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 Interesting ad. Optimistic ad.
You can click on the picture above to read this trade ad for The Hal Roach Studio for yourself, but it’s the first line that’s important: “It is our pledge that during the season 1936-1937 we shall continue to expend every effort to produce the best comedy screen entertainment possible and that we will not stint on time nor money to accomplish this result.”
You have to feel bad for Hal Roach during this period. He tried to live up to his pledge. He succeeded in spots (Topper was a ‘37 release) but in many places he just couldn’t attain his vision for ‘36-’37.
Laurel and Hardy made made no short subjects after 1935, which is a shame. In ‘36 they released Our Relations, and in ‘37, Way Out West. You’d have to say that – even without the shorts – Roach made good on his pledge here.
Patsy Kelly made four short subjects with two different co-stars in ‘36 following the death of Thelma Todd; but the series was kaput. Patsy also co-starred with Charley Chase in a feature, Kelly The Second, but time- and money-stinting is in evidence. Roach couldn’t live up to the pledge here.
Charley Chase’s own first starring feature, Neighborhood House, was judged unsuccessful and was cut down and released as a mere two-reeler in 1936. It turned out to be Charley’s last film for Roach. He did make 6 two-reelers in ‘37… but for Columbia. Pledge not honored.
Jack Haley appeared in two features for Roach, Mr. Cinderella in ‘36 and Pick A Star in ‘37. He wasn’t around long enough to become a Roach regular. He returned to 20th Century Fox in ‘37. Pledge? Haley? What pledge?
“Spanky McFarland and his Our Gang playmates” made a ‘36 feature, General Spanky, which flopped, and Roach started producing the previously two-reel Our Gangs as one reel subjects. Roach gave up on the Gang in ‘38, selling the series to MGM, which made some pretty terrible entries. Some good shorts in the final Roach years, however, and while length decreased, time and money was expended to keep the series going. Give this one to Hal.
It makes you wonder if Roach felt he needed to bolster his studio’s image through the trade “pledge” ad specifically because he faced an uncertain season. The glory days of the studio as producer of sound short subjects essentially ended during these years, and, with occasional exceptions, the Roach Studio did not succeed in features.
 I have a theory. I can’t prove it. But here it is: You know how songs sometimes “quote” other songs for a few seconds? You see the Eiffel Tower in a movie and a few notes from “La Marseillaise” get woven into the background music. That kind of thing.
Here’s the theory: the song most quoted in other songs is… “The Sailor’s Hornpipe.” Every time you see a ship, a body of water, a guy in a navy uniform, or Bert and Alf, you hear a little piece of the Hornpipe. The prize goes to an old TV sitcom with Jackie Cooper as a Navy doctor and Abby Dalton as his nurse. Sonny Burke was not content to quote “Sailor’s Hornpipe” in the “Theme from Hennesy.” He stole it!
That is music you (probably) won’t hear anyplace else. I try to put some here on Isn’t Life Terrible from time to time. Theme From WKRP In Cincinnati. See, I just did it again. But I’m an amateur at this – let me direct you to a pro.
 Music You (Possibly) Won’t Hear Anyplace Else is a blog by Lee Hartsfeld that I highly recommend to you if your taste in music is… well, basically, there are only two kinds of music: good music and bad music. If you love both kinds, you’ll enjoy Lee’s site.
Every couple of days, like clockwork, Lee makes new songs available. They are most definitely songs you (possibly) won’t hear any place else. Songs like:
The Humphrey Bogart Rhumba by The Freddy Martin Orchestra The Hayseed Rag by The Dizzy Trio (Sounds like a Mickey Mouse Cartoon!) Miss America by Johnny Desmond Funny What You Learn From Women by Jack Paar You’re Bound To Look Like A Monkey (When You Grow Old) by Bob Crosby’s Bob Cats
… as well as songs very much not like these. Lee transfers ‘em from his own collection of vinyl and shellac, cleans them up as needed (but never more than needed), and then shares the results with the world. You never know what you’ll find at Lee’s, except on Sundays, which are always devoted to religious music.
Scattered in with the songs are posts where Lee talks about politics, religion, and what his cats kill and drag home. Lee, the owners of 160 gig iPods thank you for helping us fill those babies up… and for giving us the opportunity to be listening to music that (possibly) no other iPod owners are listening to.
 Hey! You’re telling me that this represents a “Century of Progress” at the ‘33 Chicago World’s Fair?
Walk-around characters wearing paper masks?
And… that blimp!!
What kind of people… what kind of people, I ask you… would place kids into the “gondola” of the Akron?
The Akron crashed into the Atlantic during a thunderstorm and sank on April 4th, 1933. The “Century of Progress” picture above was taken on May 23rd.
In 1966, a small-circulation magazine for movie buffs changed hands. Film Fan Monthly had been published in Canada by a gentleman named Daryl Davy. If memory serves, Mr. Davy was no longer able to handle the workload associated with the publication of a monthly magazine. I don’t know what kind of a deal he worked out, but the magazine was taken over by a 16-year-old kid who started putting issues together in his parents’ home in Teaneck, New Jersey.
I still have the special eighth anniversary issue of Film Fan Monthly - a special issue focused on one of Hal Roach’s ‘forgotten comedians’ – Charley Chase. The editor, now all of 19, wrote in the issue’s preface that: “…virtually nothing has ever been written on Chase, and it is our hope that this issue will serve as a definitive source on this fine, neglected comedian.”
The editor also apologized for having to raise the subscription rates for FFM by fifty cents, a price hike he considered “nominal.” In doing so, he noted that “Film Fan Monthly, as most of you know, is a very small operation, and a labor of love. We’re not in the business with the hope of making millions of dollars.”
Today, the kid still reports on movies… and you get the sense that it’s still a “labor of love,” even though the pay is probably better.
The kid, of course, is Leonard Maltin.
 These days, he does a lot more than research and write. Through his association with the Walt Disney Co., Leonard has personally made the case for the release of many Disney titles to DVD that most Disney fans believed would never come to the market (Victory through Air Power, the Mickey Mouse Club TV serials, and, coming up in December, Disney’s Oswald the Lucky Rabbit silent cartoons, to name but a few.) Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide is on every film-lover’s shelf. Even though he’s come so far and accomplished so much, he’s still publishing a fanzine not entirely unlike Film Fan Monthly titled Movie Crazy.
In an earlier post here on Isn’t Life Terrible, (which, by the way, is a blog that takes its name from a 1925 Charley Chase two-reeler), I wrote about a clueless “film preservationist” from the future who, working from digitally preserved masters made in the distant past, does not comprehend why Leonard Maltin appears at the beginnings and endings of so many digitally preserved movies. My fictional future preservationist comes to the conclusion that this guy “may well have been the most beloved ‘movie star’ of all time.”
This is the one thing she comes even close to getting correct.
No, not a movie star; not an actor; but consider this: when the American Film Institute was founded (a year after Leonard Maltin took over Film Fan Monthly), one of its purposes was “…to ensure that great accomplishments of the past are recognized to the end that the masters of film may take their deserved place in history beside leaders in other arts.”
I submit to you that no one has contributed more to this effort than Leonard Maltin.
Consider this, too: AFI’s Board of Trustees established the AFI Life Achievement Award on February 23, 1973, in order to honor “…an individual whose career in motion pictures or television has greatly contributed to the enrichment of American culture.”
So far, the award’s gone exclusively to actors and directors. It no doubt will continue to do so.
I don’t know, though. If there’s somebody out there whose entire life has been about ensuring “that great accomplishments of the past are recognized,” that would be Leonard.
I know that Dustin Hoffman was exaggerating for comic effect when he called Leonard “the greatest human being that ever lived.” But have you ever heard anyone say a discouraging word about Leonard? If the AFI doesn’t have an appropriate award to bestow upon Mr. Maltin, they ought to invent one and build a TV special around it.
After all, he’s been in the business longer than they have.
 I’ve just scoured the internet (as well as the biography I have at hand) for confirmation, but could not find anything which corroborates the story I believe to be true about the unusual title of the book seen above, “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea or David Copperfield,” a 1928 collection of Robert Benchley pieces.
The story is this: Somebody mentioned to Benchley that book titles could not be copyrighted.
 Here’s a nine-minute interview with Walt Disney from the late 1950’s that was first released on LP decades ago. You won’t learn much that’s new, but it’s always interesting to hear Walt tell the stories himself. (9m)
Link
 This gorgeous, large-format, full-color hardcover book reprints three “classic stories from the 1930s, Walt Disney’s Donald Duck (1935), Walt Disney’s Clock Cleaners (1938), and The Mickey Mouse Fire Brigade (1936).” All three stories are based on cartoons, but some strange liberties and notable revisions are made.
Walt Disney’s Donald Duck was the first book to feature the Duck, who thus appears here in his long-billed incarnation. The original (Whitman #978) was printed on linen, which would seem to indicate it was intended for the youngest possible audience. Inexplicable, then is the one-joke premise: Mickey’s nephews “show Donald the difference between soft and HARD water” by tricking him into diving into a shallow spot.
Walt Disney’s Clock Cleaners was another “linen-like” book designed for kids who could be counted upon to treat it badly. “Scarce in Near Mint, common in lower grades” is Ted Hake’s comment on the linen-like books in The Official Price Guide to Disney Collectibles. Having even less linen-like pages to work with than Walt Disney’s Donald Duck (12 rather than 16), the original story is literally scaled down from the cartoon’s giant clock atop a skyscraper… to a cuckoo clock in an attic.
The third story, The Mickey Mouse Fire Brigade, is very faithful to the Mickey’s Fire Brigade cartoon, and the illustrations are excellent. Just one thing – Mickey’s fire helmet. Designed for a British audience that might not recognize the “backwards-baseball-hat” helmet design usually seen in the U.S., Mickey wears a Merryweather pattern brass fire helmet throughout.
If you read this one to your kids, I suggest giving Mickey a Yorkshire accent. If you need practice, the BBC is willing to help. I was going to give an Amazon link, but they don’t carry the book, show the the wrong cover picture, and spell Mickey “Micky.” Try Barnes and Noble.
 Certain words and phrases in many of the world’s languages have no direct English equivalents.
What’s a nakhur? It’s a Persian word that identifies camels which will not give milk until their noses are tickled. We’re doing OK without that one.
The Japanese expression katahara itai means laughing so hard for so long that one side of your abdomen hurts. English is the native language of Larry David and Sarah Silverman, so we could use a phrase like that.
Uitwaaien is Dutch for “walking in windy weather just for the hell of it.”
Tingo is a word in the Pascuense language that means “to steal objects from your neighbor’s house one by one until there is nothing left.”
 The English word Nostalgia was created from two Greek root words: one that means “returning home” and one that means “pain,” a suffix you know about if you’ve ever suffered from neuralgia (nerve pain), myalgia (muscle pain), otalgia (ear pain), or bussosalgia, a word I just made up using the Greek root for “bottom,” i.e., a pain in the ass.
 While there may well be pain or longing associated with some forms of nostalgia, in everyday usage, nostalgia is not considered unpleasant.
The Portuguese to our rescue!
 Saudade describes “a mixture of happy and sad feelings focused on days gone by.” Saudade also includes a dash of hope that whatever is “missing” or “longed for” …might one day return. And actually, in one form or another, a lot of stuff has returned.
Say, for example, that you loved the music of The Beatles, but the 301 officially released songs are starting to wear a bit thin. I find that The Spongetones CD I purchased from Not Lame effectively transforms painful nostalgia  into Portuguese saudade. Beach Boys fans who miss their baseball cards should apply to Jeffery Foskett, another musical artist that Not Lame can tell you about. You can buy reproductions of those baseball cards. And you can listen to those old kiddie records you miss.
Others who help relieve ac hy nostalgia and replace it with the far more agreeable saudade are Gemstone Comics, Candy You Ate as a Kid, Superballs.com, Retrocola (since we all know soda pop tastes better coming out of longneck glass bottles), Fizzies, and a rivet-perfect 50’s robot that blows powder from his mouth. Seriously.
Of course, if what you’re actually suffering from is Sehnsucht, the German word for “the inconsolable longing in the human heart for we know not what,” I recommend finding a yogi or a pharmacist. Trust me, Moxie and modern reproductions of old baseball cards are far less expensive and much more fun.
 It’s about Karen Carpenter. Think of her as Madeleine Elster in Vertigo. The woman that Scottie Ferguson trails and then loses. She’s the blonde at far left.
It’s about Richard Carpenter, the multi-talented pianist/ arranger/ composer/ conductor who released a 1998 CD titled Richard Carpenter: Pianist, Arranger, Composer, Conductor. Think of him as Scottie Ferguson, the man in the middle of the Kim Novak sandwich above.
 And it’s about Akiko Kobayashi. Think of her as Judy Barton, the woman that Scottie successfully transforms into a virtual Madeleine Elster. It would be very difficult to physically transform Akiko Kobayashi into Karen Carpenter. But in the recording studio, it’s another story.
Akiko, born in Tokyo in 1958, was an established singer with five albums to her credit when she came to the U.S. to record City of Angels in 1988. How Richard Carpenter came to be the producer for that album, we do not know. Akiko had been a fan of the Carpenters, so it’s possible that she sought Richard out. Richard Carpenter selected the songs for the album, arranged them, recorded them and played keyboards on every single one of the ten tracks. Carpenter also wrote one of the five songs Akiko sings in English on the CD, How Could I Ask For More, with lyrics by John Bettis, who had previously collaborated with Carpenter on hit songs like “Top of the World,” “Goodbye To Love,” and “Yesterday Once More.”
 For my money, it’s the closest anyone has ever come to channeling the departed in a recording. It is a Carpenters record made five years after Karen’s sad death. It is the audio equivalent of the Vertigo scene where the fully transformed Judy Barton emerges as a perfect Madeleine… the verisimilitude is more than a little spooky. The song’s opening background vocals give hardcore Carpenters fans the shivers… and cause them to forget, at times, exactly to whom they’re listening.
How Could I Ask For More mp3.
 Ah, Crusader Rabbit. The first made-for-TV cartoon. Please note: as it says on the front cover, and as it says on the back cover, this is the authorized edition.
 What kind of characters do we want?
Our favorite characters.
What kind of stories do we want?
Authorized stories.
How well I remember the infamous bedtime story raids of the late 50’s and early 60’s.
My parents, of course, bought authorized editions exclusively. But I lost more than one friend in the massive “Cartoon Character Sting” of 1960, when the parents of close friends purchased “the unauthorized stuff,” and ultimately paid a steep price as they, and their pajama-clad children, were dragged off to the pokey, never to return.
 Why insist on Authorized Editions?
To protect young minds, of course.
When transvestite little people are depicted in an authorized edition, it’s tasteful!
I’m happy to present “Bubble Trouble,” which, when its pages are turned rapidly, actually exhibits more animated movement than the Crusader Rabbit cartoons themselves.
Crusader Rabbit in “Bubble Trouble (.pdf file)
Did You Know?
Author Nancy Hoag also wrote Risky Business
Artist Jan Neely once worked on a top-secret project for a pair of Mormons.
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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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Interesting ad. Optimistic ad.
