Today's cornucopia of WAY TOO MANY CLIPS, inspired by viewing Jack Kinney's excellent noir-toon Duck Pimples and that "sleuth in training" tested by a Richard Haydn type in the way out Columbia Phantasy cartoon The Vitamin G-Man yet again, involves detectives in animation. That means the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog has been. . . Watching The Detectives.
Chuck Jones' Deduce, You Say (1956) strikes me as the best Sherlock Holmes spoof among the hundreds in cartoondom. The usual suspects - Ken Harris, Abe Levitow, Ben Washam, Michael Maltese, Maurice Noble, Mel Blanc and June Foray among others - shine brightly as usual. Did not find a complete version of this online, but the three minutes of Daffy Duck as an utterly inept Sherlock here conveys the Bleeker Street flavor - and the likelihood that Chuck Jones was an A. Conan Doyle fan.
We now segue to 1960, plunging into the TV-toon era with the following. . . Q.T. Hush, produced by Animation Associates. Have had a soft spot for this series since it ran on TV way back when.
This, along with the 1949-1950 version of Crusader Rabbit by Alex Anderson and Gene Deitch's Tom Terrific are among my favorite animated cliffhangers and I love the opening theme that reminds me of Hammond B-3 ace Jimmy Smith. Find the character designs frequently very clever. Here's one of the "capers."
From 20+ years later, there was Inspector Gadget, a TV series with a heckuva theme song and a good premise. Go go gadget femur!
The satiric stop-motion of Robot Chicken took on Inspector Gadget with its usual cutting edge.
Those of us of a certain age, much older than the Inspector Gadget and Robot Chicken audiences, just think of GET SMART and The Bill Dana Show!
On to the topic of terrible theatrical cartoons produced between 1930-1960, here's Buddy a.k.a. Mr. Excitement in Buddy the Detective.
There are two viewpoints here. . . One is that there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to ever watch any Warner Brothers cartoon from the period that commenced when Leon Schlesinger established an in-house animation studio in 1933 (beginning with the infamous - and infamously unfunny - Buddy's Day Out) and ending with the 1935 arrival, not a moment too soon, of Fred "Tex" Avery.
There's something to this; many 1933-1935 Warners cartoons are indeed, unlike the features starring Jimmy Cagney, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, etc. pretty lousy.
Among the turkeys: arguably the single worst cartoon ever released by Warner Brothers, the Merrie Melodie GOIN' TO HEAVEN ON A MULE, made in 1934.
The other viewpoint is that most of these are not all that bad and both entertaining and enjoyable when viewed through the right lens, provided the point of comparison is not Pinocchio, Fantasia, the Fleischer Supermans and the best of the best from 1940's Warner Brothers and MGM.
Infinitely less terrible - actually quite good - is the following 1954 opus from Famous Studios, Private Eye Popeye. It's an international adventure framework, quite entertaining and indicates what the crew at Famous could have done with the right storyline. Formidable voice talents Jack Mercer, Mae Questel and Jackson Beck are in top form. Beck plays a jewel thief and does his usual excellent job.
Famous Studios could still succeed when avoiding formula, which is the case with Popeye cartoons from late in the run such as this one and Insect To Injury (1956). There’s no Bluto, eliminating the tired Popeye vs. Bluto over Olive scenario, which Famous Studios beat like the horse in the 1935 Fleischer misfire Be Kind To 'Aminals’. Screen credits note Famous/Fleischer veterans Seymour Kneitel, Tom Johnson and Frank Endres.
Screen Gems, of course, contributed a unique and uniquely strange Sherlock Holmes sendup, The Case Of The Screaming Bishop, to the mix. Along with Deduce, You Say, this is by far the most British of the sleuthing lot and both the stellar voice work and original gag mind of John McLeish are evident throughout.
The running gag about "the best bones of all go to symphony hall" refers to a radio commercial - "the best bones of all go to Carnegie Hall" - from Your Hit Parade.
Tex Avery made a cartoon for MGM featuring a detective based on character actor Fred Kelsey. It is more in the whodunit school than the gumshoe school and, as is Tex' custom, loaded with gags, many extremely funny.
Never to be undone, Bob Clampett at Warner Brothers created the masterpiece THE GREAT PIGGY BANK ROBBERY, starring Daffy Duck as "Duck Twacy." Is this the greatest of all WB toons? It's certainly way up there on the short list. Clampett's crew clearly had a field day bringing to life Chester Gould style bad guys. Rod Scribner's super-rubbery animation alone is worth the price of admission.
In closing, noting that there were at least 500 sleuthing cartoons that could have been included, again, here's Watching The Detectives.
The first music post for 2024 spotlights Great Britain's finest crooner and a New Orleans trumpet great, both born on the 7th of January. The former, the king of British dance bands, was arguably the biggest star of English popular music through the 1930's and into the 1940's. The latter: the essence of New Orleans jazz and blues.
Who was Al Bowlly, prominently featured vocalist in the Fred Elizalde, Ray Noble, Roy Fox and Lew Stone orchestras? Take a listen.
And another. . .
Indeed, he's very, very good and also a heckuva rhythm guitarist. Admittedly, as a devotee of the later 1950's male vocalist style exemplified by Chet Baker, Mel Torme, Nat King Cole, and, of course, the Capitol Records Sinatra, I did not know that much about Al Bowlly or, for that matter, the astonishing early records of Bing Crosby. Both Bowlly and Bing were already quite advanced in their concept and approach to singing when they began recording in the late 1920's.
Good places to start amassing knowledge about the British big band luminary are his Wikipedia entry, the Al Bowlly biography page, all writings about him by Ray Pallett - and the following BBC Four documentary. Then start delving into the 1200+ songs he recorded!
The fabulous Learn the Legends: Musical Performers of the Early 20th Century by the University of Wisconsin at Madison elaborates. . .
Al Bowlly, one of the most popular singers in Britain in the 1930’s, had quite the diverse background. His father was Greek, his mother was Lebanese, he was born in Mozambique, and he was raised in South Africa. His career started with dance bands in the 1920’s that toured Africa and Asia. He made his first recording in Berlin in 1927, singing Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies.” Bowlly then relocated to London and sang with Fred Elizalde’s orchestra. Bowlly’s song “If I Had You” became one of the first recordings by an English jazz band to find popularity with American audiences.
He found some success performing in New York and again in London, but he died during the bombing of London in World War II. His last recording, “When That Man is Dead and Gone,” an anti-Hitler song, was made two weeks before his death.
It could be said that the guys who developed the art of crooning and set the stage for Sinatra were not "Crosby, Columbo & Vallee" but "Crosby, Columbo and Bowlly!"
Born on January 7, 1908 in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans was the great trumpeter and vocalist Henry "Red" Allen.
Have thought of this master musician recently, as my favorite post of 2023, along with the Johnny Mercer tribute, was the one on singing brass players. Very few musicians not named Louis Armstrong could both solo on the trumpet and sing with the brilliance of Henry Red Allen.
One snapshot of his illustrious and prolific career as bandleader and sideman is the following Henry "Red" Allen discography.
One favorite recording is Ride Red Ride a.k.a. Man On A String.
In closing, just in case the excerpts from The Sound of Jazz CBS 1957 were insufficient to whet the musical appetite, here is the CBS special in its entirety. Not a bad way to celebrate musical birthdays.
Cannot overstate how thrilled and delighted this blogger is to be still here, reasonably awake, drawing breath and guzzling coffee on January 1, 2024!
Of course, ringing in the new year means a few generous slugs of More Coffee, my favorite brand!
We shall start today's "OMG we made it through another year - yippee ki-yo ki-yay" post and kick off the new year with some classic cartoons! Here's a favorite of mine that I generally must explain to folks under a certain advanced age. It's a spoof of the very popular Information Please radio program (check 'em out on archive.org), which aired on NBC from 1938 to 1951, and features a caricature of the brilliant pianist, composer, recording artist, author, raconteur and supporting player in MGM musicals, Oscar Levant.
To this aficionado of Incredibly Strange Cartoons, The Herring Murder Mystery presents the answer to the question of whether the Screen Gems studio, between the constant churning of personnel and general upheaval, presented anything remotely resembling an original style? YES - it's in this cartoon!
As close to a noir-toon as they ever got at Disney's, this classic turned up a few months ago in Charles Gardner's splendid Animation Trails series on Cartoon Research. Noted in the Guide to the Virgil Partch Cartoons and Artwork, this Donald Duck opus features an imaginative story by reknowned comics artist Virgil "VIP" Partch and Dick Shaw. Jack Kinney, who helmed some of the greatest cartoons and sequences ("Pink Elephants") ever made by Walt Disney Productions, directed Duck Pimples with his usual panache.
Arguably the closest thing to a "cartoon noir" would be Frank Tashlin's brilliant 1937 Looney Tune THE CASE OF THE STUTTERING PIG.
Many attempted to make "noir-toons" but didn't quite pull it off. Back to the surreal sensibility of Screen Gems, THE VITAMIN G MAN, directed by Paul Sommer & John Hubley (yes, THAT John Hubley), is too way-out and incoherent even for the most dyed-in-the-wool animation buffs, with the exception of this writer, who is fine with utter incoherence and extreme suspension of disbelief in an animated cartoon.
Continuing today's post, a topic near and dear to us at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog is impressionists, both old school and new school. This is due to the passings at the tail end of 2023 of Tommy Smothers and Shecky Greene, two outstanding comedians who were not known as impressionists but could do amazing impressions. Tommy's impersonation of Johnny Carson is the best!
Those who saw Shecky at his peak considered him the epitome of the post WW2 era standup comedian, a master of songs, dialects, improvisation, showbiz stories and, of course, Hollywood and recording star impressions, all delivered with linguistic prowess. Alas, we have not been able to find complete sets of Shecky in his 1950's and 1960's heydey as King Of The Vegas Lounges. A contemporary of Johnny Carson, Jerry Lewis, Don Rickles and Jack Carter, he did appear semi-regularly on The Hollywood Palace, The Dean Martin Show and The Match Game.
The closest thing to a Shecky standup set - unfortunately, his December 16, 1977 episode of the HBO series On Location is M.I.A. - would be his extended appearance on the The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson on November 7, 1975. No doubt Shecky had Johnny ROFL through rehearsal and after the show!
Two impressionists the gang here never tires of are Sammy Davis, Jr. and Bobby Darin, two all-time showbiz greats.
Love Bobby Darin's impressions of Hollywood stars, especially Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable and W.C. Fields.
Almost as ubiquitous on TV as The Smothers Brothers in the 1960's was impressionist and cartoon voice ace John Byner.
Here he is on Late Night with David Letterman.
Last but not least in today's New Year's post will be the multi-talented impressionist Keith Scott.
He is also quite the historian and expert on all things voice-over.
In closing, shall note that Keith penned Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog's favorite cinema-related book of 2023.
We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! But first, a commercial. . .
Then, some quality time spent with Shaun the Sheep!
And, inevitably as snow in the U.S. Northeast, here are a few renditions of this blogger's favorite Christmas tunes, starting with the great Alex Chilton of Big Star and The Box Tops a.k.a. The King Of Covers. Alex' ability to play jazz chords on a rock guitar and commit himself 100% to whatever song he's playing still impresses the living daylights out of me.
If it's a rockin' Christmas you want, then it's time for an extended sleighride with The Brian Setzer Orchestra.
Best Blue Christmas? Lowell Fulson! Tough to top "Lonesome Christmas," just one of many masterpieces by the guitarist and vocalist.
This shall be our last post for 2023. See ya in 2024!
Some of the most cutting and brutal satire this writer has seen in the past quarter century can be found in Robert Smigel's TV Funhouse series, which provided provocative laughs to the Saturday Night Live mix in 1996-2008.
Since the holidays are just about upon us, it is worth noting that there were a slew of Christmas offerings by TV Funhouse. While I love A Charlie Brown Christmas, the following cynical take on Peanuts definitely has its share of guilty laughs.
The Globetrotters' First Christmas is an outstanding spoof of early 1970's animation, specifically the extra cheesy cheesiness of Filmmation, represented by such TV series as Fat Albert & The Cosby Kids. Did anyone who helped make this sendup of 1970's TV cartoons work at Hanna-Barbera or Filmation?
Rankin-Bass gets both a skewering and a homage in The Narrator That Ruined Christmas.
Many of us who celebrate Hanukkahchristmas or Christmashannukah relate to the following. Love the inspired vocalizing by the great Darlene Love - the not so secret musical weapon of Phil Spector - in this TV Funhouse, which makes me want to go out to a Cantonese, Hunan or Sichuan (a.k.a. Szechwan) restaurant on Christmas and/or Christmas Eve. Stylistically, this reminds me just a tad of Art Clokey and Aardman Animations. . . after all, there is a Shaun The Sheep Christmas.
One can't have too much stuff that is questionable taste - no make that bad taste - during the holidays, so we shall finish today's post with an episode of the TV Funhouse spinoff series. Is it both funny and in incredibly bad taste? Yes.
On Saturday December 2 of 2023, the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival returns to Foothill College's Room 5015 with an indescribable blend of outrageous, hilarious, bizarre and fun forgotten (sometimes justifiably) footage.
That means B-movie trailers, 1930's cartoons, vintage movie theatre "snack bar" ads, Scopitones, Soundies and kidvid gone wrong, terribly wrong.
Personally, I will be more than ready for the "and now for something completely different - and now here's something completely different from what you just watched" philosophy that the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival is all about. Never, ever know just what reels my co-conspirator archivists Sci Fi Bob Ekman and Scott Moon will bring to the show - and that's the way I like it! The Psychotronix dream team - Robert Emmett of KFJC, Sci Fi Bob, Scott and, presenting the always epic display of one sheets and lobby cards, Gary "The Poster King" Hascall - is back!
When: Saturday, December 2, 2023 at 7:00 PM
Where: Room 5015, Foothill College campus 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills (El Monte exit off 280)
Note: some combination of the fellas who bring you Psychotronix will be on KFJC Monday evening on Thoughtline with Robert Emmett, starting at 6:00 p.m. PST.
A week after the Foothill College show, the crew will be back at the Orinda Theatre for a Christmas show. Now where the heck did I put that 16mm print of HOWDY DOODY'S CHRISTMAS?
31 years have passed since the first Psychotronix Film Festival - and we're amazed, thrilled and delighted to still be doing this. This Blogmeister shall return to his former stomping grounds, the San Francisco Bay Area, for another opportunity to put on, as the great impressionist Will Jordan would say, "a rilllllllly big shoe" - and be one of Foothill College's visiting professors!
Well, it's Thanksgiving (and the start of hearing godawful holday season music everywhere) yet again!
Thanksgiving means turkey songs!
Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog posts the same Thanksgiving turkey cartoons every year. Alas, we have no plans to stop that practice anytime soon!
We'll start, not surprisingly, with an inexplicably odd one from the oddest and most inexplicable of all cartoon studios, Screen Gems. I personally get a big kick out of these cartoons but can certainly imagine the likes of Sid Marcus and Cal Howard pondering "what weird bit can we do to vex audiences now?"
There are a bunch of Warner Bros cartoons about Thanksgiving and turkeys. We've posted several repeatedly over the years. As fervent Daffy Duck fans, we note that at least two of the very best Thanksgiving cartoons feature the wacky fowl.
While it's tough to pick one favorite Thanksgiving-themed cartoon, the following ranks high on the list.
It's directed by Art Davis and stars a diabolical but not-too-bright Daffy Duck who becomes Tom Turkey's personal trainer, while devouring food in mass quantities.
Hugh Harman made a pleasing cartoon for MGM starring an all-turkey ensemble patterned on Borrah Minnevich & His Harmonica Rascals. Seems like I post this one every year!
Happy Thanksgiving! Keep calm and watch cartoons before and after the courses (and between football games)!
And, along with Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, tomorrow's Turkey Day entertainment shall include George Pal Puppetoons!
Been watching Puppetoons volume 1 and eagerly await the latest volume (#3) on Blu-ray.
For our monthly musical post, the respectful top hat tip goes to Johnny Mercer, singer-songwriter and founder of Capitol Records, born on Savannah, Georgia on November 18, 1909. Here, Johnny and Henry Mancini win the Academy Award for Moon River.
This writer finds the task of paying tribute to Johnny Mercer, founder of the Songwriters Hall Of Fame and celebrated by the Georgia Historical Society, a bit daunting due to the sheer quantity and breadth of material on him.
Classic movie tunes that feature Johnny Mercer lyrics - 19 were nominated for Academy Awards - in addition to "Moon River" (which was first seen in Breakfast At Tiffany's) include "Hooray for Hollywood" sung by Johnny "Scat" Davis and Frances Langford in HOLLYWOOD HOTEL)
And the ditty for which Mercer received a second Oscar, "In The Cool, Cool, Cool Of The Evening (music by Hoagy Carmichael)," sung by Bing and Jane Wyman in Here Comes The Groom. . .
AND "On The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" (music by Harry Warren), sung by Judy Garland in The Harvey Girls.
Johnny Mercer was a poetic lyricist on 1500+ songs in which he collaborated with a slew of top composers - the aforementioned Hoagy Carmichael, Harry Warren and Henry Mancini, as well as Richard Whiting, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, Jimmy McHugh, and Jimmy Van Heusen - interpreted by dozens of the greatest vocalists and instrumentalists.
Johnny's friend Louis Armstrong introduced his tune Jeepers Creepers in the 1938 Dick Powell musical Going Places. Pops would subsequently hit many Johnny Mercer songs out of the park for the musical grand slam.
The bourbon-soaked lost love lament ONE FOR MY BABY (AND ONE FOR THE ROAD) was introduced by Fred Astaire in The Sky's The Limit (1943), but became (along with Earl Brent & Matt Dennis' Angel Eyes) among the signature tunes for Frank Sinatra.
Yes, crooners dig Johnny Mercer's lyrics the most.
Two Of A Kind, a meeting of the musical minds between Bobby Darin and Johnny Mercer, with arrangements by Billy May, is one of this music aficionado's favorite albums. They are such a terrific team that I am a bit disappointed to have not found TV show appearances featuring the dynamic duo.
Today's cornucopia of clips continues with Johnny Mercer, the rare songwriter who was also an incredible performer.
Here's Johnny, singin' with Bing on The Kraft Music Hall.
And with Nat King Cole, a master musician who Johnny, as Capitol Records executive, signed as a cornerstone for the label.
Singing with Sinatra on The Chairman Of The Board's radio show in 1947.
Where do we end this tribute to Johnny Mercer? With performances and reflections on the songwriter's legacy by guitarist-vocalist John Pizzarelli, who devoted an album to Johnny Mercer tunes.
Who was the man, the Big Kahuna in the field of music for animated cartoons? Well, there were several - Scott Bradley (MGM), Darrell Calker (Walter Lantz Productions/Universal), Leigh Harline at Disney's and the team of Sammy Timberg and Lou Fleischer - but in general, the first name in the "Password" answer is the incomparable Carl W. Stalling (November 10, 1891 - November 29, 1972).
Warner Bros. cartoon-meister elaborates on the greatness of Carl Stalling.
Carl W. Stalling, composer-conductor-arranger extraordinaire with Walt Disney Productions, the Ub Iwerks Studio and Warner Bros. (pre and post Leon Schlesinger), had a way of improving the films' quality wherever he went.
The Skeleton Dance (1929) in particular was innovative and a groundbreaking film by the Disney studio.
Carl Stalling contributed many wonderful scores to the cartoons produced by the studio of ace Disney animator and special effects inventor Ub Iwerks in 1930-1935.
Leon Schlesinger hired Carl to succeed Norman Spencer as the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies music man and the improvement in the cartoons was immediate.
It's a tough call as to which individual Looney Tune or Merrie Melodie features my favorite Carl Stalling soundtrack. In addition to PORKY IN WACKYLAND, PORKY PIG'S FEAT directed by Frank Tashlin and THE GREAT PIGGY BANK ROBBERY directed by Bob Clampett immediately come to mind.
In addition, note that the new Flip The Frog Blu-ray from Thunderbean is officially available. If you don't have it yet, this set is chock full of excellent Carl Stalling scores and animated goodness from the talented likes of Grim Natwick, Berny Wolf, Al Eugster and Shamus Culhane.
Yesterday's animation matinee at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum's Edison Theatre was the equivalent of old home week for this writer, curator, schlepper of 16mm projectors and animation buff. Don't remember the last time this blogger has seen so many familiar faces from years and years and years doing film and animation presentations in one place. There's Jerry Beck, doing a Q&A after the cartoon-packed program.
Robert Emmett of KFJC's Norman Bates Memorial Soundtrack Show and the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival and Mike Bonham of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum
Jerry Beck, Paul Mular, Psychotronic Paul and Robert Emmett from the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival
Kevin Coffey (animator, The Nightmare Before Christmas) and Jerry Beck
They were all there: Jerry Beck, Kevin Coffey, Steve Segal, Robert Emmett, champion of George Pal's incredible movie and animation career Arnie Liebovit and Harry McCracken of Scrappyland. Tommy Jose Stathes of Cartoons On Film was there via his video introductions to classic cartoons by Earl Hurd, Walt Disney, Otto Messmer and Fleischer Studios.
Tomorrow at 3:00 p.m., the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum presents a classic cartoon matinee.
Author and animation historian Jerry Beck hosts this program, curated by Tommy Jose Stathes of Cartoons On Film.
There will be vintage silent cartoons from Bray, Messmer, Fleischer and Disney.
Topping off the program will be a cartoon that was lost for decades but found and restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive: Buzzy Boop At The Concert.
