4ce jan 2013 stolf's oldies
Quickies...
Remember "quickies" from Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In? Got some this month, a potpourri of strange and wondrous sidelights on Baby Boomer pop culture…
>>> The Doors' bass-player…If you loved their records, and especially if you were forming your own rock group, you may have noticed that their lineup wasn't traditional: nobody played bass guitar. Keyboard player Ray Manzarek doubled up…playing an organ with his right hand, and the bass line with his left, using a small keyboard instrument from Fender called a Rhodes piano bass. It had 19 white keys and 13 black, covering 2 and a half octaves. And apart from Jim Morrison, these guys were stellar musicians…for example, "Light My Fire" started out as a folk song, and was converted into what was almost a bosa nova beat…why?…because musically they thought it sounded cool…and right they were.
>>> Mad magazine…originally, in 1952, it was a comic book called "Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad." The stories were parodies of other comics, movies, and TV shows…stuff like "Superduperman," "Little Orphan Melvin," and "Howdy Doodit." In 1955, after 23 comic book issues, it was converted to the magazine format we all know and love. And it's still around, now published 6 times a year, just as it was originally, before going monthly in 1954…except now it costs $5.99…cheap!
>>> Donkey Kong…why "donkey"? What's that got to do with a gorilla? In 1981, Nintendo was trying to license the Popeye characters for a video game. When that deal fell through, they assigned Shigeru Miyamoto the task of coming up with original characters. Donkey Kong was his version of Bluto…and he believed that "donkey" in English meant "stupid," so that Donkey Kong would be seen as "the stupid ape." Wrong…but delightfully so, and the goofy name stuck…even to the extent of becoming a breakfast cereal, remember?
>>> Why are there 2 teams in the minor league American Hockey League with the same nickname…the Norfolk Admirals and the Milwaukee Admirals? Norfolk came first, at least as an AHL member, as an expansion team in 2000. The Milwaukee team dates from 1970, first as an amateur team, then a member of the U.S. Hockey League. They joined the International Hockey League in 1977, then the American Hockey League when the IHL folded in 2001. And it was simply decided that, given each team had a legitimate claim to the nickname, neither would have to change.
>>> Another example of double nicknames would be the Canadian Football League with the Ottawa Rough Riders (which folded in 1996)…the "Eastern Riders"…and the Saskatchewan Roughriders or "Western Riders." The reason is: before a merger in 1958, the Eastern and Western divisions of the CFL were actually 2 separate leagues, that didn't play each other except for the Grey Cup. Also, the Hamilton Tiger-cats resulted from a merger of 2 older teams, the Hamilton Tigers and the Hamilton Wildcats.
>>> Salem, Massachusetts…the town where I was born…was the 8th most populous city in the US in 1790, with close to 8,000 people. Bear in mind, #1 New York City had just 33 thousand…and #3 Boston a mere 18 thousand. (Who was #2? If you said Philadelphia, you get the gold star.) Salem didn't fall out of the top 10 until the 1830 census. And not for nothing, but in 1950, Ogdensburg had more people than Anaheim, California…16,166 versus 14,556. In the next decade of course, Anaheim's population would grow to over 100,000…thank you, Mr. Disney.
>>> And one thing that makes all Salemites wince is when they hear that witches were burned there. Burning was a medieval form of execution in Europe. Instead, 19 accused "witches," women and men both, were hung during the Witchcraft Hysteria in 1692. And one man died while being tortured, crushed by heavy stones…"pressed to death" as they recorded at the time.
>>> One of my favorite movie bloopers….in the Dirty Harry movie "Sudden Impact," Clint Eastwood has a pet bulldog. In some scenes it is clearly a male, in others, a female. A bulldog doesn't have a lot of hair, you see. If it had been a long-haired dog, well...oh, never mind…why am I explaining this to you? Sheesh.
>>> 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9…10!…That psychedelic number counting animation on the early episodes of "Sesame Street" was voiced by none other than Grace Slick, lead singer of the Jefferson Airplane.
>>> But did you know that Slick wasn't the group's original singer of the group? That was Signe Anderson. She was with them for a year, and sang on their first LP "The Jefferson Airplane Arrives" from 1966. She left the group to have a baby, and was replaced by Grace Slick, from the group the Great Society. "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" were songs the Great Society performed, and of course became hits when recorded by the Jefferson Airplane.
>>> Likewise Blood, Sweat and Tears…Al Kooper was the lead singer on their first LP, subsequently replaced by British-born Canadian David Clayton-Thomas. On their Greatest Hits collection, you can hear Kooper singing on "I Can't Quit Her." Alex Chilton of the Boxtops and Steven Stills were considered as replacements before Judy Collins recommended Clayton-Thomas. And the whole idea of a jazz-rock group with a prominent horn section? It came from their admiration of the Buckinghams' pop sound…just jazzier.
>>> Turkey and Russia…geography buffs recognize these as the 2 countries that are part of both Europe and Asia…but what country is in both Europe and Africa? That would be Spain. It claims as its sovereign territory 2 ports on the northern coast of Morocco…Ceuta and Melilla. They are not considered colonies, but an integral part of the Spanish state….and have been since the 1500s, long before Morocco gained independence from France. Morocco doesn't see it that way, but there you go. Such geographical oddities are known as "enclaves" and there are a lot more of them around the world than you'd think…um, which country am I in again?
>>> Come to think of it…while it's not quite the same thing, there are 3 localities in the US that you cannot get to by land without first passing through Canada…they are "internationally discontiguous" as you might say. Can you find them? Rainy day fun for the whole family.
>>> Who is Ponsonby Britt? Watch an episode of "Rocky and Bullwinkle," "Hoppity Hooper," or "George of the Jungle," and you'll see his name in the credits as Executive Producer. Except there was no such person…it was just an inside joke by Jay Ward and his crew.
>>> Who or what is Bibendum…nicknamed Bib? He is the tubular Michelin man, mascot of the tire company since 1894. His name comes from a quote from the ancient Roman poet Horace: "Nunc est bibendum"…meaning "Now is the time to drink." It refers to the Michelin tire's ability to perform in rainy weather, "drinking" the water from the road.
>>> Buddy Ebsen was Walt Disney's original choice to play Davy Crockett…until he saw Fess Parker, and Buddy was denoted to second banana George Russell. And Buddy was also slated to be the Scarecrow in "The Wizard of Oz"…replaced by Ray Bolger when he was found to be allergic to the aluminum makeup. Back in Kansas, the Scarecrow was a farm-hand named Hunk…and oddly enough Ebsen would eventually play a Hunk…Hunking "Hunk" Marriner, sidekick on the 1958 TV series "Northwest Passage"…it had been Walter Brennan in the movie. BTW, Hunking is a British surname. Till next time, rocking on!
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