FAREWELL WALLY AND BETTY AND ED SULLIVAN'S LAST SHOW

We lost two Disneyland icons last Friday and they both died on the same day. The show was "The Golden Horseshoe Revue" and the performers were Wally Boag (my comedic hero) and his lovely and wonderful co-star, Betty Taylor. I used to love going to see this show every time I went to Disneyland. When I was a kid, I had written a Walt Disney tribute poem and got to know a man by the name of Robert Lilienwall. Bob was always so super to me and he always would call down to the Horseshoe to get me reserved seats for that day's performance. Without those reservations, guests would wait for two hours in line. Wally was a brilliant comedian who had the most amazing comic timing of all time. Walt Disney personally signed Wally for a two week contract way back in 1955. That grew to a gig that lasted until 1982 or almost thirty years. Betty was a beautiful and amazing entertainer who can really sing a wonderful song. In the show Wally (who played Pecos Bill) was supposed to Betty's boyfriend. The routine was as flawless and Abbott and Costello's classic "Who's on First!" Wally was also the voice of Jose, the parrot in Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room", the very first Audio animatronic attraction at Disneyland. We've created a new poster for our latest musical "Father Dreamer" which joins our incredible roster of thirty original musicals in our Creative Horizons catalog. Today is also a milestone in entertainment because forty years ago, today, the last "Ed Sullivan Show" was broadcast on CBS.Sunday nights, 8:00 pm, CBS. Ask almost any American born in the 1950's or earlier what television program ran in that time slot on that network, and they'll probably know the answer: The Ed Sullivan Show. For more than two decades, Sullivan's variety show was the premiere television showcase for entertainers of all stripes, including borscht-belt comedians, plate-spinning vaudeville throwbacks and, most significantly, some of the biggest and most current names in rock and roll. Twenty-three years after its 1948 premiere, The Ed Sullivan Show had its final broadcast on this day in 1971. In its first eight years of existence, there was no such thing as rock and roll to be featured on the program originally called Toast of the Town, yet even its first broadcast made music history when Broadway composers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II gave the world its first taste of the score from their upcoming musical, South Pacific. Over the years, live performances of new and current Broadway shows were featured regularly on Ed Sullivan, including Julie Andrews singing "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?" from My Fair Lady and Richard Burton singing "What Do The Simple Folk Do?" from Camelot. Classical and opera performers also made frequent appearances, but of course The Ed Sullivan Show is now remembered most for providing so many iconic moments in the history of televised rock and roll. Elvis Presley's first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, in September 1956, was actually one of his most restrained and least thrilling. It was notable, however, given Ed Sullivan's assertion earlier that year that he'd never allow "The King" on his show. By the time the Beatles rolled around, Sullivan was far more comfortable with the hysteria young Elvis had caused. In fact, it was Ed Sullivan personally witnessing Beatlemania up close at London's Heathrow airport in 1963 that led the Beatles being booked for their historic February 1964 American television debut. Through the rest of the 60s, The Ed Sullivan Show continued to host the day's biggest rock acts: The Rolling Stones, The Supremes, The Doors, The Mamas and the Papas, Janis Joplin and more. Gladys Knight and the Pips were the musical guests on the final episode of The Ed Sullivan Show, which was cancelled shortly after its rerun broadcast on this day in 1971.

PHIL SILVERS 100TH BIRTHDAY AND WONDERLAND TO CLOSE

One of the greatest natural clowns and incredibly funny men would have turned one hundred years old today. His name was Phil Silvers: the absolute master of in your face, but honest comedy. His Sgt. Bilko character was the best and I'm sorry to say can not be imitated-- even though dear Steve Martin tried. Funny funny man. Known as the "King of Chutzpah" Phil was born on Thursday, May 11, 1911, in Brooklyn, New York where he was the eighth and youngest child of Russian- Jewish immigrants, Saul and Sarah (née Handler) Silver. His brothers and sisters were Lillian, Harry, Jack, Saul, Pearl, Michael, and Reuben Silver. His father was a sheet metal worker, helped build the early New York skyscrapers. Dear Phil Silvers started entertaining at age 11, when he would sing in theaters when the projector broke down (a common occurrence in those days). Two years later, he left school to sing professionally, before appearing in vaudeville as a stooge. He then landed work in short films for the Vitaphone studio, burlesque houses, and on Broadway where he made his debut in the short-lived show Yokel Boy. Critics raved about Silvers, who was hailed as the bright spot in the mediocre play. He then wrote the revue High Kickers, until he went to Hollywood to appear in films.He made his film debut in Hit Parade of 1941 in 1940 (his previous appearance as a 'pitch man' in "Strike Up The Band" was cut). Over the next two decades, he worked as a character man for MGM, Columbia , and 20th Century Fox in such films as Lady Be Good , Coney Island Cover Girl and Summer Stock. When the studio system began to decline, he returned to the stage.

Silvers wrote the lyrics for Frank Sinatra's "Nancy (With the Laughing Face)". Although he was not a songwriter, he wrote the lyrics while visiting composer Jimmy Van Heusen. The two composed the song for Van Heusen's writing partner Johnny Burke, for his wife Bessie's birthday. Substituting Sinatra's little daughter's name Nancy at her birthday party, the trio impressed the singer to record it himself. The song became a popular hit in 1944 and was a staple in Sinatra's live performances. Silvers scored a major triumph in Top Banana , a Broadway show of 1952. Silvers played Jerry Biffle, the egocentric, always-busy star of a major television show. (The character is said to have been based on Milton Berle. .) Silvers dominated the show and won a Tony Award for his performance. He repeated the role in the 1954 film version that was originally released in 3-D. Phil Silvers became a household name in 1955 when he starred as Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko in You'll Never Get Rich, later retitled The Phil Silvers Show. . The military comedy became a huge television hit, with the opportunistic Bilko fast-talking his way through one obstacle after another. Most episodes of the series were filmed in New York . The series ceased production in 1959, not owing to any decline in popularity, but because of the high production costs of a show with a huge ensemble cast.

Throughout the 1960s he appeared internationally in films such as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and 4o Pounds of Trouble . He was featured in Marilyn Monroe's last film, the unfinished Something's Got To Give" . In the 1963–1964 television season, he appeared as Harry Grafton, a factory foreman interested in get-rich-quick schemes, much like the previous Bilko character, in CBS's 30-episode The Phil Silvers Show. Today is also the birthday of Irving Berlin: the father of American music. Amazing guy. He never read a note of music and he could only play the black keys on the piano. One of his early arrangers was George Gershwin. Early on, Irving sent him away saying "George, you are much too talented to be regelated as a note taker for me. Sorry alsdo to hear about Frank Wildhorn's musical "Wonderland" which will be closing after only thirty-three performances on May 15th. It's sad: Frank hasn't had much success lately on Broadway in the last ten years. but somehow I knew intrinsically that this musical was just not going to make it. It wasn't "large" enough in the high concept department and in my humble opinion just didn't pass the public's "Who Cares?" test that we've talked about here. It cost an average of $125.00 and $150.00 to see a Broadway show today-- so guess what? Today's Broadway musical has to be really top of the hill in high concept. Movie titles help, but are no guarantee. That pitch has got to contain the who, what, where, when and how in two sentences-- and those are the two sentences that need to resonate in the minds of the public. John and I continue to write as many high concept shows that we can. We're writing one on Saint Valentine and Jack The Ripper that looks at the story from Jack's Point of view. By the way, I found some funny signs that you might enjoy also. It's crazy how people don't realize what kind of message they are delivering!

REMEMBERING BEA ARTHUR

Bea Arthur was an amazing comic actress, singer and Broadway star. We lost her to cancer two years ago today. She could deliver a line like Bob Hope, Jack Benny and many other comedians combined. Her portayal of "Maude" was classic and incredibly funny as Dorothy on the Golden Girls. I was priveleged to have written one episode for the Golden Girls show many years ago. Dear Bea was married twice.

Her first marriage took place during her time in the military, when she married fellow Marine Robert Alan Aurthur, a screenwriter, television, and film producer and director, whose surname she took and kept (though with a modified spelling). Shortly after they divorced, she married director Gene Saks from 1950 to 1978 with whom she adopted two sons, Matthew (born in 1961), an actor, and Daniel (born in 1964), a set designer.
In 1972, she moved to the Greater Los Angeles Area and sublet her apartment on Central Park West in New York City and her country home in Bedford, New York. Bea Arthur was a committed animal-rights activist and frequently supported People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals campaigns and joined PETA in 1987 after a Golden Girls anti-fur episode. She appeared on Judge Judy as a witness for an animal-rights activist, and, along with Pamela Anderson insisted on a donation to PETA in exchange for appearing on Comedy Central. In Norfolk, Virginia near the site of the PETA headquarters, there is a dog park named (Bea Arthur Dog Park) in her honor. Arthur's longtime championing of civil rights for women, the elderly, and the Jewish & LGBT communities—in her two television roles and through her charity work and personal outspokenness. Arthur died at her home in the Greater Los Angeles Area in the early morning hours of Saturday, April 25, 2009. She had been ill from cancer,and her body was cremated after her death. Her ashes were given to either a friend or relative.On April 28, 2009, the Broadway community paid tribute to Arthur by dimming the marquees of New York City's Broadway theater district in her memory for one minute at 8:00 P.M. Bea Arthur's co-stars from The Golden Girls, Rue McClanahan and Betty White, commented on her death via telephone on an April 27 episode of Larry King Live as well as other news outlets such as ABC. Longtime friends Adrienne Barbeau (with whom she had worked on Maude) and Angela Lansbury (with whom she had worked in Mame) released amicable statements: Barbeau said, "We've lost a unique, incredible talent. No one could deliver a line or hold a take like Bea and no one was more generous or giving to her fellow performers"; and Lansbury said, "She became and has remained my "Bosom Buddy" I am deeply saddened by her passing, but also relieved that she is released from the pain".
Arthur bequeathed $300,000 to The Ali Forney Center, a New York City organization that provides housing for homeless LGBT youths. Dear Bea won the American Theatre Wing's Tony Award (The Tonys) in 1966 as Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance that year as Vera Charles in the original Broadway production of Jerry Herman's musical Mame. Arthur has received the most Emmy nominations for Leading Actress in a Comedy Series with 9. She later received the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series twice, once in 1977 for Maude and again in 1988 for The Golden Girls. She was inducted into the Academy's Hall of Fame in 2008.
On June 8, 2008, The Golden Girls was awarded the Pop Culture award at the Sixth Annual TV Land Awards. Arthur (in one of her final public appearances) accepted the award with co-stars Rue McClanahan and Betty White.

ITS A SMALL WORLD'S 45 ANNIVERSARY

HAPPY 45th ANNIVERSARY

TO
DISNEYLAND'S

"IT'S A SMALL WORLD"

Think of the song by the magnificent Sherman Brothers "It's A Small World" and perhaps the very first thing you will think of is "I can't get that song out of my mind. Well for a songwriter that's about the best compliment you can get. And since I am a songwriter, I would be proud to have that compliment said about any of my songs. Perhaps it would help you say if the song had if you had more verses. Though translated in different languages, the attractions only carry two verses, but at least three additional verses were at one point penned for the Disney On Parade touring show that was held in the late 1960s and early 1970s. All five verses are listed below: The version of "It's A Small World that you see here is the one to be found at Disneyland Paris. Anyway, the all the verses written by Dick and Bob Sherman follow:

Verse #1
It's a world of laughter, a world of tears.It's a world of hope and a world of fears.There's so much that we share,That it's time we're aware,It's a small world after all.

Verse #2
There is just one moon and one golden sun.And a smile means friendship to everyone.Though the mountains are wide,And the oceans divide,It's a small world after all.

For three of its four seasons, each Disney on Parade show ended with a Small World finale

Here is that verse: I kind of like this one a lot

Verse #3.
It's a world of star light of sky and sea

It's a world of wonder for you and me
Like a world without end

But come closer my friend,

It's a small world after all.

Here is yet another verse: This was is pretty good:

Verse #4

In a world where people are still apart

Build a bridge or handshake a hopeful start

If we hold out our hands,We will soon understand,
It's a small world after all.

A fifth verse may be stretching it a bit, but if sung correctly it could be wonderful!

Verse #5
If we just lock hands clear around the earth,
We will know how much brotherhood is worth.
It's a chain strong as steel
In it's strength we can feel,

It's a small world after all.

I had absolutely no idea that the Sherman Brothers had composed so many verses for the incredible song. The original attraction was inteneded for the New York World's Fair of 196401965. The fair itself lost a lot of money because it was poorly laid out, but the Disney attractions were solid hits. We all perhaps have heard of the famous story about "It's A Small World" which was sponsored by Pepsi Cola at the fair. The Pepsi Company Board of Directors simply hated it and thought it was dreadful. Luckily for all of us the Pepsi Chairman had just died and his famous actress wife took over. She loved it and threatened to fire every member if the board whoopposed it. That celebrity ladies and gentlemen was none other than "Mrs. Wooden Coathanger-- JOAN CRAWFORD. Of course, there is another "Small World" story that is quite classic. Walt Disney was driving the Sherman Brothers to WED Enterprises back in 1963 to show them the prototype for the original attraction at the World's Fair. Walt was telling the Shermans how the ride would be a salute to the children of the world and how the attraction was being sponsored by UNICEF. The Shermans hearing the acronym UNICEF said "OH, we should donate our royalties to the UNICEF. Walt put the brakes on the car and put the car in park, turned around to the Shermans and said "Boys, don't you worry about the children of the world-- the world will take care of them-- DOn't you ever give your royalties to anyone!" Now Walt Disney could have turned that single generous offer into one hell of a marketing campaign, but Walt Disney was simply not that kind of man.. The Shermans make a lot of money a year for a little song that took ten minutes to write.

A VERY SAD DAY

I received a telephone call from my sister with some very sad news. I have always been a cradle Catholic. What's that you say? It's a guy who still doesn't eat meat on Friday and says grace before eating a "Twinkee". The sad news was that the church that I had attended for nine years or so --Saint John Vianney in Hacienda Heights had burned down the night before. It started about a few minutes after midnight and was finally contained about two and a half hours later. The fire it was discovered had been started by an arsonist. There was nine million dollars worth of damage. Gone were all the magnificent stained glassed windows. Gone was the altar and the most beautiful Christ upon the cross and worse gone was the church's million dollar pipe organ. I had attended Saint John's starting in 1984 while I was married. My ex-wife introduced it to me and I always thought it was a most beautiful church. Even after we were divorced, I continued to attend the church. In 1990, I became a parishoner and started to be active in the church. Father Joe Shea was the pastor then. In 1992, I started as the entertainment chairman of the church's big fundraising annual effort called "Early California Days". Two years later a new pastor that I knew well by the name of Monsignor John Kane arrived at the church. I had known John from his service at Saint Denis Catholic Church in Diamond Bar. Monsignor Kane was an amazing pastor. A big trouble swallowed my life in 1996 and into 199y and I found myself homeless. It was the amazing Monsignor Kane who got me to the welfare office and got me my medication for my diabetes plus he paid for my resumes to be created and paid my long overdue automobile insurance. Such an amazing man. I am very sad about this beloved church that love very much and I pray that the parishioners will found the courage, have the resolve and determination to help the church re-build. I also pray for the arsonist: what possesses a man or woman to do such a thing? The church is also special because it was here that we staged our second "Touch A Life: concert a few years ago. I wish my friends there including dear Lillian Avery the courage to see through this senseless tragedy. God bless you all! You will be in paryers daily!

THE ONE HUNDRETH AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CIVIL WAR

Today, April 12, 2011 is the 150th anniversary of the start of the greatest and the most painful war in this beloved country's history. It began with the election of a president by dear old South Carolina which throughout US history beginning with John C. Calhoun has always provided the heat of controversial thought. On December 20, 1860 South Carolina delegates to a special secession convention voted unanimously to secede from the United States of America. In November, Abraham Lincoln had been elected President of the United States with little support from the southern states. The critical significance of this election was expressed in South Carolina’s Declaration of the Immediate Causes of Secession: “A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all states north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of president of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery.” The Declaration claimed that secession was justified because the Federal government had violated the constitutional compact by encroaching upon the rights of the sovereign states. As the primary violation, the Declaration listed the failure of 14 northern states to enforce the Federal Fugitive Slave Act or to restrict the actions of antislavery organizations. “Thus the constituted compact has been deliberately broken and disregarded by the non-slave holding States, and the consequence follows that South Carolina is released from her obligation.” The Declaration expressed South Carolina’s fear that “The slave holding states will no longer have the power of self-government, or self-protection, and the Federal Government will have become their enemy.”What brought the people of the United States to a point where talking had ceased which eventually led to war? Was war the only option? Visit Fort Sumter to learn about the many events and policies that led America to split in 1861.

ONCE UPON A MATTRESS

The name Carol Burnett and the title Once Upon a Mattress are closely linked, and with good reason; the success of the 1959 musical — which began life on lower Second Avenue at the Phoenix, transferred to the Alvin, and enjoyed successful television adaptations in 1964 and 1972 — rested firmly on the capable shoulders of Burnett as the "girl named Fred." Princess Winnifred the Woebegone, more formally, from the swamps. Carol Burnett was not the only performer to take on the role, naturally enough. dear Dody Goodman headed the national tour, in which she was replaced by Imogene Coca who was probably very funny (although she was 52 at the time, a good 25 years older than Burnett). Winnifred was played by Tracey Ullman in a 2005 television production; the show was also revived on Broadway in 1996 with Sarah Jessica Parker in the lead, about which the less said the better. Which leaves us with the question, how do you compete with memories of dear Carol Burnett? Not Burnett the superstar, which she was by 1968 or so; but Burnett the comic genius, who I expect was already slaying 'em when she stepped out as a veritable unknown for the earliest performances of Mattress. So today I listened to the original London cast album of Once Upon a Mattress is instructive in addressing this question. Rather than casting the role locally, the producers endeavored to find a similarly young and fresh and distinctly American comedienne. Jane Connell wasn't fully unknown at the time; a familiar face in the San Francisco and N.Y. nitery worlds, Connell played Mrs. Peachum in the historic 1955 Off-Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera and made her Broadway debut singing about "April in Fairbanks (Alaska)" in New Faces of 1956. Connell went to London for Mattress, which opened Sept. 20, 1960, at the Adelphi. And really bombed, closing after only 24 performances. This was a close recreation of the original production, presented by Richard Rodgers — father of Mattress composer Mary — and Oscar Hammerstein II under their "Williamson Music Ltd." mantle. George Abbott's staging was recreated by Jerome Whyte, Richard Rodgers' great pal and right-hand (or whyte-hand) man, with the New York physical production and choreography reproduced. The cast included at least one performance we might have wanted to see — Milo O'Shea as the King. It's not that Connell is poor in the role; she is distinctive, as one might suppose, and not just a pale copy of the original star. But there is hardly anything she does, as Winnifred, that doesn't instantly make us think: Carol did it better. Of course she did it better; Carol was Fred, and Fred was Carol. Other over sized talents might have been able to make the role their own, in the same way that Mary Martin made a convincing Annie Oakley in the national tour of Annie Get Your Gun. That other Carol, for example — Channing, that is — might have made an interesting Winnifred; ten years earlier, anyway.
Burnett sang loud, for sure, but it was a loudness masking her character's embarrassment — mixed with a certain amazement at that sound emanating from her mouth. Connell, here, is of the loud-is-funny school; and it ain't. Although let it be said that she more than proved her mettle six years later when she got her hands on Agnes Gooch in Mame. Connell always seemed like a little old character woman, and a very funny one; which might explain why she was an unlikely, and apparently unsuccessful, Winnifred. The two comediennes eventually shared the stage, in 1995, in the mirthlessly unfunny Moon Over Buffalo; watching the pair I don't suppose anyone could imagine Connell having replaced Burnett in any role, ever.
As is the practice of Sepia Records, they have filled out the CD with another piece of Rodgers. Mary, that is. "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves 40" sounds more promising than it is. This was a 1957 two-sided 78 for children from Golden Records, with the tale told and sung by Bing Crosby; Mary's music had lyrics by Sammy Cahn, of all people. But it is not, alas, found treasure. Today is also Steven Schwartz's sixty-third birthday and today in 1974 was the opening of Richard and Robert Sherman's "Over Here" which introduced John Travolta, Samuel E. Wright and Treat Williams to the world.

THE PROP THAT WENT WRONG AND THE BILLY ELLIOT LAWSUIT

So You suppose that only things in YOUR LIFE goes wrong. But the world of the stage is a very interesting place to recount all of the crazy things that go wrong David Rendall, an opera singer, began a two million dollar law suit law suit after a stage set collapsed on top of him midway through a performance Rendall claimed his career was ruined by the accident, which shattered his hip and knee and damaged his shoulders. The 61-yea old tenor said he was unable to perform and has been forced to sell his house because work offers have dried up. The accident happened in April 2005 during a production of Aida at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen. The accident was not Mr Rendall's first brush with misfortune on stage. During a performance of I Pagliacci in Milwaukee in 1998 he accidentally stabbed another singer in the stomach with a flick knife. The blade was supposed to retract but instead plunged three inches into the abdomen of Kimm The production continued with a replacement baritone and a retractable toy knife. In April of last year RSC actor Darrell D'Silva accidentally shot himself in the hand. The press night of Michael Boyd's modern-dress revival of Antony and Cleopatra was delayed after D'Silva sustained an unspecified injury from a stage gun during a technical rehearsal and subsequently required surgery. In Vienna in 2008 an actor, required to slit his own throat in a production of Schiller's Mary Stuart, discovered that the knife that he was using was not a blunt prop, but razor sharp. Unaware that what they were witnessing was real, the audience were obviously deeply impressed by the authenticity of his acting. Fortunately the actor survived. Last year, rehearsals for an amateur production of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men in Florida came to an abrupt halt when one actor accidentally shot off another's ear. He lived to tell the tale, which wasn't the case with Chung Ling Soo, known as "the marvellous Chinese conjuror", who was shot dead by his own assistants at the Wood Green Empire in 1918 while attempting to catch two bullets in his teeth. Meanwhile productions of Macbeth appear to have the highest incident rate.
In 1948, Diana Wynard fell 15 feet into a pit during a production of The Scottish Play when she walked off the stage with her eyes closed in the sleepwalking scene. A century earlier 23 audience members were trampled to death when a riot broke out during a performance of Macbeth in Astor Place, New York At the Old Vic production of Macbeth in 1937 a 25lb weight fell from the ceiling and missed Laurence Olivier by inches. Old Vic founder Lilian Baylis died on the night of the final dress rehearsal. In 1990 at Hampstead's Pentameter Theatre the plastic retractable dagger failed to retract and Lady Macduff (Dr Annabel Joyce) had to go to hospital. She made a full recovery. And just reported now, Two women from Kansas City, MO, who attended the Nov. 23, 2009, performance of Billy Elliot The Musical have filed a $4 million lawsuit over injuries sustained while watching the hit musical, according to the New York Post. While sitting in the front row at the Imperial Theatre, Elaine Rosen and Cynthia Noblit were hit in the face by a prop that flew off the stage during a production number prior to the end of the musical's first act.
Both were taken to a hospital following the incident. Fifty-four year-old Rosen now has a "permanent scar" on her face, according to her lawyer Steven Halperin, while 60-year-old Noblit suffered a concussion. The lawyer told the Post that the production had invited both women to return to the musical; the staging of the first act production number has also been modified to avoid any future incidents. The lawsuit, according to the Post, charges the show's producers, Billy Broadway and NBC Universal, with "'general negligence' for 'arranging a hazardous and dangerous choreography' and 'failing to give . . . any notice or warning' to the audience."
Billy Elliot, winner of ten Tony Awards, including Best Musical, continues to play Broadway's Imperial Theatre. And on a personal, mention of "The Scottish Play's name" on stage proved to be very unlucky for my production of "Edgar Alan and Poe" and it caused a whole rafter of bad luck things-- but such is life. Happy Birthday to Harold arlen and on this day in 1986, show business lost the late great
and absolutely amazing Ethel Merman: the only singer in the world that could hold a note longer than Chase Manhattan Bank.

GOODBYE CALIFORNIA, HELLO FLORIDA

It's been a while since I've written here and sadly I must report that for the first time in my entire life, I had a scheduled production cancelled. That's the bad news. The good news is that we have one of the same show coming up in Florida in late August of 2011. The lessons were many. First I must realize that Los Angeles Actors are not what once they were. They don't want to work that hard because they are of "the movie shoot" mentality. A "movie shoot mentality" means that they don't really have any real reason to memorize lines. Everything's on a cue card. The great Marlon Brando never memorized a script after "On The Waterfront" He had crib notes always. A very funny true story happened during the filming of "The Godfather" with Francis Ford Coppola. A very brief scene was to be filmed and Brando discovered that his crib notes were missing from the set. He got very angry and wanted to know where they were. A frustrated Francis Coppola said "But Marlon, you only have one word to say-- "It's the word "Yes". How could you possibly screw that up?" In his classic raspy whispery "Godfather" voice brando replied "I Could say "No". Los Angeles actors today simply do not have the discipline, the devotion and the hard work mentality that they once did -- like back in 1984 and 1989 when I was really producing plays. They have expensive I pods but not relliable internet connections. They have the latest computer programs but not printers. They complain at more things-- even when there is payment for them that sure beats the old do it for the art. This group was actually afraid that references in the show to the late great Milton Berle and the very much alive (but apparently not known in California) Stephen Sondhiem was going to cause people to laugh at them in ridicule. In future, I will be interviewing actors very carefuly. No longer wil it be "actors who sing" it will be "singers that act". And it will be actors who have less conflicts than windows for opportunity. It wil be actors who can come to a rehearsal without texting all night which in my opinion zaps mental concentration. It will be singing actors who can read music and can hear a Midi rendition of a tune and be able to rehearse it. No more divas-- male or female. Maybe I should put the same sign that my friend Kenny Loggins put on the door of the "We Are The World" recording. That sign said "Leave your ego at the door, or leave you card and get the hell out." Pretty strong words. The other lesson is to not allow a fraternity of actors from another show to be in another. Bad news. The actors in this group will be "all for one" and thus they wil be the first to cause trouble. And the last lesson: give more time for rehearsal! So on to Florida we go. Evidently that's where the really professional actor has gone to. Los Angeles actors are a lot lazy--and they could never pull this crap in New York City!

ALADDIN FLIES AGAIN

One of my all time favorite Disney scores is Aladdin written by Alan Menken with lyrics by the oh-so-missed Howard Ashamn who passed from this weary world in 1992. Disneyland's California Adventure where our friend Brandon Pohl stars as Aladdin four times a week. Brandon had been cast in our latest musical "The Bremen Town Boys" (please see our web site: http://www.brementownboys.com/ ) but he had to bow out due to scheduling restraints. Now we learn that Tony Award nominee Casey Nicholaw will stage the world-premiere, two-act stage musical adaptation of the Academy Award-winning Disney film Aladdin at the 5th Avenue Theatre this summer. The new stage adaptation will incorporate the Oscar-winning songs from the 1992 film, penned by composer Alan Menken and lyricists Howard Ashman and Tim Rice. Aladdin will also have a new book by Chad Beguelin (The Wedding Singer), who will pen new lyrics along with Menken. Aladdin will debut July 7-31 with direction and choreography by Nicholaw. The pilot production will be used to launch the new two-act version as a licensable property for professional and amateur organizations through Music Theatre International, which handles rights for Disney Theatrical titles. The new stage production of Aladdin will feature cut songs and moments from early drafts of the property. "Proud of Your Boy," a popular song with lyrics by Ashman, was originally cut from previous drafts and could make its debut in Seattle.Aladdin marks a return to Alan Menkins and Howard Ashman's original vision: a loving homage to the Hope-Crosby road pictures with a score invoking the jazz sound of stars like Cab Calloway and Fats Waller." The new Seattle production will not be the first time that Disney has let the genie out of the bottle besides California Adventure's daily runs , Houston's Theatre Under the Stars debuted a pilot production of a dual-language version of Aladdin in 2009.
Other versions of Disney's Aladdin have been available for years through MTI's Kids and Junior series, which offers pared down versions of stage musicals, geared toward youth theatre performers and young audiences. Disney has also previously developed "Mulan," "Cinderella," "Alice in Wonderland" and "High School Musical" for its youth theatre series. Disney is also at work on a theatrical adaptation of its 1992 live-action film "Newsies," which also features a score by Menken and a new book by Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein. Yeah for Harvey! His magic will make it come alive! The property has been sought after by numerous schools and theatre groups across the country for years, and will likely receive its own pilot staging in the near future prior to being released as part of Disney's theatrical licensing catalogue. But right now, the new production is not aimed at Broadway, but licensing for schools and colleges. Our own show "The Bremen Town Boys" continues its rehearsal process and we have a wonderful director who is simply brilliant. Her name is Cat Deobler. The weather here in California has actually gotten over it's terrible cold spell. I actually have my front door open as I write this. That would have been stupid only four days ago. My new little cat "Joshua" is a real character, himself. He's a Siamese-Rag Doll mix and has more personality than some people I know.

GYPSY ROSE LEE'S 100TH BIRTHDAY

I remember Gypsy Rose Lee as a young man-- she was certainly a hoot to watch on television. Watching the musical "Gypsy" is always entertaining for me. But her life in the later years is even more interesting than the story the musical tells. As late as 1948, Gypsy Rose Lee and her sister June Havoc continued to get demands for money from their mother, who had opened a boardinghouse for women in a 10-room apartment on West End Avenue in New York City (the property rented for her by Gypsy, herself), as well as a farm in Highland Mills, New York. Not bad-- a farm and a boarding house together! Good old Mama Rose shot and killed one of her guests who was actually Mama Rose's female lover who had made a pass at Gypsy, according to an account provided by Gypsy's son, Erik Lee Preminger). The incident was explained away as a suicide and Rose was not prosecuted. Mama Rose died in 1954 of colon cancer With their mother dead, the sisters now felt free to write about her without risking a lawsuit. Gypsy's memoirs, titled Gypsy, were published in 1957 and were taken as inspirational material for the Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents musical Gypsy: A Musical Fable. June Havoc did not like the way she was portrayed in the piece, but she was eventually persuaded (and paid) not to oppose it in public for her sister's sake. The play and the subsequent movie deal assured Gypsy a steady income. The sisters became estranged and didn't speak for years. June, in turn, wrote the novel "Early Havoc" and "More Havoc",relating her version of the story. Gypsy Rose Lee went on to host a morning San Francisco KGO-TV television talk show, Gypsy. She was diagnosed in 1969 with metastatic lung cancer, which prompted her to reconcile with June before her death. "This is my present, you know," \she reportedly told June, " this is my present from Mother".
The walls of her Los Angeles home were adorned with pictures by Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, and Dorothea Tanning, all of which were reportedly gifts to her by the artists themselves. Like Picasso, she was a supporter of the Popular Front movement in the Spanish Civil War and raised money for charity to alleviate the suffering of Spanish children during the conflict. She also founded one of the first kennels dedicated to breeding Chinese Crested dogs in the U.S, "Lee", which was sold after her death to Mrs. Ida Garrett and Debora Wood. Gypsy Rose Lee died of lung cancer in Los Angeles in 1970. She is buried Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.

WE REMEMBER JEAN KERN

The picture today is a photo from a Broadway show that ran almost 1600 performances. Neil Simon never runs that long on the Great White Way. The play is "Mary, Mary" The stars are Barbara Bel Geddes and Barry Miler. The author is Jean Kerr. Jean Kerr, wife of Broadway film critic, Walter Kerr was and remains one of my all time favorite writers. The things she wrote were national best sellers and Tony award winning plays and musicals. She of course wrote the world famous "Please Don't Eat The Daisies" and the very funny Broadway play called "Mary, Mary" which I had the absolute honor and delight running lights for for the San Gabriel Little Theatre right after my father died back in 1967. That starred Gary and Linda Hamner, two of the best actors on the planet and dear old David P. Klain who taught social studies at Wilson High School in Hacienda Heights where my friend Tim Doran played piano for almost twenty years. Those were great years. Jean Kerr, whose wry wit and unerring eye for life's everyday absurdities kept legions of readers and theatergoers laughing with books died on this date back in 1980 in White Plains, New York. She was 80. She lived nearby in Larchmont, N.Y., and also in Westchester County. Mrs. Kerr was well acquainted with the glamour, grit and egocentric follies of life in the theater and capitalized on that experience. She wrote entertainingly and often about show business, musing about what to say when lunching with a prospective producer (order a drink, so you look relaxed, but don't touch it lest he think you're an alcoholic), or gloomily anticipating negative reviews of her latest work (''If I have to commit suicide, I have nothing but Gelusil'').But she also had an unquestioned gift for finding the comic in the commonplace anxieties of suburbia and married life. She cheerfully acknowledged doing most of her writing in the family car, parked several blocks away from the scrambling chaos of several children and pets (''There is nothing to do but write, after I get the glove compartment tidied up. The Kerrs made their debut as a team on Broadway in 1946 with ''Song of Bernadette,'' a dramatization of Franz Werfel's novel about a young Frenchwoman who was canonized after saying she had seen visions of the Virgin Mary in a grotto near Lourdes. It was not a success, nor was her solo writing effort two years later, a comedy called ''Jenny Kissed Me,'' about a priest who finds his household disrupted by the arrival of his housekeeper's niece.
Jean and Walter Kerr teamed up again in 1949 with ''Touch and Go,'' a revue for which they wrote the sketches and lyrics and which Mr. Kerr directed. The show was a hit, with sketches ranging from ''Hamlet'' performed as a musical comedy to a location rehearsal for a film sequence in which one of the characters, a trained ape, turns out to be smarter than the glamorous actress who is the star of the film. Brooks Atkinson, writing in The New York Times,praised the Kerrs' ''breezy and informed wit'' and hailed the show as the best of the season. It was her quotes that always made me laugh.

Tidbits like "Getting Divorced is like getting hit by a Mack truck. If you survive it, you go around life always looking closely to the right and the left." Hats off, dear Jean. I hope the world will continue reading your many plays and books.

THE GREATEST FLOP IN BROADWAY HISTORY

Before I tell you all about the greatest flop in Broadway history, I must tell you that I read today that the musical "Wicked" has now broken the all time weekly box office record of any musical in Broadway history. Or for that matter, at the Gershwin Theatre in New York City where it is now in its eighth year. The gross for one week between December 26th, 2010 and January 3rd 2011 at this theatre alone was $2,228,235. There are two touring versions in the country as well. One is in Chicago, which broke more records grossing $1,726,476 in the same week and Indianapolis which grossed in the same period a whopping $1,597,732. That's a total of (drum roll please) $5,552,443 for ONE WEEK. Absolutely amazing and it couldn't to a nicer man. God love you, Steven Schwartz! You who help countless numbers of we dreamers who want to have our own "Broadway Miracle" He works so hard helping others and has certainly been an inspiration to me and my writing partner, John Nugent. Now before you say "Well, if you're already famous like Steven Schwartz. things like that just happen. Oh no! Ask Charles Strouse with or without Lee Adams how being famous doesn't save you from a great big Broadway flop. Together they had one of the biggest-- "Bring Back Byrdie" (Donald O' Connor in a jump suit?-- dear God) and "It's A Bird, It's a Plane" But the all time biggest flop in the world was called "Home Sweet Homer" with music by Mitch Leigh, the composer of "Man of La Mancha." It even co-starred Joan Diener who had been in "La Mancha" and the legendary Yul Brynner. It opened and closed in one afternoon-- not even making it to the Sunday evening performance. That date was today's date in 1976-- yes, the same year that Jimmy Carter took office as president. The libretto or the book of this notorious flop was by Roland Kibbee and Albert Marre. The lyrics were written by Charles Burr and Forman Brown and as I mentioned before, the music was written by "The Impossible Dream" composer Mitch Leigh. By the way, Mitch Leigh never again had a successful Broadway show after this unmitigated disaster. Originally, this ill fated musical bomb was called "Odyssey". It was Loosely based on Homeric legend, focusing on Odysseus , the hero of the Trojan War and the guy who came up with the sneaky idea of the Trojan Horse. Brilliant! Now, according to legend, while fighting in this war, Odysseus did something so offensive to the god Poseidon that the angry god decreed that he would never find his way back home. Of course it also involved his spouse Penelope, awaiting his return to Ithaca. You remember her-- the most faithful wife in history. When her husband never returned, because of the god's decree, she was pressured to marry one of the young men in the country which she actually promised to do the day that she actually finished weaving a hug tapestry that she sewed by day in full view of everyone in town and secretly unraveled it at night. Is that a sneaky broad or what? Of course, although it was a great stalling, all of these would be suitors all moved right into the palace, all of them waiting for the finish day of this amazing tapestry and every one of them took full advantage of Grecian hospitality in general and her good heart in particular! -- you know, gold, treasures, food. Well anyway, after ten long years, Odysseus returns in a very convincing secret disguise of a poor beggar and retuns to Ithaca where he gathers some friends who recognize him. He then convinces dear Penelope to announce the choosing date of one of the many suitors. She is to hold a contest wherein she will marry the suitor who is able to string Odysseus' bow and fire an arrow through a set of gold rings: a feat that only Odysseus, himself had been known to do. During the contest, Odysseus friends lock all of the doors to the Palace. After all the suitors fail at the task, Odysseus, himself begs to try. The suitors who think he is only a poor beggar mock him, but it might good sport to watch his failure. Once Odysseus achieves the task, his disguise is miraculously removed by the goddess Athena. Once his true identity is revealed, Odysseus uses the rest of his arrows to kill all of the suitors. Now, he is totally victorious and he and Penelope and their twenty year old son, Telemachus (born on the day his father left to fight the Trojan War) all live happily ever after. Too bad this poor show didn't have the same luck. The musical was designed as a vehicle for Yul Brynner, who was anxious to duplicate his success in The King and I more than two decades earlier. The original book and lyrics were by author Erich Segal, the author of "Love Story" and a fairly modest production with a small cast began a national tour in December 1974. The tour was plagued with problems from the start. Both Brynner and co-star Joan Diener r frequently were ill and missed performances. In April 1975, the two, together with Diener's husband Marre and Brynner's wife Jacqueline, filed a $7.5 million lawsuit against Trader Vic's in Manhattan, alleging the short ribs they ate there shortly before the start of the tour were poisonous and had left them "ill, weak, and infirm." And of course that cursed the musical too? Right? Oh brother. In each city the show was played it received consistently bad reviews, and when it reached Los Angeles, Segal asked that his name be removed from the credits. Marre, whose career was littered with bombs like Cry for Us All and the equally dreadful Shangri-La, by Burt Bacharach and Hal David not only revamped the book and lyrics, but fired the totally clueless choreographer Billy Wilson and took over the musical staging as well. In August, an unhappy Brynner sued to terminate his contract but backed down when he was threatened with a $1 million countersuit. By November, the producers decided to close the show at the end of the tour and forgo a Broadway opening. Brynner (already angry that he couldn't get out of this bomb) threatened to quit and take up another multi-million dollar law suit if they didn't proceed to New York City and Broadway as planned and promised to Brynner. The fast shuffle followed and eleven previews later, the poor show, now an extravagant production retitled "Home Sweet Homer", opened at the Sunday matinee on January 4, 1976 at the Palace Theatre. The closing notice was posted as soon as the curtain fell. Yul Brynner vowed he would never step foot on another Broadway stage. You might call this true story "The bigger you are, the harder you fall. Today also would have been Sterling Holloway's birthday. Sterling was the voice of Winnie The Pooh, the stork in"Dumbo" and Kaa The Snake in "The Jungle Book" Rehearsal went very well for our musical "The Bremen Town Boys" last night. We have a great cast and an amazing director.

BREMEN TOW BOYS FIRST REHEARSAL

Well, tonight at 7pm, John Nugent and I start all of this again. A brand new opening rehearsal for a brand new musical. This time it's called "THE BREMEN TOWN BOYS". Now trust me, sometimes plays and musicals seem to write themselves. This project all started out as an attempt to musicalize the famous Brothers Grimm story called "The Four Musicians of Bremen Town". Now as admirable as all of that sounds, I have taken a few whacks at musicalizing fairy tales. All of my stage musicals all started with writing a brand new "Wizard Of Oz" for the Gallery Theatre in Ontario, Ca way back in 1980. That's over thirty years ago. I followed with"The Return Of The Wizard Of Oz" and John Nugent and I have adapted "The Wild Swans" and dear Tim Doran and I made a really wonderful adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Traveling Companion". But with this show, I almost stopped in the middle of because it just wasn't grabbing me. That is until the day I decided to make it a musical spoof of actors, directors, producers, divas and of course all the little things that they all demand. You know: "what's my motivation?". "what's the complication?" and of course the world famous "what's the agenda?" So now, by the end of Act One, this whole musical story gets turned on its head. Now we have writers fighting with producers, actors fighting with songwriters etc. So tonight at 7:00pm, our director Cat Deobler takes the reigns of our newest show. Friends David Marc and Bob Weiner are in the show. David plays a farmer and a deadpan sheriff. Bob plays the Mayor who turns out to be the greedy producer, Jeffrey Gardner plays the clever Herald. Michael Liles plays the handsome Christofer. Great find Andrew George plays Matthias, the musician and the amazing Julie Rothman plays the diva, Princess Marta. The show is fun and music wise style, John Nugent and I have gone with the styles of Jerry Herman, Cy Coleman and of course our dear friends, The Sherman Brothers. Robert Sherman turned eighty-five years young last December 19th. He still lives in London and he and his amazing brother Richard are still trying to their newest musical "The Merry Go Round" off the ground. John and I are the ultimate fans, if you're not counting family! They have inspired both of us so much. In our musical score for BREMEN TOWN BOYS" John and I are very proud of the songs "Gaining Wisdom" and "Somebody Had To Love Her" You can't believe hoe many people we had to audition to get our sixteen member cast. Why do actors take a role, give their word in commitment to it and then break their promise because suddenly "they are just too busy" or "they have a family emergency" "or "they can't take a role without checking with their manager?" or the big one is when they accept a role that pays 33% of each guest they sell to refer to us, (and without being in Equity) they demand $75.00 a night minimum guaranteed. We are a dinner theatre show. Equity dinner theatre does eight shows a week and pays $525.00 a week including twelve hour rehearsal days (times five brutal days) in tech week. Divide eight shows into $525 and you get $65 a night, We are asking for four shows, two on one day (Sunday)
Well, I have a great memory. I will remember those actors who have broken their word without great reason. We open in Van Nuys on February 11th at 8:00pm and run Friday Nights, Saturday matinees and two shows on Sunday. Thanks again to the Sherman Oaks Fashion Square Mall for the free use of the rehearsal space.

THE LAST DAY OF ANOTHER YEAR

Another year ends in less than two hours. It's been a really tough one for me. I lost a car, lost a job, lost revenue on a great musical, and yet, my faith in God remains at all time high. Why? Well for one thing, I have an absolutely amazing writing partner: John Nugent. He is so absolutely brilliant and talented and kind and patient. I am the luckiest man in the world because I am connected with him. The odds in finding him: one billion million to one. I am also grateful that my very first collaborator: Randy Ames was spared death with his very recent massive heart attack. I have written some of the most beautiful songs in the world with this man. I only wish things had been more successful with him, but because my dearest God has everything in His Hands and plans, it just wasn't time back then. I pray a lot these days. I tell God that if I am ever very succesful, I will do my very best to give to others as much as he has given to me. Yeah, my life has been very hard, but I also have had some incredible blessings. I was spared death in 2006 when driving home on Halloween night, a woman turned in front of me making an ilegal left turn. I hit her broadside, but with God's amazing blessings, I didn't have a scratch. I didn't even break my glasses. She was uninsured and the cop at the scene was trying to score with her, and the car had six grand worth of damages-- but I was spared. God loves me a lot. He sends me great challenges, but he also gives me the sure way to overcome all of them. My blessings exist with my longtime companion and my dear friend, Tim Doran. He's the one who has made it possible for me to be a songwriter. I have challenges to face already in 2011, but with God's help, I will. Someday all of the sad days and disappointments will fade away. I am hoping that the new musical that John Nugent and I have written will really be successful when it opens at Mulholland Middle Theatre in February will really be successful. It's called "The Bremen town Boys" and is really a very funny musical spoof. Our web site for the musical is http://www.bementownboys.com/ and I would love every one who reads my blogs will consider coming to it and really have a great time. Our dear friend David Marc is in the show. David is our good luck charm. And maybe my manager, jimmy wil sell my television series "First Mother" to Lanie Kazan. So, I thank God tonight for all of his many blessings. My glass will held tonight as John Nugent and break open the champaigne and toast 2011. It's got to be a better year than 2010. Bless all of you who read these words of mine. They are an observation on things I see and hear. I retired this year and i never thought i would eber have to do that, but i go where God leads me. i trust in him, totally!

"Christmas Belongs To You"

Christmas 2010 for me was a lonely Christmas. for me! Perhaps the saddest Christmas since my my mother was killed at Christmas in 1974. It all came due to some eye issues that I had developed and after having a car repossessed after losing my job last year. Add to that a current vehicle from 1995 that is not very freeway friendly. So there were no visits to my three sisters and no visits to my nieces or nephews and no visits to great nieces and nephews. It was indeed a lonely Christmas. My sisters seem to stay within their own immediate families and not one member of my family actually went to see one of the others and that hasn't happened ever in my memory. Way back in 1996, I had a nervous breakdown and spent all of December of 1996 and all of January 1997 in a hospital and then a halfway house in Inglewood . The hospital was Gateway Hospital and the Halfway House was Excelsior House not far from the race track. Gateway Hospital was an interesting place that helped me to calm down and actually begin to forget my troubles. My business had failed miserably and very suddenly and it was of the worst crashes of my life. Excelsior House held a lot of great memories. I actually had the calmest thirty days in that facility tan I had ever known. There were no worries there. There were kind, good and wonderful counselors. I remember an amazing black gentleman who gave me a wonderful saying that went "Everyday above ground is a great day!" I made several friends. I only wish know that I had kept up with them. But even Christmas there, I had visits from my entire family. Not this year. everybody seemed troubled. Everybody seemed too busy and my youngest sister was so not in the mood for Christmas, she failed to put up a tree or wrap a single gift. I know why, and trust me, i wish I could have done something to solve her problems instantly. If I were rich, or even comfortable, my dear sisters would never have to ask for a single thing. I would be right there to solve their problems. Why that is hard for them to really understand that is a mystery. We were raised close as kids-- really close. My mother and dad were absolute champions of generosity. They wouldn't have given you everything they had and more. Even when my dad was hopelessly out of work when we were kids, there were always piles of presents and a huge tree and festive decorations. And the food? It was incredible. My mother made her own lasagna and egg plant Parmesan-- wow was that great! And she made home made pizza too-- now that ladies and gentlemen was absolute heaven. But there was no real warmth this Christmas. But I was so grateful to my long time companion who gave me a very special and totally unselfish Christmas present and my dear partner, John Nugent continues to amaze and thrill me with his incredible musical talent. We have now completed the casting on "The Bremen Town Boys" and I am so happy for that. We had many actors quit, it was getting to be really desperate. We have an amazing director in Cat Deobler. She is really amazing. And just as thought things were calming down, I get the news that my very first musical collaborator had a very serious and life threatening heart attack. He's only 55 years old. Wow-- life is certainly not a dress rehearsal. I love Randy so much. We have written some of the most beautiful songs together including the most special song of all that we wrote together in 1981 called "Christmas Belongs To You' I always thought that this song would have been discovered and become a Christmas classic song. I can't believe hopw many years I have been at this! Oh yes-- Eight hundred songs later. I'm still writing. I'm still trying to make it again. It isn't easy. I pray to God that a miracle happens soon. In the meantime, on we go and "The Bremen Town Boys" will go on in February to a fabulous audience. It's a very funny show with a lot of laughs and honest humor. All happens in Van Nuys at a new 136 seat theatre. Let's make this a great event! Come see it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANNY SIMON

For five grand and glorious years, I was a student of a comedy genius. His name was Danny Simon. Few people have been such an influence in my life as he. Danny was a sweet man who also could be tough as fingernails on a black board. But that was good for you. That made you learn. That made you work harder than you might off. As a librettist and playwright today, I call upon his principles and his rules of writing every single day of my life. That was especially true the day when I pitched a "Golden Girls" to the producers of that show, I slew them with this one: I was asked by them to come up with a funny premise for two of the characters of the show: Sophia and Dorothy. Thinking like crazy I thought about a showing of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" which my then room mate at the time had gone to see the night before at midnight. So I blurt out "Sophia and Dorothy are caught in a Rocky Horror Picture show line" Now you may not know that once you would get into one of these lines there is (because of security reasons) no getting out. You get into it-- you stay in it) The producers smiled and said "That smells funny!" Ah, ha, I thought, Danny had used that term all the time in class. So I continued. "Dorothy and Sophia are caught in a "Rocky Picture Show line and are compelled to go into the theatre with all of these crazy kids. The producers kept smiling. Then one of them asked me "What would Sophia say after she was forced to watch this odd classic?" In my best Sophia voice at the time I blurted out "All of these crazy kids pointed at me and went "Virgin, Virgin". That's like pointing at Queen Elizabeth and saying "Pretty, Pretty." They were on the floor. Danny Simon was my hero and now I am good friends with his ex- wife Arlene-- and she's a hoot all by herself! Danny's daughter Valerie was also my special friend. Born in 1918, Danny began as a delivery boy before he got a job of doing publicity which brought him into contact with those who would help launch him and his brother into the celebrity sphere. Danny and Neil got a job writing for the Robert Q. Lewis Radio Show and went on to write for comics like Milton Berle, Henry Youngman, Dick Shawn and others. They were hired to do the Phil Silver’s Arrow Show by a young producer, Ernie Gluxman. As Danny says, “from then on, we never stopped working.” Next it was with that classic Hollywood personality Tallulah Bankheard in a nine-year stint with his brother as one of the funniest comedy writing teams in New York. Neil wanted to stay in the Big apple, so when Danny left for Hollywood, Neil featured him in Come Blow Your Horn, the first of six plays that featured his brother. Meanwhile, Danny found plenty of opportunity in California. He became the head writer for the Danny Thomas Show, crafted humor for Ann Southern and, as he says, “went from show to show doing over twenty-five different ones including Carol Burnett.”
Danny’s success at being a writer inspired others to hire him to direct in theatres around the country. He brought down the house in Plaza Suite with Carol Burnett and George Kennedy and he took a play he wrote and directed, Catch a Star, to the Broadway stage.When a friend asked him to come and talk to his comedy writing class, Danny was “very nervous because I never went to college and I was sure the students would laugh at me.” Indeed, they laughed. But not at him. Instead Danny became a popular comedy writing teacher, traveling to locations around the world to teach at colleges and training institutes. Now, that he’s moved to Portland, his one regret is that he had to discard over 2000 adoring letters from his students. Though there was'n’t enough space in his apartment at the Rose Schnitzer Manor, for the letters, there’s plenty of room for accolades. Like the one from Woody Allen who said, “I learned a few things on my own since, and modified some of the things he taught me, but I learned about comedy writing, unequivocally, from Danny Simon.” Danny knew the secret of comedy. He used to say that you should “write with the sense of humor you were born with.” He loved Everybody Loves Raymond because the show’s humor came from the personalities and was then stretched. The best comedy is exaggerated truth that fits the character. Everything starts with the truth.”With a twinkle in his eye and a charming smile, the Danny used to say that this comedy writing technique worked for his brother, too saying “Neil writes about people he knew and understood and he is much funnier that I am...he has a brilliant sense of humor.” The brother’s success doesn’t come from one liners. Theirs is a brand of humor that emerges from characters who tell outrageous, yet believable stories.
Ernest Borgnine, Don Rickles, Vivian Vance...the list goes on and on. But Danny is not content to rest on his very many accomplishments, he’s busy at work, starting a senior theatre company in the retirement home. He has many good actors to choose from because Phil Silver’s cousin and others who love performing also live there. Whatever happens with the theatre company, Danny is happy. In his understated, writer-type of way, he says, “It’s been a nice life.” Thanks, Danny, for adding so much humor to ours. Thanks, Danny for being the very best teacher that I ever had. I will keep your principles alive.

Pretty scary looking? Well. some nuns can be. Some of the ones that I had as a kid were really strict and when you got an expression like this one, you just knew that you were in trouble. John and I have decided to stage "Broadway Angels" as our second vehicle at our new playhouse in Van Nuys. "Broadway Angels" is the story of six cloistered Dominican nuns whose convent sits on some very oil rich land. A greedy cardinal discovers the sister's convent is sitting on some of the valuable oil rich land in the world. So he plots to evict the sisters and take the land for himself. The sisters need a miracle pronto! And so they invoke in prayer their favorite saint Saint Michael, the Archangel who brings Gabriel along for the ride. Michael asks God for a very special miracle for his favorite nuns. The miracle will make the nuns rich. God's instructions, however are a bit odd-- the nuns must buy a vacant Broadway theatre with the miracle money. Now all of that might be okay if the deserted theatre were being used as a convent and chapel as the nuns plan. But with the devil's interference, the city insists that the theatre which is an historical landmark must be be used as a Broadway theatre or remain vacant. Now what? What kind of show would a group of cloistered Dominican nuns be able to stage. The result is the basis of our musical. Did some Christmas shopping this day for my companion John and I had a nice lunch with my great friend Tim Doran. Second rehearsal for "Bremen Town Boys" and a few more auditions. Sure hope we can find all of the actors that we need. Weather here is bleak and cloudy. I miss the sun and the warmth of California.

HAPPY 75th BIRTHDAY WOODY ALLEN

Today is Woody Allen's 75th birthday. What an amazing comedy legend he has become. A student of Danny Simon's, Woody has long ago acknowledged dear Danny with this quote: "I've altered a few things and changed a few principles around, but unequivocally everything I ever learned about comedy writing, I learned from Danny Simon- and he's a nice man too! After Woody's false starts at NYU and City College, he became a full-time writer for Herb Shriner, earning $75 a week at first.] At the age of 19, he started writing scripts for The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show, specials for Sid Caesar post-Caesar's Hour (1954–1957), and other television shows.[ By the time he was working for Caesar, he was making $1500 a week; with Caesar he worked alongside Danny Simon. In 1961, he started a new career as a stand-up comedian, debuting in a Greenwich Village club called the Duplex. Examples of Allen’s stand up act can be heard on the albums Stand up Comic and Nightclub Years 1964–1968 (including his classic routine entitled “The Moose”). Allen wrote for the popular Candid Camera television show, and appeared in some episodes. Together with his managers, Allen developed a neurotic, nervous, and intellectual persona for his stand-up routine, a successful move which secured regular gigs for him in nightclubs and on television. Woody started writing short stories and cartoon captions for magazines such as The New Yorker; he was particularly inspired by the tradition of four prominent New Yorker’s humorists, S. J. Perelman George S. Kaufman, Robert Benchley and Max Shulman, whose material he modernized. Woody is also an accomplished author having published four collections of his short pieces and plays. These are Getting Even, Without Feathers, Side Effects and Mere Anarchy. His early comic fiction was heavily influenced by the zany, pun-ridden humour of S.J. Perelman. Allen brought significant innovation to the comedy monologue genre and his stand-up comedy is considered highly influential He also became a successful Broadway playwright and wrote Don't Drink the Water in 1966. It starred Lou Jacobi, Kay Medford, Anita Gillette and Allen’s future movie co-star Anthony Roberts. A film adaptation of the play, directed by Howard Morris, was released in 1969 starring Jackie Gleason Because he was not particularly happy with the (1969) film version of his play, in 1994 Allen directed and starred in a third version for television, with Michael J. Fox and Mayim Bialik.The next play Woody wrote that was produced on Broadway was Play It Again, Sam, which he also starred in. The play opened on February 12, 1969, and ran for 453 performances. It also featured Diane Keaton and Anthony Roberts. Allen, Keaton and Roberts would reprise their roles in the film version of the play, directed by Herbert Ross. For its March 21 issue, Life featured Allen on its cover. He has written several one-act plays,including 'Riverside Drive' and 'Old Saybrook' which both explore well-known Allen themes. They have been produced in England for the first time by The Nuffield Theatre, a south-coast art house theatre, Southampton (September 2010) and directed by Patrick Sandord. So Happy Birthday, Woody. John and I are looking forward to the auditions this Sunday for "The Bremen Town Boys". We need more men to apply however-- sure hope that happens!