BING CROSBY - THE HOLLYWOOD YEARS: PART 6

RIP: GENE HACKMAN

Gene Hackman could trace back his entire acting career to one moment when he was 13 years old: His father left the family and, as he left, he walked right past his son and said nothing — just gave a slight wave.

Decades later, Hackman said he still thought about that little wave, and how much an actor could show, or hide, with just one understated gesture.

Hackman channeled that experience into a long career in acting, appearing in more than 100 movies and TV shows. The two-time Oscar winner and his wife were found dead in their New Mexico home, a Santa Fe County Sheriff's spokesperson said Thursday. Hackman was 95 years old.

Santa Fe County Sheriff's Department spokesperson Denise Avila confirmed the deaths in a statement.

In a released statement, the sheriff's spokesperson did not provide a cause of death for Hackman or his 64-year-old wife, Betsy Arakawa. The pair and a dog were found dead Wednesday afternoon in their home. Foul play was not suspected, authorities said.

Hackman played complicated men — many of them not very nice. He won his first Oscar for his performance in the 1972 film The French Connection, in which he played a hard-nosed New York cop who roughs up a drug dealer — while dressed in a Santa suit. He won his second Academy Award playing a sadistic sheriff in the 1992 Western Unforgiven.

Hackman was tough in real life, too. He went to jail at 16 for stealing, and right after that talked his way into the Marines. Hackman bumped around for a decade, then signed up for acting lessons at the prestigious Pasadena Playhouse. He hated everyone there — except for a short kid with a big nose named Dustin Hoffman. Hackman and Hoffman were both kicked out of the program for lack of acting talent, so they moved to New York and slowly broke into the movies.

"It's always more fun to play heavy than it is to play a good guy," Hackman told Fresh Air's Terry Gross in 1999.

He did play some good guys — the inspirational coach in the movie Hoosiers, a preacher in the Poseidon Adventure — but Hackman was a coiled snake of an actor, always with a hint of menace. Hackman said he dug for intense emotions in his roles and kept them under wraps.

"I find in me a sadistic streak," he said. "I find something in me that maybe might not be very attractive, but I feel might be valuable in this context — under certain circumstances we're all capable of murder, I suppose."

Hackman epitomized a 1970s, edgy, tightly wound masculinity. He intimidated the cast of The Royal Tennenbaums, from 2001, including Luke Wilson, who played his adopted son. In a Fresh Air interview a few years later, Wilson remembered doing a scene with Hackman — his idol. Wilson kept fumbling his lines.

"He just looked back at me with this glance that shivered me to the bone," Wilson recalled with a laugh. "And needless to say, I nailed it on the next take."

The part was written with Hackman in mind, but director Wes Anderson told Fresh Air it took him months to convince Hackman to do it.

"He was happiest when he was doing a hard shot," Anderson said. "He's such a good actor he can do anything and he sort of likes a chance to stretch his legs."

Hackman tried stretching his legs in other directions — he painted and wrote novels. He retired from acting multiple times during his career, but multiple times, he returned.

"If you've done it as long as I have, it's very hard to drop it." he explained. "You know, there's something very seductive about acting. You come to work and there's 90 people waiting for you to do something. There's something both very heady, and seductive and unattractive about that."

Some critics thought he made too many small, weird movies in the 1960s and too much commercial dreck in the 1980s and after. But unflinching, funny, surly, and a study in self-possession — Hackman became one of the most sought-after actors of his generation...

HOLLYWOOD URBAN LEGEND: ROBIN WILLIAMS

URBAN LEGEND: Did Robin Williams hire homeless people to work on his movies?

ANSWER: YES!

It is amazing that Robin Williams for every movie he was shooting, asked the production company to hire at least 10 homeless people to get them jobs, throughout his career he helped about 1520 homeless people ! A great man, a great heart...

BEHIND THE LAUGHTER: THE BLUES BROTHERS

When John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd first took the stage as Jake and Elwood Blues in "The Blues Brothers" (1980), they brought to life an unforgettable duo. Aykroyd and Belushi, already celebrated for their chemistry on "Saturday Night Live," were known for creating comedy gold together. Yet, the story behind the making of "The Blues Brothers" went beyond just laughter it was a project fueled by Aykroyd’s passion for rhythm and blues, Belushi's magnetic presence, and a wild, unpredictable journey that nearly derailed the entire film.

Belushi was the undeniable star on set, famously dubbed "America’s Guest" because of his knack for getting free meals, drinks, and favors wherever he went. Even during filming, his energy was boundless. One night, he vanished from set while shooting in a Chicago suburb. After hours of searching, Aykroyd found him asleep on a couch inside a stranger's house. The owner didn’t even mind, having been won over by Belushi’s charm earlier that night.

Dan Aykroyd, who wrote the original script, presented a 300-page draft to director John Landis. This document wasn’t a typical screenplay but a deep dive into the Blues Brothers' world, outlining their backgrounds, the origins of their love for the blues, and even a guide to Chicago's music scene. Landis had to trim it down, focusing the story on the brothers' mission to save their beloved orphanage by reuniting their old band. The movie became a celebration of blues music, featuring legends like Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and James Brown, who each had their moments to shine alongside the chaotic antics of Belushi and Aykroyd.

The movie’s car chases became legendary. It held the record for the most cars destroyed in a single film for years, with a staggering 103 vehicles meeting their end. Aykroyd and Belushi weren’t content with faking the high-speed chaos many scenes were filmed at real speeds, and Belushi insisted on performing most of the stunts himself. His commitment to authenticity even led to injuries, but he shrugged them off, determined to make each scene perfect.

Off-camera, Belushi’s wild lifestyle mirrored his on-screen persona. Aykroyd once recalled how Belushi’s drug use started to spiral out of control during production. They were shooting at night, and Belushi often partied until dawn, only to stumble onto set with a second wind of energy. His charisma never waned, but the toll it took was visible to those closest to him. Aykroyd later mentioned in interviews that he felt a deep sense of responsibility to keep the film on track while protecting his friend, even as the pressures of the shoot mounted.

Ray Charles, a key figure in the film, remembered Belushi's eagerness to learn from the legends. He respected Belushi’s dedication to the blues. "He had a way of making people laugh and feel good, but when it came to music, he was dead serious," Charles noted in an interview. This dedication showed during the filming of musical numbers. Belushi's vocals on "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" captured his raw energy, pushing the song to a new height, while Aykroyd's harmonica skills added authenticity to every scene they played.

The production wasn’t without its hurdles. Universal Pictures executives worried about the film’s soaring budget and Aykroyd’s unorthodox approach to storytelling. Delays, nighttime shoots, and frequent rewrites made them nervous, but the cast’s undeniable talent reassured the producers. During a pivotal scene at Ray’s Music Exchange, Belushi’s impromptu dance moves left the crew in awe. His comedic timing and Aykroyd’s steady rhythm became the backbone of the film, cementing their on-screen partnership as iconic.

On-set pranks became the norm. Belushi was notorious for his antics, like filling Aykroyd’s trailer with live chickens or switching props at the last minute. Landis was often exasperated but appreciated the duo’s chemistry, noting that their antics were "part of the package." Even the cast and crew couldn’t help but laugh, knowing that the energy Belushi and Aykroyd brought to each take would translate into pure magic on screen.

When it came time to film the finale, featuring a massive car pile-up in downtown Chicago, the city had granted special permission for the chaos to unfold. Local residents lined the streets, witnessing Belushi and Aykroyd sprinting through crowds as the police cars stacked up behind them. Aykroyd called that moment a "love letter to Chicago," paying tribute to the city’s vibrant energy and history...

MUSIC AND THE PRESIDENCY

Elise K. Kirk, author of Music at the White House: A History of the American Spirit and Musical Highlights from the White House, says that the executive mansion is “the oldest performing arts venue in America.” Presidents throughout history have been deeply moved by classical music. Some were musicians themselves — John Adams played the flute, Woodrow Wilson sang and played the violin, Richard Nixon played the piano and Bill Clinton even had an entire music room in the White House for playing his saxophone. Others were devoted fans who couldn’t play a note or hum a tune.

On this first installment of the WQXR five-part series Music in the White House, Kirk identifies the most musically talented presidents of the 19th and 20th centuries: Thomas Jefferson and Harry Truman.

When Jefferson took office in 1801, he brought with him a deep love of classical music. In addition to playing the violin, he’d recently lived in Paris, a city brimming with glorious music that Washington simply wasn’t ready for. The city “was just cow paths,” and the White House was still unfinished. But Jefferson did what he could to fill his terms with music. He had a deep admiration for the United States Marine Band, an organization that he felt was important to the ceremonial history of the White House. He hired musicians from Italy to enhance and enlarge the band and he invited them to play at his inauguration, starting a tradition that continues today.

When Truman took office in 1945, Washington, D.C. had grown up considerably. Some of the great classical music had travelled across the Atlantic and this was reflected in the Truman’s music tastes. Truman studied the piano as a young boy, growing up on Mozart, Haydn, Liszt and Chopin. As president, he always had a piano by his desk and a radio by his bed, and he never passed a piano without playing a tune. He particularly loved Mozart’s A Major Sonata, which he played for an audience of 30 million Americans during the first televised tour of the White House in 1952, as well as during a conference in Potsdam with Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and pianist Eugene List in attendance.

Despite his love of music, Truman’s White House was not as full of musicales and performances as he would have liked. When the leg of his daughter Margaret’s piano fell through the floor due to the wood having decayed over the years, it was clear that the White House required serious renovation. This sent the First Family to live off-site in a guest house for the majority of Truman’s presidency. Fortunately, the piano incident did not deter Margaret from her music studies. She went on to become a professional singer (and indeed the only opera singer that Truman could bear to listen to).

So it was that two of the most musically talented presidents had two of the least musical tenures in the White House. And by a funny twist of fate, two of the least musical presidents — Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy — presided over a White House absolutely full of classical music....

SOURCE

A VALENTINE TRIBUTE TO MY WIFE

I don't post a lot of personal things here, but today marks the 22nd Valentine I have spent with my beautiful wife. Our wedding song "At Last" highlights some of the pictures of us through the years. I sure am lucky on this Valentine's Day and always...

JACKIE GLEASON'S SECRETS TO THE PERFECT MARRIAGE

 JACKIE GLEASON SECRET TO THE PERFECT MARRIAGE

1. Two times a week we go to a nice restaurant, have a little beverage, good food and companionship. She goes on Tuesdays, I go on Fridays.

2. We also sleep in separate beds. Hers is in California and mine is in Texas.

3. I take my wife everywhere, but she keeps finding her way back.

4. I asked my wife where she wanted to go for our anniversary. "Somewhere I haven't been in a long time!" she said. So I suggested the kitchen.

5. We always hold hands. If I let go, she shops.

6. She has an electric blender, electric toaster and electric bread maker. She said "There are too many gadgets, and no place to sit down!" So I bought her an electric chair.

7. My wife told me the car wasn't running well because there was water in the carburetor. I asked where the car was. She told me, "In the lake."

8. She got a mud pack and looked great for two days. Then the mud fell off.

9. She ran after the garbage truck, yelling, "Am I too late for the garbage?" The driver said, "No, jump in!".

10. Remember: Marriage is the number one cause of divorce.

11. I married Miss Right. I just didn't know her first name was 'Always'.

12. I haven't spoken to my wife in 18 months. I don't like to interrupt her.

13. The last fight was my fault though. My wife asked, "What's on the TV?" I said, "Dust!".

Can't you just hear him say all of these?

THE DECLINE OF THE HOWARD STERN SHOW

 Many of my readers will be surprised that I am a Howard Stern. He was a part of my growing up in the 1990s. You never knew what was going to come out of Stern's mouth. 1994 was a lot different than 2024. Howard Stern is a lot different now. Before Stern went mainstream there was just something so wrong about him that you had to listen to him. It is impossible to listen to him now and talk about the latest cat he saved with his young wife or the latest interview he had with the boring Bruce Springstein. When did he change? Here is the timeline:

December 2009: Amid continuing addiction issues, Artie Lange departs the Howard Stern Show. The show chooses not to fill the "Artie Chair"

January 2011: At the start of a new contract with SiriusXM, the show drops from airing regularly 4 days a week (Monday to Thursday) to airing regularly 3 days a week (Monday to Wednesday).

April 2012: Stern and Buchwald's lawsuit against SiriusXM (over claims that SiriusXM did not pay them annual subscriber bonuses after Sirius merged with XM and absorbed XM's subscribers) is dismissed "with prejudice." Though Stern continues working with SiriusXM and signs (at least) two 5-year renewals with the company, it has been suggested by fans that this leaves Stern bitter and less willing to develop original content for his channels.

2012: Marci Turk, with no previous radio experience, is hired as Chief Operating Officer of the Howard Stern Show. Unlike other staff members, she is rarely referenced on air. In media profiles since her hiring, Turk has been credited with "softening" the image of Stern and his show and attracting bigger-name celebrities to come on as guests.

October 2012: Longtime regular Gilbert Gottfried makes his final appearance on the show, though rumors persist that he was ostensibly banned for spitting on cupcakes in the hallway during a previous appearance in November 2010. Gilbert later reveals in interviews that he was told by Baba Booey that the show "doesn't book stand-ups" anymore. Please note that Amy Schumer is a regular guest on the show over the next decade.

December 2012: Though the video is not leaked until 2019, Stern addresses his staff at "Revolution 2013" that has become known as "The Pelican Brief." During the nearly hour-long presentation, Stern lectures his staff on numerous topics, including how to attract more "A-list" celebrities to the show. This includes the often-ridiculed suggestion that he created the careers of major stars like Jerry Seinfeld and that the staff should create fake Twitter accounts to encourage celebrities to go on the Stern show.

December 2013: Howard TV is discontinued. Stern hypes its upcoming replacement, "Howard 360", which is eventually revealed to be simply video clips from the show on the SiriusXM app. Notable Howard TV personalities that contributed to the show, such as Scott DePace, are gone from the show.

September 2014: Eric the Actor, whose calls regularly took up hours of airtime, dies. C-level callers like Bobo and Hanzi are soon elevated, likely to fill Eric's usual airtime. Hanzi is banned from the show in April 2016.

January 16, 2015: The Wrap-Up Show officially becomes the Jon and Gary call-in show with the occasional D-level guest that rarely features anything but Jon and Gary talking about how great the show was that day. Other staff members are banned from sitting in on the show.

May 2019: Stern publishes a book of interview transcripts, Howard Stern Comes Again. Promotion for the book further pushes the "World's Greatest Interviewer" angle. In the book and promotional interviews, Stern cites a disastrous interview with Robin Williams as one of his biggest regrets (and that he tried to apologize to Williams before he died), though no one can find such an interview as it is described by Stern. The book sells 147,000 copies in its first week. In contrast, Private Parts sold over 1 million copies in its first 3 weeks.

March 2020: As a result of COVID-19, the Howard Stern Show staff begins "broadcasting" from their homes. Listeners suspect that some content and interviews are pre-taped, and the staff continues to work from home long after many other prominent broadcasters have returned to their studios. Robin's News, a staple of the show from decades, is abruptly ended. As of March 2021, the show is still being broadcast from home...

RIP: The Howard Stern Show...

HISTORY BREAK: FIRST DRIVE UP GAS STATION

The first drive-up gas station was created in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania in 1913.

It was on Baum Boulevard, which at the time was known as automobile row because of all of the auto dealerships in that area.

So next time you stop at a Wawa or a Rutters or a Sheetz and think about why our gas stations in PA are so much nicer than other states, remember it's because we've had more time to refine the business model

DAVID DUNCAN'S HOLLYWOOD: DR. JEYKLL AND MR. HYDE

RECENTLY VIEWED: SATURDAY NIGHT

 

Wow, I just had the opportunity to watch the excellent film Saturday Night on Netflix. What a great movie! Saturday Night is a 2024 American biographical comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman, about the night of the 1975 premiere of NBC's Saturday Night, later known as Saturday Night Live. The film stars an ensemble cast portraying the various Saturday Night cast and crew, led by Gabriel LaBelle as the show's creator and producer, Lorne Michaels. Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O'Brien, Emily Fairn, Matt Wood, Lamorne Morris, Kim Matula, Finn Wolfhard, Nicholas Braun, Cooper Hoffman, Andrew Barth Feldman, Kaia Gerber, Tommy Dewey, Willem Dafoe, Matthew Rhys, and J. K. Simmons also star.

On October 11, 1975, up-and-coming producer Lorne Michaels arrives at NBC Studios in New York City to prepare for the airing of the first episode of NBC's Saturday Night.

The evening is fraught with accidents and a dysfunctional cast and crew. Michaels' boss, Dick Ebersol, warns him that David Tebet has brought executives from across the country to come and view the broadcast. Despite Tebet giving encouraging words to Michaels, Ebersol makes it known that Tebet has no faith in the show and is ready to replay a taping of an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to fill in the time.

Garrett Morris, who has a background in operatic theater, ponders his place among a cast of comedic performers; John Belushi remains detached from everyone and constantly initiates fights; Jim Henson complains over how his Muppets segment is being treated by the writers; the writers themselves are at war with censor Joan Carbunkle and her demands; host George Carlin thinks the whole show is a sham; and everyone is trying to figure out what exactly the show is about. Meanwhile, Chevy Chase confronts Milton Berle when he begins to hit on his girlfriend, Jacqueline, gets told off and is warned that he will become nothing. Michaels soon receives a call from Johnny Carson himself, who gives a very unsupportive warning.

Despite Michaels warning him not to, Ebersol attempts to sell the idea of performing a sketch with a Polaroid camera for product placement purposes. Belushi becomes enraged and storms off set with the intention of quitting. As everyone looks for him, assistant Neil Levy is given a joint by Paul Shaffer and panics, locking himself in a closet. He is eventually coaxed out by the cast. To ease the stress, Michaels heads to a local bar, where he comes across comedy writer Alan Zweibel and hires him on the spot to become a writer on the show. He, along with Gilda Radner, later find Belushi ice skating and convince him to return to the show and sign his contract. Michaels is further motivated to continue with the show after having a brief chat with Henson.

Tebet arrives, demanding that the show be shut down unless Michaels shows him exactly what it entails. Andy Kaufman performs his Mighty Mouse skit, which makes everyone laugh. Michaels then tells Chase to take over Weekend Update, which he had planned to host himself. Chase does an impromptu version of Weekend Update using Zweibel's newly written material, which lands. The audience arrives and fills the venue as cast and crew finish all the sets and get into place. Tebet allows the live show to proceed on air. Michael O'Donoghue and Belushi perform the Wolverine sketch, which is well received by the audience. In the film’s final moments, Chase enters the scene and announces, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!"

Nicholas Braun amazed me in a dual role as Jim Henson AND Andy Kaufman. He gained fame on the HBO series "Succession". The real scene stealer for me was J.K. Simmons as Milton Berle. He not only captured how Berle acted but he looked so much like him. The whole cast did well, and while they were not the famous first season cast, they all resembled and acted like the original stars enough that you forgot for a moment this was a bio film and not a documentary. I recommend this movie for anyone who was a fan of the early Saturday Night Live, and also just a fan of a good biographical film...

MY RATING: 9 OUT OF 10

THE BOX OFFICE STARS: 1956

 Here are the biggest names in movies in 1956. It was a great year for the cinema:

                                             

1. William Holden
2. John Wayne
3. James Stewart

4. Burt Lancaster
5. Glenn Ford
6. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis
7. Marilyn Monroe
8. Gary Cooper
9. Kim Novak
10. Frank Sinatra

       

     

THE RETURN OF THE HOLLYWOOD SQUARES

Let’s face it. No one can match the campy and snarky Paul Lynde as the center square on Hollywood Squares. Joan Rivers couldn’t do it. Whoopi Goldberg couldn’t do it. Martin Mull couldn’t do it. Nor could anyone else that might have sat in that prestigious spot on this classic game show. So, giving that honor to Drew Barrymore, who is not a comedian, is an immediate miscalculation in this latest revival of Hollywood Squares.

Of course, Drew Barrymore already hosts a daytime talk show for CBS Media Ventures (the syndication arm for CBS). And she is also an executive producer on Hollywood Squares. So, we get why she is the center square. But she is just not qualified for it. That aside, two episodes into the revival of Hollywood Squares and it was just plain fun.

Hosted by Nate Burleson of CBS Mornings and The NFL Today in a flashy set complete with a modernized theme song, the interplay between the celebrities was quite entertaining. Burleson adepty contolled the comedic hijinks. And the rapid speed zingers through each half-hour makes you hunger for more. So, to package back-to-back episodes of Hollywood Squares in an hour-long window was the right decision for CBS.

Like any showcase of a roster of “celebrities” (some of which you may not consider worthy of that descriptor), there are hits and misses. I will leave it to you to decide who you liked...and didn’t. And the list of participants in these first two installments of Hollywood Squares included Julie Bowen, Tyra Banks, Tiffany Haddish, Drew Carey, Pete Holmes, Bobby Moynihan, Whitney Cummings, Thomas Lennon, Jeff Ross, Debi Mazar, Chelsea Peretti, JB Smoove, Tichina Arnold, Nicole Byer and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog...

BORN ON THIS DAY: JEAN STAPLETON

The talented Jean Stapleton was born on January 19, 1923 in Manhattan. She was the daughter of Marie A. Stapleton, an opera singer, and Joseph E. Murray, a billboard advertising salesman.She had an elder brother, Jack. Her uncle was a vaudevillian performer, and her brother was a stage actor who inspired her to pursue acting.

Stapleton began her career in 1942 aged 18 in summer stock theatre and made her New York debut in the Off-Broadway play American Gothic. She was featured on Broadway in several hit musicals, such as Funny Girl, Juno, Damn Yankees and Bells Are Ringing, recreating her parts from the latter two musicals in the film versions of Damn Yankees (1958) (her film debut) and Bells Are Ringing (1960).

Stapleton's early television roles included parts in Starlight Theatre, Robert Montgomery Presents, Lux Video Theater, Woman with a Past, The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse, The Patty Duke Show, Dr. Kildare, My Three Sons, Dennis the Menace, Naked City, and as Rosa Criley in a 1963 episode of NBC's medical drama about psychiatry, The Eleventh Hour, entitled "The Bride Wore Pink". In 1962, Stapleton guest-starred as Mrs. Larsen in "The Hidden Jungle", an episode of the TV series The Defenders (broadcast on December 1 that year), alongside her future All in the Family co-star Carroll O'Connor.

Stapleton bested both Mary Tyler Moore and Marlo Thomas for the "Best Actress in a Comedy" Primetime Emmy award on May 9, 1971. She was offered the role of Mrs. Teevee in the feature film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), but declined because it coincided with the production of the All in the Family pilot (the role ultimately went to Nora Denney).

Stapleton's played the role of Edith in All in the Family, which premiered in 1971. The show was originally broadcast on the CBS network for nine seasons from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979, for a total of 205 episodes. The role earned her three Emmys and two Golden Globes. And the rest is history. Happy birthday dingbat!

REMEMBERING ORDINARY PEOPLE

Mary Tyler Moore was shocked by Robert Redford's offer that she portray Beth in "Ordinary People" (1980), especially given her sunny, warm and highly connective screen persona. Moore stated that, in response to her surprise, Redford confided that he'd had her in mind for the role since the first time he'd read the novel. Lee Remick and Ann-Margret were both suggested for the role of Beth, but Redford said in interviews that he had seen Moore alone on the beach that bridged their properties one morning. He said that Moore, who looked like she was in a contemplative, stricken state, was precisely who he envisioned when he read the book, and while he considered other actresses, he was never able to shake that image, and eventually offered Moore the role.

 
Redford said he was drawn to filming the novel because it reminded him of the cultural inarticulation and missed signals of his own upbringing. Both Moore and Redford said the character of Beth reminded them of their respective fathers.

According to the Entertainment Weekly article on the making of this movie, Moore was cold, snobbish and uncommunicative with Timothy Hutton on the set, to assist her in mastering the aloofness so essential to her character.

On both of her sitcoms, Moore was famous for her ability to cry comically. Moore admitted that, during the filming of this movie, her voice would occasionally start quavering in a quintessential Laura Petrie/Mary Richards manner ("Oh, Rob!"). Redford would shout "Cut!" and they would have to reshoot the scene.

Moore admitted that she became annoyed with the would-be compliment, "Boy, you were a b!tch in that movie!". She said that she didn't see it that way. She thought of Beth as a victim, that she was brought up being taught to do things a certain way...

ON THIS DAY - JANUARY 15, 1972

On January 15, 1972, Don McLean's song "American Pie" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. It remained at the top for four weeks. "American Pie" is a folk-rock ballad that laments the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "the Big Bopper" Richardson on February 3, 1959. McLean called this day "the Day the Music Died".

The song has become a cultural touchstone, symbolizing the loss of innocence and the disillusionment of the 1960s. McLean wrote the song to capture his view of America at the time, and how he imagined it might become....

STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO: ANN-MARGRET

 Here is the still beautiful Ann-Margret at The Hollywood Show in Burbank, California. It is amazing that the actress will be 84 years old this year. This photo is from January 12, 2025...

CAB CALLOWAY: THE HI DE HO MAN

In 1931, Cab Calloway recorded his most famous song, "Minnie the Moocher". It is the first single song by an African American to sell a million records. The Old Man of the Mountain", "St. James Infirmary Blues", and "Minnie the Moocher" were performed in three Betty Boop cartoons: "Minnie the Moocher" (1932), "Snow White" (1933), and "The Old Man of the Mountain" (1933). Through rotoscoping, Calloway performed voice over for these cartoons, but his dance steps were the basis of the characters' movements. He scheduled concerts in some communities to coincide with the release of the films to take advantage of the publicity.

When Calloway originally recorded "Minnie The Moocher" in the 1930s, the chorus lyrics were simply "Ho-dee-hody" rather than the lengthened "Hody-hody-hody ho". In an interview, Calloway explained that one time when he was singing the song, he suddenly forgot the words, so he immediately shouted "Hody-Hody-Hody-ho!", and carried on the song that way. That proved to be more popular with fans than the original, so he had been singing it that way ever since.

As a result of the success of "Minnie the Moocher", Calloway became identified with its chorus, gaining the nickname "The Hi De Ho Man". He performed in the 1930s in a series of short films for Paramount. Calloway's and Ellington's groups were featured on film more than any other jazz orchestras of the era. In these films, Calloway can be seen performing a gliding backstep dance move, which some observers have described as the precursor to Michael Jackson's moonwalk. Calloway said 50 years later, "it was called The Buzz back then." The 1933 film "International House" featured Calloway performing his classic song, "Reefer Man", a tune about a man who smokes marijuana.

Calloway remained a household name through the 1960s due to TV appearances and occasional concerts in the US and Europe. In 1961 and 1962, he toured with the Harlem Globetrotters, providing halftime entertainment during games., and was cast as Yeller in the film "The Cincinnati Kid" (1965) with Steve McQueen, Ann-Margret, and Edward G. Robinson. In 1967, he co-starred with Pearl Bailey as Horace Vandergelder in an all-black cast of "Hello, Dolly!" on Broadway during its original run.
In 1978, Calloway released a disco version of "Minnie the Moocher" on RCA which reached the Billboard R&B chart. Calloway was introduced to a new generation when he appeared in the 1980 film "The Blues Brothers" performing "Minnie the Moocher". When recording the soundtrack, he was needed to record his hit "Minnie the Moocher" in better quality than his original album. When he came into the studio, he was prepared to do the disco version, which had just been released. The filmmakers asked for the original version, which Calloway reluctantly gave them....

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: GEOFFREY OWENS

‘Cosby Show’ actor Geoffrey Owens still ‘struggling’ to make ends meet after he quit Trader Joe’s gig over ‘attack on my privacy’

“Cosby Show” actor Geoffrey Owens said he’s still struggling to make ends meet after he was forced to quit his job at a Trader Joe’s grocery store amid an “attack on my privacy”

Owens, known for his role as Elvin Tibideaux on the six-time Emmy-winning series, claimed he’s “not much better off” today than he was when a customer snapped a photo of the actor working behind the grocery store register in 2018.

“Even today, right now, as we speak, I still struggle to make a living,” Owens told Atlanta’s V-103 radio station on Dec. 18. “I struggle every day to make my ends meet. And people can’t get their heads around that because they see me in movies.

Geoffrey Owens still struggles to make ends meet as a working actor. Getty Images

Owens’ residual checks “were never particularly wonderful” because he only acted in “maybe 20% of shows” on the hit series.

“People have a false impression of what the average middle-class actor makes and their ability to make a living in the industry,” Owens said.

The Yale University graduate and son of former New York congressman Major Owens took a “regular” job and went mostly unnoticed until he was photographed working at Trader Joe’s.

“At first, there was some negative stuff about basically the job shaming. A ‘where is he now’ kinda thing,” Owens told V-103. “But then, very soon after that, there was all this support and encouragement from all over the world.”

Owens was worried about his invasion of privacy, so he left the job before this new gig went public.

“It was strange because someone had been in the store taking pictures,” Owens recalled. And I was like, now that this is breaking I’m not going to feel comfortable working in this store wondering who is around with a camera. It would just be too weird. I’m a very private person.

“It wasn’t like I quit knowing I would be making a lot of money soon or anything. I just felt like I wasn’t going to be able to handle that kind of scrutiny and attack on my privacy.”

When the news broke, an outpouring of support came his way.

Owens is most known for playing Elvin Tibideaux on “The Cosby Show.” Everett Collection

Nicki Minaj sent him $25,000 but Owens donated the money to a charity because it “didn’t feel right to keep it” without working for it.

But he gladly accepted work in dozens of projects including acting gigs with powerhouses like Tyler Perry on the show “The Haves and the Have Nots” and the 50-Cent produced show “Power” and “Power Book II: Ghost.”

Owens currently stars on the CBS sitcom “Poppa’s House,” starring Damon Wayans and Damon Wayans Jr.

The actor admitted that after the headlines calmed down, he went back to Trader Joe’s while acting and asked for more hours because money was — and is — still tight.

Owens has appeared in dozens of projects since the image of him working at a grocery store went viral. 

Bill Cosby, the star of the titular sitcom, and his fall from grace after numerous allegations of sexual misconduct led the series to be pulled from syndication and affected Owens’ bottom line, he said. The three-time Golden Globe-winning “The Cosby Show” was pulled from syndication on several networks back in 2014 after Cosby was accused and eventually convicted of sexual assault — which he denied.

Owens was impacted financially when “Cosby Show” was pulled from syndication due to Bill Cosby’s sexual assault scandals. The man formally known as “America’s Dad” served three years of a 10-year prison sentence until Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 2021.

“Yes, it impacted me financially. At the time that the show was pulled, that did make a difference in our income,” Owens told People in 2018.

During his V-103 interview, he reiterated that his residuals were “gone” after Bill Cosby’s scandal...

HOLLYWOOD TIDBITS: THE SHINING

Danny Lloyd was selected for the role of Danny Torrance in Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" (1980) because of his ability to concentrate for extended periods of time. Because Lloyd was so young, and since it was his first acting job, Stanley Kubrick was highly protective of the child. During the shooting of the movie, Lloyd was under the impression that the film he was making was a drama, not a horror movie. In fact, when Wendy carries Danny away while shouting at Jack in the Colorado Lounge, she is actually carrying a life-size dummy, so Lloyd would not have to be in the scene. He only realized the truth several years later, when he was shown a heavily edited version of the film. He did not see the uncut version of the film until he was seventeen, eleven years after he had made it.

The idea for Lloyd to move his finger when he was talking as Tony was his own. He did it spontaneously during his very first audition.

Lloyd grew up to be a professor of biology at a community college in Elizabethtown, Kentucky...

GUEST REVIEW: THE TOWERING INFERNO

To ring in the new year, here is the late great Bruce Kogan with a review of this disaster epic...

Although some like to compare The Towering Inferno to The Poseidon Adventure because Irwin Allen that master of disaster brought us both, in point of fact The Towering Inferno is more like a landlocked Titanic than anything else.

It has to be remembered that the Titanic was on its maiden voyage and was ballyhooed as an unsinkable ship when the tragedy occurred. The building that William Holden built, that Paul Newman designed was also on its maiden voyage so to speak. The 135 story building in San Francisco was being dedicated and there was going to be a big blowout on the top floor with all kinds of VIPS in attendance. Little does Holden suspect that his son-in-law Richard Chamberlain cut quite a few safety corners in the electrical wiring. When the whole tower gets lighted up, a fire breaks out in one of the circuit junction boxes and the party gets cut short.

Paul Newman and Steve McQueen as the fire battalion chief head an impressive cast list of name players put in harm's way by Chamberlain's avarice. Fred Astaire got an Academy Award nomination for playing an elderly conman who tricks his way into the VIP gathering to fleece wealthy widow Jennifer Jones. This was Jones's farewell performance on screen, she retired right after that to become just the kind of wealthy society matron she plays here.

The film got an award for Best Cinematography deservedly so, the shots are quite vivid and also the best song of 1974. During the party scene, Maureen McGovern who had introduced the popular There's Got To Be A Morning After in Irwin Allen's The Poseidon Adventure sings We May Never Get To Love Like This Again. It won for best song, but certainly didn't have the lasting popularity of the other.

The most vivid moment of the film for me besides the climax is the illfated rendezvous of Robert Wagner and Susan Flannery. They agree for a boss secretary rendezvous in his apartment there and Wagner turns off the phone so word cannot reach them of the fire. The death scenes of both will tear you up.

According to the Films of Steve McQueen the reason for the joint production by Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox is that when two studios put out two Harlow films, both cut each other up at the box office and no one made out. Warner Brothers purchased The Tower and Fox bought the Glass Inferno screen rights. Rather than have competing disaster films, they made an historic interstudio agreement to have a joint production.

I think it worked out well all around.

BRUCE'S RATING: 7 out of 10

MY RATING: 10 out of 10