Voice of Aquaman, Norman Alden, Character Actor for 50 Years Dies

The first celebrity I ever met was an actress called Judy Strangis. It was at Universal Studios in California in the mid 70′s. I watched her on a TV series called “Room 222″ and had seen her in a few TV appearances of “Batman.” During these shows she worked alongside Julie Newmar who played the slinky, conniving Catwoman. When I met Ms. Strangis she was working on “Electra Woman and Dyna Girl”, a children’s Saturday morning program. In this female version of Batman, the women donned outfits with capes and battled a bevy of costumed villains. They operated out of the secret Electrabase, which was headed by Frank Heflin. Heflin designed and built the heroines’ sophisticated equipment, and he helped them track down the bad guy of the week using the mysterious, high tech gadgetry that also gave them their special powers. Heflin was played by Norman Alden, a character actor who had parts in hundreds of films, TV shows and commercials.

Norman Alden has taken his final taxi at 87.

Alden entertained me – and countless other children – for many years. I was an avid Justice League of America comic book fan so when the cartoon “Super Friends” came out in 1972, I was jazzed to see some of my favorite heroes every Saturday morning. Alden was the voice of several characters on the show but is perhaps best known as the voice of Aquaman.

Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Alden got his start on “The Bob Cummings Show” in 1957 and appeared in hundreds of TV series episodes, including ” Rugrats,” “Honey West,” “Fay,” “My Three Sons,” “Bonanza” “My Favorite Martian,” “The Big Valley,” Lassie,” “The Streets of San Francisco,” “Hogan’s Heroes ,” “The Rookies,” “Adam-12,” “Aaahh!!! Real Monsters,” “Combat!,” “Planet of the Apes,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “JAG” and “Rango” where he had a recurring role as Capt. Horton. In the mid 1970s, he starred in episodes of the comedy TV soap opera parody “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” until his character Coach Leroy Fedders drowned in a bowl of soup. I recall him being in the 1960s television series “Batman,” where he played one of the Joker’s henchmen.

One of my favorite Disney films is “The Sword in the Stone” (1963). In the movie, Alden voiced Sir Kay, King Arthur’s brother. He played Johnny Ringo in 1961′s “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp” and also had movie roles in “Tora! Tora! Tora!” (1970), “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden” (1977), “Semi-Tough” (1977), “They Live” (1988), “Ed Wood”(1994), “Patch Adams” (1998),”K-Pax” (2001) and in the 1986 animated film “Transformers” where he played the voice of a Kranix, a robot who narrowly escapes destruction by Unicron, voiced by Orson Welles. Many will remember him in 1985′s “Back to the Future” as the owner of the coffee shop who employs future mayor Goldie Wilson. One of the funniest scenes in the movies is his character’s exchange with Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) about “Pepsi Free.”

This multi-talented man – and his face and voice – will be sorely missed.

 

 

Ginny Tyler, voice actress & Disney legend, passes away at 86

My wife Marlesa and I recently saw the Wes Anderson film, “Moonrise Kingdom.”   It really brought back a lot of memories to both of us about growing up in the 60′s. Most notable were the scenes with the children listening to “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” on an old portable record player. This theme was repeated several times throughout the movie.  When one of the characters runs away from home she ‘borrows’ her brothers’ record player – leaving him an IOU – and takes it with her.  I remember those pre-ipod days of absolutely longing to carry my records wherever I went.

My parents gave me an allowance growing up, and almost all my money went into buying vinyl 45s. I can remember going to the downtown Sears and Roebuck store and shuffling through children’s records till I found one I couldn’t live without. These particular records didn’t have the big hole in the center that required a plastic spindle insert like other 45s, but instead were shaped with small hole in the center, just like a full-sized vinyl LP.

Most of what I collected were stories based on Disney movies or recordings of their characters singing songs.  Many of these records featured a particular female voice that I can still hear in my mind. It was the voice of Ginny Tyler, one of the Disneyland Storytellers.

Ginny Tyler has taken her final taxi at the age of 86.

Tyler was born Merrie Virginia Erlandson and adopted  her stage name Tyler when she started out in radio. She moved on to become host of a children’s show in Seattle, Washington.  Around 1950, she moved to Los Angeles and started narrating albums for Disney.  During that time she made friends with Art Clokey and became part of the group that made the breakthrough stop motion animation cartoon “Gumby.” Tyler voiced several characters on the children’s show.  This lead to another stop motion animation cartoon popular in the 60′s called  “Davey and Goliath.”

Disney tapped  Tyler to narrate short films for the “Mickey Mouse Club”  in the 1960′s. She would take older footage and update it with her more modern voice.  Also for Disney she voiced the two female squirrels in “The Sword in the Stone” (1963) and sang several parts of animated animals in “Mary Poppins” (1964).  A large movie role came for Tyler in 1967 when she worked alongside Rex Harrison in “Doctor Dolittle.” She voiced the part of Polynesia – the parrot who spoke over  two thousand languages (including Dodo and Unicorn.)

I will fondly remember her for the super-hero cartoons of my childhood.  In 1966 she worked for two seasons on Space Ghost. Tyler played the voice of Space Ghost’s sidekick Jan who was always the damsel in distress. Switching gears, she was also the female villain Black Widow.  In 1978 she voiced Sue Richards aka The Invisible Girl in The Fantastic Four cartoon. 

For years Ginny Tyler’s voice was a part of my life.

After the movie ‘Casper’ came out on DVD, I wanted to turn my children onto the old Casper TV shows from the 1960s. As we settled down with the popcorn and I hit the play button on the DVD player, I was pleasantly surprise to find the sweetly not-too-scary voice of Casper done by none other than Tyler. A haunting voice from my childhood that I’ll always remember….

Jonathan Frid, TV’s Barnabas Collins, Bites The Big One

As long as I can remember vampires have been popular.   Some may think it’s just a fad, but ever since “Dracula” was published in 1897, vampires have captured a place in our collective imagination. Currently there are several books and book series on the market in which vampires feature prominently.  Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire novels and Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series are just two of my favorites.  Don’t forget Anne Rice’s classic “Interview with the Vampire” and the hugely successful Twilight series. Many of these tales have been translated into film, and there are hundreds of movies with vampire characters.  From the sympathetic Blade in the series of that name to the wide-eyed adolescents of The Lost Boys to real baddies like those in Fright Night – good guy or villain – we run to queue up at theatres to get our fix of romance/horror.

In the 60’s and 70’s there was one vampire that I would literally run to see every weekday.  He was on TV every afternoon at 3:00. The problem was that my bus did not bring me home until about 3:10 or 3:15. This gothic soap opera was a half hour program and I barely got to see the last 10 to 15 minutes of it. The program was called “Dark Shadows” and the vampire who made himself at home among the unsuspecting citizens of Collinwood was named Barnabas Collins. This particular blood sucker was played by a Shakespearean actor named Jonathan Frid. Frid has taken his final taxi at the age of 87.

The character Barnabas Collins was a 200-year-old vampire who roamed in search of fresh blood and his lost love, Josette. He was brought into the ghost-infested soap in hopes of boosting its low ratings. Originally this was to be a brief role for Frid. He was booked for only 13 weeks, but the unheard of introduction of a vampire into a daytime series caused ratings to rise from the crypt and soar like a winged bat fluttering outside a heavily curtained castle window.  Frid/Barnabas became the star of the show.

Frid did not expect Barnabas to be the one character that would define his acting career. He had only taken the role to pay for a move to the West Coast but scrapped other projects once the ‘short role’ became a major one. He played Barnabas untill “Dark Shadows” ended in 1971, after a five year run. He also played the vampire in the 1970 movie “House of Dark Shadows.” Frid had a few other TV and movie roles, but type casting bogged him down.  He eventually returned to his first love, theater, in 1978.

Frid had a love/ hate relationship with Barnabas but eventually embraced the character, showing up at Dark Shadows conventions and even reprising the role in the new soon-to-be-released Tim Burton movie by the same title.  Frid will play the older Barnabas Collins catching a glimpse of his younger self, as played by Johnny Depp.

To show you the popularity of the role Jonathan Frid developed, one of my favorite memories is of being in second grade and getting permission from my Mom to buy a book through the “Weekly Reader” book sale.   I dashed in that autumn afternoon, clutching my copy of a little vampire joke book called “Barnabas Collins In A Funny Vein” just in time to tune in to Dark Shadows.

 

Brothers’ 92 years end the lifelong way: as twins

REPRINT– I read this article and had to share. Great way to share a life and to take that Final Taxi together.
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From the moment of their birth in Buffalo 92 years ago, twin brothers Julian and Adrian Riester rarely left each other’s side.

They played together, went to school together, as young men traveled cross-country together — and, in their 20s, joined the Franciscan order together.

And on Wednesday, after 65 years as identical twins wearing the identical brown robes of the Franciscans — mostly at St. Bonaventure University — Brother Julian Riester and Brother Adrian Riester died together at St. Anthony Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla. Julian died Wednesday morning, followed by Adrian in the evening.

Those who knew the Riesters best say they are not surprised at all.

“If ever there is a confirmation that God favored them, this is it,” said their cousin and close friend Michael Riester of Buffalo. “They weren’t even separated for 12 hours.”

The biological brothers were also religious brothers, committed to the monastic life of Franciscan friars, not as priests but in roles as physical laborers.

During two stints at St. Bonaventure, from 1951 to 1956 and from 1973 to 2009, “the twins” were a common sight strolling in lockstep across campus — or, in later years after a few “incidents” resulted in loss of their driver’s licenses, on identical bicycles wearing identical helmets.

They became known as accomplished artisans who expressed their talents as gardeners and woodworkers, turning out tables and cabinets from their workshop in the garage of St. Bonaventure’s Franciscan Friary.

Yvonne Peace, former secretary to the university’s Franciscan community, remembers them as handymen and “fixers” who repaired all sorts of items brought to them by many on campus.

“They were always busy,” she said.

Brother Julian, whose given name was Jerome, and Brother Adrian, whose given name was Irving, were part of a family of seven children born to Dr. Julian Riester and his wife, Clara. Their father was a prominent obstetrician who as a medical student observed surgery on President William McKinley after he was fatally shot in Buffalo in 1901, according to Michael Riester, who is the historian of St. Louis Catholic Church.

The attended St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute in Buffalo (where they had a reputation for fooling teachers by their identical looks) and then a radio technology school in Los Angeles before applying to the Franciscans’ Holy Name Province.

Toward the end of World War II, after mutually pledging to reply to whichever came first — an acceptance from the Franciscans or an expected induction notice from the Army — the morning mail brought an invitation to join the friars, and the afternoon mail “greetings” from the draft board.

God’s call, they told interviewers in later years, took priority.

They were separated only twice, once from 1946 to 1951 when Brother Adrian was a sacristan at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Manhattan and Brother Julian was general manager of St. Anthony Shrine in Boston. Later they were not far apart in the 1950s when Brother Julian was assigned to St. Patrick’s Parish in Buffalo and Brother Adrian to Bishop Timon High School in South Buffalo. But from 1956 on, the Riester brothers were together.

Michael Riester remembers them as family men who used the money given them by friends to travel to Buffalo on their day off to take their mother — who lived to 103 — to dinner at fine restaurants such as Salvatore’s Italian Gardens or Romanello’s. “They liked a good time,” he said.

Indeed, in 2003 Brother Julian told the Bona Venture, the university’s student newspaper, that they confounded the friars’ seniority system by often claiming they “walked in the door together” and by never divulging which twin was born first.

“We don’t tell,” Brother Adrian told the newspaper. “We like to keep them guessing.”

Michael Riester said his cousins will be remembered as “exemplary men and holy men,” who lived their lives in a truly Franciscan spirit. When word came earlier this week that both were seriously ill in the Franciscans’ retirement home in St. Petersburg, where they had lived for the last two years, Michael Riester and many in the St. Bonaventure community said they almost expected that the pair would leave together.

Now they will be buried together Monday in St. Petersburg.

“They had this intimate bond, in which neither was selfish at all,” Michael Riester said. “And because they were so in tune to God and to each other, it’s not surprising at all.”

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http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article442210.ece

Rocky & Bullwinkle Creator, Alex Anderson, Takes Final Taxi

One year we almost forgot Halloween. I was not even in first grade yet so the peer pressure of what costume to wear had not even crossed my mind. My mother was too busy trying to sell a house and having a sick mother to think about instead of getting us kids a costume. Suddenly it was October 31st and we remembered that it was Halloween. We rushed to the local Big B Drugs or Eckerds Pharmacy only to be disappointed with what was left.

The choices came in those plastic masks that just covered your face and were formed into a Saturday morning cartoon character or the cheap latex masks that were so over the top in the horror department that no one wanted them. My mother opted for the plastic mask that year with the matching garbage bag you wore over your clothes. This always had the cartoon character’s body on it.

My brother was Rocky the Flying Squirrel and I was Bullwinkle J Moose. The mask was a little over sized, I remember the elastic band that secured to the mask by metal staples inside the mask,that would always pull my hair and scratch the side of my face. What torture a child endured for a Bit-o-Honey or a vanilla Toostie Roll. By the end of the night my antlers were mangled by having them slammed into the car door every time I closed it.

I do remember I got quite a lot of candy that year. I was fonder of Rocky and Bullwinkle after that Halloween. I watched them more often after that and once they started reruns when I was older I got the adult comedy that was in the show as well.
Rocky and Bullwinkle ran as a new show from 1959 to 1964 on ABC them moved to NBC. It has been running in syndication ever since. At one time it was the highest rated daytime network program.

The characters of Rocky & Bullwinkle were, created by Alex Anderson Jr., Anderson has died at the age of 90.

In an interview in 1991 with the San Francisco Chronicle, Anderson said that he had worked with his uncle Paul Terry of Terrytoons, on the cartoon Mighty Mouse. He didn’t understand the mechanics of how a mouse flew or, for that matter, how Superman flew. Since flying squirrels do fly that gave him the mantle of superness without having to stretch the truth. Thus Rocky the Flying Squirrel evolved. With Bullwinkle, Anderson saw something majestic about moose: “They’re macho, but they have a comic aspect, with that schnozzola of theirs. There are a few creatures just begging to be caricatured.”

Anderson is credited with developing the first cartoon series created for TV, Crusader Rabbit.

He also create another well know cartoon about a dim-witted Canadian Mountie called Dudley Do-Right. In 1999 this was turned into a live-action film starring Brendan Fraser as Do-Right .

It was Alex Anderson’s Bullwinkle creation that helped save my Halloween many years ago, but by the end of the night my costume had taken it own ” final taxi.”

Scarlett O’Hara’s Little Sister – Evelyn Keyes

Back in 1981 I was working at a theater in Rainbow City, Alabama when we showed a revival film that many people remembered. The title was Gone With The Wind and the crowds were huge. This was long before VHS tape came along and you could either rented or buy a copy. Whenever you wanted to see a classic you had to go to the theater to see it.

During that run I was projectionist and we had a rather poor copy of the film. It would break several times during the showing. It got to where I had to ‘babysit’ the print while another projectionist ran the other houses in the theater. I had to watch Gone With The Wind twice a day for over a month.

I got to know all the characters very well so when I found out that Evelyn Keyes had taken her Final Taxi at the age of 91 I was a little sad. Keyes will be remember for several well known Hollywood movies but more for her role as Scarlett OHara’s younger sister, Suellen. 

Even though she appeared in over 40 movies she will also be known as the wife or lover of some of Hollywood’s famous movers and shakers. In her autobiographies she spoke of her affairs with David Niven, Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn. She was also married to film director John Huston.
Born Port Arthur Texas in 1916, Evelyn Louise Keyes moved with her family to Atlanta Georgia. She was determined to make it to Hollywood and though dancing as “Goldie Keyes” arrived in 1936 where she was snatched up by film producer Cecil B. DeMille .
She had several roles from the films including The Jolson Story, The Seven Year Itch , A Thousand and One Nights, Dangerous Blondes, 99 River Street, Johnny O’Clock , Before I Hang and Around the World in Eighty Days. Keyes did several Westerns even though she was allergic to horses.
I also loved her as the love interest in Here Comes Mr. Jordan a movie that was remade several times, once with Warren Beatty and more recently with Chris Rock. The movie is about a man who is taken into Heaven too soon and has to be returned to another body.
Keyes also played on television on such shows as Amazing Stories, The Love Boat and several episodes of Murder She Wrote.

Go Do That Voodoo That You Do – Harvey Korman

The way that gas prices are going up and as more people are trying to find ways to cuts costs I can’t help but think of the 1979 movie “Americathon.” The films premise is that sometime in the near future, the USA has run out of oil, and many Americans are literally living in their now stationary cars and either jog or ride bicycles to travel. The federal government, now moved to Marina del Rey, California, is near bankruptcy as the dollar is worthless. The President, played by John Ritter, hires celebrity Monty Rushmore (Harvey Korman) to host a telethon to raise money in gold. It seems that no matter how difficult situations became Americans refused to give up watching television. The movie starred not only John Ritter and Harvey Korman but Fred Willard, Peter Riegert, Nancy Morgan, Elvis Costello, Jay Leno, Meat Loaf, and Tommy Lasorda. (Don’t look for it on DVD since it never has been released.)

One of my favorite scenes is when Harvey Korman sings to the TV audience ” give us all your gold.. gold ..gold.” Proving that he could do both comedy, dance and sing. He was very talented.

I was shocked to see that Harvey Korman has taken his Final Taxi at the age of 81. He left a litany of characters behind but the one he will be most remembered for is that of Hedy.. sorry that’s Hedley Lamarr in Mel Brook’s Blazing Saddles. He also spent 10 years on The Carol Burnett Show developing hundreds of personalities for the series. For these zany characterizations, Korman was nominated seven times for Emmys for his television work and won four. He also was nominated for four Golden Globe awards, winning one.

Harvey Herschel Korman was born in Chicago on February 15, 1927. He started acting in school plays in kindergarten was hire by a local radio station while in high school. Leaving college for service in the United States Navy, Korman later resumed his studies at the Goodman School of Drama at the Chicago Art Institute.

He moved to New York and could not find work “on Broadway, on off-Broadway, under or beside Broadway,” he told a reporter in 1971.

In the early 60′s, moving back to Chicago Korman worked as a movie theater doorman for three years before getting his show-business break with Danny Kaye. Relocationing to Hollywood and began working regularly on “The Danny Kaye Show” in 1964. He stayed with the show until its cancellation in 1967, the year that he joined the cast of The Carol Burnett Show in its first season. He worked along side Burnett as well as Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence, and Lyle Waggoner. (Conway and he would have a friendship and partnership that lasted till Korman’s death.)

Korman also did voice-over work on commercials and cartoons like Tom and Jerry but animation fans will remember him as the Great Gazoo on The Flintstones. The October 29, 1965 episode of The Flintstones introduced a little helmeted spaceman from the future consigned to the Earth’s past in punishment for his crimes. The alien would show up in 10 shows and in the live action movies as well all with Korman as the voice.

Korman made more than 30 films, including four comedies directed by funnyman Mel Brooks, who first discovered him when his wife, the late Anne Bancroft, saw him on “The Carol Burnett Show” and said he was perfect for his upcoming movie 1974′s “Blazing Saddles.” It would be one of Korman’s best known roles in films as he played the leering mayor Hedley Lamarr — who couldn’t stand people calling him Hedy.

Other Brooks comedies included “High Anxiety”, “Dracula: Dead and Loving It” and “The History of the World Part I” where he played the evil Count de Monet.

He also appeared in the “Pink Panther” movies Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) and Curse of the Pink Panther (1983).

As well, he was in the movies Gypsy, Huckleberry Finn (as the King) and Herbie Goes Bananas, and the TV-movie Bud and Lou (as Bud Abbott opposite Buddy Hackett’s Lou Costello).

Korman guest-starred in dozens of TV series, including The Donna Reed Show, Dr. Kildare, Perry Mason, Burke’s Law, The Wild Wild West, The Muppet Show, The Love Boat and The Roseanne Show.

For about the last eight years, until late last December, Harvey Korman teamed up with his old TV partner, Tim Conway and they toured the country in a stage show that, more than anything, was a homage to their years with Burnett. They performed about 120 shows a year.

PODCAST: It’s Been A Bad Week For Musical Artists – 5 Dead

DOWNLOAD MP3 Podcast:

The Final Taxi has made 5 trips this week with people with musical talent.

1.Paul Davis- American singer and songwriter who recorded such songs as “Cool Nights,” “65 Love Affair,” “Sweet Life,” and “I Go Crazy.”

2. Brian Davidson – Drummer and songwriter for the 60′s band The Nice- the forerunner of Emerson Lake and Palmer.

3. Danny Federci – Keyboardist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street band.

4. Jim Gilchrist- Lead guitarist who played with The Doors, Van Morrison, Captain Beefheart, and Frank Zappa.

5. Al Wilson – Classic soul singer who recorded such memorable songs as “The Snake,” I’ve Got a Feeling We’ll Be Seeing Each Other Again, ” and his Billboard hit “Show and Tell.”

Even Dead Customers Still Have To Pay Cell Bill

I was a loyal Cingular customer. They treated me right and when I talked to someone over the phone the customer service as good. I never had a problem until AT&T bought them out. WE now have more dropped calls, bad service and if you try to talk to someone in customer service you might as well know you will be getting into an argument with them. After being with the same network for 10 years we have now started shopping around for another cell phone company.

We narrowed it down and Sprint was one of them we have been looking into. Sure I heard about the time they charged someone a $14,062.27 phone bill incorrectly, but accidents happen, right?

Maybe not- now there is news coming out that the ignorance -plagued “organization” has refused to humanely cancel the account of a subscriber who had just passed away.

Story goes back to December 21, when a 66 year-old man in Framingham,  Mass., died of a brief illness. After what had to be a really sad Christmas, the deceased man’s son-in-law, Bill Stewart, called Sprint  to cancel his father-in-law from the family cell phone plan.

“They said his contract wasn’t up and to pay the fee or keep it activated,” Bill Stewart  told WCVB-TV in Boston. “They said my father had upgraded his phone, so we can’t cancel unless we pay the early termination fee or give the phone to somebody else,” Stewart added.

The uncaring Sprint salesperson first suggested to Bill Stewart that they add someone else to the plan. That suggestion didn’t go well with Stewart. Then, the customer “service” rep offered  to reduce the  monthly fee for his deceased father-in-law’s phone from $20 to $10 until the contract ends in September 2008.  That didn’t go over too well with Bill Stewart either.

Finally, a TV news reporter got Sprint spokesperson Mark Elliott on the line. He said that with a death certificate from the Stewart’s, that they would make it right five days or so.  

What Sprint saying to a grieving son-in-law is we hear what you’re saying about your loss, but prove it.  I might expect this from a clueless India customer service rep.( That is another rant.)  Have we been reduced to this for a company to do this to longtime, loyal customer?

Podcast Junky Spotlights the Final Taxi!

One of my favorite podcast to listen to is the Podcast Junky  show. Megan, the host, asks the question “what are you listening to?”  She talks to people who will tell her about their podcasts and of those they are listening to as well.

This week she review The Final Taxi podcast.

Give her a listen and subscribe on iTunes or go to her website : http://www.podcastjunky.com