RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
I came across the photo of actress Caroline Munro recently, and I got swept back to being 13 years old and watching her in “The Golden Voyage of Sinbad.” A vision like she was exactly what I needed to see at that age! WOW!
Toward the end of “Mad Monster Party,” there’s a song that’s really really beautiful, but completely out of place and unnecessary. It just slowed the movie down so much, and the movie was slow enough already! But the song on its own is simply gorgeous. Here it is…“Never Was a Love Like Mine” by Gale Garnett.
Monday the 30th – MOUNTING, MOUNTING, MOUNTING! – After my physical therapy appointment I headed to the hardware store to buy some small metal eyes; the screw-in type. I had previously bought a set for my Super Grover display, but I realized over the weekend that they were MUCH too large for my purposes. I went to my box to pick up my packages, and then hit Paty’s for lunch on the patio. I stopped by FedEx Office to make some prints of the Funny Face ad my pal Scott Sebring cleaned up for me. I bought an original newspaper ad from 1968 that promoted a record that was produced by the team behind Funny Face drink mix. The good news: it’s great, vintage art. The bad news: it’s from a newspaper. Newspaper stuff all comes with a fair amount of “bleed-through” due to the type of cheap paper it was printed on. Nothing from a newspaper is meant to last very long. So my pal Scott put on his graphics hat and cleaned it up and restored it nicely. I had a few copies printed at 11” by 17” and it turned out great! It’ll be a great addition to the collection of Funny Face stuff I have in my kitchen. I headed to Michael’s to get an appropriate frame, and then home to start working on mounting Super Grover. I want to have him floating overhead; hanging from one of the overhead beams in my living room. But I also want him removable once he’s mounted. I installed a boat cleat on the wall that’s perpendicular to the overhead beam. Then I installed a small metal eye a ways above the cleat, and then I installed two more on the side of the beam. This will allow me to “fly” the puppet and tie off the support strings at the boat cleat. But I made a few mistakes along the way, but easily correctable ones. I had my tall ladder in my living room so I could reach the overhead beams, and at one point I got down off the ladder to move it just a few inches to give me more room. But I had forgotten that I had my drill on the top of the ladder and WHAM! I took a drill to the head. Luckily it was the butt of the drill, and not the drill bit itself (which ended up breaking off during the fall). I was cursing myself out for being a dunce like there was no tomorrow. But it all ended up looking pretty good in the end. I attached the two support ropes to Super Grover’s suspension sled (one toward the front and one toward the back for balance) and tied it off. I’ll mount the puppet to the sled a bit later in the evening. I placed the Funny Face ad artwork in my frame and mounted it on the wall in my kitchen. That space had been blank for quite a while, so it was nice to finally have something to fill the empty space. I recorded one audition, and then took my nightly WOG (walk/jog). After my exercise I spent some time outside in my anti-grav chair cooling off, enjoying an iced tea, and relaxing. It was a bit chilly, but still very nice. I heard what sounded like a female voice speaking in an agitated state, so I immediately got up out of my chair. Just rounding the corner was a crazy guy who was walking through our complex yelling at something. But when he saw me standing there (I’m 6’2” in my running shoes and he was only about 5’9”) he quickly quieted down and made a hasty exit. I love Los Angeles, but this sort of craziness at 3 in the morning is getting tiresome. I guess that was my early Halloween scare. I came back inside to write Wally’s Week and finish mounting Super Grover. I tied pieces of monofilament to the suspension sled and then looped them through the little fur loops that are sewn into certain points of Grover’s body. Once I ascertained the actual length, I tied little metal hooks onto the ends and then hooked them into the puppet’s body for suspension. Then I untied the ropes at the boat cleat, hoisted him into position, and tied him off. He looked pretty good, but when I originally designed the suspension sled I forgot one thing. Sure, Super Grover had his arms out in front of him in a flying position (like he does on “Sesame Street”) but on the show he has a fan blowing in his face to flutter the cape. But with no fan, the cape on my display (which is attached to his wrists) hangs in his face too much. I’m going to contact Kyle at Plastic Depot with a re-designed suspension sled concept that separates his arms out; a little further back and more to the side. This way as he hangs there in position, the cape will be away from his face more, and his face will be more visible. Trial and error, I guess. They changed Super Grover’s flying posture for the movie “Follow That Bird” probably for this very reason.
Tuesday the 31st – HAPPY HALLOWEEN! – When I got up later in the afternoon I checked emails and then got ready to head out for the evening. My buddy Jeff Sornig was in town for the week (he’s an animator at Nickelodeon) so he drove over around 5. My buddy Rob Richards was stuck in traffic in his Uber, so I drove over to pick up my pal Sara Raftery, and we came back to my area to get Rob. Once we were all together we hit the freeway to head to the Bob Baker Marionette Theater’s Spooktacular show. I had seen it about a month ago and it’s terrific, and what would be better than seeing it on Halloween night?! First order of business was dinner, so we met with Scott and Vickie Sebring at Galco’s Old World Grocery (just down a few blocks from the theater) so we could get sandwiches at their deli and a bottle of vintage soda. Jeff was amazed that he could find Moxie cola; a soda he hasn’t enjoyed since he was a kid. We got our sandwiches and drinks and headed outside to enjoy them picnic style. Rob picked up several bags full of different sodas he wanted to take home and try. When we drove to park near the Bob Baker theatre, Halloween in the surrounding neighborhoods was in full swing! Houses along the block were vying for Halloween spooky superiority. Some had fog machines going, and some had their yards decorated like graveyards. It was very much a party atmosphere, and just what the mad doctor ordered. It was fun seeing families celebrating Halloween the old fashioned way! We got to the theater and checked in. Since Rob is well known in the theater organ community, the organist at the Bob Baker Theater took great delight in talking to him. Oddly enough, while Ed the organist spoke with Rob, he never even missed ONE note as he continued to play! Amazing! The right brain/left brain abilities were stunning to witness. We all enjoyed the show immensely, and I was happy to hear that their original run of the Halloween Spooktacular was extended a few weeks with several more shows added. I was also happy to hear that they were COMPLETELY sold out for the remainder of the run! That makes me incredibly happy! When I got back to the Gray Ghost to put some things away in the back, I noticed something shiny. Sara put her phone’s light on and we discovered that one of the sodas in Rob’s bag had opened up somehow and spilled all over the back of my Rav! Rats! I figured I’d try to find it later when I had better light. I dropped Sara off at her house, and then Rob and Jeff came in to take the tour of Planet Wallywood. When they left I went down to the garage and removed everything from the rear of my Rav. The plastic mat, the spare tire, everything! An entire bottle of sticky soda had emptied out in my back compartment. It took about an hour of work (and lots of paper towels and Windex) to get it all cleaned out. What a mess! Next time, soda will need to be double wrapped! I came back inside to record a ton of auditions for the evening, and then I went outside for my nightly WOG. I spent some delightful time in the anti-grav chair, and then I came back inside to make a salad and watch the newly released Blu-ray of “Mad Monster Party.” This movie was made by the same people who made the “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” TV special in 1964. But unlike Rudolph, I’ve never been able to make it through “Mad Monster Party” because…well…it’s dreadful. It’s boring and very much a missed opportunity. While Rudolph had many delightful, memorable songs, the songs in “MMP” were forgettable and dull. And some of them are just plain out of place. It’s too bad too, because the character designs (by famed artist Jack Davis) were delightful, and Boris Karloff and Phyllis Diller both provided voices for characters. I told myself that no matter what, I was going to make it through the entire 90 minute movie tonight. Easier said than done. It was all I could do to keep from falling asleep. I kept nodding off, then I would wake up, rewind the movie past the point where I nodded off, and watch it again. But I would nod off once more. I finally made it through to the end. It was worse than I imagined. There are so many missed opportunities that would have been improved with a better script and better songs. One song in particular simply didn’t belong in the movie. Even though the song is very pretty, it just was completely out of place in this context. It’s almost like the filmmakers lost track of who their audience was. My buddy Mike McGee summed it up nicely. He said it’s an hour long special turned into a 90 minute movie. A half hour could have been easily cut from this film. The lead character is a nebbish named Felix, and he’s so annoying you want the monsters to dismember and eat him. He has allergies that keep popping up, but it’s all much ado about nothing. I originally thought his allergies would figure into the way he ultimately defeats the monsters, but it was a contrivance that never paid off. One of the upsides was the vocal performance of singer Gale Garnett, whose voice and performance was perfect. Guess I’ll shelve this one for good.
Wednesday the 1st – AN OLD FRIEND! – Based on the whirlwind day I had on Halloween I slept pretty late. I drove over to Alex In Wonderland’s studio to give her a color sample for the new Antron fleece I’m having dyed for version 2 of The Count’s head. While I was there I picked up some more styrene for his mouth plate, and her husband Mike gave me the script for his fairytale movie he’s been working on for a while. I’m going to provide the voice for a talking tree in the forest, so he gave me the script so I could start rehearsing. I got back home to do some work and then my pal Angi came over. She was craving fish and chips, so we went to Paty’s to get some dinner. While we were there I ran into my old pal Denny, who was married to the late “Star Trek” writer Dorothy Fontana. We lost Dorothy a few years ago, and I hadn’t seen Denny in quite a while. He was there with his pal Pat, whom I had met many years ago at one of my Saturday movie nights. We all had some laughs and it was really good to see Denny laugh again. I got back home to do some work and record some auditions. Later I took Super Grover down from the ceiling to trace his body in the new, revised flying position. I also traced the suspension sled as it exists now so Kyle will have a good idea of what he needs to change for version two. I did other work around the house, and then sat down to watch the final 15 minutes of “Mad Monster Party” again with a clearer head. Unfortunately, it didn’t improve my view much. It’s sad what a misfire this movie was. And so many COOL monster characters.
Thursday the 2nd – THE GRAY GHOST GIVES IT LIFE! – After my physical therapy appointment I hit the McDonald’s drive-thru for lunch. I got my packages at my box, which included my new, improved Ant Man photo prints. Keep an eye on my on-line store, as many of my signed prints will be changing toward the beginning of the year. I drove to my auxiliary parking to try and get the Gran Torino out, but the battery was completely dead. Not even my jump starter could get it boosted. So I pulled the Gray Ghost up to the front of the Torino and hooked up my jumper cables. I let it send some charge to the Torino’s battery for a bit and then gave it a try. It turned over, but there wasn’t enough gas line yet for it to stay running. I gave it another 5 minutes and tried it again. It fired up! I put the Gray Ghost away and then pulled out with the Gran Torino so I could have fun driving that around for a few days. Now that the weather is cooler it’s perfect Torino weather. I stopped by the cleaners as it was that time of year to have the Torino’s car cover completely cleaned. No easy task! I got home and put the Torino on the trickle charger so the battery could recharge all night. I did some work and then hit the hay.
Friday the 3rd – GROUCHY, OLD SPOOK! – After giving the freshly-charged Torino a good wipe down, I headed to Paty’s to get some lunch with my friend Edi. She brought her new little puppy Lala and we had a great lunch on the patio. My pal Mike McGee brought a portable hard-drive over for me with all of the segments in his movie that I’ll need to dub. When we finished lunch Edi came over with Lala to meet Spook. Spook absolutely adored Edi’s former doggie Bunny, so we were hoping for a similar dynamic with Lala. While Lala was very excited to meet Spook (the first cat she had ever met) Spook was less than impressed. They sniffed each other a bit, and then Spook hissed and walked away. Bummer. I guess Spook in his advanced age of 18 years old just doesn’t want to be bothered by this “young’un.” My pal Sam Frieberger dropped by so we could go grab some dinner at Ernie’s Taco House and catch up. I commented on the cigar shop across the street, and Sam said he LOVED cigars. So we went in to pick up a few nice cigars, had a wonderful dinner, and then came back to my complex to walk around, enjoy the night time weather and our cigars. It was a gorgeous night! Later I did some work around the house, took my nightly WOG, spent some time in the anti-grav chair looking at the night sky, and I came inside to make a salad. I watched another episode of “Boris Karloff’s Thriller” before bed.
Saturday the 4th – LAUREL & HARDY THEATER TIME AGAIN! – Though I had set my alarm to get up early for a lunch date, when I got up and checked my texts I realized that today wasn’t going to work. My friend had forgotten that she had another appointment that day and she’d have to reschedule. As this “I forgot I had an appointment” thing happens from time to time, I’m simply baffled at how that occurs. I write things down on my day planner (I call it my Book of Life) in pen on paper. I hardly ever accidentally “double book” because I keep meticulous track of my schedule from day to day. But the kids these days are never more than 6 inches away from their phones, and they can’t be without them for a second. I’m not a “smart phone” guy, but don’t those phones have a calendar feature on them to keep your schedule in line? Before you accept an appointment for lunch, wouldn’t you first consult your phone’s scheduling feature to see if you’re in the clear? So I cleared my afternoon for this appointment, only to find out that poor planning on their part has now ruined my day. Very odd. When I told a buddy about this he commented sarcastically, “Gee. It’s too bad you don’t have a computer in the palm of your hand that could have prevented that.” True. So since the day was pretty much blown I rested all day. My left ankle had been aching a bit, so it was probably best that I stay off it for a little while. Later that day I phoned my buddy Chris Malmin to meet for dinner at Lancers. He had recently spent some time in our hometown of Sioux Falls, South Dakota and I wanted to hear all about his trip. Before dinner I stopped in at Hobby Lobby to pick up a few things, but the lines to check out were backed up halfway into the store! NO THANKS! I just don’t understand why Hobby Lobby hasn’t figured out a way to expedite their check-out lines. It’s the case virtually every time I’m there! So I walked out and said I’d go elsewhere to get what I needed. Dinner with Chris was fun and we spent about 3 hours chatting. I gassed up the Torino, and then went to get some grocery items. When I got home I recorded my auditions that were due on Monday. Later I took my nightly WOG and spent some time in the anti-grav chair. But when I came back inside and looked at my phone the time was wrong. Then it hit me. RATS! That stupid daylight saving thing has reared its ugly head again. Honestly. It’s ridiculous. There should be a law to discontinue this worthless exercise once and for all. I’m still waiting for somebody to give me ONE good reason why we still burden ourselves with this worthless and pointless task. So, I spent about an hour changing all the clocks in the house. I changed the sheets on the bed and added my heated blanket (yup, that time of year again) and then I prepped for Laurel & Hardy Theater! The first Saturday of the month I like to watch some Laurel & Hardy films before bed, and enjoy a nostalgic meal of a Chef Boyardee pizza in a box, a banana twinkie, popcorn, and lots of Diet Pepsi in my vintage Laurel (or) Hardy mug. It’s a little monthly treat for myself. Tonight I watched two restored silent shorts from the recently released “Laurel & Hardy: Year One – The Restored Silents form 1927” Blu-ray. “With Love and Hisses” was a very funny military short, and “Sailors Beware” was equally as delightful. Once I watch the shorts with their music tracks, I re-watch them with the commentary track provided by Laurel & Hardy expert and author (and fellow Son of the Desert) Randy Skretvedt. His historic details and insights into these films are utterly amazing.
Sunday the 5th – COLLECTION CONVERSION! – Later in the evening I spent some time in my living room/home theater rearranging some items in my collection for a Zoom call I’d have on Monday with the producers of the show “Collector’s Call” on ME-TV. They’ll be filming an episode at my house in early December, and the Zoom call on Monday would be so they could scope out the area where we’d be filming. Luckily, of the 8 items in my collection they want to feature, most of them are in my living room. The ones that aren’t…will be. So I’m creating space in my living room where those items can be moved in. I put up a curtain with a tension rod to hide the entryway in my living room, and I covered my big screen TV with movie posters. The TV is big and reflective so I needed to mitigate that problem. I have some cool cartoon standees coming that Alex In Wonderland is producing, and those will go in front of the fireplace. Later I did the voice work as a talking tree for my buddy Mike’s fairytale movie. Then I put on my workout clothes and headed outside for my WOG and subsequent anti-grav chair time. I came inside to do more work, and then contacted a puppet builder named Steve Troop about helping me create version 2 of the foam head for The Count. He’s available and we’re going to knock this out in mid-November. The new Count head should be ready in time for the ME-TV shoot. Awesome!
And how was YOUR week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
To me, the star of the “Bob Baker Theatre’s Spooktacular” show was the Frankenstein monster. Here we are tipping our heads and hats to a wonderful performance.
The robot number is particularly delightful!
Dracula and Vampira also stole the show!
Here’s a composite of scenes from the fantastic “Bob Baker Marionette Theater Spooktacular” show. Amazing to see kids of this age continuing this amazing artform!
Here’s the finished, framed Funny Face artwork!
I attached the suspension sled to the overhead beam, and then readied it for the puppet
From this angle, Super Grover looks fantastic!
But from the side, the arms are too close to his head and the cape covers his face. Back to the drawing board!
Even the extras couldn’t help but laugh when Stan Laurel went into his crying routine. I spotted this background player busting up when Stan cut loose.
