Tonight, Live in San Francisco: Cartoon Dump At The Eureka Theatre

Following last night's "Pre-Code Follies", here's another can't miss event: S.F. Sketchfest presents Cartoon Dump.

I caught the September 2007 taping of this wonderfully dark satire of sickly sweet "New Zoo Revue" style kidvid at the Steve Allen Theatre in L.A. In the immortal words of Hubie from Chuck Jones' Hubie and Bertie cartoons, it was a riot! I'm looking forward to enjoying some good comedy and bad cartoons, courtesy of producer, author and raconteur Jerry Beck, TV's Frank from Mystery Science Theatre 3000, Erica Doering, Kathleen Roll, Andy Kindler and more tonight!

And if you can't go to that, there's still some killer film noir on the big screen at the Castro Theatre.

More Info On The Pre-Code Follies Show

I'm getting questions about the upcoming Pre-Code Follies extravaganza, this Friday at 8:30 p.m. at Niles' Edison Theatre.

1. Can you buy advance tickets online? Yes, the good people of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum have made this possible. Click here, then scroll down.


2. How do I get there? Check out a Google map.



3. When should we show up to get a seat? I suggest no later than 7:45. The Edison Theatre seats about 120 max - and this sucker is selling out.



4. Got a frame grab from something you're showing? Inevitably.






5. Can you post another cute picture of Kitten On The Keys?

Burt Bacharach Day

Over breakfast with one of my favorite human beings, I watched the inauguration - and am still, many hours later, soaking in the importance of this event. I'm uncharacteristically speechless.

That said, it's the 20th of the month, which means Burt Bacharach Day, and a clip of the legendary Dusty Springfield singing one of his greatest songs. Enjoy.

This Saturday: Incredibly Strange Short Films In The Wine Country

Bob Wilkins (1932-2009), R.I.P.

Today's posting pays tribute to Bob Wilkins, an inspired, witty and idiosyncratic Northern California television personality who passed away at 76 on January 7. Pretty much the entire underground movie event scene in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento can be proudly counted among the incorrigible progeny of Bob Wilkins and Creature Features. Bob was a friend, mentor and colleague to many of the creative talents who make the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival happen.

Bob Wilkins hosted and worked on a wide variety of productions for KCRA-Sacramento and KTVU-Oakland, paramount among them the Creature Features and Captain Cosmic shows. The shows exemplified the long lost tradition of freewheeling local programming and captivated the imaginations of Northern California viewers. Demonstrating his ability to have fun with the medium, both shows were imbued with Bob's trademark droll humor and style.

Here's Bob, bringing his customary deadpan delivery, laid-back approach and dry wit to the Creature Features opening:



Creature Features, a late-night Northern California institution, well established before Saturday Night Live and SCTV hit the airwaves, ran for fourteen years: Bob hosted through 1978, while John Stanley hosted from 1979-1984. Movies ran the gamut from old school Universal Pictures horror to 50's sci-fi, 70's schlockers and everything in-between. Guests ranged from movie stars to the fellows in the following clip:



The show is the subject of an entertaining documentary produced by Tom Wyrsch, Watch Horror Films, Keep America Strong. Tom is also the author of The Bob Wilkins Scrapbook and The John Stanley Scrapbook.



I would be remiss to omit the opening title segment from The Captain Cosmic Show, which brought the high camp and humor inherent in Japanese monster movies to the attention of impressionable young minds in the latter 70's.



The wide-ranging influence of Bob Wilkins on filmmaking, animation and entertainment events in Northern California reminds me of a comment I read about the 1960's avant-rockers The Velvet Underground: their records may have not sold a gazillion copies (like, say a 45 RPM single by The Cowsills), but everyone who bought one formed a band. So Bob Wilkins' greatest contribution may not have been his uncanny knack for creating entertainment from whatever means he had at his disposal, but his talent for inspiring others to do the same. . . and then say, "don't stay up late - it's not worth it!"

Upcoming Movie Nights

I'm seriously tickled to be bringing a pungent slice of our customary KFJC Psychotronix Film Fest style mayhem to the wine country. On January 17 at 7:00 p.m., the Mendocino Film Festival presents the Mend-O-Tronic Incredibly Strange Short Subjects night at historic Crown Hall, 45285 Ukiah St., Mendocino, CA 95460.

And I'm equally tickled to be the producer/curator of the following pop culture slice n' dice at a historic venue:



At the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum's Edison Theatre (the town nickelodeon 95 years ago), we will present a hallucinatory blend of outrageous clips from 1930's musicals, lecherous and absurdist comedy shorts, surreal cartoons, etc. - with a performance of ditties from the Pre-Code era by the fabulous Kitten On The Keys. Yes, LIVE IN PERSON, our hostess with the very mostest will m.c. and live up to her Sisters Of Perpetual Indulgence sobriquet, St. Tickle-The-Ivories.

Andy's Gang And More Twisted Kid-Vid

The Andy's Gang TV show served up a hilarious and at times unsettling blend of the quirky and bizarre with kids' entertainment in the 1950's.



Here's the completely indescribable "Squeaky The Mouse's Circus" segment.



To follow the irresistible strangeness of Andy's Gang, I select Ernie Kovacs' equally twisted variation on The Howdy Doody Show.

Happy New Year

Let's ring in the new year with a classic comedy clip - and continue the Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams thread!

That's All

That's all for 2008. And that makes me think of the title of a favorite song, a classic ballad that, no doubt, Lester Young played with deep soulfulness.

Here's Bobby Darin's take on "That's All". He does a very "guy" thing, not interpreting it as a ballad, but as a fast, rhythmic number, in a style I associate more with Tony Bennett. Darin, no fool, was in my view playing to his strength as a singer of mid and up-tempo swingers.



But my favorite rendition of "That's All" (even better than the beautiful rendition on Sinatra And Strings) is this stellar performance by Edie Adams in "Lucy Meets The Mustache", the final episode of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. "That's All" also described the relationship between Lucy and Desi, who filed for divorce the next day.

So sit back and listen to this great song. Edie hits it out of the park.

Edie Adams and Stan Getz Sell Muriel Cigars

The ever-sultry Edie sings praises for the Panatela Extras, and, even though the Muriel Cigars voice-over pitchman talks over most of Stan Getz' tenor sax playing, I'm ready to buy some Panatela Extras right now - disregarding the fact that the commercial aired 43 years ago and I don't smoke.

The only way Muriel Cigars could have been luckier is if Ernie Kovacs had still been living when this commercial aired.

The tendency is to remember Edie Adams, who passed away earlier this year, as Mrs. Kovacs and the conscientious archivist of the comedian's innovative legacy, rather than for her lengthy career as a Tony award winning entertainer.

Too bad there are no Edie Adams Scopitones!

Ernie Kovacs DVD Box Set

Forget investing in the shaky world economy! Sink what's left of that do-re-me into a DVD box set of Ernie Kovacs shows! A collaboration of The Archive of American Television and Koch Vision, this includes 15 hours of Kovacs programs and is slated for release next year.




I wish it was available right now. Until then, here's a clip of Ernie and Edie (who is very funny in this bit) from the early 1950's.

Merry Christmas - Here's Another Cheesy Commercial

Here's Rosemary Clooney For Christmas Seals, Plus Vintage Theatre Ads

Vintage Christmas Commercials

A Classic Scopitone Starring The Kessler Sisters

"Kinda has a Hello Dali feel."
"They are Bloody Stepford beautiful."

And, indeed, they are: the fabulous Kessler Sisters, starring in one of my all-time favorite Scopitones, Quando Quando.




If you see another amazing, stylish, campy, sexy high-fashion 1960's time capsule that surpasses this Scopitone, let me know.

Burt Bacharach Day

Thanks a million to frequent cohort and Psychotronic Paul Fan Club member Lazy-Eye Raspberry Kennedy for bringing this classic clip (from what show? Ed Sullivan?) of Teutonic tunesters The Kessler Sisters to my ever-wandering attention. If Dionne Warwick can record "Walk On By" in German (and she did, beautifully - I've heard it), these fetching twins can sing "I Say A Little Prayer!" What I like most is how totally disconnected the performance is from the actual meaning of the lyrics and song. That's Entertainment!


When sung by a guy - or a darker type of female vocalist: think Amy Winehouse today - these lyrics by Hal David take on a sinister quality, and sound more like the obsessive words of a stalker than the emotions of a person "in love" (whatever that means).
Makes me wonder - did Elvis Costello cover "I Say A Little Prayer!" during his tour with Burt?

This Blog's Obsession With Scopitones Continues

This one has more derriere references than a decade of Walt Disney cartoons.

Funny, the PGA never latched onto this Scopitone, Tweedle-Dee starring Freddie Bell and Roberta Linn, as a potential promotional film. . .

And This Blog Loves Scopitones

Anybody who has attended events I collaborate on or produce knows, I'm a sucker for musicals, especially Scopitones and Soundies. I had never seen this Scopitone before last weekend's KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival. It's a beaut and starts with a turban-wearing dude spinning around. Surrounded by wonderfully strange imagery throughout, powerful vocalist Timi Yuro (1940-2004) gives her all to such 1960's-era WTF lyrics as "if I had everything, I'd still be a slave to you".

Of the strikingly odd moments, those showgirls bearing globes (literally, not figuratively or metaphorically) are my favorites.

It's Official: This Blog Loves Frank Tashlin

Nobody could get gags past those Hays Office censors quite as cleverly as Frank Tashlin!





The Stupid Cupid (1944)

Swooner Crooner (1944)

Nasty Quacks (1945)

Puss N' Booty (1943)

Brother Brat (1944)

Booby Hatched (1944)

Jerry Lewis Rocks!

To continue that Frank Tashlin thread from earlier this week, here's my favorite excerpt from a Jerry Lewis flick, from Tashlin's Rock-A-Bye-Baby (1959). How many rockin' guitarists would kill to do the dance moves Jerry executes here?

Here are the rockin' Treniers with Martin & Lewis on The Colgate Comedy Hour. They knew how to have fun on TV in 1954.