Podcasts about Harpo Marx

Saturday At The Shamrock 50-02-18 xxx Guests - Chico, Harpo Marx

Patreon Justin has picked some gems and corkers before, like Blood Simple and Hard Eight, and this time he's chosen the little known 1992 comedy, Brain Donors."Brain Donors" was produced during a time when Hollywood was revisiting and paying homage to classic comedy styles, and its production was heavily influenced by the desire to recreate the Marx Brothers' iconic brand of humor. The film was written by Pat Proft, known for his work on the "Naked Gun" series, and produced by David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abrahams, the trio behind many successful comedies of the 1980s. Their involvement ensured that the film would be packed with rapid-fire jokes, slapstick, and absurdity, staying true to the spirit of the Marx Brothers while adding a modern twist. The project was initially conceived as a direct tribute to the Marx Brothers, with the working title "Lame Ducks," and the characters were loosely based on Groucho, Chico, and Harpo Marx.John Turturro, who played the Groucho-esque character Jacques, was a standout in the cast, bringing his unique energy and comedic timing to the role. The production faced challenges in balancing the homage to classic comedy with appealing to contemporary audiences, which led to mixed reactions upon its release. Despite its star-studded creative team and ambitious vision, the film struggled at the box office, partly due to limited marketing and the niche appeal of its humor. However, over time, "Brain Donors" has garnered a cult following, appreciated for its commitment to reviving the chaotic, irreverent spirit of the Marx Brothers. The making of the film reflects a passionate attempt to honor a bygone era of comedy, even if it didn't achieve mainstream success.If you enjoy the show we have a Patreon, so become a supporter.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.patreon.com/thevhsstrikesback⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Plot SummaryRoland T Flakfixer, Jacques and Rocco, a trio of eccentric misfits, are hired by the wealthy widow Lillian Oglethorpe to establish a ballet company in honor of her late husband. Their mission quickly spirals into a series of absurd misadventures as they clash with the snobbish elite, outwit a scheming lawyer named Edmund Lazlo , and attempt to pull off a grand ballet performance.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thevhsstrikesback@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/vhsstrikesback⁠

We start in Los Angeles with emerging composter Derrick Skye, whose fascination with the cosmos is woven into his music. When Skye began composing “Prism, Cycles and Leaps,” he watched YouTube videos about Jupiter and was captivated by the way the planet moved at different speeds. As a mixed race person, he resonates with musical traditions from across the globe and blends genres and forms. Music from India, the Balkans and West Africa form the building blocks of Sky's music today. Reporter Clare Wiley tells us about Skye's musical process and what he hopes people will take away from his work. Then, we're traveling up to the Bay Area to meet another California composer. Destiny Muhammad was nine years old when she first saw Harpo Marx playing the harp in an episode of “I Love Lucy.” She immediately knew she wanted to play the mesmerizing instrument. It took over two decades for the Oakland-based artist to start learning how to play the harp, but it set her on a path to pursue her unique “Celtic to Coltrane” genre, as she calls it. Today, Muhammad works as a composer, teacher and performer in the Bay Area, and writes original scores for her group, The Destiny Muhammad Trio. KQED's Bianca Taylor brings us Muhammad's story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

En esta ocasión elegimos a los desvergonzados, imprevisibles y geniales Hermanos Marx. Fueron pioneros en el cine del absurdo y siguen siendo un referente para la comedia más osada. Aunque hablaremos de su carrera en cine y hasta en teatro, nos centraremos principalmente en “UNA NOCHE EN LA ÓPERA”. Fue su sexta película, aunque fue la primera que rodaron para la Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Estrenada en 1935, a punto de cumplir NOVENTA AÑOS, sigue teniendo momentos espléndidos y por eso la revisamos, para animaros a descubrirla o a repetirla y disfrutar con Groucho, Chico y Harpo Marx. Hoy nos juntamos Javier Jiménez de Sevilla y Paco Dolz de Valencia, contando con Miguel Angel Parra de Barcelona, el mayor fan que conozco de los famosos hermanos.

The holiday season is upon us, and everyone's misbehaving!This week, Trevin kicks things off with a festive TV show recommendation perfect for any Christmas binge, while Amanda shares her struggle after buying an Elf on the Shelf so small it could hide in a snowflake—meet Frost Pips!Before diving into the chaos, the crew exchanges Christmas presents, where Amanda receives a fun surprise, and Trevin delivers a gift so huge it might just steal the show.Next, the crew unwraps a Top 5 Holiday Edition filled with bizarre and petty Christmas facts. Was there a prequel to The Grinch Who Stole Christmas? What's the surprisingly petty history behind Christmas caroling? And did someone really write a Christmas song about... pooping presents?Story Time delivers two shockingly selfish holiday crimes. Amanda tells the tale of Shaina Hudson, a mother of five who woke up to a Grinch-like thief stealing her family's Christmas gifts. Trevin follows up with the story of a mischievous South Carolina kid whose quest for a GameBoy Advance SP takes a hilariously selfish turn. Both stories reveal just how far people will go to steal—from themselves—during the holidays.Don't be a ho ho ho this season! Spike your eggnog, grab your defecating log, and join us for our final petty crime-filled episode of the year.Today's Stories:How the Grinch Stole Shaina's ChristmasA Very Bad Kid Christmas(Discussions Include: Human Vs. Hamster, Sarah Sherman, Elf on a Shelf, Parenting, Mom Problems, Gift giving, Christmas Gifts, Presents, Thefts, Top 5, Santa Clause, Christmas Special, therapy, mental health, Mistletoe, Pardon, Milk and Cookies, Belsnickel, The Nutcracker Ballet, Bidet, Rockerfeller Christmas tree, Harpo Marx, Fox Urine, Evergreen Tree, Tio De Nadal, Gone Girl, LeHigh Acres, Florida, Problem Children, Brats, juvenile)Join our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/livelaughlarcenydoomedcrew For ad-free episodes and lots of other bonus content, join our Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/LiveLaughLarceny  Check out our website: Here Follow us on Instagram: Here Follow us on Facebook: Here Follow us on TikTok: Here Follow us on Twitter: Here   If you have a crime you'd like to hear on our show OR have a personal petty story, email us at livelaughlarceny@gmail.com or send us a DM on any of our socials!

Welcome to Season 04 Episode 05 - the "Hallowed Eve" edition - of Notes from the Aisle Seat, the podcast featuring news and information about the arts in northern Chautauqua County NY, sponsored by the 1891 Fredonia Opera House. Your host is Tom Loughlin, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor and Chair Emeritus of Theatre and Dance at SUNY Fredonia. Guests on this episode include: Ms. Suzanne O. Davis from Tapestry: The Carole King Songbook; Dr. Richard Gilman from Restoring the Opera House: A Volunteer's Perspective; Dr. Jessica Hillman-McCord and Ms. Alina J. Wiley from Legally Blonde: The Musical; and Cal Weilgasz from The Wizard of Oz. Notes from the Aisle Seat is available from most of your favorite podcast sites, as well as on the Opera House YouTube Channel. If you enjoy this podcast, please spread the word through your social media feeds, give us a link on your website, and consider becoming a follower by clicking the "Follow" button in the upper right-hand corner of our home page. If you have an arts event you'd like to publicize, hit us up at operahouse@fredopera.org and let us know what you have! Please give us at least one month's notice to facilitate timely scheduling. Thanks for listening! Time Stamps (Approximate) 02:58 - Suzanne O. Davis - Tapestry 19:35 - Dick Gilman - Chautauqua History Lecture 38:15 - Arts Calendar 43:00 - Jessica Hillman-McCord/Alina J. Wiley - Legally Blonde 53:23 - Cal Weilgasz - The Wizard of Oz Media Ambient Music: Dia de los Muertos; Nama's Tea YouTube Channel "It's Too Late", Carole King, composer; Gerry Goffin, lyrics; from the album Tapestry, 1971, performed by Suzanne O. Davis from her show Tapestry: The Carole King Songbook "Alone", Music by Nacio Herb Brown, lyrics by Arthur Freed, 1935; performed by Harpo Marx (harp) from the movie A Night at the Opera, MGM 1936 Piano Sonata No. 15 in C Major K545, Ludwig von Beethoven, composer; performed by Harpo Marx (harp) from the movie The Big Store, MGM 1941 "Omigod You Guys", from the musical Legally Blonde:The Musical, lyrics and music by Lawrence O'Keefe and Neil Benjamin; from the original cast recording July 2007 "Thriller", from the album Thriller; lyrics and music by Michael Jackson, Epic Records/MJJ Productions 1982 Artist Links Suzanne O. Davis Facebook Instagram Dick Gilman Jessica Hillman-McCord Alina J. Wiley Cal Weilgasz Box Office at SUNY Fredonia BECOME AN OPERA HOUSE MEMBER!      

Case of the Girl Who Sang Too Well followed by Gracie Hires Harpo Marx as a Reporter.

Saturday At The Shamrock 50-02-18 xxx Guests - Chico, Harpo Marx

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Today's show is all about the many varied forms of whistling.  As the Great Gildersleeve  3/30/49 show has Gildy trying to catch a whistling bandit.  And we grab the pea by the whistle and listen to just some of the various great whistling songs that have come along. From some unforgettable whistling instrumentals to our favorite whistlers like Julie London, Bing Crosby, Louis Prima, Al Jolson & even Harpo Marx!!  We'll also remember our wild wild Wildwood vacations by the sea!  Pucker up and give a little whistle with your Humble Host in today's wild episode.

City Lights & Semiotext(e) celebrate the publication of "Stubble Archipelago" by Wayne Koestenbaum with a conversation between the author & Tausif Noor. Purchase here: https://citylights.com/stubble-archipelago/ Wild new adventures in word-infatuated flânerie from a celebrated literary provocateur. This book of thirty-six poetic bulletins by the humiliation-advice-giver Wayne Koestenbaum will teach you how to cruise, dream, decode a crowded consciousness, find nuggets of satisfaction in unaccustomed corners, & sew a language glove roomy enough to contain materials gathered while meandering. Koestenbaum wrote many of these poems while walking around New York City. He'd jot down phrases in a notebook or dictate them into his phone. At home, he'd incorporate these fragmented gleanings into overflowing quasi sonnets. Thus each poem functions as a coded diary entry, including specific references to sidewalk events & peripatetic perceptions. Flirting, remembering, eavesdropping, gazing, squeezing, sequestering: Koestenbaum invents a novel way to cram dirty liberty into the tight yet commodious space of the sonnet, a fourteen-lined cruise ship that contains ample suites for behavior modification, libidinal experiment, aura-filled memory orgies, psychedelic Bildungsromane, lap dissolves, archival plunges, & other mental saunterings that conjure the unlikely marriage of Kenneth Anger & Marianne Moore. Carnal pudding, anyone? These engorged lyrics don't rhyme; & though each builds on a carapace of fourteen lines, many of the lines spawn additional, indented tributaries, like hoop earrings dangling from the stanzas' lobes. Koestenbaum's poems are comic, ribald, compressed, symphonic. They take liberties with ordinary language, & open up new pockets for sensation in the sorrowing overcoat of the “now.” Stubble—a libidinal detail—matters when you're stranded on the archipelago of your most unsanctioned yet tenaciously harbored impulses. Wayne Koestenbaum—poet, critic, novelist, artist, performer—has published nineteen books, including "The Queen's Throat," a groundbreaking study of sexuality & the human voice which was a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist. Additional books to his credit include: "Camp Marmalade," "Notes on Glaze," "The Pink Trance Notebooks," "My 1980s & Other Essays," "Hotel Theory," "The Anatomy of Harpo Marx," "Humiliation," "Jackie Under My Skin," & "The Cheerful Scapegoat." His essays & poems have been widely published in periodicals & anthologies, including "The Best American Poetry," "The Best American Essays," The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Paris Review, London Review of Books, The Believer, The Iowa Review, Cabinet, and Artforum. Formerly an Associate Professor of English at Yale & a Visiting Professor in the Yale School of Art's painting department, he is a Distinguished Professor of English, French, & Comparative Literature at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. Tausif Noor is a critic, curator, & PhD student in global modern art history at the University of California, Berkeley. His writing & essays have appeared in publications such as Artforum, the Poetry Project Newsletter, the New York Review of Books, & the New Yorker, as well as in various exhibition catalogues, artist books, & edited volumes. He lives in Oakland, CA. Originally broadcast via Zoom on Monday, March 25, 2024. Hosted by Peter Maravelis. Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation. citylights.com/foundation

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 1236, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: The Performer 1: Patton Oswalt cooked up the voice of Remy the Rodent in this 2007 Pixar film. Ratatouille. 2: From 1960 to 2010 Don Hastings played Bob Hughes on this "global" CBS soap opera. As the World Turns. 3: Esai Morales lawyered up as Edward James Olmos' dad, Joseph Adama, in this "Battlestar Galactica" prequel. Caprica. 4: J.K. Simmons, seriously evil in "Oz", brought it down to "not so nice" as publisher J. Jonah Jameson in this 2002 film. Spider-Man. 5: This "Some Like It Hot" co-star who died in 2010 turned to Matisse-influenced art in later years. Tony Curtis. Round 2. Category: Impersonators 1: Impersonator El Vez puts a Mexican spin on this singer. Elvis Presley. 2: When she appeared at the 1999 Oscars dressed as Elizabeth, she said, "I am the African queen". Whoopi Goldberg. 3: Lucille Ball was the mirror image of this Marx Brother when she impersonated him on "I Love Lucy". Harpo Marx. 4: (Hello, I am Jon Lovitz. [Coughs]) My "SNL" impersonation of this 1988 presidential candidate was not the reason he lost the election. Michael Dukakis. 5: In 1995 the "Tonight Show" featured "dancing" men impersonating this California judge. Lance Ito. Round 3. Category: B Movie Quotes. With B in quotes 1: "My people are praying for a man who can drive their team to victory over Messala". Ben-Hur. 2: "I am William Wallace! and I see a whole army of my countrymen, here in defiance of tyranny". Braveheart. 3: "Miss Golightly, I protest". Breakfast at Tiffany's. 4: "It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas... it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses"; "Hit it". The Blues Brothers. 5: "Just what are you getting at, Elvis?"; "I think you know what I'm gettin' at, Mr. President. We're gonna kill us a mummy". Bubba Ho-Tep. Round 4. Category: States By National Forest 1: Allegheny National Forest. Pennsylvania. 2: Sequoia National Forest. California. 3: Delta National Forest. Mississippi. 4: Prescott National Forest. Arizona. 5: Ocala National Forest. Florida. Round 5. Category: The Wheel Thing 1: A popular tongue twister concerns its rubber bumpers. Baby buggy. 2: On a cattle drive, Cookie works out of this vehicle that carries his supplies. Chuck wagon. 3: It's a child's vehicle with 2 wheels on a low footboard, or a motor-powered adult vehicle. Scooter. 4: A serving cart for desserts, if you're "off" it you're crazy. Trolley. 5: A tumbrel, a farm tipcart used to haul manure, was used to haul people to this during the French Revolution. Guillotine. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia!Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/ AI Voices used

RMR 0266: Special Guest, Nick Santa Maria, from the Abbott and Costello Comedy Historian Podcast, joins your host Russell Guest for the Retro Movie Roundtable as they revisit Duck Soup (1933) [PG] Genre: Comedy, Musical, War Starring: The Marx Brothers, Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx, Margaret Dumont, Raquel Torres, Louis Calhern, Edmund Breese, Leonid Kinskey, Charles Middleton, Edgar Kennedy   Director: Leo McCarey Recorded on 2024-05-05

GGACP celebrates the birthday of Hollywood historian and Turner Classics Movies host Ben Mankiewicz (b. March 25) with this ENCORE presentation of an interview from 2021. In this episode, Ben joins Gilbert and Frank to talk about (among other topics) his famous family, the depiction of grandfather Herman Mankiewicz in David Fincher's “Mank,” the real authorship of “Citizen Kane” and his well-received TCM podcast “The Plot Thickens.” Also, Mickey Rooney finds religion, Harpo Marx goes to a seder, Jerry Lewis leaves a mysterious voicemail and Ben remembers the late, great Robert Osborne. PLUS: “Duck Soup”! “Mad Dog of Europe”! Tony Curtis: fashion icon! Kirk Douglas knocks Joseph Mankiewicz! And Ben interviews Sophia Loren, Ernest Borgnine and Max von Sydow! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Todo el mundo sabía que lo estaba intentando, escribiendo con todos y cada uno, escribiendo de noche, pasando días esperando citas en las oficinas y viajando con distancias interminables en el metro para trabajar con algún compositor desconocido que vivía muy mal y se había ido a los suburbios, pero que tenía una melodía que podría ser un éxito”. JM. Con José Manuel Corrales.

On Wednesday's show: We learn the results of primary election day in Texas, and our political analysts discuss what it all means -- along with all the other developments in politics -- in our weekly roundup. Also this hour: Food writers talk about their favorite places to eat in Montrose and Midtown in this month's installment of The Full Menu. And what if Harpo Marx and Salvador Dalí made a screenplay? Well, they did. The movie never got made, but we learn how a graphic novel by a Houston native brings it to life in a colorful way.

Reed Martin has written Harpo and Chico and Bill, a new comedy about Harpo Marx, his son Bill, and Harpo's brother Chico as they try to put one final live stage show together late in their careers. Written during the pandemic, Reed's play is is now having its world premiere (under his direction) at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton. Reed discusses how the script came to be, how it's evolving with his all-student cast, and where it might go from here; how he got to meet Harpo's son Bill; how Reed exaggerated the drama (but only a little); how you can't find a single person who has a bad word to say about Harpo; the importance of family both onstage and off; and how Reed's performing the public service of introducing a new generation to classic comedians and timeless bits. (Length 22:16)

It's almost Week 1, in the weekly numbering system that's widely used in Northern Europe, where the year starts with week 1 and runs through to Week 52 or 53, depending on the calendar. It's very efficient for planning, so you don't have to say something messy like “What about that week that starts Monday June 3…” Week 1 starts on January 1, and everything follows that in perfect order. But before January 1 we have New Year's Eve, a day that fills me with trepidation to be honest, because in Denmark, New Year's Eve is all about amateur fireworks. Cannonballs, Roman Candles, Ding Dongs, Triple Extremes, these are the fireworks you can purchase and set off yourself in a local parking lot, terrifying any nearby dogs and cats.  Having a family member in the hospital business, I can't help but think that today, December 26, there are a few amateur fireworks fans who have perfectly well-functioning eyes and fingers right now who won't have them on January 2. The Queen's Speech New Year's Eve celebrations start at 6pm, when the Queen Margrethe gives her annual speech, live.  To the uninitiated, this looks like a woman sitting at her desk reading from a pile of papers – she refuses to use a TelePrompter – but it's all been intricately planned, from the clothes to the jewelry to the flowers to the text itself to reflect the themes and priorities of the year gone by. There's even a website that gives odds on what words and themes will appear.  The Queen now keeps her pile of papers together with a paper clip. In past years, she left them loose, and on one particular occasion they got out of order and she had to desperately search through them on air to find her place. The comedian Ulf Pilgaard, a large man who dressed up as a colorful burlesque imitation of the Queen, used to make this incident part of his act, throwing papers up in the air like Harpo Marx. Just as an aside, when this comedian who imitated the Queen retired last year, the Queen herself showed up at his final performance and shook his hand. Having such a good sense of humor about herself is why Queen is so beloved, even by people who do not really like the monarchy.  Some Danes even stand up to watch the Queen's speech on TV. It always ends with “Gud Bevare Danmark”, God Protect Denmark. "Wreath cake"  After the speech, it's dinner time, followed by a very sweet cake called kransekage – which translates to “wreath cake.” It's made of a lot of rings delicately placed on top of each other, in a little tower. There's lot of marzipan involved in this cake. I'm not a marzipan fan myself, but if you are, you'll like this cake.  Read more at howtoliveindenmark.com

RJ Young is an accomplished author whose literary prowess shines through in his captivating work, "The Witch of the Whirlwind." Drawing on a rich tapestry of fantasy and adventure, Young weaves a tale that unfolds in the mystical realm where the Sky Elders returned two decades ago, entrusting the Itiwana tribe with the sacred duty of protecting the Tree of Life.As a seasoned warrior and beloved chieftain of the Itiwana, Tawa finds himself thrust into a perilous journey when the Witch of the Whirlwind attacks his village, forcing him to fulfil an old promise. Young skillfully guides readers through Tawa's solitary quest, exploring themes of duty, friendship, and the blurred lines between them.Beyond the protagonist's epic journey, Young delves into the lives of Tawa's children, each burdened with their own promises. Pahana, appointed as an interim ruler, grapples with the weight of defending his people, while the enigmatic newcomer Hayoka adds a disruptive element to his responsibilities. Kia, Tawa's daughter, emerges as a powerful Shaman, tempted by external forces seeking to exploit her extraordinary abilities for their own nefarious agenda.Little do they know that the Witch of the Whirlwind is poised to unleash an unprecedented threat upon the Itiwana, setting the stage for a gripping climax that will test the resilience of both characters and readers alike.Beyond his literary accomplishments, RJ Young's creative journey extends beyond the pages of his book. With a TV pilot episode, a play, and a graphic novel under his belt, Young's diverse talents shine through. His correspondence with the widow of Harpo Marx reveals a unique connection to the golden age of comedy, showcasing his broad range of interests.Yet, Young's personal journey is marked by resilience in the face of adversity. Overcoming depression, social anxiety, and Avoidant Personality Disorder, he has confronted existential crises head-on. The tragic loss of his parents to a drunk driver during his college years added a profound layer to his life, propelling him through challenges that ultimately shaped the depth and authenticity of his storytelling.In "The Witch of the Whirlwind," RJ Young not only crafts a mesmerizing fantasy narrative but also shares a piece of his own journey through the struggles and triumphs that define the human experience. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello friends! Austin guitar player and singer-songwriter, William Wallace is my guest for episode 1331! His debut, full-length album, Lighthouse Keeper is available now on all streaming services. William will be playing at New World Deli here in Austin on Wednesday, November 22nd at 7 pm. Go to williamwallacemusic.com for music show dates and more. We have a great conversation about making Lighthouse Keeper with some of Austin's best musicians at the legendary Congress House recording studio, writing songs about unconventional subjects like 19th century mystic Helena Blavatsky, and the romance between Harpo Marx and Amelia Earhart, the magical conversation he had as a kid with Townes Van Zandt backstage at The Cactus Café, living in the U.K. and much more. I had a great time getting to know William. I'm sure you will too. Let's get down! Listen to all of your favorite music and podcasts on Spotify! If you feel so inclined. Venmo: www.venmo.com/John-Goudie-1  Paypal: paypal.me/johnnygoudie  

Neshobe Island is a small island located on the Castleton side of Lake Bomoseen. It has two houses, a barn and some surrounding woods, and that's about it.In the 1920s and ‘30s, though, the island hosted a who's who of celebrities and intellectuals most summers. These included Noël Coward, Thornton Wilder, Irving Berlin, Margaret Mitchell, Dorothy Parker, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Walt Disney and Harpo Marx.Host Sam Gale Rosen toured the island with its current owners and talked about some of its surprisingly star-studded history.

Bill MarxWilliam Woollcott Marx (born January 8, 1937) is an American pianist, arranger, and composer. He is the adopted son of actors Harpo Marx and Susan Fleming.Marx was placed in the Children's Home Society in Los Angeles by his birth parents when he was eight months old, and four months later he was adopted by Harpo Marx and his wife, Susan Fleming. He attended the Juilliard School, where he studied composition and he studied with composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. He began working in entertainment when he was 12 years old, when he was put in charge of his father's props for shows, including his harp. At 16 he became arranger and musical conductor for his father. Marx's compositions include concertos for alto saxophone, flute, harp, piano, and violin.] He also composed symphonies and scores for films, including the score for the film Weekend Pass (1984). Marx transcribed music that his father composed, because the elder Marx did not read music. The two worked together on two albums that Harpo recorded in the early 1960s. He also composed and arranged for recording artists in both jazz and popular music. In 1961, Marx signed with Vee-Jay Records. His projects there included arranging cover versions of music for four albums by the Castaway Strings. In 1967, he began writing music for commercials. In the 1970s, he composed for several low-budget horror movies, including Scream Blacula Scream, Terror at Red Wolf Inn, and Count Yorga, Vampire. For these projects, he often collaborated with lyricist Marilyn Lovell. He continued his work on films outside the horror genre throughout the 1980s, such as arranging music for John Cassavetes' Big Trouble . As a performer, Marx has played in jazz clubs, lounges, and theaters In the late 1980s, Marx and harpist Carrol McLaughlin toured the United States, giving performances and promoting Harpo Speaks, his father's autobiography. In the early 1990s, Los Angeles magazine named Marx the most popular lounge pianist in that city. In 2002, he received a star at 265 S. Palm Canyon Drive on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars.                                                           (Adapted from wikipedia). Buy the books:Bill's book: https://www.amazon.com/Son-Harpo-Speaks-Bill-Marx-ebook/dp/B00INB1JLW/Harpo's book: https://www.amazon.com/Harpo-Speaks-Marx-ebook/dp/B06XWDPNB4/Susan's book : https://www.amazon.com/Speaking-Harpo-Susan-Fleming-Marx-ebook/dp/B09XTJ1KC6/Photo: Copyright Wilkinson/2023Opening and closing music courtesy the very talented Zakhar Valaha via Pixabay.To contact Wilkinson- email him at BecomingWilkinson@gmail.com

Matthew C. Yee (above) wrote the book and score for Lucy and Charlie's Honeymoon, and plays one half of the titular couple in the Lookingglass Theatre world premiere. Joined by co-star Rammel Chan, the two actors discuss the show's origins; how they walk its tricky tonal lines; how a script with humble college beginnings became a full-fledged country western musical; the ways in which the characters are both inside and outside the law; the challenge of being not just the author and composer, but also an actor and musician; wonderful and unintended similarities to Harpo Marx; and the lasting questions of why there aren't more country western musicals? (Length 19:58)

Command Performance - Jack Benny, Bing Crosby & Harpo Marx From-1944 In honor of D-Day Jack Benny & Ken Carpenter are the hosts of Ceremonies, Ken who has a few of his usual wisecracks about Jack's new girlfriend, who happens to be a plumber. Bing drops in to sings, "You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby". Harpo accompanies Bing playing, "My Blue Heaven." Ann Miller performs a tap dance in G. I. boots!

Read by Terry Casburn Production and Sound Design by Kevin Seaman

David and Ryan tear open their first auction catalog of the summer season: Julien's "Hollywood: Classic & Contemporary" done in partnership with TCM -- and all sponsored by Propstore! The guys talk Indiana Jones machetes, Men in Black suits, vintage scripts, Harpo Marx's tasteful nudes, Carlo Rimbaldi's Alien designs, and Die Hard storyboards. Lots and lots and lots of Die Hard storyboards. So many Die Hard storyboards. Starting April 22nd, raise a paddle, bang the hammer, and let the auctions begin!

David and Ryan tear open their first auction catalog of the summer season: Julien's "Hollywood: Classic & Contemporary" done in partnership with TCM -- and all sponsored by Propstore! The guys talk Indiana Jones machetes, Men in Black suits, vintage scripts, Harpo Marx's tasteful nudes, Carlo Rimbaldi's Alien designs, and Die Hard storyboards. Lots and lots and lots of Die Hard storyboards. So many Die Hard storyboards. Starting April 22nd, raise a paddle, bang the hammer, and let the auctions begin!

We start off tonight with an episode of “Suspense” that isn't all that suspenseful, i.e. spooky.  But it's a lot of fun.  “The Lost Special” is based on a non-Sherlock Holmes story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which first appeared in “The Strand Magazine” in August, 1898.  Orson Welles narrates.  This is an Armed Forces Radio rebroadcast, which means the ads have been taken out.  It was played overseas for US troops.  Then, our guests on tonight's episode of the quiz show “Information Please” are science popularizer Bernard Jaffe and … Harpo Marx?  Yes.  The show revels in the sheer novelty of having Harpo, the one Marx Brother who doesn't speak, on a panel, and he still manages be witty and delightful.   Episodes Suspense September 30, 1943“The Lost Special”2:04  Information PleaseOctober 25, 1938 “Guests: Bernard Jaffe and Harpo Marx”33:18

  On Wednesday's show: A new agreement is in place that will allow the rebuild and expansion of I-45 to move forward, nearly two years after the plan was paused following concerns from numerous stakeholders. We learn what the agreement entails and what concerns remain. Also this hour: We discuss the latest developments in politics in our weekly roundup. Then: How blunt should doctors and patients be with one another when it comes to nutrition and obesity? And what can be done to improve the communication between doctors and patients on these health matters? And the Oscars are Sunday night, but we reflect on a movie that never got made. It was called Giraffes on Horseback Salad, and the screenplay was the product of an unusual collaboration between comedian Harpo Marx and surrealist painter Salvador Dalí. While it never made it to the big screen, Houston native Josh Frank made it into a graphic novel by the same name. We revisit our 2019 conversation with Frank.

Robert Bader, author and filmmaker, and Bill Marx, composer and son of Harpo Marx, join Steve Dale to talk to talk about Bill's life and legacy in the entertainment world with his comedian father. They also talk about Bill's relationship with his uncle Groucho and with Dick Cavett, much of which is covered in Robert's […]

Mail Call was an American radio program that entertained American soldiers from 1942 until 1945, during World War II. Lt. Col. Thomas A.H. Lewis (commander of the Armed Forces Radio Service) wrote in 1944, "The initial production of the Armed Forces Radio Service was 'Mail Call,' a morale-building half hour which brought famed performers to the microphone to sing and gag in the best American manner." The program featured popular entertainers of that day, such as Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, and Dinah Shore, performing musical numbers and comedy skits to boost the morale of soldiers stationed far from their homes. Lewis added, "To a fellow who has spent months guarding an outpost in the South Seas, Iceland or Africa a cheery greeting from a favorite comedian, a song hit direct from Broadway, or the beating rhythm of a hot band, mean a tie with the home to which he hopes soon to return Listen to our radio station Old Time Radio https://link.radioking.com/otradio Listen to other Shows at My Classic Radio https://www.myclassicradio.net/ Remember that times have changed, and some shows might not reflect the standards of today's politically correct society. The shows do not necessarily reflect the views, standards, or beliefs of Entertainment Radio

Bring out your cudgels, the midwestern barbarians are afoot! This week we delve into the massively underrated 1942 Christmas film The Man Who Came to Dinner starring Bette Davis and Monty Woolley, the story of the cranky proto-podcaster Sheridan Whiteside who seemingly breaks his hip on a speaking tour and is forced to recuperate in a podunk Ohio town. To contemporaries, Whiteside was obviously based on prolific critic and radio personality Alexander Woollcott, whose appraisal could make or break careers at the drop of a hat, even though his heft has largely been forgotten. In this episode we explore the life of Woollcott as well as the famous social circle that surrounded him: the Algonquin Round Table, a collection of particularly gifted, galling, and gay young writers and comedians who met for lunch every day across the 20s and 30s. Members included Harpo Marx, Dorothy Parker, even Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz. This extended circle of friends dominated the American culture industry in Hollywood's early days, and this movie is an amazing window into this period, filled with nods to many different members of Manhattan's "Algonquin Round Table", alternatively known as the "Vicious Circle." By the end of this episode, you'll see why The Man Who Came to Dinner deserves the highest seat in the holiday movie pantheon. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gladiofreeeurope/support

Welcome to Heilman & Haver - Episode 70.  We hope you enjoy the show! Please join the conversation - email us with thoughts and ideas and connect with the show on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and at heilmanandhaver.com!   IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Robert Bader Robert Bader is an author, archive curator, and the writer, director, and producer of many things, including PBS's upcoming episode of American Masters: Groucho & Cavett, debuting for all you Seattle folks at 8pm, Tuesday, December 27th, on KCTS9.  Tune in and discover the enduring friendship between television personality Dick Cavett and his mentor, iconic comedian Groucho Marx. Their relationship is chronicled through interviews with Cavett, archival footage, and interviews with contemporaries like George Burns, Jack Paar and Woody Allen. In 2018, Robert produced and directed another story of friendship, Ali & Cavett: The Tale of the Tapes which won the Critics Choice Award in 2020, the same year it debuted on HBO.  Robert co-wrote the film with Cavett, chronicling Muhammad Ali's life and career through the lens of his many interviews with Cavett and the documentary is available to stream on HBO Max and on DVD. He has also produced critically acclaimed television documentaries Dick Cavett's Watergate and Dick Cavett's Vietnam for PBS, produced numerous archival DVD and CD releases, including five acclaimed DVD sets of The Dick Cavett Show, two of You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx and two of Bing Crosby: The Television Specials.    Robert manages the archive of The Dick Cavett Show and is the curator of several important entertainment archives, including those of the estates of Bing Crosby, the Marx Brothers, and Danny Kaye. He also serves on the Board of Directors for The Al Hirschfeld Foundation and Marx Brothers Incorporated, and has helmed countless projects, shows, films, radio and CD releases, including the launch of the Film Preservation Society's silent film restoration series on Blu-ray with the 1925 film Too Many Kisses, which features Harpo Marx.  Robert is also the author of Four of the Three Musketeers: The Marx Brothers on Stage now available in paperback, and the editor of Groucho Marx and Other Short Stories and Tall Tales, an anthology of the comedian's lost writings. Robert's most recent book is entitled Speaking of Harpo, co-authored with the late Susan Fleming Marx, Harpo's widow.  Susan appeared in three Broadway shows and twenty-eight films before she turned her back on a show business career she never really enjoyed or wanted. The role of her lifetime came when she married Harpo Marx in 1936. Together, they raised four adopted children and enjoyed one of Hollywood's happiest and most successful unions. But their twenty-year age difference made Susan a young widow in 1964.   Speaking of Harpo is Susan's account of her more than thirty-year adventure with Harpo including encounters with people like Charlie Chaplin, William Randolph Hearst, Salvador Dalí, Joan Crawford, Howard Hughes, Helen Keller, Bugsy Siegel, Sam Goldwyn, Ginger Rogers, and of course, the Marx Brothers. The book provides an inside look at the family and pulls no punches when discussing her brothers-in-law, who weren't always her favorite comedians.   The book was released in July 2022 and would make an excellent gift for that Marx Brother's fan or golden age film buff on your list. You can pick up a copy at www.speakingofharpo.com and we hope you enjoy the second half of our interview with Robert Bader.

Welcome to Heilman & Haver - Episode 69.  We hope you enjoy the show! Please join the conversation - email us with thoughts and ideas and connect with the show on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and at heilmanandhaver.com!   IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Robert Bader Robert Bader is an author, archive curator, and the writer, director, and producer of many things, including PBS's upcoming episode of American Masters: Groucho & Cavett, debuting for all you Seattle folks at 8pm, Tuesday, December 27th, on KCTS9.  Tune in and discover the enduring friendship between television personality Dick Cavett and his mentor, iconic comedian Groucho Marx. Their relationship is chronicled through interviews with Cavett, archival footage, and interviews with contemporaries like George Burns, Jack Paar and Woody Allen. In 2018, Robert produced and directed another story of friendship, Ali & Cavett: The Tale of the Tapes which won the Critics Choice Award in 2020, the same year it debuted on HBO.  Robert co-wrote the film with Cavett, chronicling Muhammad Ali's life and career through the lens of his many interviews with Cavett and the documentary is available to stream on HBO Max and on DVD. He has also produced critically acclaimed television documentaries Dick Cavett's Watergate and Dick Cavett's Vietnam for PBS, produced numerous archival DVD and CD releases, including five acclaimed DVD sets of The Dick Cavett Show, two of You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx and two of Bing Crosby: The Television Specials.    Robert manages the archive of The Dick Cavett Show and is the curator of several important entertainment archives, including those of the estates of Bing Crosby, the Marx Brothers, and Danny Kaye. He also serves on the Board of Directors for The Al Hirschfeld Foundation and Marx Brothers Incorporated, and has helmed countless projects, shows, films, radio and CD releases, including the launch of the Film Preservation Society's silent film restoration series on Blu-ray with the 1925 film Too Many Kisses, which features Harpo Marx.  Robert is also the author of Four of the Three Musketeers: The Marx Brothers on Stage now available in paperback, and the editor of Groucho Marx and Other Short Stories and Tall Tales, an anthology of the comedian's lost writings. His new book Speaking of Harpo, co-authored with the late Susan Fleming Marx, Harpo's widow, was released in July and is available now everywhere fine books are sold. He joined us from his home in Los Angeles.   COMING UP NEXT WEEK Friday, December 16th, Rovert will be back to chat about his new book, Speaking of Harpo, co-authored with the late Susan Fleming Marx, Harpo's widow. 

Robert S. Bader discusses his updated biography of The Marx Brothers and his new book Speaking Of Harpo, the memoir of Harpo Marx's widow, Susan Fleming Marx.

This month on Arts in The City….we chat with jazz legend Ron Carter; stop by Chocobar Cortés where the food and art are inspired by chocolate; visit a museum hidden in an elevator shaft; check out an exhibit at Baruch College's Mishkin Gallery that's helping us better understand whales; take a look at the life of Harpo Marx; and decorate with some removable wallpaper.

Mr. Keen Tracer of Lost Persons followed by Burns & Allen

En este especial recordamos a algunos de los grandes cómicos que han llenado de risas la historia del cine, cada uno de ellos con su particular estilo: Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, Harpo Marx, Charles Chaplin, Peter Sellers, Danny Kaye, Alberto Sordi, los Monty Python o Stan Laurel y Oliver Hardy, los inolvidables el Gordo y el Flaco.  

Working together for over 40 years, Burns and Allen was an American comedy duo consisting of George Burns and his wife, Gracie Allen. Burns played the straight man to Allen's sillier role. Their 30-minute radio show debuted in September 1934, moving back and forth between NBC and CBS, until May 1950. GSMC Classics presents some of the greatest classic radio broadcasts, classic novels, dramas, comedies, mysteries, and theatrical presentations from a bygone era. The GSMC Classics collection is the embodiment of the best of the golden age of radio. Let Golden State Media Concepts take you on a ride through the classic age of radio, with this compiled collection of episodes from a wide variety of old programs. ***PLEASE NOTE*** GSMC Podcast Network presents these shows as historical content and have brought them to you unedited. Remember that times have changed and some shows might not reflect the standards of today's politically correct society. The shows do not necessarily reflect the views, standards, or beliefs of Golden State Media Concepts or the GSMC Podcast Network. Our goal is to entertain, educate, and give you a glimpse into the past.

Eine ostfriesische Mutter, der Vater aus dem Elsass nach Amerika eingewandert, wo Groucho Marx mit vier Geschwistern bettelarm aufwuchs: An so einem Start ins Leben geht man zugrunde - oder man wird der größte Komiker seiner Generation. So wie Groucho Marx, der Kopf der legendären "Marx Brothers". Autor: Detlef Wulke Von Detlef Wulke.

Before you say goodnight, Gracie, listen to my decades-old interview straight from the vault with comedy legend George Burns. The conversation was recorded in December of 1985, back when Burns was about to turn 90 and I was a rookie writer with the Canadian edition of TV Guide magazine.The audio was recorded 37 years ago on a Sony cassette tape I've kept among dozens of others dating back to my days at the magazine. I spoke with Burns and his manager, Irving Fein, at the comedians office on a studio lot in Hollywood. We talk about his incredible career spanning vaudeville, radio, television and film, including his nearly 40 year marriage and comedy team partnership with Gracie Allen. He also talks about "these comedy kids today" (Billy Crystal, Bill Cosby, etc) and his Oscar win at 80 for "The Sunshine Boys." He also shares memories of vaudeville pals such as Harpo Marx, hints on diet and exercise (he lived to be 100) and why he only smoked cheap cigars on-stage and off-.Travel back in time and listen to a true Hollywood legend -- as well as George Burns.  Out of the vault now at brioux.tv.

George Burns and Gracie Allen was one of the funniest duos in the history of American comedy. Both came from vaudeville, where they performed from childhood, honing their skills. When they met and decided to work together, they created an act that is unforgettable. While their earlier shows continued their standup vaudeville act, they gradually transformed their format to create one of the earliest situation comedies.

This week on Comes A Time Mike and Oteil sit down with a hippie icon and a legend of the counterculture movement- the one and only Wavy Gravy! You'll hear Wavy tell the guys about his friendship with Bob Dylan when they lived atop the Gaslight Cafe in New York City, opening for John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk, and taking walks with Albert Einstein. The guys also discuss Wavy's Seva Foundation which helps develop self-sustaining programs that preserve and restore sight for the blind, the early days of the Grateful Dead, and Wavy's circus and arts summer camp, Camp Winnarainbow.Wavy Gravy is an American entertainer and peace activist best known for his role at Woodstock, as well as for his contributions to the counterculture movement in the 1960s. But these accolades barely scratch the surface in telling the whole story about the positive impact that he's had on the planet. Along with Jahanara, his wife of over fifty years, Wavy has brought joy and helped to relieve suffering for countless people around the globe, largely through his favorite projects- the Seva Foundation and Camp Winnarainbow. Wavy has been called “clown prince of the counterculture” by Entertainment Weekly, “a saint in a clown suit” by Bob Weir, and “the illegitimate son of Harpo Marx and Mother Teresa” by Paul Krassner. Tune in to hear all about the wondrous life and creative activism of Wavy Gravy!-----------*DISCLAIMER: This podcast does NOT provide medical advice. The information contained in this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. No material in this podcast is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen*-----------This podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please leave us a rating or review on iTunes!Comes A Time is brought to you by Osiris Media. Hosted and Produced by Oteil Burbridge and Mike Finoia. Executive Producers are Christina Collins and RJ Bee. Production, Editing and Mixing by Eric Limarenko and Matt Dwyer. Theme music by Oteil Burbridge. Production assistance by Matt Bavuso. To discover more podcasts that connect you more deeply to the music you love, check out osirispod.com-------Visit SunsetlakeCBD.com and use the promo code TIME for 20% off premium CBD products See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week on Comes A Time Mike and Oteil sit down with a hippie icon and a legend of the counterculture movement- the one and only Wavy Gravy! You'll hear Wavy tell the guys about his friendship with Bob Dylan when they lived atop the Gaslight Cafe in New York City, opening for John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk, and taking walks with Albert Einstein. The guys also discuss Wavy's Seva Foundation which helps develop self-sustaining programs that preserve and restore sight for the blind, the early days of the Grateful Dead, and Wavy's circus and arts summer camp, Camp Winnarainbow. Wavy Gravy is an American entertainer and peace activist best known for his role at Woodstock, as well as for his contributions to the counterculture movement in the 1960s. But these accolades barely scratch the surface in telling the whole story about the positive impact that he's had on the planet. Along with Jahanara, his wife of over fifty years, Wavy has brought joy and helped to relieve suffering for countless people around the globe, largely through his favorite projects- the Seva Foundation and Camp Winnarainbow. Wavy has been called “clown prince of the counterculture” by Entertainment Weekly, “a saint in a clown suit” by Bob Weir, and “the illegitimate son of Harpo Marx and Mother Teresa” by Paul Krassner. Tune in to hear all about the wondrous life and creative activism of Wavy Gravy! ----------- *DISCLAIMER: This podcast does NOT provide medical advice. The information contained in this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. No material in this podcast is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen* ----------- Visit SunsetlakeCBD.com and use the promo code TIME for 20% off premium CBD products Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Look Mr. Jenkins, in the first place we didn't do it.  Second, don't know who he is." Room Service (1938) directed by William A. Seiter and starring Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Lucille Ball, Ann Miller and Frank Albertson. Next Time: Beverly Hills Cop (1984)

Renee Matthews is a beloved Chicago singer and actress. Her long and storied life includes debuting at The Chicago Theatre at the age of 6 and studying voice at the Metropolitan Opera. She played the harp for Harpo Marx (and brother Groucho) at Harpo’s Beverly Hills mansion, and toured the country as a solo vocalist. […]

Special Guest Noah Diamond of the Marx Brothers Society Podcast, joins your hosts Nathan Lutz and Russell Guest for the Retro Movie Roundtable as they revisit Monkey Business (1931) [PG] Genre: Comedy, Classic Film   Starring: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx, Rockliffe Fellowes, Harry Woods, Thelma Todd, Ruth Hall, Tom Kennedy   Director: Norman Z. McLeod Recoded on 2021-02-05

Episode 144 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Last Train to Clarksville" and the beginnings of the career of the Monkees, along with a short primer on the origins of the Vietnam War.  Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a seventeen-minute bonus episode available, on "These Boots Are Made For Walking" by Nancy Sinatra, which I mispronounce at the end of this episode as "These Boots Were Made For Walking", so no need to correct me here. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources As usual, all the songs excerpted in the podcast can be heard in full at Mixcloud. The best versions of the Monkees albums are the triple-CD super-deluxe versions that used to be available from monkees.com , and I've used Andrew Sandoval's liner notes for them extensively in this episode. Sadly, though, the only one of those that is still in print is More of the Monkees. For those just getting into the group, my advice is to start with this five-CD set, which contains their first five albums along with bonus tracks. The single biggest source of information I used in this episode is the first edition of Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees; The Day-By-Day Story. Sadly that is now out of print and goes for hundreds of pounds. Sandoval released a second edition of the book last year, which I was unfortunately unable to obtain, but that too is now out of print. If you can find a copy of either, do get one. Other sources used were Monkee Business by Eric Lefcowitz, and the autobiographies of three of the band members and one of the songwriters -- Infinite Tuesday by Michael Nesmith, They Made a Monkee Out of Me by Davy Jones, I'm a Believer by Micky Dolenz, and Psychedelic Bubble-Gum by Bobby Hart. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript We've obviously talked in this podcast about several of the biggest hits of 1966 already, but we haven't mentioned the biggest hit of the year, one of the strangest records ever to make number one in the US -- "The Ballad of the Green Berets" by Sgt Barry Sadler: [Excerpt: Barry Sadler, "The Ballad of the Green Berets"] Barry Sadler was an altogether odd man, and just as a brief warning his story, which will last a minute or so, involves gun violence. At the time he wrote and recorded that song, he was on active duty in the military -- he was a combat medic who'd been fighting in the Vietnam War when he'd got a wound that had meant he had to be shipped back to the USA, and while at Fort Bragg he decided to write and record a song about his experiences, with the help of Robin Moore, a right-wing author of military books, both fiction and nonfiction, who wrote the books on which the films The Green Berets and The French Connection were based. Sadler's record became one of those massive fluke hits, selling over nine million copies and getting him appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show, but other than one top thirty hit, he never had another hit single. Instead, he tried and failed to have a TV career, then became a writer of pulp fiction himself, writing a series of twenty-one novels about the centurion who thrust his spear into Jesus' side when Jesus was being crucified, and is thus cursed to be a soldier until the second coming. He moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he lived until he shot Lee Emerson, a country songwriter who had written songs for Marty Robbins, in the head, killing him, in an argument over a woman. He was sentenced to thirty days in jail for this misdemeanour, of which he served twenty-eight. Later he moved to Guatemala City, where he was himself shot in the head. The nearest Army base to Nashville, where Sadler lived after his discharge, is Fort Campbell, in Clarksville: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Last Train to Clarksville"] The Vietnam War was a long and complicated war, one which affected nearly everything we're going to see in the next year or so of this podcast, and we're going to talk about it a lot, so it's worth giving a little bit of background here. In doing so, I'm going to use quite a flippant tone, but I want to make it clear that I'm not mocking the very real horrors that people suffered in the wars I'm talking about -- it's just that to sum up multiple decades of unimaginable horrors in a few sentences requires glossing over so much that you have to either laugh or cry. The origin of the Vietnam War, as in so many things in twentieth century history, can be found in European colonialism. France had invaded much of Southeast Asia in the mid-to-late nineteenth century, and created a territory known as French Indo-China, which became part of the French colonial Empire. But in 1940 France was taken over by Germany, and Japan was at war with China. Germany and Japan were allies, and the Japanese were worried that French Indo-China would be used to import fuel and arms to China -- plus, they quite fancied the idea of having a Japanese empire. So Vichy France let Japan take control of French Indo-China. But of course the *reason* that France had been taken over by Germany was that pretty much the whole world was at war in 1940, and obviously the countries that were fighting Germany and Japan -- the bloc led by Britain, soon to be joined by America and Russia -- weren't very keen on the idea of Japan getting more territory. But they were also busy with the whole "fighting a world war" thing, so they did what governments in this situation always do -- they funded local guerilla insurgent fighters on the basis that "my enemy's enemy is my friend", something that has luckily never had any negative consequences whatsoever, except for occasionally. Those local guerilla fighters were an anti-imperialist popular front, the Việt Minh, led by Hồ Chí Minh, a revolutionary Communist. They were dedicated to overthrowing foreign imperialist occupiers and gaining independence for Vietnam, and Hồ Chí Minh further wanted to establish a Soviet-style Communist government in the newly-independent country. The Allies funded the Việt Minh in their fight against the Japanese occupiers until the end of the Second World War, at which point France was liberated from German occupation, Vietnam was liberated from Japanese occupation, and the French basically said "Hooray! We get our Empire back!", to which Hồ Chí Minh's response was, more or less, "what part of anti-imperialist Marxist dedicated to overthrowing foreign occupation of Vietnam did you not understand, exactly?" Obviously, the French weren't best pleased with this, and so began what was the first of a series of wars in the region. The First Indochina War lasted for years and ended in a negotiated peace of a sort. Of course, this led to the favoured tactic of the time, partition -- splitting a formerly-occupied country into two, at an arbitrary dividing line, a tactic which was notably successful in securing peace everywhere it was tried. Apart from Ireland, India, Korea, and a few other places, but surely it wouldn't be a problem in Vietnam, right? North Vietnam was controlled by the Communists, led by Hồ Chí Minh, and recognised by China and the USSR but not by the Western states. South Vietnam was nominally independent but led by the former puppet emperor who owed his position to France, soon replaced by a right-wing dictatorship. And both the right-wing dictatorship and the left-wing dictatorship were soon busily oppressing their own citizens and funding military opposition groups in the other country. This soon escalated into full-blown war, with the North backed by China and Russia and the South backed by America. This was one of a whole series of wars in small countries which were really proxy wars between the two major powers, the USA and the USSR, both of which were vying for control, but which couldn't confront each other directly because either country had enough nuclear weapons to destroy the whole world multiple times over. But the Vietnam War quickly became more than a small proxy war. The US started sending its own troops over, and more and more of them. The US had never ended the draft after World War II, and by the mid sixties significant numbers of young men were being called up and sent over to fight in a war that had by that point lasted a decade (depending on exactly when you count the war as starting from) between two countries they didn't care about, over things few of them understood, and at an exorbitant cost in lives. As you might imagine, this started to become unpopular among those likely to be drafted, and as the people most affected (other, of course, than the Vietnamese people, whose opinions on being bombed and shot at by foreigners supporting one of other of the dictators vying to rule over them nobody else was much interested in) were also of the generation who were the main audience for popular music, slowly this started to seep into the lyrics of songs -- a seepage which had already been prompted by the appearance in the folk and soul worlds of many songs against other horrors, like segregation. This started to hit the pop charts with songs like "The Universal Soldier" by Buffy Saint-Marie, which made the UK top five in a version by Donovan: [Excerpt: Donovan, "The Universal Soldier"] That charted in the lower regions of the US charts, and a cover version by Glen Campbell did slightly better: [Excerpt: Glen Campbell, "The Universal Soldier"] That was even though Campbell himself was a supporter of the war in Vietnam, and rather pro-military. Meanwhile, as we've seen a couple of times, Jan Berry of Jan and Dean recorded a pro-war answer song to that, "The Universal Coward": [Excerpt: Jan Berry, "The Universal Coward"] This, of course, was even though Berry was himself avoiding the draft. And I've not been able to find the credits for that track, but Glen Campbell regularly played guitar on Berry's sessions, so it's entirely possible that he played guitar on that record made by a coward, attacking his own record, which he disagreed with, for its cowardice. This is, of course, what happens when popular culture tries to engage with social and political issues -- pop culture is motivated by money, not ideological consistency, and so if there's money to be made from anti-war songs or from pro-war songs, someone will take that money. And so on October the ninth 1965, Billboard magazine ran a report: "Colpix Enters Protest Field HOLLYWOOD -Colpix has secured its first protest lyric disk, "The Willing Conscript,"as General Manager Bud Katzel initiates relationships with independent producers. The single features Lauren St. Davis. Katzel says the song was written during the Civil War, rewritten during World War I and most recently updated by Bob Krasnow and Sam Ashe. Screen Gems Music, the company's publishing wing, is tracing the song's history, Katzel said. Katzel's second single is "(You Got the Gamma Goochee" by an artist with that unusual stage name. The record is a Screen Gems production and was in the house when Katzel arrived one month ago. The executive said he was expressly looking for material for two contract artists, David Jones and Hoyt Axton. The company is also working on getting Axton a role in a television series, "Camp Runamuck." " To unpack this a little, Colpix was a record label, owned by Columbia Pictures, and we talked about that a little bit in the episode on "The Loco-Motion" -- the film and TV companies were getting into music, and Columbia had recently bought up Don Kirshner's Aldon publishing and Dimension Records as part of their strategy of tying in music with their TV shows. This is a company trying desperately to jump on a bandwagon -- Colpix at this time was not exactly having huge amounts of success with its records. Hoyt Axton, meanwhile, was a successful country singer and songwriter. We met his mother many episodes back -- Mae Axton was the writer of "Heartbreak Hotel". Axton himself is now best known as the dad in the 80s film Gremlins. David Jones will be coming up shortly. Bob Krasnow and Sam Ashe were record executives then at Kama Sutra records, but soon to move on -- we'll be hearing about Krasnow more in future episodes. Neither of them were songwriters, and while I have no real reason to disbelieve the claim that "The Willing Conscript" dates back to the Civil War, the earliest version *I* have been able to track down was its publication in issue 28 of Broadside Magazine in June 1963 -- nearly a hundred years after the American Civil War -- with the credit "by Tom Paxton" -- Paxton was a popular singer-songwriter of the time, and it certainly sounds like his writing. The first recording of it I know of was by Pete Seeger: [Excerpt: Pete Seeger, "The Willing Conscript"] But the odd thing is that by the time this was printed, the single had already been released the previous month, and it was not released under the name Lauren St Davis, or under the title "The Willing Conscript" -- there are precisely two differences between the song copyrighted as by Krasnow and Ashe and the one copyrighted two years earlier as by Paxton. One is that verses three and four are swapped round, the other is that it's now titled "The New Recruit". And presumably because they realised that the pseudonym "Lauren St. Davis" was trying just a bit too hard to sound cool and drug culture, they reverted to another stage name the performer had been using, Michael Blessing: [Excerpt: Michael Blessing, "The New Recruit"] Blessing's name was actually Michael Nesmith, and before we go any further, yes his mother, Bette Nesmith Graham, did invent the product that later became marketed in the US as Liquid Paper. At this time, though, that company wasn't anywhere near as successful as it later became, and was still a tiny company. I only mention it to forestall the ten thousand comments and tweets I would otherwise get asking why I didn't mention it. In Nesmith's autobiography, while he talks a lot about his mother, he barely mentions her business and says he was uninterested in it -- he talks far more about the love of art she instilled in him, as well as her interest in the deep questions of philosophy and religion, to which in her case and his they found answers in Christian Science, but both were interested in conversations about ideas, in a way that few other people in Nesmith's early environment were. Nesmith's mother was also responsible for his music career. He had spent two years in the Air Force in his late teens, and the year he got out, his mother and stepfather bought him a guitar for Christmas, after he was inspired by seeing Hoyt Axton performing live and thinking he could do that himself: [Excerpt: Hoyt Axton, "Greenback Dollar"] As he put it in his autobiography, "What did it matter that I couldn't play the guitar, couldn't sing very well, and didn't know any folk songs? I would be going to college and hanging out at the student union with pretty girls and singing folk songs. They would like me. I might even figure out a way to get a cool car." This is, of course, the thought process that pretty much every young man to pick up a guitar goes through, but Nesmith was more dedicated than most. He gave his first performance as a folk singer ten days after he first got a guitar, after practising the few chords in most folk songs for twelve hours a day every day in that time. He soon started performing as a folk singer, performing around Dallas both on his own and with his friend John London, performing the standard folk repertoire of Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly songs, things like "Pick a Bale of Cotton": [Excerpt: Michael Nesmith, "Pick a Bale of Cotton"] He also started writing his own songs, and put out a vanity record of one of them in 1963: [Excerpt: Mike Nesmith, "Wanderin'"] London moved to California, and Nesmith soon followed, with his first wife Phyllis and their son Christian. There Nesmith and London had the good fortune to be neighbours with someone who was a business associate of Frankie Laine, and they were signed to Laine's management company as a folk duo. However, Nesmith's real love was rock and roll, especially the heavier R&B end of the genre -- he was particularly inspired by Bo Diddley, and would always credit seeing Diddley live as a teenager as being his biggest musical influence. Soon Nesmith and London had formed a folk-rock trio with their friend Bill Sleeper. As Mike & John & Bill, they put out a single, "How Can You Kiss Me?", written by Nesmith: [Excerpt: Mike & John & Bill, "How Can You Kiss Me?"] They also recorded more of Nesmith's songs, like "All the King's Horses": [Excerpt: Mike & John & Bill, "All the King's Horses"] But that was left unreleased, as Bill was drafted, and Nesmith and London soon found themselves in The Survivors, one of several big folk groups run by Randy Sparks, the founder of the New Christie Minstrels. Nesmith was also writing songs throughout 1964 and 1965, and a few of those songs would be recorded by other people in 1966, like "Different Drum", which was recorded by the bluegrass band The Greenbriar Boys: [Excerpt: The Greenbriar Boys, "Different Drum"] That would more successfully be recorded by the Stone Poneys later of course. And Nesmith's "Mary Mary" was also picked up by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band: [Excerpt: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, "Mary Mary"] But while Nesmith had written these songs by late 1965, he wasn't able to record them himself. He was signed by Bob Krasnow, who insisted he change his name to Michael Blessing, and recorded two singles for Colpix -- "The New Recruit", which we heard earlier, and a version of Buffy Saint-Marie's "Until It's Time For You To Go", sung in a high tenor range very far from Nesmith's normal singing voice: [Excerpt: Michael Blessing, "Until It's Time For You To Go"] But to my mind by far the best thing Nesmith recorded in this period is the unissued third Michael Blessing single, where Nesmith seems to have been given a chance to make the record he really wanted to make. The B-side, a version of Allen Toussaint's swamp-rocker "Get Out of My Life, Woman", is merely a quite good version of the song, but the A-side, a version of his idol Bo Diddley's classic "Who Do You Love?" is utterly extraordinary, and it's astonishing that it was never released at the time: [Excerpt: Michael Blessing, "Who Do You Love?"] But the Michael Blessing records did no better than anything else Colpix were putting out. Indeed, the only record they got onto the hot one hundred at all in a three and a half year period was a single by one David Jones, which reached the heady heights of number ninety-eight: [Excerpt: David Jones, "What Are We Going to Do?"] Jones had been brought up in extreme poverty in Openshaw in Manchester, but had been encouraged by his mother, who died when he was fourteen, to go into acting. He'd had a few parts on local radio, and had appeared as a child actor on TV shows made in Manchester, like appearing in the long-running soap opera Coronation Street (still on today) as Ena Sharples' grandson Colin: [Excerpt: Coronation St https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FDEvOs1imc , 13:30] He also had small roles in Z-Cars and Bill Naughton's TV play "June Evening", and a larger role in Keith Waterhouse's radio play "There is a Happy Land". But when he left school, he decided he was going to become a jockey rather than an actor -- he was always athletic, he loved horses, and he was short -- I've seen his height variously cited as five foot three and five foot four. But it turned out that the owner of the stables in which he was training had showbusiness connections, and got him the audition that changed his life, for the part of the Artful Dodger in Lionel Bart's West End musical Oliver! We've encountered Lionel Bart before a couple of times, but if you don't remember him, he was the songwriter who co-wrote Tommy Steele's hits, and who wrote "Living Doll" for Cliff Richard. He also discovered both Steele and Marty Wilde, and was one of the major figures in early British rock and roll. But after the Tommy Steele records, he'd turned his attention to stage musicals, writing book, music, and lyrics for a string of hits, and more-or-less singlehandedly inventing the modern British stage musical form -- something Andrew Lloyd Webber, for example, always credits him with. Oliver!, based on Oliver Twist, was his biggest success, and they were looking for a new Artful Dodger. This was *the* best role for a teenage boy in the UK at the time -- later performers to take the role on the London stage include Steve Marriott and Phil Collins, both of whom we'll no doubt encounter in future episodes -- and Jones got the job, although they were a bit worried at first about his Manchester vowels. He assured them though that he could learn to do a Cockney accent, and they took him on. Jones not having a natural Cockney accent ended up doing him the biggest favour of his career. While he could put on a relatively convincing one, he articulated quite carefully because it wasn't his natural accent. And so when the North American version found  in previews that their real Cockney Dodger wasn't being understood perfectly, the fake Cockney Jones was brought over to join the show on Broadway, and was there from opening night on. On February the ninth, 1964, Jones found himself, as part of the Broadway cast of Oliver!, on the Ed Sullivan Show: [Excerpt: Davy Jones and Georgia Brown, "I'd Do Anything"] That same night, there were some other British people, who got a little bit more attention than Jones did: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I Want to Hold Your Hand (live on Ed Sullivan)"] Davy Jones wasn't a particular fan of pop music at that point, but he knew he liked what he saw, and he wanted some of the same reaction. Shortly after this, Jones was picked up for management by Ward Sylvester, of Columbia Pictures, who was going to groom Jones for stardom. Jones continued in Oliver! for a while, and also had a brief run in a touring version of Pickwick, another musical based on a Dickens novel, this time starring Harry Secombe, the British comedian and singer who had made his name with the Goon Show. Jones' first single, "Dream Girl", came out in early 1965: [Excerpt: Davy Jones, "Dream Girl"] It was unsuccessful, as was his one album, David Jones, which seemed to be aiming at the teen idol market, but failing miserably. The second single, "What Are  We Going to Do?" did make the very lowest regions of the Hot One Hundred, but the rest of the album was mostly attempts to sound a bit like Herman's Hermits -- a band whose lead singer, coincidentally, also came from Manchester, had appeared in Coronation Street, and was performing with a fake Cockney accent. Herman's Hermits had had a massive US hit with the old music hall song "I'm Henry VIII I Am": [Excerpt: Herman's Hermits, "I'm Henry VIII I Am"] So of course Davy had his own old music-hall song, "Any Old Iron": [Excerpt: Davy Jones, "Any Old Iron"] Also, the Turtles had recently had a hit with a folk-rock version of Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe", and Davy cut his own version of their arrangement, in the one concession to rock music on the album: [Excerpt: Davy Jones, "It Ain't Me Babe"] The album was, unsurprisingly, completely unsuccessful, but Ward Sylvester was not disheartened. He had the perfect job for a young British teen idol who could sing and act. The Monkees was the brainchild of two young TV producers, Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, who had come up with the idea of doing a TV show very loosely based on the Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night (though Rafelson would later claim that he'd had the idea many years before A Hard Day's Night and was inspired by his youth touring with folk bands -- Schneider always admitted the true inspiration though). This was not a particularly original idea -- there were a whole bunch of people trying to make TV shows based in some way around bands. Jan and Dean were working on a possible TV series, there was talk of a TV series starring The Who, there was a Beatles cartoon series, Hanna-Barbera were working on a cartoon series about a band called The Bats, and there was even another show proposed to Screen Gems, Columbia's TV department, titled Liverpool USA, which was meant to star Davy Jones, another British performer, and two American musicians, and to have songs provided by Don Kirshner's songwriters. That The Monkees, rather than these other series, was the one that made it to the TV (though obviously the Beatles cartoon series did too) is largely because Rafelson and Schneider's independent production company, Raybert, which they had started after leaving Screen Gems, was given two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars to develop the series by their former colleague, Screen Gems' vice president in charge of programme development, the former child star Jackie Cooper. Of course, as well as being their former colleague, Cooper may have had some more incentive to give Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider that money in that the head of Columbia Pictures, and thus Cooper's boss' boss, was one Abe Schneider. The original idea for the show was to use the Lovin' Spoonful, but as we heard last week they weren't too keen, and it was quickly decided instead that the production team would put together a group of performers. Davy Jones was immediately attached to the project, although Rafelson was uncomfortable with Jones, thinking he wasn't as rock and roll as Rafelson was hoping for -- he later conceded, though, that Jones was absolutely right for the group. As for everyone else, to start with Rafelson and Schneider placed an ad in a couple of the trade papers which read "Madness!! Auditions Folk and Roll Musicians-Singers for acting roles in new TV series. Running parts for 4 insane boys ages 17-21. Want spirited Ben Frank's types. Have courage to work. Must come down for interview" There were a couple of dogwhistles in there, to appeal to the hip crowd -- Ben Frank's was a twenty-four-hour restaurant on the Sunset Strip, where people including Frank Zappa and Jim Morrison used to hang out, and which was very much associated with the freak scene we've looked at in episodes on Zappa and the Byrds. Meanwhile "Must come down for interview" was meant to emphasise that you couldn't actually be high when you turned up -- but you were expected to be the kind of person who would at least at some points have been high. A lot of people answered that ad -- including Paul Williams, Harry Nilsson, Van Dyke Parks, and many more we'll be seeing along the way. But oddly, the only person actually signed up for the show because of that ad was Michael Nesmith -- who was already signed to Colpix Records anyway. According to Davy Jones, who was sitting in at the auditions, Schneider and Rafelson were deliberately trying to disorient the auditioners with provocative behaviour like just ignoring them, to see how they'd react. Nesmith was completely unfazed by this, and apparently walked in wearing a  green wool hat and carrying a bag of laundry, saying that he needed to get this over with quickly so he could go and do his washing. John London, who came along to the audition as well, talked later about seeing Nesmith fill in a questionnaire that everyone had to fill in -- in a space asking about previous experience Nesmith just wrote "Life" and drew a big diagonal line across the rest of the page. That attitude certainly comes across in Nesmith's screen test: [Excerpt: Michael Nesmith screen test] Meanwhile, Rafelson and Schneider were also scouring the clubs for performers who might be useful, and put together a shortlist of people including Jerry Yester and Chip Douglas of the Modern Folk Quartet, Bill Chadwick, who was in the Survivors with Nesmith and London, and one Micky Braddock, whose agent they got in touch with and who was soon signed up. Braddock was the stage name of Micky Dolenz, who soon reverted to his birth surname, and it's the name by which he went in his first bout of fame. Dolenz was the son of two moderately successful Hollywood actors, George Dolenz and Janelle Johnson, and their connections had led to Dolenz, as Braddock, getting the lead role in the 1958 TV series Circus Boy, about a child named Corky who works in a circus looking after an elephant after his parents, the Flying Falcons, were killed in a trapeze accident. [Excerpt: Circus Boy, "I can't play a drum"] Oddly, one of the other people who had been considered for that role was Paul Williams, who was also considered for the Monkees but ultimately turned down, and would later write one of the Monkees' last singles. Dolenz had had a few minor TV appearances after that series had ended, including a recurring role on Peyton Place, but he had also started to get interested in music. He'd performed a bit as a folk duo with his sister Coco, and had also been the lead singer of a band called Micky and the One-Nighters, who later changed their name to the Missing Links, who'd played mostly covers of Little Richard and Chuck Berry songs and later British Invasion hits. He'd also recorded two tracks with Wrecking Crew backing, although neither track got released until after his later fame -- "Don't Do It": [Excerpt: Micky Dolenz, "Don't Do It"] and "Huff Puff": [Excerpt: Micky Dolenz, "Huff Puff"] Dolenz had a great singing voice, an irrepressible personality, and plenty of TV experience. He was obviously in. Rafelson and Schneider took quite a while whittling down the shortlist to the final four, and they *were* still considering people who'd applied through the ads. One they actually offered the role to was Stephen Stills, but he decided not to take the role. When he turned the role down, they asked if he knew anyone else who had a similar appearance to him, and as it happened he did. Steve Stills and Peter Tork had known of each other before they actually met on the streets of Greenwich Village -- the way they both told the story, on their first meeting they'd each approached the other and said "You must be the guy everyone says looks like me!" The two had become fast friends, and had played around the Greenwich Village folk scene together for a while, before going their separate ways -- Stills moving to California while Tork joined another of those big folk ensembles of the New Christie Minstrels type, this one called the Phoenix Singers. Tork had later moved to California himself, and reconnected with his old friend, and they had performed together for a while in a trio called the Buffalo Fish, with Tork playing various instruments, singing, and doing comedy bits. Oddly, while Tork was the member of the Monkees with the most experience as a musician, he was the only one who hadn't made a record when the TV show was put together. But he was by far the most skilled instrumentalist of the group -- as distinct from best musician, a distinction Tork was always scrupulous about making -- and could play guitar, bass, and keyboards, all to a high standard -- and I've also seen him in more recent years play French horn live. His great love, though, was the banjo, and you can hear how he must have sounded on the Greenwich Village folk scene in his solo spots on Monkees shows, where he would show off his banjo skills: [Excerpt: Peter Tork, "Cripple Creek"] Tork wouldn't get to use his instrumental skills much at first though, as most of the backing tracks for the group's records were going to be performed by other people. More impressive for the TV series producers was his gift for comedy, especially physical comedy -- having seen Tork perform live a few times, the only comparison I can make to his physical presence is to Harpo Marx, which is about as high a compliment as one can give. Indeed, Micky Dolenz has often pointed out that while there were intentional parallels to the Beatles in the casting of the group, the Marx Brothers are a far better parallel, and it's certainly easy to see Tork as Harpo, Dolenz as Chico, Nesmith as Groucho, and Jones as Zeppo. (This sounds like an insult to Jones, unless you're aware of how much the Marx Brothers films actually depended on Zeppo as the connective tissue between the more outrageous brothers and the more normal environment they were operating in, and how much the later films suffered for the lack of Zeppo). The new cast worked well together, even though there were obvious disagreements between them right from the start. Dolenz, at least at this point, seems to have been the gel that held the four together -- he had the experience of being a child star in common with Jones, he was a habitue of the Sunset Strip clubs where Nesmith and Tork had been hanging out, and he had personality traits in common with all of them. Notably, in later years, Dolenz would do duo tours with each of his three bandmates without the participation of the others. The others, though, didn't get on so well with each other. Jones and Tork seem to have got on OK, but they were very different people -- Jones was a showbiz entertainer, whose primary concern was that none of the other stars of the show be better looking than him, while Tork was later self-diagnosed as neurodivergent, a folkie proto-hippie who wanted to drift from town to town playing his banjo. Tork and Nesmith had similar backgrounds and attitudes in some respects -- and were united in their desire to have more musical input into the show than was originally intended -- but they were such different personalities in every aspect of their lives from their religious views to their politics to their taste in music they came into conflict. Nesmith would later say of Tork "I never liked Peter, he never liked me. So we had an uneasy truce between the two of us. As clear as I could tell, among his peers he was very well liked. But we rarely had a civil word to say to each other". Nesmith also didn't get on well with Jones, both of them seeming to view themselves as the natural leader of the group, with all the clashes that entails. The four Monkees were assigned instruments for their characters based not on instrumental skill, but on what suited their roles better. Jones was the teen idol character, so he was made the maraca-playing frontman who could dance without having to play an instrument, though Dolenz took far more of the lead vocals. Nesmith was made the guitarist, while Tork was put on bass, though Tork was by far the better guitarist of the two. And Dolenz was put on drums, even though he didn't play the drums -- Tork would always say later that if the roles had been allocated by actual playing ability, Jones would have been the drummer. Dolenz did, though, become a good drummer, if a rather idiosyncratic one. Tork would later say "Micky played the drums but Mike kept time, on that one record we all made, Headquarters. Mike was the timekeeper. I don't know that Micky relied on him but Mike had a much stronger sense of time. And Davy too, Davy has a much stronger sense of time. Micky played the drums like they were a musical instrument, as a colour. He played the drum colour.... as a band, there was a drummer and there was a timekeeper and they were different people." But at first, while the group were practising their instruments so they could mime convincingly on the TV and make personal appearances, they didn't need to play on their records. Indeed, on the initial pilot, they didn't even sing -- the recordings had been made before the cast had been finalised: [Excerpt: Boyce & Hart, "Monkees Theme (pilot version)"] The music was instead performed by two songwriters, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, who would become hugely important in the Monkees project. Boyce and Hart were not the first choice for the project. Don Kirshner, the head of Screen Gems Music, had initially suggested Roger Atkins, a Brill Building songwriter working for his company, as the main songwriter for The Monkees. Atkins is best known for writing "It's My Life", a hit for the Animals: [Excerpt: The Animals, "It's My Life"] But Atkins didn't work out, though he would collaborate later on one song with Nesmith, and reading between the lines, it seems that there was some corporate infighting going on, though I've not seen it stated in so many words. There seems to have been a turf war between Don Kirshner, the head of Screen Gems' music publishing, who was based in the Brill Building, and Lester Sill, the West Coast executive we've seen so many times before, the mentor to Leiber and Stoller, Duane Eddy, and Phil Spector, who was now the head of Screen Gems music on the West Coast. It also seems to be the case that none of the top Brill Building songwriters were all that keen on being involved at this point -- writing songs for an unsold TV pilot wasn't exactly a plum gig. Sill ended up working closely with the TV people, and it seems to have been him who put forward Boyce and Hart, a songwriting team he was mentoring. Boyce and Hart had been working in the music industry for years, both together and separately, and had had some success, though they weren't one of the top-tier songwriting teams like Goffin and King. They'd both started as performers -- Boyce's first single, "Betty Jean", had come out in 1958: [Excerpt: Tommy Boyce, "Betty Jean"] And Hart's, "Love Whatcha Doin' to Me", under his birth name Robert Harshman, a year later: [Excerpt: Robert Harshman, "Love Whatcha Doin' to Me"] Boyce had been the first one to have real songwriting success, writing Fats Domino's top ten hit "Be My Guest" in 1959: [Excerpt: Fats Domino, "Be My Guest"] and cowriting two songs with singer Curtis Lee, both of which became singles produced by Phil Spector -- "Under the Moon of Love" and the top ten hit "Pretty Little Angel Eyes": [Excerpt: Curtis Lee, "Pretty Little Angel Eyes"] Boyce and Hart together, along with Wes Farrell, who had co-written "Twist and Shout" with Bert Berns, wrote "Lazy Elsie Molly" for Chubby Checker, and the number three hit "Come a Little Bit Closer" for Jay and the Americans: [Excerpt: Jay and the Americans, "Come a Little Bit Closer"] At this point they were both working in the Brill Building, but then Boyce moved to the West Coast, where he was paired with Steve Venet, the brother of Nik Venet, and they co-wrote and produced "Peaches and Cream" for the Ikettes: [Excerpt: The Ikettes, "Peaches and Cream"] Hart, meanwhile, was playing in the band of Teddy Randazzo, the accordion-playing singer who had appeared in The Girl Can't Help It, and with Randazzo and Bobby Weinstein he wrote "Hurts So Bad", which became a big hit for Little Anthony and the Imperials: [Excerpt: Little Anthony and the Imperials, "Hurts So Bad"] But Hart soon moved over to the West Coast, where he joined his old partner Boyce, who had been busy writing TV themes with Venet for shows like "Where the Action Is". Hart soon replaced Venet in the team, and the two soon wrote what would become undoubtedly their most famous piece of music ever, a theme tune that generations of TV viewers would grow to remember: [Excerpt: "Theme from Days of Our Lives"] Well, what did you *think* I meant? Yes, just as Davy Jones had starred in an early episode of Britain's longest-running soap opera, one that's still running today, so Boyce and Hart wrote the theme music for *America's* longest-running soap opera, which has been running every weekday since 1965, and has so far aired well in excess of fourteen thousand episodes. Meanwhile, Hart had started performing in a band called the Candy Store Prophets, with Larry Taylor  -- who we last saw with the Gamblers, playing on "LSD-25" and "Moon Dawg" -- on bass, Gerry McGee on guitar, and Billy Lewis on drums. It was this band that Boyce and Hart used -- augmented by session guitarists Wayne Erwin and Louie Shelton and Wrecking Crew percussionist Gene Estes on tambourine, plus Boyce and session singer Ron Hicklin on backing vocals, to record first the demos and then the actual tracks that would become the Monkees hits. They had a couple of songs already that would be suitable for the pilot episode, but they needed something that would be usable as a theme song for the TV show. Boyce and Hart's usual working method was to write off another hit -- they'd try to replicate the hook or the feel or the basic sound of something that was already popular. In this case, they took inspiration from the song "Catch Us If You Can", the theme from the film that was the Dave Clark Five's attempt at their own A Hard Day's Night: [Excerpt: The Dave Clark Five, "Catch Us If You Can"] Boyce and Hart turned that idea into what would become the Monkees theme. We heard their performance of it earlier of course, but when the TV show finally came out, it was rerecorded with Dolenz singing: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Monkees Theme"] For a while, Boyce and Hart hoped that they would get to perform all the music for the TV show, and there was even apparently some vague talk of them being cast in it, but it was quickly decided that they would just be songwriters. Originally, the intent was that they wouldn't even produce the records, that instead the production would be done by a name producer. Micky Most, the Animals' producer, was sounded out for the role but wasn't interested. Snuff Garrett was brought in, but quickly discovered he didn't get on with the group at all -- in particular, they were all annoyed at the idea that Davy would be the sole lead vocalist, and the tracks Garrett cut with Davy on lead and the Wrecking Crew backing were scrapped. Instead, it was decided that Boyce and Hart would produce most of the tracks, initially with the help of the more experienced Jack Keller, and that they would only work with one Monkee at a time to minimise disruption -- usually Micky and sometimes Davy. These records would be made the same way as the demos had been, by the same set of musicians, just with one of the Monkees taking the lead. Meanwhile, as Nesmith was seriously interested in writing and production, and Rafelson and Schneider wanted to encourage the cast members, he was also assigned to write and produce songs for the show. Unlike Boyce and Hart, Nesmith wanted to use his bandmates' talents -- partly as a way of winning them over, as it was already becoming clear that the show would involve several competing factions. Nesmith's songs were mostly country-rock tracks that weren't considered suitable as singles, but they would be used on the TV show and as album tracks, and on Nesmith's songs Dolenz and Tork would sing backing vocals, and Tork would join the Wrecking Crew as an extra guitarist -- though he was well aware that his part on records like "Sweet Young Thing" wasn't strictly necessary when Glen Campbell, James Burton, Al Casey and Mike Deasy were also playing guitar: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Sweet Young Thing"] That track was written by Nesmith with Goffin and King, and there seems to have been some effort to pair Nesmith, early on, with more commercial songwriters, though this soon fell by the wayside and Nesmith was allowed to keep making his own idiosyncratic records off to the side while Boyce and Hart got on with making the more commercial records. This was not, incidentally, something that most of the stars of the show objected to or even thought was a problem at the time. Tork was rather upset that he wasn't getting to have much involvement with the direction of the music, as he'd thought he was being employed as a musician, but Dolenz and Jones were actors first and foremost, while Nesmith was happily making his own tracks. They'd all known going in that most of the music for the show would be created by other people -- there were going to be two songs every episode, and there was no way that four people could write and record that much material themselves while also performing in a half-hour comedy show every week. Assuming, of course, that the show even aired. Initial audience response to the pilot was tepid at best, and it looked for a while like the show wasn't going to be green-lit. But Rafelson and Schneider -- and director James Frawley who played a crucial role in developing the show -- recut the pilot, cutting out one character altogether -- a manager who acted as an adult supervisor -- and adding in excerpts of the audition tapes, showing the real characters of some of the actors. As three of the four were playing characters loosely based on themselves -- Peter's "dummy" character wasn't anything like he was in real life, but was like the comedy character he'd developed in his folk-club performances -- this helped draw the audience in. It also, though, contributed to some line-blurring that became a problem. The re-edited pilot was a success, and the series sold. Indeed, the new format for the series was a unique one that had never been done on TV before -- it was a sitcom about four young men living together, without any older adult supervision, getting into improbable adventures, and with one or two semi-improvised "romps", inspired by silent slapstick, over which played original songs. This became strangely influential in British sitcom when the series came out over here  -- two of the most important sitcoms of the next couple of decades, The Goodies and The Young Ones, are very clearly influenced by the Monkees. And before the broadcast of the first episode, they were going to release a single to promote it. The song chosen as the first single was one Boyce and Hart had written, inspired by the Beatles. Specifically inspired by this: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Paperback Writer"] Hart heard that tag on the radio, and thought that the Beatles were singing "take the last train". When he heard the song again the next day and realised that the song had nothing to do with trains, he and Boyce sat down and wrote their own song inspired by his mishearing. "Last Train to Clarksville" is structured very, very, similarly to "Paperback Writer" -- both of them stay on one chord, a G7, for an eight-bar verse before changing to C7 for a chorus line -- the word "writer" for the Beatles, the "no no no" (inspired by the Beatles "yeah yeah yeah") for the Monkees. To show how close the parallels are, I've sped up the vocals from the Beatles track slightly to match the tempo with a karaoke backing track version of "Last Train to Clarksville" I found, and put the two together: [Excerpt: "Paperback Clarksville"] Lyrically, there was one inspiration I will talk about in a minute, but I think I've identified another inspiration that nobody has ever mentioned. The classic country song "Night Train to Memphis", co-written by Owen Bradley, and made famous by Roy Acuff, has some slight melodic similarity to "Last Train to Clarksville", and parallels the lyrics fairly closely -- "take the night train to Memphis" against "take the last train to Clarksville", both towns in Tennessee, and "when you arrive at the station, I'll be right there to meet you I'll be right there to greet you, So don't turn down my invitation" is clearly close to "and I'll meet you at the station, you can be here by 4:30 'cos I've made your reservation": [Excerpt: Roy Acuff, "Night Train to Memphis"] Interestingly, in May 1966, the same month that "Paperback Writer" was released, and so presumably the time that Hart heard the song on the radio for the first time, Rick Nelson, the teen idol formerly known as Ricky Nelson, who had started his own career as a performer in a sitcom, had released an album called Bright Lights and Country Music. He'd had a bit of a career downslump and was changing musical direction, and recording country songs. The last track on that album was a version of "Night Train to Memphis": [Excerpt: Rick Nelson, "Night Train to Memphis"] Now, I've never seen either Boyce or Hart ever mention even hearing that song, it's pure speculation on my part that there's any connection there at all, but I thought the similarity worth mentioning. The idea of the lyric, though, was to make a very mild statement about the Vietnam War. Clarksville was, as mentioned earlier, the site of Fort Campbell, a military training base, and they crafted a story about a young soldier being shipped off to war, calling his girlfriend to come and see him for one last night. This is left more-or-less ambiguous -- this was a song being written for a TV show intended for children, after all -- but it's still very clear on the line "and I don't know if I'm ever coming home". Now, Boyce and Hart were songwriters first and foremost, and as producers they were quite hands-off and would let the musicians shape the arrangements. They knew they wanted a guitar riff in the style of the Beatles' recent singles, and Louie Shelton came up with one based around the G7 chord that forms the basis of the song, starting with an octave leap: Shelton's riff became the hook that drove the record, and engineer Dave Hassinger added the final touch, manually raising the volume on the hi-hat mic for a fraction of a second every bar, creating a drum sound like a hissing steam brake: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Last Train to Clarksville"] Now all that was needed was to get the lead vocals down. But Micky Dolenz was tired, and hungry, and overworked -- both Dolenz and Jones in their separate autobiographies talk about how it was normal for them to only get three hours' sleep a night between working twelve hour days filming the series, three-hour recording sessions, and publicity commitments. He got the verses down fine, but he just couldn't sing the middle eight. Boyce and Hart had written a complicated, multisyllabic, patter bridge, and he just couldn't get his tongue around that many syllables when he was that tired. He eventually asked if he could just sing "do do do" instead of the words, and the producers agreed. Surprisingly, it worked: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Last Train to Clarksville"] "Last Train to Clarksville" was released in advance of the TV series, on a new label, Colgems, set up especially for the Monkees to replace Colpix, with a better distribution deal, and it went to number one. The TV show started out with mediocre ratings, but soon that too became a hit. And so did the first album released from the TV series. And that album was where some of the problems really started. The album itself was fine -- ten tracks produced by Boyce and Hart with the Candy Store Prophets playing and either Micky or Davy singing, mostly songs Boyce and Hart wrote, with a couple of numbers by Goffin and King and other Kirshner staff songwriters, plus two songs produced by Nesmith with the Wrecking Crew, and with token participation from Tork and Dolenz. The problem was the back cover, which gave little potted descriptions of each of them, with their height, eye colour, and so on. And under three of them it said "plays guitar and sings", while under Dolenz it said "plays drums and sings". Now this was technically accurate -- they all did play those instruments. They just didn't play them on the record, which was clearly the impression the cover was intended to give. Nesmith in particular was incandescent. He believed that people watching the TV show understood that the group weren't really performing that music, any more than Adam West was really fighting crime or William Shatner travelling through space. But crediting them on the record was, he felt, crossing a line into something close to con artistry. To make matters worse, success was bringing more people trying to have a say. Where before, the Monkees had been an irrelevance, left to a couple of B-list producer-songwriters on the West Coast, now they were a guaranteed hit factory, and every songwriter working for Kirshner wanted to write and produce for them -- which made sense because of the sheer quantity of material they needed for the TV show, but it made for a bigger, less democratic, organisation -- one in which Kirshner was suddenly in far more control. Suddenly as well as Boyce and Hart with the Candy Store Prophets and Nesmith with the Wrecking Crew, both of whom had been operating without much oversight from Kirshner, there were a bunch of tracks being cut on the East Coast by songwriting and production teams like Goffin and King, and Neil Sedaka and Carole Bayer. On the second Monkees album, released only a few months after the first, there were nine producers credited -- as well as Boyce, Hart, Jack Keller, and Nesmith, there were now also Goffin, King, Sedaka, Bayer, and Jeff Barry, who as well as cutting tracks on the east coast was also flying over to the West Coast, cutting more tracks with the Wrecking Crew, and producing vocal sessions while there. As well as producing songs he'd written himself, Barry was also supervising songs written by other people. One of those was a new songwriter he'd recently discovered and been co-producing for Bang Records, Neil Diamond, who had just had a big hit of his own with "Cherry Cherry": [Excerpt: Neil Diamond, "Cherry Cherry"] Diamond was signed with Screen Gems, and had written a song which Barry thought would be perfect for the Monkees, an uptempo song called "I'm a Believer", which he'd demoed with the regular Bang musicians -- top East Coast session players like Al Gorgoni, the guitarist who'd played on "The Sound of Silence": [Excerpt: Neil Diamond, "I'm a Believer"] Barry had cut a backing track for the Monkees using those same musicians, including Diamond on acoustic guitar, and brought it over to LA. And that track would indirectly lead to the first big crisis for the group. Barry, unlike Boyce and Hart, was interested in working with the whole group, and played all of them the backing track. Nesmith's reaction was a blunt "I'm a producer too, and that ain't no hit". He liked the song -- he wanted to have a go at producing a track on it himself, as it happened -- but he didn't think the backing track worked. Barry, trying to lighten the mood, joked that it wasn't finished and you needed to imagine it with strings and horns. Unfortunately, Nesmith didn't get that he was joking, and started talking about how that might indeed make a difference -- at which point everyone laughed and Nesmith took it badly -- his relationship with Barry quickly soured. Nesmith was getting increasingly dissatisfied with the way his songs and his productions were being sidelined, and was generally getting unhappy, and Tork was wanting more musical input too. They'd been talking with Rafelson and Schneider, who'd agreed that the group were now good enough on their instruments that they could start recording some tracks by themselves, an idea which Kirshner loathed. But for now they were recording Neil Diamond's song to Jeff Barry's backing track. Given that Nesmith liked the song, and given that he had some slight vocal resemblance to Diamond, the group suggested that Nesmith be given the lead vocal, and Kirshner and Barry agreed, although Kirshner at least apparently always intended for Dolenz to sing lead, and was just trying to pacify Nesmith. In the studio, Kirshner kept criticising Nesmith's vocal, and telling him he was doing it wrong, until eventually he stormed out, and Kirshner got what he wanted -- another Monkees hit with Micky Dolenz on lead, though this time it did at least have Jones and Tork on backing vocals: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "I'm a Believer"] That was released on November 23rd, 1966, as their second single, and became their second number one. And in January 1967, the group's second album, More of the Monkees, was released. That too went to number one. There was only one problem. The group weren't even told about the album coming out beforehand -- they had to buy their own copies from a record shop to even see what tracks were on it. Nesmith had his two tracks, but even Boyce and Hart were only given two, with the rest of the album being made up of tracks from the Brill Building songwriters Kirshner preferred. Lots of great Nesmith and Boyce and Hart tracks were left off the album in favour of some astonishingly weak material, including the two worst tracks the group ever recorded, "The Day We Fall in Love" and "Laugh", and a novelty song they found embarrassing, "Your Auntie Grizelda", included to give Tork a vocal spot. Nesmith called it "probably the worst album in the history of the world", though in truth seven of the twelve tracks are really very strong, though some of the other material is pretty poor. The group were also annoyed by the packaging. The liner notes were by Don Kirshner, and read to the group at least like a celebration of Kirshner himself as the one person responsible for everything on the record. Even the photo was an embarrassment -- the group had taken a series of photos in clothes from the department store J. C. Penney as part of an advertising campaign, and the group thought the clothes were ridiculous, but one of those photos was the one chosen for the cover. Nesmith and Tork made a decision, which the other two agreed to with varying degrees of willingness. They'd been fine miming to other people's records when it was clearly just for a TV show. But if they were being promoted as a real band, and having to go on tour promoting albums credited to them, they were going to *be* a real band, and take some responsibility for the music that was being put out in their name.  With the support of Rafelson and Schneider, they started making preparations to do just that. But Don Kirshner had other ideas, and told them so in no uncertain terms. As far as he was concerned, they were a bunch of ungrateful, spoiled, kids who were very happy cashing the ridiculously large cheques they were getting, but now wanted to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. They were going to keep doing what they were told. Things came to a head in a business meeting in January 1967, when Nesmith gave an ultimatum. Either the group got to start playing on their own records, or he was quitting. Herb Moelis, Kirshner's lawyer, told Nesmith that he should read his contract more carefully, at which point Nesmith got up, punched a hole in the wall of the hotel suite they were in, and told Moelis "That could have been your face". So as 1967 began, the group were at a turning point. Would they be able to cut the puppet strings, or would they have to keep living a lie? We'll find out in a few weeks' time...

For this week's episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with clown and puppeteer, Marian Gonzalez. We discuss learning from the Muppets, clowning on a public bus, are shared love of Harpo Marx and the fine line between audiences loving you and hating you. Got an embarrassing story to share that inspires your silliness? Email us any time at letsgetsillypodcast@gmail.com. Produced by Cj Merriman. Audio Engineered by Pam Cameron. Music by T.S. Grooves. More About Marian: Marian is a theater artist and puppeteer born and raised in Los Angeles. You probably saw her doing something in late-night live theater, Sacred Fools, or at the Hollywood Fringe and have a crush on her now. Twitter: @TheGonzalez Insta: Missussmartian --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/letsgetsilly/support

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our tenth episode, we talk rodents, list big American breakfasts, and do a lot of Harpo Marx impressions.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode theme: Ma Rainey, 'Slave to the Blues'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.