I have no idea why I had a dream last night in which Fred Flintstone was singing the immortal ‘Bedrock Twitch’. I also had a dream in which I was conversing with an English Bulldog, my favorite breed of dog. Perhaps ‘Bedrock’ and ‘Bulldog’ conjoined and turned into ‘The Bulldog
Continuing our little remembrance of the world’s first official crooner, above is a nice profile of Rudy Vallee done for the Today Show by Boyd Matson in the early 80s. Bryant Gumble was then the host and appears—pre-face lift–at the end of the segment. There’s nothing terribly fresh in this
A couple of days ago I posted an interview with Rudy Vallee from 1984 on Skip E. Lowe’s local Los Angeles public access television show. It was the 83 year old Vallee’s last televised appearance–he died two years later after a long illness. Let’s do a little comparing and contrasting
In 1980, when I was 16, my father bought an apartment on the Upper East Side in Manhattan and we decamped from Los Angeles to spend the summer there. This was where I discovered two things of major importance in my adolescence. 1) A place where I could buy weed
If you’ve ever wondered where Martin Short got his inspiration for his great talk-show host character Jiminy Glick, look no further than Skip E. Lowe, a public-access legend for years in Los Angeles. Lowe was a cut-rate comic, impressionist and MC who loved Hollywood lore and entertainers. His interview show
In this mini-survey this week of unusual credit sequences, I’ve been focusing on obscure and innovative ones as opposed to the more famous Saul Bass/Pablo Ferra/Pink Panther classics. On Wednesday we covered ‘The World In My Corner’ which featured a tabloid newspaper displaying the names of the film’s stars and
Preston Sturges brilliantly manic 1943 comedy ‘The Palm Beach Story’ begins with a credit sequence which interweaves several complex plot strands that make little to no sense to the viewer at the beginning of the film but which later on become clearly part of the intricate storyline. Shot and edited
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=LegUQIFi07U “World In My Corner” (1956) is a film noir of sorts, starring Audie Murphy as a boxer who falls in love with his milionaire sponsor’s daughter (played by Barbara Rush). The film is of little distinction–except for a very cool credit sequence that I’ve posted above. I’m not sure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kubz9fYTTc My readership (both of you) has no doubt been wondering where I’ve been the past week. (Or perhaps they’ve been relieved of the task of watching those daily videos that jam up their inbox every night). The answer is: Ireland and London. The reason cannot be divulged at this
Here’s a neat little four minute clip reel of 1920s New York City footage, most of it focusing on Times Square at night. The clip selection is random and a bit wonky but anything about 1920s New York City is catnip to me so I’d thought I’d share it. (Apparently