Musings On 20th Century Pop Culture by Psychotronic Paul
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How the blog somehow missed the centenary of the birth of wacky, imaginative and marvelously goofy comedian Milton Supman, known professionally as Soupy Sales , back on January 8, we'll never know! Oh well, at least Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog remembered our pals Dick Van Dyke and Mel Brooks, both of whom lived to see that 100th birthday. Let's rectify that grevious error of overlooking the…
Today's hat tip goes to one of a favorite comedian and wordsmiths from my misspent youth, a TV producer who was also a lyricist, musician, satirist and prolific recording artist, the great Allan Sherman (1924-1973). Here, Allan Sherman is the guest on The Mike Douglas Show, a very popular 1960's - early 1970s daytime TV variety program. Allan goes international with British pop group Herman's…
In a few weeks (on August 28), a new movie based on Warner Brothers Animation and desert dwellers Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner hits movie theaters. While well aware that Warner Brothers Animation and Road Runner stalwarts Chuck Jones, Mike Maltese, Lloyd Vaughan, Ken Harris, Phil Monroe and Ben Washam are long gone, this trailer looks pretty darn good. Nonetheless, the Coyote vs. ACME…
This blog has recently profiled 1920's and 1930's comics Harry Sweet, Lloyd Hamilton, Joe Rock's Three Fat Guys a.k.a. Ton Of Fun series and such Columbia Shorts Department stalwarts as The Three Stooges, Andy Clyde, Leon Errol and Harry Langdon in search of laughs. Now we travel across the pond and leap several decades later to 1980's and 1990's with French & Saunders and The Vicar Of Dibley .…
Today we conclude an extended focus on Jules White's Columbia Shorts Department with a tribute to director Edward Bernds . Finishing this extended plunge into the slapstick of The Shorts Department, the spotlight shines on the guy who cranked out numerous Three Stooges shorts in the latter 1940's and early 1950's, longtime Columbia Studio soundman Edward Bernds . Chicago-born Edward Bernds was a…
Last week's post on rubber-legged slapstick master Leon Errol and silver screen humor essential Mel Brooks, as well as the previous one on The Three Stooges, has profoundly immersed this blog in the pratfall-packed world of physical comedy. We've been heavily into Slapstickland, both silents and talkies, for the past three months. And many moons ago, back in 2013 (which now feels like 1913), wrote…
On the comedy beat from Broadway to vaudeville to movies, thinking of two terrific icons of silver screen humor, both of whom crack us up, only every time. One is star of stage, screen, Ziegfeld Follies , etc. Leon Errol , born in Sydney, Australia on July 3, 1881. Here's Leon with Lou Costello in The Noose Hangs High (1948) . The other is Mel Brooks , because the gang here somehow missed the…
Needing laughs big time today, along with guffaws, chortles, chuckles, giggles and howls, so slapstick scenarios involving funny fat guys falling down sound FANTASTIC! Thankfully, film historians, authors and silent movie experts have posted a bunch of pratfall-packed Ton Of Fun 2-reelers from the late 1920's on YouTube. These slapstick flicks star the rousing and rotund trio of Kewpie Ross ,…
Today we tip a battered top hat worn by a boisterous and three sheets to the wind Ted Healy to the great Moe Howard, ace of slapstick! After a decade performing in vaudeville and stage and films as part of the popular knockabout act Ted Healy & His Stooges, Moe succeeded Ted as "the head stooge" when the team and Healy parted ways and The Three Stooges began starring in short subjects for Columbia…
Thinking, as we do often, of movie comedians who successfully transitioned from silents to talkies. Some studios and funmakers did better than others. Mack Sennett had his problems adapting to the new medium but did employ the likes of Harry Gribbon , Vernon Dent and Andy Clyde - and a couple of years later, the brilliant W.C. Fields. Next: comediennes in early talkies, led by the following…
