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 …there was the “jovial, good natured Walt…” and then there was the one pictured above.
I’ve never been fully convinced that Bill Peet An Autobiography is a “picture book for children,” even though it was a runner-up for the Caldecott Medal, awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children to “the most distinguished picture book for children.”
Perhaps it’s because the book features a parade of “chain smoking neurotics,” Walt Disney among them.
Regardless, the book is spellbinding, still in print after nearly 20 years, and available from Amazon.
     
 Ever seen this one before? Me neither.
According to Heritage Auctions, “These oversized pieces were typically intended for front-of-house displays, or for use as standees and, due to their large, difficult-to-store size and fragile paper-stock, were rarely saved. That this one has survived nearly seven decades is nothing short of a miracle, especially considering the thin, glossy photo paper on which it’s printed (posters of this size were usually printed on heavier stock, but Disney obviously wanted to emphasize the artwork and the colors in this beauty, leading him to use a photogelatin process that required the more fragile paper). This breathtaking image, featuring artwork by animator Grim Natwick and art director Gustav Tenggren, practically tells the movie’s story in its entirety, with delicate watercolor scene images surrounding a gathering of all the characters.”
 Got twenty minutes? Want to listen to some great… and not so great… music and play the most demented trivia game ever?
 Have you come to the right place!
Quiztrak is a quiz of my own devising where you answer questions based on music you’re hearing.
It’s been under development here at Isn’t Life Terrible for years. Well, since the weekend, anyway. It’s not really a ‘test’ of anything… it’s more an opportunity to have an interactive musical experience.
 How to Play:
1. Click on this link – The Quiztrak Quiz – and the first screen of the quiz will open in a new tab or window. Read the introduction to the quiz. Don’t click “Continue” yet.
[ 2021 note: Don's quiz is missing.]
2. Come back to this window and click on this link -The Quiztrak Soundtrack – and the soundtrack for Quiztrak will open in another new window or tab.
If you’re ready to start, click play in the Quiztrak Soundtrack window or tab…  then rush back to the Quiztrak Quiz window and click “Continue,” so that the quiz and the music start as close to the same time as possible. The music will play, and you’ll be on your first of 65 questions and the first of 8 songs. Take your time! The questions will usually end before the song does.
If you don’t get both the quiz and its soundtrack to start up within a second or two of one another, close everything and give it another try.
If you like it; if you hate it; if it doesn’t work; or if it does, please post a comment and let me know. Whatever you do, don’t take it seriously.
And if you’re curious about Danny or Ernie (two of my favorites), come back and click the links below.
Watch Danny perform an incredible solo.
Watch Ernie’s “NT.”
 My daughter became a fan of the singer-songwriter John Mayer while in high school, and has remained a fan in the years since. Critics dismissed Mayer, in the early days of his career, as nothing more the latest teen heartthrob. You can’t blame them; he certainly fits the stereotype.
But Mayer has always taken his music seriously, and over the four years my daughter and I have been going to see Mayer in concert (roughly 15 or so times by now) he’s distinguished himself and has come to be recognized as a blues and rock guitarist on the level of Eric Clapton. Since Mayer has been writing and playing with Clapton lately, it’s it’s safe to say that Clapton agrees.
Mayer has been passionate about the blues from the beginning of his career, and takes time out to perform with classic American blues artists in smaller venues. I don’t think my daughter would have joined me to see Buddy Guy play guitar, but because John Mayer was on the bill, she was absolutely determined to go. Because John Mayer played with Buddy Guy, my daughter became a Buddy Guy fan – and, for that matter, a blues fan.
Mayer publicly identifies his heroes, appears on the bill with them, and thus introduces his (primarily teenage) fans to listen to the music he loves. Because Mayer covered “Axis: Bold Is Love,” my daughter now knows Jimi Hendix’s music better than I do.
 Mayer took a year off at the moment his popular music career reached its highest point… to form a blues trio. In a trio – where you’ve only got one guitar, one bass guitar, and drums – there’s no place to hide if you’re not up to the challenge. Mayer was brilliant. Here’s the Trio at Webster Hall doing some Hendirx for a few hundred lucky fans (which, of course, included us).
His rock and pop music also should also be ranked among the best; “Stop This Train,” from the “Continuum” CD is a particularly perfect blend of words and music. Like The Beatles in their early days, who frequently praised Fats Domino, Little Richard, Elvis, Carl Perkins and the other musicians who inspired them, Mayer is creating not only great contemporary music but also a generation of fans with more eclectic tastes.
 If you’ve got the time, sell it to this man.
If you’ve got more time than that, listen to his ad.
Burley, at left, is still going strong, and I’ve listened to the man on radio for many years.
I spoke to Bill Treadway, the man who used to record these spots at Lone Star Studios in Houston. There was a lot of editing involved to get the spots down to a mere half minute, and Bill would work late into the night with razor blade and 1/4″ splicing block to turn the recording into something ready for air. Bill graciously sent me an un-edited spot exactly as recorded. Burley had the product names written on separate slips of paper, and he would move the front sheet to the back after he read it. But he never knew when that sheet got up to the front again, and on he’d go.
 I have a vague memory of Bil Baird’s early 50’s TV show”The Whistling Wizard.”I do not recall, however, a topical component of that show, but it sure looks like there was one, judging from the three puppets of Estes Kefauver, Harry Truman, and Dwight Eisenhower that were included in the March 29, 1953 show (That’s 11 am on a Saturday; Senator Bob Taft was also represented by a puppet alter-ego, but his puppet was late to the studio that day). Most of what I can remember about the show came back to me when I had a look at The Little Golden Book below, which features the recurring characters and their setting – The Land Of Beyond. In this story at least, The Land Of Beyond has no visiting politicians.
 It’s pretty standard boy-and-his-horse with an elf stuff. I guess some of Bil Baird’s characters were just a little too hot for the LGB: Check out the photo below.
 One Bil Baird production I remember clearly was a public service spot for hay fever. It seemed to be the only PSA anybody at the TV station I was watching could ever get threaded up on the telecine. The one Bil Baird sequence most people seem to know is the “Lonely Goatherd” scene in “The Sound Of Music.”
The best Bil Baird… excuse me, Bil and Cora Baird clip I could find is a great commercial for Wild Root Cream Oil, Charlie… and it used to be a YouTube link here, but the video was taken down some time ago.
[2021 note: Don's video is missing.]
 If you have no problem with eating food that’s been lying in your driveway for a few hours, then it’s kind of nice when your newspaper comes with a free box of cereal. However, if that cereal changes the color of your stomach, you might want to think twice before ingesting it.
 
Watching Conrad Veidt as Gwynplaine in the incredible motion picture adaptation of Victor Hugo’s “The Man Who Laughs,” (1928) do you keep thinking, “Now, who does he remind me of?”
 See that 45?
That’s not just an ordinary copy of “Sing On Baby” by Meg Myles.
That’s Meg Myles’s personal copy of “Sing On Baby” by Meg Myles.
A while ago, a friend of mine said that he had met Meg in New York City. He’s a musician, and she’s a musician, but it’s a just a coincidence that they met – they both support animal rescue programs in NYC. But somehow they drift into a discussion of music, and Meg mentions that she would love to have CD copies of some of her old records. My friend asked me if I could find some time to do the transfers, clean up the sound as best as possible, and make a couple of CD’s. I said sure, why not?
The records arrive. Not just 45’s. She recorded sides for Capitol, and did an album for Mercury.
 I was only expecting a few old acetates, and here I’m looking at major label releases. Flip the cover over; liner notes by… Johnny Carson? Album produced by… Quincy Jones? This is getting interesting, so I go looking for information about Meg on the Internet.
-thmb-746603.jpg) And find that she was a popular pin-up in the 1950’s.
 And a movie star. I made CD replicas of her albums, with labels, covers and all… and added the 45’s as bonus tracks. I wonder how many people in her block on the Upper West Side know about her illustrious past?
Oh! By the way… could she sing? You bet she could. Classy cabaret all the way.
Link
 Bedazzled (1967) is one of the hundred or so movies in my top ten.
Peter Cook and Dudley Moore are my favorite comedy team of all time, right up there with Bob and Ray, Laurel and Hardy, and the others who also my favorite comedy team of all time.
For a great sampling of Pete, alone and with Dud, along with Cook’s commentary on his career in his own words, click here, then click on the first little speaker icon to stream the program, or download it for later listening.
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Isn’t Life Terrible? "Isn't Life Terrible" is a Charley Chase short from 1925. The title was derived from a 1924 D.W. Griffith film, "Isn't Life Wonderful?" Other Charley Chase film titles that ask questions are "What Price Goofy?" (1925), "Are Brunettes Safe?" (1927), and "Is Everybody Happy?" (1928). Chase abandoned his titles with question marks for titles with exclamation points during the sound era.
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…there was the “jovial, good natured Walt…” and then there was the one pictured above.
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