My first awareness of Gideons Bibles came from hearing ‘Rocky Raccoon’.
The Beatles must have been in countless hotel rooms and suites with Gideons Bibles while on tour. Perhaps George drew spiritual comfort from one he found in this room.
Gideons Bibles are no longer universally accepted by hotels. I was in Baltimore this past weekend to attend a combination wedding and family reunion. I went back to my room, only to not find Gideons Bible.
Were the Monkees based upon A Hard Day’s Night or HELP!? If the first movie was the inspiration, the full-blown zaniness and colorfulness of the TV series certainly reflected the Beatles’ second foray into film.
The Monkees was an instant hit, starting on September 12, 1966 with ‘The Royal Flush’, featuring my mother’s old pal, Vince Beck, in one of his trademark comedic roles. He was even funnier performing for the family in person.
Click on the Archive logo in the upper right to see the complete list of episodes. Vince also appears in ‘Son of a Gypsy’ and, with Mike Nesmith conspicuous in his absense, ‘Card Carrying Red Shoes’. Fingers crossed these videos will continue to be available for a while longer.
Pete Best has retired from public appearances.
Let’s return to the subject of Beatles cartoons. I most recently talked about them in this post, which has one of my best punniest titles.
All of the Beatles cartoons were produced by Al Brodax. As a kid I watched his syndicated King Features Syndicate cartoons. Brodax cleverly embedded his name into the Snuffy Smith cartoon, ‘Jughaid the Magician’.
Andrew at Parlogram Auctions has this comprehensive history of the Beatles cartoon series on ABC-TV.
Brodax went on to produce the vastly superior and well-received Yellow Submarine animation feature; which, until yesterday, I had thought was the last of the Beatles Toons. But no, Brodax took one more swing at the Beatles. His never completed Strawberry Fields project has a strong Ralph Bakshi vibe.
I learned about this extremely curious artifact from a member of the Cartoon Research group on Facebook. There’s more information on the Cinema Crazed site.
Joey Molland, the last surviving member of Badfinger, has died. ‘Lost & Found’ on MIT’s WMBR has this in-depth 2018 interview with Molland.
I’ve been picking through some of the clips from the 50th anniversary SNL show. Yeah, I know they include a Lawrence Welk parody with “three of the four” singing sisters. That was why I posted a pure, perfect hit of the real thing, from after Dee Dee’s return to the show. Nobody disses Dee Dee!
A tip o’ the Dog Rat toupee to Tom Hanks for reprising his unforgettable Black Jeopardy! character.
Paul’s voice is sounding its age, but who would want to not hear Paul?
