principals getting chased around by skeletons, mummies, apparitions and ghouls for no apparent reason. The ersatz stars: a Mutt & Jeff-like duo known as "Don & Waffles", who do a most excellent job of falling into a cartoon universe abyss - and then really getting into trouble.



"Don & Waffles" would soon be redesigned as goofy-looking humans and christened "Tom & Jerry". . . eight years before the debut of Bill Hanna & Joe Barbera's cat and mouse duo.

We Believe

Golden State Warriors head coach Don Nelson

and team president Chris Mullin

The Golden State Warriors will square off in game 3 of the Western Conference Semifinals against Utah shortly. This is a great and improbable story, and unless the Warriors somehow beat Utah and subsequently play the run-and-gun Phoenix Suns, the best playoff series in the NBA.

As anyone who has been watching the playoffs knows, The Warriors' 42-40 record and #8 finish in the West is deceptive. The playoff team as we know it was not together until the last few weeks of the regular season. There is little resemblance between this exciting team and the injury-decimated squad that had a 26-35 record as of February '07 and finished 34-48 in the past two seasons under former Stanford coach Mike Montgomery. As soon as Baron Davis, Jason Richardson and Stephen Jackson were on the floor together, the Warriors tranformed into a contender - and beat the living daylights out of the Detroit Pistons.

Perhaps most amazing: the remarkably savvy moves by Chris Mullin and Rod Higgins. Clearly, these guys have a sixth sense of when another team is desperate to unload top-notch talent. For a nice backup point guard (Speedy Claxton), a grizzled veteran at the end of the trail (Dale Davis), two role players (Mike Dunleavy, Jr. and Troy Murphy) and a young player struggling to learn coach Nelson's system (Ike Diogu), the Warriors received an exceptional point guard (The Baron), the best sixth man in the NBA (Stephen Jackson) and a solid front-line player (Al Harrington). Nice going, Chris and Rod. Very nice going. And Chris convinced Don Nelson to abandon that bucolic Hawaii retirement for one more go at coaching. It's a fitting payback after decades of dreadful Warriors trades and questionable draft choices under multiple regimes.

Whatever happens in this series, it is a new day for this long-cursed franchise. If the principals return and stay healthy, this team will contend for the Western Division title in 2007-2008.

I extend big time kudos to the players, coach Don Nelson and the loyal, vocal, long-suffering Warriors fans.

More Psychotronic Cartoons: The Charles Mintz/Columbia Studio

The animated antics from this studio, in this correspondent's opinion, are among the very best of the early 1930's. Ace animator Dick Huemer's work on the first two seasons of Scrappy, as well as Manny Gould's animation on Krazy Kat, made for quite a few brilliant and original cartoons.

Happy Birthday, Bob Clampett

I'm raising my soon to be significantly less than half-full glass to Bob Clampett. He's definitely among The Beatles of cartoon directors (with Tex Avery, Chuck Jones and Frank Tashlin - perhaps with Friz Freleng as either "5th Beatle" Billy Preston or Pete Best). I am proud to have worked, in collaboration with animator, filmmaker and historian Mark Kausler, on one of the first published filmographies of his work way back when (uh, I was a zygote at the time, really).



For a bit of background on Bob's career, check out this superb post on David Germain's blog.

Then take a gander at this remarkable scene, by ace animator Robert McKimson, from one of Clampett and crew's masterpiece Book Revue. This is followed by the complete cartoon.

Bob Clampett is very important to me personally. On the same day when I met Bob in the 70's, I bought my first 16mm films. He was uncommonly nice and generous with his time to me, then a goofy 17 year old long-haired guitarist obsessed with music and old movies (now I'm the same thing, only 51). He was also very supportive of my efforts to get recognition for animation as an art form - at that time, cartoons and comedy in particular got the full Rodney Dangerfield treatment.

At least to me, Bob was absolutely effusive in his praise of other artists, more interested in talking about stuff that inspired him - whether it was the exciting swing music of Duke Ellington or the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Willis O' Brien's innovative stop-motion animation in THE LOST WORLD or Tex Avery's cartoons - than about his own work. He loved his collaborators and mentors; his eyes lit up whenever I said the words Rod Scribner, Manny Gould (for non-animation buffs, these were just two of the brilliant animators who contributed virtuoso work to Bob's cartoons) or Tex Avery. He was also the only "Golden Age Of Cartoons" icon I heard praise lesser known but important animation directors as Hugh Harman, Rudy Ising and Sid Marcus. All of this was in stark contradiction to a lot of things that were said and written about Bob during his lifetime.

Raise your glass and enjoy any one of the amazing WB cartoons directed by Bob Clampett, one of the greatest animation visionaries and comic minds who ever lived.

Thanks For One Amazing Show

Thanks to all of you who made the 15th Anniversary KFJC Psychotronix "Cinco de Psycho" Film Festival a memorable night. Psychotronic Bob, Austin Space, Robert Emmett, Psychotronic Scott, horror host Mr. Lobo, Erik "Mighty Megafant" Yee and his "time machine", the always-fetching Queen Of Trash, a helpful group of KFJC volunteers and our old friend and invaluable crew member from countless shows through the 1990's, Mr. Irwin Swan.

Oh - and yes, thank you, the audience, for rockin' the house!

15th Anniversary KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival

The 15th anniversary KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival arrives seven months early - just in case we find that "Joan Crawford Family At Christmastime" reel in time to concoct a truly festive holiday program in December - and offers a veritable gurgling cauldron of pop culture cheese destined to cast aspersions on many a Cinco De Mayo memory.

We promise to show only the most unintentionally hilarious 1950's commercials and "educational" films, bizarrest obscure classic cartoons, trailers from the worst movies, the most double-entendre packed Pre-Code shorts, the cheapest international monster movies, the campiest musical shorts, the most surreal silent movie clips and TV programs that should never have aired.

The KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival
When: May 5, 2007, 7:00 to 11:30 PM
Where: Room 5015 on the Foothill College campus, Los Altos Hills, El Monte exit off of Highway 280
Who: Hosted by Robert Emmett of KFJC-FM's "Norman Bates Memorial Soundtrack Show"
Why: We like cheesy movies.
How Much: $5 Donation to Benefit KFJC and $2 for Parking
Park: Lot #5 right before the Brown Trailers - follow the signs

The shows often sell out. Doors open at 6:00 p.m.

Here We Go Again - Another Eulogy by Paul F. Etcheverry

A few months ago, I wrote about this becoming the "R.I.P. Blog", as so many greats from the 20th century are dying, you could post tributes every day. So I have resisted that temptation. . . until now. A veritable gaggle of important folks have shuffled off this mortal coil in the past few days.

For all his political importance, Boris Yeltsin, the first elected leader in Russian history, impressed me most with his public attempt at dancing.
Howard Dean, John McCain - eat your hearts out!

Boris, no doubt, was, to quote a certain early 70's blaxploitation film, one "bad mutha. . . shut yo mouth", who singlehandedly stopped a coup by a gang of ex-Politboro boys. And then presided as the Russian economy essentially collapsed and slowly made a wobbly recovery.

I loved it when Boris and former President Bill Clinton had "summits".
Boris and Bill were always smiling and red-faced. Stoli, baby! Kind of amazes me that Boris' hand-picked successor turned out to be "Bad Vlad" Putin. I'd rather knock back Stolis with Boris, any day.

We have also seen the sudden passings of choreographer Michael Smuin, economist Paul Erdman, author David Halberstam and composer Andrew Hill. A Tony and Emmy award winner, Smuin's numerous credits followed a lengthy stint as principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre. Erdman was the rare economist who could write entertaining and compelling copy, both non-fiction and fiction. I've only read a few of Halberstam's 21 books, but found them quite wonderful. "The Powers That Be" and "The Best And The Brightest" alone are veritable treasure troves of juicy political stories. The anecdotes about Richard M. Nixon in the former are in themselves worth the price of admission.

The artist who had the most impact on me personally was the one who you will not hear about, jazz composer and pianist Andrew Hill. Hill was one of the greatest jazz artists who ever lived.

I caught one of Hill's last concerts at the 2006 San Francisco Jazz Festival. A skinny little unassuming dude with a high voice, he would sit down at the piano and then blow everyone away with his imagination, creative energy and stark originality. His music was very complex, polyrhythmic and changed tones, colors, rhythms and timbres seemingly every moment. And the living, breathing interplay between Andrew and his rhythm section, in some ways reminiscent of the classic Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett trios, was a thing of beauty.

Andrew Hill's jazz demanded a lot of the listener. However, the effort and concentration always paid exponential dividends. You not only learn a lot musically listening to Andrew Hill, but it is splendid training in the art of being totally, absolutely, in the moment, Zen-like.

Louis Armstrong, Copenhagen, 1933

Burt Bacharach Day

Here is a beautiful version of "The Look Of Love" from Burt Bacharach and Ron Isley's 2003 CD, Isley Meets Bacharach – Here I Am. I love it! Where can I buy a DVD of their Soundstage special?

Silent-Era Psychotronic Cartoons By The Fleischer Studio

KO-KO's HYPNOTISM Max Fleischer Cartoon
Uploaded by NilbogLAND

Still More Psychotronic Cartoons By New York's Fleischer Studio

1932-Betty Boop - Sink or Swim (S.O.S.)
Uploaded by iToons

More Psychotronic Cartoons

Betty Boop - The Dancing Fool (1932)

Still On Hiatus

I'm doing OK, but my current state is best exemplified by the song Sitting In Limbo by the great Jimmy Cliff.

Burt Bacharach Day

Having completely missed last month's Burt Bacharach Day, here are two Bacharach clips for the 20th of March, 2007.



First, enjoy Trijntje Oosterhuis as she belts out "Walk On By" and "Anyone Who Had A Heart", backed by the Metropole Orchestra. Both will be performing an entire concert of Bacharach songs at Amsterdam's Heineken Music Hall on April 6.

Next up is a recent Bacharach composition (from the At This Time album), Go Ask Shakespeare, sensitively performed by Rufus Wainwight. It's a bittersweet and beautiful song with a great lyric by Burt.




And with that, I go back on hiatus. . .

On Hiatus

For personal reasons, I will be taking a break from blogging for awhile.

Is there any place I would recommend going to during my hiatus? Yes, absolutely - go to voice artist April Winchell's website, it's great.

Sir Terrance Allan 'Spike' Milligan

Attention! Minimalist absurdist at work!

Otherwise known as Spike Milligan (1918-2002), who, with Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe, created (Python predecessor) The Goon Show for BBC radio from 1950 to 1959. This and the following sketch are from his last television series, There's A Lot Of It About, circa early 1980's.

To paraphrase Catharton.com:

At the 1994 British Comedy Awards, host Jonathan Ross was going along on autopilot spouting cliches as he presented Milligan with a lifetime achievement award and read a gushing letter from Prince Charles. Here is Spike's response, on live TV:




Spike later sent Charles an apology - and cheerfully asked if he'd blown his chances of a knighthood.

Trailer - Blazing Saddles

Blazing Saddles 1974
Uploaded by seidrik

The Two Greatest Television Comedies You Never Heard Of

My first exposure to no-holds-barred British comedy was not Monty Python, but a show that ran on American TV in 1971, I believe as a summer replacement. An international production featuring wildly outrageous sketches and Terry Gilliam cut-out animation, it was titled The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine.

Terry Gilliam's opening with Marty Feldman as a "reject" on an assembly line - and closing with a host of bizarre 1890's figures "losing their heads" while saying "Goodbye" - resonated with me. I also recall a delightfully campy musical segment with Barbara "Agent 99" Feldon singing "The Codfish Ball". More generally, I remember that I just loved this program, and wouldn't see its like again for a couple more years, when the Python shows hit PBS.

About ten years later, I got the opportunity to see a complete Marty Feldman Comedy Machine show. The cast included chief Goon and patron saint of Britcom Spike Milligan, as well as three actors from The Benny Hill Show. The guest star: Orson Welles. The writers: Milligan, Feldman, Barry Levinson and a post-Sid Caesar, pre-M*A*S*H Larry Gelbart. While not necessarily brilliant from fade-in to fade-out (what sketch comedy program is?), much of it was unbelievably funny. Among many highlights: Marty as Dr. Jekyll - AND Mr. Hyde - accepting an award at a banquet, Orson Welles hawking "DICTIONARY - THE MOVIE" and Milligan as an insane lounge-lizard performer singing "The Girl From Ipanema."

Let's also hope that whoever is sitting on those Marty Feldman Comedy Machine shows will decide there's a buck to be made by reissuing the series on a DVD box.

Unfortunately, because these shows - and Feldman's BBC programs - are obscure, there seems to be a lot less interest in him out on the Web than in his contemporaries and successors.

Here's an inspired and Python-esque program (that actually preceded Monty Python's Flying Circus) in which Marty Feldman was a cast member, At Last The 1948 Show, featuring John Cleese, Tim Brooke-Taylor and the late great Graham Chapman:

Cartoons And Clarinets At Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum - Friday, Feb. 23, 2007

Yours truly will be the ringmaster/producer/film programmer/emcee for, as the inimitable Ed Sullivan used to say, a "really big shoe" just down the block from the Niles Canyon locales where Charlie Chaplin and "Broncho Billy" Anderson made movies, drank beer and chased women (not necessarily in that order) way back in 1915.

"Cartoons And Clarinets" will feature live music and sound effects by Beth Custer (Clubfoot Orchestra, Trance Mission, Beth Custer Ensemble) and Ralph Carney (Tom Waits, B52s, CarneyBallJohnson) - who will bring their stalwart improvisational derring-do, vivid imaginations and joie de vivre to the party.

Cartoons will include surreal classics by Winsor McCay, Fleischer, Otto "Felix The Cat" Messmer, Ladislaw Starewicz (the Russian entymologist-turned-stop motion animation innovator) and many more. We'll also have an amazing Georges Melies "trick-film" from 1906 and a live-action comedy short, His Wooden Wedding, directed by Leo McCarey and starring Charley Chase, 1920's master of silly walks.

When: Friday, February 23, 2007 at 8:00 p.m.

Where: Edison Theatre, Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, 37417 Niles Boulevard, Fremont, CA 94536-2949

Why: cartoon fun and kick-ass music

How much: $10

Online order form: http://www.nilesfilmmuseum.org/cartoons_clarinets_order_form.pdf

Webpage: http://www.nilesfilmmuseum.org/index.htm

Phone: 510 494-1411

And Now, A John K-Animated Word From Our Sponsor

BigPocket Jeans
Uploaded by chuckchillout8

And Now, An Animated Word For Our Sponsor

E-Z POP
Uploaded by chuckchillout8

The 12 Days Of Ernie Kovacs, Day 12

Kovacs was one of the great comedy creators - an actor/writer/director who utilized the small screen as a creative tool. His surviving shows (most of what's left remains the 1961 half-hour specials produced for ABC) reflect a restlessly inventive comic genius. Fortunately, Edie Adams worked tirelessly to preserve Ernie's legacy. One of the splendid products of this is the 2-DVD "Best Of Ernie Kovacs" set available from White Star Video.

Since I don't have a clip from Ernie's classic late-50's NBC specials, "Kovacs On Music" and "Eugene" (and alas, for the most part, kinescopes of Ernie's 1950's shows from Philadelphia and New York do not exist), not to mention the brilliant Dutch Masters commercials starring Ernie and Edie Adams - too bad - we'll finish this up with. . .

Kovacs facts (mostly from the best book on Ernie I've seen, Kovacsland by Diana Rico)

Born: January 23, 1919 in Trenton, NJ
Died: January 19, 1962 in Beverly Hills, CA

After very nearly dying of pneumonia at 19, Ernie lived the rest of his life at an absolute fever pitch, sleeping as little as possible.

Pallbearers at Ernie's funeral included Frank SInatra, Dean Martin and best friend Jack Lemmon.

Ernie's screen comedy hero: Jacques Tati.

Ernie's unrealized goal: produce, direct and write live-action films. It is said that he approached Sir Alec Guinness, whom he met on the Our Man In Havana shoot, with the idea of doing a "Eugene" feature.

Ernie's mother, Mary, was by all accounts one powerful woman, not to be messed with.

Ernie's daughters, Elizabeth and Kippie, were kidnapped by his estranged first wife, found many months later living in backwoods squalor in Cassia, Florida.

Ernie's signoff line: IT'S BEEN REAL.

Retrospectives: The Museum Of Broadcasting's "The Vision Of Ernie Kovacs" .

How did the innovative and groundbreaking 1961 Ernie Kovacs Show get its timeslot on ABC? Primarily because his programs did wonders for the sales of Dutch Masters cigars. . . and because Consolidated Cigar's Jack Mogulescu was a friend of Ernie's and Edie's.

Little known Kovacs gem: his superb and nuanced performance in Five Golden Hours, co-starring Cyd Charisse (the phenomenal and drop-dead gorgeous dancer from such MGM musicals as Singin In The Rain and The Band Wagon).

It's been real. Thanks, Ernie and Edie.

The 12 Days Of Ernie Kovacs, Day 11

The 12 Days Of Ernie Kovacs, Day 10

Leslie the Mean Animal Trainer
by Percy Llewelyn Dovetonsils

Leslie worked in a circus
he worked in a great big cage.
He smacked the lions
and beat the bears
and put them all in a rage.
He kicked the lions with iron sneakers
and rolled up army cots.
He put cleaning fluid on all the leopards
and sneered when they lost their spots.
But a chimpanzee got even with him...
Leslie got killed by some smells,
when he stuck his head the lion's mouth
He had liver smeared on his lapels.

The 12 Days Of Ernie Kovacs, Day 9

Ernie Kovacs loved creating post-modernist special effects on a nonexistent budget and on the fly. Here is a lovely piece of abstract patterns and movement, making one wonder if Ernie was conversant with such animation artists as Norman McLaren.

You're right - this is not the original soundtrack. It's some fairly commercial modern rock by The Cure, way less experimental than the visuals, but the psychedelia of it weirdly fits.

The 12 Days Of Ernie Kovacs, Day 8

I love Kovacs and consider Madness a top-notch British band - and "House Of Fun" is one sprightly tune. Do they work together? That's debatable. . . Me, I prefer Ernie's soundtrack choice, the German recording of "Mack The Knife". But that said, enjoy these brilliant sight gag "blackouts" by Ernie and his excellent ensemble of Jolene Brand, Bobby Lauher, Joe Mikolas and Maggi Brown, from 1961.

The 12 Days Of Ernie Kovacs, Day 7

The 12 Days Of Ernie Kovacs, Day 6

The 12 Days Of Ernie Kovacs, Day 5

The Nairobi Trio, circa 1961
Uploaded by DickGreenleaf

The 12 Days Of Ernie Kovacs, Day 4

Sentimental Journey, from The Ernie Kovacs Show (1961) gives the old standard tune a treatment a la Esquivel-Martin Denny-"bachelor pad sounds for lovers". It's performed by a most enthusiastic ensemble consisting of. . . office furniture. An indescribably funny musical piece that could only come from the wondrously twisted mind of Ernie Kovacs. Uploaded by NilbogLAND

The 12 Days Of Ernie Kovacs, Day 3

The gag-filled closing credits to an episode of The Ernie Kovacs Show from 1961. . . Love that theme song.

The 12 Days Of Ernie Kovacs, Day 2

1812 OVERTURE - The Ernie Kovacs Show
Uploaded by NilbogLAND

The 12 Days Of Ernie Kovacs, Day 1

Today, January 23, is the birthday of Ernie Kovacs, a television and radio comedy innovator only rivalled by the Goons and the Pythons. At this blog, we like Ernie so much that, well, one day just isn't enough. So this is day 1 of The Twelve Days Of Ernie.

And Edie, Tony award winner, wife and artistic collaborator of Ernie, Kovacs archivist (and the comedianne with the best Marilyn imitation) - are you out there on Blogger? MySpace? We'd love to hear from you.

Burt Bacharach Day

While I'm hard pressed to find something quite as wonderful as Mr. Bungle performing "What The World Needs Now" - well, at least until the Noir City 5 film festival opens at the Castro Theatre in a few days - this month's Burt Bacharach day tribute comes pretty darn close: Holland's grande diva of jazz, Greetje Kauffeld, accompanied by guitarist Maarten van der Grinten, sings my favorite Burt and Hal tune, "Alfie".

Miracle In Milano: Miles Davis Quintet, October 11, 1964

Miles, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams - in transition from the blistering up-tempo hard bop of the 1963-4 tours into sensual impressionistic ambient textural soundscapes - wax poetic on the skeletal structures of an old chestnut, My Funny Valentine. Miles and Tony, we miss you. Uploaded by Yedi

The remarkable Alice Coltrane departs the earthly dimension

No doubt Alice is doing a lot better with the reality of her leaving this realm than a lot of us are here. With the news of the passings of both Mrs. Coltrane and saxophonist Michael Brecker last weekend, there is big-time mourning in the world of jazz.

I attended her last public performance at San Francisco's Masonic Auditorium on November 4, 2006 - as well as her June 1975 Keystone Korner appearance - and was overjoyed, overwhelmed and transported by the emotional and spiritual power of her music.

Here's the best clip I could find, but a few moments of Alice conjuring amazing sounds from the magic keyboard, in a duo with percussionist Jeff "Tain" Waits at The House Of Blues in L.A., November 2005.

Remembering Trumpet Legends Lee Morgan And Clifford Brown

Lee Morgan (1938-1972) with Art Blakey's Jazz Messingers - I Remember Clifford
Uploaded by soulpatrol

More January Jazz

Gorgeous, expansive and poetic late-night variations on My Foolish Heart by saxophonist George Coleman and The Ahmad Jamal Trio. Thanks a million, MrDrive, for uploading this.

Jazz For The New Year: Horace Silver

Horace Silver Quintet-Nutville-1969
Uploaded by redhotjazz

Charles Addams

Born on this date, January 7: the hilarious yet macabre comic genius, Charles Addams (1912-1988).

The Oscar Levant Show

Oscar Levant (1906-1972), composer, virtuoso pianist, radio star, author, music historian, actor, wit, talk show host and "the irreligious Billy Graham of Los Angeles", is one of my artistic heroes. His amazing wife, June, is equally a heroine and should have been granted sainthood.



Enjoy the only remaining footage left from The Oscar Levant Show, featuring special guest star Fred Astaire.
While the picture and sound quality really leave something to be desired, it's all we have. Hey, Oscar plays and offers his usual bon mots, Fred sings, June is there for the fun - it's a treasure.







The innovative live television programs of the 1950's were taped over to save money. Essentially, they met the same fate as thousands of historic silent movies on nitrate film, which subsequently spontaneously combusted. In my view, the loss of Oscar Levant's shows and Ernie Kovacs' 1954 Dumont Network late-night shows - just to name two series - is the equivalent of wiping one's bloated rear with the Dead Sea Scrolls. We can thank De Good Lawd, repeatedly, for Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, who made the shrewd (but then unheard of) choice in 1951 to film their shows!



Had Oscar only written his three splendid memoirs, A Smattering Of Ignorance, Memoirs of an Amnesiac and The Unimportance Of Being Oscar, it would have been enough. Had he only appeared as his wonderful dyspeptic self in the outstanding MGM musicals The Band Wagon, An American In Paris and The Barkleys Of Broadway, his place in the pantheon would be unquestionable. Had he only spent those many Manhattan late-nights jamming on pianos with George Gershwin and Kay Swift, Oscar made the world a better place.

Happy New Year

Compelled to take a little time off from this "I blog, therefore I am" business, but will return somewhat faithfully in '07.

While I feel unbelievably lucky to have living family members, as well as various roofs over my head and doubly thankful to have not suffered a death in the family in 2006, there's no getting around it - the end of the year can be a difficult time. So make it a double, triple (mixed drink or Belgian strong ale) or, if you must, a Shirley Temple (or the Shirley Temple with a few slugs of Johnnie Walker's Black Label, a.k.a. Shirley Temple Black), toast the fact that you're still livin' and say Happy New Year! Go get, in the immortal words of Louis Jordan, "obnosticated" - and, please, designate a driver.

Just Call This The R.I.P. Blog - This Time, Farewell To The Godfather Of Soul

James Brown - Sex Machine (live)
Uploaded by Van_Lock.

Think of any popular music from the last 50 years, any genre: James Brown, bandleader, singer, arranger, visionary, show-stopping performer, got there first. His career was so long, beginning back in the heydey of such classic gospel-based 50's rhythm and blues artists as Jackie Wilson, The Five Royales and Sam Cooke, and extending into the 21st century, that it comes as a surprise that he was only 73 years old at the time of his passing at 1:45 a.m. on December 25.

No James Brown, no r&b, no funk, no crunk, no hip-hop, no rap, nada. Here's a great clip of The Godfather Of Soul, backed by one of his customary razor-sharp precision bands.

Nat King Cole - Christmas Song

Merry Christmas, Peace On Earth, Good Will To Men - And Women - With The Incomparable Nat "King" Cole!

My Favorite Christmas Special

Ever-bawdy lounge singer-comedienne Dusty Towne (Catherine O'Hara) hosts her Sexy Holiday Special, featuring guest star Divine (John Candy) on SCTV. Originally broadcast December 1981.

Remembering Joseph Barbera

The Night Before Christmas
Uploaded by thadk

Burt Bacharach Day

Commemorating this month's Burt Bacharach Day, Mr. Bungle performs "What The World Needs Now Is Love" live at the Sno-Core mini-festival on January 18, 2000.

Adieu, And (Again) Thanks For All The Fun And Laughs, Joe Barbera (1911-2006)

(left, with Bill Hanna)

Boy, do I get sick and tired of writing these R.I.P. postings for my blog (didn't even get to the wonderful Betty Comden and the eternally swingin' Anita O'Day, sorry about that); however, the great artists from the 20th century are departing this earth, one by one. Another one, Joe Barbera, passed away at 95 yesterday (December 18). With the passings of gifted artists Bernie Wolf and Ed Benedict earlier this year, we are getting very close to "last man standing" when it comes to veterans of the "Golden Age" of Hollywood and New York studio animation.

Amid Amidi has contributed an excellent post - with links aplenty - on Mr. Barbera at Cartoon Brew.

This ties in to my recent postings in one respect. . . the young Joe Barbera was at one point a gagman for. . . the Van Beuren studio, producers of Piano Tooners and other wacky early 30's gems.

I will reflect further on Joe Barbera's contributions to animation in a later post. And check your local public library for his book My Life In Toons, or order it (think you can still procure a copy online) if you have the requisite do-re-me. . . before, like all film history books, it becomes impossible to find.

Truly Obscure Animated Cartoons #7

Lady Play Your Mandolin, first Merrie Melodie, 1931, is a good example of the manic and peppy style of the early musical Warners cartoons produced by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising.

Truly Obscure Animated Cartoons #6

Piano Tooners is a classic 1932 cartoon by the Van Beuren Studio, a ragtag group of ex-Paul Terry-toon staffers located just across the street and down from the Fleischer Studio. While they never quite hit the gloriously surreal heights of Fleischer (it's OK - practically nobody else did, either), Van Beuren cartoons - blending primitive animation, sick humor and elements of the bizarre - remain quite funny. My take is that the Van Beuren staff took full advantage of getting out from under Terry's influence and had the collective thought "Hey, Terry's not here to say no - we can do crazy #!&$^* now! Yippee!"

Psychotronix Film Festival Redux

While the Psychotronix Film Festival has absolutely thrived upon its status as an underground phenomenon, without a doubt, that's over. Clearly, we have achieved some public notoreity and the winds of change are upon us. Will it be necessary to make major alterations in our method and madness in response to this? Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows? The creators of the Psychotronix Film Festival - myself included - are seriously pondering these questions.

Until then, my next show, in February '07, will combine 90+ year old silent movies with live music and sound effects by two master musicians who know how to have a good time. Stay tooned. . . and be seeing you.

Photos From KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival - December 9, 2006

Just a sampling of what San Francisco Bay Area residents who chose not to brave the torrential rains to attend last Saturday's KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival missed:


The beautiful Queen Of Trash, horror
host Mr. Lobo, KFJC Psychotronix
Film Festival co-founder Robert Emmett,
unsuspecting audience members and
a green mutant lead the multitudes in
the Cinema Insomnia oath.

The capacity crowd vacantly
recites the Cinema Insomnia oath.



More audience members, brains
utterly reduced to mush by the first
half of our show, join Mr. Lobo in
the Cinema Insomnia oath.

Right with 'em - and attempting very
unsuccessfully to hide out in the back
right corner: festival co-producers
Scott Moon and (in red shirt and
black hat) yours truly.

R.I.P. And Thanks For The Laughs, Peter Boyle (1933-2006)

Here's the late great Peter Boyle, as the top-hatted song-and-dance-man version of "the hideous monster" in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein, performing "Puttin' On The Ritz" with Gene Wilder. Too bad Boris Karloff didn't live to see it - he would have howled!

Now, if only I could find that clip of Peter and John Belushi doing "Duelling Brandos" from a 1976 episode of Saturday Night Live.

Psychotronic Cartoons, Exhibit B

Here's yet another amazing piece of work by the Fleischer Studio, Bimbo's Initiation (1931). If only we could be rewarded for our travails with a roomful of Betty Boops (dog ears or not)!



Although the cartoons got tamer and less risque as the 1930's progressed and the Production Code took effect in July 1934, the Fleischer Studio still periodically came up with wondrous, wildly imaginative and brilliant stuff, such as this tremendous futuristic cartoon about the 1939 New York World's Fair. The bit with the robot dance partners is one for the books.

Psychotronic Cartoons, Exhibit A

We slip a fair number of classic (and not-so-classic) cartoons into the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festivals. The early 30's work of New York's Fleischer Studio - surreal, macabre, bizarre and loaded with unabashed risqué humor, pre-Code style - remains the epitome of the "psychotronic" cartoon. Here's a good one: Silly Scandals (1931), uploaded by voiceman91.

This Fleischer classic could have been included among the Truly Obscure Animated Cartoons I have been posting, except for the appearance of Betty Boop, resplendent in her early 1930-1931 "dog ears" incarnation. Betty sings "You're Driving Me Crazy", a classic standard recorded in 1930 by the incredible Louis Armstrong and in the 40's by Peggy Lee. The song is also the cornerstone of a wonderful 1931 Screen Song cartoon. Clearly, somebody at Fleischer's was musically hip.

We concur with the audience of Fleischer cartoon animals: WE WANT BETTY! WE WANT BETTY!

KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival

Another December has rolled around, so that means it's time for the customary KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival. Huh? The customary what? A new Kelvinator refrigerator?



"Psychotronix" is a variation on Michael Weldon's "Psychotronic History Of Cinema", the encyclopedia of all varieties of under-the-radar B-films: monster movies, horror films, science fiction, cheap comedies, rock 'n' roll flicks, etc. The KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival presents a unique spin on this hallucinatory excursion through the irritated bowels of popular culture. The first half of the show focuses on short films: trailers from truly wretched movies, well-meaning 50's educational films, schlocky drive-in movies with guys in stupid-looking robot and gorilla suits, vintage TV commercials and theatre ads, Japanese monster epics, Scopitones, Soundies and other even more obscure musical shorts, silent film clips, kidvid, serial chapters, puppet animation, double-entendre packed pre-Code comedies, surreal cartoon rarities and more.



Our gala feature films are plump holiday turkeys that would invariably make the heart of the late Edward D. Wood Jr. go pitty-pat. . . We consider the evening a smashing success when the audience starts heckling the feature before the projection lamp goes on.



The festival is also something of a reaction against all standard rules of film programming. Instead of devoting a screening to one director, one genre or one series, our celluloid concoctions throw a wide variety of films from different places, genres, techniques or time periods together.



As far as content goes, the more obscure, the lower the budget, the more under-the-radar, the better. If we can establish a subject link or a Monty Python-esque visual or verbal link between the segments, great, but this is not absolutely necessary. Or to make a further Monty Python reference, this could be called the "And Now For Something Completely Different" approach to film programming. Some of our best shows are essentially improvised, with archivist-producers Bob Ekman, Scott Moon and myself creating the program on the fly, responding to audience reaction and choosing films accordingly.




The next KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival will occur on Saturday, December 9, from 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM, in room 5015 on the Foothill College campus in the lovely Los Altos Hills, not far from the dreaded Silicon Valley. There will be a $5 donation which benefits the innovative, refreshingly un-corporate and fearless KFJC 89.7. You'll also need $2 in quarters for a parking permit.

Rob Emmett, host of "The Norman Bates Memorial Soundtrack Show", presides over the festivities with panache, bon mots and a boatload of cheesy door prizes. Special guests will include the Mighty Megafant, the Queen Of Trash and Mr. Lobo, the host of Cinema Insomnia.

Truly Obscure Animated Cartoons #5

DISCLAIMER: From the view here, this cartoon looks terribly racially offensive; however, this shot only represents a few brief moments in the film. These character designs are demeaning. Unfortunately, I have yet to see a 1930's cartoon - including the ones made by animators who adored black artists - that does not portray African-Americans in this grotesque way. That was 1939. This (well, for 28 more days) is 2006.

Disclaimer said, this is a brilliant and hilarious cartoon. Jitterbug Follies, originally released on February 25, 1939, is among two "Count Screwloose and J.R. The Wonder Dog" cartoons made for MGM by legendary comic artist Milt Gross. Ace animators Bill Littlejohn, Ken Muse, Emery Hawkins, Irv Spence and others did a masterful job of transforming the energy, humor and spirit of Gross' drawings into expressive movement.

Jitterbug Follies was originally to be just one in a series of Milt Gross cartoons. Fred Quimby, the de facto executive producer, called the whole thing off after two films. The now infamous response, attributed to either the notoriously humorless Quimby or mega-mogul (with an iron fist) Louis B. Mayer, was that the Milt Gross cartoons were "beneath the dignity of MGM." Too bad - clearly, Milt would have given Bob Clampett, then the unchallenged master of black and white cartoons (Fleischer, the former champ, having abdicated by that time) a run for his money. Besides, Otto and Blotto, the penguin duo in Jitterbug Follies, richly deserved their own starring series.

For more info on Milt Gross' brief stint at MGM, check out Joe Barbera's enjoyable memoir My Life In Toons. And thanks to Kevin Langley (whose animation art blog rocks) for uploading this.