Hola, Sneakers! Welcome to Episode 479 of the podcast that started the dance revolution! That’s right! Sneaky Dragon started the dance revolution.
This week on the show: Pepperland; moonlighting pharmacists; Molly’d out; prankster friend; “It’s Not For You!”; chocolate bar-based measuring system; chatty tradesmen; well done, Richard Benjamin; praise for “My Favorite Year”; inopportune blackface; it’s only up from looking at a glass of pee; the Snider cut is the deepest; popular villains; Halle-boo-ya!; bat jobs; Oswald the unlucky rabbit; animated names; Bob and John Denver, brothers; alternate Peppers; bloke coke; vintage toothpaste; sex with your mouth; our newest sponsor; Dork Shadows – your everthing Dark Shadows podcast; Ian quasi-recommends The Protector; Question of the Week – Sneakers respond; fixing Star Wars; Groundhog Gay; the one with the most stuff wins; Gamesparks; Othello – the game of the Moors; now that’s what I call fansplaining; how to fix Brazil; Ferris Bueller fan theory nonsense; jack jumps; Nana Uno; supersitter; more “Was The Prisoner actually Dangerman” controversy; oulipo; racing demon, anyone?; fixing Kingsman; fixing Back to the Future; and, finally, a fond see you soon.
Thanks for listening.
Question of the week: Who’s your favourite vampire? Do you have a least favourite?
Sub-question: What is your favourite film featuring a popular international star making their Hollywood debut?
Sub-sub-question: What would you suggest for a future Question of the Week?
Dept. of Advertising:
Take the advice of sultry-voiced Chris Roberts and his gentle Scottish burr, and head on over to hellkitty.com where you can get your own copy of Ian and Pia’s fantastic new comic book SupE.R. Why not head over there now?
Dave’s “helpful” chart of Dark Shadows characters:
Ian loves this board game. Dave has honestly never heard of it!
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Re: the Ub Iwerks-Disney-Lantz-Oswald situation:
Disney developed the Oswald character, with Iwerks as the head animator (700 drawings per day) for a distributor named Margaret Winkler. Margaret Winkler married a man named Charles Mintz, and suddenly Winkler Studios became Mintz Studios (oh those 1920s). After one season, with some successful marketing of Oswald, Disney discovered that Mintz’s contract with Disney gave Mintz the actual ownership of Oswald and hired away most of Disney’s staff. Iwerks stayed behind with Disney, and they developed Mickey after that. Disney wanted to go toward more realism, Iwerks wanted to keep the rubber hose/cartoony look, so the man who developed the sound system for the early Mickeys (Pat Powers) lured Iwerks away to develop Flip the Frog, ultimately for MGM. Iwerks made Disney buy him out for his half of the studio, some $35K, which was a hardship for Disney.
In the meantime, back with Mintz and Oswald – Mintz worked to distribute through Laemmle at Universal, but Mintz was having “drama” within his production group. Laemmle mused about this one day to his chauffeur, who peeped up that he’d been doing animation for almost 10 years at that point. That chauffeur, who had come to California only to discover that even Disney thought him overqualified, was Walter Lantz. Lantz was hired to replace Mintz and took over the production at Universal.
Lantz began by reworking the silent Oswalds into sound versions, then began working with Bill Nolan to create new Oswalds, with a pause to add their piece to the Universal 2-strip technicolor opus, “The King of Jazz.”
Iwerks’ style didn’t really change all that much once leaving Disney, and at the end of the 1930s, he was at Columbia, working oddly enough with Mintz, before coming back to Disney to work on multiplane cameras, more sophisticated special effects, and the camera system that permitted human and animated character interactions of Mary Poppins. Disney was polite about the return, but it was likely a chilled, professional relationship. (To see how little Iwerks’ style developed, compare “Skeleton Dance” of 1929 to “Skeleton Frolic” of 1937.)
Disney learned from all of this to own EVERYTHING he or his studio developed – think of the copyright changes that kicked in back in the early 2000s to keep Mickey from going public domain. And Lantz learned the same thing, ultimately owning Woody Woodpecker, Chilly Willie, et al, whose marketing kept him afloat when theatrical short revenue began tanking in the 1960s.
Disney also went to Universal to buy back all its rights (and existing prints) for Oswald a few years ago, trading the contract of NFL analyst Al Michaels for the cartoon character.
One needs a flowchart….
Disney, the Corporation, not the organic being did the buyback of Oswald.
Thank you for describing me as ‘sultry-voiced’. That was such a nice compliment I had to share it immediately with my wife, Diane. Sadly, I can’t let you know her reaction right now. She’s laughing uncontrollably at something or other.
Best vampire? Dracula’s an obvious choice, I know, but hard to beat all the same. In my early teens, I was greatly taken with the original novel and the first Hammer film with Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and whatever the collective noun is for lots of heaving bosoms. I’m thinking maybe: ‘a swell’?
Runner-up award goes to Count Duckula, vegetarian vampire and star of a British TV cartoon in the 1980s. Of course, some say Count Duckula was a spin-off from Danger Mouse, but I say – oh, wait, I’ve done that bit…
Favourite film with a popular international star in their Hollywood debut? That one stumped me until I remembered Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday. Let’s add that to the list of classic romcoms too – a lovely, witty script from John Dighton and an uncredited, blacklisted Dalton Trumbo, stylish direction by William Wyler and great chemistry between Hepburn and co-star Gregory Peck. Perfect Sunday afternoon viewing.
Go to Hellkitty!
And on the subject of favorite vampire, I’d have to go with Barnabas Collins, as played by Jonathan Frid in the TV series, “Dark Shadows.” Had to watch it on a 24 hour delay, on a kinescope from a distant station, but it was worth it, even if the end-of-week cliffhangers came on a Monday.
…and Mr. Frid was from Hamilton, Ontario…imagine that!
Oh, for pete’s sake – I go listening to the episodes out of sequence, and you’re talking about Dark Shadows…sorry
Concerning Dr Pepper…
I worked for the company for 17 years, 1990 – 2007 as a contract designer, a full-time employed Art Director and for an In-House Agency that took over the graphics in 2004. When I started there, we only had four brands (Dr Pepper, 7UP, Welch’s & IBC Root Beer) and Dr Pepper was privately owned, these were the years before we used computers for design…everything was done by hand. When the stock went public in 1995, Cadbury Beverages out of Connecticut bought Dr Pepper and moved their portfolio of about 38 brands down to Texas. They considered Dr Pepper to be the “Crown Jewel” of their beverage portfolio. Work became very busy and the company exploded with new faces. I learned the business inside and out, I was very good at what I did for the company. Wanting a more structured agency department, the company basically laid us all off in 2004 and we were re-hired by an In-House Agency doing the same thing, the only thing that really changed was the name on our paychecks. Then in 2007, another In-House agency replaced the one I worked for…literally overnight and we were all let go. Without going into the complicated dealings that transpired let me just say that what happened was the most unprofessional and ugly display of treatment I’ve ever experienced, we were fucking “Order 66ed” like the Jedi in “Revenge of the Sith” and all out of a job. I haven’t drank one drop of Dr Pepper since that day nor have I walked into the headquarters…not even to visit old friends. I wasn’t mad, I was heartbroken, I really gave that job my best. The word lately is that the Dr Pepper, now owned by Keurig Coffee, wants me back. They’re starting over with a new graphics department and are putting the word out to any and all former designers. I found out that the Director who was there when we were let go is still in charge, so that would be like me going back to work for Vader all over again and this Jedi doesn’t need anymore of that Sith.
You were correct about how Dr Pepper got its name, I remember having to watch some sort of orientation video about the company’s history and then given a book about it all. Here’s what the “legend” is: A pharmacist named Charles Alderton created Dr Pepper in 1885. Alderton worked at a drugstore in Waco, Texas, owned by Wade Morrison. Legend has it that Morrison named it “Dr. Pepper” after the father of a young girl he was once in love with.
So say what you will about Dr Pepper, I loaded that bridge with dynamite behind me after crossing it years ago. When you mentioned Dr Pepper Ten, I remember that being one of many misdirected and poorly handled campaigns even though it was after my time there. When 9/11 happened, the local Dallas Bottler wanted to do a commemorative can which was another bad idea in a long line of bad ideas. On the side was printed The Pledge of Allegiance with the words “Under God” omitted and replaced with ellipses. People thinking back on this think it was Pepsi that did it but it was Dr Pepper, more specifically the local bottler, Jim Turner, who had it designed. Millions of cans were recalled and the company took a bath on the entire project. You can read about it here and fully understand that Southerners want both their God and their Dr Pepper to go hand-in-hand…but not always in that order.
https://www.jacksonville.com/article/20121213/NEWS/801241867
My favourite vampire is Eric Northman, the undead Viking and owner of the bar Fangtasia in the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris. I’m also fond of Spike from Buffy. Both Eric and Spike start out as antagonists to the heroines but end up falling into a twisted lust-hate relationship with them. For a foreign actor in a American breakout role, I’ll stick with the vampire theme and go with Alexander Skarsgård, who played Eric Northman in True Blood, the TV adaptation of Harris’ books. It wasn’t is first English-language TV series, but it was the first one I saw him in and he left quite an impression. Least favourite vampire: Robert Pattison’s Edward in the Twilight movies. Okay, I wasn’t in the target demographic but in the books he is angelically handsome and smart.
Chris Roberts, your accent is just the right amount of thick. It is a truth universally acknowledged that Canadian women find Scottish accents sexy. Just ask my Outlander-obsessed sister who is counting down the days till the debut of the travelogue series, “Men in Kilts: A Roadtrip with Sam and Graham” on Feb. 14th. Of course, sometimes we run across a production that doesn’t tone down the brogues for a North American audience. This week, we were watching a murder mystery on Netflix called Retribution (UK title: One of Us) which was set in Scotland. My mom complained that she couldn’t understand what this one character was saying so we turned on the closed captioning.
Wow! Why did I not know this?! 🙂
I was doing a crossword puzzle and the clue was the writer of “Cat’s in the Cradle.” That song is known in pop culture for making dads cry. My sub-sub question for you and the Sneaky listeners is, “What song makes you cry?”
I’m still pushing the 2013 Vampire film “Only Lovers Left Alive” so I’m going to have to go with Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton as the married vampire couple, Adam and Eve for my favorites. I really like this movie and I think it’s smart, funny and dark…it’s not what I expected it to be when my wife recommended it to me. As a runner-up vampire favorite, I have to pick The Count from Sesame Street! How can you not love The Count?! He should open up a business as an accountant that works at night. When my stepson was young, he was terrified of the bats on wires that floated around The Count, I guess they looked real enough to give him the creeps flapping up and down.
Least liked vampire? The playing field is uneven since there are a great many vampires I haven’t seen in film or television but I guess I’ll go with Edward Cullen from the “Twilight” films played by Robert Pattinson. My daughter Erin dragged me to those films when they were popular, I feel like the last one ended about 12 minutes ago they seemed so long. Erin did read all the books, so at least the stories encouraged her to read.
“Twilight” being behind him now, we’ll now see if Pattinson can make it as another “Bat” Man.
I don’t recall how popular he was as an international star but when I saw Mel Gibson in George Miller’s “The Road Warrior” back in the Summer of 1981, I was sold. I hadn’t heard of Mad Max, George Miller or Mel Gibson up until that point but that was also the Summer that “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was released. All that action and bombastic eye candy seemed to just fall from the sky that Summer without warning, making Gibson very bankable for the foreseeable future.
I kind of shoehorned in the “Question of the Week” last week with the board game question, so I’ll lay low until I think of another. I will add two things to the board game conversation though after hearing the responses last time:
• My Grandmother Draganski played Scrabble quite avidly, she was near impossible to beat. This was a woman who could complete the New York Times Sunday Crossword…in pen. But we all tried….and failed but had a good time doing so.
• My Dad would never play the game of “Life” with us. We didn’t own the board game but one time when my friend brought it over and upon inviting my Dad to play, he said, “Play the game? Who the hell would make a goddamned game out of life? It’s hard enough to live it as it is…get out of here with that!”
Game over.
I don’t really have good answers to this week’s questions (and the Chumbawamba playlist is mostly assembled but I’m still tweaking it), but if I really didn’t tell the story of Grandma Bunny cheating at Uno, then I guess I’d better do that.
Grandma Bunny (real name Bernice but everyone called her Bunny) was a devout Catholic and a generally cheery person, virtually unflappable, with a thick Massachusetts accent and the patience of a saint. She was born in 1922 and she played Nintendo. She let all of us grandkids watch R-rated movies and run free around the neighborhood as long as we didn’t burn anything down. But one thing she didn’t do terribly often was laugh. She’d smile, be happy, be visibly amused, but I have remarkably few memories of her actually busting out laughing.
My two closest cousins and I used to play Uno around the kitchen table, and Grandma Bunny would often join in. One night, one or two games in, she started intermittently giggling. As we played, her giggling gained in strength. She was trying to control it, but it wasn’t possible. We all asked what the heck was so funny, but she wouldn’t say. But soon her face began to turn red, and within a few more minutes there were tears streaming down her face. We refused to continue until she told us what was making her laugh.
“I cheated!” she gasped, “and not one of you caught me! I put two green fours down on a blue eight!”
So that was pretty much the end of Uno that night, since we all fell apart laughing at the absurdity of Grandma Bunny cheating (and her complete failure to play it cool afterwards).
I’m not a huge horror/vampire fan. I suppose I’ll take the schmaltzy delights of George Hamilton, followed by the mid-90’s comedic stylings of Leslie Nielsen in ‘Dracula: Dead and Loving It.’ Damn, that sounds like a solid movie night right there!
With regards to an international debut in Hollywood, I don’t know if I’m stretching the rules on this, but Edward Fox’s performance in MGM’s “The Day of the Jackal” from 1973 really stands out. Yes, Edward Fox was [and is] primarily a British star, and yes most of this film is shot in France and hardly feels very MGM. His performance is so great, though, and very, very subtle. In fact, most of the film has that early ’70s, casual, nonchalant vibe. There is no score or soundtrack to speak of, and the dialogue is intentionally sparse, with loud sounds of traffic overriding characters’ speech in many scenes. But it’s that lack of severe, over-stylized filming – paired with a very tense script – that really works. Edward Fox’s wardrobe is at first equally unremarkable, but at the same time really interesting. Lots of subtly-dramatic proportions and styles popular in early 1970s Anglo-Franco tailoring which don’t jump out at you and slap you across the face, but when examined closely are remarkable. I can’t help but feel this mirrors the film, and it’s really a wonderful suspense affair for anyone to check out.
Speaking of suspense! I was so surprised that ‘The Last of Sheila’ wasn’t mentioned when you guys we’re discussing Richard Benjamin. Especially when 70’s sunkissed-bombshell Dyan Cannon was also brought up! I had the great fortune to see both of them live at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood about a month before the first lockdown hit last year. They introduced and stayed for a Q+A after screening this underrated cult gem, which was also filmed in 1973 and [ALSO!] in France. Coincidence? Actually yes….
‘The Last of Sheila’ is a wonderfully acted and ingeniously scripted whodunit, in almost an Agatha Christie drawing-room murder style. You know what? Scratch my earlier idea for those two dumb Dracula movies at the beginning. Set aside a night, make yourself some popcorn, and watch “Day of the Jackal” and “The Last of Sheila” in that order. SOOOOO GOOOOD! James Coburn’s blow-dried hair defies gravity, James Mason delivers solid Anglo jabs, and the ending sports one of the wildest Chekhov’s gun I’ve ever seen.
That said, my suggestion for a future question of the week is to name your favorite anachronistic, drawing room murder film. In other words, a film which is clearly Agatha Christie-inspired, but takes place [or was made] in a far-flung decade. ‘Knives Out’ would be a good example, but my suggestion is absolutely ‘The Last of Sheila.’ Enjoy!