Aeolian Vocalion

Last night.

Disc-viewing (dvd, blu) constitutes about 95% of all of what I watch on television. The remaining 5% is probably a bit of news and weather. I don't watch cable, networks, or subscribe to any streaming services. Just discs, of which I amassed a large collection over the past twenty-five years.

I hated when all the individualistic wood-frame or cinder-block mom-and-pop country stores were replaced by crass, fluorescent-light lit quickie marts. The latter growing all the more grubby and bleak via the gradual domination by foreign ownership. Talk about losing cultural and societal fabric.

"Damn Citizen" (1957-Universal), starring Keith Andes.

I've given Fred Allen's radio series over a dozen chances over the years, from his 1937 "Town Hall Tonight" shows to his mid-1940s shows, and they just never amused me all that much.

Yet, in films, I remember first seeing his starring effort "It's in the Bag" (1945) in the early-1980s, and always finding it pretty hilarious. He was darned funny in it. I've revisited the movie numerous times over the years, via an off-air recording I made of it, to eventually the dvd release and then the blu-ray. I've also always gotten a big kick out of his film with Jack Benny, "Love Thy Neighbor" (1940), even though it tends to get mixed reviews. Fred Allen was also quite funny in the breezy Alice Faye movie "Sally, Irene and Mary" (1938). So all in all, I've found Allen to be consistently amusing in his rather scarce movie appearances.

In the late-1990s that Game Show Network began rerunning those old "What's My Line" kinescopes, and the early examples (roughly 1952-55) had Fred Allen regularly on the panel. And he was great fun there, too, bringing a kind of quirky, antique vaudeville humor to the otherwise haughty tone of the show. Probably saw at least 40 or 50 episodes with him. So anyway, I did develop a fondness of Fred Allen and his humor, while still never really caring all that much for his radio shows.

Yeah, that show is the last remaining remnants of the Memphis Film Festival, which I attended many times in the past. I think it went back to either 1971 or 1972. One of the main founders of the show, Packy Smith, told me of how he'd arranged for Tim Holt to be one of the first guests, but Holt's health went south a month or two before, and he never made it.

Sure wish I'd been around for some of those initial years. Lots of guest celebrities I'm particularly fond of and would have been thrilled to see. Faves like Marion Shilling, Verna Hillie, Charles Starrett, Ruth Terry, Eleanor Stewart, Eddy Waller, and such. Plus, always hate that I missed out on Myron Healey and Lori Nelson, who both went to several shows over the years. Always used to get such great little stories of old-time moviemaking from such folks.

Didn't this Superman treasury edition include a "Tomahawk" reprint amongst its stories? I know I had this volume, getting it when it came out. I likely still have my copy packed away somewhere, amongst about six or seven other large-size treasury editions. Wasn't there also a "Captain America" Bi-Centennial edition, from Marvel? I have that one too, as I recall.

That Bi-Centennial was such a big, big cultural event back then. Lasted all year, and seemed to permeate everything. Pretty memorable, and seems all the more so in retrospect.

Fascinating stuff. I've had a number of Keynote 78rpm jazz records over the years, and would have never imagined the label was either a commie front or a hotbed of spies. Less of a stretch, regarding "Murder by Contract," which always seemed to have a touch of underlying subversiveness about its narrative. Although, it's been about thirty years since I last saw the film. I mostly remember the film's music score including a Perry Bodkin riff that later was used in the "Beverly Hillbillies."

Marie Doro was quite pretty, but had almost disturbingly large eyes. Little of her film work circulated until a Kickstarter project got "Lost and Won" (1917) and "Castles for Two" (1917) released about five years ago. The first film was pleasant, if rather minor. The second film had a fair bit of nitrate decomposition that made it a rougher sled, as I recall.

A graying old blues singer can sit in his chair, emoting his downbeat lyrics and still look great. An old country duffer strumming his guitar and twanging a tune can similarly be great. An old-time jazz guy like Pete Fountain can noodle out an improv solo and still look great.

But, holy smokes, rock-n-rollers performing into late middle-age and then senior years look absolutely clown-level ridiculous. Maybe they can get away with ballads, but all that goofball hopping around and performance art? Forget it. Unbearable.

Have no idea. And it wouldn't matter to me one way or another.

Anyone who actively fights the psychotic homo-tranny agenda is someone who I'm going to support, no matter how checkered they might be in other matters. Paxton might be an awful reprobate, but if he is the type who'll fight schools having dudes in wigs sharing locker rooms and bathrooms with young girls, he's a thousandfold better than some sick Dem freak who wants to normalize that.