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3 episodes with Frank Tashlin
2 episodes with Frank Tashlin
2 episodes with Frank Tashlin
2 episodes with Frank Tashlin
2 episodes with Frank Tashlin
2 episodes with Frank Tashlin
2 episodes with Frank Tashlin
2 episodes with Frank Tashlin
2 episodes with Frank Tashlin
Frame Fatale es un podcast de películas ¿no canónicas? hecho con amor por Santiago Calori, Axel Kuschevatzky y Sebastián Rotstein.En el centésimo vigésimo primero episodio nos ocupamos de En busca de un hombre (Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, 1957) de Frank Tashlin.Podés comentar este episodio o agregar una pregunta que nada que ver enviándonos un correo electrónico a nolahepodidover@gmail.com.Quizás sea una pegada total suscribirte en donde sea que escuches tus podcasts y tener la primicia, algo que, de todas maneras, y ya explicamos varias veces, es lo menos importante.
La nuova specie che abita Tiktok: i medici-influencers. Ascolta SEIETRENTA, il nuovo podcast di rassegna stampa di Chora Media. Fonti: estratto dal film "Pazzi, pupe e pillole" del 1964 con la regia di Frank Tashlin; account Tiktok usso96, 21 giugno 2023; video “Burioni: Affermare che i vaccini non funzionano è come dire che la terra è piatta” pubblicato sul canale Youtube La7 Attualità il 24 aprile 2017; account Instagram md_urologist, 9 marzo 2025; account Instagram ginecologa.calcagni, 23 febbraio 2025; video “Michelle è incinta o no? Il video esclusivo fuga ogni dubbio" pubblicato sul sito striscialanotizia.mediaset.it il 28 gennaio 2016. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In 1937 Looney Tunes continued to evolve more and more into what they're thought of today, and a big reason for that is the way the individual directors evolved, getting more and more leeway to find their own styles. In this episode we meet up with Frank Tashlin again and see how his style has changed and what aspects he's leaned into. Is either short worth watching today? Listen to find out!
Episode 37 - Director Frank Tashlin's THE PRIVATE NAVY OF SGT. O'FARRELL w/guest Michael Schlesinger. Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content? E-MAIL: firewaterpodcast@comcast.net Follow FADE OUT on Twitter: @FadeOutPod Theme by Luke Daab: https://www.daabcreative.com You can find FADE OUT on these podcast platforms: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fade-out/id1536486950 Amazon Music Spotify Stitcher This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Visit the Fire & Water WEBSITE: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com Follow Fire & Water on TWITTER – https://twitter.com/FWPodcasts Like our Fire & Water FACEBOOK page – https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Support The Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Use our HASHTAG online: #FWPodcasts Thanks for listening!
Episode 37 - Director Frank Tashlin's THE PRIVATE NAVY OF SGT. O'FARRELL w/guest Michael Schlesinger. Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content? E-MAIL: firewaterpodcast@comcast.net Follow FADE OUT on Twitter: @FadeOutPod Theme by Luke Daab: https://www.daabcreative.com You can find FADE OUT on these podcast platforms: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fade-out/id1536486950 Amazon Music Spotify Stitcher This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Visit the Fire & Water WEBSITE: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com Follow Fire & Water on TWITTER – https://twitter.com/FWPodcasts Like our Fire & Water FACEBOOK page – https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Support The Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Use our HASHTAG online: #FWPodcasts Thanks for listening!
We're discussing a lot of box office misses this month for our theme of AWKWARD LAUGHTER 2: THE FLOP but our unofficial mascot for Awkward Laughter is the one and only Jerry Lewis who made a lot of money in movies for a long time. We're examining a smidgen of Mr. Lewis's nutty career in three movies this month and we've hit the final of that trilogy in the zany 1964 comedy “The Disorderly Orderly” directed by Frank Tashlin and starring the ultimate chaos god, Jerry Lewis. Classic vaudeville slapstick and Looney Tunes (some of which also directed by Tashlin) paved the way to Jerry Lewis and this film embodies those roots more than any Lewis feature we've discussed so far. Jerome Littlefield has a condition that makes working at a hospital the worst idea but we know what he's really there for. He's God's punishment sent down to destroy the greedy hospital owner, Mr. Tuffington. Yes, Jerry Lewis is pretty much a reality warping deity of some sort who is too dumb to know that's what he is. There are plenty of “miracles” that occur in this film that back up that theory. We will never see Jerry Lewis movies the same ever again. Also starring Susan Oliver, the green lady from Star Trek who is stalked by the chaos god. This is some scary shit if you really think about it. Subscribe to us on YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuJf3lkRI-BLUTsLI_ehOsg Contact us here: MOVIEHUMPERS@gmail.com Check our past & current film ratings here: https://moviehumpers.wordpress.com Hear us on podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6o6PSNJFGXJeENgqtPY4h7 Our OG podcast “Documenteers”: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/documenteers-the-documentary-podcast/id1321652249 Soundcloud feed: https://soundcloud.com/documenteers Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/culturewrought
We discuss the ITV (1992), BBC (2018), and Frank Tashlin (1965) screen adaptations of Agatha Christie's 'The ABC Murders'. An unusual plot for the mystery great, how have histories most lauded (and least) tweaked the plot for the moving image? From spellbinding performances by David Suchet, Donald Sumpter, and John Malkovich, to laughable replacement-by-buxom-blondes, you're spoiled for choice when it comes to the Queen of Crime. How can the various Poirots get to the bottom of this case, and who ebbs & flows along the way? We're also joined by Natalie Conyer and Chad Taylor, to talk about their contributions to the upcoming collection 'Dark Deeds Down Under 2', the second anthology edited by Craig Sisterson in Clan Destine Press' mission to render series characters in short story. Thank you to Clan Destine Press for providing copies of 'Dark Deeds Down Under' and its sequel, and their help in arranging our time with Natalie and Chad.
Um podcast sobre cinema de gênero. Essa sempre foi a proposta do DETOUR entre suas oscilantes atividades, mas onde estava a comédia?Inauguramos nossa série sobre o mais popular gênero cinematográfico, aquele extremamente ramificado em formas e tendências, costumes e padrões, e falando de um dos grandes, se não o maior, comediantes que já viveram: O TERROR DAS MULHERES, do Jerry Lewis. Debatemos e contamos histórias da vida de Jerry, da parceria com Dean Martin ao super estrelato e poder como contratado na Paramount. Os grandes parceiros como Frank Tashlin e George Marshal, sua reinvenção na televisão, os anos oitenta e o novo ressurgimento a partir de O REI DA COMÉDIA ao lado de De Niro/Scorsese. E, como sempre, mergulhamos neste filme fabuloso, The Ladies Man, uma comédia cartunesca, mas também social, adorável e desagradável simultaneamente. O filme que seduziu Jean-Luc Godard. Jerry Lewis e sua obra honram o termo gênio.Eis o nosso índice: 1' – Apresentando conceito da série sobre comédias e Jerry Lewis: astro, artista, palhaço, babaca e parceiro 69'03 – O Terror das Mulheres 130'10 – Elegemos o nosso Top 5 do Jerry, agradecimentos
Join us as we continue our viewing of even more Bugs Bunny shorts! Marc looks as Bugs takes on a mischievous magician in 'Case of the Missing Hare' Jordan takes a look at an early Yosemite Sam/Bugs short in 'Rabbit Every Monday' And we both see as Bugs goes against railroad worker Elmer in Frank Tashlin's only credited Bugs short with 'The Unruly Hare' LINKS: Support the show on Patreon!: patreon.com/TNQAF Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/that_looney Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tnqaf/
This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service so please help us continue our goal of helping Jewish lecturers become podcasters and support us with a donation: https://thechesedfund.com/jewishpodcasts/donate
By the summer of 1953 network radio was allocating increasing time to local affiliates. Budgets were shifting to TV. The final episode of The Martin & Lewis show aired on July 14th at 9PM eastern time. Gloria Graham was the guest. Opposite on CBS, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar aired starring John Lund. Dean and Jerry made six more films together. Their last was Hollywood Or Bust in 1956. During shooting in 1956, their mutual animosity reached the point where Lewis would only speak to Martin through director Frank Tashlin, and Martin told Lewis he was nothing but a dollar sign. After the film completed principal photography on June 19th, their breakup was widely reported. They fulfilled their contractual obligations with a farewell engagement at the Copacabana Club. Their last appearance was on July 25th, 1956, exactly ten years after their first teaming in Atlantic City. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis didn't speak again privately for twenty years. Although both continued to thank each other publicly, like in this Dean Martin interview with Edward R. Murrow from 1958. They crossed paths that year when Lewis was a guest on Eddie Fisher's TV show. Martin jumped out from behind a curtain with a memorable line. The crowd—and Lewis—couldn't contain their affection. Free from Lewis, Dean Martin became a huge star, both as a recording artist, as a movie actor on his own and as a member of the Rat Pack. He also hosted his own hugely successful TV variety series, The Dean Martin Show. Lewis remained with Paramount Pictures, appearing in and directing a succession of commercially successful films, at one point becoming Paramount's biggest star. He continued philanthropic work, which led to mutual good friend Frank Sinatra finally reuniting the duo on live TV during Jerry Lewis' 1976 Labor Day telethon. They embraced, with Lewis in tears, and their friendship renewed. Both claimed they spoke every day from then on.
Who could talk midcentury showbiz without mentioning the trending soundtrack to juvenile delinquency known as rock'n'roll? No one, that's who! Save your energy now for the sighing you will be doing later because we're talking about 1956's The Girl Can't Help It! Featuring Shrishma Naik, Carolyn Naoroz, and Justin Zeppa. The Girl Can't Help It was directed by Frank Tashlin and stars Jayne Mansfield and Tom Ewell. Join us on Patreon at the Boom Room for exclusive, ad-free bonus content in the form of super-deluxe length episodes: patreon.com/oldmovietimemachine We appreciate your support, so please subscribe, rate, review, and follow the show: Instagram: @timemachinepodcasts Facebook: facebook.com/oldmovietimemachine Email: partyline@oldmovietimemachine.com Buy our luxurious merchandise: www.teepublic.com/user/old-movie-time-machine ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
En un nuevo Página 13 cargado de cine, Iván Valenzuela conversó con Ascanio Cavallo y Antonio Martínez sobre "Nope", "Los Ladrones: La verdadera historia del robo del siglo", "Érase una vez un genio", “Holy Emy” y “A Chiara”. En tanto, el clásico estuvo dedicado al aniversario de los 65 años desde el estreno de “Will success spoil Rock Hunter?” (1957), de Frank Tashlin.
En un nuevo Página 13 cargado de cine, Iván Valenzuela conversó con Ascanio Cavallo y Antonio Martínez sobre "Nope", "Los Ladrones: La verdadera historia del robo del siglo", "Érase una vez un genio", “Holy Emy” y “A Chiara”. En tanto, el clásico estuvo dedicado al aniversario de los 65 años desde el estreno de “Will success spoil Rock Hunter?” (1957), de Frank Tashlin.
Filmmaker Frank Tashlin changed both the animation and movie industries, but never got the recognition he deserved. Now his breakthrough feature Son of Paleface is having a platinum anniversary. And in our Movie Almanac, Alican Pamir decided to give the late auteur his due.
On this episode of Showcase, watch: Thor: Love and Thunder 00:02 Guest: Kayleigh Donaldson, Pop Culture Writer and Critic Harumichi Shibasaki 09:56 James Cook 12:30 Brooklyn Recreated 15:08 Frank Tashlin 17:36 Digital Art Heist 20:39 Fusion of Sensen 23:00
This week's Special Subject takes a look at Sex, Satire, and American Culture in Frank Tashlin's Artists and Models (1955), starring Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine, and Dorothy Malone, and in Billy Wilder's Kiss Me, Stupid (1964), starring Dean Martin, Kim Novak, Ray Walston, and Felicia Farr. Tashlin uses comic books to portray American culture as a strangely sexless-yet-sex-obsessed idiot savant with an exuberantly violent imagination, while Wilder turns smut in a small town into an uncannily beatific examination of objectification and toxic masculinity in American popular culture. We also look at the way that Tashlin and Lewis turn signifiers of gender and sexuality into a richly indecipherable text that comments on the madness of heteronormativity and gender stereotypes. Further Reading: Elise's “Jerry Lewis and the Gender of Work.” Elise's “Billy Wilder and the 1930s Romantic Comedy” Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s: ARTISTS AND MODELS (1955) [dir. Frank Tashlin] 0h 45m 25s: KISS ME, STUPID (1964) [dir. Billy Wilder] +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!
We discuss the work of Animator/Director Frank Tashlin and focus on his films SON OF PALEFACE, THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT, and WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER? Join the Patreon now for an exclusive episode every week, access to our entire Patreon Episode back catalogue, your name read out on the next episode, and the friendly Discord chat: patreon.com/theimportantcinemaclub Subscribe, Review and Rate Us on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-…ub/id1067435576 Follow the Podcast: twitter.com/ImprtCinemaClub Follow Will: twitter.com/WillSloanESQ Follow Justin: twitter.com/DeclouxJ Check out Justin's other podcasts THE BAY STREET VIDEO PODCAST (@thebaystreetvideopodcast) and NO SUCH THING AS A BAD MOVIE (@nosuchthingasabadmovie) as well as Will's other podcast MICHAEL AND US (@michael-and-us)
I keep talking about life-resolution issues that are fairly elemental. Part of the theme comes from recent personal experience, but part of it comes from popular music and movies. Today's entry point is a song from 1954 that almost won the Oscar that year, entitled "Hold My Hand". It is from an incredibly cool movie by Frank Tashlin, which you have got to see, entitled Susan Slept Here. This oddly titled movie starred Debby Reynolds and Dick Powell. Anyway, I'm talking about physical touch at the end of life, but also about the self-revelation that serious stress almost inevitably presents one. Think H.G. Wells' three religious books that he wrote during the carnage of World War I. Later on, after the War, he wrote that he could no longer understand these books nor why he wrote them. In fact, the later, less-stressed Wells said he was actually bewildered by the fact that he had written them at all. He came very close to disavowing the books, tho' today we regard Mr. Britling Sees It Through (1916) as a masterpiece. Why do people seize on secondary things for help/support in everyday life? Especially when almost all of those things literally vanish into thin air when real stress hits. This podcast tries to take the listener to the rock-like essentials of human survival. LUV U.
For the season two finale I'm thrilled to welcome Stephanie Crawford to the show to help me wrap things up and to discuss Frank Tashlin's 1956 rock 'n roll film The Girl Can't Help It. We talk about Tashlin's career, the influence this film had on so many others through the years, and we suggest some films to pair. Head to ColumbusvHughes.com for extensive show notes and links to where you can find Stephanie.
La crisis generada por la pandemia planetaria ha sacado a la luz nuevas dimensiones de vulnerabilidad de las comunidades. Con respecto a la educación las desigualdades se incrementaron y aquellos niños y jóvenes, cuyas familias quedaron en desventaja ante las desigualdades de acceso a la conectividad verán afectada su calidad educativa. Hoy las familias requieren nuestro acompañamiento con orientaciones educativas y culturales para compartir con los niños, niñas y jóvenes, en estos días que tienen "la casa por escuela”. Es por esto que desde Vokaribe radio y Biblopaz vamos a ofrecerles un espacio para compartir experiencias de lectura en familia y orientaciones a las madres, padres y adultos responsables de la formación de lectores en la familia. En léeme un cuento, vamos a compartir algunas historias, libros y conversaciones con personas que puedan aportarnos su conocimiento para las familias: escritores, ilustradores, expertos, bibliotecarios. En éste episodio: El Oso que no lo era. "Cuando el oso despertó al llegar la primavera, descubrió que habían construido una fábrica sobre su osera durante el invierno. además, al salir, todos intentaban convencerlo de que no era un oso sino un hombre tonto, sin afeitar y con un abrigo de piel." Autor: Frank Tashlin Editorial Alfaguara. PROGRAMA “LEÉME UN CUENTO” PARA FORTALECER LA CALIDAD DE LA EDUCACIÓN EN EL SUROCCIDENTE DE BARRANQUILLA BIBLOPAZ Y FUNDACIÓN GASES DEL CARIBE CON EL APOYO DE VOKARIBE RADIO. EN LA VOZ DE GLADYS LOPERA CARDONA ASESORA DEL PROYECTO B.E.C BIBLIOTECA-ESCUELA-COMUNIDAD PRODUCCIÓN: LAURA SENIOR
A Hollywood screenwriter takes in a runaway girl who's more woman than he can handle.
Un comico impareggiabile che, con la sua mimica, la risata e la gestualità, ha certamente ispirato nuove generazioni della risata, in primis Jim Carrey. In questo film, che ho adorato e ancora oggi mi regala grasse risate, Jerry Lewis è un impacciato inserviente dal cuore d'oro, che non fa altro che combinare guai e esasperare la povera infermiera Higgins. Ma il lieto fine e l'amore, come sempre, sono dietro l'angolo.
We conclude our Looney Tunes director mini-series by looking at the work of Frank Tashlin. Marc looks at an earlier, more Disney-like, short in 'Now That Summer Is Gone' Jordan gets to lovingly talk about the short that is 'Porky Pig's Feat' and We both look at the odd reality of Elmer Fudd as a scientist in 'Hare Remover'
"I have to call my dog." The Glass Bottom Boat (1966) directed by Frank Tashlin and starring Doris Day, Rod Taylor, Arthur Godfrey, Paul Lynde, Dick Martin and Dom DeLuise. Next Time: The Wizard of Oz (1939)
"Remember you guys, she's underage." Susan Slept Here (1954) directed by Frank Tashlin and starring Dick Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Anne Francis, Glenda Farrell and Maide Norman. Next Time: TBD Shirley Temple Picture
Can you hear that? It’s the “Silver Bells” ringing in the distance to let you know that the WPMT premiere of “The Lemon Drop Kid,” starring Bob Hope, is now live! Broadcast December 10, 1951 on The Lux Radio Theatre with music and lyrics by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans and screenplay by Edmund Hartmann, Robert O'Brien and Frank Tashlin. Based on a story by Damon Runyon, "The Lemon Drop Kid" stars Bob Hope as "Sidney Milburn/The Lemon Drop Kid," Marilyn Maxwell as "Brainey Baxter," and William Conrad as "Moose Moran." Edited by David Robbins New episodes every Tuesday at 1pm CDT
Especialmente para minha pequena Julia.
In our second chapter, we explore the creation myth surrounding the song, Eleanor Rigby. Travel back in time with us to the very moment of formation of … the Beatles.Why this moment in time? Because it provides fascinating clues about the creation of this song. Join us in our investigation as we discover what in the world a psychological phenomenon known as cryptomnesia, has to do with the creation of Eleanor Rigby.Buckle up, for we are going to visit a very specific graveyard just outside Liverpool where everything will be revealed. Well, almost everything. Try to figure out now, in advance if you can, what the film “Psycho” has to do with the song Eleanor Rigby!SongsEleanor Rigby; Lennon and McCartney; performed by Joe Anastasi, Mike Sugar, and Winter, of SDPLYesterday, Lennon and McCartney; performed by Joe Anastasi, of SDPLOla-na Tung-eee; Paul McCartney, performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPLA Day in the Life; Lennon and McCartney, ‘outro,' performed by Mike Sugar, of SDPLMellow Yellow; Donovan; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPLDa-Zi-Di-Da-Zu; Paul McCartney, performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPLA Hard Day's Night, Lennon and McCartney; ‘intro,' performed by Mike Sugar, of SDPLAlso Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30; Richard Strauss"Think!," Merv Griffin; mangled by Mike Sugar, of SDPLTwilight Zone Theme, Bernard Herrmann and Marius Constant, original recording cue, mangled by Mike Sugar, of SDPLSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band; Lennon and McCartney; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPL1985, Paul McCartney: ‘outro,' performed by SDPL (Joe Anastasi, Mike Sugar, Winter, Mark Abbott, and Matt Twain)The Girl Can't Help It; Bobby Troup; performed by Little RichardTwenty Flight Rock; Ned Fairchild and Eddie Cochran; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPLPenny Lane, Lennon and McCartney; performed by SDPL (Joe Anastasi, Mike Sugar, Winter, Mark Abbott, and Matt Twain)Cry Me a River; Arthur Hamilton; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPLShake It Off; Taylor Swift, Max Martin, and Shellbac; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPLMoonlight Sonata, Piano Sonata No. 14, Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by Mike Sugar, of SDPLEasier Said Than Done; William Linton and Larry Huff; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPLBarracuda; Ann and Nancy Wilson, Roger Fisher and Michael DeRosier; performed by Mike Sugar, of SDPLManiac; Michael Sembello; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPLString Concerto, Vivaldi; performed by Baroque BandBad Idea, Ariana Grande, Peter Svensson, Savan Kotecha, Max Martin and Ilya Salmanzadeh; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPLPsycho!, Bernard Herrmann, original recording cue, mangled by Mike Sugar, of SDPLThe End, Lennon and McCartney; performed by SDPL (Joe Anastasi, Mike Sugar, Winter, Mark Abbott, Matt Twain)SourcesMcCartney, Christopher Sandford; Carroll and Graf Publishers; 2006Paul McCartney, the Life, Philip Norman; Little Brown and Company; 2016Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles, Dominic Pedler; Omnibus Press; 2003This is Your Brain on Music, The Science of a Human Obsession; Daniel J. Levitin; Plume; 2007Recording the Beatles, Kevin Ryan & Brian Kehew, Curvebender Publishing; 2006The Beatles Anthology; Chronicle Books; 2000www.merriam-webster.com/medical/cryptomnesiawww.dictionary.apa.org/cryptomnesiaSunbeams Music Trust; Annie Mawson, Director;The Girl Can't Help It; produced and directed by Frank Tashlin, screenplay adapted by Frank Tashlin and Herbert Baker; 1956Psycho! directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock; written by Joseph Stefano; 1960Voice Actors Joe AnastasiMike SugarAnnie Mawson -- as herself.This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts.
In our second chapter, we explore the creation myth surrounding the song, Eleanor Rigby. Travel back in time with us to the very moment of formation of … the Beatles. Why this moment in time? Because it provides fascinating clues about the creation of this song. Join us in our investigation as we discover what in the world a psychological phenomenon known as cryptomnesia, has to do with the creation of Eleanor Rigby. Buckle up, for we are going to visit a very specific graveyard just outside Liverpool where everything will be revealed. Well, almost everything. Try to figure out now, in advance if you can, what the film “Psycho” has to do with the song Eleanor Rigby! Songs Eleanor Rigby; Lennon and McCartney; performed by Joe Anastasi, Mike Sugar, and Winter, of SDPL Yesterday, Lennon and McCartney; performed by Joe Anastasi, of SDPL Ola-na Tung-eee; Paul McCartney, performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPL A Day in the Life; Lennon and McCartney, ‘outro,’ performed by Mike Sugar, of SDPL Mellow Yellow; Donovan; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPL Da-Zi-Di-Da-Zu; Paul McCartney, performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPL A Hard Day’s Night, Lennon and McCartney; ‘intro,’ performed by Mike Sugar, of SDPL Also Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30; Richard Strauss "Think!," Merv Griffin; mangled by Mike Sugar, of SDPL Twilight Zone Theme, Bernard Herrmann and Marius Constant, original recording cue, mangled by Mike Sugar, of SDPL Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band; Lennon and McCartney; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPL 1985, Paul McCartney: ‘outro,’ performed by SDPL (Joe Anastasi, Mike Sugar, Winter, Mark Abbott, and Matt Twain) The Girl Can’t Help It; Bobby Troup; performed by Little Richard Twenty Flight Rock; Ned Fairchild and Eddie Cochran; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPL Penny Lane, Lennon and McCartney; performed by SDPL (Joe Anastasi, Mike Sugar, Winter, Mark Abbott, and Matt Twain) Cry Me a River; Arthur Hamilton; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPL Shake It Off; Taylor Swift, Max Martin, and Shellbac; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPL Moonlight Sonata, Piano Sonata No. 14, Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by Mike Sugar, of SDPL Easier Said Than Done; William Linton and Larry Huff; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPL Barracuda; Ann and Nancy Wilson, Roger Fisher and Michael DeRosier; performed by Mike Sugar, of SDPL Maniac; Michael Sembello; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPL String Concerto, Vivaldi; performed by Baroque Band Bad Idea, Ariana Grande, Peter Svensson, Savan Kotecha, Max Martin and Ilya Salmanzadeh; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPL Psycho!, Bernard Herrmann, original recording cue, mangled by Mike Sugar, of SDPL The End, Lennon and McCartney; performed by SDPL (Joe Anastasi, Mike Sugar, Winter, Mark Abbott, Matt Twain) Sources McCartney, Christopher Sandford; Carroll and Graf Publishers; 2006 Paul McCartney, the Life, Philip Norman; Little Brown and Company; 2016 Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles, Dominic Pedler; Omnibus Press; 2003 This is Your Brain on Music, The Science of a Human Obsession; Daniel J. Levitin; Plume; 2007 Recording the Beatles, Kevin Ryan & Brian Kehew, Curvebender Publishing; 2006 The Beatles Anthology; Chronicle Books; 2000 www.merriam-webster.com/medical/cryptomnesia www.dictionary.apa.org/cryptomnesia Sunbeams Music Trust; Annie Mawson, Director; The Girl Can’t Help It; produced and directed by Frank Tashlin, screenplay adapted by Frank Tashlin and Herbert Baker; 1956 Psycho! directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock; written by Joseph Stefano; 1960 Voice Actors Joe Anastasi Mike Sugar Annie Mawson -- as herself. This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts.
Episode 2: Eleanor Rigby – The Counter-Narrative!In our second chapter, we explore the creation myth surrounding the song, Eleanor Rigby. Travel back in time with us to the very moment of formation of … the Beatles.Why this moment in time? Because it provides fascinating clues about the creation of this song. Join us in our investigation as we discover what in the world a psychological phenomenon known as cryptomnesia, has to do with the creation of Eleanor Rigby.Buckle up, for we are going to visit a very specific graveyard just outside Liverpool where everything will be revealed. Well, almost everything. Try to figure out now, in advance if you can, what the film “Psycho” has to do with the song Eleanor Rigby!SongsEleanor Rigby; Lennon and McCartney; performed by Joe Anastasi, Mike Sugar, and Winter, of SDPLYesterday, Lennon and McCartney; performed by Joe Anastasi, of SDPLOla-na Tung-eee; Paul McCartney, performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPLA Day in the Life; Lennon and McCartney, ‘outro,' performed by Mike Sugar, of SDPLMellow Yellow; Donovan; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPLDa-Zi-Di-Da-Zu; Paul McCartney, performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPLA Hard Day's Night, Lennon and McCartney; ‘intro,' performed by Mike Sugar, of SDPLAlso Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30; Richard Strauss"Think!," Merv Griffin; mangled by Mike Sugar, of SDPLTwilight Zone Theme, Bernard Herrmann and Marius Constant, original recording cue, mangled by Mike Sugar, of SDPLSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band; Lennon and McCartney; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPL1985, Paul McCartney: ‘outro,' performed by SDPL (Joe Anastasi, Mike Sugar, Winter, Mark Abbott, and Matt Twain)The Girl Can't Help It; Bobby Troup; performed by Little RichardTwenty Flight Rock; Ned Fairchild and Eddie Cochran; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPLPenny Lane, Lennon and McCartney; performed by SDPL (Joe Anastasi, Mike Sugar, Winter, Mark Abbott, and Matt Twain)Cry Me a River; Arthur Hamilton; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPLShake It Off; Taylor Swift, Max Martin, and Shellbac; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPLMoonlight Sonata, Piano Sonata No. 14, Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by Mike Sugar, of SDPLEasier Said Than Done; William Linton and Larry Huff; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPLBarracuda; Ann and Nancy Wilson, Roger Fisher and Michael DeRosier; performed by Mike Sugar, of SDPLManiac; Michael Sembello; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPLString Concerto, Vivaldi; performed by Baroque BandBad Idea, Ariana Grande, Peter Svensson, Savan Kotecha, Max Martin and Ilya Salmanzadeh; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPLPsycho!, Bernard Herrmann, original recording cue, mangled by Mike Sugar, of SDPLThe End, Lennon and McCartney; performed by SDPL (Joe Anastasi, Mike Sugar, Winter, Mark Abbott, Matt Twain)SourcesMcCartney, Christopher Sandford; Carroll and Graf Publishers; 2006Paul McCartney, the Life, Philip Norman; Little Brown and Company; 2016Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles, Dominic Pedler; Omnibus Press; 2003This is Your Brain on Music, The Science of a Human Obsession; Daniel J. Levitin; Plume; 2007Recording the Beatles, Kevin Ryan & Brian Kehew, Curvebender Publishing; 2006The Beatles Anthology; Chronicle Books; 2000www.merriam-webster.com/medical/cryptomnesiawww.dictionary.apa.org/cryptomnesiaSunbeams Music Trust; Annie Mawson, Director;The Girl Can't Help It; produced and directed by Frank Tashlin, screenplay adapted by Frank Tashlin and Herbert Baker; 1956Psycho! directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock; written by Joseph Stefano; 1960Voice Actors Joe AnastasiMike SugarAnnie Mawson -- as herself.This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts.
Stroll Down Penny Lane Episode 2: Eleanor Rigby – The Counter-Narrative! In our second chapter, we explore the creation myth surrounding the song, Eleanor Rigby. Travel back in time with us to the very moment of formation of … the Beatles. Why this moment in time? Because it provides fascinating clues about the creation of this song. Join us in our investigation as we discover what in the world a psychological phenomenon known as cryptomnesia, has to do with the creation of Eleanor Rigby. Buckle up, for we are going to visit a very specific graveyard just outside Liverpool where everything will be revealed. Well, almost everything. Try to figure out now, in advance if you can, what the film “Psycho” has to do with the song Eleanor Rigby! Songs Eleanor Rigby; Lennon and McCartney; performed by Joe Anastasi, Mike Sugar, and Winter, of SDPL Yesterday, Lennon and McCartney; performed by Joe Anastasi, of SDPL Ola-na Tung-eee; Paul McCartney, performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPL A Day in the Life; Lennon and McCartney, ‘outro,’ performed by Mike Sugar, of SDPL Mellow Yellow; Donovan; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPL Da-Zi-Di-Da-Zu; Paul McCartney, performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPL A Hard Day’s Night, Lennon and McCartney; ‘intro,’ performed by Mike Sugar, of SDPL Also Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30; Richard Strauss "Think!," Merv Griffin; mangled by Mike Sugar, of SDPL Twilight Zone Theme, Bernard Herrmann and Marius Constant, original recording cue, mangled by Mike Sugar, of SDPL Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band; Lennon and McCartney; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPL 1985, Paul McCartney: ‘outro,’ performed by SDPL (Joe Anastasi, Mike Sugar, Winter, Mark Abbott, and Matt Twain) The Girl Can’t Help It; Bobby Troup; performed by Little Richard Twenty Flight Rock; Ned Fairchild and Eddie Cochran; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPL Penny Lane, Lennon and McCartney; performed by SDPL (Joe Anastasi, Mike Sugar, Winter, Mark Abbott, and Matt Twain) Cry Me a River; Arthur Hamilton; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPL Shake It Off; Taylor Swift, Max Martin, and Shellbac; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPL Moonlight Sonata, Piano Sonata No. 14, Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by Mike Sugar, of SDPL Easier Said Than Done; William Linton and Larry Huff; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPL Barracuda; Ann and Nancy Wilson, Roger Fisher and Michael DeRosier; performed by Mike Sugar, of SDPL Maniac; Michael Sembello; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPL String Concerto, Vivaldi; performed by Baroque Band Bad Idea, Ariana Grande, Peter Svensson, Savan Kotecha, Max Martin and Ilya Salmanzadeh; performed by Joe Anastasi and Mike Sugar, of SDPL Psycho!, Bernard Herrmann, original recording cue, mangled by Mike Sugar, of SDPL The End, Lennon and McCartney; performed by SDPL (Joe Anastasi, Mike Sugar, Winter, Mark Abbott, Matt Twain) Sources McCartney, Christopher Sandford; Carroll and Graf Publishers; 2006 Paul McCartney, the Life, Philip Norman; Little Brown and Company; 2016 Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles, Dominic Pedler; Omnibus Press; 2003 This is Your Brain on Music, The Science of a Human Obsession; Daniel J. Levitin; Plume; 2007 Recording the Beatles, Kevin Ryan & Brian Kehew, Curvebender Publishing; 2006 The Beatles Anthology; Chronicle Books; 2000 www.merriam-webster.com/medical/cryptomnesia www.dictionary.apa.org/cryptomnesia Sunbeams Music Trust; Annie Mawson, Director; The Girl Can’t Help It; produced and directed by Frank Tashlin, screenplay adapted by Frank Tashlin and Herbert Baker; 1956 Psycho! directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock; written by Joseph Stefano; 1960 Voice Actors Joe Anastasi Mike Sugar Annie Mawson -- as herself. This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts.
On this homemade edition of Showcase, we are looking at comedy in the past, present and future. Andrew Horton, Author of Laughing Out Loud 00:34 Ethan de Seife, Author of Tashlinesque: The Hollywood Comedies of Frank Tashlin 09:32 Celestine Deleyto, Author of The Secret Life of Romantic Comedy 16:57 #Comedy #Pandemic #Coronavirus
Os dois ganham o mesmo carro numa rifa, mas cada um tem um plano diferente para o automóvel: um quer vendê-lo e o outro, atravessar o país para conhecer uma estrela de Hollywood. FICHA TÉCNICA DO FILME
Welcome to pandemic pandemonium. This episode is not about viruses or quarantines, but I hope it gives you something to do while you count your rolls of toilet paper and ensure you have enough shotgun shells for the ensuing apocalypse. In this episode we discuss the MURDER of Elmer DeBoer by Jerry Strickland with accomplice Melissa Munday, the ROBBERY and possible mistaken identity case in Michael Scott Martin's FINAL APPEAL, possible satanic cult murders or coincidences with the story of Kurt McFall's UNEXPLAINED DEATH, and FINALLY we get to talk about how mail worked in WWII! It goes really sideways in story with lots of information about Satan, so hydrate, wash your hands, and prepare for evil to enter your body in the much belated EPISODE FIVE! (Video Enhanced Version on YouTube will be up later on.) Website: www.destructoblog.com PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/destructoblog *Unsolved Mysteries is property of its rights holders and is not affiliated with this show in any way. Its subjects and brief clips are used for commentary, criticism, parody and review only. This is not an episode of Unsolved Mysteries, and this program is designed to be a fan-made companion piece to each actual episode of the show. So support the show by watching the episode first, then checking in here after!* VIDEO/AUDIO Unsolved Mysteries, S1E2 (Used under fair use for criticism/parody.) 1987-88 (Edited and re-aired) WWII U.S. Navy Recruit Film, Pearl Harbor 1942. Used under Public Domain. http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ https://archive.org/details/NPC-3133 Sailors Barter With Natives And Receive Mail Aboard USS Nicholas (DD-449), Tulagi Harbor, 1943. https://archive.org/details/NPC-1849a PRIVATE SNAFU Films are in the Public Domain as they were produced by WB for the US Gov't. Censored, Dir. Frank Tashlin. July 1944. Booby Traps, Dir. Bob Clampett. Jan 1944. Fighting Tools, Dir. Bob Clampett. Oct 1944. U.S. Army Field Post Office U.S. Army Field Post Office near Vierville, France during WWII. France, June 21, 1944 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqxOETv2tEs MUSIC THREE CHAIN LINKS, Album: PHANTOMS, Tracks: Magic Hour, Shadows, Architects www.threechainlinks.bandcamp.com/ Used under Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ "Dark Walk" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: Used under Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ “Sunglasses” Loyalty Freak Music, Album: INSTRUMENTAL R&B BEATS TO SING OR RAP ON https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Loyalty_Freak_Music http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ Used under CC0 1.0 Universal License.
Frank Tashlin, "the world's greatest yo-yo", made stylized, side-splitting cartoons for Warners that are among the studio's most unique. We discuss his early origins in New York cartooning, his innovative work with animator Art Davis, the influence live-action comedy had on Warner humor (and vice-versa), and what might be the most underrated WB cartoon of the '40s, "Tale of Two Mice"! Hey, Babbit!!!
durée : 00:45:27 - Remède à la mélancolie - par : Eva Bester - "La blonde et moi" de Frank Tashlin, Martine Carol et Blaise Pascal, Otis Redding et Charles Trenet, Gaston Leroux, Cézanne, Degas,Toulouse Lautrec... Retrouvez tous les remèdes de notre invité ! - invités : Pierre Wiaz - Pierre WIAZ - réalisé par : Eliane GIRARD
Episode fifty-two of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Twenty Flight Rock” by Eddie Cochran, and at the first great rock and roll film Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “Teen-Age Crush” by Tommy Sands. —-more—- Resources There are several books available on Cochran, but for this episode I mostly relied on Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran: Rock and Roll Revolutionaries by John Collis. I’ll be using others as well in forthcoming episodes. While there are dozens of compilations of Cochran’s music available, many of them are flawed in one way or another (including the Real Gone Music four-CD set, which is what I would normally recommend). This one is probably the best you can get for Cochran novices. And as always there’s a Mixcloud with the full versions of all the songs featured in today’s episode. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript To tell the story of rock music, it’s important to tell the story of the music’s impact on other media. Rock and roll was a cultural phenomenon that affected almost everything, and it affected TV, film, clothing and more. So today, we’re going to look at how a film made the career of one of the greats of rock and roll music: [Excerpt: Eddie Cochran, “Twenty Flight Rock”] Eddie Cochran was born in Albert Lea, Minnesota, though in later life he would always claim to be an Okie rather than from Albert Lea. His parents were from Oklahoma, they moved to Minnesota shortly before Eddie was born, and they moved back to Oklahoma City when he was small, moved back again to Minnesota, and then moved off to California with the rest of the Okies. Cochran was a staggeringly precocious guitarist. On the road trip to California from Albert Lea, he had held his guitar on his lap for the entire journey, referring to it as his best friend. And once he hit California he quickly struck up a musical relationship with two friends — Guybo Smith, who played bass, and Chuck Foreman, who played steel guitar. The three of them got hold of a couple of tape recorders, which allowed them not only to record themselves, but to experiment with overdubbing in the style of Les Paul. Some of those recordings have seen release in recent years, and they’re quite astonishing: [Excerpt: Eddie Cochran and Chuck Foreman, “Rockin’ It”] Cochran plays all the guitars on that (except the steel guitar, which is Foreman) and he was only fourteen years old at the time. He played with several groups who were playing the Okie Western Swing and proto-rockabilly that was popular in California at the time, and eventually hooked up with a singer from Mississippi who was born Garland Perry, but who changed his name to Hank Cochran, allowing the duo to perform under the name “the Cochran Brothers”. The Cochran Brothers soon got a record deal. When they started out, they were doing pure country music, and their first single was a Louvin Brothers style close harmony song, about Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams: [Excerpt: The Cochran Brothers, “Two Blue Singing Stars”] But while Hank was perfectly happy making this kind of music, Eddie was getting more and more interested in the new rock and roll music that was starting to become popular, and the two of them eventually split up over actual musical differences. Hank Cochran would go on to have a long and successful career in the country industry, but Eddie was floundering. He knew that this new music was what he should be playing, and he was one of the best guitarists around, but he wasn’t sure how to become a rock and roller, or even if he wanted to be a singer at all, rather than just a guitar player. He hooked up with Jerry Capehart, a singer and songwriter who the Cochran Brothers had earlier backed on a single: [Excerpt: Jerry Capehart and the Cochran Brothers, “Walkin’ Stick Boogie”] The two of them started writing songs together, and Eddie also started playing as a session musician. He played on dozens of sessions in the mid-fifties, mostly uncredited, and scholars are still trying to establish a full list of the records he played on. But while he was doing this, he still hadn’t got himself a record contract, other than for a single record on an independent label: [Excerpt: Eddie Cochran, “Skinny Jim”] Cochran was in the studio recording demos for consideration by record labels when Boris Petroff, a B-movie director who was a friend of Cochran’s collaborator Jerry Capehart, dropped in. Petroff decided that Cochran had the looks to be a film star, and right there offered him a part in a film that was being made under the working title Do-Re-Mi. Quite how Petroff had the ability to give Cochran a part in a film he wasn’t working on, I don’t know, but he did, and the offer was a genuine one, as Cochran confirmed the next day. There were many, many, rock and roll films made in the 1950s, and most of them were utterly terrible. It says something about the genre as a whole when I tell you that Elvis’ early films, which are not widely regarded as cinematic masterpieces, are among the very best rock and roll films of the decade. The 1950s were the tipping point for television ownership in both the US and the UK, but while TV was quickly becoming a mass medium, cinema-going was still at levels that would stagger people today — *everyone* went to the cinema. And when you went to the cinema, you didn’t go just to see one film. There’d be a main film, a shorter film called a B-movie that lasted maybe an hour, and short features like cartoons and newsreels. That meant that there was a much greater appetite for cheap films that could be used to fill out a programme, despite their total lack of quality. This is where, for example, all the films that appear in Mystery Science Theater 3000 come from, or many of them. And these B-movies would be made in a matter of weeks, or even days, and so would quickly be turned round to cash in on whatever trend was happening right at that minute. And so between 1956 and 1958 there were several dozen films, with titles like “Rock! Rock! Rock!”, “Don’t Knock The Rock” and so on. [Excerpt: Bill Haley and the Comets, “Don’t Knock the Rock”] In every case, these films were sold entirely on the basis of the musical performances therein, with little or no effort to sell them as narratives, even though they all had plots of sorts. They were just excuses to get footage of as many different hit acts as possible into the cinemas, ideally before their songs dropped off the charts. (Many of them also contained non-hit acts, like Teddy Randazzo, who seemed to appear in all of them despite never having a single make the top fifty. Randazzo did, though, go on to write a number of classic hits for other artists). Very few of the rock and roll films of the fifties were even watchable at all. We talked in the episode on “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man” about the film “Rock! Rock! Rock!” which Chuck Berry appeared in — that was actually towards the more watchable end of these films, terrible as it was. The film that Cochran was signed to appear in, which was soon renamed The Girl Can’t Help It, is different. There are plenty of points at which the action stops for a musical performance, but there is an actual plot, and actual dialogue and acting. While the film isn’t a masterpiece or anything like that, it is a proper film. And it’s made by a proper studio. While, for example, Rock! Rock! Rock! was made by a fly-by-night company called Vanguard Productions, The Girl Can’t Help It was made by Twentieth Century Fox. And it was made in both colour and Cinemascope. The budget for Rock! Rock! Rock! was seventy-five thousand dollars compared to the 1.3 million dollars spent on The Girl Can’t Help It. [Excerpt: Little Richard, “The Girl Can’t Help It”] Indeed, it seems to be as much an attempt to cash in on a Billy Wilder film as it is an attempt to cash in on rock and roll. The previous year, The Seven-Year Itch had been a big hit, with Tom Ewell playing an unassuming middle-aged man who becomes worryingly attracted to a much younger woman, played by Marilyn Monroe. The film had been a massive success (and it’s responsible for the famous scene with Monroe on the air grate, which is still homaged and parodied to this day) and so the decision was taken to cast Tom Ewell as an unassuming middle-aged man who becomes worryingly attracted to a much younger woman, played by Jayne Mansfield doing her usual act of being a Marilyn Monroe impersonator. Just as the film was attempting to sell itself on the back of a more successful hit film, the story also bears a certain amount of resemblance to one by someone else. The playwright Garson Kanin had been inspired in 1955 by the tales of the jukebox wars — he’d discovered that most of the jukeboxes in the country were being run by the Mafia, and that which records got stocked and played depended very much on who would do favours for the various gangsters involved. Gangsters would often destroy rivals’ jukeboxes, and threaten bar owners if they were getting their jukeboxes from the wrong set of mobsters. Kanin took this idea and turned it into a novella, Do-Re-Mi, about a helpless schlub who teams up with a gangster named “Fatso” to enter the record business, and on the way more or less accidentally makes a young woman into a singing star. Do-Re-Mi later became a moderately successful stage musical, which introduced the song “Make Someone Happy”. [Excerpt: Doris Day, “Make Someone Happy”] Meanwhile the plot of The Girl Can’t Help It has a helpless schlub team up with a mobster named “Fats”, and the two of them working together to make the mobster’s young girlfriend into a singing star. I’ve seen varying accounts as to why The Girl Can’t Help It was renamed from Do-Re-Mi and wasn’t credited as being based on Kanin’s novella. Some say that the film was made without the rights having been acquired, and changed to the point that Kanin wouldn’t sue. Others say that Twentieth Century Fox acquired the rights perfectly legally, but that the director, Frank Tashlin changed the script around so much that Kanin asked that his credit be removed, because it was now so different from his novella that he could probably resell the rights at some future point. The latter seems fairly likely to me, given that Tashlin’s next film, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, which also starred Jayne Mansfield, contained almost nothing from the play on which it was based. Indeed, the original play Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? was by the author of the original play on which The Seven-Year Itch was based. The playwright had been so annoyed at the way in which his vision had been messed with for the screen that he wrote Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? as a satire about the way the film industry changes writers’ work, and Mansfield was cast in the play. When Tashlin wanted Mansfield to star in The Girl Can’t Help It but she was contractually obliged to appear in the play, Fox decided the easiest thing to do was just to buy up the rights to the play and relieve Mansfield of her obligation so she could star in The Girl Can’t Help It. They then, once The Girl Can’t Help It finished, got Frank Tashlin to write a totally new film with the title Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, keeping only the title and Mansfield’s character. While The Girl Can’t Help It has a reputation for satirising rock and roll, it actually pulls its punches to a surprising extent. For example, there’s a pivotal scene where the main mobster character, Fats, calls our hero after seeing Eddie Cochran on TV: [excerpt: dialogue from “The Girl Can’t Help It”] Note the wording there, and what he doesn’t say. He doesn’t say that Cochran can’t sing, merely that he “ain’t got a trained voice”. The whole point of this scene is to set up that Jerry Jordan, Mansfield’s character, could become a rock and roll star even though she can’t sing at all, and yet when dealing with a real rock and roll star they are careful to be more ambiguous. Because, of course, the main thing that sold the film was the appearance of multiple rock and roll stars — although “stars” is possibly overstating it for many of those present in the film. One thing it shared with most of the exploitation films was a rather slapdash attitude to which musicians the film would actually feature. And so it has the genuinely big rock and roll stars of the time Little Richard, the Platters, and Fats Domino, the one-hit wonder Gene Vincent (but what a one hit to have), and a bunch of… less well-known people, like the Treniers — a jump band who’d been around since the forties and never really made a major impact, or Eddie Fontaine (about whom the less said the better), or the ubiquitous Teddy Randazzo, performing here with an accordion accompaniment. [Excerpt: Teddy Randazzo and the Three Chuckles, “Cinnamon Sinner”] And Cochran was to be one of those lesser-known acts, so he and Capehart had to find a song that might be suitable for him to perform in the film. Very quickly they decided on a song called “Twenty Flight Rock”, written by a songwriter called Nelda Fairchild. There has been a lot of controversy as to who actually contributed what to the song, which is copyrighted in the names of both Fairchild and Cochran. Fairchild always claimed that she wrote the whole thing entirely by herself, and that Cochran got his co-writing credit for performing the demo, while Cochran’s surviving relatives are equally emphatic in their claims that he was an equal contributor as a songwriter. We will almost certainly never know the truth. Cochran is credited as the co-writer of several other hit songs, usually with Capehart, but never as the sole writer of a hit. Fairchild, meanwhile, was a professional songwriter, but pieces like “Freddie the Little Fir Tree” don’t especially sound like the work of the same person who wrote “Twenty Flight Rock”. As both credited writers are now dead, the best we can do is use our own judgment, and my personal judgment is that Cochran probably contributed at least something to the song’s writing. The original version of “Twenty Flight Rock”, as featured in the film, was little more than a demo — it featured Cochran on guitar, Guybo Smith on double bass, and Capehart slapping a cardboard box to add percussion. Cochran later recorded a more fully-arranged version of the song, which came out after the film, but the extra elements, notably the backing vocals, added little to the simplistic original: [Excerpt: Eddie Cochran, “Twenty Flight Rock”] It was that simpler version that appeared in the film, and which took its place alongside several other classic tracks in the film’s soundtrack. The film was originally intended to have a theme tune recorded by Fats Domino, who appeared in the film performing his hit “Blue Monday”, but when Bobby Troup mentioned this to Art Rupe, Rupe suggested that Little Richard would be a more energetic star to perform the song (and I’m sure this was entirely because of his belief that Richard would be the better talent, and nothing to do with Rupe owning Richard’s label, but not Domino’s). As a result, Domino’s role in the film was cut down to a single song, while Richard ended up doing three — the title song, written by Troup, “Ready Teddy” by John Marascalco and Bumps Blackwell, and “She’s Got It”. We’ve mentioned before that John Marascalco’s writing credits sometimes seem to be slightly exaggerated, and “She’s Got It” is one record that tends to bear that out. Listen to “She’s Got It”, which has Marascalco as the sole credited writer: [Excerpt: Little Richard, “She’s Got It”] And now listen to “I Got It”, an earlier record by Richard, which has Little Richard credited as the sole writer: [Excerpt: Little Richard, “I Got It”] Hmm… The Girl Can’t Help It was rather poorly reviewed in America. In France it was a different story. There’s a pervasive legend that the people of France revere Jerry Lewis as a genius. This is nonsense. But the grain of truth in it is that Cahiers du Cinema, the most important film magazine in France by a long way — the magazine for which Godard, Truffaut, and others wrote, and which popularised the concept of auteur theory, absolutely loved Frank Tashlin. In 1957, Tashlin was the only director to get two films on their top ten films of the year list — The Girl Can’t Help It at number eight, and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter at number two. The other eight films on the list were directed by Chaplin, Fellini, Hitchcock, Bunuel, Ingmar Bergman, Nicholas Ray, Fritz Lang and Sidney Lumet. Tashlin directed several films starring Jerry Lewis, and those films, like Tashlin’s other work, got a significant amount of praise in the magazine. And that’s where that legend actually comes from, though Cahiers did also give some more guarded praise to some of the films Lewis directed himself later. Tashlin wasn’t actually that good a director, but what he did have is a visual style that came from a different area of filmmaking than most of his competitors. Tashlin had started out as a cartoon director, working on Warner Brothers cartoons. He wasn’t one of the better directors for Warners, and didn’t direct any of the classics people remember from the studio — he mostly made forgettable Porky Pig shorts. But this meant he had an animator’s sense for a visual gag, and thus gave his films a unique look. For advocates of auteur theory, that was enough to push him into the top ranks. And so The Girl Can’t Help It became a classic film, and Cochran got a great deal of attention, and a record deal. According to Si Waronker, the head of Liberty Records, Eddie Cochran getting signed to the label had nothing to do with him being cast in The Girl Can’t Help It, and Waronker had no idea the film was being made when Cochran got signed. This seems implausible, to say the least. Johnny Olenn, Abbey Lincoln and Julie London, three other Liberty Records artists, appeared in the film — and London was by some way Liberty’s biggest star. Not only that, but London’s husband, Bobby Troup, wrote the theme song and was musical director for the film. But whether or not Cochran was signed on account of his film appearance, “Twenty Flight Rock” wasn’t immediately released as a single. Indeed, by the time it came out Cochran had already appeared in another film, in which he had backed Mamie Van Doren — another Marilyn Monroe imitator in the same vein as Mansfield — on several songs, as well as having a small role and a featured song himself. Oddly, when that film, Untamed Youth, came out, Cochran’s backing on Van Doren’s recordings had been replaced by different instrumentalists. But he still appears on the EP that was released of the songs, including this one, which Cochran co-wrote with Capehart: [Excerpt: Mamie Van Doren, “Ooh Ba La Baby”] It had originally been planned to release “Twenty Flight Rock” as Cochran’s first single on Liberty, to coincide with the film’s release but then it was put back for several months, as Si Waronker wanted Cochran to release “Sitting in the Balcony” instead. That song had been written and originally recorded by John D Loudermilk: [Excerpt: John D Loudermilk, “Sitting in the Balcony”] Waronker had wanted to release Loudermilk’s record, but he hadn’t been able to get the rights, so he decided to get Cochran to record a note-for-note cover version and release that instead: [Excerpt: Eddie Cochran, “Sitting in the Balcony”] Cochran was not particularly happy with that record, though he was happy enough once the record started selling in comparatively vast quantities, spurred by his appearance in The Girl Can’t Help It, and reached number eighteen in the charts. The problem was that Cochran and Waronker had fundamentally different ideas about what Cochran actually was as an artist. Cochran thought of himself primarily as a guitarist — and the guitar solo on “Sittin’ in the Balcony” was the one thing about Cochran’s record which distinguished it from Loudermilk’s original — and also as a rock and roller. Waronker, on the other hand, was convinced that someone with Cochran’s good looks and masculine voice could easily be another Pat Boone. Liberty was fundamentally not geared towards making rock and roll records. Its other artists included the Hollywood composer Lionel Newman, the torch singer Julie London, and a little later novelty acts like the Chipmunks — the three Chipmunks, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, being named after Al Bennett, Si Waronker, and Theodore Keep, the three men in charge of the label. And their attempts to force Cochran into the mould of a light-entertainment crooner produced a completely forgettable debut album, Singin’ to My Baby, which has little of the rock and roll excitement that would characterise Cochran’s better work. (And a warning for anyone who decides to go out and listen to that album anyway — one of the few tracks on there that *is* in Cochran’s rock and roll style is a song called “Mean When I’m Mad”, which is one of the most misogynist things I have heard, and I’ve heard quite a lot — it’s basically an outright rape threat. So if that’s something that will upset you, please steer clear of Cochran’s first album, while knowing you’re missing little artistically.) “Twenty Flight Rock” was eventually released as a single, in its remade version, in November 1957, almost a year after The Girl Can’t Help It came out. Unsurprisingly, coming out so late after the film, it didn’t chart, and it would be a while yet before Cochran would have his biggest hit. But just because it didn’t chart, doesn’t mean it didn’t make an impression. There’s one story, more than any other, that sums up the impact both of “The Girl Can’t Help It” and of “Twenty Flight Rock” itself. In July 1957, a skiffle group called the Quarrymen, led by a teenager called John Lennon, played a village fete in Woolton, a suburb of Liverpool. After the show, they were introduced to a young boy named Paul McCartney by a mutual friend. Lennon and McCartney hit it off, but the thing that persuaded Lennon to offer McCartney a place in the group was when McCartney demonstrated that he knew all the words to “Twenty Flight Rock”. Lennon wasn’t great at remembering lyrics, and was impressed enough by this that he decided that this new kid needed to be in the group. [Excerpt: Paul McCartney, “Twenty Flight Rock”] That’s the impact that The Girl Can’t Help It had, and the impact that “Twenty Flight Rock” had. But Eddie Cochran’s career was just starting, and we’ll see more of him in future episodes…
Episode fifty-two of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at "Twenty Flight Rock" by Eddie Cochran, and at the first great rock and roll film Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "Teen-Age Crush" by Tommy Sands. ----more---- Resources There are several books available on Cochran, but for this episode I mostly relied on Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran: Rock and Roll Revolutionaries by John Collis. I'll be using others as well in forthcoming episodes. While there are dozens of compilations of Cochran's music available, many of them are flawed in one way or another (including the Real Gone Music four-CD set, which is what I would normally recommend). This one is probably the best you can get for Cochran novices. And as always there's a Mixcloud with the full versions of all the songs featured in today's episode. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript To tell the story of rock music, it's important to tell the story of the music's impact on other media. Rock and roll was a cultural phenomenon that affected almost everything, and it affected TV, film, clothing and more. So today, we're going to look at how a film made the career of one of the greats of rock and roll music: [Excerpt: Eddie Cochran, "Twenty Flight Rock"] Eddie Cochran was born in Albert Lea, Minnesota, though in later life he would always claim to be an Okie rather than from Albert Lea. His parents were from Oklahoma, they moved to Minnesota shortly before Eddie was born, and they moved back to Oklahoma City when he was small, moved back again to Minnesota, and then moved off to California with the rest of the Okies. Cochran was a staggeringly precocious guitarist. On the road trip to California from Albert Lea, he had held his guitar on his lap for the entire journey, referring to it as his best friend. And once he hit California he quickly struck up a musical relationship with two friends -- Guybo Smith, who played bass, and Chuck Foreman, who played steel guitar. The three of them got hold of a couple of tape recorders, which allowed them not only to record themselves, but to experiment with overdubbing in the style of Les Paul. Some of those recordings have seen release in recent years, and they're quite astonishing: [Excerpt: Eddie Cochran and Chuck Foreman, "Rockin' It"] Cochran plays all the guitars on that (except the steel guitar, which is Foreman) and he was only fourteen years old at the time. He played with several groups who were playing the Okie Western Swing and proto-rockabilly that was popular in California at the time, and eventually hooked up with a singer from Mississippi who was born Garland Perry, but who changed his name to Hank Cochran, allowing the duo to perform under the name "the Cochran Brothers". The Cochran Brothers soon got a record deal. When they started out, they were doing pure country music, and their first single was a Louvin Brothers style close harmony song, about Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams: [Excerpt: The Cochran Brothers, "Two Blue Singing Stars"] But while Hank was perfectly happy making this kind of music, Eddie was getting more and more interested in the new rock and roll music that was starting to become popular, and the two of them eventually split up over actual musical differences. Hank Cochran would go on to have a long and successful career in the country industry, but Eddie was floundering. He knew that this new music was what he should be playing, and he was one of the best guitarists around, but he wasn't sure how to become a rock and roller, or even if he wanted to be a singer at all, rather than just a guitar player. He hooked up with Jerry Capehart, a singer and songwriter who the Cochran Brothers had earlier backed on a single: [Excerpt: Jerry Capehart and the Cochran Brothers, "Walkin' Stick Boogie"] The two of them started writing songs together, and Eddie also started playing as a session musician. He played on dozens of sessions in the mid-fifties, mostly uncredited, and scholars are still trying to establish a full list of the records he played on. But while he was doing this, he still hadn't got himself a record contract, other than for a single record on an independent label: [Excerpt: Eddie Cochran, "Skinny Jim"] Cochran was in the studio recording demos for consideration by record labels when Boris Petroff, a B-movie director who was a friend of Cochran's collaborator Jerry Capehart, dropped in. Petroff decided that Cochran had the looks to be a film star, and right there offered him a part in a film that was being made under the working title Do-Re-Mi. Quite how Petroff had the ability to give Cochran a part in a film he wasn't working on, I don't know, but he did, and the offer was a genuine one, as Cochran confirmed the next day. There were many, many, rock and roll films made in the 1950s, and most of them were utterly terrible. It says something about the genre as a whole when I tell you that Elvis' early films, which are not widely regarded as cinematic masterpieces, are among the very best rock and roll films of the decade. The 1950s were the tipping point for television ownership in both the US and the UK, but while TV was quickly becoming a mass medium, cinema-going was still at levels that would stagger people today -- *everyone* went to the cinema. And when you went to the cinema, you didn't go just to see one film. There'd be a main film, a shorter film called a B-movie that lasted maybe an hour, and short features like cartoons and newsreels. That meant that there was a much greater appetite for cheap films that could be used to fill out a programme, despite their total lack of quality. This is where, for example, all the films that appear in Mystery Science Theater 3000 come from, or many of them. And these B-movies would be made in a matter of weeks, or even days, and so would quickly be turned round to cash in on whatever trend was happening right at that minute. And so between 1956 and 1958 there were several dozen films, with titles like "Rock! Rock! Rock!", "Don't Knock The Rock" and so on. [Excerpt: Bill Haley and the Comets, “Don't Knock the Rock”] In every case, these films were sold entirely on the basis of the musical performances therein, with little or no effort to sell them as narratives, even though they all had plots of sorts. They were just excuses to get footage of as many different hit acts as possible into the cinemas, ideally before their songs dropped off the charts. (Many of them also contained non-hit acts, like Teddy Randazzo, who seemed to appear in all of them despite never having a single make the top fifty. Randazzo did, though, go on to write a number of classic hits for other artists). Very few of the rock and roll films of the fifties were even watchable at all. We talked in the episode on "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man" about the film "Rock! Rock! Rock!" which Chuck Berry appeared in -- that was actually towards the more watchable end of these films, terrible as it was. The film that Cochran was signed to appear in, which was soon renamed The Girl Can't Help It, is different. There are plenty of points at which the action stops for a musical performance, but there is an actual plot, and actual dialogue and acting. While the film isn't a masterpiece or anything like that, it is a proper film. And it's made by a proper studio. While, for example, Rock! Rock! Rock! was made by a fly-by-night company called Vanguard Productions, The Girl Can't Help It was made by Twentieth Century Fox. And it was made in both colour and Cinemascope. The budget for Rock! Rock! Rock! was seventy-five thousand dollars compared to the 1.3 million dollars spent on The Girl Can't Help It. [Excerpt: Little Richard, “The Girl Can't Help It”] Indeed, it seems to be as much an attempt to cash in on a Billy Wilder film as it is an attempt to cash in on rock and roll. The previous year, The Seven-Year Itch had been a big hit, with Tom Ewell playing an unassuming middle-aged man who becomes worryingly attracted to a much younger woman, played by Marilyn Monroe. The film had been a massive success (and it's responsible for the famous scene with Monroe on the air grate, which is still homaged and parodied to this day) and so the decision was taken to cast Tom Ewell as an unassuming middle-aged man who becomes worryingly attracted to a much younger woman, played by Jayne Mansfield doing her usual act of being a Marilyn Monroe impersonator. Just as the film was attempting to sell itself on the back of a more successful hit film, the story also bears a certain amount of resemblance to one by someone else. The playwright Garson Kanin had been inspired in 1955 by the tales of the jukebox wars -- he'd discovered that most of the jukeboxes in the country were being run by the Mafia, and that which records got stocked and played depended very much on who would do favours for the various gangsters involved. Gangsters would often destroy rivals' jukeboxes, and threaten bar owners if they were getting their jukeboxes from the wrong set of mobsters. Kanin took this idea and turned it into a novella, Do-Re-Mi, about a helpless schlub who teams up with a gangster named "Fatso" to enter the record business, and on the way more or less accidentally makes a young woman into a singing star. Do-Re-Mi later became a moderately successful stage musical, which introduced the song "Make Someone Happy". [Excerpt: Doris Day, “Make Someone Happy”] Meanwhile the plot of The Girl Can't Help It has a helpless schlub team up with a mobster named "Fats", and the two of them working together to make the mobster's young girlfriend into a singing star. I've seen varying accounts as to why The Girl Can't Help It was renamed from Do-Re-Mi and wasn't credited as being based on Kanin's novella. Some say that the film was made without the rights having been acquired, and changed to the point that Kanin wouldn't sue. Others say that Twentieth Century Fox acquired the rights perfectly legally, but that the director, Frank Tashlin changed the script around so much that Kanin asked that his credit be removed, because it was now so different from his novella that he could probably resell the rights at some future point. The latter seems fairly likely to me, given that Tashlin's next film, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, which also starred Jayne Mansfield, contained almost nothing from the play on which it was based. Indeed, the original play Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? was by the author of the original play on which The Seven-Year Itch was based. The playwright had been so annoyed at the way in which his vision had been messed with for the screen that he wrote Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? as a satire about the way the film industry changes writers' work, and Mansfield was cast in the play. When Tashlin wanted Mansfield to star in The Girl Can't Help It but she was contractually obliged to appear in the play, Fox decided the easiest thing to do was just to buy up the rights to the play and relieve Mansfield of her obligation so she could star in The Girl Can't Help It. They then, once The Girl Can't Help It finished, got Frank Tashlin to write a totally new film with the title Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, keeping only the title and Mansfield's character. While The Girl Can't Help It has a reputation for satirising rock and roll, it actually pulls its punches to a surprising extent. For example, there's a pivotal scene where the main mobster character, Fats, calls our hero after seeing Eddie Cochran on TV: [excerpt: dialogue from "The Girl Can't Help It"] Note the wording there, and what he doesn't say. He doesn't say that Cochran can't sing, merely that he "ain't got a trained voice". The whole point of this scene is to set up that Jerry Jordan, Mansfield's character, could become a rock and roll star even though she can't sing at all, and yet when dealing with a real rock and roll star they are careful to be more ambiguous. Because, of course, the main thing that sold the film was the appearance of multiple rock and roll stars -- although "stars" is possibly overstating it for many of those present in the film. One thing it shared with most of the exploitation films was a rather slapdash attitude to which musicians the film would actually feature. And so it has the genuinely big rock and roll stars of the time Little Richard, the Platters, and Fats Domino, the one-hit wonder Gene Vincent (but what a one hit to have), and a bunch of… less well-known people, like the Treniers -- a jump band who'd been around since the forties and never really made a major impact, or Eddie Fontaine (about whom the less said the better), or the ubiquitous Teddy Randazzo, performing here with an accordion accompaniment. [Excerpt: Teddy Randazzo and the Three Chuckles, “Cinnamon Sinner”] And Cochran was to be one of those lesser-known acts, so he and Capehart had to find a song that might be suitable for him to perform in the film. Very quickly they decided on a song called "Twenty Flight Rock", written by a songwriter called Nelda Fairchild. There has been a lot of controversy as to who actually contributed what to the song, which is copyrighted in the names of both Fairchild and Cochran. Fairchild always claimed that she wrote the whole thing entirely by herself, and that Cochran got his co-writing credit for performing the demo, while Cochran's surviving relatives are equally emphatic in their claims that he was an equal contributor as a songwriter. We will almost certainly never know the truth. Cochran is credited as the co-writer of several other hit songs, usually with Capehart, but never as the sole writer of a hit. Fairchild, meanwhile, was a professional songwriter, but pieces like "Freddie the Little Fir Tree" don't especially sound like the work of the same person who wrote "Twenty Flight Rock". As both credited writers are now dead, the best we can do is use our own judgment, and my personal judgment is that Cochran probably contributed at least something to the song's writing. The original version of "Twenty Flight Rock", as featured in the film, was little more than a demo -- it featured Cochran on guitar, Guybo Smith on double bass, and Capehart slapping a cardboard box to add percussion. Cochran later recorded a more fully-arranged version of the song, which came out after the film, but the extra elements, notably the backing vocals, added little to the simplistic original: [Excerpt: Eddie Cochran, "Twenty Flight Rock"] It was that simpler version that appeared in the film, and which took its place alongside several other classic tracks in the film's soundtrack. The film was originally intended to have a theme tune recorded by Fats Domino, who appeared in the film performing his hit "Blue Monday", but when Bobby Troup mentioned this to Art Rupe, Rupe suggested that Little Richard would be a more energetic star to perform the song (and I'm sure this was entirely because of his belief that Richard would be the better talent, and nothing to do with Rupe owning Richard's label, but not Domino's). As a result, Domino's role in the film was cut down to a single song, while Richard ended up doing three -- the title song, written by Troup, "Ready Teddy" by John Marascalco and Bumps Blackwell, and "She's Got It". We've mentioned before that John Marascalco's writing credits sometimes seem to be slightly exaggerated, and “She's Got It” is one record that tends to bear that out. Listen to “She's Got It”, which has Marascalco as the sole credited writer: [Excerpt: Little Richard, “She's Got It”] And now listen to “I Got It”, an earlier record by Richard, which has Little Richard credited as the sole writer: [Excerpt: Little Richard, “I Got It”] Hmm… The Girl Can't Help It was rather poorly reviewed in America. In France it was a different story. There's a pervasive legend that the people of France revere Jerry Lewis as a genius. This is nonsense. But the grain of truth in it is that Cahiers du Cinema, the most important film magazine in France by a long way -- the magazine for which Godard, Truffaut, and others wrote, and which popularised the concept of auteur theory, absolutely loved Frank Tashlin. In 1957, Tashlin was the only director to get two films on their top ten films of the year list -- The Girl Can't Help It at number eight, and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter at number two. The other eight films on the list were directed by Chaplin, Fellini, Hitchcock, Bunuel, Ingmar Bergman, Nicholas Ray, Fritz Lang and Sidney Lumet. Tashlin directed several films starring Jerry Lewis, and those films, like Tashlin's other work, got a significant amount of praise in the magazine. And that's where that legend actually comes from, though Cahiers did also give some more guarded praise to some of the films Lewis directed himself later. Tashlin wasn't actually that good a director, but what he did have is a visual style that came from a different area of filmmaking than most of his competitors. Tashlin had started out as a cartoon director, working on Warner Brothers cartoons. He wasn't one of the better directors for Warners, and didn't direct any of the classics people remember from the studio -- he mostly made forgettable Porky Pig shorts. But this meant he had an animator's sense for a visual gag, and thus gave his films a unique look. For advocates of auteur theory, that was enough to push him into the top ranks. And so The Girl Can't Help It became a classic film, and Cochran got a great deal of attention, and a record deal. According to Si Waronker, the head of Liberty Records, Eddie Cochran getting signed to the label had nothing to do with him being cast in The Girl Can't Help It, and Waronker had no idea the film was being made when Cochran got signed. This seems implausible, to say the least. Johnny Olenn, Abbey Lincoln and Julie London, three other Liberty Records artists, appeared in the film -- and London was by some way Liberty's biggest star. Not only that, but London's husband, Bobby Troup, wrote the theme song and was musical director for the film. But whether or not Cochran was signed on account of his film appearance, "Twenty Flight Rock" wasn't immediately released as a single. Indeed, by the time it came out Cochran had already appeared in another film, in which he had backed Mamie Van Doren -- another Marilyn Monroe imitator in the same vein as Mansfield -- on several songs, as well as having a small role and a featured song himself. Oddly, when that film, Untamed Youth, came out, Cochran's backing on Van Doren's recordings had been replaced by different instrumentalists. But he still appears on the EP that was released of the songs, including this one, which Cochran co-wrote with Capehart: [Excerpt: Mamie Van Doren, "Ooh Ba La Baby"] It had originally been planned to release "Twenty Flight Rock" as Cochran's first single on Liberty, to coincide with the film's release but then it was put back for several months, as Si Waronker wanted Cochran to release "Sitting in the Balcony" instead. That song had been written and originally recorded by John D Loudermilk: [Excerpt: John D Loudermilk, "Sitting in the Balcony"] Waronker had wanted to release Loudermilk's record, but he hadn't been able to get the rights, so he decided to get Cochran to record a note-for-note cover version and release that instead: [Excerpt: Eddie Cochran, "Sitting in the Balcony"] Cochran was not particularly happy with that record, though he was happy enough once the record started selling in comparatively vast quantities, spurred by his appearance in The Girl Can't Help It, and reached number eighteen in the charts. The problem was that Cochran and Waronker had fundamentally different ideas about what Cochran actually was as an artist. Cochran thought of himself primarily as a guitarist -- and the guitar solo on "Sittin' in the Balcony" was the one thing about Cochran's record which distinguished it from Loudermilk's original -- and also as a rock and roller. Waronker, on the other hand, was convinced that someone with Cochran's good looks and masculine voice could easily be another Pat Boone. Liberty was fundamentally not geared towards making rock and roll records. Its other artists included the Hollywood composer Lionel Newman, the torch singer Julie London, and a little later novelty acts like the Chipmunks -- the three Chipmunks, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, being named after Al Bennett, Si Waronker, and Theodore Keep, the three men in charge of the label. And their attempts to force Cochran into the mould of a light-entertainment crooner produced a completely forgettable debut album, Singin' to My Baby, which has little of the rock and roll excitement that would characterise Cochran's better work. (And a warning for anyone who decides to go out and listen to that album anyway -- one of the few tracks on there that *is* in Cochran's rock and roll style is a song called "Mean When I'm Mad", which is one of the most misogynist things I have heard, and I've heard quite a lot -- it's basically an outright rape threat. So if that's something that will upset you, please steer clear of Cochran's first album, while knowing you're missing little artistically.) “Twenty Flight Rock” was eventually released as a single, in its remade version, in November 1957, almost a year after The Girl Can't Help It came out. Unsurprisingly, coming out so late after the film, it didn't chart, and it would be a while yet before Cochran would have his biggest hit. But just because it didn't chart, doesn't mean it didn't make an impression. There's one story, more than any other, that sums up the impact both of "The Girl Can't Help It" and of "Twenty Flight Rock" itself. In July 1957, a skiffle group called the Quarrymen, led by a teenager called John Lennon, played a village fete in Woolton, a suburb of Liverpool. After the show, they were introduced to a young boy named Paul McCartney by a mutual friend. Lennon and McCartney hit it off, but the thing that persuaded Lennon to offer McCartney a place in the group was when McCartney demonstrated that he knew all the words to "Twenty Flight Rock". Lennon wasn't great at remembering lyrics, and was impressed enough by this that he decided that this new kid needed to be in the group. [Excerpt: Paul McCartney, “Twenty Flight Rock”] That's the impact that The Girl Can't Help It had, and the impact that "Twenty Flight Rock" had. But Eddie Cochran's career was just starting, and we'll see more of him in future episodes...
Episode fifty-two of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Twenty Flight Rock” by Eddie Cochran, and at the first great rock and roll film Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “Teen-Age Crush” by Tommy Sands. —-more—- Resources There are several books available on Cochran, but for this episode I mostly relied on Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran: Rock and Roll Revolutionaries by John Collis. I’ll be using others as well in forthcoming episodes. While there are dozens of compilations of Cochran’s music available, many of them are flawed in one way or another (including the Real Gone Music four-CD set, which is what I would normally recommend). This one is probably the best you can get for Cochran novices. And as always there’s a Mixcloud with the full versions of all the songs featured in today’s episode. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript To tell the story of rock music, it’s important to tell the story of the music’s impact on other media. Rock and roll was a cultural phenomenon that affected almost everything, and it affected TV, film, clothing and more. So today, we’re going to look at how a film made the career of one of the greats of rock and roll music: [Excerpt: Eddie Cochran, “Twenty Flight Rock”] Eddie Cochran was born in Albert Lea, Minnesota, though in later life he would always claim to be an Okie rather than from Albert Lea. His parents were from Oklahoma, they moved to Minnesota shortly before Eddie was born, and they moved back to Oklahoma City when he was small, moved back again to Minnesota, and then moved off to California with the rest of the Okies. Cochran was a staggeringly precocious guitarist. On the road trip to California from Albert Lea, he had held his guitar on his lap for the entire journey, referring to it as his best friend. And once he hit California he quickly struck up a musical relationship with two friends — Guybo Smith, who played bass, and Chuck Foreman, who played steel guitar. The three of them got hold of a couple of tape recorders, which allowed them not only to record themselves, but to experiment with overdubbing in the style of Les Paul. Some of those recordings have seen release in recent years, and they’re quite astonishing: [Excerpt: Eddie Cochran and Chuck Foreman, “Rockin’ It”] Cochran plays all the guitars on that (except the steel guitar, which is Foreman) and he was only fourteen years old at the time. He played with several groups who were playing the Okie Western Swing and proto-rockabilly that was popular in California at the time, and eventually hooked up with a singer from Mississippi who was born Garland Perry, but who changed his name to Hank Cochran, allowing the duo to perform under the name “the Cochran Brothers”. The Cochran Brothers soon got a record deal. When they started out, they were doing pure country music, and their first single was a Louvin Brothers style close harmony song, about Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams: [Excerpt: The Cochran Brothers, “Two Blue Singing Stars”] But while Hank was perfectly happy making this kind of music, Eddie was getting more and more interested in the new rock and roll music that was starting to become popular, and the two of them eventually split up over actual musical differences. Hank Cochran would go on to have a long and successful career in the country industry, but Eddie was floundering. He knew that this new music was what he should be playing, and he was one of the best guitarists around, but he wasn’t sure how to become a rock and roller, or even if he wanted to be a singer at all, rather than just a guitar player. He hooked up with Jerry Capehart, a singer and songwriter who the Cochran Brothers had earlier backed on a single: [Excerpt: Jerry Capehart and the Cochran Brothers, “Walkin’ Stick Boogie”] The two of them started writing songs together, and Eddie also started playing as a session musician. He played on dozens of sessions in the mid-fifties, mostly uncredited, and scholars are still trying to establish a full list of the records he played on. But while he was doing this, he still hadn’t got himself a record contract, other than for a single record on an independent label: [Excerpt: Eddie Cochran, “Skinny Jim”] Cochran was in the studio recording demos for consideration by record labels when Boris Petroff, a B-movie director who was a friend of Cochran’s collaborator Jerry Capehart, dropped in. Petroff decided that Cochran had the looks to be a film star, and right there offered him a part in a film that was being made under the working title Do-Re-Mi. Quite how Petroff had the ability to give Cochran a part in a film he wasn’t working on, I don’t know, but he did, and the offer was a genuine one, as Cochran confirmed the next day. There were many, many, rock and roll films made in the 1950s, and most of them were utterly terrible. It says something about the genre as a whole when I tell you that Elvis’ early films, which are not widely regarded as cinematic masterpieces, are among the very best rock and roll films of the decade. The 1950s were the tipping point for television ownership in both the US and the UK, but while TV was quickly becoming a mass medium, cinema-going was still at levels that would stagger people today — *everyone* went to the cinema. And when you went to the cinema, you didn’t go just to see one film. There’d be a main film, a shorter film called a B-movie that lasted maybe an hour, and short features like cartoons and newsreels. That meant that there was a much greater appetite for cheap films that could be used to fill out a programme, despite their total lack of quality. This is where, for example, all the films that appear in Mystery Science Theater 3000 come from, or many of them. And these B-movies would be made in a matter of weeks, or even days, and so would quickly be turned round to cash in on whatever trend was happening right at that minute. And so between 1956 and 1958 there were several dozen films, with titles like “Rock! Rock! Rock!”, “Don’t Knock The Rock” and so on. [Excerpt: Bill Haley and the Comets, “Don’t Knock the Rock”] In every case, these films were sold entirely on the basis of the musical performances therein, with little or no effort to sell them as narratives, even though they all had plots of sorts. They were just excuses to get footage of as many different hit acts as possible into the cinemas, ideally before their songs dropped off the charts. (Many of them also contained non-hit acts, like Teddy Randazzo, who seemed to appear in all of them despite never having a single make the top fifty. Randazzo did, though, go on to write a number of classic hits for other artists). Very few of the rock and roll films of the fifties were even watchable at all. We talked in the episode on “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man” about the film “Rock! Rock! Rock!” which Chuck Berry appeared in — that was actually towards the more watchable end of these films, terrible as it was. The film that Cochran was signed to appear in, which was soon renamed The Girl Can’t Help It, is different. There are plenty of points at which the action stops for a musical performance, but there is an actual plot, and actual dialogue and acting. While the film isn’t a masterpiece or anything like that, it is a proper film. And it’s made by a proper studio. While, for example, Rock! Rock! Rock! was made by a fly-by-night company called Vanguard Productions, The Girl Can’t Help It was made by Twentieth Century Fox. And it was made in both colour and Cinemascope. The budget for Rock! Rock! Rock! was seventy-five thousand dollars compared to the 1.3 million dollars spent on The Girl Can’t Help It. [Excerpt: Little Richard, “The Girl Can’t Help It”] Indeed, it seems to be as much an attempt to cash in on a Billy Wilder film as it is an attempt to cash in on rock and roll. The previous year, The Seven-Year Itch had been a big hit, with Tom Ewell playing an unassuming middle-aged man who becomes worryingly attracted to a much younger woman, played by Marilyn Monroe. The film had been a massive success (and it’s responsible for the famous scene with Monroe on the air grate, which is still homaged and parodied to this day) and so the decision was taken to cast Tom Ewell as an unassuming middle-aged man who becomes worryingly attracted to a much younger woman, played by Jayne Mansfield doing her usual act of being a Marilyn Monroe impersonator. Just as the film was attempting to sell itself on the back of a more successful hit film, the story also bears a certain amount of resemblance to one by someone else. The playwright Garson Kanin had been inspired in 1955 by the tales of the jukebox wars — he’d discovered that most of the jukeboxes in the country were being run by the Mafia, and that which records got stocked and played depended very much on who would do favours for the various gangsters involved. Gangsters would often destroy rivals’ jukeboxes, and threaten bar owners if they were getting their jukeboxes from the wrong set of mobsters. Kanin took this idea and turned it into a novella, Do-Re-Mi, about a helpless schlub who teams up with a gangster named “Fatso” to enter the record business, and on the way more or less accidentally makes a young woman into a singing star. Do-Re-Mi later became a moderately successful stage musical, which introduced the song “Make Someone Happy”. [Excerpt: Doris Day, “Make Someone Happy”] Meanwhile the plot of The Girl Can’t Help It has a helpless schlub team up with a mobster named “Fats”, and the two of them working together to make the mobster’s young girlfriend into a singing star. I’ve seen varying accounts as to why The Girl Can’t Help It was renamed from Do-Re-Mi and wasn’t credited as being based on Kanin’s novella. Some say that the film was made without the rights having been acquired, and changed to the point that Kanin wouldn’t sue. Others say that Twentieth Century Fox acquired the rights perfectly legally, but that the director, Frank Tashlin changed the script around so much that Kanin asked that his credit be removed, because it was now so different from his novella that he could probably resell the rights at some future point. The latter seems fairly likely to me, given that Tashlin’s next film, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, which also starred Jayne Mansfield, contained almost nothing from the play on which it was based. Indeed, the original play Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? was by the author of the original play on which The Seven-Year Itch was based. The playwright had been so annoyed at the way in which his vision had been messed with for the screen that he wrote Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? as a satire about the way the film industry changes writers’ work, and Mansfield was cast in the play. When Tashlin wanted Mansfield to star in The Girl Can’t Help It but she was contractually obliged to appear in the play, Fox decided the easiest thing to do was just to buy up the rights to the play and relieve Mansfield of her obligation so she could star in The Girl Can’t Help It. They then, once The Girl Can’t Help It finished, got Frank Tashlin to write a totally new film with the title Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, keeping only the title and Mansfield’s character. While The Girl Can’t Help It has a reputation for satirising rock and roll, it actually pulls its punches to a surprising extent. For example, there’s a pivotal scene where the main mobster character, Fats, calls our hero after seeing Eddie Cochran on TV: [excerpt: dialogue from “The Girl Can’t Help It”] Note the wording there, and what he doesn’t say. He doesn’t say that Cochran can’t sing, merely that he “ain’t got a trained voice”. The whole point of this scene is to set up that Jerry Jordan, Mansfield’s character, could become a rock and roll star even though she can’t sing at all, and yet when dealing with a real rock and roll star they are careful to be more ambiguous. Because, of course, the main thing that sold the film was the appearance of multiple rock and roll stars — although “stars” is possibly overstating it for many of those present in the film. One thing it shared with most of the exploitation films was a rather slapdash attitude to which musicians the film would actually feature. And so it has the genuinely big rock and roll stars of the time Little Richard, the Platters, and Fats Domino, the one-hit wonder Gene Vincent (but what a one hit to have), and a bunch of… less well-known people, like the Treniers — a jump band who’d been around since the forties and never really made a major impact, or Eddie Fontaine (about whom the less said the better), or the ubiquitous Teddy Randazzo, performing here with an accordion accompaniment. [Excerpt: Teddy Randazzo and the Three Chuckles, “Cinnamon Sinner”] And Cochran was to be one of those lesser-known acts, so he and Capehart had to find a song that might be suitable for him to perform in the film. Very quickly they decided on a song called “Twenty Flight Rock”, written by a songwriter called Nelda Fairchild. There has been a lot of controversy as to who actually contributed what to the song, which is copyrighted in the names of both Fairchild and Cochran. Fairchild always claimed that she wrote the whole thing entirely by herself, and that Cochran got his co-writing credit for performing the demo, while Cochran’s surviving relatives are equally emphatic in their claims that he was an equal contributor as a songwriter. We will almost certainly never know the truth. Cochran is credited as the co-writer of several other hit songs, usually with Capehart, but never as the sole writer of a hit. Fairchild, meanwhile, was a professional songwriter, but pieces like “Freddie the Little Fir Tree” don’t especially sound like the work of the same person who wrote “Twenty Flight Rock”. As both credited writers are now dead, the best we can do is use our own judgment, and my personal judgment is that Cochran probably contributed at least something to the song’s writing. The original version of “Twenty Flight Rock”, as featured in the film, was little more than a demo — it featured Cochran on guitar, Guybo Smith on double bass, and Capehart slapping a cardboard box to add percussion. Cochran later recorded a more fully-arranged version of the song, which came out after the film, but the extra elements, notably the backing vocals, added little to the simplistic original: [Excerpt: Eddie Cochran, “Twenty Flight Rock”] It was that simpler version that appeared in the film, and which took its place alongside several other classic tracks in the film’s soundtrack. The film was originally intended to have a theme tune recorded by Fats Domino, who appeared in the film performing his hit “Blue Monday”, but when Bobby Troup mentioned this to Art Rupe, Rupe suggested that Little Richard would be a more energetic star to perform the song (and I’m sure this was entirely because of his belief that Richard would be the better talent, and nothing to do with Rupe owning Richard’s label, but not Domino’s). As a result, Domino’s role in the film was cut down to a single song, while Richard ended up doing three — the title song, written by Troup, “Ready Teddy” by John Marascalco and Bumps Blackwell, and “She’s Got It”. We’ve mentioned before that John Marascalco’s writing credits sometimes seem to be slightly exaggerated, and “She’s Got It” is one record that tends to bear that out. Listen to “She’s Got It”, which has Marascalco as the sole credited writer: [Excerpt: Little Richard, “She’s Got It”] And now listen to “I Got It”, an earlier record by Richard, which has Little Richard credited as the sole writer: [Excerpt: Little Richard, “I Got It”] Hmm… The Girl Can’t Help It was rather poorly reviewed in America. In France it was a different story. There’s a pervasive legend that the people of France revere Jerry Lewis as a genius. This is nonsense. But the grain of truth in it is that Cahiers du Cinema, the most important film magazine in France by a long way — the magazine for which Godard, Truffaut, and others wrote, and which popularised the concept of auteur theory, absolutely loved Frank Tashlin. In 1957, Tashlin was the only director to get two films on their top ten films of the year list — The Girl Can’t Help It at number eight, and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter at number two. The other eight films on the list were directed by Chaplin, Fellini, Hitchcock, Bunuel, Ingmar Bergman, Nicholas Ray, Fritz Lang and Sidney Lumet. Tashlin directed several films starring Jerry Lewis, and those films, like Tashlin’s other work, got a significant amount of praise in the magazine. And that’s where that legend actually comes from, though Cahiers did also give some more guarded praise to some of the films Lewis directed himself later. Tashlin wasn’t actually that good a director, but what he did have is a visual style that came from a different area of filmmaking than most of his competitors. Tashlin had started out as a cartoon director, working on Warner Brothers cartoons. He wasn’t one of the better directors for Warners, and didn’t direct any of the classics people remember from the studio — he mostly made forgettable Porky Pig shorts. But this meant he had an animator’s sense for a visual gag, and thus gave his films a unique look. For advocates of auteur theory, that was enough to push him into the top ranks. And so The Girl Can’t Help It became a classic film, and Cochran got a great deal of attention, and a record deal. According to Si Waronker, the head of Liberty Records, Eddie Cochran getting signed to the label had nothing to do with him being cast in The Girl Can’t Help It, and Waronker had no idea the film was being made when Cochran got signed. This seems implausible, to say the least. Johnny Olenn, Abbey Lincoln and Julie London, three other Liberty Records artists, appeared in the film — and London was by some way Liberty’s biggest star. Not only that, but London’s husband, Bobby Troup, wrote the theme song and was musical director for the film. But whether or not Cochran was signed on account of his film appearance, “Twenty Flight Rock” wasn’t immediately released as a single. Indeed, by the time it came out Cochran had already appeared in another film, in which he had backed Mamie Van Doren — another Marilyn Monroe imitator in the same vein as Mansfield — on several songs, as well as having a small role and a featured song himself. Oddly, when that film, Untamed Youth, came out, Cochran’s backing on Van Doren’s recordings had been replaced by different instrumentalists. But he still appears on the EP that was released of the songs, including this one, which Cochran co-wrote with Capehart: [Excerpt: Mamie Van Doren, “Ooh Ba La Baby”] It had originally been planned to release “Twenty Flight Rock” as Cochran’s first single on Liberty, to coincide with the film’s release but then it was put back for several months, as Si Waronker wanted Cochran to release “Sitting in the Balcony” instead. That song had been written and originally recorded by John D Loudermilk: [Excerpt: John D Loudermilk, “Sitting in the Balcony”] Waronker had wanted to release Loudermilk’s record, but he hadn’t been able to get the rights, so he decided to get Cochran to record a note-for-note cover version and release that instead: [Excerpt: Eddie Cochran, “Sitting in the Balcony”] Cochran was not particularly happy with that record, though he was happy enough once the record started selling in comparatively vast quantities, spurred by his appearance in The Girl Can’t Help It, and reached number eighteen in the charts. The problem was that Cochran and Waronker had fundamentally different ideas about what Cochran actually was as an artist. Cochran thought of himself primarily as a guitarist — and the guitar solo on “Sittin’ in the Balcony” was the one thing about Cochran’s record which distinguished it from Loudermilk’s original — and also as a rock and roller. Waronker, on the other hand, was convinced that someone with Cochran’s good looks and masculine voice could easily be another Pat Boone. Liberty was fundamentally not geared towards making rock and roll records. Its other artists included the Hollywood composer Lionel Newman, the torch singer Julie London, and a little later novelty acts like the Chipmunks — the three Chipmunks, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, being named after Al Bennett, Si Waronker, and Theodore Keep, the three men in charge of the label. And their attempts to force Cochran into the mould of a light-entertainment crooner produced a completely forgettable debut album, Singin’ to My Baby, which has little of the rock and roll excitement that would characterise Cochran’s better work. (And a warning for anyone who decides to go out and listen to that album anyway — one of the few tracks on there that *is* in Cochran’s rock and roll style is a song called “Mean When I’m Mad”, which is one of the most misogynist things I have heard, and I’ve heard quite a lot — it’s basically an outright rape threat. So if that’s something that will upset you, please steer clear of Cochran’s first album, while knowing you’re missing little artistically.) “Twenty Flight Rock” was eventually released as a single, in its remade version, in November 1957, almost a year after The Girl Can’t Help It came out. Unsurprisingly, coming out so late after the film, it didn’t chart, and it would be a while yet before Cochran would have his biggest hit. But just because it didn’t chart, doesn’t mean it didn’t make an impression. There’s one story, more than any other, that sums up the impact both of “The Girl Can’t Help It” and of “Twenty Flight Rock” itself. In July 1957, a skiffle group called the Quarrymen, led by a teenager called John Lennon, played a village fete in Woolton, a suburb of Liverpool. After the show, they were introduced to a young boy named Paul McCartney by a mutual friend. Lennon and McCartney hit it off, but the thing that persuaded Lennon to offer McCartney a place in the group was when McCartney demonstrated that he knew all the words to “Twenty Flight Rock”. Lennon wasn’t great at remembering lyrics, and was impressed enough by this that he decided that this new kid needed to be in the group. [Excerpt: Paul McCartney, “Twenty Flight Rock”] That’s the impact that The Girl Can’t Help It had, and the impact that “Twenty Flight Rock” had. But Eddie Cochran’s career was just starting, and we’ll see more of him in future episodes…
In honor of Jayne Mansfield's birthday I'm joined by guest, Mansfield biographer April Vevea sits down to talk with me about the buxom actress, Frank Tashlin's directorial prowess, and the changing landscape of the 1950s. Buy April's book, Puffblicity over on Amazon! Also, you still have time to enter to win 3 new Warner Archive DVDs. Just send us a classic film question to enter! NEXT TIME: It's Tyrone Power's birthday and we celebrate with a movie voted on by the listeners! CREDITS: Creator and Host: Kristen Lopez (@Journeys_Film) Guest: April Vevea (@aprilvevea)
Jenna and Carlo take a chronological foray into Jerry Lewis’ cartoon-like films, starting with Frank Tashlin’s Artists & Models and The Geisha Boy, to Lewis’ own The Nutty Professor. They like it, they like it!
We discuss the work of Warner Bros animation and its most famous directors: Bob Clampett, Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones and Frank Tashlin. All your favorite characters are brought up: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Gorilla Gruesome If you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop us a line at importantcinemaclubpodcast@gmail.com WWW.PATREON.COM/THEIMPORTANTCINEMACLUB On this week's Patreon episodes, we discuss Rick Moranis. Join for five dollars a month and get a brand new exclusive episode of ICC every week.
This week! Strange Adventures 185 Cover date February 1966 Cover Price 12 cents Cover Artist: Jack Sparling Edited by Jack Schiff Featuring Star Hawkins in “Gangsters, Inc.” Writer Dave Wood, artist Gil Kane And The Immortal Man in “The Man Who Died 100 Times” Writer Dave Wood, Artist Jack Sparling Fox and the Crow 96 Cover date February/March 1966 Cover Price 12 cents Cover Artist: Jack Sparling Edited by Murray Boltinoff Featuring Stanley and his Monster in “Please Don’t Pet the Monster” writer Arnold Drake, Artist Bob Oksner Brat Finks – Don’t Knock the Rock penciled by J. Winslow Mortimer Fox and Crow – Money Mad writer Cecil Beard and Alpine Harper, art Jim Davis. Star Hawkins appeared in 21 issues of Strange Adventures, first in #114 (March 1960) in rotation with two other series, The Atomic Knights and Space Museum, and appeared in every third issue of Strange Adventures from #119 – 158. He was brought back in issue #173 (February 1965), featuring him again in every third issue until #185 (February 1966), this time all written by Dave Wood and drawn by Gil Kane. Star Hawkins never featured on the cover of Strange Adventures. Star Hawkins is a down-at-heel private investigator living in New City, Earth in the 21st Century. He is first shown in 2079, with a robot receptionist, Ilda (Robot F2324), bought from the 'Super-Secretary Robot Factory'. Because Star is always short of money, Ilda is regularly pawned (although Star always promises that was the last time). Although a sharp detective with athletic skills, it is normally Ilda who exhibits the intelligence and power to solve the crime or is critical to defeating the 'zips' (criminals), using low-powered telepathic ability— 'standard equipment in all models the year of Ilda's manufacture'—or other robot powers. Immortal Man first appeared in "I lived a Hundred Lives" in Strange Adventures #177 (June 1965), an eight-page story drawn by Jack Sparling. It is not clear who created him. Although not a regular character in the title, Immortal Man then featured in Strange Adventures #185 in a 16-page tale and Strange Adventures #190 and #198 in 12-page tales. Jack Sparling drew all four adventures, and Dave Wood wrote at least two of them (#185 and #190). Immortal Man also featured on the covers to all four issues. When he first appears in modern times, Immortal Man is an orphan named Mark with a mysterious past he has little memory of and many skills in areas such as bullfighting, Japanese Samurai culture and culinary arts without knowing why. Eventually he returns to the orphanage where he was brought up and is given a jewel amulet that shows him his past lives and powers. Shortly afterwards he instinctively uses similar powers to save a town when a reservoir bursts, but dies when a school boiler explodes during the rescue. The Fox and the Crow are a pair of anthropomorphic cartoon characters created by Frank Tashlin for the Screen Gems studio. The characters, the refined but gullible Fauntleroy Fox and the streetwise Crawford Crow, appeared in a series of animated short subjects released by Screen Gems through its parent company, Columbia Pictures, and were Screen Gems' most popular characters. Tashlin directed the first film in the series, the 1941 Color Rhapsody short The Fox and the Grapes, based on the Aesop fable of that name. Warner Bros. animation director Chuck Jones later acknowledged this short, which features a series of blackout gags as the Fox repeatedly tries and fails to obtain a bunch of grapes in the possession of the Crow, as one of the inspirations for his popular Road Runner cartoons. The Fox and the Crow were going to have a cameo in Who Framed Roger Rabbit but were dropped for reasons unknown. The Fox and the Grapes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWbWKNmaXp0 The Fox and the Crow starred in several funny animal comic books published by DC Comics, from the 1940s well into
This week! Strange Adventures 185 Cover date February 1966 Cover Price 12 cents Cover Artist: Jack Sparling Edited by Jack Schiff Featuring Star Hawkins in “Gangsters, Inc.” Writer Dave Wood, artist Gil Kane And The Immortal Man in “The Man Who Died 100 Times” Writer Dave Wood, Artist Jack Sparling Fox and the Crow 96 Cover date February/March 1966 Cover Price 12 cents Cover Artist: Jack Sparling Edited by Murray Boltinoff Featuring Stanley and his Monster in “Please Don’t Pet the Monster” writer Arnold Drake, Artist Bob Oksner Brat Finks – Don’t Knock the Rock penciled by J. Winslow Mortimer Fox and Crow – Money Mad writer Cecil Beard and Alpine Harper, art Jim Davis. Star Hawkins appeared in 21 issues of Strange Adventures, first in #114 (March 1960) in rotation with two other series, The Atomic Knights and Space Museum, and appeared in every third issue of Strange Adventures from #119 – 158. He was brought back in issue #173 (February 1965), featuring him again in every third issue until #185 (February 1966), this time all written by Dave Wood and drawn by Gil Kane. Star Hawkins never featured on the cover of Strange Adventures. Star Hawkins is a down-at-heel private investigator living in New City, Earth in the 21st Century. He is first shown in 2079, with a robot receptionist, Ilda (Robot F2324), bought from the 'Super-Secretary Robot Factory'. Because Star is always short of money, Ilda is regularly pawned (although Star always promises that was the last time). Although a sharp detective with athletic skills, it is normally Ilda who exhibits the intelligence and power to solve the crime or is critical to defeating the 'zips' (criminals), using low-powered telepathic ability— 'standard equipment in all models the year of Ilda's manufacture'—or other robot powers. Immortal Man first appeared in "I lived a Hundred Lives" in Strange Adventures #177 (June 1965), an eight-page story drawn by Jack Sparling. It is not clear who created him. Although not a regular character in the title, Immortal Man then featured in Strange Adventures #185 in a 16-page tale and Strange Adventures #190 and #198 in 12-page tales. Jack Sparling drew all four adventures, and Dave Wood wrote at least two of them (#185 and #190). Immortal Man also featured on the covers to all four issues. When he first appears in modern times, Immortal Man is an orphan named Mark with a mysterious past he has little memory of and many skills in areas such as bullfighting, Japanese Samurai culture and culinary arts without knowing why. Eventually he returns to the orphanage where he was brought up and is given a jewel amulet that shows him his past lives and powers. Shortly afterwards he instinctively uses similar powers to save a town when a reservoir bursts, but dies when a school boiler explodes during the rescue. The Fox and the Crow are a pair of anthropomorphic cartoon characters created by Frank Tashlin for the Screen Gems studio. The characters, the refined but gullible Fauntleroy Fox and the streetwise Crawford Crow, appeared in a series of animated short subjects released by Screen Gems through its parent company, Columbia Pictures, and were Screen Gems' most popular characters. Tashlin directed the first film in the series, the 1941 Color Rhapsody short The Fox and the Grapes, based on the Aesop fable of that name. Warner Bros. animation director Chuck Jones later acknowledged this short, which features a series of blackout gags as the Fox repeatedly tries and fails to obtain a bunch of grapes in the possession of the Crow, as one of the inspirations for his popular Road Runner cartoons. The Fox and the Crow were going to have a cameo in Who Framed Roger Rabbit but were dropped for reasons unknown. The Fox and the Grapes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWbWKNmaXp0 The Fox and the Crow starred in several funny animal comic books published by DC Comics, from the 1940s well into
This week! Strange Adventures 185 Cover date February 1966 Cover Price 12 cents Cover Artist: Jack Sparling Edited by Jack Schiff Featuring Star Hawkins in “Gangsters, Inc.” Writer Dave Wood, artist Gil Kane And The Immortal Man in “The Man Who Died 100 Times” Writer Dave Wood, Artist Jack Sparling Fox and the Crow 96 Cover date February/March 1966 Cover Price 12 cents Cover Artist: Jack Sparling Edited by Murray Boltinoff Featuring Stanley and his Monster in “Please Don’t Pet the Monster” writer Arnold Drake, Artist Bob Oksner Brat Finks – Don’t Knock the Rock penciled by J. Winslow Mortimer Fox and Crow – Money Mad writer Cecil Beard and Alpine Harper, art Jim Davis. Star Hawkins appeared in 21 issues of Strange Adventures, first in #114 (March 1960) in rotation with two other series, The Atomic Knights and Space Museum, and appeared in every third issue of Strange Adventures from #119 – 158. He was brought back in issue #173 (February 1965), featuring him again in every third issue until #185 (February 1966), this time all written by Dave Wood and drawn by Gil Kane. Star Hawkins never featured on the cover of Strange Adventures. Star Hawkins is a down-at-heel private investigator living in New City, Earth in the 21st Century. He is first shown in 2079, with a robot receptionist, Ilda (Robot F2324), bought from the 'Super-Secretary Robot Factory'. Because Star is always short of money, Ilda is regularly pawned (although Star always promises that was the last time). Although a sharp detective with athletic skills, it is normally Ilda who exhibits the intelligence and power to solve the crime or is critical to defeating the 'zips' (criminals), using low-powered telepathic ability— 'standard equipment in all models the year of Ilda's manufacture'—or other robot powers. Immortal Man first appeared in "I lived a Hundred Lives" in Strange Adventures #177 (June 1965), an eight-page story drawn by Jack Sparling. It is not clear who created him. Although not a regular character in the title, Immortal Man then featured in Strange Adventures #185 in a 16-page tale and Strange Adventures #190 and #198 in 12-page tales. Jack Sparling drew all four adventures, and Dave Wood wrote at least two of them (#185 and #190). Immortal Man also featured on the covers to all four issues. When he first appears in modern times, Immortal Man is an orphan named Mark with a mysterious past he has little memory of and many skills in areas such as bullfighting, Japanese Samurai culture and culinary arts without knowing why. Eventually he returns to the orphanage where he was brought up and is given a jewel amulet that shows him his past lives and powers. Shortly afterwards he instinctively uses similar powers to save a town when a reservoir bursts, but dies when a school boiler explodes during the rescue. The Fox and the Crow are a pair of anthropomorphic cartoon characters created by Frank Tashlin for the Screen Gems studio. The characters, the refined but gullible Fauntleroy Fox and the streetwise Crawford Crow, appeared in a series of animated short subjects released by Screen Gems through its parent company, Columbia Pictures, and were Screen Gems' most popular characters. Tashlin directed the first film in the series, the 1941 Color Rhapsody short The Fox and the Grapes, based on the Aesop fable of that name. Warner Bros. animation director Chuck Jones later acknowledged this short, which features a series of blackout gags as the Fox repeatedly tries and fails to obtain a bunch of grapes in the possession of the Crow, as one of the inspirations for his popular Road Runner cartoons. The Fox and the Crow were going to have a cameo in Who Framed Roger Rabbit but were dropped for reasons unknown. The Fox and the Grapes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWbWKNmaXp0 The Fox and the Crow starred in several funny animal comic books published by DC Comics, from the 1940s well into the 1960s. They starred with other characters in DC's Columbia-licensed funny animal anthology Real Screen Comics (first issue titled Real Screen Funnies) beginning in 1945, then did likewise when DC converted the superhero title Comic Cavalcade to a funny-animal series in 1948. The duo received its own title, The Fox and the Crow, which ran 108 issues (Jan. 1952 - March 1968). Until the 1954 demise of Comic Cavalcade, Fox and Crow were cover-featured on three DC titles. They continued on the cover of Real Screen Comics through its title change to TV Screen Cartoons from #129-138 (Aug. 1959 - Feb. 1961), the final issue. The Fox and the Crow itself was renamed Stanley and His Monster beginning with #109 (May 1968), after the back-up feature, begun in #95 (Jan. 1966), that had taken over in popularity. For the last ten years of its existence, The Fox and the Crow was written by Cecil Beard, assisted by his wife, Alpine Harper. The illustrator was Jim Davis (b. 1915), although it was generally unsigned.
This week! Strange Adventures 185 Cover date February 1966 Cover Price 12 cents Cover Artist: Jack Sparling Edited by Jack Schiff Featuring Star Hawkins in “Gangsters, Inc.” Writer Dave Wood, artist Gil Kane And The Immortal Man in “The Man Who Died 100 Times” Writer Dave Wood, Artist Jack Sparling Fox and the Crow 96 Cover date February/March 1966 Cover Price 12 cents Cover Artist: Jack Sparling Edited by Murray Boltinoff Featuring Stanley and his Monster in “Please Don’t Pet the Monster” writer Arnold Drake, Artist Bob Oksner Brat Finks – Don’t Knock the Rock penciled by J. Winslow Mortimer Fox and Crow – Money Mad writer Cecil Beard and Alpine Harper, art Jim Davis. Star Hawkins appeared in 21 issues of Strange Adventures, first in #114 (March 1960) in rotation with two other series, The Atomic Knights and Space Museum, and appeared in every third issue of Strange Adventures from #119 – 158. He was brought back in issue #173 (February 1965), featuring him again in every third issue until #185 (February 1966), this time all written by Dave Wood and drawn by Gil Kane. Star Hawkins never featured on the cover of Strange Adventures. Star Hawkins is a down-at-heel private investigator living in New City, Earth in the 21st Century. He is first shown in 2079, with a robot receptionist, Ilda (Robot F2324), bought from the 'Super-Secretary Robot Factory'. Because Star is always short of money, Ilda is regularly pawned (although Star always promises that was the last time). Although a sharp detective with athletic skills, it is normally Ilda who exhibits the intelligence and power to solve the crime or is critical to defeating the 'zips' (criminals), using low-powered telepathic ability— 'standard equipment in all models the year of Ilda's manufacture'—or other robot powers. Immortal Man first appeared in "I lived a Hundred Lives" in Strange Adventures #177 (June 1965), an eight-page story drawn by Jack Sparling. It is not clear who created him. Although not a regular character in the title, Immortal Man then featured in Strange Adventures #185 in a 16-page tale and Strange Adventures #190 and #198 in 12-page tales. Jack Sparling drew all four adventures, and Dave Wood wrote at least two of them (#185 and #190). Immortal Man also featured on the covers to all four issues. When he first appears in modern times, Immortal Man is an orphan named Mark with a mysterious past he has little memory of and many skills in areas such as bullfighting, Japanese Samurai culture and culinary arts without knowing why. Eventually he returns to the orphanage where he was brought up and is given a jewel amulet that shows him his past lives and powers. Shortly afterwards he instinctively uses similar powers to save a town when a reservoir bursts, but dies when a school boiler explodes during the rescue. The Fox and the Crow are a pair of anthropomorphic cartoon characters created by Frank Tashlin for the Screen Gems studio. The characters, the refined but gullible Fauntleroy Fox and the streetwise Crawford Crow, appeared in a series of animated short subjects released by Screen Gems through its parent company, Columbia Pictures, and were Screen Gems' most popular characters. Tashlin directed the first film in the series, the 1941 Color Rhapsody short The Fox and the Grapes, based on the Aesop fable of that name. Warner Bros. animation director Chuck Jones later acknowledged this short, which features a series of blackout gags as the Fox repeatedly tries and fails to obtain a bunch of grapes in the possession of the Crow, as one of the inspirations for his popular Road Runner cartoons. The Fox and the Crow were going to have a cameo in Who Framed Roger Rabbit but were dropped for reasons unknown. The Fox and the Grapes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWbWKNmaXp0 The Fox and the Crow starred in several funny animal comic books published by DC Comics, from the 1940s well into the 1960s. They starred with other characters in DC's Columbia-licensed funny animal anthology Real Screen Comics (first issue titled Real Screen Funnies) beginning in 1945, then did likewise when DC converted the superhero title Comic Cavalcade to a funny-animal series in 1948. The duo received its own title, The Fox and the Crow, which ran 108 issues (Jan. 1952 - March 1968). Until the 1954 demise of Comic Cavalcade, Fox and Crow were cover-featured on three DC titles. They continued on the cover of Real Screen Comics through its title change to TV Screen Cartoons from #129-138 (Aug. 1959 - Feb. 1961), the final issue. The Fox and the Crow itself was renamed Stanley and His Monster beginning with #109 (May 1968), after the back-up feature, begun in #95 (Jan. 1966), that had taken over in popularity. For the last ten years of its existence, The Fox and the Crow was written by Cecil Beard, assisted by his wife, Alpine Harper. The illustrator was Jim Davis (b. 1915), although it was generally unsigned.
I Will Watch Anything Once - Conversations about Movies Missed or Avoided
Phoebe Neidhardt joins us to watch Hollywood or Bust and discuss the levels of Jerry Lewis which were charming, annoyed yet still funny plus she gives a little background about his rocky relationship with co-star Dean Martin.IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049322/?ref_=nv_sr_1Directed by: Frank TashlinWritten by: Erna LazarusStarring: Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Pat CrowleyMovie Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0-NhdNsoq4Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_or_BustRotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hollywood_or_bustBuy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Martin-Collection-Pardners-Hollywood-Artists/dp/B000NOK0MQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511980052&sr=8-1&keywords=hollywood+or+bustIf you are enjoying I Will Watch Anything Once, please subscribe, rate and review on iTunes, like it on Facebook and follow IWWAO on Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Tumblr. Email questions for your hosts and movie suggestions to iwillwatchanythingonce@gmail.comAdditional Links:Phoebe Neidhardt - Twitter: https://twitter.com/DweebyNerdheartMaude Team - Karate Karate at UCB Sunset: https://sunset.ucbtheatre.com/performance/57736IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4425991/ and personal website: http://phoebeneidhardt.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
When it comes to a cinephilic appreciation of comedy, who better represented it than The Total Film-Maker, Le Roi du Crazy, the Nutty Professor? Jerry Lewis was a totem in the hall of cinephilia and with good reason. No one worked harder to create an entirely unique style of filmmaking that no one else could come close to matching—to the ire of some but to the adoration of a select few. While his collabrators—Dean Martin, Hal Wallis, Frank Tashlin, and Martin Scorsese among others—are equally legendary, it is impossible to take one's eyes off Jerry and what he did, breaking the rules in order to get the funniest of laughs. To celebrate the passing of one of the last titans of Classical Hollywood (even though he never seemed to fit it), Jaime Christley of The Village Voice and Slant Magazine joins Peter to discuss elements of what made this filmmaker so unique and why they still can't stop laughing at his gags. 0:00-3:53 Opening 3:53-32:05 Discussing Jerry Lewis 32:48-36:08 Sponsorship Section 36:56-48:39 Jerry and the Critics 48:39-1:07:48 Favorite Jerry Moments 1:08:56-1:10:51 Close / Outtake
This little bend in the road allows us to relax and prove that even though these films aren’t “perfect” we still love them! Strangler of the Swamp shows that a talented director (Frank Wisbar) can still make a fascinating film even though he has no money. The Girl Can’t Help It, Frank Tashlin’s mad live-action, rock and roll cartoon, may actually end up on our Perfect Movie List--the jury is still out.
This week the gang dives into Frank Tashlin's archeological sex farce Bachelor Flat (1962)! We also have Catch & Release, another Celebrity Edition of Songs on Trial, Compañeros Fun Film Fact, James Best's Best Movies Ever, and Dachshunds galore!
THE FILM & WATER PODCAST Episode 44: SUSAN SLEPT HERE Rob welcomes Steven Thompson from Booksteve's Library to discuss Frank Tashlin's bubbly 1954 romantic comedy SUSAN SLEPT HERE, starring Dick Powell and Debbie Reynolds! Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content? STEVEN THOMPSON: http://booksteveslibrary.blogspot.com/ E-MAIL: firewaterpodcast@comcast.net Follow THE FILM & WATER PODCAST on Twitter: @FilmAndWaterPod Subscribe via iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-film-and-water-podcast/id1077572484 This film is available via Warner Archive: http://www.wbshop.com/product/susan+slept+here+1000180288.do This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Visit the Fire & Water WEBSITE: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com Follow Fire & Water on TWITTER – https://twitter.com/FWPodcasts Like our Fire & Water FACEBOOK page – https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Use our HASHTAG online: #FWPodcasts Thanks for listening! That's A Wrap!
From Los Angeles to New York, Carrie Rickey spent many of her years during the heyday of the Golden Age of Film Criticism, writing about some of the truly great movies as they were released, before moving cities for the Philadelphia Inquirer. No longer working the daily beat, Carrie found time in her busy schedule to sit down with Peter for a chat about her training under Manny Farber, that infamous Heaven's Gate screening, and her various pieces and pursuits in examining women and women's cinema. Finally, the two get like totally on board with Amy Heckerling's Clueless, which like is for sure Frank Tashlin except given this sweet makeover. 0:00-1:12 Opening1:47-10:19 Establishing Shots - East Asia Films At Tribeca / Donations11:02-56:25 Deep Focus - Carrie Rickey57:58-1:13:03 Double Exposure - Clueless (Amy Heckerling)1:14:06-1:15:56 Close / Outtake
In this episode, John and I discuss the sword and sandals actioner The Eagle, talk with its star, Channing Tatum, and try to figure out why Elton John made the 3D animated confection Gnomeo & Juliet.For our picks of the week, I say Frank Tashlin’s 1967 spy spoof Caprice, starring Doris Day and Richard Harris, is the one you must find and watch, and John says Paul W.S. Anderson’s 1994 thriller $hopping, starring Jude Law and Sadie Frost, is not to be missed.The total running time is about 50:02Visit the Post-Movie Podcast online at Post-Movie.netIntro music by Stereo Soul Future (stereosoulfuture.com).Questions? Email us at contact@post-movie.netDon't forget to leave us an iTunes review. We could sure use some kind words to help us reach a larger audience. Anything would be appreciated. Thanks!- Steve
Stephen and I discuss: General Chatter (4:55)Movies: Frank Miller's 300, theatre goodies, Casino Royale on DVD, Hellboy, Blood and Iron, and (31:45)Wolverine: Lifeblood - response from the author , Matt Hughes, at the Comics Podcast Network. (39:00)Animation News: (Gleaned from my friends at the Termite Terrace Yahoo Group) A lost puppet type cartoon from Frank Tashlin is available at Cartoon Brew Films. (43:25)Bottom of the Pile: Kirby's Galactic Rangers Paul Grist's Kane, Volume 6 Marvel Zombies Vs. Army of Darkness Shazam Monster Society of Evil #2 The Mighty Avengers #1 by Bendis and Cho To listen or download: Click on the POD link next to the episode title, or use the "direct download"link at the bottom of this episode blog To Subscribe using iPodder, iTunes, or any other Podcast client: KomicsKast Feed (Only use this link to "subscribe" using one of these Podcast clients) Please comment! komicskast@gmail.com
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