Wally’s Week

March 04 – March 10 (2024)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

While searching around for some stills from “The High Chaparral” recently, I came across a shot of my “adopted grandpa” Leonard Stone in one of the episodes. Leonard was one of the most prolific character actors of that era, and he worked on just about every show you could possibly imagine. He passed away several years ago, but I still miss him. Finding this shot on the internet randomly sure made me smile!

When the Spice Girls’ song “Say You’ll Be There” came up on my device this past week, it got me thinking about a song I heard in their movie “Spice World” that I rather liked. After some research I found out it was a song called “Too Much” which has a very nice groove to it.

Monday the 4th – PUTTING PANTS ON PHILIP…UMMM…STAN! – My day started at Rocket Sound for a video game session that was expected to last about an hour. But six lines into the session KAFLOOEEEY! Everything stopped. After the panicked studio engineer checked every conceivable option, he determined that a critical piece of interface gear just up and died. It was 10 years old, so given the amount of usage that was required of it over the past decade, it’s no surprise it finally gave up the ghost. So, they called the session. Once they replaced the gear they would call me back to finish the lines for my characters. Of course, they have to pay me for today’s session, and they’ll have to pay me for the second session as well. I felt kinda bad about it, but that’s the business I guess. I went to the cleaners to drop off my comforter for cleaning, picked up some packages at my box, mailed off some stuff at the post office, and then headed to Michaels craft store to have my “Jungle Book” animation cel put back in its frame. I had it autographed the previous weekend at The Hollywood Show by Mowgli’s voice actor Bruce Reitherman (see last week’s Wally’s Week for photos and the story). I also picked up a really gorgeous 5 X 7 frame for a photo I’ll be sending to my dad. For the longest time my folks have had a photo on their TV stand of a 24 year old me holding my 2 year old daughter Lacey, and she’s reaching out touching my Grandpa Joe’s mustache. It’s a cute picture, but when the original shot was taken the flash didn’t go off (or something) leaving it looking very washed out. My pal and webmaster Scott Sebring was able to revitalize the photo and bring back all of the color and clarity. My dad was over the moon when he saw the results. His dad (my Grandpa Joe) has been gone about 35 years, and replacing that photo for my dad was a nice way to commemorate the memory of my Gramps. I got home and opened one of the packages I received that day. When I bought the “Sons of the Desert” fez on eBay recently, its seller and I struck up a friendship over our obsession with Laurel and Hardy. When Tyler toured Planet Wallywood he pointed out that my Stan Laurel mannequin (which I’ve named my “Stannequin”) should have a suit with a matching coat, pants and vest. The suit that was on the Stannequin was an old suit I used to wear in plays and when I impersonated Andy Kaufman in high school. It was a vintage-looking gray tweed suit that seemed to fit the old school vibe. I bought a gray vest to go with it. I told him finding suits like the original ones Stan wore in their films was tough. I searched eBay high and low, and only found a few options which weren’t very good. Then I found a company in China who would make an entire 3-piece suit (including the high six-button vest I needed) for about 70 bucks! Unbelievable! It won’t matter if it’s cheaply made, because it’s going on a mannequin forever; never to be worn. Well, after about a month, the gray herringbone wool-blend suit arrived and it was GORGEOUS! So I set about undressing the Stannequin and breaking him down piece by piece. It was pretty funny considering I just watched a silent film of theirs last Saturday called “Putting Pants on Philip,” which involves trying to get Stan’s character of Philip from Scotland out of his kilt and into some pants. I’ve dressed a lot of mannequins in my life, so this should be easy. Once I got the suit on him I was breathless. It looked amazing. The only problem is, the pants are much too tailored and stylish. The tailor made them to look like the current fashionable trend. But I need them to be longer and baggier to truly look like the pants Stan wore. I’m hoping I can contact the tailor and have some different pants made to the specific measurements for the Stannequin, and made from the same fabric. Tyler also suggested that I have the brim on the Stannequin’s derby flattened. He said Stan liked to have flat brims for comedic value. I have Alex in Wonderland working on that as we speak. Once the pants arrive, and once the derby is completed, it should look like a whole new mannequin. The only problem is the shirt has a slight stain on the front, but I actually think that’s kind of funny. It implies that Stan may have spilled something on himself, which he did many times in his films with Ollie. I put the “Jungle Book” cel back up on the wall, and recorded my nightly auditions. I scanned some checks for a deposit, took my nightly WOG (walk/jog) and came back inside to write Wally’s Week. The tailor in China responded to my request and sent me a link where I could purchase a pair of pants only, and invited me to send in custom measurements to make sure they worked perfectly. Great! I got some things packed up to send to my folks and my sister on Tuesday.

Tuesday the 5th – SARA AND SALAD IN THE SUN! – After dropping by the bank to make a few deposits, I headed to Paty’s to enjoy a salad with my pal Sara in the sun. It was delightful. Normally she’s very busy doing character work for several movies and TV shows, but with the looming IATSE strike not much is currently shooting. Sadly, after the writer’s strike and the actor’s strike, this could be the third strike that strikes us all out. We’ll have to wait and see. I came home and did some work around the house, and recorded my nightly auditions. I got a call from my gal Angi and we spoke quite a while about a personal issue she was having. It looks like she’s going to be out of town for a few days dealing with it. I tried to be as helpful and encouraging as I could be. I filled out the contract for a session I’d be having in my home studio on Wednesday. Speaking of the home studio, I prepped it and readied everything I’d need for the session. I took my nightly WOG, and ended the night by working around the house.

Wednesday the 6th – RAIN’S BACK – BUT FOR JUST A DAY! – The home studio session was for a Biblically-based mobile video game, and it only took me about 20 minutes to complete my lines for the session. It was raining fairly hard, and I was holding good thoughts for Angi who was out on the road traveling. Since I had to get up so early for the session I went back to bed for a bit. I truly enjoyed relaxing to the sound and smell of the rain. Later I got up and made some buffalo mac, or as I called it today “Monsteroni and Cheese.” I cooked up some macaroni and cheese, put in some diced buffalo chicken and celery and dished it up in a Frankenstein bowl. It was the perfect comfort food for a rainy afternoon! Later I did my nightly auditions, and just as the rain was tapering off, I went outside to take my WOG. I came back inside to do some work, and make a salad to enjoy while watching another fantastic episode of “The High Chaparral.”

Thursday the 7th – SLEEPY AND SLOW! – Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get much quality sleep overnight. I had to get up fairly early to finish the video game session at Rocket Sound that got canceled last Monday. When I finished I went to CVS to pick up a few items, and then I met my pal Edi at Ernie’s Tacos for lunch. The heavy meal, coupled with a lack of sleep overnight made me fairly sleepy. I came back home and did a little work around the house, but I ended up resting and relaxing the remainder of the day. Later I had a TON of auditions to record, and then I reconciled my bank statement for my corporation. I designed a new base for my Rowlf the Dog display case, and sent the design to my pal Kyle at Plastic Depot. It should take him about a week to make. Originally, I was going to have the existing base altered, but I think it’ll be better just to have a new one made. I made some hot dogs on the grill (something I hadn’t done since Labor Day!) and then enjoyed another episode of “The High Chaparral.”

Friday the 8th – PHOTO ALBUM PHRENZY! – Though I hadn’t worked on it for several months, I decided to get back at my photo album project. A few years ago I undertook the arduous task of assembling all of the photos I had from my years of living in South Dakota, and placed them in new photo albums with occasional text narrative annotations. I’m very happy with how they turned out, and I realized I needed to do generally the same thing for the photos in my collection of my years of living in Los Angeles. Since it was a lazy day, I spent some time mulling over exactly how I wanted to present my L.A. photo albums. Did I want to do like I did with my South Dakota albums; breaking them into specific categories like Friends, Puppets, Plays, Radio, Family, etc.? Or did I want to try and organize them all into a specific timeline of sorts, starting with the time I moved here in 1987 and going up to the time I stopped shooting photos on film in the early 2000s? This would take some thought. The first photo album I completed was more of a chronological review of my first year living in L.A., but as I continue throughout the 80’s and into the 90’s it’s sometimes difficult to remember exactly how things fell into chronological order. Life was so fun and busy back then, I didn’t really give much thought to logging all of the photos I shot with specific dates and times. Hmmm…this is going to be a tough one. I considered breaking them into two different eras; The Radio Years (the years I spent in the radio business), and The Acting Years (the years after I abandoned radio in favor of on-camera and voice-over acting work. The problem is, some of those years crossed over. While I was doing radio I was doing some acting work as well, so how would I present those events? I knew that I definitely needed to get some more photos made to fill in some gaps, but I definitely need to think more about how I’m going to divide this all up going forward.

Saturday the 9th – TANGLED UP IN TAPE & TASSELS! – After a quick visit to my stylist’s salon for a touch-up on my color, I headed to my box to pick up a package. It was a plastic fez form that I spied on eBay. These are internal devices made of plastic that helps a fez keep its shape when stored. I thought it would be a nice addition to my “Sons of the Desert” fez display. I have a mount that it sits on, but this inner form will help it look full and crisp. I’ll have to do some more research to see if the plastic used to make this fez form is acid free, and will not harm the fabric of the fez over time. I went to Paty’s to have a salad on the patio as the sun began to set. I stopped by CVS to get some photos printed to fill in some gaps in my photo album, and then I went back home. I put the fez on the form and it looked great! It really filled it out nicely! But I had forgotten that I was just petting my cat Spook, and a few cat hairs on my hoodie transferred to the fez! OH NO! I got out some painter’s tape (tape with a very light adhesive) and ran a loop of it gently over the fez to remove the hair. Bingo! It did the job. But as I took the fez back into the Chaney Room to put it back in its display case, I noticed that the loop of tape had gotten tangled up in the fez’s tassel! RATS! I had to gently remove each thread in the tassel from the loop of tape. It was turning into a Laurel & Hardy bit! It was very frustrating, but after some careful work it was completely removed. Sheesh! I did some more work around the house, and later I took my nightly WOG. It was chilly outside! I’m sure looking forward to warmer weather! I sat down and focused on my photo album project again and it’s coming along nicely. I moved some stuff around on my bedroom closet shelves (where the new photo albums will reside) to make some room. Then I went around the house and changed the time on virtually every clock I have in the house. Stupid stupid stupid. It’s utterly idiotic that we are still doing this after all these years, when it has no provable benefit at all. There outta be a law! (I say that every year) Pick one and stick with it, dammit! I made my traditional Saturday Night Super Saint Salad and watched the final episode of “The Saint.” Though the episode wasn’t one of the better ones, I will miss watching this series a lot. It’s notable how the producers of the series had “James Bonded” up the image of Roger Moore in the final season. I think everyone in the world knew that Roger would someday be portraying the world’s most famous super-spy. After all, he even has “double O” in his name!

Sunday the 10th – EUREKA! – Whether the clocks get set back or forward, it always seems to mess up my routine. Today was no exception. Since Sunday is my “crash day” for the most part, I did manage to do a little necessary work around the house. I also recorded all of the auditions I needed to have turned into my agents by Monday morning. But I think I landed on a great presentation philosophy for my L.A. photo albums. I would do one set of albums with my personal timeline. This would include all of the “lifestyle” activities I was involved with; friends, events, jobs, cosplay, etc. Then I would do another set of albums with the timeline of my performance career. It will start with my first job as an extra in a zombie film in 1987, and then proceed forward from there. Any time I was paid for a performance professionally I will assemble those into the timeline. I think that’s a much better way to approach it. I will make separate albums for trips back home, all of the Wally’s Screening Room movie parties I used to have, the pilots I produced, etc. I think that will keep it more uniform and organized. Some of the dates of those aforementioned events are difficult to determine anyway, so this will make it easier on my gray matter. I was all out of salad ingredients, so I made some frozen lasagna and watched an absolutely TERRIFIC episode of “The High Chaparral.” Amazing!
And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK