The Lennon Sisters Sing About Puberty

The Lennon Sisters sang this “coming of age” song on the Lawrence Welk Show in 1956. Kathy, on the left, was thirteen going on fourteen. Peggy, on the right, was fifteen going on sixteen. Eldest sister Dianne, aka Dee Dee, was sixteen going on seventeen, and Janet was ten.

“Thirteen Going on Fourteen” hasn’t aged well, but the Lennons, being girls singing about girls, made it a cute little song. I can imagine Welk thought it was perfect for them when he heard the single recorded by the Crew Cuts. Today, a quartet of men in their mid-20’s singing about a 13-year-old girl being “a pretty little flower, ready to bloom,” comes across as rather creepy.

Written by Al Hoffman and Dick Manning, what’s most interesting about “Thirteen Going on Fourteen” historically is that it predates Rodgers and Hammersteins’ “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” by three years.

The Cuckoo Month

The Beatles released their second UK album, With the Beatles, on November 22, 1963. That same day in New York, actor Patrick O’Neal and his brother Mike opened their first restaurant, The Ginger Man, named after a play Patrick was in. They had a rough start.

On November 24, my family appeared in a Parade magazine article that was ignored along with everything else, because of what happened in Dallas on Friday. Another play that was on stage in New York in November of ’63 was an adaptation of Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

The production lasted for only 83 performances, even with Kirk Douglas starring as McMurphy. New York’s attention would soon be turned away from JFK’s assassination by the arrival of the four lads from Liverpool.

There were other notable actors in Cuckoo’s Nest, including William Daniels. Ed Ames, who died a few months ago, played Chief. After the play closed, the following year Ames, who was Jewish, was stuck with playing an Indian once again, this time for the Daniel Boone TV series. I was surprised to see Gene Wilder’s name in the cast. Wilder, who was 30 at the time, played Billy. So he had Broadway experience when, four years later, he was Leo Bloom in The Producers. Douglas wasn’t able to get One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest produced for film, but his son Michael managed to pull it off twelve years later.

Wait, here’s another one!

Tripping With Doctor Who

Getting In Tune

I’m listening to TuneIn…

… I’m reading Tune In…

… and I’m watching Toon In.

Toon In with Me deserves attention and praise for multiple reasons. The show appeals to kids and adult animation fans alike. Although most of the cartoons are from Warner, Fleischer, and MGM, they dig fairly deep into those catalogs. Obviously offensive titles are avoided, so you won’t see “Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips”.

New viewers will quickly learn the names Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, and Chuck Jones. Helpful historical context is provided for cartoons that go as far back as the 1930’s. Each episode of Toon In has a theme, and there are plenty of hokey comedy bits between the cartoons. All that’s missing is a studio audience.