Vacation

 My internet service provider can't.  It's gone down 3 times in the last week, including off and on service all morning today.  This is the second ISP I've had problems with since last spring.  It's just ridiculous.  I need a reliable ISP and it's not a given that there is one to be found.  I'm not doing any new posts until I can expect to have some place to post them.  I don't know if there will be anything on Sunday.

The Colorful Art of Gay Conversation

 

This week's bit is not a production of Ray Blackstone Enterprises, and is intended for consenting adults only...mainly, because they're the only ones who'll get the jokes!

play (3:48) 

Golden Gate Quartet- Stalin Wasn't Stallin' (1943)

 

Part of the national campaign to laugh the Axis off the map.

Stalin Wasn't Stallin' (3:12)

(The line is "And Adolf broke all records/ running backwards to Kharkov".) 

Don Wilson in Hell(o)

 

I've been listening to Old Time Radio (Internet Archive, natch) while doing jigsaw puzzles; Fibber McGee and Molly (ibid) and Jack Benny, formally known as "The JELLO Program, starring Jack Benny, with Mary Livingstone, Rochester, Dennis Day, Phil Harris and yours truly, Don Wilson."

Don was Jack's announcer basically the entire 100 or so years he was on the radio.  Many words passed between him and the microphone in that time, but the heaviest must have been the weekly Jello ad.  They even had him (comically) complaining about it.  Listening to the show, from October 1941 through the next summer, I can understand why.

When it comes to the Hard Sell, modern-day advertising has nothing on 1940's radio.  It was the heyday of the Jingle, for cryin' out loud.  (shudders)  

So, not only is Jello the most amazing dessert ever devised by man (Jello?), but their breakthrough- locked-in flavor!- is reported as if it's just been discovered this very week!  Week after week.  In the same words every time.  

Poor Mr Wilson.  Imagine the resolve it must have taken, not only to read the same hyped-up script every week, but to be wildly enthusiastic.  (Fortunately, I see they changed sponsors soon, back then in the past, so the poor announcer will finally get a break.)

So this is my reaction to that.  It's not intended to reflect support or disdain for Jello (c), a product of General Foods, or the US War Department.  

The title is from George Bernard Shaw's Don Juan in Hell.  (Kind of Jello Hell).  It refers to Mr Wilson's situation, not Jello in general.  Actually, many people find the "what the heck is it?" approach strangely appetizing.  

 Don Wilson in Hell(o) (0:58)

 

The Thin Man Neckties...in Color!

I usually don't watch "colorized" films, but some articles of clothing leave me curious about exactly what they were.  For example, is Cary Grant really wearing a silk blazer??

Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House

 And what are we to make of Charles Coburn's sumptuous bathrobe?

The Lady Eve

Could that be dark blue and turquoise?  Black and gold?  Purple and gold?  Forest green and burnt orange?  Velvet collar, and deeper pile on the dark parts?  What a gorgeous robe.  If only we could see it in the original colors.

Well, on a smaller scale but just as much style, there's the neckties in the Thin Man films, with William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles.  

Nick was a snappy dresser, and that includes his ties.  In an era of hats, the tie was a close second- but their glories are lost to black and white.  Until today.

There were 6 Thin Man films, from 1934 to 1947, covering a decade of unparalleled fashion: Zoot suits.  Reet pleats.  Not to say that Nick would ever drape his shape in that way- a simple, iridescent power-tie was good enough for the first film.

He was even more restrained in "After the Thin Man" (1936), dressed like a banker with sparkly pinstripes and a simple gold tie clasp.

This sort of choice led to him being challenged in "Another Thin Man" (1939) by one of his co-stars, Abner Biberman, who showed up in a gold-lame-on-velvet job that blew out a film camera:

  

 

He was given a stern talking-to by another co-star, Otto Kruger.

 But Nick was on guard after that, and apparently started reaching into his stash of classic neckwear.

There was his red satin "I had blueberry Jello for lunch" tie:

A purple paisley, which no wardrobe should be without:

And this one, from the Richard the Lion-Hearted collection. 

 

The challenges to him were few after that.  Keenan Wynn had a nice yellow orchids tie, like a kooky jazz musician might wear, in the final film, "Song of the Thin Man"-

 

but Nick donned this Cocktail Hour number that reflected his main hobby over the entire series.

 

Must have been a present from Nora.
 

Potentate Update 03/22/03

 

(1:51) From my own Old Time Radio days.  Guest commentator Mr Space on the Second Gulf War.

Potentate Update 

Robot Theater

 

A brief poem for three voices.

Robot Theater_01 (01:11)