March 23 – March 29 (2026) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

I ran across this in my internet travels this past week and it’s GOLD! It’s the paint scheme to the original Gran Torino for “Starsky & Hutch!” WOW!

After meeting the legendary composer Bill Conti the other night, I have NOT been able to get the theme from “Rocky” out of my head. Not that I WANT it out of my head, but still.

Monday the 23rd – ALMOST A YEAR?! – Last year for the Monsterpalooza museum exhibit I displayed a life-size Roger M00re figure, as depicted in the James Bond film “The Man With The Golden Gun.” My pal Sergio Lopez came over to assist with the hairstyling and wig selection for the figure. I first met Sergio when I was working at Universal Studios back in 1994. He and I have been friends ever since. But since he lives quite a ways away from me, I don’t get to see him that often, unfortunately. But today we made it a point to get together – as it’s been almost a year since I’ve seen him while working on the Roger M00re project. It was great catching up and finding out all about what he’s been up to. He recently returned from a trip to Japan and it sounded amazing. We had a wonderful lunch on the patio at Paty’s and chatted for a long time. When we finished I headed over to my box to mail off my daughter’s birthday gift – a signed photo of her and Tom Kenny from last year’s Voices Against Cancer “castle soiree.” I also included an enlargement of her and John Boyega, who was another one of our guests last year. I came back home and did a few auditions, and then relaxed for a bit. Later I did my nightly WOG (walk/jog) and typed out Wally’s Week. Our warm weather has sadly abated, and it has turned chilly again. The calendar says it’s spring – but our weather begs to differ. Before hitting the hay I made a salad and watched another episode of “The Virginian.”

Tuesday the 24th – OH! THE MEMORIES! – My buddy Mark Fullerton dropped by at 3:30 so we could head down to Culver City to enjoy a screening of the 1980 James Bond movie “For Your Eyes Only.” About every other month, a group of guys screen a Bond movie on the big screen shortly after the film has been enhanced for 4k release. When I got there I was utterly, utterly amazed! Culver City has been built up so nicely that I hardly even recognized it. When I first moved to L.A. almost 40 years ago, I lived the first few years in Culver City. At the time the town was a bit “run down,” shall we say. I worked at the Westwood One Radio Network (in building 2) on Washington Boulevard. I lived less than a mile away, so occasionally I would walk to work. I strolled down along Washington Boulevard, passing the legendary Culver Hotel, Westwood One Building 1 (where all of their recording studios resided), past the Culver Studios, and then to Westwood One building 2. I made that trek almost every day for a year. Though my beloved Culver City may have been a bit haggard back then, it is a bustling bevy of beauty and activity! I understand that the gentrification occurred thanks to the help of Sony Studios, who took over the old MGM lot many years ago. Mark drove into an underground parking structure, which was levels below the ground upon which I used to trod all those years ago! When we got topside and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Suddenly I was overwhelmed with a mix of emotions and feelings. Upon seeing a few of the old, familiar landmarks I was flooded with a lot of the feelings I experienced back in 1987 during my morning walks to work – the uncertainty about my future, missing my family and my kids, financial issues, etc. It was very heady. So much has happened in my life since then. I felt a bit like Culver City – I was rundown at one point – but now I’ve been renewed and refurbished! Many of the buildings by which I used to walk have been replaced with more modern furnishings. But enough of the old landmarks existed where I could easily get my bearings and reference the old days in my mind’s eye. Secondly, I kept staring at the intersection of Culver Boulevard and Main Street – the site of many, MANY old Laurel & Hardy films. They filmed in downtown Culver City back in the 20s and 30s all the time! Back when I was doing my morning stroll the L&H locations weren’t on my mind, as it had been quite a while since I had seen the old films. But now that I’m watching the restored versions of their films (particularly the silent films) all of these locations are fresh in my mind! Stan and Ollie stood outside the famous Culver Hotel for many films. And the intersection of Culver and Main is where the big traffic pile-up was filmed in “Leave ‘Em Laughing.” I couldn’t take my eyes off that intersection, as I kept thinking that this area is basically “hallowed ground” for a guy like me. Add to that the fact that we were right next door to the old Culver Studios – the studio where the beloved 1966 Batman TV series was filmed. It was all a bit overwhelming – in a good, delightful way! Add to it that we dined at a restaurant called The Laurel Grill! It wasn’t named for the reason that I would have LIKED it to have been named, but still the “coincidence” was not lost on me. Mark and I dined on the top floor of the restaurant on their outside patio overlooking this “hallowed ground,” and it was absolutely delightful! It was time to go into the theatre and get our tickets. We saw a bunch of our pals there who had also arrived for the film. In addition to seeing the film on the big screen, they had announced that two special guests would be present – actress Lyn-Holly Johnson (who played Bibi Dahl), and composer Bill Conti. I’m convinced that these guys played a large part in the reason the screening was packed to the gills! The pre-show before the film was wonderfully assembled, ending with Roger Moore’s terrific sketch on the final episode of “The Muppet Show” where he has to kick out a bunch of Muppet spies – ala James Bond. It had the whole theatre in stitches – and I almost got teary-eyed seeing two of my favorite things (Roger Moore and Muppets) melded together on the big screen, being overwhelmingly appreciated by a full theatre of enthusiastic fans. Like I said…heady! At the end of the film the Q&A with the guests was stellar! 83 year old Bill Conti was especially entertaining – with his hilarious and honest take on how things work in the film industry. He had agreed to sign autographs at the end of the evening, and I brought along the cover my LP of the soundtrack for the film. Amazingly, they chose to hold my album cover up for the group photo they took at the end of the night. Fabulous! I told Mr. Conti, “Do you know how you know you’re an icon? Because all you have to do is hum 3 notes of your work, and you know EXACTLY what it is!” I hummed the first three notes of “Gonna Fly Now (the theme from ‘Rocky’).” I also had Lyn-Holly sign my album cover and the evening was wrapped up nicely. What a day! What a flood of a myriad of emotions, thoughts and feelings! When I scheduled the trip with Mark to go see the Bond film, I had NO idea it would turn into such an important experience! It was fairly late by the time I got back home and I had a ton of auditions to record. Since I was tired I took the night off from my WOG. I cleaned up areas of my house because I had some people coming for a tour of Planet Wallywood on Wednesday.

Wednesday the 25th – “MINNIE” HAPPY RETURNS! – The first part of the day was consumed with moving stuff around in my house and making things presentable. The Chaney Room had become a bit of a “storage shed” with all of the boxes of photos, photo albums and puppet materials that I needed for my current ongoing projects. But I stuffed all that stuff into the Puppet Room closet and shut the door! Then I went to my box to have my old tax documents shredded, and to pick up some packages. Later I met my friend Kaitlyn Robrock and her folks at Paty’s for dinner. Last year at Wonder Con in Anaheim, I appeared on Mark Evanier’s Cartoon Voice Actor panel with my Cookie Monster replica Muppet. In the front row was a guy who looked a LOT like Frank Oz! Of course it wasn’t him, but I made the resemblance into a running gag at the panel – particularly since I had Cookie Monster with me! Come to find out, he was the father of Voice Actress Kaitlyn Robrock – and his name is Rich! Kaitlyn is the voice of Minnie Mouse (among others). I told them at the convention that when they’re back in the L.A. area they were more than welcome to come by Planet Wallywood for a tour. Since Wonder Con weekend was coming up in a few days, they were back in the area, and they took me up on my offer! Kaitlyn told me about a “Henson Puppetry Boot Camp” she had just taken recently, and how much she also enjoyed the “Puppet Up!” show. Wouldn’t you know it, just about that time, my buddy Grant Baciocco arrived with his wife and their doggy! Of all the weird “coincidences” (which I don’t believe in, actually)! We chatted for a while and then headed to Planet Wallywood for the tour. We had a blast talking about Universal monsters, Andy Kaufman, Star Trek, puppets, and more. In fact, I handed my Prairie Dawn Muppet replica to Kaitlyn to see what she could do with her. Her folks shot some video, so I joined her as Kermit. When Kaitlyn sends me the video I’ll post it here. She’s an excellent puppeteer, and the fact that she has those vocal abilities adds to her value as a puppet master! After they left I did my auditions, rested for a bit, and then did my nightly WOG.

Thursday the 26th – …AND SPEAKING OF PUPPETEERS…!! – It had been a while since I saw my old pal Drew Massey, so we met at “The Office” (what I now call the patio at Paty’s) for lunch. He’s getting ready for his upcoming wedding and doing a lot of writing. It’s always fun catching up with creative people like Drew! When I got back home I started tearing through the Chaney Room like a madman! A month or so ago, a YouTuber named Chris Stanley did an Instagram post about a mysterious “third actor” who portrayed Freddy Krueger on the old TV commercials in the late 80’s for the Freddy phone line. My buddy David Woodruff forwarded the post to me, as David knew it was me that he was talking about. I reached out to Chris and told him that filming the commercials was great fun. He invited me on his YouTube show and I agreed. This meant that I would need to dig out all the old visual aids from the commercials – the prosthetics, the crew jacket, some photos and videos, the costume…and THE GLOVE! I found everything else – but I could NOT find the glove! The glove is the star of the show! Luckily I recalled moving it to the far side of the Chaney Room closet during a recent reorganization I did. VOILA! There it was! We did a delightful interview talking all about horror movies and doing the two Freddy commercials. “Show and tell” went really well too! You can see the interview here… https://youtu.be/DYxeBDNrMCA What fun! When it finished I did some work around the house, and made some more armature hands for my Muppet replicas. These consist of two pieces of ½” foam rubber cut into the shape of a human hand, with the skeletal structure of a hand made by armature wire sandwiched in between them. Once the glue cures you pinch the edges of the two pieces of foam rubber together, and you have a poseable hand that can be put into a “live hands” puppet to make it look like there’s a hand in there. This weekend I’m going to start working on my latest Muppet replica – Herry Monster. He’s an old “Sesame Street” favorite of mine who will be present at this year’s Monsterpalooza museum!

Friday the 27th – BREAKFAST BURGER! – When my maids came to Planet Wallywood I was pretty tired. I guess the busy week had caught up to me. When they left I went to Staples to get some supplies, and then went next door to Carney’s to get a burger. Just what the doctor ordered! The protein gave me the kick in the butt I needed! I felt MUCH better. I went to the hardware store to get some things, and then I got some grocery items. I got home to put everything away and watch the Freddy interview from the night before. Chris wasted no time in posting it, that’s for sure! It turned out VERY nicely! Later I took my WOG and did some more work around the house. I made a salad and watched another episode of “The Virginian.” This episode was about a lady who had about 10 orphans she was taking care of. When they tried to get a local farmer named Gus Schultz to take two of the other boys for farm workers, I thought I recognized the actor who was playing Schultz. Naw…it couldn’t be. Sure enough, the end credits confirmed that it was John Banner…who later went on to play Sargent Schultz in “Hogan’s Heroes!” What are the odds?!

Saturday the 28th – A MONSTERFUL DAY! – When I finished visiting my stylist Andie for a touch-up on my color, I headed to Michaels to get some supplies – including a frame for my newly-signed “For Your Eyes Only” soundtrack album! I came home and relaxed. Later I started in on making my Herry Monster Muppet replica. I used a small mixing pail that I purchased from a hardware store to pattern his head. Herry’s head has a taper that’s a lot like a pail, and a piece of the curved plastic from the pail will come in handy when I start building the eyebrow mechanism for the puppet. I got the pattern finished and I cut out a piece of foam rubber and glued it together. I cut an opening for the mouth, but I realized later that I cut the opening too wide. So…back to the cutting board to make another. I did my WOG, and then made a Saturday Night Super Salad to watch something fun. Last week I finished up my weekly viewing of the 1976 TV series “Fantastic Journey.” There were only 10 episodes in the set, and I finished the series last Saturday. Next Saturday will be the first Saturday of the month, and that means “Laurel & Hardy Theatre.” I didn’t really want to start a new series, only to have to take a week off for L&H, and then go back to it. So I decided to run a fun film that I could “check my brain” and enjoy. I settled on an old Hammer horror film called “Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell.” While not one of the best Hammer films ever made, it did have a certain charm…and it’s always fun watching Peter Cushing. But it’s very odd – and possibly another one of those “coincidences” in which I don’t necessarily believe. A few weeks ago I started thinking about the actor Bernard Lee, who was most famous for playing M in the early James Bond films. As the character of M is very stoic, I couldn’t recall ever seeing Bernard Lee smile. Even when Lee appeared in an episode of “The Saint” I don’t recall him smiling. Oddly enough, Bernard Lee has a VERY small part in “Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell.” He played a patient in an insane asylum who creates beautiful sculptures. He hands one of his sculptures to a young lady as a gift, utters a few words, and then looks up at her and smiles. A-HA! So THAT’S what Bernard Lee looks like when he smiles!

Sunday the 29th – HERRY IS HAPPENING! – After relaxing most of the day I began working on Herry Monster enthusiastically. I made a second head and was careful not to cut the mouth too wide this time. Unlike other Muppets, the angle of Herry’s mouth is approximately a 45 degree angle. It’s not totally vertical like Beaker, and it’s not totally horizontal like Kermit. I had to cut angles into the foam just right so it would attach to the mouth plate at the correct angle. His overall head shape was finished, so I started working on his lower jaw piece. Since his tongue is made out of foam, I had to make his bottom mouth plate open, so the tongue would have somewhere to live when his mouth was closed. I put all the finger loops in the mouth plates and finished everything up nicely. I’m leaving the top of his head open for now (much like Dr. Frankenstein would) so I can create the eyebrow mechanism for him in the near future. Once I get that installed to my satisfaction, I’ll attach a piece of foam to the top of his head and seal it up. I took some time off from working on him to do my nightly WOG, and then back inside I went to work on him some more. I’m really happy with the progress I made on him during the night. I have to keep remembering not to build him too big, as the thick fur covering will increase his overall size exponentially. I have a lot more work to do on him before he’s finished, but I love the progress I’ve made so far. I made a pot pie and watched another episode of “The Virginian” before bed.

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

The Laurel Grill? About 100 yards from where Laurel & Hardy films were shot? What are the odds?!

Beef…it’s what’s for dinner!

For OUR eyes only! We’re ready to go!

In addition to being a legendary composer, Bill Conti is also hilarious!

For the group shot, they asked to use my LP cover as a prop. Too cool!

LOTSA memories on this sidewalk – seeing this studio.

Herry Monster’s head started off like a bucket…

…then I cut angles into the foam for the tilted mouth plate.

Then came the lower jaw piece…

…and then I fattened his cheeks and added some paper eyes for scale. I think I made them slightly too big, so I’ll reduce them in size when I make the real eye pieces.