Jazzy John Romita Sr.

 

If you recognize a drawing of Spider-man, it's likely one of two people.  Ross Andru, whose work was often used in licensing.  Or John Romita, Sr.

Romita wasn't the first person to draw Spider-man.  Instead, he would follow Steve Ditko following his abrupt departure after issue #38 of The Amazing Spider-Man.  Romita would take over as the penciler of Amazing with #39, starting a run that would encompass over 50 covers and an unbroken run of story art for 56 issues.  A run which would cover some of the ground-breaking Spider-Man stories, like the death of Gwen Stacy.

Though Romita never felt comfortable on Spider-Man, his art would become incredibly linked with the character.  He served as the primary penciler for the newspaper strip for the first four years of its publication.  He worked on the first intercompany crossover with Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, doing art corrections over Ross Andru's pencils.  He would provide the cover for Spider-Man's wedding issue, and several spot issues to come.

"For me, John's Spidey is a design of such perfection and beauty so as to be simply the greatest-looking character in comics, by his hand."

Alex Ross, painter, illustrator, Marvels, Kingdom Come

Romita's career in comics lasted from 1949 into 2010, long enough for the Sr. designation on his name to become important.  His son John Romita, Sr. would follow in his footsteps, becoming a celebrated comics artist in his own right.  And on Amazing Spider-man, even.

Romita passed away in his sleep on June 12, 2023, at the age of 93.  While his presence will be missed, his art and his heart will live on, inspiring us to be heroic, to be human.

The King of Calypso

Some music comes in and out of your life.  And some tunes and performers remain a constant companion.

When the name Harry Belafonte comes up, I think everyone's head goes to Beetlejuice and the Banana Boat Song and Jump in the Line.  

I, instead, think back to hearing Schrodinger's Cat sing Jump in the Line a cappella on the steps of the Tower at UT.  I think of Mom coming back from a cruise to Jamaica trying to identify a tune she heard on steel drums, but not exactly sure what it was.  We all thought of Jump in the Line, repeatedly, but that didn't seem to be it.  Until years later she heard Jump in the Line and said "that's it."

I think of Jude becoming obsessed with the greatest hits of Harry Belafonte.  Hearing repeated lines of Mama Look-A Boo Boo, "my daddy can't be ugly so."  Or getting Jude to record Turn the World Around for a Mother's Day present.

I think of Belafonte's episode of The Muppet Show, which we've watched repeatedly.  I know the gags by heart now.  Including the all times when Fozzie is off beat.

Belafonte's music is a joy to hear.  It's music he feels passionate about and it shows.  It's his formative music, the songs he learned by heart from a young age and then reinterpreted through his masterful skill.  It's been wonderful to discover his broader discography over the past couple of years, as he has quickly become perhaps our family's favorite artist as a whole.

Belafonte's life is also something to admire.  Wonderful film performances in Bright Road, Carmen Jones, and The World, The Flesh, and the Devil.  A masterful film noir in Odds Against Tomorrow.   His roles were influenced by his activism, stretching the portrayal of African Americans on film, moving beyond the stereotypical roles that they had previously been sidelined to.  He was a pioneer in that regard, right alongside his close friend Sydney Poitier.  Belafonte took that same stance in politics, marrying pop culture and politics.  He was an ardent supporter and active participant in the Civil Rights Movement, even bailing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. out of Birmingham jail.   He modeled this activism after that of his mentor, Paul Robeson, and carried it with him through his life.

Harry Belafonte has left an indelible impression on my family and this world through song, through film, and through his life.  He will be greatly missed.  

Belafonte passed away on Tuesday, April 25, 2023, from congestive heart failure.  He was 96.

Al Jaffee

 

The world is a little dimmer now, as we lost perhaps the greatest cartoonist yesterday.  Al Jaffee, Mad Magazine satirist and pioneer passed away yesterday at the age of 102.  Officially, the longest working career in comics, Jaffee's influence has spanned over seven decades.

Most known for the Mad Magazine staple, the Fold-In, the back page illustration where folding together the right and left sides would create a new image, Jaffee's wit continued to shine through.  From April 1964 to April 2013, Jaffee's work appeared in all but one issue of Mad Magazine, and Jaffee remained an active contributor until his official retirement in 2020 at the age of 99.  His last fold-in appeared in the August 2020 issue, a tribute to him, the "All" Jaffee issue.

Jaffee's work and list is a tribute to the idea that, while you may age, you never have to grow "old."  That is, you do not have to lose your child-like wonder and humor.  As Jaffee stated in a 2010 interview, "Serious people my age are dead."

While Jaffee will be missed, his work continues to live on.  Time to crack open an old Mad issue, and smile once again.

Chaim Topol

I've seen a handful of truly masterful performances in my life.  The Van Dyke brothers in The Sunshine Boys.  Sutton Foster and Joel Grey in Anything Goes.  Jerry Lewis in Damn Yankees.  

One of the most exciting ones was in 2009 at the Music Hall at Fair Park, watching Fiddler on the Roof.  This production marked Chaim Topol's farewell tour in the role of Tevye.  He was 73 at the time we saw him in Dallas.  And you would never have known it.  He looked as if he had just stepped off the screen from the movie filmed 38 years prior and continued right on the stage.  He played the role with such vitality and power, it was an exceedingly great tour-de-force.  This show created a life goal to be that passionate, to be doing what I love with such energy when I am that age and beyond.

Topol first starred as Tevye the Dairyman in a 1966 Israeli performance of Fiddler on the Roof, starting a career in which he has played the role an estimated 3,500 times.  A role which has brought him international acclaim.  

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has issued a statement honoring "one of the most prominent Israeli stage artists, a gifted actor who conquered many stages in Israel and overseas, filled the cinema screens with his presence and, above all, deeply entered our hearts."  Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated "his wide smile, warm voice, and unique sense of humor made him a folk hero who won the hearts of the people" and former prime minister Yair Lapid remarked "He and his smile will continue to accompany Israeli culture, his rich legacy will forever remain a part of Israel."

Topol passed away March 9, 2023, at the age of 87.

He remains a legend.

Remember the Alamo!, maybe

The Battle for the Alamo ended 187 years ago today.  Following a thirteen day siege, the Mexican army under President General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna reclaimed the Alamo mission.  Most of the occupants and fighters within the mission were killed.

"Remember the Alamo!" 

The battle cry of the Texians in the Battle of San Jacinto would become an unofficial motto of the state, propelling the site into the public consciousness and to perhaps a loftier position that it deserves.  Within weeks of the battle, it was even compared to the Battle of Thermopylae in the Greco-Persian Wars.  Like many things, the myth is more understood than the reality.  And that myth has a tangled history.

The myth often ignores and downplays the contributions of the native Tejano population in the defense of the Alamo and their contributions to the broader Texas Independence movement.  It downplays the problematic underpinnings of Texas Independence, started in part as opposition to Mexican policies regarding the abolition of slavery and the curtailing of immigration from the United States to Texas.  It overplays the certain death the defenders of the Alamo felt, as there was initial hope for support coming to aid them.  It creates dramatic lines in the sand that never existed.

As such, your perception of the Alamo depends on your background.  Especially because the myth is popular.

"There can be little doubt that most Americans have probably formed many of their opinions on what occurred at the Alamo not from books, but from the various movies made about the battle."  

Films certainly have done much to continue to perpetuate the myth of the Alamo.  Films of the Alamo date as far back as 1911 with The Immoral Alamo by George Melies.  And this spirit continued in the Davy Crockett television show (all myth) and the 1960 John Wayne The Alamo, which have continued to present the battle as the ultimate heroic sacrifice.  "There is not a single scene in The Alamo [1960] which corresponds to a historically verifiable event."  Meanwhile, the more character driven and historically accurate 2004 film, The Alamo, while praised by critics for its accuracy, bombed at the box office.

So, here's my plea for you today. Please, do remember the Alamo.  We don't need to go as far as the call of "Forget the Alamo" that was written in opinion columns a few years ago.

Instead, let's just remember it completely.  Let's understand all of the complexities of the battle.  All of the actors, all of the contributors.  

Let's enrich our understanding of history, not just continue to perpetuate myth and legend.

Because the truth is so much more interesting.

Raindrops Keep Fallin'

I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself

Wishin' and Hopin'

(They Long to Be) Close to You

Walk on By

A House is Not a Home

Always Somethin' There to Remind Me

What the World Needs Now Is Love

What's New Pussycat?

Alfie

The Look of Love

I Say A Little Prayer

Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

I'll Never Fall in Love Again

Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head

Arthur's Theme

That's What Friends Are For

There are definitely times when a person can stand on their accomplishments and their accomplishments can stand on their own.  Burt Bacharach's discography certainly stands with the best of them.

Described as "a composer whose venerable name can be linked with just about every other prominent musical artist of his era," Bacharach defined his own style of music.  His five decade plus career was littered with accomplishments that others could only dream of.  Seven Grammy awards including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008 that proclaimed him the Greatest Living Composer.  Three Academy Awards for his contribution to music in film.  An Emmy award, making him one award short of an EGOT.  The 2012 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, awarded by the Library of Congress.

His collaborators include a who's who of American and British popular music.  Songs for Nat King Cole, Marty Robbins, Perry Como, Frankie Avalon, The Drifters, Andy Williams, Doris Day, Tom Jones, Dusty Springfield, BJ Thomas, Christopher Cross, Roberta Flack, Neil Diamond, and Rod Stewart.  And of course, the legend, Dionne Warwick.  

While his music would be labeled easy listening and he made it look effortless, the process and the complexity was anything but easy.  He sought to make every composition interesting and in doing so, wrote for unique combinations of musicians, added unusual chord progressions, and played with tight harmonies, syncopated rhythms, pacing, and changing meters.  He was a master of his craft and it showed.

Bacharach passed away Wednesday, February 8, 2023 at the age of 94.

He will be missed.  Thankfully his legacy of music will live on.

TCM Remembers 2022

A bit of a look back today. As a classic film fan and lover of old Hollywood, this type of memorial strikes a chord. TCM always puts together a classy memorial reel, providing the most comprehensive look at the loss that film suffered in the past year.

This past years list included legends and personal favorites. While their presence will be missed, their contribution lives on.  

Rest in Peace, Dark Knight

 

This one hurts.  

Batman is dead.  THE Batman.

We can argue about who played Batman best in the movies, we can argue about Adam West's portrayal as Batman and how it fits in the large scope of pop culture, but there was one thing that could never be argued.  There is only one definitive portrayal of Batman across all media.  Only one voice that embodied the character so well, that it forever defined who Batman is.

Kevin Conroy, the voice of Batman in the classic Batman: The Animated Series (1992).

Conroy was one of the first actors truly delineate between Batman and Bruce Wayne, to portray the gravel that Batman would add to his voice, and often portraying the heartbreak inherent in the character.  And he did it all with just his voice.

As a kid growing up in the 80s and 90s, Batman: The Animated Series had a huge impact on me.  Their technique of animating and painting on black matte backgrounds to create a noir edge to the art.  The streamline moderne aspect to the art, placing Gotham City in an anachronistic time period that never existed, but somehow fit perfectly.  Plus, it was the first animated series where particular attention was paid to hiring dramatic actors to fill the vocal roles.

Conroy, prior to Batman, was a Juliard trained stage and TV actor who roomed with Robin Williams.  He consistently worked throughout the 80s, often in soap operas like Another World and Search for Tomorrow.  Batman would prove to be his iconic role, one he continued to portray to the very end and one he took to heart.  He was particularly gracious to his fans at conventions, even as his health began failing him.  He passed away Thursday, November 10, 2022, from complication due to cancer, at the age of 66.

If you have not read it, DC comics released a written work by Conroy with art by the incredible J. Bone as part of their DC Pride issue this June, in which Conroy relayed his experiences as a closeted and recently out gay actor working through the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s.  It spoke of his experiences fighting to find work in an industry that refused to put gay actors in a lead role and of the deep connection he made with Batman through the audition process and the development of the character.  It is beautiful and heartbreaking and DC comics has made it available free to read to everyone now in honor of Conroy's life.  You can read it here. 

Rest in Peace Dark Knight, you are missed.

Cicely Tyson

Cicely Tyson passed away Thursday, January 28, 2021 at the age of 96.  Ms. Tyson, an icon of American cinema, had a career that spanned seven decades, from an uncredited role in an amazing noir, Odds Against Tomorrow, to a Tyler Perry Netflix film released last year.   She is the recipient of three Primetime Emmy Awards, four Black Reel Awards, one Screen Actors Guild Award, one Tony Award, an honorary Academy Award, and a Peabody Award.

I remember being introduced to Ms. Tyson through The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman, a historical fiction television movie we watched in junior high.  Her ability to play the character from the age of 23 to 110, just through her performance and makeup was amazing.  Then to see her range in Fried Green Tomatoes, Sounder, and even Madea's Family Reunion has been a joy.

Jamie and I have made a point for us to have mini-film festivals each month, given our love of film and the wealth of the libraries we have a click of the remote.  January was Studio Ghibli, for us to finish the preeminent anime studios work.  This month is Black Film for Black History Month.  To look at performances for great African American actors, movies conceived by African American writers and directors, and those that are telling great black stories. 

I look forward to adding a couple of early performances with Ms. Tyson in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and A Man Called Adam.

She will be missed.

Cloris Leachman

 

Cloris Leachman passed away yesterday at the age of 94.  An impeccable comedienne and incredible actress, her impact on film and television is amazing.  I didn't realize just how acclaimed she was.  She is the most nominated and tied as the most awarded actress for the Primetime Emmys.  Academy Award, British Academy Film Award, Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy, Daytime Emmy, and National Board of Review Award winner, her credits include some of the most amazing performances put on screen.  From Ruth Popper, the lonely and depressed housewife of the closeted football coach in The Last Picture Show, to Phyllis Lindstrom the interfering downstairs neighbor on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, to Frau Blücher (Neigh), the secret keeping housekeeper in Young Frankenstein.

My favorite story about her relates to that classic role in Young Frankenstein.  When Mel decided to bring the show to Broadway in musical form in 2007,  Leachman auditioned to play Frau Blücher (neigh) in the show, as she was now closer to the age the character was supposed to be.  Mel thought at 81 she was too old for the dancing and stagework required.  "We don't want her to die on stage."  Leachman took umbrage with the statement, especially as she was appearing on Dancing With The Stars.  After seeing her success in the dancing competition, Brooks asked her to reprise the role of Frau Blücher (neigh) after the departure of the current actress in the role.  The show sadly closed before anyone could see that come to fruition.

(as an aside - That leaves Mel Brooks, Gene Hackman, and Terri Garr as the last surviving principle cast of Young Frankenstein.  And Mel and Hackman are 94 and 90 respectively.)

Leachman's career began in 1947 and will see two posthumous releases this year.  

She will be missed.

Who is Alex Trebek?

The Answer Is...

This 37 year host of the popular game show Jeopardy passed away on Sunday, November 8, 2020 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

This game show hosts awards include of seven Outstanding Game Show Host Emmy Awards and a start on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

This mustachioed game show host made headlines in 2001 when he shaved off his 30 year mustache late in the shows 18th season.

This television personality forever linked with Sean Connery thanks to a series of memorable Saturday Night Live skits, passed away just a week after the celebrated Bond actor in November 2020.

This humanitarian, longtime philanthropist, and activist, devoted himself to several causes including World Vision Canada, United Service Organizations, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, the American Foundation for the Blind, and the University of Ottawa Forum for Dialogue (which bears his name).

This icon made intelligence, trivia, consistency, facts, wit, and humor a staple of American culture for 37 years.  Nerd icon, culture icon, iconoclast.  He will be missed.

Note: I had thought of writing this entire post in the form of a question, but realized that was the wrong approach.  So, instead, enjoy this list of answers that could be used in remembrance.

A Comedian's Comedian

I hadn't intended for the blog to turn into back to back remembrances.  Tim Conway passed away today at the age of 85.   Known for his role on the Carol Burnett Show and the Dorf videos, Conway was perhaps one of the funniest people in America.  He was a comedian's comedian, able to crack eve the most polished professionals.  His commitment to a bit and his ability to elicit a laugh through silence and facial expressions was unparalleled.  And while it is generally not encouraged to make your partners in a scene break character and laugh, he had a knack for making Harvey Korman laugh.  And Carol Burnett.  And Vicki Lawrence.  And Lyle Waggoner.  The audiences ate it up.

If you haven't seen any of his bits, I've included a few of my favorites from the Carol Burnett show below.

The Dentist Sketch:

The Elephant Story:

The Interrogator and the Puppet:


If you have any favorite sketches, I'd love to hear and discover them.

Doris Day

"My public image is unshakably that of America's wholesome virgin, the girl next door, carefree and brimming with happiness.  An image, I can assure you, more make-believe than any film part I ever played.  But I am Miss Chastity Belt, and that's all there is to it."

Doris Day, in "Doris Day: Her Own Story," a 1976 book by A.E. Hotchner based on a series of interviews conducted with Ms. Day

Legendary actress Doris Day passed away today, May 13, 2019.  She was 97.  A celebrated singer and actress, she truly defined an era of film.  She was the biggest female star of the early 1960s and ranked sixth among box-office performers by 2012.  Day received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, a Legend Award from the Society of Singers, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, and received the Cecil B. Demille Award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures.  In 2004, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush.

In tribute at for that award, President Bush would say, "In the years since, she has kept her fans and shown the breadth of her talent in television and the movies.  She starred on screen with leading men from Jimmy Stewart to Ronald Reagan, from Rock Hudson to James Garner.  It was a good day for America when Doris Mary Ann von Kappelhoff of Evanston, Ohio decided to become an entertainer.  It was a good day for our fellow creatures when she gave her good heart to the cause of animal welfare.  Doris Day is one of the greats, and America will always love its sweetheart."

Through it all, she was known for an image that was never exactly a perfect fit.

"The succession of cheerful, period musicals I made, plus Oscar Levant's highly publicized comment about my virginity ('I knew Doris Day before she became a virgin'), contributed to what has been called my 'image,' which is a word that baffles me.  There never was any intent on my part either in my acting or in my private life to create any such thing as an image."

In perhaps the film she is most well-known for, Pillow Talk, the entire conceit of the film was designed as a way to show an unmarried man and woman in bed while getting around the Motion Picture Production Code.  She portrayed many working women at a time when that went against the norm.  She worked in greater dramatic works like Love Me or Leave Me, The Man Who Knew Too Much with Hitchcock, and Midnight Lace.  Her personal life was even more removed from this image.  Day was married four times, which carried their fair share of heartache.  Her first husband was abusive.  Her third husband's death revealed he had squandered most of her earnings leaving her deeply in debt.

Day retired from film after With Six You Get Eggroll in 1968.  After a short stint in television, she focused primarily on her music and on animal activism.  Day co-founded Actors and Others for Animals in 1971, as well as the Doris Day Pet Foundation (now Doris Day Animal Foundation) in 1978, and the Doris Day Animal League in 1987.  Day actively lobbied for legislation designed to safeguard animal welfare and originated what would become the World Spay Day.

Though reserved and removed from the public life, she had not become a recluse in later life, despite reports to the contrary.  Instead, she found a quiet life she appreciated.  "I've been blessed with good health, great friends, a wonderful career and many precious four-leggers.  I'm very grateful." Day revealed in her last exclusive interview with Closer Weekly, released just after her birthday in April this year.

Through Day's life, we see the kind of positive outlook and attitude that made her signature song so powerful.

Que sera, sera
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours to see
Que sera, sera
What will be, will be

We don't know what the future will bring.  We can only hope to face it with half as much grace and fortune as she did.