MUSIC BREAK: THE MERRY MACS - DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS

FORGOTTEN ONES: THE MERRY MACS

One of the most charming singing groups of the 1940s were The Merry Macs.The Merry Macs were an American close-harmony pop music quartet who were active from the 1920s until the 1960s. They were best known for the hits "Mairzy Doats", "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" and "Sentimental Journey". The group also sang on recordings with Bing Crosby.

Formed to play proms in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the group originally consisted of the three McMichael brothers: tenors Judd (1906–1989) and Joe (1916–1944), and baritone Ted (1908–2001). They were discovered by organist-bandleader Eddie Dunstedter of station WCCO, who suggested they perform in masks and dubbed them The Mystery Trio.

In 1931–32, the McMichaels toured with the orchestra of arranger-composer Joe Haymes, who renamed them The Personality Boys. By 1933 they added a female lead singer, Cheri McKay, and changed their name to The Merry Macs. At Haymes' recommendation, Victor Records engaged the group for one single that year, their first recording.

In 1936, they appeared on several national radio programs, and Cheri McKay was replaced by Helen Carroll. (McKay trained her successor in the group's singing style.) Another record session followed with Ray Noble's orchestra. The Merry Macs started appearing with Fred Allen on Town Hall Tonight starting on November 17, 1937. In September 1938, they signed a contract with Allen for the 1938–1939 season, and they remained until the end of the 1940 season.

Vocal quartets had customarily harmonized like barbershop quartets. The Merry Macs revolutionized vocal harmony with closer harmonic chords. This style inspired other groups, like The Modernaires and Six Hits and a Miss. In 1938 The Merry Macs signed with Decca Records and recorded "Pop Goes the Weasel". The Merry Macs (with Carroll) sang a swing version of "Down by the Old Mill Stream" in the 1939 Vitaphone musical Seeing Red, Red Skelton's first film.

In 1939, Mary Lou Cook (1908–2008) replaced Helen Carroll. This is the foursome that most listeners know from film appearances. The McMichael brothers and Cook appeared as a specialty act in Hollywood movies, including 1940's Love Thy Neighbor, and Universal Pictures gave The Merry Macs their own feature-film series in 1941. Their most famous film is Ride 'Em Cowboy (1942), an Abbott and Costello comedy in which The Merry Macs offer musical interludes. At the time, Cook was married to actor Elisha Cook, Jr.; she ended both her marriage and her affiliation with The Merry Macs at about the same time.

Marjory Garland (1923–1991) replaced Mary Lou Cook after Ride 'Em Cowboy was filmed. The Merry Macs continued to score on the hit parade; their version of "Mairzy Doats" was a best-seller. Garland, who later married Judd McMichael, remained with the group for two decades. Imogene Lynn was the group's female lead singer in 1946–1947.

Youngest brother Joe McMichael served in the armed forces and died in 1944 following an accidental overdose of Sulfa tablets while ill. He was replaced by Clive Erard, then Dick Baldwin, and finally Vern Rowe. The foursome of Judd, Ted, Marjory, and Vern continued performing until Judd retired from show business in 1964.

Vern and Ted took The Merry Macs to the U.K. where they made it their home until Vern and Ted retired 1967 and return to their homeland USA The Merry Macs continued in Britain making its base on the south coast Salisbury Wiltshire until 2000 when Harold Lambert John Reg Peter and their female vocalist Lettice Mackenzie Campbell retired from the music entertainment industry Cheri McKay was the first female vocalist 1933-36 with Lettice Mackenzie Campbell being the last female vocalist and the longest serving 1977-2000 with The Merry Macs. The singing group is largely forgotten now, but they gave hope and optimism in their songs during a difficult time in America's history...

RECENTLY VIEWED: SUITS

I just finished binge watching the entire 9 season season of the television series Suits, and I am glad I did. I am sorry I missed it the first time around. Suits is an American legal drama television series created and written by Aaron Korsh. Produced by Universal Content Productions, it premiered on USA Network on June 23, 2011.

Set in a fictional New York City corporate law firm, the series follows Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams), a college dropout with a photographic memory, as he works as an associate for the successful and charismatic attorney, Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht). Suits focuses on Harvey and Mike winning lawsuits and closing cases, while at the same time hiding Mike's secret of never having attended law school. It also features Rick Hoffman as Louis Litt, a neurotic, manipulative and unscrupulous financial-law partner; Meghan Markle as the ambitious, talented paralegal Rachel Zane; Sarah Rafferty as Harvey's legal secretary and confidante Donna Paulsen; and Gina Torres as the firm's control-obsessed, profit-above-all managing partner, Jessica Pearson.

On January 30, 2018, the series was renewed for an eighth season, but Torres, Adams, and Markle left the show. Katherine Heigl joined the cast as Samantha Wheeler. Recurring characters Alex Williams (Dulé Hill) and Katrina Bennett (Amanda Schull) were promoted to series regulars. The show was renewed for a 10-episode ninth and final season on January 23, 2019, which premiered on July 17, 2019.

Throughout its run, Suits was nominated for numerous awards, including individual attention for Torres and Adams. Besides two nominations recognizing her role as a supporting actress, Torres was awarded Outstanding Performance in a Television Series at the 2013 NHMC Impact Awards. Adams was nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series at the 2012 Screen Actors Guild Awards. The show itself was nominated for two People's Choice Awards. Its success spawned a short-lived spin-off, Pearson, centered on Jessica Pearson's entry into Chicago politics, which premiered alongside the final season of Suits on July 17, 2019. Suits concluded on September 25, 2019, after nine seasons and 134 episodes. The show received an immense surge in popularity after it was added to Netflix and Peacock in 2023, prompting NBCUniversal to begin development on a new spin-off series, titled Suits: L.A.

Althought most of the cast I do not know, they worked so great together. The chemistry between Patrick Adams and Gabriel Macht made the show. I can't believe I watched all 134 episodes in a matter of a month and a half, but it was worth it. It is great show, and I recommend it!

MY RATING: 9 out of 10 stars

RIP: BOB NEWHART

Bob Newhart, whose stammering, deadpan unflappability carried him to stardom as a standup comedian and later in television and movies, has died, according to a statement from his longtime publicist Jerry Digney. He was 94.

Digney said Newhart died in Los Angeles on Thursday morning after a series of short illnesses. He called the star’s passing an “end of an era in comedy.”

Over the course of five decades, Newhart’s popularity rarely waned, whether it was as the recording star of the comedy album “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart” (the first comedy album to win the Grammy for album of the year), the lead in two top-rated television sitcoms, or a supporting actor in movies including “Catch-22” (in which he played the timid Maj. Major), “Cold Turkey” and “Elf.”

He remains best known for the television shows, “The Bob Newhart Show” (1972-78) and “Newhart” (1982-90), both of which were built around his persona as a reasonable man put-upon by crazies.

Born George Robert Newhart in Oak Park, Illinois on September 5, 1929, Newhart was originally an accountant and advertising copywriter.

In 2022, he mused about his time as an accountant, joking, “in my case, I don’t think it’s amazing that a bad accountant could become a comedian.” He added that “there’s something about numbers and music and comedy, I’m not sure what it is,” going on to mention some comedy contemporaries that has an interest in music like he did.

He first rose to fame with his comedy album, 1960’s “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart.” The album was a phenomenon of its time and one of the best-selling albums of the year. It was No. 1 for 14 weeks on Billboard’s album chart and a multiple Grammy Award-winner, beating out Frank Sinatra, Harry Belafonte and Nat “King” Cole for album of the year. He also hit No. 1 with the follow-up, “The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back!”

“The Bob Newhart Show” debuted in 1972. (This is not to be confused with his Peabody and Emmy Award-winning variety show of the same name that aired for one season beginning in 1961.) He played a Chicago psychologist, Bob Hartley, who ministered to a host of eccentric patients.

In “Newhart,” he took on the role of Vermont innkeeper Dick Loudon, who tried to maintain his sanity while surrounded by comical locals.

In both cases, his characters found refuge with their wives, played by Suzanne Pleshette in “The Bob Newhart Show” and Mary Frann in “Newhart.”

The latter show’s finale remains one of the most famous in television history. In the final “Newhart” episode, Newhart’s town is purchased by a Japanese millionaire. Golfers at a new course regularly batter the inn with their drives, and one day – in the midst of an argument with townspeople – Newhart is hit by a golf ball. After a quick fade to black, he awakens… as Hartley, his character from “The Bob Newhart Show,” in bed with Pleshette.

“Honey, wake up! You won’t believe the dream I just had,” he tells her, to uproarious audience laughter.

The finale of "Newhart," which brought back the characters of Dr. Bob Hartley, Newhart's character on "The Bob Newhart Show," and his wife Emily played by Suzanne Pleshette. 

“That was my wife Ginny’s idea,” Newhart explained to Parade magazine in 2013. “She said, ‘You should end the show by waking up in bed with Emily and explain a dream you had about owning an inn in Vermont.’ We used it!”

The actor was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for his “Newhart” series three times in the outstanding lead actor category. He didn’t win an individual acting Emmy until 2013, when he was recognized in the outstanding guest actor category for his portrayal of Professor Proton on “The Big Bang Theory.”

He was nominated for a total of nine Emmys throughout the course of his career.

Newhart was a frequent guest on the era’s variety and talk shows, and a regular fill-in host on the “Tonight Show,” switching out for his friend Johnny Carson 87 times.

Newhart never really retired, continuing to make television appearances in recent years on “Big Bang” and “Young Sheldon,” along with “Hot in Cleveland” and “The Librarians.”

Other film work from the star included turns in “Horrible Bosses” and “In & Out.”

RECENTLY VIEWED: INSIDE OUT 2

Usually I jump at the chance to go to the movies with my daughter, who is a fellow movie buff. However, she wanted to fo see Inside Out 2, and I was not that keen on seeing it. I never saw the first movie so we watched it the week before we went, and it was pretty good. It was sentimental and I teared up, so I was more excited to see the sequel. Inside Out 2 is a 2024 American animated coming-of-age film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The sequel to Inside Out (2015), it was directed by Kelsey Mann (in his feature directorial debut) and produced by Mark Nielsen, from a screenplay written by Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein, and a story conceived by Mann and LeFauve. Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Lewis Black, Diane Lane, and Kyle MacLachlan reprise their roles from the first film, with Maya Hawke, Kensington Tallman, Tony Hale, Liza Lapira, Ayo Edebiri, Lilimar, Grace Lu, Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green, Adèle Exarchopoulos, and Paul Walter Hauser joining the cast. The film tells the story of Riley's emotions as they find themselves joined by new emotions that want to take over Riley's head.

Inside Out 2 premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on June 10, 2024, and was released in theaters in the United States on June 14. The film received positive reviews from critics and has grossed $1.359 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film of 2024. It had the third-biggest domestic opening weekend for an animated film and became the fastest animated film to cross the $1 billion mark, alongside being the fourth highest-grossing animated film of all-time and the highest-grossing film in Pixar history.

If you saw the first film and enjoyed it, you will probably like this film. I don't think this sequel was as sentimental and heartwarming as the first film, but as my daughter is entering womanhood she really enjoyed the movie. Amy Poehler makes the movie - just like she makes everything she stars in. I recommend seeing it with someone you love - like a daughter and granddaughter, and enjoy a nice Pixar film. The movie wasn't the best but spending time with my daighter on a Sunday morning was...

MY RATING: 8 out of 10

THE ASHES OF VERONICA LAKE

With her peek-a-boo blond hairdo and sultry looks, Veronica Lake was the “it-girl” of the 1940s silver screen. When she died penniless three decades later, her ashes sat anonymously in a funeral home for nearly three years before they were scattered off the Florida coast.

Or were they?

Far from the Hollywood hills and many miles north of Miami, Lake’s reputed remains have resurfaced in a Catskills antique store. The quirky little shop plans a homage to the late star on Saturday, with a look-alike contest, “Peek-A-Boo” cookies — and a spoonful of the actress’ purported ashes taking center stage.

While questions about the ashes’ authenticity hang over the event like Lake’s signature hairstyle, the boutique’s owner is convinced they are the real thing.

“It’s a strange little footnote to a fascinating legacy,” said Laura Levine, owner of Homer and Langley’s Mystery Spot in Phoenicia, N.Y. “I’m a huge fan of Veronica Lake. I just think she’s brilliant, gorgeous, incredibly talented and underappreciated.”

Lake was once one of Hollywood’s brightest lights, a contemporary of Oscar winners Ingrid Bergman and Joan Crawford, a co-star with Alan Ladd in the film noirs “This Gun for Hire” and “The Glass Key,” and with Joel McCrea in Preston Sturges’ “Sullivan’s Travels.”

When the actress died in her early 50s on July 7, 1973, she was an entertainment footnote. She was working as a New York cocktail waitress. Her sparsely attended Manhattan memorial service was paid for by a friend, veteran ghostwriter Donald Bain, who penned Lake’s autobiography. Not even her ashes made the event; they were stored at a Burlington, Vt., funeral home in a squabble over money, as best Bain can remember.

The remains remained there until March 1976, when two friends volunteered to bring Lake’s ashes to Florida. Bain sent the funeral home $200 to cover the back storage fees, and the ashes were shipped to the Park Avenue residence of Lake confidante William Roos.

Roos and pal Dick Toman took the ashes south for their ceremonial deposit in the water off Miami, just as Lake had once requested. The years passed, Toman died, Roos fell out of touch with Bain — and then, 28 years later, Lake’s ashes reappeared, along with an odd story of ownership.

According to Lake’s current keeper, Larry Brill, off-Broadway producer Ben Bagley saw the urn with Lake’s ashes while visiting Roos and became enamored of the attractive container. Roos, for reasons unexplained, later sent along the ashes to Bagley without the urn, said Brill.

A disappointed Bagley promptly poured the remains into a manila envelope and mailed them to Brill in about 1979. The amount was so small that it was clearly not all of her remains, suggesting that Roos might have saved some of the ashes as a keepsake.

“I have no reason not to believe the ashes are Veronica Lake,” said Brill, 65, a graphic designer and Lake fan. “Benny’s not going to dump some stranger’s ashes in an envelope.”

Bagley died in 1998, and neither Brill nor Bain knows what became of Roos. That leaves Bain as the last skeptical voice.

“How do you know these aren’t the ashes of a dog from the vet?” wondered the author of more than 80 books, including the “Murder She Wrote” mystery series under the Jessica Fletcher pseudonym and the amorous adventures of two swinging stewardesses in “Coffee, Tea or Me?”

Brill, who spends his weekends in the Catskills, brought the ashes to Levine’s store this summer. They quickly found a place among the shop’s garden gnomes, vintage clothing and paint-by-number art, and inspired the October tribute.

Brill plans to take the ashes back to Manhattan afterward, and said he was considering offers for the ashes from potential buyers.

“What am I going to do, leave it to my 13-year-old kid?” Brill said. “My kid could care less. He doesn’t know who she is.”

SOURCE

HOLLYWOOD LOVE: JERRY STILLER & ANNE MEARA

 Jerry Stiller on meeting Anne Meara: "She seemed to sense I had no money, so she just ordered coffee. Then she took all the silverware. I picked up her check for ten cents and thought, 'This is a girl I'd like to hang out with.'

Meara met Stiller in 1953, and they married in 1955, after a two-year relationship. Until he suggested it, she had never thought of doing comedy. "Jerry started us being a comedy team," she said. "He always thought I would be a great comedy partner." They joined the Chicago improvisational company The Compass Players (which later became The Second City), and after leaving, formed the comedy team of Stiller and Meara. In 1961, they were performing in nightclubs in New York, and by the following year were considered a "national phenomenon," said the New York Times.

Their often improvised comedy routines brought many of their relationship foibles to live audiences. Their skits focused on domestic themes, as did Nichols and May, another comedy team during that period from the Chicago Compass Players project. "They were Nichols and May without the acid and with warmth," notes author Lawrence Epstein. They also added a new twist to their comedy act, he adds, by sometimes playing up the fact that Stiller was Jewish and Meara was Catholic. After Nichols and May broke up as a team in 1961, Stiller and Meara were the number-one couple comedy team by the late 1960s. And as Mike Nichols and Elaine May were not married, Stiller and Meara became the most famous married couple comedy team since Burns and Allen.

Though Meara was born, baptized, and raised a Roman Catholic, she converted to Judaism six years after marrying Stiller. She took her conversion seriously and studied the Jewish faith in such depth that her Jewish-born husband quipped, "Being married to Anne has made me more Jewish." Anee Meara died in 2015, and Jerry Stiller died in 2020...