The KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival returns to the hallowed halls of Foothill College (Room 5015) yet again to celebrate its 24th anniversary!
It's an all-new extravaganza of semi-cinematic merriment, personally endorsed by The Management!
Since the "Joan Crawford With The Family At Christmastime" radio show is our idea of Yuletide festiveness, we're back with another holiday themed show!
That means a veritable winter wonderland of questionable entertainment and pop culture mayhem!
For almost all of the 24 year run, the festival has transpired on either the first or second Saturday in December, so the program will include some very cool Christmas cartoons. Here's a fantastic one shown at a previous Foothill College extravaganza.
We promise to show only the most unintentionally hilarious 1950's "educational" films.
And coming attractions trailers from the worst movies. . .
We'll raise that with the oddest short subjects.
And, of course, clips from TV programs that should never have aired.
The
Psychotronix Film Festival is still chugging inexorably down the tracks like the lil' locomotive that could in the "Frank Tash" Looney Tune cartoon Porky's Railroad!
Your "host with the most" for the evening's festivities: movie and television music expert Robert Emmett of KFJC-FM's Norman Bates Memorial Soundtrack Show.
This blogmeister shall shamelessly plug Saturday's show on the radio with Robert, along with collaborators, collectors, archivists and fellow intrepid DIY curators Sci Fi Bob Ekman and Scott Moon, tomorrow evening on Thoughtline from 6PM-7PM Pacific Standard Time.
This program will also be available for download on the KFJC Broadcast Archives for two weeks.
Admission: $5 donation benefits KFJC. Parking: $3 - in Lot #5 right before the Brown Trailers - follow the signs For more info: Foothill College Transportation & Parking
Public Transit: Cal Train and VTA Arrive early, as the shows often sell out. Doors open at 6:00 p.m.
The turkeys at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog - way more peaceful than the aggressive gobbler in the following clip - wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving!
We are officially back for the holidays with more aromatic 20th century pop culture stew, simmered "low and slow."
Here's a Looney Tunes cartoon, courtesy of, among many others, director Chuck Jones, animators Ken Harris, Ben Washam, Phil Monroe and Lloyd Vaughn, storymen Mike Maltese and Tedd Pierce, the incomparable Mel Blanc, etc. to precede that sumptuous slice of pumpkin pie.
There are some pretty cool Thanksgiving-themed animated cartoons. Some have been posted on this blog. . .
Good news for classic movie fans: the latest installment of the Accidentally Preserved series is out on DVD. Accidentally Preserved 4 is a killer collection of rare silents, originally struck in the 9.5mm film format by the Pathéscope company (UK) - and sourced from the USC Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive. The spanking new HD digital transfers are accompanied by new musical scores composed by Ben Model.
The only reason these films survive in 2016 is because silent movies were struck on the 9.5mm format and sold to home movie enthusiasts in the 1920's, 1930's and 1940's! The home movie purveyors - using standard and super 8mm, 9.5 and 16mm and other gauges - ended up being unwitting film preservationists, as many silent movies did not (unlike, to some degree, the films of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton) enjoy a second life on television.
Unfortunately, due to issues that sent this blog on hiatus, have not had the chance to see the DVD. Other knowledgeable writers and historians have. Check out the following excellent and thorough reviews.
We unabashed silent film fans at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog thank all those who made this DVD a reality, especially Ben Model and Dino Everett at the USC Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive.
We're pleased as pomegranates at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog to emerge from a two month hiatus to post print ads and TV commercials for 1950's cars, A.K.A. boats.
Since American Motors was a key sponsor for the Disneyland TV show, even the Mick, Pluto and Jiminy Cricket got into the car commercial act.
This blogmeister, well known for the curious ability to watch hours on end of 1950's and 1960's car ads - and then beg for more - is thrilled to find the following advertising film plugging the Nash Ambassador.
For more info, there is an in-depth article about the Nash Ambassador on Wikipedia.
Consider the above curious print advertisement for a spectacularly unsuccessful consumer product that never actually existed - the less than scrumdiddlyumptious Potato Fudge - the tentative return of Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog.
While still reeling more than a bit from a death in the family and its aftermath, this blogger shall stick his toe in the hopefully still waters of semi-regular writing for this blog, plus a little guitar playing. Will be back to weekly posts later this month - really.
Although the perpetrator of Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog pleads guilty - no contest, actually - to preparing all kinds of grossly unhealthy diabetic-unfriendly food (including brewing 7.85% alcohol dark ales with the consistency of Grandma's Molasses and the color of Kiwi Shoe Polish), he absolutely will NOT be tackling the following C&H Sugar recipe for, you guessed it, Potato Fudge.
The closest this diabetic will get to making Potato Fudge is to watch a standup comedy video starring the very funny Ron "Tater Salad" White, the Blue Collar Comedy tour's answer to W.C. Fields.
While Potato Fudge did not exactly to America by storm, some elements of the product found their way into the following campaign for canned spaghetti.
In addition, this blogmeister's showman persona A.K.A. Psychotronic Paul, shall return in December.
Along with intrepid colleagues and film archivists Robert Emmett, Sci Fi Bob Ekman, Scott Moon, that Psychotronic Paul fellow will also return, bearing boxes full of odd 16mm film reels, to Foothill College's hallowed Room 5015 for the 24th anniversary KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival on December 3, 2016 at Foothill College in the Los Altos Hills, CA.
There will also be a show Yours Truly will be curating at Angelica's in January - silent movies accompanied by the always swingin' Jeff Sanford's Cartoon Jazz Septet.
On this Sunday, November 13, not just one but two excellent classic movie matinees will hopefully make the weekend following a horrifying, disgusting, sickening, appalling, nauseating, fact-free, post-literate AND lacking in basic civility and good manners 2016 presidential election go just a bit better.
The first matinee program is at 2:00 p.m. at Don Quixote's International Music Hall deep in the wilds of Santa Cruz County at 6275 Hwy 9, Felton, CA 95018 (15 minutes from Santa Cruz). Montuno Productions presents Jeff Sanford’s Cartoon Jazz Septet, along with a magic performance and film program curated by that fella who writes this very blog, film historian Paul F. Etcheverry.
Movies, cartoons, magic and cool music shall reign supreme! Here's a clip from a past show with Jeff Sanford’s Cartoon Jazz Septet:
A few rave reviews of previous programs:
"Jeff Sanford's septet has won fans around the Bay Area with its high-spirited renditions of classics by Raymond Scott, Jelly Roll Morton, John Kirby and others set to silent films, cartoons, and live performances."
-- Randy McMullen / San Jose Mercury News
"The entire evening's program -- featuring the music of Raymond Scott and original compositions by Lenny Carlson -- was superb, and the audience was totally engaged, listening to music that was both familiar and unknown performed brilliantly. An exhilarating concert!"
-- Dr. Charles Junkerman, Dean and Associate Provost of Continuing Education Stanford University
"Jeff Sanford's Cartoon Jazz Band is electi-Scott-a-fyin'!! Great re-workings of Raymond Scott tunes, classic jazz turned inside out, stellar musicianship (those charts make my brain hurt) and 'wow' at nearly every turn -- smart, smart, swingin' stuff."
-- Alisa Clancy, "Morning Cup of Jazz" host on KCSM Jazz 91 FM
"The Cartoon Jazz Concert was terrific! Everyone in the audience was treated to a stellar performance!"
-- Stephanie Mischak Lyons, Coordinator for City College of San Francisco Concert and Lecture Series
Meanwhile, if you can't make the trek down Highway 9 to Felton this Sunday, there is another splendid program of movie fun commencing at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum. The great comedy team of Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy reign supreme!
The Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum presents one of its monthly Sunday matinees, featuring Laurel & Hardy and other Hal Roach Studio films, in its Edison Theater.
Curator Paul Mular hosts and does an amazing job putting together these comedy programs on the second Sunday of every month.
Los Angeles area animation and classic movie buffs, note that Jerry Beck shall be presenting one of his Halloween cartoon spooktaculars tonight at the Cinefamily (Silent Film Theatre) at 611 N. Fairfax Ave.
As the press release for the program describes, "animation historian Jerry Beck screams—err, screens — a selection of strange, creepy Halloween-related cartoons using vintage 16mm and 35mm prints that range from ghoulishly red Eastmancolor to gorgeously garish Technicolor. Prepare to be dazzled by animated witches, warlocks, goblins, pumpkin-heads, black cats, and everyone from Koko The Clown to Casper the Friendly Ghost, as classic cartoon characters Oswald Rabbit, Flip The Frog and Popeye."
Don't know if Boo Boo Theme Song, an exceptionally creepy Halloween "Screen Song" cartoon from Fleischer Studios is on the bill in Jerry's spooktacular, but it certainly is apropo. Here are the Funnyboners singing Boo, Boo Theme Song.
Oddly, the 16mm film prints of Fleischer Screen Songs cartoons struck for television distribution by UM&M/NTA often do not feature the live-action song sequences. In some cases, the songs were cut from the 16mm negatives. Fortunately, there were LOTS of excellent Halloween cartoons made in 1929-1933 by all the studios.
We shall momentarily break from hiatus to give tomorrow night's show at The Art House Gallery And Cultural Center on 2905 Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley (off Ashby, closest cross street Russell - and not far from Berkeley Bowl) an enthusiastic plug.
This will be the second annual Psychotronix Halloween Film Festival at the The Art House Gallery And Cultural Center. Curators/presenters for the evening's entertainment will be Sci Fi Bob Ekman and Scott Moon of the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival. These guys could not present a lousy show even if it was their hearts' desire to do so. This will be big screen fun for all!
Monsieur Blogmester a.k.a. Paul F. Etcheverry, happy in NYC
Due to a death in the family, this blog and blogger are officially on hiatus for an indeterminate period. Cannot overstate the extent to which condolences received thus far are very much appreciated.
Mary Ellen Hubbard Etcheverry (April 7, 1924 - September 19, 2016)
Have no clue how long this hiatus will be. There are uncompleted posts in the pipeline and it is possible I will recycle/revise/rewrite older posts I liked a great deal.
Whenever the weekly blog posts resume, without a doubt, there shall be - in the inevitable Shameless Self-Promotion department - items plugging upcoming old school 16mm film shows, a program That Darn Blogmeister will be doing with Jeff Sanford's Cartoon Jazz Septet in Felton, CA as well as the upcoming (and as of yet unannounced) KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival on December 3, 2016 at Foothill College in the Los Altos Hills, CA.
Mostly, it's sayonara, baby . . . for awhile. Friends of Paul the Blogmeister know what to do, but it bears repeating - please call or e-mail him, as he will be largely staying away from that ongoing ugly, sickening tire fire known as "social media" . . . unless it's to follow a cool tweet about music by Van Dyke Parks, of course.
One week from today in beautiful downtown Redwood City (as opposed to beautiful downtown Burbank), on Friday September 23, vintage silent movies produced 100 years ago will be accompanied live by the music of Jeff Sanford's Cartoon Jazz Septet.
From the official press release:
Angelica's and Montuno Productions present Jeff Sanford’s Cartoon Jazz Septet in a live performance of delightful and whimsical music of the classic cartoons, which will be accompanied by silent films, comedy, and magic.
The Septet is a smaller version of the Cartoon Jazz Orchestra, which Jeff Sanford organized in 2003 to play the eccentric, highly entertaining and challenging music of American composer Raymond Scott.
This music is known to millions around the world — it was the soundtrack to 120 classic Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoons.
The first public appearance of the Cartoon Jazz Orchestra was at the 2003 Stanford Jazz Festival, and the group has been performing regularly ever since.
They appeal to young children who love the great variety of instruments and sounds, older adults who remember the original cartoons, and music lovers of all ages who appreciate the sophisticated, out-of-the-box compositions and performances. Audiences everywhere are blown away by their virtuosity. And the musicians have as good a time as the audience does.
The vision of the Septet extends far beyond Raymond Scott’s music these days. Among other icons, Jelly Roll Morton and Duke Ellington are represented, as is Charlie Shavers, the brilliant trumpeter, composer and arranger who “jazzed the classics” for the John Kirby Sextet in the 1930s.
Since 2009, Lenny Carlson has been composer-in-residence for both the Septet and the Orchestra, composing more than 30 original pieces in a variety of styles.
Lenny has taken the spirit of Raymond Scott and updated it, combining classical and jazz elements with klezmer and folk styles from around the world. He has also composed a number of Latin-flavored pieces that are part of the Cartoon Jazz Septet repertoire.
The show will also feature a comedy and magic performance. Old school 16mm films will be presented by the fellow responsible for Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, writer and film historian Paul F. Etcheverry, co-founder of the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival.
The Date: Friday September 23, 2016 Showtime: 8:30 p.m. The Place: Angelica's, 863 Main Street, Redwood City, CA 94063
This writer and animation buff, for reasons he will never, ever entirely understand, possesses a deep and profound affinity for B-studio cartoons.
This affinity is as strong as his love of 2-reel comedies, as well as B-movies (and sometimes C, D, E, F, F# and Gb movies) in the science fiction and film noir genres. Some of it is directly due to constant exposure to massively phantasmagorical animated mayhem on television in glorious black and white during the late 1950's and early 1960's.
Of the various B-studio cartoons, it's a tossup between the Charles Mintz/Screen Gems Studio, which produced series for Columbia release, independent producers Les Elton and Ted Eshbaugh, and the Van Beuren Studio, which cranked out Aesop's Fables, Tom & Jerry, Cubby Bear and Little King cartoons for release by RKO Radio Pictures (note: the Van Beuren cartoons have, fortunately, been well served by DVD releases from Steve Stanchfield's Thunderbean Animation).
First and foremost, before getting into those 1930's Columbia cartoons, we shall start with something most of you animation buffs reading this blog already know: a bit of Machiavellian film history, familiar to all who saw the Pixar movie Up and found themselves the sole individual in the theatrical audience to chortle loudly upon hearing that the evil bad guy's name was Charles Muntz.
Charles Mintz is known in the annals of animation history as the Universal Pictures producer of the Walt Disney Studio's popular silent era starring character, Oswald The Lucky Rabbit. Publisher and author David Gerstein has told this story of the break between Disney and Mintz at length in his article, Of Rocks & Socks: The Winkler Oswalds on Jerry Beck's Cartoon Research website, as has writer Don M. Yowp in a post from his excellent Tralfaz website, That's Oswald.
Mintz was married to pioneering animation producer and businesswoman Margaret J. Winkler. Also involved in the studio, from silent days to its closure in 1941: production manager George Winkler, whose job description was "crack the whip".
Winkler Productions, distributors of Otto Messmer's Felix The Cat and Walt Disney Productions' Alice In Cartoonland series, enjoyed great success with Disney's cartoons featuring Oswald The Lucky Rabbit and the sprightly animation of Ub Iwerks.
Disney was working as Mintz and Universal's employee and wanting a budget increase for the next season of Ozzie cartoons. Mintz countered by giving Walt an ultimatum: accept a budget AND a pay cut or be fired.
Mintz won this gambit and successfully took control of both the studio and the Oswald The Lucky Rabbit character. Having successfully wrested control of the popular character and hired animators Hugh Harman, Rollin Hamilton, Paul Smith and Ben Clopton from Walt's staff, Mintz finished the remaining Oswalds on the Disney contract and then organized a new studio to produce the next series on May 5, 1928.
Except for Ub Iwerks and apprentice animator Les Clark, the Walt Disney Productions staffers jumped ship to work for Mintz. You know the rest of the story: Ub joined Walt in California to create a new flagship character for the Disney Studio. . . and that would be Mickey Mouse.
Charles Mintz started his association with Columbia Pictures as the executive producer behind the New York animation studio, led by Ben Harrison and Manny Gould (1904-1975). Both had been animating on the silent Krazy Kat series that Bill Nolan had been making in 1925-1927, then began directing and producing them with Tired Wheels, released on October 8, 1927. Winkler Productions cranked out silent Krazy Kats and much of this crew would follow Mintz to the new studio in California.
By the time the Harrison and Gould crew started making Krazy Kat cartoons, the character was in at least its second movie incarnation, the first closer to the George Herriman comic strip character than those that followed (at least until Gene Deitch's made-for-TV series for King Features in the 1960's). While these cartoons advertise themselves as being based on the comic strip, that would be a tenuous connection at best. The look is there, but Herriman's minimalist universe and essential concept is not. Only one entry from the subsequent "talkie" Krazy Kat series, Lil Anjil (1936), attempted to tackled the George Herriman version of the character.
These initial entries in the Krazy Kat series were the first films Charles Mintz produced for Columbia release. The following, the first "talkie", released theatrically on August 15, 1929. . . well, it's pretty darn crude and not anywhere near the level of the Fleischer Studio's Inkwell Imps series.
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That said, soon after those first few talkies, the Krazy Kat series hit its stride. The series improved rapidly and began delivering striking and original ideas, with that wonderfully distorted imagery of "rubber-hose" era animation. Here's a 1930 entry The Apache Kid, seen provoking a rousing audience response more than seven decades later.
In particular, the Great Depression tale Lambs Will Gambol and the gritty gangster movie sendup Taken For A Ride, like The Apache Kid, are imaginative and memorable cartoons.
Once having hit their stride, the Mintz studio's Krazy Kat series delivered the "all talking all singing all dancing - and almost all bizarre" job description of early 1930's cartoons at times exceptionally well.
At their best, this series could, with some panache and originality, equal anything produced by Disney and Fleischer at the time.
The second crew that brought a certain East Coast sensibility to sunny California turned out to be several artists formerly with none other than the Fleischer Studio - and actually did contribute animation to the aforementioned Inkwell Imps cartoons: the legendary Dick Huemer, previously known for his stellar work on Fleischer's Koko The Clown (and subsequently a key storyman with Disney, in collaboration with Joe Grant), gagman par excellence Sid Marcus and the great Warner Bros. animator and director Art Davis.
This crew's first series with Mintz was the, not surprisingly, quite Fleischer-like Toby The Pup cartoons, produced for RKO Pathe release in 1930-1931.
The next series to be produced by the Huemer-Davis-Marcus crew starred a little city kid named Scrappy.
The first in the series, Yelp Wanted, is an astonishingly dark cartoon; Scrappy is on the mean streets and surrounded by danger. There's astounding animation by Dick Huemer throughout.
Unlike Disney's Mickey Mouse, Hugh Harman & Rudy Ising's Bosko and the Walter Lantz version of Ozzie The Lucky Rabbit, all three emotionally and spiritually in sunny California, the first Scrappy cartoons definitely have an urban New York City flavor.
Without a doubt, both our protagonist and the bullies that bedevil him are definitely NOT from Park Avenue.
These initial opuses de Scrappy are truly twisted, often wildly push the 1931 "squash and stretch"envelope to its limits and look like they were drawn by R. Crumb - in short, everything we at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog adore about early 1930's cartoons!
Not to be outdone, the Harrison and Gould crew produced a good number more highly inventive Krazy Kat cartoons at the same time. Several feature a very creative use of music.
As ace animator Dick Huemer's work on the first two seasons of Scrappy made for quite a few unbeatable classic cartoons, the animation of Manny Gould, Preston Blair, Al Eugster and others contributed lively pen-and-ink flair to the Krazy Kat series.
Other Krazy Kat entries - The Disarmament Conference, Prosperity Blues and the aforementioned Lambs Will Gambol - are distinguished by how they incorporate surprisingly stark social commentary about current events and the Great Depression into the cartoony landscape.
Meanwhile, the 1932-1933 Scrappy cartoons add a double shot of very goofy, anarchic humor into the mix.
In such cartoons as The Flop House, the results are hilarious.
With high hopes to emulate the Fleischer Studio's success with Popeye, the Mintz Studio bought the rights to Billy DeBeck's comic strip Barney Google in 1934. Unfortunately, the series, produced in 2-strip Technicolor, folded after four films.
What little this 1930's animation fan has seen of the surviving Columbia Barney Googles indicates that they may have, after working with the characters for a bit, settled in and produced very good work.
While unlikely to have reached the high level of the Fleischer Popeyes or the two Milt Gross MGM cartoons starring his own characters, Count Screwloose and J.R. The Wonder Dog, these cartoons definitely have their moments.
There's considerable promise in quite a few individual scenes, as this reconstruction of the first Barney Google cartoon, Tetched In The Head, from the handful of surviving 50 foot silent 16mm home movie prints indicates.
The Mintz/Columbia Barney Googles are somewhat comparable to the MGM Captain And The Kids (a.k.a. Katzenjammer Kids) cartoons, very good in segments and occasionally an entire cartoon but never quite hitting the mark overall, Friz Freleng's fine work directing the latter series notwithstanding.
With that observation on silvr screen efforts to translate comics to animated cartoons, we close today's post. The "rest of the story", what happened to the Color Rhapsodies as the 1930's wore on and how this affected the B&W Krazy Kat and Scrappy cartoons, will be in Part 2.
Acknowledgements go to Milton Knight, Craig Davison, Don M. Yowp, David Gerstein, Pietro Shakarian, Mark Kausler, Lee Glover and Jerry Beck. For more on Scrappy cartoons, check out the Scrappyland site by journalist and vintage animation expert Harry McCracken. See the aforementioned Tralfaz website and the Uncle John's Crazy Town comics and animation blog for more about the Charles Mintz Studio, Margaret J. Winkler and Krazy Kat. For more on Dick Huemer's career in animation, read the fascinating and incredibly thorough oral history conducted by author Joe Adamson.
