Spaghetti & Meatballs & Hollywood

 Jon Favreau is a big, huggable bear of an actor who turned to directing and gave us some entertaining films. Favreau played the loser at love trying to get dates in the 1996 comedy, SWINGERS. He directed Will Ferrell in the Christmastime comedy, ELF. He directed Robert Downey Jr. in IRON MAN and IRON MAN 2. He directed the totally enjoyable and food-centered comedy, CHEF. Favreau starred in that one along with Robert Downey Jr., John Leguizamo, Sofia Vergara and Dustin Hoffman.

Jon Favreau loves to eat. He's the host of a Netflix series called THE CHEF SHOW. 

On the weekends, I love to be a couch potato for a while and watch cooking shows on TV. I used to turn on Food Network but now it seems like all their cooking shows are competitions with winners picked by a panel of three judges. So I go to PBS.

I really dig seeing the dishes being made and hearing the recipes given while the chef is creates the dish. At the end of the shows, the completed dishes look terrific and I'm sure they are tasty. Would I try to make them myself? No. Because they ultimately get fancy with spices most of us do not have on our kitchen shelves -- spices like marjoram, allspice and cardamom.

Favreau and Los Angeles chef Roy Choi ate at a restaurant there in L.A. They fell in love with the restaurant's $24.00 spaghetti and meatballs dish. Roy makes it and tells us that, instead of the $24.00 version, he's making a $4.00 version.

I just had to share his dish and recipe with you, Roy Choi keeps it simple. He used ingredients you'd find in your average kitchen. Nothing fancy but, man, does it look delicious. It is a dish that I would try to make. It looks fabulous for solo dining, family meals or a good date night dish to make. You get excellent tips while Roy and Jon make the low-budget spaghetti and meatballs.. You also learn something about film history,

If you get Netflix, search for THE CHEF SHOW. Go into Volume 4 and click onto Episode 2, "Roy's Italian Cuisine." The spaghetti and meatballs recipe segment is the first 15 minutes of that episode. Here's a trailer for the show.

Yum.

Classic Film Tip for Memorial Day

 I watched a lot of old movies on TV when I was a youngster growing up in Los Angeles. This was before the dawn of 24-hour cable television, VHS tapes, DVDs and such. Local independent TV stations were connected to known Hollywood studios and their film libraries. KTLA/Channel 5 was connected to Paramount Pictures and aired plenty of that studio's classics. One was a feature made during World War 2 and had a trio of Paramount's top female stars playing women in war. The movie does not get a lot of talk today, but it should. I watched it in my youth because it's action-packed and I loved its three stars. Today, I watch it because it's one of those rare 1940s Hollywood films that focused on women who served in the war. The movie is 1943's SO PROUDLY WE HAIL! starring Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard and Veronica Lake. 

In many Hollywood films made about our involvement in World War 2, movies made during the 40s, the female characters were the loving sweethearts at home praying for the survival of their men in uniform overseas. In SO PROUDLY WE HAIL!, the three stars play Army nurses. These nurses either have or will have sweethearts. The nurses also have very hard jobs and they are devoted to their work. They face life and death as they tend to the wounded men.  Alongside the soldiers, the nurses are in the dirt and they run for cover when bombs strike. They, too, face danger. This entertaining, strong movie also shows the emotional and physical toll the work and the war took on military nurses.

The story follows the nurses during the grueling, bloody campaign in the Pacific. Paulette Goddard received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her performance.  The screenplay is very good at taking the screen personalities moviegoers loved about Colbert, Goddard and Lake in light fare and applied them to a war drama. What moviegoers loved about the three stars, they got in this movie. Veronica Lake was famous for her peek-a-boo glamour girl hairdo -- a hairdo that covered one eye in a most alluring way. As a military nurse, she must wear a sensible hairdo. However, she employs her peek-a-boo do in her final and most dramatic, heroic scene. SO PROUDLY WE HAIL! was directed by Mark Sandrich. Allan Scott got an Oscar nomination for his original screenplay.

This movie with its stars in fine form, and the fact that it highlighted women serving in war, make it worth a look. Here's a preview.

Enjoy your Memorial Day.

Anthony Perkins & Sondheim

 I was casually searching through a website and found an old network TV chestnut. I remember it being promoted on TV when I was a little boy but it aired too late for me to see. Mom and Dad made me go to bed. This chestnut was a one-hour ABC TV special. An original 1966 Stephen Sondheim musical starring Anthony Perkins. Before you say "What? Anthony Perkins?!?!?," the actor starred in a Frank Loesser Broadway the same year Hitchcock's PSYCHO opened (1960).

The ABC TV special with new music and lyrics by Sondheim is EVENING PRIMROSE. Perkins' leading lady was Charmain Carr right before she started shooting the role of Liesl in THE SOUND MUSIC. She sang "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" in the movie.

The special has a weird plot. A young poet hides out from the world at night in a major Manhattan department store, He feels that, at night, he can get poetry written. Then he discovers this group of old folks who've been secretly living in the department store for years. A Mrs. Mundy, a grand old dame who lives in the past, accepts the young poet into her group -- but he later discovers that he's forbidden to leave. He falls in love with her young, lovely maid who can't read or write and reveals to him, "I haven't seen the sun in thirteen years." She wants to leave the department store.

Perkins has a fine opening song when he's alone (he thinks) in the department store. The song is called, "If You Can Find Me, I'm Here." I think Sondheim took the end of that song and applied it to his song from Broadway's FOLLIES (1971), "I'm Still Here." There's a Madam Armfeldt of 1973's A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC vibe  to the Mrs.  Mundy character.

If you're interested, you may be able to find EVENING PRIMROSE on YouTube.

If you want to hear Anthony Perkins sing, here's a vocal from an album he recorded:

And here's his opening number from Stephen Sondheim's EVENING PRIMROSE.

It was a one-hour TV special. Without commercials, it runs about 50 minutes.

SOMEBODY FEED PHIL Again

 A while ago, I wrote about how much I was won over by the tall, lanky, affable, funny and wise food/travel documentary series host, Phil Rosenthal. He's the host of SOMEBODY FEED PHIL which is back for Season 5 on Netflix.

As you know, this was an emotionally brutal and infuriating week that came on the heels of the Buffalo, New York supermarket tragedy. I cried a lot this hearing the news out of Uvalde, Texas. I needed something to make me smile for a while and refresh my spirit. SOMEBODY FEED PHIL did the trick.

For Season 5, I went to Episode 5. Phil visits Madrid, the capital of Spain. Again, he presented a show that made me want to grab my passport, some casual clothing and a fork. As Phil says about Madrid, "It's glorious and the food is spectacular." 

Phil doesn't give you recipes. He shows you the final product and describes it to you as he happily eats it. We always learn something new about the location and the food. For instance, here in America, we have a mental image of a tortilla being a round, flat object. In Madrid, it's round, larger and has two sides -- a top and a bottom. The middle is filled with sliced potatoes, ham and cheese. I would love to fly to the food market Phil visited and have one. As usual, he engages with restaurant owners, chefs and customers. He shows the thrill of meeting new people, sharing food with them and embracing another culture.

In Spain, he takes us to one of the country's oldest restaurants -- a place once frequented by writer Ernest Hemingway -- and delights in its pork dishes. The Spanish people love pork. Then Phil takes us to a restaurant where the young, tattooed, friendly and award-winning chef is the future of Spanish cuisine. Believe me -- descriptions of his dishes would not do them justice. You have to see them. They truly are culinary works of art and Phil's tastebuds seem to be in heaven as he eats them. Here's a trailer for Season 5.

Thanks again, Phil Rosenthal, for making me smile -- and making me hungry.

Ray Liotta, A Good Fellow

 News broke that actor Ray Liotta, age 67, passed away in his sleep while on location to shoot a new film. Ray Liotta, a fine actor with riveting eyes, a distinct East Coast voice and a face that looked like he occasionally washed parts of it with sandpaper instead of soap. He played baseball legend "Shoeless" Joe Jackson in 1989's FIELD OF DREAMS and followed that his performance as gangster Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese's GOODFELLAS. That gangster role shot Liotta's film career up to a new height.  Although he became well known for the Scorsese film, my personal favorite Liotta performance is in a romantic comedy called CORINNA, CORRINA. In this breezy 1994 movie, he starred as widower commercial jingle songwriter who hires a housekeeper who can also take care of his sweet, lonely little girl. The housekeeper brightens his household -- and his life.

I loved Liotta's work -- especially when did a comedy like the aging biker John Travolta movie, WILD HOGS. You have to watch through the closing credits on that one.

Ray Liotta gave me on of the kindest, most memorable moments I ever experienced on TV. After my wonderful 3 years of on-air work for VH1 were done, I did some guest host work on CNBC and, in 1992, I hosted a syndicated month-long summer replacement game show. Also in 1992, I was approached by WNBC local news executives to be the entertainment reporter and third member of a 3-person host team for a new local live weekend morning news program that was in the work to premiere in the fall of 1992. I took the job. But, once my employment started, I felt a definite wall of racial exclusion. Instead of being the entertainment reporter in the studio, I was assigned to be the man-on-the-street doing live segments from street fairs, food festivals and such. When I told the show's producer that I took the job because I was told that I'd be doing film reviews, she replied "I don't think you have the skills to do film reviews." 

I began my professional TV career in 1980 as the weekly film critic on Milwaukee's ABC affiliate. During those four years, I also did print reviews and I was contacted by Chicago PBS to audition to be half of the new film review duo when Siskel & Ebert left PBS Chicago to do their show for Disney syndication.

I had to fight to do celebrity interviews for that local weekend morning news show and I occasionally won the battle. One of the celebs I interviewed was Ray Liotta when he was promoting a 1994 action drama called NO ESCAPE. Upon meeting him and exchanging some chit-chat before the camera rolled, I realized that Ray Liotta knew more about my New York TV career than my local weekend morning news show bosses did.

At the end of our interview, Ray Liotta looked at the camera and said to WNBC/Channel 4 as he pointed to me, "...you're lucky to have him."

I was and am still touched by that generosity of his. One more thing: Did you know that Ray Liotta had done musical work onstage? In the interview, he told me that in college, he played The Emcee in his college production of CABARET. That's the role Joel Grey did on Broadway and in the movie version.

Tom Cruise In Person

 Because he's in the entertainment news right now regarding his new action movie, I thought I'd share this Tom Cruise story from the late 80s.

I had a longtime, very dear friend named Gail Joseph. We did some TV work together in New York City. Then she moved to Southern California where she became head of NBC TV publicity in Burbank. If you mentioned her name to any of the FRIENDS cast members, he or she would definitely know it, Gail loved classic movies and classic TV shows.

Whenever I had VH1 or other TV business to do in Los Angeles, Gail would make time to see me and hang out. One night, around a 4th of July weekend, we went to have dinner and laugh. Gail picked a family-oriented Asian/American restaurant in the Hollywood area. She mentioned that the food was good. We walked into the large restaurant and thought it had closed for the night. That's how unpopulated it was. The bartender enthusiastically motioned for us to come in and said, "It's All-Star night." In Southern California, All-Star night is a hugely popular Dodgers baseball event/game. And it was 4th of July weekend. That explained the few customers.

While we were laughing and eating, Gail looked past me and then lowered her voice.

"Don't make it obvious. Don't be like Lucy Ricardo when she saw William Holden seated next to her at the Brown Derby. Turn around casually and look at the table to the right against the wall."

I did. Seated at that table, dining with a companion, was Tom Cruise.

Gail went on, "Now look three tables to the left."

Gail and I were within earshot. Two teen girls, visiting California, were wiggling in frustration trying to explain to their sweet, sweater-clad dad who the man sitting behind him was. The girls were excited, frustrated and trying not to make it obvious that they'd recognized a major movie star. But Dad was responding with "Who?" "Who is he?" "TOP what?"

He got up from his table and walked over to Tom Cruise's table where he very politely interrupted, explained that he was a Midwest tourist and added that his two daughters told him they were sitting near a movie star. The two girls were melting in humiliation.

Tom Cruise, with a warm and broad smile, stood up, shook the man's hand and asked to meet his daughters.

Well you can just imagine how stunned and in a sheer state of glee they were. Not only did Tom Cruise introduce himself to the girls, when he noticed that there was a camera on their table, he posed for a photo with them taken by Dad. Cruise posed for pics with the girls together and then with each one individually. Then he had one of them take a photo while he posed with their dad.

It was a totally delightful, funny and charming celebrity encounter to witness. And it happened when no more than a dozen people were in the restaurant and no entertainment reporters with cameras were present.

I said to Gail, "I hope that when those girls go back to school in the fall, their first homework assignment is to write a paper about what they did over the summer vacation."

Here's a trailer for the TOP GUN star's new movie.

It's Kenny Rankin

 Yes, I've been dropping some music for you lately -- and I'm about to do it again. Your ears could use something soothing after all the cacophony of the day. My first profession broadcast job was in Milwaukee after I graduated from Marquette University, I read the news on 93QFM, an FM rock radio station. Being a radio station, record companies constantly sent all sorts of albums for possible airplay. Of course, many of them went un-played and were set out for staff members to take home if they wanted them.

That's how I discovered the vocal artistry of Kenny Rankin. I was initially hooked when I read the song titles on one of his albums. He'd mixed current tunes in with standards I'd heard done Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae, Morgana King, Chet Baker and Tony Bennett on Mom and Dad's record albums at home when I was a kid in L.A. 

When I heard Rankin's interpretations and vocal range, I was an instant fan. Here he is now. This is "Haven't We Met?"

This is "Blame It On My Youth," an old tune with music written by Oscar Levant.

Here's one more. "The Way You Look Tonight" won the Oscar for Best Song. Fred Astaire introduced it in the classic 1936 original musical comedy, SWING TIME, co-starring Ginger Rogers.

Kenny Rankin, What a fine singer he was. He didn't employ a lot of showy vocal gymnastics that eclipsed the story and emotion of the song. He had a great jazz style that focused on the heart of song and he made sure you heard the lyrics.

It's Blossom Dearie

After watching hours of national news, I needed something to refresh my spirit and make me smile. I turned to a couple of recordings by the late, great Blossom Dearie. She passed away in 2009 well into her 80s. Blossom Dearie was a New York City favorite -- a jazz singer and pianist with a distinct style and voice. Here's some of her work.

First up is her cut from a 1950s album, "They Say It's Spring." Perfect for this month.

Now it's teatime. This old chestnut was always given an up-tempo beat. Blossom slowed it down and gave it a fresh taste. Here's "Tea for Two."

 

About IT'S A GIFT (1934)

 A long time ago, when I was a little boy growing up in Southern California, Saturday mornings were my favorite mornings. I'd get up early, have of bowl of Kellogg's corn flakes or Trix, read the back of the box the way Dad read The Los Angeles Times, and prepare to watch morning TV with its buffet of cartoon features. In those days, there were no early morning weekend news shows. So, CBS would air features that were fine for family viewing. These features were mainly classic films -- Buster Keaton films, Eddie Cantor musicals from the 1930s, plus Laurel and Hardy movies. I loved those -- and sometimes Mom would watch them with me. Laurel and Hardy made me laugh so hard that my sides ached. Another film that aired was the 1934 W.C. Fields comedy, IT'S A GIFT. I never watched that one until decades later when my best friend introduced me to it one day when I was visiting him in San Francisco. The both of us howled with laughter. We'd watch it again during my future visits to San Francisco and laugh out loud like a couple of kids watching cartoons.

I watched it again over the weekend -- by myself -- and it still broke me up laughing. Here's the story: W.C. Fields plays the middle-aged owner of a modest grocery store in New Jersey. He's a henpecked family man with two kids and an overbearing, bossy wife who looks like she should be onstage in an opera, wearing a breastplate and belting out something by Wagner. He inherits some money when an uncle dies and dreams of using it to move to California to buy an orange ranch. This was when Southern California was famous for its orange groves. The wife, of course, is against this idea. She puts on airs as if she's in the town's high society. His name is Harold Bissonette. The wife prefers to pronounce their last name Bis-oh-nay -- as if it's French.

This comedy highlights the W.C. Fields skills at physical comedy. The movie is like a TV sitcom that runs 1 hour and 5 minutes. That's the length of IT'S A GIFT. You like the henpecked Harold. You even like his clueless wife who never stops talking. When she constantly says to him, "Are you listening to me?"....you wish he'd say "Anyone within a 5-mile radius of this house is listening to you."

One thing that stands out to me about old classic is that hip comedians in sitcoms in the 80s were trying to be "edgy." W.C. Fields did "edgy" 50 years earlier. Harold, in his store, overwhelmed by an irritated customer who demands "I want 10 pounds of kumquats!" while he sees the cranky, blind and hard of hearing Mr. Muckle enter and knock items over gets me every time, He practically wrecks the store while Harold pleads "Sit down, Mr. Muckle. Sit down, honey."

Kathleen Howard is perfect as Mrs. Bis-oh-nay. She went to play the strict, narrow-minded housekeeper who gets slugged by Barbara Stanwyck in the Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper comedy, BALL OF FIRE.

Harold and his family do drive out to California. When all seems lost, there is a happy ending. I found this clip that will give you a taste of 1934's IT'S A GIFT.

 

A Dark Weekend

 On Friday night, hundreds of people fled the shootings in downtown Milwaukee after a Bucks basketball game. That was very close to where I waited tables and a few blocks away from my apartment when I lived in Milwaukee years ago when downtown Milwaukee was safe and often pleasantly uneventful. Saturday, we learned of the racist shootings of shoppers in a Buffalo, New York supermarket. Today, Sunday, someone opened fire in a church in Orange County, California.

The horror. The heartbreak. We are in nightmare that seems to never end.

I hope this doesn't sound juvenile, but these are times when I miss the annual network TV presentation of THE WIZARD OF OZ. Many of us grew up with that. This was before VHS tapes, DVDs, cable TV and multiple channels. THE WIZARD OF OZ gave us color, laughs, optimism and hope.

It would be soothing to see a movie in which evil is destroyed and goodness survives. 

When some folks say that Dorothy got back home to Kansas by clicking her heels three times with help of the Good Witch Glinda. To me, that's partially true. Regardless of how frightened she was, Dorothy had to destroy the lethal source of evil and negativity. How did Dorothy do that? At the height of her fear -- when she, Scarecrow, Lion and Tin Man are running for their lives away from the Wicked Witch -- she and her three friends are trapped. The Wicked Witch sets Scarecrow on fire. Dorothy blasts through her fear to unselfishly help a friend in need. She sees a bucket of water and puts out his fire. Dorothy's brave good deed also puts out the lethal source of evil and negativity when water splashes on her. Dorothy's ultimate bravery, goodness and care for others -- which she put in action -- open more power of the Ruby Slippers and send her back home.

There's a wonderful lesson in there.

Yes, I miss that annual network TV presentation of THE WIZARD OF OZ.

About SCHMIGADOON!

 Last night, I watched a half-hour episode of a TV series that made me do the DTST (Danny Thomas Spit Take) laugh while I was sipping a beverage. The show aired months ago and got raves on Twitter from Broadway musical fans. But I wasn't able to see any episode until I got a link from a publicist a week ago. If you love classic Broadway musicals, if you loved listening the original Broadway cast albums of classic Broadway musicals and if you love watching movie versions of classic Broadway musical shows, you need to see -- SCHMIGADOON!

Lorne Michaels, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE boss is executive producer. Cicely Strong, SNL cast member, and Keegan-Michael Key star as an unmarried couple that's hit a bit of a lull in their 3-year relationship. So, they attend a couples' retreat one weekend in the woods. It rains. Pouring rain. They break off from the group and run for shelter. They come to a bridge hidden in mist on one end. They cross the bridge and wind up in an extremely clean, perfectly decorated town where people greet them with show tunes and dance numbers. They're like the grown-up versions of the little characters who constantly sang in Disneyland's "It's a Small World" ride.

Josh (Keegan-Michael Key) hates musicals. Melissa (Cicely Strong) loves them and feels what can it hurt to endure the show tunes and get a nice room at the inn instead of having to sleep in the woods in sleeping bags like they did on the retreat. But Schmigadoon is a friendly but conservative town. Two unmarried adult people are not allowed to share a room at the inn. Also, they can't seem to leave. Josh and Melissa run away and cross the bridge only to now find the same thing at the other end,

This half-hour spoofed BRIGADOON, OKLAHOMA!, THE MUSIC MAN, CAROUSEL and FINIAN'S RAINBOW. Months ago, I saw a clip of a future episode months ago that had a schoolteacher singing to her class. I wanted to know who that singer with the heavenly voice was. It was Ariana DeBose, future Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner for Steven Spielberg's WEST SIDE STORY.

I definitely want to see future episodes. SCHMIGADOON is one funny show -- and I base my opinion on its first episode. By the way, the numbers are terrifically sung and danced.

It was the "Corn Puddin'" number that caused me to do the DTST with my Diet Coke.

A Sally Field Comedy

 I am a longtime, devoted Sally Field fan and have been ever since I was a boy in Los Angeles watching her on ABC as GIDGET. Mom watched with me because she felt Sally Field was charming and talented. Sally's next ABC sitcom was THE FLYING NUN. She became a Hollywood punchline because of that silly but fun show. Male comedians and male TV critics pretty much dismissed her skills -- and that had me fuming. Those same men ignored and/or overlooked the solid dramatic work she did in made-for-ABC TV movies after she was THE FLYING NUN. There she was holding her own opposite veteran Hollywood stars Eleanor Parker, Jackie Cooper, Julie Harris and Walter Brennan. 

She shot those comedians and critics down with her extraordinary dramatic work in the 1976 NBC TV mini-series SYBIL. She played a young woman who was suffering from mental blackouts and multiple personalities. She's in therapy with a psychiatrist to get to the root of her mental dysfunction.

She followed SYBIL with her Best Actress Oscar-winning performance as NORMA RAE. She won just about every performance prize except for a Soul Train Music award for NORMA RAE. Her second Best Actress Oscar came for PLACES IN THE HEART.

For a while, it seemed like native Southern Californian Sally Field was now to the perfect actress to play Southern women. All three of her Oscar nominations came for playing Southern women -- NORMA RAE, PLACES IN THE HEART and the biopic LINCOLN in which she played the wife of President Abraham Lincoln. Plus, she was one of the Southern mothers in popular STEEL MAGNOLIAS.

IN 2015, Sally Field played a New Yorker in the comedy HELLO, MY NAME IS DORIS. I loved it. Most of the reviewers described it as the story of a woman in her 60s who is attracted to a much younger co-worker. Well, that's partially true. Doris does have a crush on a younger, handsome co-worker. He's polite to her and unaware of her inter-office crush. Doris is a mousey, odd, harmless character. She pretty much keeps to herself in her cubicle at work and she has funny James Thurber-ish visions of romancing the young guy.

In life, Doris pretty much stays in her cubicle. She doesn't really venture out much. She doesn't really connect to the outside world. You sense that she's a hoarder. She has one close friend -- fabulously played by Tyne Daly -- but that's about it. Doris is socially awkward. She's a little mouse in a cubicle.

The movie is really about someone who needs to connect to the outside world, clear out the clutter of her life and emotions and be brave enough to move out of her personal cubicle.

HELLO, MY NAME IS DORIS runs about 90 minutes and it's now on Netflix. The movie also stars Max Greenfield as the object of Doris' fantasies. His character has a girlfriend played by Beth Behrs. Greenfield and Behrs now play the married couple next door on the CBS sitcom, THE NEIGHBORHOOD. The wonderful Rebecca Wisocky plays one of Doris' co-workers. Rebecca is now a stand-out, getting lots of laughs as the late redhead Hetty on the hit CBS sitcom, GHOSTS. 

Sally Field is funny, memorable and moving in this movie. She captures the humor, heartbreak and resilience of the character. I recommend this indie movie. HELLO, MY NAME IS DORIS is an original, wise and engaging film. Take a look at the trailer.

James Hong Made Me Laugh

 Hollywood did something right. Today, veteran versatile actor James Hong got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Jamie Lee Curtis emceed the ceremony for the 93-year performer who was quite jaunty at the festivities. His list of on-camera and voiceover credits is stunning. In the on-camera film work category alone, his credits are impressive: 1961's FLOWER DRUM SONG, THE SAND PEBBLES, THE HAWAIIANS, CHINATOWN, excellent scene with Jack Nicholson is a highlight of THE TWO JAKES (a follow-up to CHINATOWN), AIRPLANE!, 1982's BLADE RUNNER, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, WAYNE'S WORLD 2, and the 2008 remake of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL to name a few. He is in this year's critically acclaimed EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE.

Back in 2007, I was in New York City and working as a movie reviewer on a weekday morning radio show. I got an invite to the screening of a movie called BALLS OF FURY, a comedy centered on the competitive sports world of ping-pong. The movie was shown in a posh Manhattan screening attended by some posh critics whose body language made it apparent that they found it low-brow. I sat next to noted film critic and novelist Thelma Adams.

She and I laughed like a couple of 8th graders having a fun vacation day at Disneyland.

Yes, it's a goofy movie. But, once in a while, I need that kind of entertainment. I admit that I have seen NAPOLEAN DYNAMITE and TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY numerous times. BALLS OF FURY is not sophisticated. But Thelma and I howled with laughter at James Hong's performance. He's a main character in the movie.

If you need some low-brow laughs this week or weekend, check out James Hong, Christopher Walken, George Lopez, Aisha Tyler and Dan Fogler in BALLS OF FURY.

A Musical Memory for Mother's Day

 My mother was a character who was both fascinating and frustrating. If there was a certain stereotype of what a Black mother in South Central Los Angeles should've been like, she broke through it. For a guy who became a classic film fan when he was in grade school, she was a great mother to have. She was a film fan, a theater fan and a book fan. She introduced me to the poetry of Robert Frost, the significance of Josephine Baker, the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, the comedy of Jackie "Moms" Mabley, Duke Ellington's music and the brilliance of actress Judy Holliday. If I wanted to know who a specific celebrity was or what kind of work made that celebrity famous, Mom could do an imitation of that celebrity. I loved her imitations of French singer Edith Piaf and Martha Raye.

One day, when I was in high school, I asked Mom "Before you decided to become a registered nurse, what did you want to be when you were a girl?" She immediately and joyfully answered "Eleanor Powell dancing with a turban on my head!"

In memory of my mother, here is Eleanor Powell dancing in the 1942 MGM musical comedy, SHIP AHOY. That's Buddy Rich on drums. Happy Mother's Day.

I Need Me Some Peggy Lee

 I am in the mood to hear some jazz vocal fabulousness from the unique, celebrated singer/songwriter and Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee (1955's PETE KELLY'S BLUES), Peggy Lee. Feel free to listen along with me. This song was written by Peggy Lee and her then-husband, jazz musician Dave Barbour.

Here's another one. Peggy swings a Cole Porter classic. 

Peggy Lee was so totally cool.

A Revelation from Jean Arthur

 If you don't believe me, ask my sister. I became an ardent classic film fan when I was in Catholic elementary school back home in Los Angeles -- when two of the biggest factories in town were Lockheed and Hollywood. Hollywood -- with the world-famous dream factory Hollywood studios that gave us classic films. My love started when I was a little boy and saw Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in a local TV airing of TOP HAT. From the moment I saw them dance, I was joyfully hooked. I wanted to see and know about classic film movie stars. As the years went on, definitely in my teen years, I was eager to learn about movie people behind the scenes -- and not just directors. People like costume designer Edith Head, cinematographer James Wong Howe, choreographer Hermes Pan and master MGM hair stylist Sydney Guilaroff..

Early in my college years, my love for classic fans had deepened and my knowledge of classic fans had grown. But I really hadn't connected how old movies had things to say about modern times. Then one night, during summer vacation, I saw Jean Arthur make a rare TV show appearance as a guest. If I recall correctly, she was on The Merv Griffin Show.

I write this because I just watched MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, starring James Stewart and Jean Arthur on TCM. 

During the interview, Griffin showed one of the famous filibuster scenes from the film. Stewart played the idealistic, honest junior Senator who, with the help of Arthur as the whip-smart Washington insider, holds a filibuster to take down a dark political machine that, besides being known for its greed and graft and power, is out to limit freedom of the press.

Coming out of the clip, Jean Arthur noted how the film is "relevant today." I gasped how this actress, who'd done work in silent film, was one of Hollywood's top actresses from the early 1930s to early 1950s and then starred in a 1966 CBS sitcom, was so right. She said that in the early 1970s during the height of President Nixon's Watergate scandal. Jean Arthur's observation was, to me, a revelation.

Words from Jean Arthur marked the start of my realizing how much good old movies, classic films, could be relevant and socially significant in modern times. That's another reason why I take classic films so seriously.

Racial Images & Busby Berkeley

 He was an extremely innovative and influential of musical numbers in 1930s Hollywood musicals. However, he also gave us some cringe-worthy blackface numbers. He had Eddie Cantor in blackface in PALMY DAYS (1931) and ROMAN SCANDALS (1933). He put MGM's teen stars Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney in blackface for production numbers in BABES IN ARMS (1939) more blackface appeared in their BABES ON BROADWAY (1941), directed by Berkeley. And there was 1934's WONDER BAR starring Al Jolson with numbers created and directed by Busby Berkeley.

With white performers, and expanding the use of the camera with dazzling visuals, he gave us classic numbers in 42nd STREET, GOLDIGGERS OF 1933 and GOLDDIGGERS OF 1935. Berkeley's musical production numbers in those film influenced overseas filmmakers.

What I have noticed ever since I was in high school was that whenever there was a special documentary about Berkeley and praising his work or a TV salute to his film contributions, there was never a mention of his racial images which, I am sure, embarrassed and offended Black moviegoers. My mother hated seeing the dark-skinned, snoring porter who fell asleep shining shoes at the end of the "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" number in 42nd STREET. We saw it on TV once and I asked her why she hate it. She replied, "Your grandfather was a railroad porter back in New Jersey when I was a girl. He worked his was up to supervisor." That mother/son moment happened before the experience I'm about to share.

Here's why I've noticed that Berkely documentary omission ever since high school: It was a lazy, sunny, late afternoon in Los Angeles. I was on summer vacation, about to start high school. My sister was in middle school. We were channel surfing, seeking something to watch on TV. I saw an old movie on an independent station out of Garden Grove. I was already a devoted classic film fan by then and stayed on that channel. My sister and I were children of the Civil Rights era. We lived in South Central L.A. The old movie we'd found on TV was WONDER BAR and a number was soon to start. The number was an elaborate one performed in a swanky nightclub. The song -- "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule." Look 👇.

Even though we were just kids, when that number ended, my sister and I had the same expression on our faces that you saw on Broadway audience members who had just seen the "Springtime for Hitler" number Mel Brooks' THE PRODUCERS. (1967).

And that's my personal Busby Berkeley bio observation.

A New Month!

 To me, this month is a countdown to summer -- and I love summer. This is the month when you're allowed to go "blissfully astray" according to Queen Guinevere, wife of King Athur, in 1967's CAMELOT. That was the Warner Bros adaptation of the hit Broadway musical. 

I wish you much love, happiness and warmth this month. I added "warmth" because it's still chilly where I am. As for the rest, I'll let Vanessa Redgrave tell you all about it.