Denro, #1 Monkees fan, says Peter Tork has announced he has a rare form of cancer. The story is in the Hartford (CT) Courant, and it was picked up by the BBC.
Category: Music
The Blues Brothers break in the new Boston House of Blues
Hey, there’s Bismo as Elwood Blues. Saturday night, Bismo and his partner Jake were at the new House of Blues in Boston, where, I’m told, Dan Ackroyd and Jim Belushi put on a great show.
Bismo even got some face time on local TV!
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See Emilys Play
Mr. D.F. Rogers of Massachusetts writes…
Hey, who played the yeoman with Dr. McCoy? The one in the ultra mini skirt who meets Don Juan on the planet where your wishes come true!
Good question, Denny! That’s Emily Banks. There’s a little something about Emily at this link. She seems to have dropped out of the TV acting scene in the mid-80’s. Emily appeared in an episode of Dragnet 1970, as an English teacher at a junior college which, thanks to Netflix Watch Instantly, I was able to watch instantly.
And following a train of thought, the Pink Floyd song “See Emily Play” was produced by Norman “Hurricane” Smith, after he left his position as EMI recording engineer for The Beatles.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/FEB/Emily.mp3]A school girl named Emily Young inspired the song, written in 1967 by the late Syd Barrett. Today, Emily is a noted sculptor.
Yore Gang
Jackie Cooper is still alive, but another member of the “Our Gang” cast has died. Shirley Jean Rickert, who wasn’t one of the better known players, has passed away at age 82. She’s the girl with the curly blond locks, as seen in the memorable “Fly My Kite” from 1931. Here is the complete 20-minute 2-reeler.
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Grandma was played by Margaret Mann, who was born in Scotland in 1868. Whenever I watched this installment of The Little Rascals, as the series was called for TV syndication, I didn’t understand why there was an electric switch on the utility pole, and I knew it had to be harder than it looked for a bunch of kids to saw down the pole.
But what I really want you to notice is the unique and wonderful music by Leroy Shield. It’s quirky, catchy, original and unforgettable to anybody who heard it while growing up. Yet incredibly, Shield received no screen credit from producer Hal Roach. In the 90’s a band from the Netherlands (Holland gets mentioned a lot here, huh?) called The Beau Hunks released some fabulous CD’s of Leroy Shield’s music. Here’s a delightful rendition of “Hide and Go Seek”, which is featured prominently towards the end of “Fly My Kite”.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/FEB/HideandGoSeek.mp3]Beeatles and Monkeeys
As I pointed out before, Davy Jones, of the pre-fab four band The Monkees, was on The Ed Sullivan Show the very same night that The Beatles first appeared. You’ll find him on the video player as the Artful Dodger in “Oliver!”, followed by a bit of “Making the Monkees,” recently shown on the Smithsonian Channel. Last year I highlighted Jack Nicholson’s involvement in the making of the Monkees movie “Head.”
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From The Beatles to Star Trek
Back at this link I showed the comedy duo Charlie Brill and Mitzi McCall on the Ed Sullivan show, stuck with the unenviable task of being the lead-in act to The Beatles. I’ll plop it here again, for your viewing convenience.
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Earlier I said there are two connections to Star Trek in the video. One of them is Sally Kellerman, who did the voiceover for the Pillsbury cake commercial. Kellerman was in the second Trek pilot, “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, which I think is, for a sci-fi/comics fan, one of the best hours of TV ever made.
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The second Trek connection is Charlie Brill himself, who appeared as a Klingon agent in one of the most popular of all episodes, “The Trouble With Tribbles”.
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Hey, ya know what? Brill resembles John Lennon in this picture.