Jean Arthur's voice

Feeling sorry for myself because I'm a quiet-loving introvert in a noisy world full of Facebookers commenting on each others status, whatever the hell that means, I googled Introverts Anonymous.  Is there such an unlikely group?  There is.  It put me onto a grand story about Jean Arthur.  She belongs here  because this blog is mostly about voices, radio, media and such. It was apparently her voice that not only gave her an easy transition from silent films to talkies, but helped to make her a big star.   She was terribly shy, tormented, hated the star system, might have been lesbian or bisexual. Said to be more reclusive than Garbo, which I did not know was possible.   I don't think I have seen any of her films, not even "Shane."  I will get around to it one of these years.
I hope friend Harry Heuser will do something about her if he hasn't already done so. There is no greater tosser of words or turner of phrases and I await what he might make of Jean Arthur, her films and her life.

Great Detroit Radio

I feel privileged to have grown up in the Detroit area, listening to the great radio that came from the Motor City.    "The Lone Ranger," "Challenge of the Yukon," The Green Hornet,"  "The Hermit's Cave." Stations identified themselves with,   WJR, the Goodwill Station in the Golden Tower of the Fisher  Building. Or   WWJ, the Detroit News.   I don't recall if  WXYZ,  which  originated the Ranger, the Hornet and the story of Yukon King had an identifying phrase. .  I seem to have a  recollection that they might have identified it as being in the Maccabees Building.  Those were the days when radio had class.
Any Detroit kid from that era can still name many of  the Detroit Tigers play-by-play announcers.  I remember Ty Tyson,  who served from before I was born on  into the '40s. That's when the Tigers played at Briggs Stadium.  There was Harry Heilmann and Paul Carey. The greatest of all was the late Ernie Harwell , currently being eulogized  throughout the baseball world. He was at the Tigers microphones for more than 40 years.    I was never a baseball fan but Ernie was a superb radio broadcaster and that's what I cared about.
When I got into the radio business  I spent many hours "riding gain" on the Tigers games.  That's radio talk for sitting at the control board, listening to the game and inserting local station breaks and commercials when the play-by-play men called for them. I literally fell asleep at the switch  at least once and let the Detroit call letters get on the air on the Flint Station.  I  never heard about it, so I assume the boss wasn't listening. 
The best part of the pre-game line checks that were sent to the stations  was listening to Tigers engineer Howard Stitzel  with his off the cuff chit chat and comments about the babes in the stands.. The listeners didn't hear that, but I'm sure Howard  had lots of fans at the stations.  As of last July, Howard , then 92, was the grand marshal at the parade in Southfield.  .  He said he plans to be 100.  I hope he makes it.  It was from Howard that I first heard that  most descriptive and colorful report of  the weather in the ballpark.  ....
"It's colder than a witch's tit!"

Dead animals, new babies and big ratings

Pardon my cynicism.  You know it's sweeps time when TV ratings that determine advertising revenue are being taken.  Kindly Dr. Phil shows off his first grandkid and properly horrifies us with graphic animal abuse pictures.

"24" is obscene

The award winning  Fox show "24" is filled with sickening, gratuitous violence.  So why have I watched it if it's so bad?  My wife likes it.  Let us hope she never gets seriously made at me. 

Facebook is so political!

The political commentary on Facebook leaves me reeling. How about "When I wake up in the morning I'm so glad that Barack Obama is President."
When I wake up in the morning I'm just glad that I woke up!

Supporting Jane Russell

I didn't see The Outlaw when it titillated audiences and irritated  censors  back in 1943. Turner Classics recently ran it for us who wonder (as in Wonder Bra) what all the fuss was about.  I was mighty impressed with the cantilevered bra that Howard Hughes designed for Jane Russell.

It gets even better when you know what a cantilever is.  It's a beam supported on only one end. It carries the load to the support where it is resisted  by shear stress. They use them for buildings, bridges and structures that project horizontally into space.

Why do I keep staring at photos of Jane's horizontal structure and the marvelous appliance that engineer  Hughes designed to support it?  Why can't  I  leave 'er?

Dinah, Dyna and Me

Over on my Facebook page there's a silly, musical video rendered on my old Hammond Organ.  One of the song snippets, played badly from my faulty memory of some of the notes, was made very famous by Dinah Shore.  If I put that hint over there, will I hear a loud chorus of "Dinah WHO?"  from 30 and 40 year olds who never heard of her? Might that confirm my  sneaking suspicion that I am much too elderly to be hanging out with those Facebook kids?  And what if I add a reference to another favorite Dyna, last name Flow,  who made my '51 Buick so shiftlessly  smooth.  Would the men in white coats be at my door to take me to the dementia ward? 

Facebook too personal?

Am I alone in becoming nervous and uncomfortable with the very personal stuff posted on Facebook?  Maybe I'm paranoid when I imagine all manner of bad guys using that information for purposes various and nefarious. 

I intentionally avoided mentioning last week's 56th anniversary of the day a radio fan and I got married on the air in Flint.  When you have been married that long you are expected to be wise and have profound things to say about marriage.  I'm not and I don't.

"Bones" ...Quirky fun

It's clear that I like quirkiness in my TV Fare. Which is probably why the only forensics/crime show I like is "Bones."  There's also the presence of Michaela Conlin.  She gets my vote as TV's hottest babe.  What a quirky love life "Angela"  leads. I guess she goes both ways.
Last night's episode started at a chicken farm operated by a guy named Cluckston.  That's funny.  I think the writers have great fun with their scripts.
Most interesting ... males are   most often portrayed as brilliant but dense, socially inept eggheads. But here we have a woman in that role.  Emily Deschanel as Dr. Temperance Brennan does it very well.  Fun fun fun.

Elitist Public Media

Are Pulic Radio and TV elitist?  Of course.  That's good.  We can use a little elitism to counteract the   crude, crass crapola that commercial media gives us.

Religious Jokes

This post also shows up in my Goofy Church Stuff blog. That one probably has even fewer readers than this one. Can that be possible?? Oh well, grinding out these silly things keeps me off the street.  But not always out of trouble.

Mr. Keillor might have been replaced by David Sedaris as America's greatest humorist but the aging guy from Lake Wobegon with the face made for radio reigns as our finest religious humorist. He gets away with things on Public Radio that would get him kicked off of commercial media. I love it. From one of his early annual joke shows: "What do you get when you cross a Jehovah's Witness and a Unitarian? Someone who goes around knocking on doors for no particular reason."   "As nervous as a Christian Scientist with appendicitis." I got in trouble when I quoted that one in my column in a local paper. A member of that body was not amused, said followers of Mrs. Eddy do not get nervous about things like that.

Patriarch? Hell, No!

For the first time, I have heard myself referred to as a patriarch, which might be translated as "grand old founding father," revered and honored for something or other. I am most uncomfortable with that label.  It's not the "old" part of it, I can handle that OK.  It just sounds too serious. One definition is "last surviving member,"  so all you have to do to become a patriarch is live longer than somebody else. Being the object of reverence and honor  is laughable.  I am in at least my second childhood.  All I want to do is  write, not caring a whole lot if nobody reads it, and play with my toys. Anything heavier than that is too serious.

Tell Me A Story

I totally relate to Don Hewitt and the four words he lived by that changed TV news and made  "60 Minutes" an institution.  I loved it when he said he's not interested in issues. He just wants a good story.  Issues are boring.  Tell me a story. That's probably one of a number of things about me that irritate and frustrate friends and family. I won't talk about issues and I'm not much interested in what others have to say about their favorite issues.  Tell me a story. And that's why NPR's "On the Media" is the best thing on radio.  It's not about issues.  It's about how they are covered in the media.  It's "covering the coverage." It's about how the stories are told.  I love it.

Life's Railway to Bettie Page

With thanks to friend Beth for the title, here is one more attempt to link to my musical tribute to the great pin-up girl.  It's clear that I don't know what I'm doing but some wise guy said you have to find out what doesn't work before your great invention is produced. OK, so this is hardly great stuff.  But bodacious Bettie is!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GACpzAqzQZE

Funny Business

Talking with a retired college level English instructor, I asked if she is a Garrison Keillor fan.  All she had to say was that he's a good story teller but she's not that interested in humor.  I'm pleased at that encounter because it brought home something I had not previously realized.  I am a serious student of humor.  I'm quite fascinated by funny ideas and how they are created, presented and perceived.

That Bucket Woman

I sit here laughing myself silly, still not recovered from watching that wonderful Britcom, Keeping Up Appearances again last night. It is so hiliarious that it stays funny no matter how many times you see the same episodes.  Funny, funny stuff.  I just put a photo of the cast on my desktop.  That's good for a quick laugh anytime.

Phil Harris and Alice Faye

I somehow missed Phil and Alice on their radio sitcom when I was young.  Our family must have been listening to something else when it was on.
I've been hearing it on Max Schmid's show on  the Yesterday USA online network.  Max, who knows as much about radio's golden age as anybody, says it's the "only radio sitcom worth a damn."
He might be right.  The cast and the writing are so right. It's not clever, not witty,  It's just silly and funny,  perfectly suited to Phil, Alice and and Elliot Lewis as Franky Remley, one of the great comedy characters to come from radio's best days.

Catherine and Vincent

I saw a promo for some show featuring Linda Hamilton.  I didn't watch whatever it was.  I just enjoyed a romantic reverie thinking about her as Catherine, in love with Vincent the Lion-man who lived underground.
Ron Perlman was perfect as Vincent.

His Vincent voice was perfect, too ... quite unlike his natural voice heard in his other roles.  I don't know where that came from.  I read that he was offered deals for promoting products as Vincent, but he turned them down.  Good man. That would have been a travesty.

Oh boy, they sure don't make shows like "Beauty and the Beast" anymore.  1987 ... can it possibly be that long ago ? I suppose it's available  on DVD. I don't know if I could handle watching it again.  I'm too old for that much romance.

There's much about the show on the 'net.

"Christmas Story" heavily abridged

The channel that kept Jean Sherpherd's Christmas Story  running for 24 hours chopped it up pretty bad to make it  and the commercials fit in two hours.  It has become such a holiday tradition that we know when something is missing.