Podcasts about hollywood palace

If we were playing television trivia and said "Sally Rogers" you would say "Rose Marie" -- this week's legend. But there was a whole lot more to Rose Marie than her role as a comedy writer on The Dick Van Dyke show. A child singing sensation, Rose Marie spent time on the vaudeville circuit, eventually making it to Broadway with a featured role in South Pacific. She frequently guested on early tv sitcoms before she landed the role of a lifetime and became part of television history along with Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Morey Amsterdam, Carl Reiner, and Richard Deacon. In particular, Rose Marie's Sally Rogers and Morey Amsterdam's Buddy Sorrell were fan favorites and appeared from time to time as a duo act. When Rose Marie died, Nell Scovell, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, said that Rose Marie's Sally Rogers was the "patron saint of female comedy writers." Not a bad way to be remembered! As always find extra clips below and thanks for sharing our shows! Want more Rose Marie? Rose Marie got her start as a child singing sensation (known as Baby Rose Marie) -- and here is one of her hits. https://youtu.be/XGBqxkqAvMk?si=4yB0AhtS2YppRZfW Rose Marie landed a prime role in the Broadway production of Top Banana back in 1951 as well as the 1954 movie version. Here she is at a 1978 Johnny Mercer retrospective, singing her spotlight song from that show.https://youtu.be/NYWcwPMArXg?si=QyT0ebw4dZL_CC-2 Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam sometime reprised their Sally and Buddy act for live audiences including this fun spot on the Hollywood Palace. You even get Groucho Marx as the host. https://youtu.be/cQik0KEpgZY?si=Qn_SQ8hT2WHEZYIP Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam appeared together in a sweet episode of Caroline in the City in 1996. (It also turned out to be one of Morey's final appearances).https://youtu.be/zMNHiXrGqDk?si=7VO-SABFUGUTK2An

Today on an encore edition of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to siblings Deb Scott Studebaker & Stan Warnow about their musician/inventor Raymond Scott. Like our good friend Ernie Kovacs, some of you might have heard the name Raymond Scott but don't really know who he was or what he did. Others however, might be salivating knowing that one of the 20thCenturies musical geniuses is the subject of this episode. Either way, both Deb and Stan graciously sat down together to do this interview & wowed us with tales of their complex genius dad. Vintage cartoon fans might know Scott from his songs “Powerhouse” and “Toy Trumpet,” classic television and radio fans may know him and his orchestra from the show “Your Hit Parade” and others may know him as the Godfather of the modern synthesizer & inventor of the Clavinex & Electronium. A performer, a demanding band leader, a composer and the Director of Motown's electronic and research department, Raymond Scott was nothing if not prolific. In addition, we discuss Deb's mother, entertainer Dorothy Collins who was a Broadway star, a nightclub performer and a television star on shows like The Hollywood Palace. We get the lowdown on a father so driven by his creations he gave up performing for tinkering in his office and being one of the founders of electronic music as well as fax machine – decades before it became a reality. It's positively Looney Tunes on this episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast. Everyone has a story.

This week, we talk to director, comedian, visual artist, writer, and conjurer of groovy worlds, RACHEL LICHTMAN (Programme 4, Easy AM 66), about one of the most surreal episodes of the fabulous variety series The Hollywood Palace!  Our deep dive leads us into one of the strangest and funniest episodes ever of Revolutions Per Movie, where we take apart (and at times destroy ‘with love') the show—complete with the mind-twisting commercials of the day. We discuss how the host, quadruple artistic threat Sammy Davis Jr., is likely the greatest TV host of all time, Rachel's deep knowledge of 60's and 70's pop culture and how she channels it seamlessly into her own art, the sadness of going to fancy restaurant as a kid with your parents, what a bummer Peter Lawford is in this episode and his vomit inducing version of Aquarius, Sammy Davis Jr. and Mama Cass Elliott killing it while performing together, the various 'mouthwash for lovers' that were being sold at the time of this episode, The Groove Tube, family bands, The 5th Dimension cop show that Rachel dreamed up, The Rolling Stones' first U.S. TV appearance on The Hollywood Palace where they got roasted by host Dean Martin, The Lawrence Welk Show, the incredible Emmy-winning production design of the show and how they were originally going to put a swimming pool floor into the theater, a very influential jazz musician-themed Kool cigarette commerical, getting a cigar sent to you in the mail, dicking around and the smells of old recording studios, working with Ted Leo & Juliana Hatfield, the Free Love movement, Redd Kross, soul legends The Dells, the Alka Seltzer politcal ad, Mad Men, the end of the variety show era, what the fuck is GrapeBerry Juice, Rosey Greer and his soul song, The John Cassevettes' styled commercial for Tylenol PM, The Electric Company & Rhoda, & the electrifying conclusion to this whirlwind show full of jaw-dropping strangeness.Be sure to watch the episode along with us in the show notes below so you can also scream in terror at Peter Lawford's counterculture attempt at being The Now Thing!!!RACHEL LICHTMAN:https://www.programme4.tv/WATCH THIS EPISODE OF THE HOLLYWOOD PALACE:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePGjB13X1I0REVOLUTIONS PER MOVIE:Host Chris Slusarenko (Eyelids, Guided By Voices, owner of Clinton Street Video rental store) is joined by actors, musicians, comedians, writers & directors who each week pick out their favorite music documentary, musical, music-themed fiction film or music videos to discuss. Fun, weird, and insightful, Revolutions Per Movie is your deep dive into our life-long obsessions where music and film collide.The show is also a completely independent affair, so the best way to support it is through our Patreon at patreon.com/revolutionspermovie. By joining, you can get weekly bonus episodes, physical goods such as Flexidiscs, and other exclusive goods.Revolutions Per Movies releases new episodes every Thursday on any podcast app, and additional, exclusive bonus episodes every Sunday on our Patreon. If you like the show, please consider subscribing, rating, and reviewing it on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!SOCIALS:@revolutionspermovieX, BlueSky: @revpermovieTHEME by Eyelids 'My Caved In Mind'www.musicofeyelids.bandcamp.comARTWORK by Jeff T. Owenshttps://linktr.ee/mymetalhand Click here to get EXCLUSIVE BONUS WEEKLY Revolutions Per Movie content on our Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Eminem & Obama rally in Detroit, Bronny James makes nepo-baby history, new Van Halen music, RIP Fernando Valenzuela, Nicole Kidman's orgasms, Drew's Hollywood Palace deep dive, and a Bristol Stool Scale lesson. One Direction's Liam Payne's girlfriend Kate Cassidy was being “held hostage” in Argentina. Liam was TOTALLY going to marry her before he passed away. The Menendez Bros will likely be getting out of prison on Friday. Local political ads remain our favorites. Nicole Kidman has had it with all her orgasms at work. Zach Bryan still has to deal with his old fling. Zach only acted this way because his mom died… 8 years ago. Van Halen's “Unfinished” rocks. Graham Nash did an interview with Rolling Stone. This leads to several videos. We fall down a rabbit hole of The Hollywood Palace. Turns out former NFL WR Lance Rentzel is not a good dude, but he was good enough to keep playing in the league. Sponge has a new album of covers out now called 1994. OnlyFans model and former adult film star Sienna Grace bangs famous dudes and dishes. Sophia Rosing is in the Guinness Book of World Records for amount of times using the n-word in one setting and now she's headed to the slammer. Election 2024: Donald Trump is going on Joe Rogan Friday… Kamala Harris will not. Eminem and Barack Obama rallied for Kamala in Detroit. Hallie Jackson's Harris interview was a debacle. A car messed with the wrong motorcade. ICP's Violent J endorses Kamala Harris. Michael Keaton hates Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Stevie Wonder had tech issues last night at Little Caesars Arena. Drew tells the tale of his high school buddy ‘Eggy'. I'll take a Quarter Pounder with E. Coli and cheese, please. Nice job, McDonald's. We educate Trudi on the Bristol Stool Scale. The Abercrombie and Fitch guy was arrested for sex trafficking. CBS reporter Manuel Bojorquez did a good job on the story, but we have questions about Manuel. RIP Fernando Valenzuela. Eight days before his birthday and he'll have to watch his Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series from heaven. LeBron James and his nepo-baby, Bronny, made NBA history last night. Rosie O'Donnell is NOT funny. Here is the proof. Ojani Noa is blaming Diddy for his heartbreak with JLo. Drake is totally banging her now. James Franco has a new much younger girlfriend. Some people are saying he kept it a secret for years. Trudi is watching Dark Matter on Apple TV+. Marc is not impressed. Andrew Tate is a douchebag. Despite high ratings and attendance, the WNBA lost $40M this year. The Unrivaled Basketball League is looking to gain more female basketball participation. Generators are BS. Hey Gwen Stafani… why you look different? Enjoy a special Trump Unity Bridge Bonerline before tomorrow's real Bonerline brought to you by BranDon and the callers of 209-66-Boner. Store 209-662-6637 in your phone, dammit! Check out Field of Greens and use promo code Drew and visit our presenting sponsor Hall Financial – Michigan's highest rated mortgage company. If you'd like to help support the show… consider subscribing to our YouTube Channel, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (The Drew Lane Show, Marc Fellhauer, Trudi Daniels, Jim Bentley and BranDon).

Today's Sponsor: Middle Manager Manifestohttps://www.amazon.com/Middle-Manager-Manifesto-Survive-Thrive/dp/B0D5HMQ7HG/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1K9FRXTMWE08U&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.tuSFsJ4gfKV9w2OH3g6Wc6P-bFF8UKtFfgoKK5-43N_3v0zsZqGJTxJ_AANVdlH-s-jnS2BvdcYKiNj8kAw2vTm9JSfu6l8nX3Ws9itlpXw.Uix4wnkQtJutlccrawOd50xw_r4whuCRwwLsBDFnxuE&dib_tag=se&keywords=middle+manager+manifesto&qid=1717408814&sprefix=middle+manager+manefesto%2Caps%2C224&sr=8-1     Today's Rundown: Mike Tyson's fight with Jake Paul has been postponed after Tyson's health episodehttps://apnews.com/article/mike-tyson-postponed-jake-paul-7383b668be4a94f5e6fe9037a84be87c  WNBA upgrades foul on Caitlin Clark by Chennedy Carter, fines Angel Reese for no postgame interviewhttps://apnews.com/article/caitlin-clark-chennedy-carter-foul-wnba-4e92f8ce52fefe62b1d14a28f36ff1b5   ChatGPT's voice closely resembles Scarlett Johnasson's, says lab analysishttps://www.npr.org/2024/05/31/g-s1-2263/voice-lab-analysis-striking-similarity-scarlett-johansson-chatgpt-sky-openai  Boeing Starliner countdown halts in final minutes; no retry date set yethttps://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/2024/06/01/boeing-starliner-crewed-launch-day-heres-information-on-todays-nasa-launch-from-cape-canaveral/73920918007/  Charlamagne tha God Considers Leaving 'The Breakfast Club' for Different Rolehttps://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00225426.html   Rupert Murdoch marries for fifth time aged 93https://news.sky.com/story/rupert-murdoch-marries-for-fifth-time-aged-93-13146830  Michael Jackson's Family Blocked from Trust Fund Amid IRS Disputehttps://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/michael-jacksons-family-blocked-from-trust-fund-amid-irs-dispute/  Daughter of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt files court petition to remove father's last namehttps://apnews.com/article/shiloh-jolie-pitt-name-change-1b5d33055093fee0ff18ec2b401799cf    Lily Tomlin Wonders How Jennifer Aniston Can Reboot ‘9 to 5' When Everyone Works From Homehttps://www.cracked.com/article_42375_lily-tomlin-wonders-how-jennifer-aniston-can-reboot-9-to-5-when-everyone-works-from-home.html   Drag queen story time in Philadelphia sets Guinness World Record to kick off Pride Monthhttps://www.kplctv.com/2024/06/02/drag-queen-story-time-sets-guinness-world-record-kick-off-pride-month-organizers-say/      Website: http://thisistheconversationproject.com  Facebook: http://facebook.com/thisistheconversationproject  Twitter: http://twitter.com/th_conversation  TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@theconversationproject  YouTube: http://thisistheconversationproject.com/youtube  Podcast: http://thisistheconversationproject.com/podcasts        ONE DAY OLDER ON JUNE 3:Jill Biden (73)Anderson Cooper (57)Rafael Nadal (38)   WHAT HAPPENED TODAY:1964: The Rolling Stones debuted on U.S. television on Hollywood Palace. Dean Martin hosted the show.1980: The NBA Board of Governors voted to make the 3-point goal a permanent part of pro basketball.2019: Jay-Z was named the world's first billionaire rapper by Forbes magazine.   WORD OF THE DAY: thew [ thyoo ]https://www.dictionary.com/browse/thewphysical strengthThe old blacksmith, despite his age, surprised everyone with his thew as he swung the heavy hammer with ease.     DAILY AFFIRMATION: My Mind Is Full Of Brilliant Ideas.Boosts Self-Confidence: Regularly reminding yourself of your intellectual capabilities can significantly boost your self-confidence. It reinforces the belief in your own abilities and potential, making you more likely to take on new challenges with confidence.https://www.amazon.com/100-Daily-Affirmations-Positivity-Confidence/dp/B0D2D6SS2D/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3IFJQT937CKKN&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.GfRO6urYEuEwqsTvS7BKS-pq7BPDUsE962mzC8Tvne8._x0WlWanM5yNPS9_hkHrvqTHzZakFxXZCtS-rEJ9RHQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=100+affirmations+payne&qid=1717404771&sprefix=100+affi%2Caps%2C200&sr=8-1  PLUS, TODAY WE CELEBRATE: Egg Dayhttps://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/national-egg-day-june-3Eggs are a nutrient-rich food that has gone back and forth with science and nutritionists over the decades with people asking how many eggs are too many for a healthy diet. Whatever the decision is this year, we know one egg provides an excellent source of protein and vitamin D. At 75 calories and 5 grams of fat, it's an easy choice to satisfy hunger, too.      

One of America's most beloved entertainers, Jimmy Durante specialized in gentle, often self-deprecating humor delivered with and unmistakable voice (and nose). From humble starts playing ragtime piano in a family musical act, to major success in films and on the radio with the novelty tune 'Inka-Dinka-Doo", to a long run as a favored guest on television variety and talk shows. By the time he died in 1980, Jimmy's career was well over 70 years long. And, of course, he is destined to live forever as the voice of the singing narrator in the animated classic "Frosty the Snowman." As always find extra clips below and thanks for sharing our shows! Want more "Schnozzola"? Jimmy was a sweet man, and he closed every show saying goodbye to "Mrs. Calabash, where ever you are". Mrs. Calabash was code for his first wife and the name came from a seaside diner they favored. Truly romantic stuff indeed! https://youtu.be/yp7r0j4XrO8?si=gFo5Ln2Ww52FFGAZ Jimmy's first big hit was a novelty song, "Inka-Dinka-Doo" which soon became his signature song. Here's a movie version with Jimmy selling it with all he's got! https://youtu.be/oV7XIw-eNUg?si=P8b0_2Q3cuW_bBAv Jimmy's high energy style and ability to adlib made him a perfect host for tv variety shows, such as the Hollywood Palace which he hosted 14 times. Here's a representative episode featuring The Turtles -- as Jimmy says, a bunch of "rocka-rocka's" Bonus! This show also features an early appearance by a clean-cut George Carlin! https://youtu.be/vddmf2tMNSg?si=mQMimb6B-4lZcDy6 Jimmy was over 50 years into his career when he took a role that defined him for a new generation -- that of the singing narrator in the animated classic "Frosty the Snowman". Come on, you know the words -- sing along!https://youtu.be/SDNcJL90Y9A?si=fNnKFKZ6UlmiYlZ2  

TVC 635.2: From January 2014: Tony and Donna join Ed for a fond remembrance of actor Dave Madden (Reuben Kinkaid on The Partridge Family), including a look at his voiceover career and his other contributions to television, such as his appearances on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In and The Hollywood Palace. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 168 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “I Say a Little Prayer”, and the interaction of the sacred, political, and secular in Aretha Franklin's life and work. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a forty-five-minute bonus episode available, on "Abraham, Martin, and John" by Dion. 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 No Mixcloud this week, as there are too many songs by Aretha Franklin. Even splitting it into multiple parts would have required six or seven mixes. My main biographical source for Aretha Franklin is Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin by David Ritz, and this is where most of the quotes from musicians come from. Information on C.L. Franklin came from Singing in a Strange Land: C. L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America by Nick Salvatore. Country Soul by Charles L Hughes is a great overview of the soul music made in Muscle Shoals, Memphis, and Nashville in the sixties. Peter Guralnick's Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm And Blues And The Southern Dream Of Freedom is possibly less essential, but still definitely worth reading. Information about Martin Luther King came from Martin Luther King: A Religious Life by Paul Harvey. I also referred to Burt Bacharach's autobiography Anyone Who Had a Heart, Carole King's autobiography A Natural Woman, and Soul Serenade: King Curtis and his Immortal Saxophone by Timothy R. Hoover. For information about Amazing Grace I also used Aaron Cohen's 33 1/3 book on the album. The film of the concerts is also definitely worth watching. And the Aretha Now album is available in this five-album box set for a ludicrously cheap price. But it's actually worth getting this nineteen-CD set with her first sixteen Atlantic albums and a couple of bonus discs of demos and outtakes. There's barely a duff track in the whole nineteen discs. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript A quick warning before I begin. This episode contains some moderate references to domestic abuse, death by cancer, racial violence, police violence, and political assassination. Anyone who might be upset by those subjects might want to check the transcript rather than listening to the episode. Also, as with the previous episode on Aretha Franklin, this episode presents something of a problem. Like many people in this narrative, Franklin's career was affected by personal troubles, which shaped many of her decisions. But where most of the subjects of the podcast have chosen to live their lives in public and share intimate details of every aspect of their personal lives, Franklin was an extremely private person, who chose to share only carefully sanitised versions of her life, and tried as far as possible to keep things to herself. This of course presents a dilemma for anyone who wants to tell her story -- because even though the information is out there in biographies, and even though she's dead, it's not right to disrespect someone's wish for a private life. I have therefore tried, wherever possible, to stay away from talk of her personal life except where it *absolutely* affects the work, or where other people involved have publicly shared their own stories, and even there I've tried to keep it to a minimum. This will occasionally lead to me saying less about some topics than other people might, even though the information is easily findable, because I don't think we have an absolute right to invade someone else's privacy for entertainment. When we left Aretha Franklin, she had just finally broken through into the mainstream after a decade of performing, with a version of Otis Redding's song "Respect" on which she had been backed by her sisters, Erma and Carolyn. "Respect", in Franklin's interpretation, had been turned from a rather chauvinist song about a man demanding respect from his woman into an anthem of feminism, of Black power, and of a new political awakening. For white people of a certain generation, the summer of 1967 was "the summer of love". For many Black people, it was rather different. There's a quote that goes around (I've seen it credited in reliable sources to both Ebony and Jet magazine, but not ever seen an issue cited, so I can't say for sure where it came from) saying that the summer of 67 was the summer of "'retha, Rap, and revolt", referring to the trifecta of Aretha Franklin, the Black power leader Jamil Abdullah al-Amin (who was at the time known as H. Rap Brown, a name he later disclaimed) and the rioting that broke out in several major cities, particularly in Detroit: [Excerpt: John Lee Hooker, "The Motor City is Burning"] The mid sixties were, in many ways, the high point not of Black rights in the US -- for the most part there has been a lot of progress in civil rights in the intervening decades, though not without inevitable setbacks and attacks from the far right, and as movements like the Black Lives Matter movement have shown there is still a long way to go -- but of *hope* for Black rights. The moral force of the arguments made by the civil rights movement were starting to cause real change to happen for Black people in the US for the first time since the Reconstruction nearly a century before. But those changes weren't happening fast enough, and as we heard in the episode on "I Was Made to Love Her", there was not only a growing unrest among Black people, but a recognition that it was actually possible for things to change. A combination of hope and frustration can be a powerful catalyst, and whether Franklin wanted it or not, she was at the centre of things, both because of her newfound prominence as a star with a hit single that couldn't be interpreted as anything other than a political statement and because of her intimate family connections to the struggle. Even the most racist of white people these days pays lip service to the memory of Dr Martin Luther King, and when they do they quote just a handful of sentences from one speech King made in 1963, as if that sums up the full theological and political philosophy of that most complex of men. And as we discussed the last time we looked at Aretha Franklin, King gave versions of that speech, the "I Have a Dream" speech, twice. The most famous version was at the March on Washington, but the first time was a few weeks earlier, at what was at the time the largest civil rights demonstration in American history, in Detroit. Aretha's family connection to that event is made clear by the very opening of King's speech: [Excerpt: Martin Luther King, "Original 'I Have a Dream' Speech"] So as summer 1967 got into swing, and white rock music was going to San Francisco to wear flowers in its hair, Aretha Franklin was at the centre of a very different kind of youth revolution. Franklin's second Atlantic album, Aretha Arrives, brought in some new personnel to the team that had recorded Aretha's first album for Atlantic. Along with the core Muscle Shoals players Jimmy Johnson, Spooner Oldham, Tommy Cogbill and Roger Hawkins, and a horn section led by King Curtis, Wexler and Dowd also brought in guitarist Joe South. South was a white session player from Georgia, who had had a few minor hits himself in the fifties -- he'd got his start recording a cover version of "The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor", the Big Bopper's B-side to "Chantilly Lace": [Excerpt: Joe South, "The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor"] He'd also written a few songs that had been recorded by people like Gene Vincent, but he'd mostly become a session player. He'd become a favourite musician of Bob Johnston's, and so he'd played guitar on Simon and Garfunkel's Sounds of Silence and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme albums: [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "I am a Rock"] and bass on Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, with Al Kooper particularly praising his playing on "Visions of Johanna": [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Visions of Johanna"] South would be the principal guitarist on this and Franklin's next album, before his own career took off in 1968 with "Games People Play": [Excerpt: Joe South, "Games People Play"] At this point, he had already written the other song he's best known for, "Hush", which later became a hit for Deep Purple: [Excerpt: Deep Purple, "Hush"] But he wasn't very well known, and was surprised to get the call for the Aretha Franklin session, especially because, as he put it "I was white and I was about to play behind the blackest genius since Ray Charles" But Jerry Wexler had told him that Franklin didn't care about the race of the musicians she played with, and South settled in as soon as Franklin smiled at him when he played a good guitar lick on her version of the blues standard "Going Down Slow": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Going Down Slow"] That was one of the few times Franklin smiled in those sessions though. Becoming an overnight success after years of trying and failing to make a name for herself had been a disorienting experience, and on top of that things weren't going well in her personal life. Her marriage to her manager Ted White was falling apart, and she was performing erratically thanks to the stress. In particular, at a gig in Georgia she had fallen off the stage and broken her arm. She soon returned to performing, but it meant she had problems with her right arm during the recording of the album, and didn't play as much piano as she would have previously -- on some of the faster songs she played only with her left hand. But the recording sessions had to go on, whether or not Aretha was physically capable of playing piano. As we discussed in the episode on Otis Redding, the owners of Atlantic Records were busily negotiating its sale to Warner Brothers in mid-1967. As Wexler said later “Everything in me said, Keep rolling, keep recording, keep the hits coming. She was red hot and I had no reason to believe that the streak wouldn't continue. I knew that it would be foolish—and even irresponsible—not to strike when the iron was hot. I also had personal motivation. A Wall Street financier had agreed to see what we could get for Atlantic Records. While Ahmet and Neshui had not agreed on a selling price, they had gone along with my plan to let the financier test our worth on the open market. I was always eager to pump out hits, but at this moment I was on overdrive. In this instance, I had a good partner in Ted White, who felt the same. He wanted as much product out there as possible." In truth, you can tell from Aretha Arrives that it's a record that was being thought of as "product" rather than one being made out of any kind of artistic impulse. It's a fine album -- in her ten-album run from I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You through Amazing Grace there's not a bad album and barely a bad track -- but there's a lack of focus. There are only two originals on the album, neither of them written by Franklin herself, and the rest is an incoherent set of songs that show the tension between Franklin and her producers at Atlantic. Several songs are the kind of standards that Franklin had recorded for her old label Columbia, things like "You Are My Sunshine", or her version of "That's Life", which had been a hit for Frank Sinatra the previous year: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "That's Life"] But mixed in with that are songs that are clearly the choice of Wexler. As we've discussed previously in episodes on Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett, at this point Atlantic had the idea that it was possible for soul artists to cross over into the white market by doing cover versions of white rock hits -- and indeed they'd had some success with that tactic. So while Franklin was suggesting Sinatra covers, Atlantic's hand is visible in the choices of songs like "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "96 Tears": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "96 Tears'] Of the two originals on the album, one, the hit single "Baby I Love You" was written by Ronnie Shannon, the Detroit songwriter who had previously written "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Baby I Love You"] As with the previous album, and several other songs on this one, that had backing vocals by Aretha's sisters, Erma and Carolyn. But the other original on the album, "Ain't Nobody (Gonna Turn Me Around)", didn't, even though it was written by Carolyn: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Ain't Nobody (Gonna Turn Me Around)"] To explain why, let's take a little detour and look at the co-writer of the song this episode is about, though we're not going to get to that for a little while yet. We've not talked much about Burt Bacharach in this series so far, but he's one of those figures who has come up a few times in the periphery and will come up again, so here is as good a time as any to discuss him, and bring everyone up to speed about his career up to 1967. Bacharach was one of the more privileged figures in the sixties pop music field. His father, Bert Bacharach (pronounced the same as his son, but spelled with an e rather than a u) had been a famous newspaper columnist, and his parents had bought him a Steinway grand piano to practice on -- they pushed him to learn the piano even though as a kid he wasn't interested in finger exercises and Debussy. What he was interested in, though, was jazz, and as a teenager he would often go into Manhattan and use a fake ID to see people like Dizzy Gillespie, who he idolised, and in his autobiography he talks rapturously of seeing Gillespie playing his bent trumpet -- he once saw Gillespie standing on a street corner with a pet monkey on his shoulder, and went home and tried to persuade his parents to buy him a monkey too. In particular, he talks about seeing the Count Basie band with Sonny Payne on drums as a teenager: [Excerpt: Count Basie, "Kid From Red Bank"] He saw them at Birdland, the club owned by Morris Levy where they would regularly play, and said of the performance "they were just so incredibly exciting that all of a sudden, I got into music in a way I never had before. What I heard in those clubs really turned my head around— it was like a big breath of fresh air when somebody throws open a window. That was when I knew for the first time how much I loved music and wanted to be connected to it in some way." Of course, there's a rather major problem with this story, as there is so often with narratives that musicians tell about their early career. In this case, Birdland didn't open until 1949, when Bacharach was twenty-one and stationed in Germany for his military service, while Sonny Payne didn't join Basie's band until 1954, when Bacharach had been a professional musician for many years. Also Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet bell only got bent on January 6, 1953. But presumably while Bacharach was conflating several memories, he did have some experience in some New York jazz club that led him to want to become a musician. Certainly there were enough great jazz musicians playing the clubs in those days. He went to McGill University to study music for two years, then went to study with Darius Milhaud, a hugely respected modernist composer. Milhaud was also one of the most important music teachers of the time -- among others he'd taught Stockhausen and Xenakkis, and would go on to teach Philip Glass and Steve Reich. This suited Bacharach, who by this point was a big fan of Schoenberg and Webern, and was trying to write atonal, difficult music. But Milhaud had also taught Dave Brubeck, and when Bacharach rather shamefacedly presented him with a composition which had an actual tune, he told Bacharach "Never be ashamed of writing a tune you can whistle". He dropped out of university and, like most men of his generation, had to serve in the armed forces. When he got out of the army, he continued his musical studies, still trying to learn to be an avant-garde composer, this time with Bohuslav Martinů and later with Henry Cowell, the experimental composer we've heard about quite a bit in previous episodes: [Excerpt: Henry Cowell, "Aeolian Harp and Sinister Resonance"] He was still listening to a lot of avant garde music, and would continue doing so throughout the fifties, going to see people like John Cage. But he spent much of that time working in music that was very different from the avant-garde. He got a job as the band leader for the crooner Vic Damone: [Excerpt: Vic Damone. "Ebb Tide"] He also played for the vocal group the Ames Brothers. He decided while he was working with the Ames Brothers that he could write better material than they were getting from their publishers, and that it would be better to have a job where he didn't have to travel, so he got himself a job as a staff songwriter in the Brill Building. He wrote a string of flops and nearly hits, starting with "Keep Me In Mind" for Patti Page: [Excerpt: Patti Page, "Keep Me In Mind"] From early in his career he worked with the lyricist Hal David, and the two of them together wrote two big hits, "Magic Moments" for Perry Como: [Excerpt: Perry Como, "Magic Moments"] and "The Story of My Life" for Marty Robbins: [Excerpt: "The Story of My Life"] But at that point Bacharach was still also writing with other writers, notably Hal David's brother Mack, with whom he wrote the theme tune to the film The Blob, as performed by The Five Blobs: [Excerpt: The Five Blobs, "The Blob"] But Bacharach's songwriting career wasn't taking off, and he got himself a job as musical director for Marlene Dietrich -- a job he kept even after it did start to take off.  Part of the problem was that he intuitively wrote music that didn't quite fit into standard structures -- there would be odd bars of unusual time signatures thrown in, unusual harmonies, and structural irregularities -- but then he'd take feedback from publishers and producers who would tell him the song could only be recorded if he straightened it out. He said later "The truth is that I ruined a lot of songs by not believing in myself enough to tell these guys they were wrong." He started writing songs for Scepter Records, usually with Hal David, but also with Bob Hilliard and Mack David, and started having R&B hits. One song he wrote with Mack David, "I'll Cherish You", had the lyrics rewritten by Luther Dixon to make them more harsh-sounding for a Shirelles single -- but the single was otherwise just Bacharach's demo with the vocals replaced, and you can even hear his voice briefly at the beginning: [Excerpt: The Shirelles, "Baby, It's You"] But he'd also started becoming interested in the production side of records more generally. He'd iced that some producers, when recording his songs, would change the sound for the worse -- he thought Gene McDaniels' version of "Tower of Strength", for example, was too fast. But on the other hand, other producers got a better sound than he'd heard in his head. He and Hilliard had written a song called "Please Stay", which they'd given to Leiber and Stoller to record with the Drifters, and he thought that their arrangement of the song was much better than the one he'd originally thought up: [Excerpt: The Drifters, "Please Stay"] He asked Leiber and Stoller if he could attend all their New York sessions and learn about record production from them. He started doing so, and eventually they started asking him to assist them on records. He and Hilliard wrote a song called "Mexican Divorce" for the Drifters, which Leiber and Stoller were going to produce, and as he put it "they were so busy running Redbird Records that they asked me to rehearse the background singers for them in my office." [Excerpt: The Drifters, "Mexican Divorce"] The backing singers who had been brought in to augment the Drifters on that record were a group of vocalists who had started out as members of a gospel group called the Drinkard singers: [Excerpt: The Drinkard Singers, "Singing in My Soul"] The Drinkard Singers had originally been a family group, whose members included Cissy Drinkard, who joined the group aged five (and who on her marriage would become known as Cissy Houston -- her daughter Whitney would later join the family business), her aunt Lee Warrick, and Warrick's adopted daughter Judy Clay. That group were discovered by the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, and spent much of the fifties performing with gospel greats including Jackson herself, Clara Ward, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. But Houston was also the musical director of a group at her church, the Gospelaires, which featured Lee Warrick's two daughters Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick (for those who don't know, the Warwick sisters' birth name was Warrick, spelled with two rs. A printing error led to it being misspelled the same way as the British city on a record label, and from that point on Dionne at least pronounced the w in her misspelled name). And slowly, the Gospelaires rather than the Drinkard Singers became the focus, with a lineup of Houston, the Warwick sisters, the Warwick sisters' cousin Doris Troy, and Clay's sister Sylvia Shemwell. The real change in the group's fortunes came when, as we talked about a while back in the episode on "The Loco-Motion", the original lineup of the Cookies largely stopped working as session singers to become Ray Charles' Raelettes. As we discussed in that episode, a new lineup of Cookies formed in 1961, but it took a while for them to get started, and in the meantime the producers who had been relying on them for backing vocals were looking elsewhere, and they looked to the Gospelaires. "Mexican Divorce" was the first record to feature the group as backing vocalists -- though reports vary as to how many of them are on the record, with some saying it's only Troy and the Warwicks, others saying Houston was there, and yet others saying it was all five of them. Some of these discrepancies were because these singers were so good that many of them left to become solo singers in fairly short order. Troy was the first to do so, with her hit "Just One Look", on which the other Gospelaires sang backing vocals: [Excerpt: Doris Troy, "Just One Look"] But the next one to go solo was Dionne Warwick, and that was because she'd started working with Bacharach and Hal David as their principal demo singer. She started singing lead on their demos, and hoping that she'd get to release them on her own. One early one was "Make it Easy On Yourself", which was recorded by Jerry Butler, formerly of the Impressions. That record was produced by Bacharach, one of the first records he produced without outside supervision: [Excerpt: Jerry Butler, "Make it Easy On Yourself"] Warwick was very jealous that a song she'd sung the demo of had become a massive hit for someone else, and blamed Bacharach and David. The way she tells the story -- Bacharach always claimed this never happened, but as we've already seen he was himself not always the most reliable of narrators of his own life -- she got so angry she complained to them, and said "Don't make me over, man!" And so Bacharach and David wrote her this: [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "Don't Make Me Over"] Incidentally, in the UK, the hit version of that was a cover by the Swinging Blue Jeans: [Excerpt: The Swinging Blue Jeans, "Don't Make Me Over"] who also had a huge hit with "You're No Good": [Excerpt: The Swinging Blue Jeans, "You're No Good"] And *that* was originally recorded by *Dee Dee* Warwick: [Excerpt: Dee Dee Warwick, "You're No Good"] Dee Dee also had a successful solo career, but Dionne's was the real success, making the names of herself, and of Bacharach and David. The team had more than twenty top forty hits together, before Bacharach and David had a falling out in 1971 and stopped working together, and Warwick sued both of them for breach of contract as a result. But prior to that they had hit after hit, with classic records like "Anyone Who Had a Heart": [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "Anyone Who Had a Heart"] And "Walk On By": [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "Walk On By"] With Doris, Dionne, and Dee Dee all going solo, the group's membership was naturally in flux -- though the departed members would occasionally join their former bandmates for sessions, and the remaining members would sing backing vocals on their ex-members' records. By 1965 the group consisted of Cissy Houston, Sylvia Shemwell, the Warwick sisters' cousin Myrna Smith, and Estelle Brown. The group became *the* go-to singers for soul and R&B records made in New York. They were regularly hired by Leiber and Stoller to sing on their records, and they were also the particular favourites of Bert Berns. They sang backing vocals on almost every record he produced. It's them doing the gospel wails on "Cry Baby" by Garnet Mimms: [Excerpt: Garnet Mimms, "Cry Baby"] And they sang backing vocals on both versions of "If You Need Me" -- Wilson Pickett's original and Solomon Burke's more successful cover version, produced by Berns: [Excerpt: Solomon Burke, "If You Need Me"] They're on such Berns records as "Show Me Your Monkey", by Kenny Hamber: [Excerpt: Kenny Hamber, "Show Me Your Monkey"] And it was a Berns production that ended up getting them to be Aretha Franklin's backing group. The group were becoming such an important part of the records that Atlantic and BANG Records, in particular, were putting out, that Jerry Wexler said "it was only a matter of common decency to put them under contract as a featured group". He signed them to Atlantic and renamed them from the Gospelaires to The Sweet Inspirations.  Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham wrote a song for the group which became their only hit under their own name: [Excerpt: The Sweet Inspirations, "Sweet Inspiration"] But to start with, they released a cover of Pops Staples' civil rights song "Why (Am I treated So Bad)": [Excerpt: The Sweet Inspirations, "Why (Am I Treated So Bad?)"] That hadn't charted, and meanwhile, they'd all kept doing session work. Cissy had joined Erma and Carolyn Franklin on the backing vocals for Aretha's "I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You"] Shortly after that, the whole group recorded backing vocals for Erma's single "Piece of My Heart", co-written and produced by Berns: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Piece of My Heart"] That became a top ten record on the R&B charts, but that caused problems. Aretha Franklin had a few character flaws, and one of these was an extreme level of jealousy for any other female singer who had any level of success and came up in the business after her. She could be incredibly graceful towards anyone who had been successful before her -- she once gave one of her Grammies away to Esther Phillips, who had been up for the same award and had lost to her -- but she was terribly insecure, and saw any contemporary as a threat. She'd spent her time at Columbia Records fuming (with some justification) that Barbra Streisand was being given a much bigger marketing budget than her, and she saw Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, and Dionne Warwick as rivals rather than friends. And that went doubly for her sisters, who she was convinced should be supporting her because of family loyalty. She had been infuriated at John Hammond when Columbia had signed Erma, thinking he'd gone behind her back to create competition for her. And now Erma was recording with Bert Berns. Bert Berns who had for years been a colleague of Jerry Wexler and the Ertegun brothers at Atlantic. Aretha was convinced that Wexler had put Berns up to signing Erma as some kind of power play. There was only one problem with this -- it simply wasn't true. As Wexler later explained “Bert and I had suffered a bad falling-out, even though I had enormous respect for him. After all, he was the guy who brought over guitarist Jimmy Page from England to play on our sessions. Bert, Ahmet, Nesuhi, and I had started a label together—Bang!—where Bert produced Van Morrison's first album. But Bert also had a penchant for trouble. He courted the wise guys. He wanted total control over every last aspect of our business dealings. Finally it was too much, and the Erteguns and I let him go. He sued us for breach of contract and suddenly we were enemies. I felt that he signed Erma, an excellent singer, not merely for her talent but as a way to get back at me. If I could make a hit with Aretha, he'd show me up by making an even bigger hit on Erma. Because there was always an undercurrent of rivalry between the sisters, this only added to the tension.” There were two things that resulted from this paranoia on Aretha's part. The first was that she and Wexler, who had been on first-name terms up to that point, temporarily went back to being "Mr. Wexler" and "Miss Franklin" to each other. And the second was that Aretha no longer wanted Carolyn and Erma to be her main backing vocalists, though they would continue to appear on her future records on occasion. From this point on, the Sweet Inspirations would be the main backing vocalists for Aretha in the studio throughout her golden era [xxcut line (and when the Sweet Inspirations themselves weren't on the record, often it would be former members of the group taking their place)]: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Ain't Nobody (Gonna Turn Me Around)"] The last day of sessions for Aretha Arrives was July the twenty-third, 1967. And as we heard in the episode on "I Was Made to Love Her", that was the day that the Detroit riots started. To recap briefly, that was four days of rioting started because of a history of racist policing, made worse by those same racist police overreacting to the initial protests. By the end of those four days, the National Guard, 82nd Airborne Division, and the 101st Airborne from Clarksville were all called in to deal with the violence, which left forty-three dead (of whom thirty-three were Black and only one was a police officer), 1,189 people were injured, and over 7,200 arrested, almost all of them Black. Those days in July would be a turning point for almost every musician based in Detroit. In particular, the police had murdered three members of the soul group the Dramatics, in a massacre of which the author John Hersey, who had been asked by President Johnson to be part of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders but had decided that would compromise his impartiality and did an independent journalistic investigation, said "The episode contained all the mythic themes of racial strife in the United States: the arm of the law taking the law into its own hands; interracial sex; the subtle poison of racist thinking by “decent” men who deny they are racists; the societal limbo into which, ever since slavery, so many young black men have been driven by our country; ambiguous justice in the courts; and the devastation in both black and white human lives that follows in the wake of violence as surely as ruinous and indiscriminate flood after torrents" But these were also the events that radicalised the MC5 -- the group had been playing a gig as Tim Buckley's support act when the rioting started, and guitarist Wayne Kramer decided afterwards to get stoned and watch the fires burning down the city through a telescope -- which police mistook for a rifle, leading to the National Guard knocking down Kramer's door. The MC5 would later cover "The Motor City is Burning", John Lee Hooker's song about the events: [Excerpt: The MC5, "The Motor City is Burning"] It would also be a turning point for Motown, too, in ways we'll talk about in a few future episodes.  And it was a political turning point too -- Michigan Governor George Romney, a liberal Republican (at a time when such people existed) had been the favourite for the Republican Presidential candidacy when he'd entered the race in December 1966, but as racial tensions ramped up in Detroit during the early months of 1967 he'd started trailing Richard Nixon, a man who was consciously stoking racists' fears. President Johnson, the incumbent Democrat, who was at that point still considering standing for re-election, made sure to make it clear to everyone during the riots that the decision to call in the National Guard had been made at the State level, by Romney, rather than at the Federal level.  That wasn't the only thing that removed the possibility of a Romney presidency, but it was a big part of the collapse of his campaign, and the, as it turned out, irrevocable turn towards right-authoritarianism that the party took with Nixon's Southern Strategy. Of course, Aretha Franklin had little way of knowing what was to come and how the riots would change the city and the country over the following decades. What she was primarily concerned about was the safety of her father, and to a lesser extent that of her sister-in-law Earline who was staying with him. Aretha, Carolyn, and Erma all tried to keep in constant touch with their father while they were out of town, and Aretha even talked about hiring private detectives to travel to Detroit, find her father, and get him out of the city to safety. But as her brother Cecil pointed out, he was probably the single most loved man among Black people in Detroit, and was unlikely to be harmed by the rioters, while he was too famous for the police to kill with impunity. Reverend Franklin had been having a stressful time anyway -- he had recently been fined for tax evasion, an action he was convinced the IRS had taken because of his friendship with Dr King and his role in the civil rights movement -- and according to Cecil "Aretha begged Daddy to move out of the city entirely. She wanted him to find another congregation in California, where he was especially popular—or at least move out to the suburbs. But he wouldn't budge. He said that, more than ever, he was needed to point out the root causes of the riots—the economic inequality, the pervasive racism in civic institutions, the woefully inadequate schools in inner-city Detroit, and the wholesale destruction of our neighborhoods by urban renewal. Some ministers fled the city, but not our father. The horror of what happened only recommitted him. He would not abandon his political agenda." To make things worse, Aretha was worried about her father in other ways -- as her marriage to Ted White was starting to disintegrate, she was looking to her father for guidance, and actually wanted him to take over her management. Eventually, Ruth Bowen, her booking agent, persuaded her brother Cecil that this was a job he could do, and that she would teach him everything he needed to know about the music business. She started training him up while Aretha was still married to White, in the expectation that that marriage couldn't last. Jerry Wexler, who only a few months earlier had been seeing Ted White as an ally in getting "product" from Franklin, had now changed his tune -- partly because the sale of Atlantic had gone through in the meantime. He later said “Sometimes she'd call me at night, and, in that barely audible little-girl voice of hers, she'd tell me that she wasn't sure she could go on. She always spoke in generalities. She never mentioned her husband, never gave me specifics of who was doing what to whom. And of course I knew better than to ask. She just said that she was tired of dealing with so much. My heart went out to her. She was a woman who suffered silently. She held so much in. I'd tell her to take as much time off as she needed. We had a lot of songs in the can that we could release without new material. ‘Oh, no, Jerry,' she'd say. ‘I can't stop recording. I've written some new songs, Carolyn's written some new songs. We gotta get in there and cut 'em.' ‘Are you sure?' I'd ask. ‘Positive,' she'd say. I'd set up the dates and typically she wouldn't show up for the first or second sessions. Carolyn or Erma would call me to say, ‘Ree's under the weather.' That was tough because we'd have asked people like Joe South and Bobby Womack to play on the sessions. Then I'd reschedule in the hopes she'd show." That third album she recorded in 1967, Lady Soul, was possibly her greatest achievement. The opening track, and second single, "Chain of Fools", released in November, was written by Don Covay -- or at least it's credited as having been written by Covay. There's a gospel record that came out around the same time on a very small label based in Houston -- "Pains of Life" by Rev. E. Fair And The Sensational Gladys Davis Trio: [Excerpt: Rev. E. Fair And The Sensational Gladys Davis Trio, "Pains of Life"] I've seen various claims online that that record came out shortly *before* "Chain of Fools", but I can't find any definitive evidence one way or the other -- it was on such a small label that release dates aren't available anywhere. Given that the B-side, which I haven't been able to track down online, is called "Wait Until the Midnight Hour", my guess is that rather than this being a case of Don Covay stealing the melody from an obscure gospel record he'd have had little chance to hear, it's the gospel record rewriting a then-current hit to be about religion, but I thought it worth mentioning. The song was actually written by Covay after Jerry Wexler asked him to come up with some songs for Otis Redding, but Wexler, after hearing it, decided it was better suited to Franklin, who gave an astonishing performance: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Chain of Fools"] Arif Mardin, the arranger of the album, said of that track “I was listed as the arranger of ‘Chain of Fools,' but I can't take credit. Aretha walked into the studio with the chart fully formed inside her head. The arrangement is based around the harmony vocals provided by Carolyn and Erma. To add heft, the Sweet Inspirations joined in. The vision of the song is entirely Aretha's.” According to Wexler, that's not *quite* true -- according to him, Joe South came up with the guitar part that makes up the intro, and he also said that when he played what he thought was the finished track to Ellie Greenwich, she came up with another vocal line for the backing vocals, which she overdubbed. But the core of the record's sound is definitely pure Aretha -- and Carolyn Franklin said that there was a reason for that. As she said later “Aretha didn't write ‘Chain,' but she might as well have. It was her story. When we were in the studio putting on the backgrounds with Ree doing lead, I knew she was singing about Ted. Listen to the lyrics talking about how for five long years she thought he was her man. Then she found out she was nothing but a link in the chain. Then she sings that her father told her to come on home. Well, he did. She sings about how her doctor said to take it easy. Well, he did too. She was drinking so much we thought she was on the verge of a breakdown. The line that slew me, though, was the one that said how one of these mornings the chain is gonna break but until then she'll take all she can take. That summed it up. Ree knew damn well that this man had been doggin' her since Jump Street. But somehow she held on and pushed it to the breaking point." [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Chain of Fools"] That made number one on the R&B charts, and number two on the hot one hundred, kept from the top by "Judy In Disguise (With Glasses)" by John Fred and his Playboy Band -- a record that very few people would say has stood the test of time as well. The other most memorable track on the album was the one chosen as the first single, released in September. As Carole King told the story, she and Gerry Goffin were feeling like their career was in a slump. While they had had a huge run of hits in the early sixties through 1965, they had only had two new hits in 1966 -- "Goin' Back" for Dusty Springfield and "Don't Bring Me Down" for the Animals, and neither of those were anything like as massive as their previous hits. And up to that point in 1967, they'd only had one -- "Pleasant Valley Sunday" for the Monkees. They had managed to place several songs on Monkees albums and the TV show as well, so they weren't going to starve, but the rise of self-contained bands that were starting to dominate the charts, and Phil Spector's temporary retirement, meant there simply wasn't the opportunity for them to place material that there had been. They were also getting sick of travelling to the West Coast all the time, because as their children were growing slightly older they didn't want to disrupt their lives in New York, and were thinking of approaching some of the New York based labels and seeing if they needed songs. They were particularly considering Atlantic, because soul was more open to outside songwriters than other genres. As it happened, though, they didn't have to approach Atlantic, because Atlantic approached them. They were walking down Broadway when a limousine pulled up, and Jerry Wexler stuck his head out of the window. He'd come up with a good title that he wanted to use for a song for Aretha, would they be interested in writing a song called "Natural Woman"? They said of course they would, and Wexler drove off. They wrote the song that night, and King recorded a demo the next morning: [Excerpt: Carole King, "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (demo)"] They gave Wexler a co-writing credit because he had suggested the title.  King later wrote in her autobiography "Hearing Aretha's performance of “Natural Woman” for the first time, I experienced a rare speechless moment. To this day I can't convey how I felt in mere words. Anyone who had written a song in 1967 hoping it would be performed by a singer who could take it to the highest level of excellence, emotional connection, and public exposure would surely have wanted that singer to be Aretha Franklin." She went on to say "But a recording that moves people is never just about the artist and the songwriters. It's about people like Jerry and Ahmet, who matched the songwriters with a great title and a gifted artist; Arif Mardin, whose magnificent orchestral arrangement deserves the place it will forever occupy in popular music history; Tom Dowd, whose engineering skills captured the magic of this memorable musical moment for posterity; and the musicians in the rhythm section, the orchestral players, and the vocal contributions of the background singers—among them the unforgettable “Ah-oo!” after the first line of the verse. And the promotion and marketing people helped this song reach more people than it might have without them." And that's correct -- unlike "Chain of Fools", this time Franklin did let Arif Mardin do most of the arrangement work -- though she came up with the piano part that Spooner Oldham plays on the record. Mardin said that because of the song's hymn-like feel they wanted to go for a more traditional written arrangement. He said "She loved the song to the point where she said she wanted to concentrate on the vocal and vocal alone. I had written a string chart and horn chart to augment the chorus and hired Ralph Burns to conduct. After just a couple of takes, we had it. That's when Ralph turned to me with wonder in his eyes. Ralph was one of the most celebrated arrangers of the modern era. He had done ‘Early Autumn' for Woody Herman and Stan Getz, and ‘Georgia on My Mind' for Ray Charles. He'd worked with everyone. ‘This woman comes from another planet' was all Ralph said. ‘She's just here visiting.'” [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman"] By this point there was a well-functioning team making Franklin's records -- while the production credits would vary over the years, they were all essentially co-productions by the team of Franklin, Wexler, Mardin and Dowd, all collaborating and working together with a more-or-less unified purpose, and the backing was always by the same handful of session musicians and some combination of the Sweet Inspirations and Aretha's sisters. That didn't mean that occasional guests couldn't get involved -- as we discussed in the Cream episode, Eric Clapton played guitar on "Good to Me as I am to You": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Good to Me as I am to You"] Though that was one of the rare occasions on one of these records where something was overdubbed. Clapton apparently messed up the guitar part when playing behind Franklin, because he was too intimidated by playing with her, and came back the next day to redo his part without her in the studio. At this point, Aretha was at the height of her fame. Just before the final batch of album sessions began she appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, and she was making regular TV appearances, like one on the Mike Douglas Show where she duetted with Frankie Valli on "That's Life": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin and Frankie Valli, "That's Life"] But also, as Wexler said “Her career was kicking into high gear. Contending and resolving both the professional and personal challenges were too much. She didn't think she could do both, and I didn't blame her. Few people could. So she let the personal slide and concentrated on the professional. " Her concert promoter Ruth Bowen said of this time "Her father and Dr. King were putting pressure on her to sing everywhere, and she felt obligated. The record company was also screaming for more product. And I had a mountain of offers on my desk that kept getting higher with every passing hour. They wanted her in Europe. They wanted her in Latin America. They wanted her in every major venue in the U.S. TV was calling. She was being asked to do guest appearances on every show from Carol Burnett to Andy Williams to the Hollywood Palace. She wanted to do them all and she wanted to do none of them. She wanted to do them all because she's an entertainer who burns with ambition. She wanted to do none of them because she was emotionally drained. She needed to go away and renew her strength. I told her that at least a dozen times. She said she would, but she didn't listen to me." The pressures from her father and Dr King are a recurring motif in interviews with people about this period. Franklin was always a very political person, and would throughout her life volunteer time and money to liberal political causes and to the Democratic Party, but this was the height of her activism -- the Civil Rights movement was trying to capitalise on the gains it had made in the previous couple of years, and celebrity fundraisers and performances at rallies were an important way to do that. And at this point there were few bigger celebrities in America than Aretha Franklin. At a concert in her home town of Detroit on February the sixteenth, 1968, the Mayor declared the day Aretha Franklin Day. At the same show, Billboard, Record World *and* Cash Box magazines all presented her with plaques for being Female Vocalist of the Year. And Dr. King travelled up to be at the show and congratulate her publicly for all her work with his organisation, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Backstage at that show, Dr. King talked to Aretha's father, Reverend Franklin, about what he believed would be the next big battle -- a strike in Memphis: [Excerpt, Martin Luther King, "Mountaintop Speech" -- "And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy—what is the other bread?—Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart's bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven't been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying, they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right."] The strike in question was the Memphis Sanitation Workers' strike which had started a few days before.  The struggle for Black labour rights was an integral part of the civil rights movement, and while it's not told that way in the sanitised version of the story that's made it into popular culture, the movement led by King was as much about economic justice as social justice -- King was a democratic socialist, and believed that economic oppression was both an effect of and cause of other forms of racial oppression, and that the rights of Black workers needed to be fought for. In 1967 he had set up a new organisation, the Poor People's Campaign, which was set to march on Washington to demand a program that included full employment, a guaranteed income -- King was strongly influenced in his later years by the ideas of Henry George, the proponent of a universal basic income based on land value tax -- the annual building of half a million affordable homes, and an end to the war in Vietnam. This was King's main focus in early 1968, and he saw the sanitation workers' strike as a major part of this campaign. Memphis was one of the most oppressive cities in the country, and its largely Black workforce of sanitation workers had been trying for most of the 1960s to unionise, and strike-breakers had been called in to stop them, and many of them had been fired by their white supervisors with no notice. They were working in unsafe conditions, for utterly inadequate wages, and the city government were ardent segregationists. After two workers had died on the first of February from using unsafe equipment, the union demanded changes -- safer working conditions, better wages, and recognition of the union. The city council refused, and almost all the sanitation workers stayed home and stopped work. After a few days, the council relented and agreed to their terms, but the Mayor, Henry Loeb, an ardent white supremacist who had stood on a platform of opposing desegregation, and who had previously been the Public Works Commissioner who had put these unsafe conditions in place, refused to listen. As far as he was concerned, he was the only one who could recognise the union, and he wouldn't. The workers continued their strike, marching holding signs that simply read "I am a Man": [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, "Blowing in the Wind"] The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the NAACP had been involved in organising support for the strikes from an early stage, and King visited Memphis many times. Much of the time he spent visiting there was spent negotiating with a group of more militant activists, who called themselves The Invaders and weren't completely convinced by King's nonviolent approach -- they believed that violence and rioting got more attention than non-violent protests. King explained to them that while he had been persuaded by Gandhi's writings of the moral case for nonviolent protest, he was also persuaded that it was pragmatically necessary -- asking the young men "how many guns do we have and how many guns do they have?", and pointing out as he often did that when it comes to violence a minority can't win against an armed majority. Rev Franklin went down to Memphis on the twenty-eighth of March to speak at a rally Dr. King was holding, but as it turned out the rally was cancelled -- the pre-rally march had got out of hand, with some people smashing windows, and Memphis police had, like the police in Detroit the previous year, violently overreacted, clubbing and gassing protestors and shooting and killing one unarmed teenage boy, Larry Payne. The day after Payne's funeral, Dr King was back in Memphis, though this time Rev Franklin was not with him. On April the third, he gave a speech which became known as the "Mountaintop Speech", in which he talked about the threats that had been made to his life: [Excerpt: Martin Luther King, "Mountaintop Speech": “And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers? Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."] The next day, Martin Luther King was shot dead. James Earl Ray, a white supremacist, pled guilty to the murder, and the evidence against him seems overwhelming from what I've read, but the King family have always claimed that the murder was part of a larger conspiracy and that Ray was not the gunman. Aretha was obviously distraught, and she attended the funeral, as did almost every other prominent Black public figure. James Baldwin wrote of the funeral: "In the pew directly before me sat Marlon Brando, Sammy Davis, Eartha Kitt—covered in black, looking like a lost, ten-year-old girl—and Sidney Poitier, in the same pew, or nearby. Marlon saw me, and nodded. The atmosphere was black, with a tension indescribable—as though something, perhaps the heavens, perhaps the earth, might crack. Everyone sat very still. The actual service sort of washed over me, in waves. It wasn't that it seemed unreal; it was the most real church service I've ever sat through in my life, or ever hope to sit through; but I have a childhood hangover thing about not weeping in public, and I was concentrating on holding myself together. I did not want to weep for Martin, tears seemed futile. But I may also have been afraid, and I could not have been the only one, that if I began to weep I would not be able to stop. There was more than enough to weep for, if one was to weep—so many of us, cut down, so soon. Medgar, Malcolm, Martin: and their widows, and their children. Reverend Ralph David Abernathy asked a certain sister to sing a song which Martin had loved—“Once more,” said Ralph David, “for Martin and for me,” and he sat down." Many articles and books on Aretha Franklin say that she sang at King's funeral. In fact she didn't, but there's a simple reason for the confusion. King's favourite song was the Thomas Dorsey gospel song "Take My Hand, Precious Lord", and indeed almost his last words were to ask a trumpet player, Ben Branch, if he would play the song at the rally he was going to be speaking at on the day of his death. At his request, Mahalia Jackson, his old friend, sang the song at his private funeral, which was not filmed, unlike the public part of the funeral that Baldwin described. Four months later, though, there was another public memorial for King, and Franklin did sing "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" at that service, in front of King's weeping widow and children, and that performance *was* filmed, and gets conflated in people's memories with Jackson's unfilmed earlier performance: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord (at Martin Luther King Memorial)"] Four years later, she would sing that at Mahalia Jackson's funeral. Through all this, Franklin had been working on her next album, Aretha Now, the sessions for which started more or less as soon as the sessions for Lady Soul had finished. The album was, in fact, bookended by deaths that affected Aretha. Just as King died at the end of the sessions, the beginning came around the time of the death of Otis Redding -- the sessions were cancelled for a day while Wexler travelled to Georgia for Redding's funeral, which Franklin was too devastated to attend, and Wexler would later say that the extra emotion in her performances on the album came from her emotional pain at Redding's death. The lead single on the album, "Think", was written by Franklin and -- according to the credits anyway -- her husband Ted White, and is very much in the same style as "Respect", and became another of her most-loved hits: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Think"] But probably the song on Aretha Now that now resonates the most is one that Jerry Wexler tried to persuade her not to record, and was only released as a B-side. Indeed, "I Say a Little Prayer" was a song that had already once been a hit after being a reject.  Hal David, unlike Burt Bacharach, was a fairly political person and inspired by the protest song movement, and had been starting to incorporate his concerns about the political situation and the Vietnam War into his lyrics -- though as with many such writers, he did it in much less specific ways than a Phil Ochs or a Bob Dylan. This had started with "What the World Needs Now is Love", a song Bacharach and David had written for Jackie DeShannon in 1965: [Excerpt: Jackie DeShannon, "What the "World Needs Now is Love"] But he'd become much more overtly political for "The Windows of the World", a song they wrote for Dionne Warwick. Warwick has often said it's her favourite of her singles, but it wasn't a big hit -- Bacharach blamed himself for that, saying "Dionne recorded it as a single and I really blew it. I wrote a bad arrangement and the tempo was too fast, and I really regret making it the way I did because it's a good song." [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "The Windows of the World"] For that album, Bacharach and David had written another track, "I Say a Little Prayer", which was not as explicitly political, but was intended by David to have an implicit anti-war message, much like other songs of the period like "Last Train to Clarksville". David had sons who were the right age to be drafted, and while it's never stated, "I Say a Little Prayer" was written from the perspective of a woman whose partner is away fighting in the war, but is still in her thoughts: [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "I Say a Little Prayer"] The recording of Dionne Warwick's version was marked by stress. Bacharach had a particular way of writing music to tell the musicians the kind of feel he wanted for the part -- he'd write nonsense words above the stave, and tell the musicians to play the parts as if they were singing those words. The trumpet player hired for the session, Ernie Royal, got into a row with Bacharach about this unorthodox way of communicating musical feeling, and the track ended up taking ten takes (as opposed to the normal three for a Bacharach session), with Royal being replaced half-way through the session. Bacharach was never happy with the track even after all the work it had taken, and he fought to keep it from being released at all, saying the track was taken at too fast a tempo. It eventually came out as an album track nearly eighteen months after it was recorded -- an eternity in 1960s musical timescales -- and DJs started playing it almost as soon as it came out. Scepter records rushed out a single, over Bacharach's objections, but as he later said "One thing I love about the record business is how wrong I was. Disc jockeys all across the country started playing the track, and the song went to number four on the charts and then became the biggest hit Hal and I had ever written for Dionne." [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "I Say a Little Prayer"] Oddly, the B-side for Warwick's single, "Theme From the Valley of the Dolls" did even better, reaching number two. Almost as soon as the song was released as a single, Franklin started playing around with the song backstage, and in April 1968, right around the time of Dr. King's death, she recorded a version. Much as Burt Bacharach had been against releasing Dionne Warwick's version, Jerry Wexler was against Aretha even recording the song, saying later “I advised Aretha not to record it. I opposed it for two reasons. First, to cover a song only twelve weeks after the original reached the top of the charts was not smart business. You revisit such a hit eight months to a year later. That's standard practice. But more than that, Bacharach's melody, though lovely, was peculiarly suited to a lithe instrument like Dionne Warwick's—a light voice without the dark corners or emotional depths that define Aretha. Also, Hal David's lyric was also somewhat girlish and lacked the gravitas that Aretha required. “Aretha usually listened to me in the studio, but not this time. She had written a vocal arrangement for the Sweet Inspirations that was undoubtedly strong. Cissy Houston, Dionne's cousin, told me that Aretha was on the right track—she was seeing this song in a new way and had come up with a new groove. Cissy was on Aretha's side. Tommy Dowd and Arif were on Aretha's side. So I had no choice but to cave." It's quite possible that Wexler's objections made Franklin more, rather than less, determined to record the song. She regarded Warwick as a hated rival, as she did almost every prominent female singer of her generation and younger ones, and would undoubtedly have taken the implication that there was something that Warwick was simply better at than her to heart. [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Say a Little Prayer"] Wexler realised as soon as he heard it in the studio that Franklin's version was great, and Bacharach agreed, telling Franklin's biographer David Ritz “As much as I like the original recording by Dionne, there's no doubt that Aretha's is a better record. She imbued the song with heavy soul and took it to a far deeper place. Hers is the definitive version.” -- which is surprising because Franklin's version simplifies some of Bacharach's more unusual chord voicings, something he often found extremely upsetting. Wexler still though thought there was no way the song would be a hit, and it's understandable that he thought that way. Not only had it only just been on the charts a few months earlier, but it was the kind of song that wouldn't normally be a hit at all, and certainly not in the kind of rhythmic soul music for which Franklin was known. Almost everything she ever recorded is in simple time signatures -- 4/4, waltz time, or 6/8 -- but this is a Bacharach song so it's staggeringly metrically irregular. Normally even with semi-complex things I'm usually good at figuring out how to break it down into bars, but here I actually had to purchase a copy of the sheet music in order to be sure I was right about what's going on. I'm going to count beats along with the record here so you can see what I mean. The verse has three bars of 4/4, one bar of 2/4, and three more bars of 4/4, all repeated: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Say a Little Prayer" with me counting bars over verse] While the chorus has a bar of 4/4, a bar of 3/4 but with a chord change half way through so it sounds like it's in two if you're paying attention to the harmonic changes, two bars of 4/4, another waltz-time bar sounding like it's in two, two bars of four, another bar of three sounding in two, a bar of four, then three more bars of four but the first of those is *written* as four but played as if it's in six-eight time (but you can keep the four/four pulse going if you're counting): [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Say a Little Prayer" with me counting bars over verse] I don't expect you to have necessarily followed that in great detail, but the point should be clear -- this was not some straightforward dance song. Incidentally, that bar played as if it's six/eight was something Aretha introduced to make the song even more irregular than how Bacharach wrote it. And on top of *that* of course the lyrics mixed the secular and the sacred, something that was still taboo in popular music at that time -- this is only a couple of years after Capitol records had been genuinely unsure about putting out the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows", and Franklin's gospel-inflected vocals made the religious connection even more obvious. But Franklin was insistent that the record go out as a single, and eventually it was released as the B-side to the far less impressive "The House That Jack Built". It became a double-sided hit, with the A-side making number two on the R&B chart and number seven on the Hot One Hundred, while "I Say a Little Prayer" made number three on the R&B chart and number ten overall. In the UK, "I Say a Little Prayer" made number four and became her biggest ever solo UK hit. It's now one of her most-remembered songs, while the A-side is largely forgotten: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Say a Little Prayer"] For much of the

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with the Daughter of Legend, Rose Marie, Georgiana Guy Rodrigues About Harvey's guest: If you're a fan of our show, you'll know that one of our most popular features is our “Gone But Not Forgotten” series, featuring interviews with family members of some of the greatest Hollywood stars of all time.   Today, we're welcoming Georgiana Guy Rodrigues, the only child of a beloved actress, singer and comedienne whose spectacular career on stage, screen, radio, television and nightclubs spanned nine decades: the fabulous Rose Marie.   Starting at the age of 3, she began performing as “Baby Rose Marie” in vaudeville, and at the age of 5 she had a 7-year contract with NBC, which led to a hugely successful radio and movie career.   But she's perhaps best remembered for her iconic role on TV as the bombastic “Sally Rogers” on “The Dick Van Dyke Show”.  She also played Doris Day's sidekick “Myrna Gibbons” on “The Doris Day Show”, and for 14 years she was the top center square on the popular TV game show, “The Hollywood Squares”.   And she appeared in hundreds of TV shows – often numerous times – in shows like “The Monkees”, “The Hollywood Palace”, “The Dean Martin Show”, “S.W.A.T.” and “Murphy Brown”.  She was also the subject of the highly acclaimed 2017 documentary “Wait For Your Laugh.”    And now, to commemorate Rose Marie's 100th anniversary, a brand new CD is being released by Sepia Records, entitled, “ROSE MARIE SINGS: THE COMPLETE MERCURY RECORDINGS & MORE”.  This very special compilation CD features Rose Marie's 29 classic recordings of showtunes, standards and novelty songs from 1938 to 1966, including previously unreleased tracks, with liner notes written by our guest, including photos from the family archives.  Rose Marie's legions of fans have been waiting a long time for this CD.   For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/ To see more about Rose Marie, go to:https://missrosemarie.com/index.htm https://www.facebook.com/MissRoseMariehttps://www.youtube.com/holdtheroses #RoseMarie   #harveybrownstoneinterviews

As the first band to play the infamous 1969 Woodstock Festival, you'd think you'd have heard more about Sweetwater. Let band expert Corbin Betleyoun help you understand why you probably haven't! Next week: The Private Press with Paul Major presents DENNIS THE FOX's 1972 masterpiece "Mother Trucker!" Official playlist curated by Dave on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7fo672DlgIw5FEpcCnbE4q?si=hZ-VLWTsTISb71oBIU2w7w 1968 “Why Oh Why” video: https://youtu.be/34PAx65iDTw Sweetwater's complete set at Woodstock, August 1969: https://youtu.be/i66HF-idtcg “Motherless Child” on “The Hollywood Palace,” October 1969: https://youtu.be/8P7fw9vGgv4 “What's Wrong” on Playboy After Dark, October 1969: https://youtu.be/LY7H9EhEJXE CONNECT Join our Soldiers of Sound Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1839109176272153 Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/discograffiti Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/discograffitipod/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Discograffiti/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Discograffiti YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClyaQCdvDelj5EiKj6IRLhw Web site: http://discograffiti.com/ Patreon: www.Patreon.com/Discograffiti CONTACT DAVE Email: dave@discograffiti.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaveGebroe Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidgebroe/ CONTACT TODD ZIMMER: GRAPHIC DESIGN Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ToddZimmer and https://www.facebook.com/punknjunkradio Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_real_todd_zimmer/ and https://www.instagram.com/punknjunkradioshow/ #patreon #musicpatreon #nowplaying #vinylcollection #music #vinylcommunity #vinylrecords #sweetwater #sweetwaterband #woodstock #music #rock #hippie #janisjoplin #woodstockfestival #bertsommer #quillband #keefhartley #keefhartleyband #richiehavens #nancynevins #alexdelzoppo #woodstockfest #podcast #musiccommentary #graceslick #vh1 #motherlesschild #dennisthefox #mothertrucker --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/discograffiti/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/discograffiti/support

FALL PREVIEW ALERT! September 10-16, 1966 This week Ken welcomes author of the new book, Primetime 1966-1967: The Full Spectrum of Television's First All-Color Season, Thom Shubilla. Ken and Thom discuss Ken's slaughter of Thom's last name, Batman '66, knowing the Fall Preview well, the year TV was born, shaking off radio, Westerns, the first TV season everything was in color, classy Miller High Life ads making Ken and Thom want to drink, commissioned art, murals, Joe E. Ross, It's About Time, how The Moon Landing both ruined and improved sci-fi, Sherwood Schwartz, The Monkees, The Jackie Gleason Show, "The Lost" Honeymooners, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Get Smart!, Mission Impossible, Secret Agent Man, Patrick McGoohan, Hollywood Palace, Ed Sullivan, Ken's love of Robert Loggia, T.H.E. Cat, a show of all wacky neighbors, Lost in Space, being a Ginger or a Maryann, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeanie, the long terrifying decline of Lucy, that one episode of Route 66, Big Eye paintings, The Green Hornet, Occasional Wife, That Girl, poorly translated JFK triangles, Green Acres, the truth about nerve deafness, F Troop, loving Larry Storch, heists, Irwin Alan, Time Tunnel, hating Milton Berle, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Burt Reynolds as Hawk and not as Marlon Brando, Larry Cohen's Coronet Blue, needing satisfaction on a show, The Fugitive, and how absolutely awful the Tammy Grimes show was.

Back to the 1950s to meet an all-time tummler, a man known as the "human joke machine," Morey Amsterdam. A close brush with violence at one of Al Capone's Chicago speakeasies sent Morey packing for LA and a career than included being a comedy writer, stand-up star, and sitcom icon for his portrayal of comedy writer Buddy Sorrell on the Dick Van Dyke show. Morey even copped a role in the "beach movies" of the early 1960s!  As always, find more Morey below and thanks for sharing our shows! Want more Morey? Morey often used music in his act, delivering one-liner after one-liner in the context of a silly song. There isn't much early Morey that exists on tape, but this old clip (sorry for the quality) shows him belting his newest hit -- "Cheese and Cracker" with a host of groaning gags mixed in. https://youtu.be/JskPfuzGlVU Morey's biggest claim to fame was his role as gag writer Buddy Sorrell on the Dick Van Dyke show. His writers room chemistry with Rose Marie (who played fellow writer Sally Rogers) was infectious and they were able to take their personas to other shows, such as this guest spot on the Hollywood Palace back in 1964 (and yes, that is Groucho hosting). https://youtu.be/cQik0KEpgZY Morey stayed active well into his 70s, as evidenced by this spot on the "Here it is -- Burlesque!" special. Yes, he is still doing the same act he was in the 40s. And yes, the audience still loves him! https://youtu.be/qH0wjYQRm3U

Episode Notes Join us as we dive into the minds of Marc & Jeramie to help them celebrate the 50th anniversary of the cult classic " Last House on the Left" This episode is sponsored by Deadly Grounds Coffee "Its good to get a little Deadly" https://deadlygroundscoffee.com Marc Sheffler After starring in the role of Junior Stillo in the iconic cult classic Marc's decided to take his career in a different direction perusing television writing and production rather than acting. He has been part of many great shows such as "Sister, Sister", "Harry and the Henderson's", "Who's the Boss", "Charles in Charge" "The Happy Days Reunion Show" and "The Best of the Hollywood Palace" specials. He also worked with Mel Blanc, the voice of Warner Bros. cartoons, as the writer of How Bugs Bunny Won The West (1978). And many more. Jeramie Rain-Dreyfuss Starred as Sadie in the iconic cult classic but her acting career had started before that with roles in the television series "General Hospital" & "Doctor's" Outside of acting, she has also worked as a writer and producer at NBC, at both the Rockefeller Center and Los Angeles locations. In 1983, Jeramie married actor Richard Dreyfuss; she had three children with Dreyfuss prior to divorcing him in 1995. In the early 90s, Jeramie founded "Mother's Touch", which is a Los Angeles-based charity that helps out children diagnosed with serious illnesses. She was interviewed in the retrospective documentary, Celluloid Crime of the Century (2003). Rain now works as producer and scriptwriter for daytime television programs in Los Angeles. ————————————————— Check out Toking with the Dead Episode 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awhL5FyW_j4 Check out Toking with the Dead Episode 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaUai58ua6o Buy awesome Merchandise! https://www.stilltoking.com/ https://teespring.com/stores/still-toking-with ————————————— Follow our guest's Marc Sheffler https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0790820/ https://www.themoviedb.org/person/101585-marc-sheffler https://en-gb.facebook.com/marc.sheffler/ https://mobile.twitter.com/m5marc https://www.instagram.com/marc_sheffler/?hl=en Jeramie Rain-Dreyfuss https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0706942/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm https://twitter.com/jeramiedreyfuss https://www.instagram.com/jeramiedreyfuss/?hl=en https://celebdoko.com/jeramie-rain/ https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6180573 ————————————————— Follow Still Toking With and their friends! https://smartpa.ge/5zv1 https://thedorkeningpodcastnetwork.com/ ————————————— Produced by Leo Pond and The Dorkening Podcast Network https://TheDorkening.com Facebook.com/TheDorkening Youtube.com/TheDorkening Twitter.com/TheDorkening Dead Dork Radio https://live365.com/station/Dead-Dork-Radio-a68071 Check out Green Matters: https://www.facebook.com/GreenMattersMiddleboro/ Find out more at https://still-toking-with.pinecast.co Send us your feedback online: https://pinecast.com/feedback/still-toking-with/af79f1bb-830f-4312-992d-8cb692c5bda7 This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Marc Sheffler used to work as a stage actor for off-Broadway theater. His only film role is of the teenage Junior Stillo in the low-budget Last House on the Left (1972). Since then, Sheffler decided to pursue a career into television writing and production rather than acting.His credits include episodes of "Sister, Sister", "Harry and the Hendersons", "Who's the Boss", and "Charles in Charge" to name but a few. He's also been involved with all kinds of pilots, made for TV movies, and television specials, including the failed "The Little Shop of Horrors" pilot, "The Happy Days Reunion Show" and "The Best of the Hollywood Palace" specials. He also worked with Mel Blanc, the voice of Warner Bros. cartoons, as the writer of How Bugs Bunny Won The West (1978).Support the show

Today In Music History October 9th-15th October 9th 1961 - Ray Charles started a two week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Hit The Road Jack." 1993 - Nirvana entered the U.S. album chart at No. 1 with In Utero, their third and final studio album. Birthdays: PJ Harvey is 51 October 10th 1962 - The BBC somehow determined that "Monster Mash," by Bobby "Boris" Pickett was offensive and banned it from their airwaves. 2014 - Taylor Swift was named Billboard's Woman of the Year 2014, making her the first artist to receive the award twice. Birthdays: David Lee Roth is 68 October 11th 1990 - Drummer Dave Grohl played his first gig with Nirvana when they appeared at the North Shore Surf Club in Olympia. 1997 - Elton John went to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Candle In The Wind 1997", a rewrite of his 1974 hit about Marilyn Monroe. Birthdays: Daryl Hall of Hall and Oates is 76 And Cardi B is 30 October 12th 1969 - A DJ on Detroit's WKNR radio station received a phone call telling him that if you play The Beatles 'Strawberry Fields Forever' backwards, you hear John Lennon say the words "I buried Paul." This started a worldwide rumour that Paul McCartney was dead. 1997 - With Backstreet Boys mania building worldwide, the group had to cancel a free, open-air concert at the Mostenses Plaza in Madrid when too many fans show up. October 13th 1974 - Renowned television host Ed Sullivan dies of esophageal cancer in New York City, at age 73. One of the biggest events in music history unfolded on his program, The Ed Sullivan Show, when a new group from Liverpool called The Beatles made their live U.S. debut. 1979 - Michael Jackson went to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough," his second solo chart-topper. Birthdays: Sammy Hagar is 75 October 14th 1968 - The Jackson Five made their national TV debut on ABC's Hollywood Palace. 2020 - Post Malone won nine awards including top artist at the 2020 Billboard Music Awards held at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. Birthdays: Natalie Maines of the The Chicks is 48 October 15th 1979 - ABBA played their first concert in North America when they appeared in Vancouver, B.C. 1994 - R.E.M. entered the Billboard 200 album chart at No. 1 with Monster. The album was their ninth and was a stylistic shift from the bands previous two albums-- 1991's Out of Time and 1992's Automatic for the People --with loud, distorted guitar tones and simple arrangements, and included the successful single, "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" Birthdays: Brother Of Michael Jackson Tito Jackson is 68 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/b29podcast/message

Marc Sheffler used to work as a stage actor for off-Broadway theater. His break into movies was when he was cast as teenage Junior Stillo in the low-budget Last House on the Left (1972). With that casting in the American exploitation horror film written, directed and edited by Wes Craven in his directorial debut. The film follows Mari Collingwood (Sandra Peabody), a hippie teenager who is abducted, raped, and tortured by a fugitive family on her seventeenth birthday. When they unwittingly seek refuge in her home, the killers face the vengeance of her parents. It is definitely not for the weak and the tag line for it was that audiences had to keep repeating. " It's only a movie, It's only a movie,"After Last House, Sheffler decided to pursue a career into television writing and production rather than acting. His credits include episodes of "Sister, Sister", "Harry and the Hendersons", "Who's the Boss", and "Charles in Charge" to name but a few. He's also been involved with all kinds of pilots, made for TV movies, and television specials, including the failed "The Little Shop of Horrors" pilot, "The Happy Days Reunion Show" and "The Best of the Hollywood Palace" specials. He also worked with Mel Blanc, the voice of Warner Bros. cartoons, as the writer of How Bugs Bunny Won The West (1978). So, if you are an old school horror fan sit back and enjoy this trip down memory lane with Marc Sheffler.Links to Crime & Entertainment Like us on Facebook -  https://www.facebook.com/crimeandente...Follow us on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/crimenenter...Listen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/4T67Bs5...Listen on Apple Music - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...Listen on Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/crime-e...Listen on Google Podcast - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0...Listen on Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9cd...#horrormoviepodcast #wescraven #podcast #exploitation #film #cinema

I talk with Actor and comedy writer Mark Sheffler. Marc Sheffler used to work as a stage actor for off-Broadway theater. His only film role is of the teenage Junior Stillo in the low-budget Last House on the Left (1972). Since then, Sheffler decided to pursue a career into television writing and production rather than acting.His credits include episodes of "Sister, Sister", "Harry and the Hendersons", "Who's the Boss", and "Charles in Charge" to name but a few. He's also been involved with all kinds of pilots, made for TV movies, and television specials, including the failed "The Little Shop of Horrors" pilot, "The Happy Days Reunion Show" and "The Best of the Hollywood Palace" specials. He also worked with Mel Blanc, the voice of Warner Bros. cartoons, as the writer of How Bugs Bunny Won The West (1978).We talk everything from how he got his start, what he's working on now, and a bunch of other stuff along the way!Music done by good friend and guest on the show SpeedoStupid Should Hurt Link to my Merch store the Stupid Should Hurt Line!Steve Sabo To get Jester's Run, How To FAIL At Stand-Up Comedy, and Kayla's Gone use promo go RIdeHomeRantsDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show

THE HOTTEST UP & COMING COMIC IN LOS ANGELES TODAYIS A 71 YEAR OLD JEWISH MAN!eL YID, NEW CHARACTER CREATED AND PERFORMED BY NOTEDTV WRITER/PRODUCER AND ACTOR MARC SHEFFLER,IS POISED TO TAKE THE LA COMEDY SCENE BY STORMBelieve it or not, the hottest and fastest rising new comic on the LA ComedyScene today is “el Yid,” a 69 year old Jewish man whose long white beard and blackand white garb would immediately lead anyone to assume that he was a Chasidic Rabbifrom Brooklyn. In actuality, el Yid is a new comedic character conceived and performedby noted TV writer/producer and actor Marc Sheffler.A former comedian and member of the Comedy Store's legendary “Class of1977,” Marc has also been involved with countless television series and specials duringthe course of his long entertainment industry career, including "Sister, Sister," "Harryand the Hendersons," "Who's the Boss," “Sanford & Son,” "Charles in Charge,” “TheHappy Days Reunion Show," "The Best of the Hollywood Palace" and the Warner Bros.cartoon “How Bugs Bunny Won The West,” among many others.The character of el Yid was born in late 2015, after a horrific automobile accidentalmost cost Marc his life. After having been hit by a car while walking down the streetnear his home by an 85-year old man texting on his phone while driving, Marc spentmany months recovering from his broken limbs and shattered spirit. Once finally healed,however, Marc looked in the mirror and realized that not only had he been transformedinto an entirely new person, but he had a brainstorm! He'd also just given birth to anentirely new character. The experience re-ignited his passion to once again performstand-up comedy live, after a 35 year absence from the stage.el Yid has been making LA audiences howl with laughter ever since. He appearsregularly at Robin Hood Pub on Burbank & Woodman in Sherman Oaks on Wed-nesdays, and at Upstairs @ Palermo on Vermont by Franklin on Thursdays. Check out:https://www.facebook.com/elyidthecomedian/About Marc Sheffler:A native of Pittsburgh, PA, Marc Sheffler was given a truly unique gift by hisfather for his 8th birthday: The Three Stooges! The famous slapstick trio performed athis birthday party during a local appearance there in 1957. The Stooges brought Marcon stage with a “Nyuck, Nyuck, Nyuck,” and the infamous phrase “I oughtta moider ya.”Moe Howard dubbed little Marc “The Fourth Stooge.” “It was on that stage, at the age of8, when I first realized it was my destiny to become a comedian,” Marc says today.In 1969, Marc dropped out of college to head off to New York State's CatskillMountains, the center of the stand-up comedy universe at the time. There, he began hisprofessional career, with his first job as the Stage Manager of the 1500-seat nightclub atthe Raleigh Hotel. During his fourteen months there, Marc watched every comedian onthat circuit – one of whom was London Lee, the scion of a wealthy Long Island family.Marc worked for Lee for about a year and a half, at first running errands for him, andeventually writing some of his jokes. Marc even became an onstage part of his actduring more than 200 club dates. One lucky night, Lee told his audience that Marc wasan aspiring stand-up comedian, and without any advance notice, thrust him into thespotlight. Marc performed ten minutes, managing to generate enough laughs to earnhimself a spot onstage with Lee for an upcoming, two week engagement at thelegendary Copacabana nightclub in Manhattan.After striking out on his own in late 1971, Marc walked into his manager's office in NewYork City (Lloyd Greenfield Management, whose clients at the time also includedEngelbert Humperdinck), where he was told a movie audition awaited him. As a result ofthat audition, Sean Cunningham and Wes Craven cast Marc as one of their film's fourleads, “a teenage heroin junkie named Junior Stillo” in the movie “The Last House onthe Left” (1972). The film became Wes Craven's first, and is considered today to be thegranddaddy of the modern day slasher/crime genre. In early1972, Marc's life and careerchanged forever when Roger Ebert published a 4 1⁄2 star review of the film with this leadsentence: "'Last House on the Left' is a tough, bitter little sleeper of a movie that's aboutfour times as good as you'd expect.” Marc made dozens of personal appearancesacross the country to help promote the film, meeting thousands of fans, and basking inthe newfound glow of his first taste of fame.After his initial blast of exposure with “Last House,” Marc shifted gears back to hisoriginal passion: a career in stand-up comedy. He also began to pursue writing andproducing projects for television. In late 1975, he developed a movie-of-the-week ideaalong with award winning commercial director N. Lee Lacy (the man who'd directed theinfamous “Mean Joe Green/Coke” commercial.) In early 1976, Lacy's agents at WilliamMorris sold the pitch to NBC – as a result, Marc moved to LA, arriving in town with awriting credit and William Morris as his talent agency.During his earliest days in LA, Marc spent countless nights at the legendary ComedyStore, watching such legends as Richard Pryor, Paul Mooney, Jimmy Walker, GeorgeMiller, Tim Thomerson, and Steve Bluestein. The William Morris Agency had set him upwith his first Monday night gig at the club just a few weeks after he'd relocated to la-la-land. After his fourth Monday night, he walked up to legendary founder Mitzi Shore'stable, and asked her if he had what it took. She looked up and said, “Okay Marc, call infor spots.” Marc quickly thanked her and got out of her sight, before she had time toconclude she'd just made a huge mistake. Over the course of the next several Mondaynights, Marc honed his material, quickly perfecting his set, generating big laughs, andquickly made a place for himself as an Original Comedy Store Regular. Based on hissuccess, Marc became a lifetime member of the Comedy Store's infamous “Class of'77.” He even got his name inscribed on the Comedy Store's exterior “Wall of Fame,”alongside his peers at the time - Jay Leno, Robin Williams, David Letterman, MarcSummers, and other now well-recognized performers.Segueing into writing and producing for television, Marc's career path next ledhim to participate on such hit TV series as "Sister, Sister," "Harry and the Hendersons,""Who's the Boss," “Sanford and Son,” and "Charles in Charge." He also becameinvolved with numerous TV pilots, made for TV movies, and television specials,including "The Little Shop of Horrors" pilot, "The Happy Days Reunion Show" and "TheBest of the Hollywood Palace" specials. His first real studio gig was at Warner Bros.with Mel Blanc, the voice of the classic Warner Bros. cartoons, as the writer of the TVshort “How Bugs Bunny Won The West” in 1978. During this era, Marc worked closelywith a number of notable Executive Producers, including Norman Lear, (“Sanford andSon,”) George Schlatter (“If She Dies, She Dies,”) Don Mischer (“The People's ChoiceAwards,”) Steven Spielberg (“Harry And The Hendersons,) and Garry Marshall (“TheHappy Days Reunion Special”), among them.In 2002, Marc returned to the horror film genre, and produced David DeFalco'scontroversial movie “Chaos.” In 2006, he co-wrote and produced another horror film,“Girls Gone Dead.” And in 2010, Marc supervised the writing of the first two episodes ofa new TV series called “Oh Telon” - a half-hour situation comedy - at EICTV, in SanAntonio de los Baños, Cuba. The show was greenlit for production, and in fall of thatyear, Marc made television history by becoming the first person ever to ExecutiveProduce a sitcom in Cuba!The Birth of el Yid:From 2011 to 2015, Marc was on the faculty of Loyola Marymount University'sSchool of Film and Television, where he taught classes in Situation Comedy,Screenwriting, and Re-Writing. During his time there, he noticed an interestinginteraction between himself and his students (18 to mid-20's). Realizing he could makehis students laugh at will, he went back to the Comedy Store (after a nearly four decadehiatus) to watch the latest comedians, and to listen to the audiences so he could learnwhat they thought was funny. He'd begun to plot a course back to the stand-up comedystage.After a long Thanksgiving (2015) holiday trip to New York and Boston, Marc and his wife(a social worker), returned to LA exhausted and jet-lagged from the trip. A few morningslater, Marc's wife headed out the door to work. Prior to her leaving, Marc told her hewas going to walk up to Trader Joe's, to pick up a few things. A little after 1:00 PM, ashe started the stroll back home carrying his Trader Joe's grocery bag, Marc was struckfrom behind by a Porsche doing about 40 mph, driven by an 85 year old man who wastalking on a handheld cell phone. The driver, who'd gotten distracted by that call, driftedinto the parking/walking lane, forcefully hitting Marc and hurling him through the air.Marc's injuries were extensive: fractured cervical spine bones, fractured ribs, afractured wrist, a shredded meniscus in his knee, multiple scalp lacerations, headtrauma, a concussion, multiple contusions and abrasions, and oral trauma among them.His doctors told him he was quite lucky to be alive, and had escaped life as a paraplegicby just a few millimeters. Describing his pain as “literally indescribable,” Marc's onlyrelief wasn't from the drugs administered, but from where their effects sent him – hementally “time-tripped” back to 1977, to the Comedy Store, and to his beloved stand-upcomedy days. What replaced his full body agony was the full body pleasure he got from“reliving” those moments when he was on stage at the legendary nightclub, getting biglaughs, all those years ago.Marc spent the next three months in bed, nearly immobile – he didn't drive againfor six months. During his recovery, he received a call from a friend about appearing ona radio talk show dedicated to comedy and comedians, along with two other guests –comic Johnny Beehner, and Budd Friedman's former partner at the Improv, MarkLonow. The show went well. One of its hosts asked Marc if he was thinking aboutmaking a return to the stand-up comedy stage. And on air, Marc said yes.One afternoon shortly thereafter, Marc got out of the shower, and took a longlook in the mirror at his body, hair, and long white beard, all dripping wet. He looked athimself, pointed a finger, and ordered himself “not to go away.” Dashing into hisbedroom, Marc put on a white, buttoned-down dress shirt, a black tie, and a black suit,then placed a wide-brimmed, black Fedora on his head. After brushing out his beardand putting on some wire rimmed glasses, Marc then saw in the mirror an amalgam ofhis maternal grandfather, and the Orthodox Rabbi of his Temple's congregation.What is the name of this new character?” he asked himself. This isn't MarcSheffler. Who is this guy? He shall be el Yid, The Jew!Since then, el Yid has been performing before a wide spectrum of LA audiences,generating big laughs wherever he goes. Two, post-performance experiences – onewith an admitted anti-Semite, and another with an attractive single woman - have beenparticularly encouraging. As Marc explains, “By my metrics, if el Yid can get a lifelonganti-Semite to approach him and say he was going to reevaluate his prejudice, and acute, single woman to admit she felt regret because el Yid was married, clearly this newcharacter seems to be resonating with his audiences! Total strangers are starting tobelieve that el Yid is a real person. Now that I've given birth to this comedic new voice,it's time for el Yid to start making a really big noise!”# # #Media Contact:Dan HararyThe Asbury PR Agency310/859-1831dan@asburypr.com

On this episode, Bill talks with Screenwriter, Comedian, and Pittsburgh Native Marc Sheffler. Marc talks about his days growing up in Pittsburgh and some of the people he has worked with over the years in TV and Movies. Marc Sheffler used to work as a stage actor for off-Broadway theater. His only film role is of the teenage Junior Stillo in the low-budget Last House on the Left (1972). Since then, Sheffler decided to pursue a career in television writing and production rather than acting.His credits include episodes of "Sister, Sister", "Harry and the Hendersons", "Who's the Boss", and "Charles in Charge" to name but a few. He's also been involved with all kinds of pilots, made for TV movies, and television specials, including the, failed "The Little Shop of Horrors" pilot, "The Happy Days Reunion Show" and "The Best of the Hollywood Palace" specials. He also worked with Mel Blanc, the voice of Warner Bros. cartoons, as the writer of How Bugs Bunny Won The West (1978).Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/1-on-1-with-bill-alexander/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

On this episode, Bill talks with Screenwriter, Comedian, and Pittsburgh Native Marc Sheffler. Marc talks about his days growing up in Pittsburgh and some of the people he has worked with over the years in TV and Movies. Marc Sheffler used to work as a stage actor for off-Broadway theater. His only film role is of the teenage Junior Stillo in the low-budget Last House on the Left (1972). Since then, Sheffler decided to pursue a career in television writing and production rather than acting.His credits include episodes of "Sister, Sister", "Harry and the Hendersons", "Who's the Boss", and "Charles in Charge" to name but a few. He's also been involved with all kinds of pilots, made for TV movies, and television specials, including the, failed "The Little Shop of Horrors" pilot, "The Happy Days Reunion Show" and "The Best of the Hollywood Palace" specials. He also worked with Mel Blanc, the voice of Warner Bros. cartoons, as the writer of How Bugs Bunny Won The West (1978).Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/1-on-1-with-bill-alexander/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

#OTD The Jackson 5 made their first national television appearance performing "I Want You Back" on The Hollywood Palace.

This week Ken welcomes bassist and singer from Mission of Burma, long time Chronicle producer and personal hero Clint Conley to the show. Ken and Clint discuss the nexus of punk rock and television, finding interesting things in New England, growing up just outside NYC, having a father "in the business", grad school at BU, the interaction of the high brow and lowbrow, the arty and the boneheaded, weirdo bands, Cousin Brucie, Ed Sullivan, rock bands on TV, the importance of 1966 for Youth Culture, Batman, Gallant Men, copycat shows, Combat!, Secret Agent, The Rifleman, Man from U.N.C.L.E., plat spinning, vaudeville acts, Hollywood Palace, Boris Karlof, seeking out all the horror movies, Channel 9 and 11, Alan King, Ed Sullivan giving extra time to Sly Stone, The Rascals, Raymond Burr, fearing iron lungs and quicksand, the worthless nature of Tucker Carlson, Candid Camera, Prank Shows, Hulabaloo, Richard Pryor and George Carlin on young rock n roller John Davidson's show, My Mother the Car, Vic Morrow, the Twilight Zone disaster and E! Network's re-enactments, Eric Burden and the Animals, Gidget, band names, Night of Whirling Death, Wild Wild West, Car 54, Where Are You?, having a VCR in the 1970s, hating Lost in Space, being scared of Billy Mumy, taping Iggy Pop on Dinah Shore, the greatness of Green Acres, meeting Mary Tyler Moore, W.C. Fields tribute by his own son, The Smothers Brothers, The Amazing Randi, Johnny Carson: GOTCHA!, The 100 Foot Wave, and the greatness of Barry Jenkin's The Underground Railroad.

TVC 546.4: Ed welcomes Emmy Award winner Ron Bacon. Ron spent thirty-five years in network TV production—mostly with ABC, where he wore many hats (including stage manager, associate director, writer, producer, and director) on more than 12,500 broadcasts, covering just about every type of programming available, including such variety shows as The Lawrence Welk Show, The Frank Sinatra Show, The Hollywood Palace, The Jonathan Winters Show, and Shindig; live events, such as the Academy Awards and Emmy Awards broadcasts; the now-iconic specials that Ernie Kovacs did for ABC just before his death in 1962; sporting events, such as the 1984 Summer Olympics (for which Ron won an Emmy); and many of the game shows produced by Chuck Barris, Monty Hall, and Goodson-Todman. The story of how Ron broke into television is a classic example of how persistence and networking, coupled with the right opportunity, can help you land the right job. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TVC 546.5: Emmy Award winner Ron Bacon shares a few memories about his thirty-five year career in network TV production, which began in the days of live television and included more than 12,500 broadcasts, covering just about every type of programming available, including such variety shows as The Lawrence Welk Show, The Frank Sinatra Show, The Hollywood Palace, and The Jonathan Winters Show. Topics this segment how Sinatra brought a “loose” approach to television, whether he was starring in his own series or appearing in an ABC special.  Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

March 16-22, 1968 March 16-22, 1968 This week Ken welcomes Cartoonist and co-author of the new book (along with friend of the show and future guest Bob Eckstein) "The Elements of Stress and the Pursuit of Happy-ish in this Current Sh*tstorm", Michael Shaw to the show. Ken and Michael discuss MST3k, Wisconsin, The Mid-West, Ken's scholarly attempts, the sweet spot of 1968, growing up outside of St. Louis, Three Stooges, hurting your eyesight, The Flying Nun, TV Service Man talking back, bananas, writing letters, The Prisoner, Hollywood Palace, Nick at Nite, My Three Sons, Hogan's Heroes, Gitmo: The Sitcom, Don Knotts, Wild Kingdom, statutes of Monkey and Man, Eve Arden, vintage radio shows, the greatest of Merrill Markoe, poodles, Danny Thomas, Burlesque, Sam Jones, Andy Griffith, Maybury RFD, Baloney, Swedish Sex documentaries, preferring the replacement casts, I Dream of Jeanie, the weirdest Larry Hagman stories, Matlock vs. Ironsides, homages, English Gardens, not discussing the Beverly Hillbillies as much as you'd think, breaking the 4th wall, the genius of Green Acres, Jonathan Winters, vanilla ice cream, Dragnet, Harry Morgan, Leave it to Beaver, Tarzan, Gomer Pyle, Jerry Van Dyke's performance anxiety, murderers, variety shows, Mary Tyler Moore, Richard Deacon, avoiding dark TV and watching shows you've never watched but should watch.

Bill Myers Inspires  A Black American Living Abroad at this time when political unrest, a pandemic, and racial tensions are raging in America. How do other nations perceive America's racial challenges? Do other countries have their own issues with racism and injustice towards black people to sort out? JAMES BRADLEY JR. At the age of three, JBJ's musical talents were being realized by his parents as they saw him retrieving pots and pans from the kitchen cabinet to perform on. Because they were performing musicians, they were able to give James support and teaching. James Bradley, Jr. was a child-drumming prodigy and at the age of four he was recognized as the world's youngest professional drummer. Appearing on major television shows in the sixties such as "I've Got A Secret", "Steve Allen", "Jack Benny", "Art LinkLetter", "Nat King Cole", "Hollywood Palace", and many others. And then a contract with Paramount Pictures, where JBJ played a part in the movie "Cool Hand Luke". Developing from a Jazz and Blues background James began playing straight ahead Jazz with his mother in his very early teens. He completed his first National Tour in 1976 with Deniece Williams while still in high school. JBJ then traveled with the great Chuck Mangione from 1977 to 1981 boasting many gold records like the hit song "Feel So Good". After a short break in 1982 JBJ was doing musical workshops and clinics. James went on to create the group Urban Gypsy where he fussed Rock and Funk. Then he toured with R&B superstar Anita Baker 1986-87, legendary Pianist Joe Sample 1987-1988, and with R&B great Vocalist Jeffrey Osborne 1988-1989. In the nineties JBJ hooked up with alternative rockers Mary's Danish, The Go Go's Gina Shock, The Beastie Boys, The JBJ Exp, Slash, Crazy Town and many others. Known internationally as the drummer for the multi- platinum rock band "CRAZY TOWN" (1999 to 2003), As the drummer in CRAZY TOWN, JBJ played on one full length albums for release on Columbia records. With the release of their third single "Butterfly", off the album "The Gift of Game", CRAZY TOWN grabbed the number one slot on the billboard top 200 and managed to go number one in countries all over the world. With gold and platinum records from the United States, Canada, and Germany. JBJ reached a status rarely achieved among recording artists. JBJ also had endorsed deals with companies like Puma, Hurley, Adidas, Homeboy Couture, Mesa Boogie, Randall, Dean Markley and Line-6. JBJ are now playing and recording with his own band the Rock/Punk band KILL YOUR DARLINGZ . ~ More About Bill Myers Inspires ~  Emmy Award-winning actor Bill Myers is an accomplished actor, jazz musician, filmmaker, writer, educator, and speaker. As a bi-racial man who is both black and white, Bill leverages his background, talents, and voice through creativity, compassion, and connection as activism for social justice to focus on uniting the divide and compelling change. In a civic leadership capacity, he has served as President of the African American Jazz Caucus in NYC, member of the Indianapolis Cultural Development Committee, and served as President of the Indianapolis Downtown Optimist Club. In addition to his Emmy Award, Bill has received many awards and notable commissions for his work including being commissioned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art to create an original work for Dr. Martin Luther King Day entitled “The Music, Martin & Me.” Bill Myers seeks to encourage, enlighten, and empower others through the power of entertainment to affect social justice. You can find him at his website Billmyersinspires.com, Bill Myers Inspires on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/billmyersinspires/, Twitter https://twitter.com/bmyersinspires1, Instagram https://www.instagram.com/billmyersinspires/  , or via email billmyersinspires@gmail.com. To get more of Bill Myers Inspires, be sure to visit the podcast page for replays of all her shows here: https://www.inspiredchoicesnetwork.com/podcast/bill-myers-inspires/

Roger's son's wedding is coming up fast. The twins talk about that and Wes' bachelor getaway and bonding time - a weekend trip to an outdoor shooting range followed by an airsoft battle the next day - and Roger's "war wounds." Also: An alternate version of Chris' song, "I See September," memories of our first trip to Hollywood,a lively chat about more of the shows we they experienced at several venues...and more! SHOW NOTES: 0:00 - "I See September" by Chris Yale. Alternate version recorded in Myrtle Beach by his old band, Early Train. 3:57 - More about "I See September" 4:55 - LuLu's North Myrtle Beach 6:12 - Wes' bachelor getaway after KISS got postponed: Outdoor shooting, airsoft (airsoft is not soft). 13:59 - The wedding is Saturday. Wasn't it just 18 months away? 15:26 - First trip to Hollywood, 1967. Hippies in Griffith Park, Dad's apartment on Carlton Way, The Hollywood Palace with Paul Revere and The Raiders. Travel Town. Griffith Park Equestrian Center. 18:54 - Fast-forward: Cathay de Grande/The China Club, Pleasant Gaiman. 20:25 - The Palladium Hollywood: Early U2, The Clash 1979, Smithereens, REM. 23:57 - Shows at (Six Flags) Magic Mountain: Redbone, The Bangles while Chris was tripping, Dad's friend Vic Perry, Michael Steele, not Michael Steele. Thomas Dolby, Heart, the Supremes without Diana Ross and John Waite. 30:32 - Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Greek Theatre, Wiltern Theatre. 31:20 - Boring shows: Steve Winwood, Moody Blues and probably ZZ Top. 32:42 - Tribute Bands versus Cover Bands. 33:40 - Tinder Box Myrtle Beach 34:00 - Chris' chihuahuas should have been named Jacob and Esau. 35:20 - Dad's 1967 Impala and The Kinks at the bygone Universal Amphitheater. 36:03 - Driving stoned and Anxiety Weed. 38:20 - The Capitol Records Tower Hollywood.

January 13-19, 1968 This week Ken welcomes the incredible English writer, comedian and all around amazing human Jo Brand to the show. Ken and Jo discuss the good that has come out of a Global pandemic, how incredibly shocking 1968 seems looking at it from 2020, USSR representations of the USA, Ken's deprogramming, Housewife Dracula, how to say "take the piss" in America, Female stand up comedians, the UK Alt-Comedy scene, man-hating, what makes it to the US from the UK and vice versa, remaking British Comedies for the United States, Getting On, the U.S. obsession with looks, being in the thing you create, earning your place, getting insults thrown at you, Billy Connolly, Ken having to pretend to be Canadian, Up the Creek, The New Cross Tavern, Vic Reeves, Harry Enfield, Big Night Out, Shooting Stars, heckles, bits that don't work, coughing blood, snarky sarcasm, panels shows, The Newlywed Game, Mr. and Mrs., our modern fairy tales, My Three Sons, court ordered tea parties, Morecambe and Wise. The Young Ones, Hogan's Heroes, WWII, Ken's weird hair, Dick Van Dyke, Cheers, working in a pub, Bing Crosby, Hollywood Palace, the evils of Milton Berle, The Smothers Brothers, dogs, Davey and Goliath, Sunday Church TV, The Milton Berle of Vicars, the horrors of Northern Club Comics, women on TV, Lucille Ball, Morwenna Banks, Payton Place, half an hour of boring, Man from U.N.C.L.E., beautiful heckles, learning about weather, PBS, Haley Mills, Lost in Space, The Avengers, The Flying Nun, Bob Hope, warzones, the bouncing bomb and ending with 633 Squadron, a good old fashioned feel good British War film.

TO WATCH A VIDEO OF THIS INTERVIEW, GO TO INSPIRING CONVERSATIONS PODCAST CHANNEL OR VIEW DIRECTLY AT https://youtu.be/3uDudPt_VcYJeff sits down with Connie Brannock as she shares deeply about her music and how she got started, about her career in the military in various leadership roles, and about how she and her music have evolved over the years.To learn more about Connie and her music and latest release, Last Call, visithttps://www.conniebrannockband.com/Connie Brannock is an R&B Force of Nature! She took the Tucson music scene by storm after she retired from the Army National Guard as Command Sergeant Major, and in 2009 she re-upped as a hot-ticket bandleader and patented R&B artist with enticing authenticity. Vocalist, songwriter, percussionist, poet, she leads Connie Brannock's Little House of Funk and the Connie Brannock Quartet. Ask the robust, happy crowds throughout the Southwest—her live shows are exhilarating!Connie was an entertainer out of the gate. Serious sorties began in high school when her band Luke performed throughout the mid-Atlantic—from Philly to Virginia Beach, to the Princeton Club and William & Mary College. She trekked west in the late 70's, crooning with the Bill Brown Band in Salt Lake City and San Francisco. Back in Utah, she formed another hot tamale group, Connie and the Rhythm Method with David Jette. In demand, they toured Boise, Moab, Missoula, and performed at the Hollywood Palace in Los Angeles.In 1986 Connie Brannock won the Stroh's Superstar Talent Search and was signed by MCA Records. Caleb Ruffin, with Sounds of Success (S.O.S.), recruited her to move to Atlanta and work on a single. Instead, she up and joined the service just before her 35th birthday. Connie served admirably for 21 years and deployed twice in Operation Iraqi Freedom. A compelling leader, she has been a mentor to many young men and women and believes that leadership is an act of love.Connie's releasing her second offering, Last Call, a follow up to her popular debut album, Lady on the Bus. Last Call is an EP featuring six new tunes that reflect the uncertainty of what we are facing in today's tumultous world. She was in the middle of recording a full length album when the pandemic hit and decided to release the tunes she and her team managed to finish, with a plan to release a follow up EP this winter. Connie continues to pay tribute to the legendary artists who shaped her sound on her latest offering: Sly and the Family Stone, Laura Nyro, Carole King, Jeff Lorber and Patrice Rushen.

Today we lost yet another true luminary in the world of magic, Marvyn Roy, better known to many as Mr. Electric."  Marvyn and Carol Roy performed the "Mr. Electric" Act for over fifty years. Mr. Electric toured the world during the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties. Marvyn & Carol were featured at  Radio City Music Hall, the London Palladium, the Latin Quarter, Gorky Park in Moscow, the Ed Sullivan Show and the Hollywood Palace. Whether working hotels, ice shows, floor shows, night clubs, theaters, arenas or amusement parks, Mr. & Mrs. Electric led a life that most magicians only dream of experiencing. Marvyn 95. I interviewed Marvyn in 2009 and hope that you will enjoy remembering him along with me by revisiting this interview.   In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Dai Vernon Foundation. 

It is Wednesday June 3rd, Let's start the podcast! This Day in History • 1888: The poem Casey at the Bat, by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, was published in the San Francisco Examiner. • 1964: The Rolling Stones debuted on U.S. television on Hollywood Palace. Dean Martin hosted the show. • 1980: The NBA Board of Governors voted to make the 3-point goal a permanent part of pro basketball. • 1981: Pope John Paul II left a Rome hospital and returned to the Vatican three weeks after an attempt on his life. • 1982: Elvis Presley's Memphis mansion, Graceland, opened as a tourist attraction. • 1989: China's government sent troops to force protesters out of Tienanmen Square after seven weeks of occupation. • 1997: Residents of the Dickinson, North Dakota, school district voted 2,035 to 569 to continue to call the high school sports teams the Dickinson Midgets. The name, chosen in the 1920s to honor a short basketball team, had been challenged by residents who felt it was inappropriate. • 2005: An 8-inch french fry found by an Iowa bartender sold for nearly $200 on eBay. Mindy Marland said she was working at the Checkered Flag Bar & Grill when she spotted the unusually long french fry. Marland said she decided to sell it on eBay. Bids started at $1. By the time bidding ended, it had sold for $197.50. She also contacted the Guinness Book of Records after reading the record for the longest french fry was 6 3/4 inches. Reasons to party • Global Running Day • Wonder Woman Day • World Bicycle Day • Chocolate Macaroon Day • National Egg Day NUMBER FOR THE DAY 5.8 trillion: Miles in a light year. NEWS ATTACK! - Amazon is planning a summer sale for June 22. - The stomach contents of a 110-year-old dinosaur have been revealed. - There will be a lunar eclipse Friday. - Congo is battling coronavirus, measles, and Ebola. - An Army researcher says a coronavirus vaccine may be available by the end of the year. - A new documentary looks into the 2009 death of actress Brittany Murphy. - A poll about America's driving habits says only 49 percent of drivers obey the speed limit. - A 24-year-old man was killed Tuesday after trying to blow up an ATM in Philadelphia. - In Austria, a woman was standing on a chair on a balcony when she lost her balance and toppled over the edge. Luckily, instead of hitting the ground 30 feet below, she landed in an extra-large window box on a lower floor. Water Cooler Question 65% of Americans say they would support this as their national food. (Bacon) https://www.lowtreestudios.com (https://www.lowtreestudios.com) https://www.patreon.com/theweeklydose (https://www.patreon.com/theweeklydose) 

It was 1775 and Paul Revere rode his horse yelling “The British are coming!” In the 1960's another Paul Revere noticed that the British Invasion was starting all over again. He rode the charts and was successful while many bands collapsed during the invasion. The band was discovered by jock Roger Hart of Portland's KISN. In 1962 they had just experienced breakout success thanks to their regional hit "Louie Louie" (written by Rchard Berry in 1955, and covered by The Kingsmen in 1963). We flew them in to Vancouver to entertain at the annual C-FUN Night at Kits Showboat, an outdoor theatre that has showcased local and international talent for over eighty years. That night the streets were so choked with traffic we had to bring the band onto the beach by barge. Paul never forgot that incident. Paul Revere and the Raiders were the first rock group signed to Columbia Records. Their first national hit was "Steppin' Out" in September 1965. Lead singer Mark Lindsay and the Raiders brought about some of America's hardest Rock to be heard in a decade.The visual effect of the group was enhanced by their American revolutionary war uniforms. TV exposure was helpful in pushing their image across to the young. Dick Clark's TV show "Where The Action Is!" gave them the added advantage. For the next six years they forged ahead with some very strong material: "Kicks", "Hungry", "Good Thing", Him or Me – What's It Gonna Be?" and their biggest hit, their cover of John D. Loudermilk's "Indian Reservation", in 1971. In August 1986, Paul Revere and the Raiders appeared at the Legends of Rock'n'Roll show at EXPO 86 in Vancouver with fellow Northwest music favourites the Ventures and Merrilee Rush. That's where we sat down to record this interview. I also saw Paul in 2010, when I took a busload of listeners to Dick Clark's American Bandstand Theater in Branson, Missouri. Ever gracious, Paul invited the whole group backstage for autographs and photos. Paul's last appearance in Vancouver was in March 2013 at the Red Robinson Show Theatre, where he signed the celebrity wall downstairs. He had previously appeared with Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers during the theatre's grand opening in 2008. Ace photographer Steve Pesant captured Paul performing in this outstanding image. Thanks, Steve! My last encounter with Paul came during a 2013 trip on the Where the Action Is! Rock & Roll Cruise, a Caribbean travel excursion organized by Concerts at Sea. He performed well but struggled noticeably here and there; his manager later disclosed to me the sad news that he had brain cancer. Paul was an unforgettable character, always having fun onstage and off. He died October 15, 2014. One glaring omission in this story: Paul Revere and the Raiders have yet to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, despite scoring seven chart hits between 1965 and 1967. Paul Revere and the Raiders sold nearly 50 million records over the course of their career. They had 15 consecutive hit singles, 6 of which were top 10, four RIAA certified gold albums, one gold single ("Let Me") and one platinum single ("Indian Reservation"). The Raiders appeared on over 500 episodes of ABC's Where the Action Is. They hosted It's Happening, Happening '68 and Happening 69, also on ABC. They appeared on many other TV shows including Ed Sullivan, The Smothers Brothers, Hollywood Palace, and as themselves in a Batman episode "Hizzonner the Penguin", making Paul Revere and The Raiders the most televised musical group in the world. Three Raiders songs were included in Quentin Tarantino's blockbuster 2019 movie "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood". According to the RRHF, "Artists become eligible for induction 25 years after the release of their first record. Criteria include the influence and significance of the artists' contributions to the development and perpetuation of rock and roll." Let's hope they recognize the tremendous contribution Paul Revere and the Raiders made, and soon!

On this day in Quiztory, the Jackson 5 made their television debut on The Hollywood Palace Special performing "I Want You Back"

On this day in Quiztory, the Jackson 5 made their television debut on The Hollywood Palace Special performing "I Want You Back"

Today Ken welcomes BACK to the show Hallelujah the Hills frontman and author of the new book "Astral Weeks: The Secret History of 1968", Ryan Walsh to the show. Ken and Ryan discuss going with it, Van Morrison, mobbed up record execs, Astral Weeks, Cambridge MA, Boston, Charley, The Thomas Crown Affair, Zabriskie Point, Mark Frechette, cat impressions, iRobot, Tampon ads, cats who can do 11 tricks, Racial tensions, James Brown, Kevin White, WGBH, The Newlywed Game, in the butt, makin' Whoopie, Shane MacGowan's Nips, pay offs, The Boston Tea Party, Don Rickles, The Cryptkeeper, X The Man with X-Ray Eyes, Star Search, Hollywood Palace, Bluebird, the birth of the ACLU, Variety Shows, America's first Elephant, the death of America's first elephant, Folk Guitar, Rat Patrol, tough choices for Roddy McDowell fans, LSD, Chicago Festival, the sounds of '68, Bill Cosby, Celebrity Billiards, Scottish Games, sponges, Dom DeLuise, The Flying Nun, Brookline Tennis, the strange history of Salem, MA, problems for married women, That Girl, sound FX CDs, fart machines, Halloween Sound FX tapes, Mexico, BUTTS, screwing, qware, Up With People and the sandwich police.

Wherein we profess our undying love of 1960s A&M (despite it being problematic). Maybe Herb Alpert is over the top for you, you need something more chill? Baja Marimba Band is the answer! More information: Baja Marimba Band on Wikipedia Julius Wechter on Wikipedia LIHF Episode 35: Winchester Cathedral by The New Vaudeville Singers LIHF Episode 25: Going Places by Herb Alpert Video: Baja Marimba Band on Hollywood Palace with Herb Alpert

One of our all-time favorite albums! A staple of our collection from A&M records, Sergio Mendes and Brazil '66 perfectly fuse bossa nova and american pop. Stellar arrangement and crystal clear lady vocals make this album shine.   Listen: Look Around on AppleMusic Look Around on Amazon   More information:  Look Around on Wikipedia  Sérgio Mendes on Wikipedia   Video:  Sergio Mendes on "Hollywood Palace” with host Herb Alpert

August 12-17, 1967 Today Ken welcomes "King of Pop Culture" Gary Sohmers to the show. Ken and Gary discuss proud hoarders, a place for things, birthdays, 15 year old's lust based viewing habits, the Kennedy assassination, Chicagoland, flight path high schools, the nature of proof, being removed Antiques Roadshow history, psychic appraisals, 20th Century Pop culture antiques, Hawaiian shirts, Frank Zappa's paintings, the lack of vetted experts in the modern age, buying low and selling high, knowing the real value of things, being a human remote control, having the best TV around, Nashville TN, Get Smart, television as school yard cultural capital, Mad Magazine, Jack Webb's hatred of LSD, the beatnik to hippie transition, Serials, Wonderful World of Disney, Ed Sullivan, the heyday of Variety Shows, Penn & Teller Fool Us, It's About Time, trampolines, The Stooges at your high school, being a part of the first great moment for teenagers, Bozo, mystery WGN puppet shows, Zacherle, Chuck McCann, Mr. Terrific, The Saint, The Avengers, the exotic swingin' London, The Prisoner, Star Trek, The Invaders, Larry Cohen, Vietnam, Combat!, Ballad of the Green Berets, Antiques on TV in the 60s, antiques from the 90s, Batman '66, Adam West, Doin' Time on Planet Earth, Bob Cummings, Julie Newmar, Hollywood Palace, Lost in Space, inventing celebrity conventions, the influence of Nick at Nite, Billy West, James Hong, thanking your childhood heroes, Ken's love of Annie Potts, North East Comic Con, A Christmas Story, Computer Match Making, T.H.E. Cat, Gary's favorite show: Wild Wild West, Mailbu U, Time Tunnel, Land of the Giants, Space Travel, Ken's Vintage Motorola, 1990s The Flash, DC's TV Universe, Jim Beaver, and missing The Daily Show.

November 2-8, 1963 In this episode recorded at Musso & Frank's the legendary Hollywood dining establishment, Ken welcomes former comedian and current author Klph Nesteroff to the show. Ken and Kliph discuss prime rib, butter levels, direct connections to old Hollywood, classic TV and showbiz knowledge, Kliph's origin story, Hee Haw songs, the backwoods of rural Canada, CTV vs. City Television, Hockey night in Canada, David Letterman, A&E as educational vehicle, Mad Magazine, Cracked overcompensation, Looney Tunes, local TV Guide, early Hollywood films, 70s film books, the early days of modern film critics and historians, My Favorite Martian, Ray Walston fighting Tony Randal, laugh tracks, the "tween-ification" of television, Punky Brewster, cartoons based on live action shows, Little Clowns of Happytown, the educational and protective power of basements, the best time for afros, "Spinner" Spencer's father's gun totin' channel changer, not staying out of trouble, Degrassi, Nickelodeon, You Can't Do That On Television, Les Lye and Rich Little's magic, impressionists, John Voight's right wing politics, WFMU, press pass as passport to the US, Bullwinkle's bikini, Jay Ward, Youth Television (YTV), classic voice actors, King of Kensington, Corner Gas, Al Waxman, Twitch City, The Kids in the Hall, Smith & Smith Comedy Mill, Red Green Show, Lord Love a Duck, Check It Out, musical variety shows, Red Dwarf, the novels written by UK Comics, being a YouTube Baby, doing research without the internet, thrift store comedy records, getting a phone call from Steve Martin, the lost age of 40s-50s mafia controlled comedy, Hellzapoppin', 40s sketch comedy revues, The Steve Allen Show(s), TV Guide going off script, The Tonight Show, Seahunt, To Tell the Truth, Mr. Ed, laugh tracks of the dead, the "uh-oh" woman, Alan Young, the origins of Gilligan's Island, the internet showing the truth about old TV Legends, Game Show depravity, What's My Line, Henry Morgan vs. Harry Morgan, the innovations of the Superman Radio show, Kitty Carlisle, Art Clokey, Christian Jot, Talk About Typing, My Three Sons, Camera Goes to College, beatniks, Adam 12, The Jerry Lewis Theater, The Hollywood Palace, Red Skelton, how not being that great leads to success, marketing sleaze to teenagers, AIP, Bruce Derm's Lost Drive-In, Ernest Borgnine in McHale's Navy, Kurt Russel's Disney Mystery, Carl Ballantine, Hypnotist Records, Doug Henning, Ed McMahon, Philadelphia Regional Shows, Midget Wrestling, the World's Girls, Harlan Ellison's Glass Teat, regional TV Children's Shows multi tasking, Motown by way of Canada, Bert I. Gordon, B-Movie directors making great TV directors, the sliding start times of the Tonight Show, the 90s minute format, Jack Parr, and TV Bowling. 

Episode 39 is here and this time I'm bringing you guys a recorded set at Hollywood Palace, you will hear tracks from Ramon Tapia, Alex Costa, David Herrero, Sam Paganini, Sandy Huner and myself of course. Hope you like and ill see you guys in the next episode!

What more is there to say other than it's Mr. Electric!  I am thrilled to welcome Marvyn Roy to the Magic Newswire's "Spirit of Magic" podcast! If for some strange reason, you don't already know,   Marvyn and Carol Roy performed the "Mr. Electric" Act for over fifty years. Mr. Electric toured the world during the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties. Marvyn & Carol were featured at  Radio City Music Hall, the London Palladium, the Latin Quarter, Gorki Park in Moscow, the Ed Sullivan Show and the Hollywood Palace. Whether working hotels, ice shows, floor shows, night clubs, theaters, arenas or amusement parks, Mr. & Mrs. Electric led a life that most magicians only dream of. 

On this episode, Bill talks with Screenwriter, Comedian, and Pittsburgh Native Marc Sheffler. Marc talks about his days growing up in Pittsburgh and some of the people he has worked with over the years in TV and Movies.  Marc Sheffler used to work as a stage actor for off-Broadway theater. His only film role is of the teenage Junior Stillo in the low-budget Last House on the Left (1972). Since then, Sheffler decided to pursue a career in television writing and production rather than acting.His credits include episodes of "Sister, Sister", "Harry and the Hendersons", "Who's the Boss", and "Charles in Charge" to name but a few. He's also been involved with all kinds of pilots, made for TV movies, and television specials, including the, failed "The Little Shop of Horrors" pilot, "The Happy Days Reunion Show" and "The Best of the Hollywood Palace" specials. He also worked with Mel Blanc, the voice of Warner Bros. cartoons, as the writer of How Bugs Bunny Won The West (1978).Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/1-on-1-with-bill-alexander/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy