#A-TO-Z CHALLENGE – LETTER “Z” – ZEPPO MARX

ZEPPO MARX

Somewhere around the letter “Q” I realized I had forgotten (I REALLY do very little planning, when I write) to pay homage to the Marx Bros., probably one of the funniest and most innovative of comedy teams of all time. Since this is the last day of the A-to-Z Challenge, I performed an end-run and decided to pick Zeppo Marx for my final entry.

Herbert Manfred "Zeppo" Marx, born February 25, 1901, died November 30, 1979, was the youngest of the five (Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Gummo) Marx Bros. and was an American actor, theatrical agent, and engineer(!) He appeared in the first five Marx Bros. feature films, from 1929 to 1933, but then left the act to start his second career as an engineer and theatrical agent. Zeppo became a multi-millionaire due to his engineering efforts.

Groucho and Zeppo Marx, in I'm Against It, in "Horse Feathers" (1932)

Zeppo initially performed with his brothers, during their vaudeville years, occasionally stepping in as Captain Spaulding for his brother Groucho, who recalled, “He was so good in Animal Crackers that I would have let him play the part indefinitely, if they had allowed me to smoke in the audience”. However, Zeppo was never able to develop a comic persona of his own that could stand up against his brothers'. Although he accompanied his brothers in the first five films, he left shortly after to pursue his other interests: theatrical representation through an agency that he founded with his brother Gummo and a machining parts company, known as the Aeroquip Company. This company produced a motorcycle, called the Marmat Twin and the Marmat clamps used to hold the “Fat Man” atomic bomb inside the B-29 named Bockscar. Zeppo also invented a wristwatch that would monitor the pulse rate of cardiac patients and give off an alarm of the heartbeat became irregular.

All of the Marx Brothers were excellent musicians, and self-trained. Harpo did start taking lessons with a renowned harpist in NYC, but ended up teaching her his method of playing.

Surprising facts about a brother I only knew as someone who was overshadowed by his more talented brothers, Zeppo had a foot in both worlds, artistic and scientific, something rarely heard of, with the exception of Austrian actress Hedy Lamarr, during the hey-day of vaudeville, silent films and into black-and-white movies!

#A-TO-Z CHALLENGE – LETTER “Y” – “WEIRD” AL YANKOVIC

"WEIRD" AL YANKOVIC

I've pretty much grown up with “Weird” Al Yankovic and hadn't really considered him, until in a fit of desperation and lack of time (this is the time of year when I have every medical test known to man, and a few that probably aren't normally performed, done. Last year, I had my essential tremor, or e.t. [appropriately named enough] or “Parkinson's Lite – all the symptoms, only half the drugs" diagnosed and for that test I got a bumper sticker “Ask Me About My DaTScan” which I attached to my walker since I don't drive. I don't use a walker, either, but that's ANOTHER story, and we simply don't have time! Besides, this is about “Weird” Al and I'm glad I picked him, not for his parody songs, “EAT IT” (based on Michael Jackson's “Beat It”) or “FAT” (also based on Michael Jackson's song “Bad”) but for one song alone that I and probably a whole bunch of people out there in cyber ville can relate to.

eBay - An original song by "Weird Al" spoofs the culture of buyers and sellers on eBay. As someone who has participated in the buying-and-sell frenzy, he's captured the peculiarities of these folks perfectly; it's also extremely well-written!

Alfred Matthew “Weird Al” Yankovic, born October 23, 1959 is an American singer-songwriter, musician, parodist, record producer, satirist, music video director, film producer, actor, and author. He is known for his humorous songs that make like of popular culture and often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts. Since his first-aired comedy song in 1976, he has sold more than 12 million albums (as of 2007), recorded more than 150 parody and original songs, and has performed more than 1,000 live shows.

Al's first accordion lesson, which sparked his career in music, was on the day before his sixth birthday. A door-to-door salesman traveling through his hometown of Lynwood offered his parents a choice of accordion or guitar lessons at a local music school. Yankovic claims the reason his parents chose accordion over guitar was “They figured there should be at least one more accordion-playing Yankovic in the world”, referring to Frankie Yankovic, to whom he is not related directly. Yankovic said that his “parents chose the accordion because they were convinced it would revolutionize rock”.

                                                                                                                                                                         courtesy: The Prince of Parodies

The same guy with the accordion showed up at my door, when I was six years old too, and told my parents how “gifted” I was while I was just holding the thing. That guy clearly needed a hearing-aid. He didn't know how gifted I was on the viola, although I just pretend to play the violin.

#A-TO-Z CHALLENGE – LETTER “X” – SWAMI X

SWAMI X

I honestly had not clue one as to what I was going to write about for my letter “X” when I reached this juncture. So, I did what any good researcher does in a pinch (forget about preparing ahead, I do everything in real-time) I hit Wikipedia up for a suggestion and discovered a little-known boardwalk performer in America. . .

Swami X is an American boardwalk performer and stand-up comedian. Active from the 1970s to 1985, he performed in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley, and New York. He was known for bawdy sexual humor and political invective.

His act was a monologue mixing pity sociopolitical observations with poetry, sarcasm and humor, which typically included blasphemy, profanity and attacking the shibboleths of the day – producing “pleased shock and delighted outrage” in observers. His notable lines include”

• “How do we know Jesus Christ was Jewish? Because he went into his Father's business.”
• “Sex is not the answer. Sex is the question. 'Yes' is the answer.”
• “If I had known I would live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.”

                                                                                                        

Swami X's 88th Birthday, I presume with my faboo upside-down reading superpowers!

He was known for appearing on the Venice Boardwalk, at the UCLA and the U. C. Berkely campuses, in San Francisco (probably on the wharf or near Ghirardelli Square), and at Washington Park in NYC. He retired in 1985. In 2009 the mayor of L. A., Antonio Villaraigosa, presented him with an official proclamation.

The fun part of this came when I was looking for pictures. The disambiguation is wide and wonderful in the images; everything from real Swamis to Swami Comedy Acts. Maybe I should have done my whole A-to-Z them on Swamis. On second thought, no. It's been hard enough coming up with entertaining Humorists, or witty observations about Humor itself. I actually believe I would have been better off just writing 26 stories about my crazy family; God knows there's material enough!

Anyway, I found these delightful pictures of some Swamis, but not OUR Swami:

I'm guessing this is some kind of Bollywood Musical Extravaganza-type Comedy. It looks to be a laff-riot!

 Presenting Swami Beyondananda! At the Unitarian Fellowship, of all places. There is so much going on here. Would the Indian defamation league complain? Is there an Indian defamation league? This is so fitting for Unitarians, whose creed seems to be "whatever, whomever, all ever, forever". Or something. The concept of a 2-man, 1-man show has me a little befuddled as well. Does this guy use a sock puppet for his alter ego? Or just put on his Swami hat?

Swami who is a real Swami; alas I couldn't find his name. He also looks like he's ready for his tryout in the latest revival of "Hair", as it was during the age of love and peace and harmony. I miss those days.

 Okay this is OUR Swami, Swami X. He looks like a cross between "Easy Rider" and a parade float! I remember the street performers in San Francisco back in the early 70s. I missed this, because I surely would have remembered him, had I seen him. I'm sorry I missed him.

 

Swami X in his days of retirement, looking rather back-woodsish and Jeremiah Johnson-like.

 

#A-TO-Z CHALLENGE – LETTER “W” – WOODY ALLEN

WOODY ALLEN

I was about 15 when I discovered the zany intellectual comedy of Woody Allen. His discourses on existentialism, the philosophy of Kierkegaard, mixed with the slap-stick comedy of Chaplin, made his movies in the late 60s and early 70s, gems of the cinema.

Woody Allen (born Allen Stewart Konigsberg, December 1, 1935) is an actor, director, screenwriter, comedian, musician and playwright whose career span more than 50 years.

He worked as a comedy writer in the 1950s, writing jokes and scripts for the Tee Vee and publishing books of short humor pieces. In the early 1960s, Allen began performing as a stand-up comic emphasizing monologues rather than traditional jokes. As a comic, he developed the persona of an insecure, intellectual, fretful nebbish, which maintains is quite different from his real-lie personality, In 2004, Comedy Central, ranked Allen in fourth place on a list of 100 greatest stand-up comics, while a UK survey ranked Allen as the third greatest comedian.

"To you, I'm an Atheist. To God, I'm the loyal opposition." ~ Woody Allen

By the mid-60s Allen was writing and directing films, first specializing in slapstick comedies before moving into dramatic material influenced by European art cinema during the 1970s. He is often identified as part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmakers of the mid-60s to late 70s. He often stars in his own films, typically in the persona he developed as a standup.

"Life doesn't imitate art. It imitates bad television." ~ Woody Allen

Allen was born in the Bronx and raised in Brooklyn. His family was Ashkenazi Jewish; his grandparents immigrated from Russia and Austria, and spoke Yiddish, Hewbrew, and German. Allen spoke German quite a bit in his early years. He would later joke that when he was young he was sent to inter-faith summer camps, where he “was savagely beaten by children of all races and creeds”.

"I can't listen to any more Wagner, you know. . . I'm starting to get the urge to conquer Poland." ~Woody Allen

Allen originally started writing for humorist Herb Shriner, earning $25 a week. At 19, he began writing scripts for The Tonight Show, specials for Sid Caesar post-Caesar's Hour (1954-1957) and other television show. He also wrote for Candid Camera later on, and appeared in some episodes.

Allen branched out, writing short stories and cartoon captions for magazines such as The New Yorker; he was inspired by the tradition of four prominent New Yorker humorist, S. J. Perelman, George S. Kaufman, Robert Benchley and Max Shulman, whose material he modernized. Allen is an accomplised author, with four published collections of his short pieces and plays. I can attest to the humor and zaniness of his written comedy; Getting Even is one of the funniest books I've ever read. Looking at the Table of Contents for Side Effects now makes this a must read.

"I took a test in Existentialism. I left all the answers blank and got 100." ~Woody Allen

Of all of Allen's movies, his earliest resonate with me the most. His first foray into film, was more like some comedic brew of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and horribly-interpreted sci-films, complete with commentary, called What's Up Tiger-Lily. The plot, according to Allen involved the theft of the recipe for the world's greatest egg salad and the recovery of said recipe from evil-overlords by brave Secret Agent. This is all plunked down on top of a cheesy Japanese spy movie, dubbed with idiotic dialogue and crazy sound effects and the results are hilarious.

Compilations of clips from "What's Up Tiger Lily?"

I realize my humor hit some of it's maturation at around the age of 18, but the ludicrous dialogue and funny voices still amuse me. Allen went from here to produce and release several more movies in the late 60s, Take the Money and Run, Bananas, Sleeper and Love and Death, which is still one of the best satirical pieces on Russian Literature and characterizations of all time. He followed that up with Manhattan, (all music by George Gershwin, here) Annie Hall and Hanna and Her Sisters. 

The Marching Band Cello Scene from Take the Money and Run

As a passionate fan of jazz, Allen has featured New Orleans jazz in most of his movies and performed publicly since the late 60s, most notable with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, on his soundtrack for Sleeper. He continues to perform most Monday nights with his jazz ensemble at the Carlysle Hotel in NYC.  

The revival scene in Sleeper, where Woody Allen discovers he's awoken 200 years in the future.

His later movies and projects have garnered him much in the way of fame and innumerable awards; in film direction, production and writing. He has established himself in both America and in Europe as a man of Arts and Letters, and he continues to this day to write and produce plays, movies and play in his jazz ensemble. One of my favorites for his wit and literary style, and for his slapstick, he has proven himself in both sophisticated circles and as a favorite alá his Chaplinesque style in his earlier films. In all of his earlier movies, as well as his later ones, he questioned authority, relationships, and the existence of God. You thought as much as you laughed, which I always enjoyed. In my opinion, the very best humorists, whatever the genre do this; they make us think; they may make us uncomfortable, but that is the only way we develop and expand our own views.

#A-TO-Z CHALLENGE – LETTER “V” – VISUAL GAG

VISUAL GAG

A visual gag or sight gag is anything which conveys its humor visually, often without words being used at all. The gag may involve a physical impossibility or an unexpected occurrence. The humor is caused by alternative interpretations of the goings-on. Visual gags are used in plays, acting on television and movies and in magic.

I love visual gags and a certain amount of slap-stick. The comedian, Soupy Sales was very popular in the United States, back in the 50s, because of his slap-stick, but I found it tedious, because it was so repetitious. Only in certain cases, and certain comedians, does repetition truly work, in my opinion. Eddie Izzard is a master at it, because he drops his repetitious phrases in randomly and unexpectedly, but it is hard to pull off and should be avoided by all but the best, which, in my humble opinion, Eddie is. But, we're going to look at visual gags, because I don't have to type, type, type, and frankly, I had a hell of a time finding a “V” comedian that I was satisfied with; Jim Varney appealed to a few folks here back in the 90s, but tragically, he died young and his was a very “niche” type of comedy. Funny as he was, I decided to give him a pass. Rest in peace, Jim; you were terrific!

Jim Varney started his career selling ice cream on the Tee Vee. I first saw his ad, in about 1980, when I was still at school, where he is getting an ice cream cone filled, and the cone moves off-screen, then back on-screen each time, with one additional scoop, as he sings a goofy rendition of "Happy Birthday". At the conclusion of the song, he has about 4 scoops of ice-cream on a cone and they fall off. The camera fades to black, as he holds his empty cone, goofy grin in place, glancing down at his empty cone, then back at the camera. I howled.

 

I love pictures like this; a late friend of mine and I spent the weekend at Fort Knox, playing with the heavy artillery and helicopters. I took a picture of her in front of the suspended Huey, ducking, as if a giant mosquito was after her. Sadly, the picture did not survive my many moves and upheavals.

Visual gags can be of a solitary picture, or involve elaborate set-ups to get to the punchline. Both are satisfying, but some are so simple and work well with children. Others are of the WTF? variety and I ran into plenty of those as single-shots. I'm either having a major case of the stupids, or the humor is so full of arcana as to be truly indecipherable, except for say, archaeologists, or Buddhists, or whatever. 

 This sort of thing requires friends who care not one whit how you behave in public. "Walk Like An Egyptian" is apt, and at least you can get to the murals, which must surely be just painted on by starving Art Students. I've seen Egyptology displays, where you are not allowed anywhere near the displays, for fear of disturbing Im-ho-tep, or breaking a priceless cat-mummy toe, or something.

                                                                                                            courtesy: Thingesque

 I get that the dog is blind and the cat is leading the dog, but what's up with the duck? In any case, it would be a rather erratic arrangement, because once Fluffy gets a whiff of tuna, or smells a catnip patch, it's going to be a wild ride for the two blind passengers.

We are left then, with the elaborate set-up, or rather, a series of visual gags that in pacing and style, often resembles a boxing match, or the Finale of a symphonic work. In terms of tempo, and frequency of events, the gag may start out slow, seem pointless and build from there. We go to our old friend Charlie Chaplin for the Pawn Shop Fight Scene for some fun. Check out the way Charlie worms his way back into the owner's good graces and seemingly wins the fair maiden's heart!

 

Chaplin was a true master, and watching this again just made it all fresh and new! 

#A-TO-Z CHALLENGE – LETTER “U” – PETER USTINOV

PETER USTINOV

Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov, CBE, born 16 April 21, died 28 March 2004, was an English actor, writer, and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theater and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humorist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter. A noted wit and raconteur, he was a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits for much of his career. He was also a respected intellectual and diplomat who, in addition to his various academic posts, served as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and President of the World Federalist Movement.

Ustinov as Nero, in Quo Vadis, 1951

Ustinov was the winner of numerous awards over his life including two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor, Emmy Awards, Golden Globes and BAFTA Awards for acting, a Grammy Award for best recording for children, as well as the recipient of governmental honors from, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. He displayed a unique cultural versatility that has frequently earned him the accolade of a Renaissance man. Miklós Rózsa, composer of the music for Quo Vadis and of many concert works, dedicated his String Quartet No. 1, Op. 22 (1950) to Ustinov.

Ustinov had one of the most interesting heritages I've run across in many a moon. He was born Peter Alexander Baron von Ustinow in Swiss Cottage, London. His father, Jona (born Jonah Freiherr von Ustinow), nicknamed “Klop” (Russian: Клоп, “bed-bug”), was of Russian, German, Polish-Jewish and Ethiopian noble descent, and had served as a lieutenant in the Imperial German Luftstreitkräfte (Air Force) in World War I. Jona's father was Russian aristocrat Plato von Ustinov, his mother half-Jewish, half-German-Ethiopian Magdalena Hall. Jona worked as a press officer at the German Embassy in London in the 1930s, and was a reporter for a German news agency.

In 1935, two years after Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, Jona von Ustinov began working for the British intelligence service MI5 and became a British citizen, thus avoiding internment during the war. He was the controller of Wolfgang Gans zu Putiltz, an MI5 spy in the German embassy in London who furnished information on Hitler's intentions before World War II. (Peter Wright mentions in his book Spycatcher mentions in his book that Jona was quite possibly the spy known as U35; Ustinov says in his autobiography that his father hosted secret meetings of both senior British and German officials at their London home.) Ustinov's great-grandfather Moritz Hall, a Jewish refugee from Krakow and later a Christian convert and collaborator of Swiss and German missionaries in Ethiopia, married into a German-Ethiopian family.

Ustinov's mother, Nadezhda Leontievna “Nadia” Benois, was a painter and ballet designer of Russian, French, Italian and German ancestry. Her father, Leon Benois, was an Imperial Russian architect and owner of Leonardo da Vinci's painting Madonna Benois. His brother Alexandre Benois was a stage designer who worked with Stravinsky and Diaghilev. Their paternal ancestor, Jules-César Benois was a chef who had left France for St. Petersburg during the French Revolution and became a chef to Tsar Paul.

Ustinov was educated at Westminster School and had a difficult childhood because of his parents' constant fighting. One of his schoolmates was Rudolf von Ribbentrop, the eldest son of the Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. While at school Ustinov considered anglicising his name to “Peter Auston” but was counseled against it by a fellow pupil who said that he should “Drop the 'von' but keep the 'Ustinov' “. After training as an actor in his late teens, along with early attempts at playwriting, he made his stage début in 1938 at the Players' Theatre, becoming quickly established. He later wrote, “I was not irresistibly drawn to the drama. It was an escape from the dismal rat race of school.”

Ustinov as Prince John (not the snake) in Disney's 1973 Robin Hood

It's easy to see why he would espouse the World Federalist Movement. I have seldom read of so many comings and goings, even among the Hapsburgs, Romanovs and the House of Windsor, at its height, prior to World War I. Looking carefully at pictures of Tsar Nicholas II, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and German Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (who married his first cousin, Queen Victoria and became consort), all three look pretty much alike. Royal houses had taken to inter-marriage to the point that genetic defects (Tsarevich Alexii, son of Nicholas II and Alexandria, had hemophilia B, inherited from his maternal grandmother, Queen Victoria) were becoming manifest. But, as usual, I digress. 

So, it's understandable that Ustinov's parentage, close to the top of the heap in terms of nobility, is somewhat of a scrambled mess when it comes to actual heritage. This was the norm, because, back in the day, it was thought that by establishing alliances in this manner, wars would be prevented. Feel free to laugh at this convoluted piece of logic. Oh, and by the way, although Prince Albert died in 1860, his relatives (Kaiser Wilhelm II, who to be honest, waited a bit before jumping into the fray) and the Hapsburgs themselves, saw nothing wrong with starting a shooting war, by declaring war on Serbia after the assassination of the Archduke of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, who, had he not been so vain to have himself sewn into his fine suit of clothing, may not have bled to death when he was shot at Sarajevo, in June of 1914, by Gavrilo Princip. The surgeons couldn't get to him soon enough. That's where vanity'll get ya!

Where was I? Oh yes! Peter Ustinov, who by all accounts was the best raconteur going; so good in fact, that he spent the latter half of his career just being on talk shows, giving lectures and going on good will tours. This compilation of his interviews with Michael Parkinson is full of sparkling wit, stories, and Ustinov's zest and optimism for life. 

Michael Parkinson's Interview with Peter Ustinov (7 in total)

I always enjoyed hearing him on talk shows; there was always at least three or four guaranteed howlers, just by his descriptions and observations of people. At heart, he was a complete optimist, and he said, "The point of living and being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe that the best is yet to come." I can relate to that. He also said, "If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it cannot be done." That sounds like some of the places I've worked for.

He also wrote a play called Beethoven's Tenth, which is about how Beethoven would react to the modern world. As someone who has pretty much channeled Beethoven from birth, I wondered how Ustinov would approach him. I read some of the excerpts, but it is more a drawing-room play, focusing on the world of symphonic music and music critics, in particular. It is well-known that in Beethoven's time, from his 7th Symphony onward, and his later string quartets, he took shellackings from critics that would demand pistols at dawn, or a swift beheading, were I being the one criticized. "Sounds like badly-oiled syringes," was one critic's summation of Beethoven's gorgeous 7th Symphony in A minor. 

               Ludwig would have loved metal, and played keyboards. Mozart    would have worked for Lawrence Welk and played the accordion.

I've seen many of Peter Ustinov's movies and guest appearances on shows like The Muppets and I truly appreciate his story-telling abilities the most. He could mimic nearly anyone and he was fluent in several languages. He was also elected first Rector of the University of Dundee, Scotland in 1968, an honorary post, which became political when he mediated with militant students. He ran and won a second term in that post.  But for Ustinov, it was all about the laughter. He said of it, "I was irrevocably betrothed to laughter, the sound of which has always seemed to me to be the most civilized music in the world."

  

#A-TO-Z CHALLENGE – LETTER “R” – RAILLERY

Raillery

Raillery can really be looked at as a 'quip' extended. I do believe that it is more closely related to 'badinage', but most people just think of 'badinage' as a badly-wrapped wound, so we just will bypass 'badinage' altogether -- and it's a "B" word -- and move right on to 'raillery'. Besides, desperate times call for desperate measures, and right now, I feel as if I haven't been to my maths class all year, and I have a Calculus final tomorrow morning, and since 'badinage' doesn't begin with an 'r', which would make it 'radinage' meaning nothing, we will hope for the best, regarding 'raillery' which has not one damned thing to do with railroads, so the railroad people (this means YOU, Jeremy) can move on to Runescape and yuck it up in Chat and make fun of me, for once again writing a huge, run-on sentence and creating a huge in-joke. But, I digress.

Raillery noun \'rā-lǝ-rē\

:friendly joking about or with somebody

Origin if from the French raillerie, from Middle French, from railler to mock

First known use: 1653. It is related to quip, barb, sally, persiflage (a marvelous word) banter, and repartee.

I always enjoyed hearing about the Algonquin Round Table and the conversations that took place there. It was the hangout of many authors and clever wits; the likes of Alexander Woollcott, Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, and Edna Ferber, although there were about 24 members.

Some examples of their raillery:

• Robert Sherwood, reviewing cowboy hero Tom Mix, “They say he rides as if he's part of the horse, but they don't say which part.”
• Dorothy Parker: “That woman speaks eighteen languages and can't say 'no' in any of them.”
• George S. Kaufman: When once asked by a press agent, “How do I get my leading lady's name into your newspaper?” Kaufman replied, “Shoot her.”

                                                                                                                                                                                               courtesy: www.pbs.org

The Algonquin Round Table set taste and high-art, pre-depression America, at the Algonquin Hotel, circa 1925.

This is similar to the 'found' quip or raillery we get here in America, often after a local American NFL football team's dismal performance. Once, years ago, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who are often called the Succaneers, lost once again, the coach was asked by the local sports guy what he thought of the teams' execution. The coach said tersely, “I'm all for it”. The Buccaneers are hardly better now. Besides that, it's baseball season. At least the The Tampa Bay Rays actually play baseball.

#A-TO-Z CHALLENGE – LETTER “P” – P. D. Q. BACH

P. D. Q. BACH

P. D. Q. Bach is a fictitious composer invented by musical satirist “Professor” Peter Schickele. In a five-decade-long gag, that Schickele has developed, he performs “discovered” words of the “only forgotten son” of the Bach family. Schickele's music combines parodies of musicological scholarship, the conventions of Baroque and classical music and lots of slapstick comedy.

Anyone who's been to an American Circus has heard composer Julius Fucik's "March of the Gladiators". This "parody" Death Waltz has been making the rounds for years and turns up on music stands now and then and gives musicians heart attacks. It's never played, but just the sight of it is enough to make one quit music and take up selling encyclopedias door-to-door . It is more a statement about composers such as Richard Strauss, who upon consulting with a frustrated flute player over his "Ein Heldenleiben" with the score, noted that the violins had the same passage and that it was "unplayable in the first violins" as well. Having played the piece, I can attest to the unplayableness in some of the viola passages. In a measure of 16th notes, if you hit 12 right in the "Battle Scene" you're doing well. Since it's all a mad scramble, with the entire orchestra tearing  around, it sounds like, well, a battle!

I wore this album out, and several other that Schickele produced. One of my favorites is his take on Beethoven's 5th Symphony, where the announcers treat the first movement as if it were the first inning of a baseball game.

The name P. D. Q. is a parody of the three-part names given to some members of the Bach family that are commonly reduced to initials, such as C. P. E., for Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. PDQ is an initialism for “pretty damn quick”.

The biography of the composer is given by Schickele with citations such as the following:

• P. D. Q. was born in Leipzig on March 31, 1742, the son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Anna Magdalena Bach; the twenty-first of Johann's twenty children.
• P. D. Q. attributed his frequent headaches to having been christened in a shipyard, rather than a church.
• Defined the doctrine of Originality Through Incompetence.

One needn't be a musician to appreciate the wit of Schickele and his alter-ego, P. D. Q. Bach. As lecturer, Schickele would continue the commentary on a running gag that began in Concerto for Horn and Hardart and continue in the introduction to Six Contrary Dances on his Music for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion album, Schickele inferred from fictional evident that P. D. Q. Bach had a hollow leg that was considerably longer than the other one which explains the odd patterns in his dance music.

A take on the very famous Well-Tempered Clavichord by J. S. Bach. The music in this piece as well as being humorous, is dazzling for it's mixture of thematic material, development and execution.

 

P. D. Q. Bach Sonata for Viola 4 Hands and Harpsichord, S 440

Alicia Choi, Rose Wollman, viola, Garnet Ungar, harpsichord 

I'm a violist and made my living playing the viola for many years, but I had never seen this. I was in tears; this is one of the funniest things I've ever seen and how in the hell I missed this, I'll never know. Probably because I was too busy pretending to play the violin with my friend Nancy and first violin at that! ("What are those notes?" I asked her, during a break, when some batch of notes climbed off the stave up into the stratosphere. "Dunno. Just shift and play." Big help, so I just made sure that my "notes" were at least in the same key.

P. D. Q. Bach "The Abduction of Figaro" Act 1, Scene 1

This first scene plays up all of the silliness of Grand Opera, along with just having general fun with the re-iteration of phrases and musical lines, another "invention" of P. D. Q. Bach. What makes all of this so much fun, is that Schickele always gets very accomplished musicians to play along and join in the fun of satirizing their own art. I've always had fun playing music like this, and there are many other fine artists who satirize their own art forms. For more musical fun, check out Anna Russell and her Wagner's Ring Cycle interpretation. Ooh, it's terrific! 

#A-TO-Z CHALLENGE – LETTER “O” – OLIVER HARDY & STAN LAUREL

OLIVER HARDY AND STAN LAUREL

Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel were a comedy double act during the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema. The team was composed of thin Englishman, Arthur Stanley Jefferson, born 16 June 1890 in Ulster Lancashire, England, died 23 February 1965, and fat American, Norvell Hardy, born January 18 1892, in Harlem, Georgia, died August 7, 1957. Theirs was a classic double act that began in the era of silent films and lasted 25 years, from 1927 to 1951.

Oliver "Ollie" Hardy. One-half of one of the most famous double acts in history.

The pair had separate film careers until they both signed with the Hal Roach studios and were paired together in the silent short film Putting Pants on Phillip, released in 1927. They remained with the Roach studio until 1940 and then appeared in eight “B” movie comedies for 20^th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1941 to 1945. Upon finishing their movie commitments, they concentrated on performing in stage shows and embarked on a music hall tour of England, Ireland and Scotland.

In 1949, Hardy's friend, John Wayne asked him to play a supporting role in his movie, The Fighting Kentuckian

Norvell's father, Oliver, was a Confederate veteran, of the American Civil War (1861-1865) who was wounded at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862. After the war, Oliver helped his father manage what was left of the family cotton plantation. He later went on to buy a share in retail business and was elected full-time Tax Collector for Columbia County, Georgia. Norvell's father Oliver died a year after Norvell was born, and Norvell was the youngest of five children, but his older brother Sam died in a drowning accident, even though Norvell attempted to save him.

Hardy was a difficult child and an indifferent student, although he acquired an early interest in music and theater, possibly from his mother's tenants. His mother recognized his talent for singing and sent him to Atlanta to study music and voice. Sometime prior to 1910, Hardy began styling himself “Oliver Norvell Hardy”, adding the first name “Oliver” as a tribute to his father.

In 1913, friend suggested that he move to Jacksonville, Florida, where some films were being made. Hardy did so, working in Jacksonville as a cabaret and vaudeville singer at night, and at the Lubin Manufacturing Company during the day. The following year, he made his first movie, Outwitting Dad, for the Lubin Studio. Although, billed as O. N. Hardy, in his personal life he was known as “Babe” Hardy, a nickname given him by an Italian barber.

This picture here, more than any other, sums up the relationship between the pair. Doofy Stan and eternally exasperated Ollie.

Music Box - Classic Laurel and Hardy

His size placed limitations on the roles he could play, as he was 6'1” and weighed up to 300 pounds, at times. He would often end up being typecast as the “heavy” or the villain. During his time in Jacksonville and New York, where movies were also being made he made over 50 short one-reeler films, again, usually playing the villain.

In 1917, he moved to Los Angeles, working freelance for several Hollywood studies. Later that year, he appeared in the movie The Lucky Dog, with Stan Laurel. Still, it wasn't until 1924, that Hardy began working at Hal Roach Studios with the Our Gang films. It wasn't until 1927, that Laurel and Hardy began sharing screen time together, and Roach Studios' supervising director Leo McCarey, realizing the audience reaction to the two, began intentionally teaming them together. With this pairing, he created one of the most enduring and famous double acts in history.

The first car radio? I'm pretty sure this is just some kind of Rube Goldbergian gimmick, but it's hella awesome, just the same!

I'll end this on a personal note; when I was in 9^th grade, I was in some class like English that showed a Laurel and Hardy short, for some forgotten reason. I had seen them before, and enjoyed them, but this one was a howler. One other kid, who sat next to me, a boy named Gary Lowe, who was smart as a whip and I, in a class of about 30 kids, laughed uncontrollably and generally cackled like hyenas throughout the whole thing. We were the only two who did. I think even our teacher thought we had lost it and gone crackers. After the movie, we would keep sneaking looks at each other and off we'd go again. The teacher, a nice man; a very patient man, and a very wise man, Mr. Anderson, pretty much had to put the class for the day on abeyance because we could not stop laughing. It was one of those moments in time; one I'll never forget. It was priceless!

#A-TO-Z CHALLENGE – LETTER “N” – NOËL COWARD

NOËL COWARD

 

Sir Noël Peirce Coward, born 16 December 1899, died 26 March 1973, was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called “a sense of personal style, combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise.”

It says something about the influence of Coward, that rather than the stars being showcased, Al Hirschfeld's caricature of Coward was displayed in this 1968 revival. 

When I was a teenager, my mother was enamored of and played in various amateur theater groups. For the most part, the troupes she performed with, wrote their own plays and there was lots of discussion and emulation of, Noël Coward. I was never too sure how this translated, since the majority of her work was done with a bunch of aficionados who performed at something called "The Opry House" out in a place called New Almaden, not very far from where I went to high school in San Jose, California. The types of plays that the troupe wrote and performed, were more of the old western melodrama, or "melerdramer" as they all called them and they consisted of a lot of interaction with the audience.

Not really drawing-room plays, but more suited to the "Snidely Whiplash" and "Perils of Pauline" from the early days of silent films, and I think, a whole lot of made up stuff that came from several sessions of them sitting around, drinking beer and seeing who could come up with the funniest one-liners. What does all of this have to do with Noël Coward? Well, his influence in plays and drawing-room comedies on both sides of the pond was indelible and his generosity and kindness were legendary. He was quite handy with a quip, which is NOT going to be my subject for letter Q. No, I'm going to blatantly cheat on that one!

It's not Noël Coward, but at times, my mother would try to be as witty. It was pretty much hit-and-miss. I look stoned here, and she looks drunk. The sliver of "dude in hat, playing the piano), is the ever-brave Robert Lee Haycock, my classmate and our Valedictorian. 

But Coward's contribution as a playwright is legendary and I seem to recall that one of the characters in the plays that was (I hope NOT written by my mother, but could have been) penned out there at the Opry House, had the distinct name of "Know-all Coward" and that was what was passing for wit in New Almaden. Since the audience was encouraged to drink vast quantities of tap-beer from pitchers the size of Iowa, the quality of comedy needn't be of a very high standard, although, it must be said, they did have lots of fun.

Mad Dogs and Englishmen

Coward's witticisms were certainly more high-brow and he had a lengthy and varied career. I enjoyed discovering that he abandoned theater work during the Second World War and sought official war work. After running the British propaganda office in Paris, where he concluded that "If the policy of his Majesty's Government is to bore the Germans to death, I don't think we have the time", he went to work on behalf of British Intelligence. His task was to influence American public and political opinion in favor of helping Britain. Frustrated with the British Press' criticism of him while he traveled abroad, he could not reveal that he traveled on behalf of His Majesty's Secret Service.

Coward on the HMS Victorious, Trincomalee, Ceylon, 1 August 1944

Had the Germans invaded Britain, Coward was slated to be arrested and killed, as he was in The Black Book, along with other public figures like Virginia Woolf, Paul Robeson, Bertrand Russell, C P Snow and H G Wells. When this was revealed after the war, Coward wrote: "If anyone had told me at the time that I was high up on the Nazi blacklist. . . I would have laughed. . . I remember Rebecca West, who was one of the many who shared the honor with me, sent a telegram, which read: "My dear -- the people we should have been seen dead with'."

Winston Churchill's view was that Coward would do more good touring and singing and dancing to the troops, rather than doing any intelligence work: "Go and sing to them when the guns are firing -- that's your job!" Though disappointed, Coward took his advice and went where he was told. He toured, acted and sang indefatigably in Europe, Asia, Africa and America. He wrote and recorder war-themed popular songs, including "London Pride" and "Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans". His London home was destroyed in the Blitz and he took up temporary residence in the Savoy Hotel. Another of his wartime projects (along with David Lean) was the naval film drama In Which We Serve. The film was popular on both sides of the Atlantic and he was awarded and honorary certificate of merit at the 1943 Academy Awards ceremony. Coward played a naval war captain, basing the character on his friend Lord Louis Mountbatten. Lean went on to direct and film several film versions of Coward plays. 

Coward's most enduring work from the war years was the play Blithe Spirit, a hugely successful black comedy (1941), about a novelist who researches the occult and hires a medium. A séance brings back the ghost of the first wife, causing havoc for the novelist and his second wife. With 1,997 consecutive performances on the West End, it broke box-office records and was produced and ran on Broadway for 650 performances. The play was adapted to film in 1945, directed by David Lean. 

Coward as Slightly in Peter Pan (1913) Regarding Coward's sexuality, critic Kenneth Tynan said, "Forty years ago he was Slightly in Peter Pan, and you might say that he has been wholly in Peter Pan ever since." This was the era of "gentleman bachelors" and was widely accepted. Coward's generosity and kindness to people who he had never met was legendary; truly a class act.

Coward continued to write and produce plays into the 50s and 60s, but what is unmistakably his largest influence into 2000 and beyond is his own personality and his witticisms, much like Oscar Wilde. As soon as he achieved success he began to polish the Coward image: an early press photograph showed him sitting up in bed holding a cigarette holder: "I looked like an advanced Chinese decadent in the last phases of dope." Soon after that, Coward wrote, "I took to wearing coloured turtle-necked jerseys, actually more for comfort than effect, and soon I was informed by my evening paper that I had started a fashion. I believe that to a certain extent this was true; at any rate, during the ensuing months I noticed more and more of our seedier West-End chorus boys parading about London in them." 

Noël Coward Theatre in St. Martin's Lane, which opened in 1903, was refurbished and renamed in his honor in 2006. He was knighted in 1969 and elected fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

The critic Kenneth Tynan, in 1953, was the first of his generation to recognize that Coward's plays might enjoy more than transient success. In the 1930s, what had seemed to be daring, but no more than effervescent sophisticated plays, with droll characters, and then seemed old-fashioned in the 1950s, began to be seen as something more. By the 1960s, it was becoming clear that underneath the witty dialogue and art deco glamour of the inter-war years, Coward's best plays dealt with recognizable people and familiar relationships and situations. They contained an emotional depth and genuine pathos that had previously been overlooked. By the time of his death, he was spoke of in the same breath as Congreve, Sheridan, Wilde and Shaw. Although his plays are in the classical tradition, once again, as recently as 2008, he is experiencing another renascence in popularity.

  

Listening to my folks as a kid toss off literary quips was at first mystifying and then as my vocabulary and understanding of the English language grew (at a rather alarming rate, according to my father) I grew to appreciate the well-thought out and well-spoken epigrams and one-liners that my mom and dad quoted, by the likes of Wilde, Coward, Thurber, Wodehouse and H. L. Mencken, to name just a few. Coward is not someone that can easily be written about; he was a one-of-a-kind personality and wore so many hats, so very well.