https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5SbtV6zGpI Apropos of last week’s post about the legendary Hollywood hotel/lodge/bungalow village ‘The Garden Of Allah’, here’s a look at the beautiful model of the place that resided in the Lytton Savings Bank on the site where the GOA stood before being demolished in 1959. I remember seeing this model
‘Uncivil Warbirds’ (1946) is the 90th short comedy made by The Three Stooges for Columbia Pictures. It was photographed from Friday, August 24th through Tuesday, August 28th, 1945 and was released on Friday, March 29, 1946 (the 88th day of the Gregorian Calendar). This is ‘late’ Curly–after his first stroke
Last Friday I decided that we would end every work week from now on (and forever and I mean it) with a little Ernie Kovacs material from his various 1950s and 60s TV specials. (See also last Monday and Wednesday as well for a little Kovacs catch-up). This is a
The famous West Hollywood bungalow court ‘The Garden Of Allah’ was on the corner of Sunset Blvd. and Crescent Heights in West Hollywood and was host to all kinds of east coast Hollywood transplants for well over thirty years (specializing in alcoholic self-loathing Broadway playwrights and their ilk). Click here
‘Idle Roomers’ (1944) is the 80th comedy short-subject made by The Three Stooges for Columbia Pictures. It was photographed from Wednesday, November 17th to Saturday, November 20th, 1943 and was released on Saturday, July 15th, 1944 (the 197th day of the Gregorian calendar). It’s a good solid early-later era Curly
I get that Ernie Kovacs isn’t for everyone–he was often referred to as ‘The Olive’, code for ‘acquired taste’. Actually I have a friend whose taste I usually am in agreement with who once said that Kovacs comedy was for him ‘like being told oatmeal is dessert’. Nonetheless I love
On Monday I posted a clip of comedian Ernie Kovacs doing his ‘Percy Dovetonsils, Poet Laureate’ shtick. There are many more Kovacs TV moments that I considered posting but I ran across this very funny and rather atypical Kovacs moment which happened when he was a guest on ‘What’s My
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj2JzNd7wuE One of television’s greatest comedian/innovators was Ernie Kovacs, and one his most famous characters was poet Percy Dovetonsils. A Youtube commenter refers to Percy as a ‘coded gay character’ but I don’t see what’s terribly coded about it. Percy’s lisp, his mincing expressions, the general aura of louche period-gay
Let’s close this weeks Sinatra-bashing extravaganza with another goofy clip from his shaggy television variety series of the early 1950s, the boringly named ‘The Frank Sinatra Show’. In this clip he introduces the singer/comedienne Dagmar–somebody once said car bumpers were styled after Dagmar’s figure. Sinatra’s intro is embarrassing. He was
On March 7, 1994, Frank Sinatra was performing in Richmond, Virginia to an adoring crowd. Unfortunately in the middle of ‘My Way’ he collapsed on the stage, dehydrated from a combination of a diuretic he was taking and late night drinking in the hotel bar. Here’s local news coverage of