Author: Harry McCracken

Hey, That’s Me!

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I’ve published original art here before–but I don’t think any of that art was of…well, me.

This piece is by John Cuneo, the wonderful artist who draws for Esquire, GQ, The New Yorker, and many other publications, including, I’m glad to say, PC World. Why he recently did a watercolor of me and sent it to us, I’m not sure. But I’m honored, on multiple levels. And since this will probably never see publication anywhere else (with the exception of my Facebook profile), I thought I oughta post it here…

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Lamb Chop Lives!

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A measurable percentage of the performers on the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon this year were ventriloquists. Which is OK by me–and especially so considering that one of them was Mallory Lewis, daughter of Shari Lewis.

On paper, the idea of Shari Lewis’s daughter performing with Lamb Chop sounds like a bad idea. For my money, Shari was the best ventriloquist who ever worked, and there aren’t many examples of children of the famous taking over their parents’ life work and holding their own. (When Mel Blanc used to talk about Noel being his successor, you just knew it probably wasn’t going to work out that way.) I have no desire to see Candace Bergen go on the road with Mortimer Snerd, nor see April Winchell team with Knucklehead Smiff.

But Mallory is very good, I think. And Lamb Chop is..well, Lamb Chop is Lamb Chop. Which is quite an accomplishment. The official Lamb Chop site shows that they’re working regularly, but mostly in low-profile gigs; I’d love to see them show up on TV in a regular engagement.

They were on in the wee, wee hours of the telethon, so you probably missed them. But here’s a snippet of another performance from YouTube:

Stunt Casting

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He’s one of Hollywood’s most enduring stars. Early in his career, he played a famous comic strip character. And a new movie’s about to be released in which he plays another creation from the funny pages.

You know who he is from the photo above, and probably know his first comic-strip role. But If you can guess who he’s playing now without browsing around to find the answer, I’ll be very, very impressed.

World Exclusive!

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Breaking news in the world of online animation scholarship: Dave Mackey, author of essential works of research like this and this, crossword puzzle author, and my friend of close to two decades, has been visiting San Francisco with his girlfriend Tracy Meyer and her kids. But he’s going home with…his fiancée Tracy Meyer and her kids. Dave proposed tonight at dinner–he’d been hiding a ring in his laptop bag for the entire trip–and I was honored to be among those present.

Congrats to Dave and Tracy–here’s a truly terrible camera phone picture of them minutes after Dave surprised us all. I suspect that better pix and a full write-up will be on DaveMackey.com soon.

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Jerry-Go-Round

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Sunday night at 6pm San Francisco time, as is our annual custom, we’ll be hanging out in the Chat-O-Torium while watching the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon together and enjoying performances by Charo, Norm Crosby, and Garry Lewis and the Playboys*, among others. Well, I hope we will, at least–the telethon will be live by then, but the local station in SF doesn’t start broadcasting it until Monday morning, damn them. I may be able to pick it up on another station on my dish.

Anyhow, if we’re not watching Jerry, we’ll surely be thinking of him and wishing him well. Hope to see you there. And happy Labor Day!

*I’m not positive if any of these people will be on the show this year. But I hope so…

Blondie Gets a Lift

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Say, it’s time for a Sideways Comic Strip(tm). Return with us now to less than four months after Blondie‘s debut, when the Bumsteads were not yet the Bumsteads (well, Dagwood was one, but Blondie wasn’t), Dagwood had a blue-collar job working for his father, and the whole thing was better drawn, funnier, and generally more lively and charming than it would later become. And as far as I know, it was actually drawn by Chic Young.

Please turn your head 90 degrees to the right and enjoy…

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Chat is Back

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I can’t quite believe this, but the little weekly chat I host has been going on for more than sixteen years now. It started on the late and lamented BIX online service during the first Bush administration (see above proof), and segued onto this site in–well, I can’t remember, but some time in the late 1990s, I think. It’s been on different days at different times, but settled into a Sunday night ritual some years ago, which came in handy when I moved to San Francisco from Boston and found myself doing it three hours earlier.

It’s one of the constants in my life, and while I can’t say I’ve never missed a week, I have done one almost every single week when I’ve been home. (As I recall, there was a brief period when I only did two a month.) But I’ve been traveling the past three Sundays–to San Diego, then Saratoga Springs, and then Las Vegas. And I think it’s possible that the three-week gap has been the longest in the history of the chat.

I’ll be home this Sunday, and am looking forward to picking up where we left off a month ago in the Chat-O-Torium. See you there, I hope…