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...

RIP: SHELLEY DUVALL

Shelley Duvall, the big-eyed, waifish performer who won the Cannes actress award for Robert Altman‘s “3 Women” and endured Stanley Kubrick’s intense directing techniques to star in “The Shining,” died Thursday in Blanco, Texas, Variety confirmed with her partner Dan Gilroy. She was 75.

Duvall was known for working with director Altman, who cast her in “Brewster McCloud” as her first screen role. She went on to appear in his films “McCabe & Mrs. Miller” and “Thieves Like Us” before starring as part of the ensemble cast of “Nashville” in 1975. After gaining attention in “Nashville,” Altman cast her in “Buffalo Bill and the Indians,” then gave her unusual screen presence a chance to shine in “3 Women,” for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress as well as a BAFTA nomination.

Also in 1977, Duvall played a Rolling Stone journalist in Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall,” and met Paul Simon on the set. They dated for two years.

Duvall starred as Olive Oyl in Altman’s “Popeye” in 1980, a role that she seemed born to play, with her giant eyes. Her unnerving performance as a health spa worker in “3 Women” led Kubrick to cast her as Wendy Torrance, the wife of Jack Nicholson’s character in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” based on the Stephen King novel.

“The Shining” required more than a year of shooting, and throughout, the legendarily demanding director pushed Duvall to her limit. Some of her scenes in “The Shining” required more than 100 takes, with the baseball sequence landing in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most takes of a scene with dialogue.

Years later, she talked about the difficult shoot with the Hollywood Reporter. “After a while, your body rebels. It says: ‘Stop doing this to me. I don’t want to cry every day.’ And sometimes just that thought alone would make me cry. To wake up on a Monday morning, so early, and realize that you had to cry all day because it was scheduled — I would just start crying. I’d be like, ‘Oh no, I can’t, I can’t.’ And yet I did it. I don’t know how I did it. Jack said that to me, too. He said, ‘I don’t know how you do it.’“

Among her other roles were Terry Gilliam’s “Time Bandits” and the comedy “Roxanne” with Steve Martin.

During the 1980s, Duvall produced a series of children’s anthology shows based on classic stories. “Faerie Tale Theatre,” “Tall Tales & Legends,” “Nightmare Classics” and “Bedtime Stories” boasted notable directors including Tim Burton, Francis Ford Coppola and Ivan Passer and guest stars like Robin Williams, Jamie Lee Curtis, Elliot Gould, Laura Dern, Molly Ringwald and Ed Asner.


In recent years, she lived a reclusive life, her appearance on “Dr. Phil” in 2016 garnered negative publicity for sensationalizing her struggles with mental health. In 2021, she was interviewed by the Hollywood Reporter writer Seth Abramovitch, who traveled to Texas and found her happy to reminisce over her career and fondly regarded in her community in the Texas Hill Country, despite her eccentricities...

CELEBRITY ADS: PAULETTE GODDARD

So is RC (Royal Crown) cola even still made? I have a family picture from the 1980s where I can see it. Anyways, here is a nice looking ad with the nice looking Paulette Goddard. This ad is from 1945 since it talks about Goddard's film Duffy's Tavern...

KATE SMITH AND GOD BLESS AMERICA

It was 1938, and Kate Smith was in the market for a new brand.

She was several years into her singing career — a career that would span five decades and earn her a Presidential Medal of Freedom — and Smith’s manager, Ted Collins, wanted to change up her image. She was going to be wholesome, the girl next door. All-American.

So when they approached the composer Irving Berlin, in need of a new patriotic gem for Smith to perform on Armistice Day (now Veterans Day) in 1938, he had just the thing: an old tune, written and stashed away during his Army days 20 years earlier.

But “God Bless America” will surely survive, with a staying power that derives from the various meanings it has taken on for different people in different eras.

Early on, it was a lofty monument of patriotism as the United States climbed out of the Depression and then lurched into war. Seventy years later, it became a symbol of unity after the Sept. 11 attacks. Along the way, it has been performed by countless vocalists, bands and classrooms of schoolchildren, and spun off millions in royalties for two of Berlin’s favorite organizations, the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.

The song was written at an Army camp in the Long Island hamlet of Yaphank, which some years later would become home to a community of German-Americans who supported the Nazis. Berlin was writing “Yip, Yip, Yaphank,” a soldier-centric musical revue that would raise $150,000 on Broadway for the camp during World War I. “God Bless America” was meant to be the comedy’s finale, but Mr. Berlin deemed it too somber for the occasion. It was shelved until Smith came knocking.

According to the book “God Bless America: The Surprising History of an Iconic Song,” by Sheryl Kaskowitz, Smith sang it on the radio nearly every week for more than two years. Berlin sold more than half a million copies of the sheet music in 1939 alone. After the United States entered World War II, she performed the song (and others) during radio marathons to raise money for war bonds...

MUSIC BREAK: DOROTHY LAMOUR - THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF THE END

HISTORY OF A SONG: THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF THE END

 

I have always like the 1940s song "This Is The Beginning Of The End". It was written by the great Mack Gordon for the 1940 film Johnny Apollo which starred Tyrone Power, Dorothy Lamour, and Edward Arnold. Dorothy Lamour sang the song in the film and subsequently made a record of the song. Probably the best version of the song was by Tommy Dorsey and his young vocalist Frank Sinatra. However, I love versions by Lamour, Will Bradley & His Orchestra, Bob Crosby & His Orchestra, and Don Cornell to just name a few....

The lyrics are simple but touching...

This is the beginning of the end
I can see it in your eyes, in everything you do
And you're afraid to tell me that we're through
But I can tell by looking at you
This is the beginning of the end
You just give yourself away with everything you say
And though you never told me we must part
Still I can read the writing in your heart
Why is it now when I hold your hand
There is some little something that I miss
What has become of the warmth in your smile
And where is that little mischief in your goodnight kiss?
This is the beginning of the end
I can see the thrill is gone, why let it linger on
Why lie to me and say it isn't so
For when I hold you in my arms I know
That this, this is the beginning of the end

MUSIC BREAK: TOMMY DORSEY - THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF THE END

AN HONOR FOR CAROL BURNETT

"I remember, I was 10 or 11 years old, and I would put my handprints on Betty Grable's hands, and now they have mine 80 years later," Burnett told our blog.

Carol Burnett is returning to her roots.

On Thursday, June 20, Burnett got her hand and footprints cemented at the famous TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood — and it felt like a blast from the past, she told us. The actress, 91, says she grew up right down the street, and frequented the area often with her grandmother as a child.

“When I was a little girl, I was raised here, just on Yucca and Wilcox, Hollywood Boulevard was my street,” she recalls. “I remember, I was 10 or 11 years old, and I would put my handprints on Betty Grable's hands, and now they have mine 80 years later. Who knew?”

The Annie alum says being there for her own ceremony felt surreal, and she couldn’t help but feel like she was a kid again.

“When I put my hands down there today, I went back to Betty Grable, when I did it with them,” she explains. “All of a sudden I was a little girl again, putting my hands on Betty Grable's prints.”

“This is my roots,” noting that after living in the heart of Hollywood for 21 years, it is “quite a trip” to be in the position she admired so much.

“This [handprint] and then the Star on Hollywood Boulevard is in front of a theater where I worked as an usher,” she reveals. “So I’ve come full circle.”

In her speech, Burnett let out a little secret she had about the TCL theater — one she and her grandmother kept between them. She revealed that after they would splurge to see a Betty Grable movie, they'd get their money's worth from the experience.

"Before we'd leave, my grandmother said, 'Well, let's hit the ladies' room,'" she said before revealing: "So we would go in there and steal all the toilet paper. And she said, 'Well, we'll be set for another month.'"

Burnett was supported by her costars Laura Dern (Palm Royale) and Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul) at the event, along with Dick Van Dyke, who appeared on The Carol Burnett show, which ran from 1967 to 1978. Jimmy Kimmel also spoke in her honor...

JOHN SCHALCOSKY: A PITTSBURGH LEGEND

Please read this story about John Schalcosky. He is a Pittsburgh legend, and one of the greatest Pittsburghers that I have ever met. Please consider donating at the bottom of this story as well...

With over 140,000 likes and 151,000 followers of Facebook, John Schalcosky’s “Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh” page has struck a nerve with Yinzers from all walks.

Through his extensive research and unlimited curiosity, Schalcosky found tales of forgotten Pittsburgh firsts, astounding true crime, sports facts that would make any lover of black and gold beam with pride and so much more.

But, for over a year, Schalcosky has been focused on something even more important than our history, his life and family.

Diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome,) a rare ailment that affects someone’s nerves), ulcerative colitis and diverticulitis, Schalcosky’s time was focused on pain management and preparing for a very serious surgery.

He told the media before he had the critical procedure last week, he was contemplating a future he may not have been a part of.

“Literally life & death situation,” said Schalcosky. “I had to come to terms that I might not pull through this last (surgery) I just had. I mentally prepared myself for the worst.”

Remarkably though, and (what some would say is an odd and fascinating development) Schalcosky is feeling like a completely different person, just days after the invasive procedure.

“It's crazy really,” said Schalcosky. “Like a total difference in health seemingly. I feel like a million bucks right now & I'm full of ideas & such.”

That doesn’t mean his body isn’t feeling the effects of the surgery.

“As of right now, I'm still in lots of surgery pain but internally, I feel that my surgeon (Dr. Nosik) truly did fix me up whereas it's a night & day difference from my last surgery.” Schalcosky had a similar, emergency surgery earlier in the year.

Calling it a miracle recovery, Schalcosky says he isn't surprised how things have turned out. His life has been full of coincidences, or maybe something more?

"There's so many weird & serendipitous parts to this story," said Schalcosky.

So, if you were missing your daily dose of weird Pittsburgh history and stories, Schalcosky plans on getting back to work soon.

“I can now devote 100% of my time on doing what I love to do & that's connect the world to each other through Pittsburgh history.”

But before Odd Pittsburgh once again becomes a place to learn about the Steel City, his wife Lisa posted a note of thanks to everyone who has supported them during John’s long struggle.

“Pittsburgh, you exemplify the true meaning of community,” wrote John’s wife Lisa. “We are deeply thankful for your continued support as John continues to recover. Your generosity has given us hope and comfort during this challenging time. We are forever grateful to be part of such a remarkable city and to have neighbors like you! Thank you, from the depths of our hearts, for being there when we needed it most. Your love and solidarity mean everything to us.”

Even though Schalcosky is feeling better, he and his family are still dealing with mounting medical bills.

You can help support the Schalcosky family here.

Learn more about John's conditions here.

HEALTHWATCH: GENA ROWLANDS

Gena Rowlands is living with Alzheimer’s disease, her son Nick Cassavetes announced. Nick directed his mother in 2004’s “The Notebook,” said Rowlands is “in full dementia.” A four-time Emmy winner and two-time Golden Globe winner, Rowlands is a screen icon best known for her acclaimed collaborations with husband John Cassavetes, including the films “A Woman Under the Influence” (1974) and “Gloria” (1980). Both performances earned her Oscar nominations for best actress. She received an honorary Academy Award in 2015.

“I got my mom to play older Allie, and we spent a lot of time talking about Alzheimer’s and wanting to be authentic with it, and now, for the last five years, she’s had Alzheimer’s,” Cassavetes said. “She’s in full dementia. And it’s so crazy — we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us.”

Rowlands played the older version of Rachel McAdams’ Allie in “The Notebook,” with James Garner and Ryan Gosling starring as the older and younger version of her love interest, Noah. The film grossed $117 million at the worldwide box office and endures as one of the most popular romance films of the 2000s.

Cassavetes’ grandmother and Rowlands’ mother, the actress Lady Rowlands, also had Alzheimer’s disease. Rowlands told O magazine in 2004 while promoting “The Notebook” that she channeled her mother while playing Allie.

“This last one — ‘The Notebook,’ based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks — was particularly hard because I play a character who has Alzheimer’s,” Rowlands told the publication at the time. “I went through that with my mother, and if Nick hadn’t directed the film, I don’t think I would have gone for it — it’s just too hard. It was a tough but wonderful movie.”

Speaking to our blog, Nick Cassavetes said that he has nothing but fond memories of working with his mother on “The Notebook” set. He remembered one moment in which studio executives forced him to reshoot the ending because they wanted Rowland’s older Allie to cry more when she realizes her history with Garner’s Noah.

“She said, ‘Let me get this straight. We’re reshooting because of my performance?,'” Cassavetes remembered. “We go to reshoots, and now it’s one of those things where mama’s pissed and I had asked her, ‘Can you do it, mom?’ She goes, ‘I can do anything,’. I promise you, on my father’s life, this is true: Teardrops came flying out of her eyes [on the first take] when she saw [Garner], and she burst into tears. And I was like, okay, well, we got that… It’s the one time I was in trouble on set.”

Rowlands’ last feature film role was the 2014 comedy “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks,” co-starring Cheyenne Jackson...

THE LAST WILL OF ROBIN WILLIAMS

The will of the actor Robin Williams became the subject of a legal dispute between his wife and his three children. Robin Williams left all his $100 million estate to his adult children Zachary, Zelda and Cody. There was an additional provision in the will that his wife Susan Schneider Williams should live in the house they shared in Tiburon. The will stated that she should live in it for her lifetime, but that the children will eventually inherit that as well.

Williams had recently updated his will prior to taking his own life in August 2014. No doubt he had wanted to make it clear as to his exact wishes of the distribution of his assets should be. However, unfortunately as sometimes happens, family members disputed how the estate should be allocated. He had specified in his will the large items such as the house and the money. However, it appears that there was some ambiguity over who kept the items in the house where he lived with his wife.

There followed a bitter and no doubt expensive, legal dispute over the distribution of his estate. The dispute was over who was entitled to keep personal items. His widow and his children each wanted to keep sentimental items such as his clothes, his fossil and graphics novels collection and personal photographs. His widow claimed that all the personal items in the home should not be included in the items willed to his children. This was the crux of the matter to be decided before the courts. His widow argued that by expressing the wish that she lived in the house, her husband had implied that the contents would also be hers. The children argued that the will was clear in his intent to give his personal possessions solely to them.

The parties managed to settle their dispute out of court in October 2015. The terms of the settlement were not made public, but it is known that his widow will remain in the home. There is a trust set up for the expenses of the maintenance of the property. Susan Schneider Williams also received some personal items such as a watch, and their wedding gifts.

This unfortunate dispute shows that you need to be as clear as possible in the terms of your will. Unfortunately, though where families are involved there can never be a guarantee that someone won’t challenge the terms of your will. However, a well drafted will is always difficult to challenge so should deter people from trying to make it the subject of a dispute...

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RIP: DONALD SUTHERLAND

Donald Sutherland, the beloved actor who starred in scores of films from The Dirty Dozen, MASH and Klute to Animal House and Ordinary People to Pride & Prejudice and The Hunger Games franchise and won an Emmy for Citizen X, died Thursday in Miami after a long illness. He was 88.

The 2017 Honorary Oscar recipient also is the father of Emmy-winning 24 and Designated Survivor actor Kiefer Sutherland and veteran CAA Media Finance exec Roeg Sutherland. CAA confirmed the news to Deadline.

In some of his most well-known roles, he perfected a laconic, wry and dead-serious delivery as such characters as the cool-headed amateur murder investigator John Klute, opposite Jane Fonda’s terrified, erratic call girl Bree Daniels, in Klute; as the Hawkeye Pierce in the film MASH, where he played opposite Elliott Gould’s cut-up Trapper John; and in Nicolas Reog’s Don’t Look Now as skeptical John Baxter, who does not believe the claims of wife Laura (Julie Christie) that their recently dead daughter is reaching out from the other side.

In one early change-of-pace characterization, Sutherland played a sadistic fascist in Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1976 epic 1900, in which his character gleefully swings a child by the heels, bashing the boy’s head against a wall.

Born on July 17, 1935, in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, Donald Sutherland amassed some 200 film and TV credits spanning more than 60 years, from guesting on episodes of 1960s series including Suspense, The Avengers, Court Martial and The Odd Man to last year’s Paramount+ drama Bass Reeves. His big break in movies came with Robert Aldrich’s star-packed 1967 World War II drama The Dirty Dozen, playing Vernon Pinkley opposite Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, George Kennedy, Telly Savalas and others. A hit in theaters, it remains a seminal American war movie.

His next big role was as Capt. Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce in Robert Altman’s 1970 Korean War dramedy MASH. The alternatively harrowing and hilarious film earned five Oscar nominations including Best Picture, winning for Ring Lardner Jr.’s biting screenplay, and fueled the 1972-83 CBS series in which Alda Alda played Hawkeye.

Sutherland followed that with another star-laden war movie, 1970’s Kelly’s Heroes, playing Sgt. Oddball alongside Clint Eastwood, Don Rickles, Savalas and others. That led to perhaps his biggest star turn, in the 1971 Alan J. Pakula crime drama Klute. He starred opposite Fonda as New York Detective John Klute, who is hired to find a chemical company executive who has disappeared. Fonda won her first Oscar for the role, and Andy Lewis & Dave Lewis were nominated for their Original Screenplay.

Sutherland’s next big movie was Nicolas Roeg’s psychological thriller Don’t Look Now, which he followed up with the 1974 international espionage comedy S*P*Y*S, reteaming with Gould, and 1975’s Hollywood-set Day of the Locust. Starring with William Atherton, Karen Black and Burgess Meredith, he played accountant Homer Simpson, who covets Black’s aspiring actress Faye Greener.

With his film career in high gear, Sutherland starred in yet another big-name war movie in The Eagle Has Landed (1976), with Michael Caine and Robert Duvall, and then had a small role in the 1977 John Landis-directed farce The Kentucky Fried Movie, penned by future Airplane! filmmakers David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker.

1978 would see Sutherland headline three disparate films: heist comedy The Great Train Robbery with Seaon Connery and Lesley-Anne Down; horror thriller remake Invasion of the Body Snatchers with Brooke Adams and Jeff Goldblum; and the beloved early-’60s fraternity romp Animal House, also directed by Landis

He had a supporting but key role in the latter, playing Faber College English lit Professor Dave Jennings. His deadpan character bores his classes with lectures on John Milton in one scene and is sleeping with student Katy (Karen Allen) in the next. She was the girlfriend of Boon (Peter Riegert), one of the Delta Chi fraternity members. The cast also included John Belushi, Tim Matheson, Stephen Furst, Bruce McGill, KEvin Bacon, Amadeus Oscar winner Tom Hulce and John Vernon.

Sutherland is survived by his wife Francine Racette; sons Roeg, Rossif, Angus, and Kiefer; daughter Rachel; and four grandchildren. A private celebration of life will be held by the family. Donald made his last movie and television appearances in 2023...

WHAT A CHARACTER: MARGARET DUMONT

One of the true great straight ladies of comedy was Margaret Dumont. She was the comedic foil in many Marx Brothers movies, but she was actually a wonderful actress.Dumont was born Daisy Juliette Baker in 1882 Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of William and Harriet Anna (née Harvey) Baker. Her mother was a music teacher and encouraged Daisy's singing career from an early age.

Dumont trained as an operatic singer and actress in her teens and began performing on stage in the US and Europe, at first under the name Daisy Dumont and later as Margaret (or Marguerite - French for Daisy) Dumont. Her theatrical debut was in Sleeping Beauty and the Beast at the Chestnut Theater in Philadelphia; in August 1902, two months before her 20th birthday, she appeared as a singer/comedian in a vaudeville act in Atlantic City. The dark-haired soubrette, described by a theater reviewer as a "statuesque beauty," attracted notice later that decade for her vocal and comedic talents in The Girl Behind the Counter (1908), The Belle of Brittany (1909), and The Summer Widower (1910). In 1910, she married millionaire sugar heir and industrialist John Moller Jr and retired from stage work, although she had a small uncredited role as an aristocrat in a 1917 film adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities.The marriage was childless, and Margaret would never marry again.

In 1925, she played a stuffy heiress in the Marx Brothers broadway show Coconuts. In the Marxes' next Broadway show, Animal Crackers, which opened in October 1928, Dumont again was cast as foil and straight woman Mrs. Rittenhouse, another wealthy, high society widow. She appeared with the Marxes in the screen versions of both The Cocoanuts (1929) and Animal Crackers (1930). Through 1941, Margaret appeared in seven Marx Brothers films. 

All together, Margaret appeared in 57 films from 1917 to 1964. Dumont played dramatic parts in films including Youth on Parole (1937), Dramatic School (1938), Stop, You're Killing Me (1952), Three for Bedroom C (1952), and Shake, Rattle & Rock! (1956). Her last film role was that of Shirley MacLaine's mother, Mrs. Foster, in What a Way to Go! (1964).

On February 26, 1965, eight days before her death, Dumont made her final acting appearance on the television program The Hollywood Palace, where she was reunited with Groucho, the week's guest host. They performed material from Captain Spaulding's introductory scene in Animal Crackers, including the song "Hooray for Captain Spaulding." The taped show was broadcast on April 17, 1965. Dumont died from a heart attack on March 6, 1965. She was cremated and her ashes were interred at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles. She was 82, although many obituaries erroneously gave her age as 75.

In 2023, her remains were removed from non-public vaultage in the basement to a publicly accessible niche in the chapel columbarium. Margaret Dumont was the butt of many of Groucho Marx's jokes, but she definitely was quite a character!