Saturday, May 30, 2009

Boy, we couldn't get much higher!

Or, more reasons why today's television sucks so bad. Imagine turning on your tv set to this:

Friday, May 29, 2009

Nancy Walker's High Hopes

She was 4'10 - but packed with talent.

On TV - she was Rhoda's mom Ida, Rock Hudson's maid Mildred, and showgirl wrangler Nancy Blansky. She also sold paper towels. But on Broadway ("On the Town") she was a very likeable singer and dancer. She sang and danced in a few films.
Here is a cute tune from the musical "Lucky Me"(1954) sung by Doris Day, Nancy Walker, Phil Silvers and Eddie Foy Jr.



Nancy Walker liked pal-ing around LA with big queens Paul Lynde and Richard Deacon,
and she also gave us 1980's Can't Stop The Music. It was Walker's feature film directorial debut, and starred The Village People, Valerie Perrine, and Bruce Jenner's old nose.

man, this picture below is like HEROIN for me.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Barkies

They come and go on youtube b/c people tend to bitch (oops.) My dear friend Eve Golden wrote the ultimate treatise to all things barkie for Classic Images, which you can read here. Meanwhile, feast (or avert) your eyes. I used to co-host "Incorrect Video" shows back when in lived in NY and one of fellow hosts liked to show these. Even I had to avert my eyes.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Tudoring Around

I bet if Henry the VIII looked like HBO's Jonathan Rhys Myers (instead of fat Ronald Long) Samantha wouldn't be so worried about being stuck in the 16th century.

cut to 1:30 mark

Malvina (played by Arlene Martel): "This trip through time will teach you a lesson. In other's affairs not to mess in. Back to Henry the 8th go you. The moment you meet him is the moment you'll rue."

Lick them blues

A Joe Raposo tune from The Electric Company.
Some songs can be Drano for mind-clogging negative thoughts.



Raposo - a Brazilian/Portuguese American from Fall River Massachusetts was a composer who wrote songs, score, background cues, and other music for Sesame Street and other Muppet projects. Raposo also scored Robert Altman's Academy Award-winning drama Nashville (1975). Raposo died from lymphoma in February 1989.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

King of the Zombies

Mantan steals the show! I saw this when I was a kid and never forgot the "when I was alive" line. I just watched it a few months ago. It also features the incredible Madame-Sul-te-Wan, a groundbreaking black actress who is barely remembered today, sadly.



Mantan, Madame Sul-te-Wan, and Willie Best are all buried near each other in Valhalla Cemetery, North Hollywood. Mantan's grave reads: "Beloved father and grandfather."

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

More from the Ass Dept. (Sammy Petrillo!)



I can't help it. I'm now obsessed with this Sammy Petrillo news and just found this clip of him (with a yummy NILF!) discussing his prank phone calls from the '60s.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Lunch Lady -- 15 years later

Circa 1995, in the days when email and the internet was brand new in offices (and YOUTUBE was still years away) there was the first viral superstar - The Lunch Lady.

Sharon Adl-Doost, a cafeteria worker at US Geological Survey in Reston, Virginia, decided to record the daily menu (with her thick southern accent). When the Survey suffered major lay-offs, she started to add songs to boost staff morale. Listening to the menu phone line became a novelty, bringing the Lunch Lady fans and fame all over the country.

The phone number was passed via email around offices from New York to San Francisco and people like Diana Ross, Bruce Willis, Ralph Lauren, Rosie O'Donnell and Donna Karan were calling. Office workers begin calling daily. "Instead of a coffee break, we have a Lunch Lady break," said one.

You can read the entire Lunch Lady saga here:
http://rosegeorge.com/site/one-of-a-kind-the-lunch-lady/
http://www.airservcorp.com/airserv/employees/lunch_lady.html

A documentary was filmed in 2000 called THE LUNCH LADY, A DOCUMENTARY.

She now has a website www.LunchLady.com and does a new daily menu recording (510-351-7654) for her Fan Club President's Convalescent Hospital in Sal Leandro, CA.

Lunchy actually works as a wheelchair passenger assistant at Dulles Airport.

If I Had A Hammer

Never before has social consciousness looked so fabulous.

Imitation Cheesefood Product



I don't know if I should believe it, but a fairly credible source says they are going to remake this "classic"! The humanity...

Friday, May 15, 2009

What Is It Good For?

David Lynch Friday

Hey all you Slammerers (Slammerites?), if you every wondered what DIRTY DANCING would look like had David Lynch directed it, I've got your answer right here.



And on the flip side of that coin:

What if BLUE VELVET was a romantic comedy?

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Marty to tell Ol' Blue Eyes story

Read all about it here.

"It's not a cradle-to-the-grave traditional portrait of the consecutive events in a man's life," Shulman said. "Instead it's more of a collage and, in many ways, it will feel like an album itself. It's a collection of various moments and impressions in his life and together we hope they'll tell the full story and present full themes."

Wonder who he'll cast as Ava?


Big and Little Nancy? Dean? Sammy? He needs to talk to Tura Satana! I hope she gets her book out soon, because she has some great Frank dish ... but I won't spill the beans.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Say it with Cesar


I love these records. They come with a script, and you get to "act along" with your favorite stars. My friend had a George Raft one, and naturally lend themselves to the worst adlibs ever. I found this gem here - and he's also got a Vincent Price one, too!

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Friday, May 8, 2009

Bernal Brings It

Gael Garcia Bernal (age 30) of Guadalajara Mexico, is one the best actors of his generation. His work in films like Amores Perros, The Crime of Father Amaro, The King, Babel, and The Motorcycle Diaries, The Science of Sleep , and Bad Education is second to none. He has been in 6 Academy-Award nominated films.

I would love to see him act in a film with Leonardo Dicaprio. Something to look forward to -- with this talent, the sky's the limit.

When he teamed with Diego ("Milk") Luna in Y tu mamá también, a special film chemistry was embraced by international audiences. The pair reunited as brothers in Rudo y Cursi (aka Rough & Vulgar).

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

RIP dear Dom Deluise

Dom DeLuise died in his sleep around 6 p.m. on May 4, 2009. He was very funny, and very well-liked.

His film FATSO (1980) is a real gem. It stars Dom DeLuise as Dominick DiNapoli, and co-stars the terrific Candy Azzara and Ron Carey. It was written and directed by Ann Bancroft.