Brilliant Re-Working Of A Film Classic
This video first appeared four years ago, but I just discovered it. If you have ever watched a silent film you will appreciate this. Continue reading
If Star Wars Had Been A Silent Film
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Category Archives: Obituary
Jimmy Savile, Long Time “Top of the Pops” Host (& Pervert) Is Dead at 84
Jimmy Savile, Zany British TV Host & PERVERT
(see update at end of article.)
Jimmy Savile was found dead at his home in Leeds October 29. He was just two days shy of turning 85.
In the United States Jimmy Savile is a relatively unknown name except to die-hard music fans or those who might have spent time in the United Kingdom.
In the UK you could not help but know Jimmy Savile. For twenty years, from its inception in 1964, Savile hosted Top of the Pops, a television music countdown show featuring hit singles. Think of a British version of a cross between Casey Kasem’s radio program American Top 40 and Dick Clark’s television show American Bandstand and that was, Top of The Pops. Savile ended his reign as a regular host in 1984. Continue reading
The Death of New York Rock Radio
WRXP-FM (101.9) Becomes All News WEMP-FM
Commercial FM album rock radio is dead. Period.
That slow death began when WPLJ-FM flipped to CHR in 1983. It has been in a steady decline since then. The WRXP-FM flip to all news in August confirms that no station programmer can succeed in New York in the capturing of a dedicated rock listening audience large enough to satisfy the bosses. These behemoth, chain radio station owners care about three things and they are: ad dollars, ratings and demographics.
The remaining rock commercial stations in the tri-state area: WAXQ-FM (NYC Classic Rock) , WBAB-FM (Long Island Rock) and WDHA-FM (Dover, NJ Rock) play the same rotation of old songs, with few new artists mixed in, so how is that going to attract new listeners? Satellite radio (narrowcasting), ipods and streams have hastened that death.
But the real underlying reason is, is that kids are not being introduced to rock n’ roll for the most part, except through the few parents who know how important it is to explore music with their children. Otherwise they will listen to the junk that all their friends listen to. Rock n’ roll has lost a generation of listeners that I fear cannot be recovered. The few young people who do listen to rock, are the exception.
Q: Where Can You Buy Hires Root Beer? A: Nowhere. Killing A Product – The Demise of Hires
Hires – The First Root Beer, Dying A Slow, Prolonged Death
(This article is from 2011 and has updates at the end through 2025)
I know soda isn’t good for you. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and many nutritionists would like to slap a soda tax on sugary beverages.
I try not to drink a lot of soda, but I have a sweet spot in my heart for Hires Root Beer. I love the stuff. It is by far the best root beer ever made and I have tried many of them: IBC, Stewart’s, Mug, A&W, Dr. Brown’s and about a dozen or more other smaller regional brands, and none compare to the unique, smooth taste of Hires. But I have not had a sip of Hires in over six years.
I did not forsake Hires. Instead the brand has slowly been vanishing off the shelves of supermarkets in an ever widening circle over the past 20 years. It is now unavailable in most portions of the United States and Canada.
How did the oldest continually produced soft drink and for many years, most popular root beer Continue reading
One of the Strangest Deaths in New York’s History
Girls Chase A Boy to Give Him Birthday Kisses… and He Dies
Woodlawn Cemetery Is The Final Resting Place of George Spencer Millet Who Had One Of The Strangest Deaths In New York’s History
There is a book called Woodlawn Remembers: Cemetery of American History by Edward F. Bergman (North County Books, 1988.) The book is mostly comprised of beautiful full page color and black & white photographs of monuments, tombstones and mausoleums with one page of text describing each person profiled. The cemetery is located in the northern part of the Bronx. Woodlawn is on my shortlist of recommendations of unusual places to go for New York visitors.
The book is fascinating to be sure. It covers many of the interesting and important historical figures at Woodlawn. 
But one story not mentioned, is the life and death of George Spencer Millet (misspelled as George Millitt by The New York Times in the story at the end of this article) who is interred at the cemetery.
Millet’s story is briefly recounted in Permanent New Yorkers A Biographical Guide To The Cemeteries of New York by Judi Culbertson and Tom Randall (Chelsea Green 1987.) This book contains photographs too, but has more detailed biographies than Woodlawn Remembers. Permanent New Yorkers also covers the entire New York area, not just focusing on the two most famous New York City cemeteries. Woodlawn and Greenwood. I highly recommend both of these out-of-print books.
It was February 15, 1909 and Millet was a good-looking boy. Because when the girls he worked with at The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company found out that it was his 15th birthday, they all insisted on giving him a kiss. Continue reading
Jackie Cooper, Movie Star For Over 60 Years Is Dead
Jackie Cooper Dies At 88
Jackie Cooper passed away last week at the age of 88. Cooper who rose to prominence in the Hal Roach produced Our Gang (a.k.a. the Little Rascals) movie shorts, was one of the last remaining movie stars who worked during Hollywood’s golden era of the 1930’s.
Jackie Cooper (left) Love Business 1931
The Our Gang / Little Rascals remaining cast is now down to under a dozen stars. The other living supporting players made brief appearances, many in the later films of the late 1930’s and early 1940’s after creator Hal Roach had sold the franchise to MGM. The most notable living star of those later Our Gang comedies is Robert Blake. I grew up watching Cooper star in Our Gang and his passing is sad, as he was a gifted actor and it is a reminder of how few of the early Hollywood stars remain. Unlike his more popular and well known successors as leads in Our Gang, George “Spanky” McFarland and Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer, Cooper was cast in several big budget Hollywood productions and was almost always very good in whatever he was in.
Jackie Cooper was a rarity, in that very few Continue reading
Groucho Marx’s Son Dies at 89
Arthur Marx, Son of Groucho Passes Away – April 14, 2011
Arthur Marx’s passing is being announced quite expectedly as “Groucho Marx’s son dies.”
Arthur was very talented in his own right and did carve out a successful career for himself as a champion tennis player and author.
Arthur was the author of a dozen books and wrote about his famous father in four books, most recently the picture collection Arthur Marx’s Groucho: A Photographic Journey 2001 (Phoenix Marketing Service). Arthur first wrote about his father in Life With Groucho A Son’s Eye View 1954 (Simon and Schuster) and the much more candid autobiographical Son of Groucho 1972 (David McKay). The last book is especially revealing in discussing the difficulty Arthur encountered in finding his own career path and being the son of one of the most famous entertainers in the world. By Arthur’s account Groucho had a difficult time showing affection and drove all three of his wives away through one form of mental cruelty or another.
Arthur told one story where the only time he had ever seen his father cry was at the funeral of Groucho’s brother Harpo. Arthur was named after Harpo (whose real name was Adolph, and then Americanized to Arthur during World War I.) All of the Marx Brothers named their daughters after their mother Minnie; each of their names begins with the letter “M”.
Arthur’s career as a writer for television, movies and the stage was quite varied but mostly within the comedy field. He had written for such shows as Alice, My Three Son’s and McHale’s Navy. He was much more than the “son of Groucho.”
A Comedian Unlike Any Other
The Man Who Pushed Johnny Carson, Charlie Callas Dies at 83
For many people under a certain age (probably 40), the passing of Charlie Callas on January 27, 2011, will be met with indifference or “who was he?” But for anyone who had seen Callas interviewed on his numerous appearances on the late night talk shows or seen his cameos in movies, it marks the end of one the last true eccentrics in Hollywood.
Charlie Callas was bizarre.
He could do strange things with his voice and get laughs out of things that were not necessarily funny. It was Callas himself that was funny and there was that underlying danger that an appearance by Callas on a show could go in an unintended direction at any second. That unpredictability would nearly end his show business career when he shoved Johnny Carson during a 1982 Tonight Show appearance and in front of the studio audience Carson subsequently banned him from ever appearing on the show again.
Charlie Callas will always be remembered for one of the strangest performances in Mel Brooks’ send-up of Alfred Hitchcock films, 1976’s High Anxiety. Callas plays a man who has been committed to an asylum because he thinks he is a cocker spaniel. It is 1 minute and 40 seconds of sheer silliness.
Here is the link to Charlie Callas in High Anxiety:
http://youtu.be/_WEVmVKUk7s?t=4m32s
(UPDATE – 2013 High Anxiety clip- all copies removed from youtube)
A staple of 1970’s TV, The Dean Martin Roasts, where celebrities were insulted and joked about mercilessly by other Hollywood celebrities, Callas has comedian Don Rickles and the rest of the attendees laughing hard as he delivers Don Rickles’ eulogy.
[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHDU2jhLE-Y[/tube]
The appearance may not be as funny to today’s audience as Callas is doing an impression of George Jessel, who made a living it seemed at delivering eulogies of many of the entertainment world’s luminaries from the 1920’s right until Jessel’s own demise in 1981.