RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
During my research to find things related to the old Ben Cooper Halloween costumes that were all the rage when I was a kid, I found this advertisement. Boy, it sure brought back some fond memories of a much simpler time!
The Kopecky Family Band was on “The Tonight Show” recently doing a new song called “Heartbeat.” I like it! I’ve been humming it ever since! Enjoy!
Monday the 5th – SMART PHONE FOR A DUMB GUY! – If you remember last week’s entry, I realized my phone had been stolen at the Denny’s where I had dinner on Sunday night. It may have fallen off my pocket, but it was not turned back in to Denny’s. I called the phone and instead of ringing four times and going to voice-mail, it went straight to voice-mail, which told me that somebody had “acquired” it and physically turned it off. Great. So I had to get up early and go to a Verizon store to get a new phone. I prefer a phone to be lean and mean. I just want to make calls, text easily and take an occasional photo. They didn’t have any “old fashioned” flip phones like the one I lost, so I made the move to a smart phone. Big mistake. I figured I would be OK, but I don’t like small touch screens (they’re too sensitive and my fingers are not very precise) and I much prefer texting with actual buttons. As soon as I hooked up my new phone I got a text from “The Tonight Show” informing me that a comedy bit was waiting for me in my inbox at home. I rushed home and did the bit, then headed off to the studio. My pal Joe Cranston was there as my guest with some friends to attend the taping. I’ve known Joe from church for many years, and his son is Bryan Cranston from “Breaking Bad.” Joe loved the taping and Bryan was very funny. After the show I took Joe and company backstage to say hi to Bryan, who’s a really nice guy. Bryan came over and shook my hand and said, “Nice gig you’ve got there!” I said, “Yes, but only for a few more months. It looks like we’re in the same boat now. (Since “Breaking Bad” is officially over). “But I think your prospects for future employment are a bit brighter than mine.” He laughed. Bryan’s become a huge star and will most likely work consistently until he decides to no longer work. I told Joe that he did a great job as a father, because Bryan turned out wonderfully. Joe offered to buy dinner so we went over to Paty’s to enjoy the nice evening weather and dine on the patio. But just as we were finishing up and leaving, my pal Edi joined us. Oops. So she followed me over to my house to hang out for a bit. My effects guy Jim Ojala came over to put screw in the new switch plate on the replica Shakespeare bust in Planet Wallywood, which controls the lighting inside my main display case. The bust is all finished, at least until my electrician Jason can come over and install a more “vintage-looking” switch. I took a dip in the Jacuzzi, then I went inside to record a bunch of auditions. I had to hit the hay and be up for an early cartoon session Tuesday morning!
Tuesday the 6th – PROMO-ING THE PREZ! – I got up early for a cartoon session, and headed to Studiopolis to do the gig. I still can’t mention the name of the cartoon, but it’s a very famous franchise, and it was a character voice I had done in a series of videogames in the past. It was fun seeing a lot of familiar faces there, and even getting to record “ensemble style,” where all the actors are in the same room together doing their lines. FUN! When it finished up around noon, I headed home, walked Roxy and got showered up to head into NBC. President Obama was going to be a guest on “TTS” again. It’s always a thrill to announce a sitting President…something to tell the Grandsons about someday, I guess! Before I went in I stopped at Quizno’s and got some food. When the Secret Service is on the lot, it’s best to bring your food in, since your movements are extremely limited during the course of the show. I’m still trying to get used to my new phone, but it’s not going very well. Comparatively, I still much preferred my old flip phone. Sometimes a hammer just needs to be a hammer. Not a hammer, and a dishwasher, and a tire gauge, and a foot warmer, and…etc. etc. I just want something to make calls and write texts on. I don’t need to go on-line, or post photos on Facebook, or do any of that other stuff. Lean and mean is my motto. Streamlined! And this was seeming to be very complex. On the old phone, when I checked the time or messages, it literally took me one push of a button. Now I have to do three things to get there. Frustrating! This phone is great, don’t get me wrong, but it’s offering me a banquet, when all I need is a sandwich. I got into the booth a few minutes before we started the show and rehearsed my opening over and over. I said to myself, “Wally, you’re announcing the leader of the free world…don’t screw it up!” But all went very well, and the show was a breeze. When it was over I drove home and worked on my computer for awhile doing more organizing of my photo albums, which includes color correcting, cropping, etc. I sat down around 7 and started working. But when I looked up at the clock next it was 10:30! TIME FLIES! I was starving so I called Sara to see if she wanted to go grab some food at Little Toni’s. When we finished dinner I got back home and did some more work. I fed Roxy and walked her on our late-night stroll, came back inside to do some auditions, then went to bed around 6am! I realized I had been up a full 22 hours straight! Yikes!
Wednesday the 7th – IN AUGUST???!! – The hotline rang at 11 for me to get out of bed and record a bit. I had only been sleeping about 5 hours, but it was up and at ’em! I recorded it and then fell back into bed. But the hotline rang again telling me to be into “TTS” at 1:45 to do an ADR bit. (That means they needed my to be physically in the editing bay to lip sync my voice with some pre-existing footage they had acquired for the bit.) So I figured I had slept enough for one day. I got ready, headed in, did the bit, and was in the lobby heading to the world-famous NBC Commissary to get a salad. And in walks Matt Damon! He seems like a really cool guy! I ate my lunch, we did the show, and then I headed back home. I stopped at my mailbox to pick up some packages, and had my top down all the way. It was a stunningly beautiful day, and not at all like typical August weather in Hollywood! When I got home I fed Spook, walked Roxy, and did some more work on my computer. My friend Emily came over to give massages to Edi and her daughter Ems. Edi needed it because she’s been under a lot of stress lately, and her daughter Ems does a lot of work with horses so it was a good way to loosen up those muscles. While they got their massages I took a dip in the Jacuzzi to loosen up a few muscles of my own. Then we went over to Jerry’s Famous Deli to get some dinner. When we got back it was time for my massage…boy did it hit the spot! I did my nightly auditions in my home studio, e-mailed them to my agents, then worked some more on my photo albums in my computer. I sent out the week’s invites for my Saturday night movie night, and got ready to hit the hay. I was beat! This was the third night in a row I decided not to watch some vintage TV on DVD before bed. It’s unheard of! Just before turning in, I took Roxy on our late-night stroll. It was a clear, starry night, and it felt very fall-like. I looked up to look at the stars (which were beautifully clear) and I saw my breath! WHAT? In August?! CRAZY!
Thursday the 8th – DAMSELS IN DISTRESS, EH! – Again the hotline rang to roust me out of bed to record some bits for “TTS.” I finished them up and got them sent in, then I did a few auditions. I answered some e-mails and took Roxy for a walk. On my way in to NBC to tape the show, I saw four cute gals walking away from the studio on Bob Hope Drive. I should have a bumper sticker on my car that says “I Brake for Cute Girls” because I do…and I did. As I slowed down they waved at me hysterically. I started to think they might really be in trouble. I pulled a U turn and rolled down my window. One gal said, “Are you going to Jay Leno!?” I said, “Yes, I work there!” They explained that they had tickets lined up but their car caught on fire on the freeway and were too late to get in. I told them to walk back down the studio and meet me there, I would make some calls and see what I could do. I met up with them and called Renee the ticket lady. She said that the show was overbooked and it was first-come-first-served, and since it was two days before a two-week hiatus, the list had been full for awhile. Unfortunately I couldn’t help them, but Sarah, Courtney, Leann and Callie understood. I felt bad. I told them if they waited around they may see Robin Williams drive in to the lot. They said they were only in town until Monday then it was back to Montreal. I gave them my card and told them to call me to keep me appraised of their plans, and I might be able to think of something else fun for them to do. I went inside and met up with my pal Barry Dennen and his friend Michelle, who were my guests at the show that day. Barry’s an actor, singer and voice actor with a bazillion credits, and one of my inspirations. In addition to voicing Chamberlain in “Dark Crystal,” he was Pilate in “Jesus Christ Superstar.” After the show I took them backstage for a quick tour, then walked them out. After I bid them farewell, I was walking back to my car and I saw Robin Williams’ limo stop at the end of the driveway. Robin jumped out of the back, much to the delight of the fans waiting there to meet him. He signed autographs and posed for photos. What a cool guy! I stopped at my mailbox on the way home to get some packages, then went to KFC to get some food. I got home to enjoy my dinner and relax. After a little work on my computer I grabbed a quick nap on the couch, then got to work again on my photo albums on m y computer. Boy, it sure is time consuming work! I decided I had enough of the smart phone. So I got on-line and found a Verizon store in my area that had the same model of phone that was stolen. GREAT! I’ll go there Friday first thing and do the switch. I’m in the middle of a 14 day trial period, during which time I can take the phone back for a full refund. I did my auditions, and fed and walked Roxy. During our late-night stroll I heard the owl again, hooting up a storm. It’s beautiful music to my ears during a cool, quiet night. I got back inside, made some Raviolis and watched another episode of “Man From Atlantis” on DVD. I remember liking this show as a kid a lot more than I’m liking it now. It’s really not a very good show, but I’m going to watch every episode because I’m a bit of a completionist in that regard.
Friday the 9th – NEW DISPLAY! – When the hotline rang at 12:15 my agent asked if I could be into NBC to record a bit by 1. I told her that was cutting it close, and that 1:15 would be more realistic. So I bounded out of bed, showered and walked Roxy and headed in. After the bit I got a ham and cheese melt at the world-famous NBC Commissary. I opened the show and then sat back to enjoy the taping. I talked with the staff about their plans for the upcoming 2 week hiatus. Everybody had more interesting plans than I. Cabo, New York, Connecticut…etc. I’m staying in town doing work, and prepping for my first colonoscopy on August 22nd. Fun. You’re supposed to get one when you turn 50, so I’m already two years overdue. And I’ve been promising my folks that I would get one for years now. Time to live up to my promise. But I’m going to have a tough time not eating for a full day. I get nauseous and get headaches when I don’t eat for a period of time. It’ll be interesting, that’s for sure. A story was released about NBC’s decision to pay the “TS” staff their salaries through the end of Jay’s contract in September of 2014, even though our last show will be February 7th. I thought that was pretty neat. So we’ll see what happens. That made for a pretty good mood around the studio. That and the upcoming two weeks off. I said goodbye to everyone and then drove to my box to pick up some packages. My little boy mannequin arrived, as did my vintage Mickey Mouse Halloween costume I bought on eBay. If you remember from the previous Wally’s Week, my buddy Larry suggested getting a kid mannequin and dressing it in an old Ben Cooper Halloween costume from the 60’s. I dug out a photo of me at the age of 6 in a Mickey Mouse costume, so I decided to recreate that visual for a display in Planet Wallywood. I stopped by Verizon and had them hold their only remaining Casio GZone Ravine flip phone for me. I didn’t have time to make the change yet, but I’ll go in next Tuesday when I’m not in a rush and do the switch-over. It’ll be good to be back in familiar territory again. I rushed home to set up the new mannequin, and when I dressed it I was pleasantly surprised. The costume fit the mannequin PERFECTLY! Awesome! Edi stopped by to drop off some dresses for my friend Brittney, and when she saw the mannequin she got the chills. “That’s the creepiest thing you have in here!” she said with a shudder. I love it! It does look freakishly wonderful! I worked for awhile on my computer until it was time to go pick up my pal Brittney for dinner. We drove over to Miceli’s for dinner and we met up my assistant Sara. She had been trying to call me all day, but her calls weren’t getting through. I thought that was odd, so I looked at my phone. Somehow I had accidentally set it to Airplane Mode. One more reason to trade this thing in for a flip phone! After dinner I went home and printed out a vintage Milk Duds box I found on-line. Yup, somebody had disassembled a Milk Duds box from the 60’s, scanned it and put it on-line! Nifty! I printed it on card stock, cut it out, assembled it, and now my little Trick-Or-Treat-Mickey-Mouse-Halloween-creepy-kid mannequin is holding a box of vintage candy in one of his hands! In his other hand he’s holding a vintage Trick-Or-Treat bag! It’s all about the details. But he needs shoes! I also need to have Jim, my effects guy, paint his hair dark brown. I got on the computer and did a ton of data entry work into my master database. I fed and walked Roxy and enjoyed an episode of “The Saint” from the Season 1 DVD set just before bed.
Saturday the 10th – CREATIVE SATURDAY! – When I got to bed around 9am, I promised myself I wouldn’t sleep all day. I had errands to run. FUN errands. My first stop was a Goodwill store to look for 7″ shoes for my mannequin. They didn’ t have any so I moved along. But I stopped at Burger King to get some quick lunch before my shoe shopping continued. I bought some new buffalo chicken strips. And though they’re not as good as the strips at Denny’s, they weren’t bad at all! In fact, they would do in a pinch for a batch of my world infamous Buffalo Mac! I stopped at CVS to print some photo enlargements, but their machine was having problems. Back in the car and of to my next stop! At American Way Thrift Store on Magnolia in Burbank, I struck paydirt! Not only did I find the perfect-sized shoes, but they were the exact color and material I was looking for! Brown suede shoes for a little boy, and they looked very vintage and a little bit used. Most likely a close match to what I would have been wearing while Trick-Or-Treating as a 6 year old kid. I couldn’t believe my luck! I went across the street to It’s a Wrap and got some little kid socks, a new black shirt for me, and a new pair of blue coveralls ala Michael Myers! (You can never have enough pairs of blue coveralls for when the urge to go as Michael Myers hits!) I stopped at Rite Aid to get the photos printed, but they didn’t have a photo department any longer. So I got some of their famous ice cream (Cherry Chip and Midevel Madness…YUM!) and hit the road. I found another CVS and I was in luck! I got enlargements made of the original photo my mom took of me in my Mickey Mouse costume, and a print of the photo I took with Ted Neeley and Barry Dennen the night they came to my house for movie night when we screened “Jesus Christ Superstar!” I also picked up a neat frame for the Halloween photo, so I can display it above the mannequin. I got home and wasted no time getting the mannequin set up. I took the costume off completely, since I didn’t want to damage the fragile costume while I was putting on the shoes and socks. My friend Nancy came over early for movie night so she could get a swim in before the feature, and she saw me standing there with a naked, upside-down mannequin of a little boy! I said, “Uhhhh…this is not what it seems!” We laughed and she helped me dress the mannequin back in its Mickey Mouse costume. I was unable to use the base that came with the mannequin, because it has a spindle that goes into the mannequin’s left heel. I would have had to drill a hole in the heel of the shoe the same size. Instead of that, I figured out a way to get rid of the base altogether. I put “lifts” under his heels so he wouldn’t fall back. That way he can stand on his own independently. It looks better not to have a base under him anyway. I did attach a small eyelet to the mannequin’s back, so I could thread some monofilament (fish line) through it and anchor it to the backdrop. That way if the mannequin was ever tipped, either by accident or in an earthquake, he wouldn’t fall face first on to the floor and crack the vintage Mickey Mouse mask. After stacking little squares of foam core under his heels and attaching them with double-stick tape, he was standing on his own! Then it was time to work on his hands. In the original photo, I’m wearing my mom’s white gloves because, hey, Mickey wore white gloves! So I removed the white gloves I had bought for the mannequin, and got out some thin armature wire. I twisted the wire around the ring and index fingers on both of the mannequin’s hands. Then I put small holes in the fingers of the gloves to correspond with the extending wires. I fished the wires through the small holes in the gloves, and reattached the gloves to the hands. This would allow the mannequin’s hands to hold whatever I wanted to put in them. I mounted the vintage Trick-Or-Treat bag in his left hand, and twisted the two wires together…like a twist tie. In the right hand, I placed the Milk Duds box where I wanted, and wired it in. Though the Milk Duds box I printed was just a prototype to see if the pattern worked. I’m going to get another one printed on glossy cardstock for the permanent display. I put the hands back on the mannequin, put his mask on, and mounted the photo of my six-year-old self above the mannequin. It looks great! I couldn’t wait to show everybody for movie night! We watched the Blu Ray version of a silent classic called “Safety Last!” starring Harold Lloyd. This is the film where he climbs a 12 story building and gets stranded on the face of a clock. I’m sure you’ve seen the famous still of the guy hanging from a clock. It’s an amazing movie and best of all…NO CGI! When most of the guest left Scott Sebring and his wife Vickie stayed for a late-night visit to the Puppet Room. Vickie’s been obsessed with creating puppets, and she wanted to get a good look at the Muppet replicas I fabricated at the age of 19 with my mom. I hadn’t thought of them much since I mounted them on display 13 years ago, so it was fun taking them down again and working them. But BOY were they dusty! WHEW! It was funny, but Scott and Vickie treated them with almost the same reverence of actual Muppets! They put them on and had fun manipulating them, but after they left I dug out every washcloth I owned and set about giving them all a good bath. Cookie Monster, Kermit, Grover, Animal, Rowlf, Gonzo and Beaker! I literally spent all night cleaning the puppets and reorganizing the Puppet Room. I like the way I reposed them! In the Puppet Room bathroom sink, there were about 15 dirty washcloths…so dirty that they looked like I had dyed them dingy brown! YUK! I’m glad I cleaned the puppets after all this time! I fed and walked Roxy, then went back inside to finish up a few things. I made some chili and watched another episode of “The Saint” from the Season 1 DVD set. What a delightfully creative day! I had vowed to use my two week hiatus downtime to get some things done around the house, and this was a good start!
Sunday the 11th – BUSY LIKE A BEE! – I slept until about 4, and then got ready for evening church. Roxy and I walked over for the service, then when it was done we came home to meet up with my pal Amanda. We drove over to the Coral Cafe for dinner, and met up with Sara. On the way back to my house Amanda and I stopped at McDonald’s for a couple of ice cream cones. MMMMM…soft serve! I got back and got a little rest, then got up to do a ton of auditions. I spent the rest of the evening cleaning the place up, putting away all the stuff from movie night, filing CDs in my CD rack, filing receipts, paying bills, balancing my checkbooks (both personal and corporate accounts!), and doing a bunch of miscellaneous work. In retrospect, I’m glad I didn’t go to Palm Springs this week. For awhile there it looked like the weather in Palm Springs was going to be fairly nice, but I checked the temps on-line and it was beastly hot! I did more work and got to bed around 8am Monday morning.
And how was YOUR week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEKS
Here’s that vintage Milk Duds box pattern I found on-line. VERY helpful!
The creepy-Mickey-Mouse-Halloween-kid figure is almost complete. Just need to pop the new Milk Duds box in his hand, and get his hair painted the right shade.
This shot shows you the scale difference between the other mannequins in The Chaney Room, and the new kid on the block.
I got the idea to have the mannequin holding a Milk Duds box when my folks (purely by chance) sent me a webpage that featured a bunch of nostalgic items that no longer exist…like this vintage candy machine!
