Never Refuse an Award II: Electric Boogaloo

J.C. Loophole of The Shelf has awarded Hollywood Dreamland with the Kreativ Blogger Award. Thanks, J.C! Now, since HD is not an island, we're going to follow the rules of being a good neighbor (thank and link to your bestower--done) and then list seven things about yourself that others might find interesting. Then, pass the Kreativ Blogger award on to seven worthy blogs.

So here we go:

Seven "Interesting" Things about me:

1. I didn't eat my first peanut butter and jelly sandwich until I was 21. I just thought the combination was disgusting. I like them fine now.

2. Every time I post a comment on someone else's blog, I want to use the security word as a sign-off battle cry. "Enduri"!

3. My all-time favorite music recording is The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961 by the Bill Evans Trio.

4. I never worry about important stuff, but the little everyday things send me into a tizzy. Killers after me? No problem! Creased spine on a book? It's the end of the world!

5. In 1979, after severe flooding in Miami, the neighborhood kids and I "hitched rides" on slow-moving cars making their way through the knee-high water by hanging on to their rear bumper.

6. I'm obsesssed with people dying just before historical events. Pauline Kael and Troy Donahue died a week before the September 11 attacks and Dick Powell and Jack Carson died the same day in 1963 and never knew about the Kennedy assassination. It torments me!

7. One of my very best movie-watching experiences was when I was up all night sick with a cold. At 2am, The Wild Bunch was on cable and I enjoyed every moment of it watching it from the couch in the dark, despite being congested, feverish, and just plain unpleasant. For some reason, the movie and its imagery fit the mood perfectly.


And now I bestow the Kreativ Blogger award on the following seven worthy blogs (imagine Archie Bell and the Drells Tighten Up playing as this takes place):

Dave at Goodfella's Movie Blog

VP at Carole and Co.

Carrie at Classic Montgomery

Harley at Dreaming in Black and White

Zoe Walker at The Big Parade

Trixie at That's Just Stupid What You Said (She won't know how to handle the fame)

Millie at Classic Forever (She will)

The Three Stooges: A Personal History

If you're male and grew up anytime between the 1950s and 1980s, the Three Stooges were a part of your regular television viewing. The Stooges--meaning Moe, Larry, and Curly, no other incarnation matters--were usually on your local independent station at 3pm--just after school. In my neck of the woods, it was probably WCIX Channel 6. Back in the 1970s and early '80s, independent stations were a veritable dumping ground for classic A and B movies, cartoons, movie shorts, memorable and obscure TV shows, and the late and lamented "Late Night Movie" often hosted by a local TV or radio "personality." In looking back, it was a bountiful treasure trove. Whether or not I naturally gravitated towards ancient pop culture or was just brainwashed by local programming directors is up for debate, but I like to think that I just loved old shows.

But back to the Three Stooges-- they were an institution. Moe, Larry, and (especially) Curly were here before me, and will be around long after I'm gone. My grandfather loved them and my dad watched them whenever possible. I remember the family driving to my grandparents' house one weekend in 1978 or so and WCIX's audio signal was on the far left side of the radio dial. So we got to hear the Stooges poke each other's eyes out as we pulled up into the driveway. Much to my mother's chagrin--I'll avoid the "Women Hate the Stooges" topic.

The Stooges were every bit a part of a kid's TV habits as cartoons were. Curly's genius was every bit as brilliant as Bugs Bunny's. The guy seemed like he was from another planet, not a Vaudeville veteran. And most of my friends watched them, too. And as much as we liked the boys' antics, we never once gouged each other's eyes out or crunched one another's skulls in an industrial-strength vise; though I'm sure it was tempting in our sillier moments. I'll sheepsishly admit that as a kid, I believed that the Stooges, with their rooming together and drifting from odd job to odd job was how all bachelor men were supposed to live. Your buddies were more important than any old gal, right? And even in the stories where the boys have wives, the six of them all shack up in some dump, with the wives badgering them to get decent jobs instead of sleeping in all day while they, the women, worked. What role models!


When those local stations were absorbed by media conglomerates, fare like the Three Stooges were only found on "Superstations" and then just as quickly, bounced from everyone's TV schedule, at least here in Miami. It would be more than a decade before I'd see them crop up on AMC--formerly "American Movie Classics; now "A Million Commercials"--hosted by Leslie Nielsen. I hadn't seen or even thought about the Stooges since their ignominious departure from local television and wondered if their brand of comedy still resonated. It did, but as an adult, I picked up on the then-popular references and witty one liners. The slapstick was still great, too. I was relieved that something from my childhood didn't look awkward and stupid (Dif'rent Strokes and Galactica 1980, anyone?). So when the DVDs came out a couple of years ago, it was wonderful to see the boys uncut and with "politically incorrect" humor intact.


In viewing the Three Stooges today, it's amazing how well the stuff holds up. The boys are nothing less than brilliantly timed, sound effects dubbed perfectly, and "special effects" which while not better than your average backyard production, are meant to be funny. Every time I see the credits for a Stooges short, I think to myself, "Grown men thought of this!"

And for the record, my all-time favorite Three Stooges short: 1937's Three Dumb Clucks.

A Great Ginger Picture

I'm always dazzled by how well put together movie stars from the 1930s always were. Here, Ginger Rogers is in her 1935 splendor in Top Hat with director Mark Sandrich. I love the candid shot of Ginger, who looked her best in photographs like these. I wonder how long it took to get her hair in such an immaculate state? I have only one regret about Top Hat, and that is the fact that "The Piccolino" didn't catch on like "The Carioca" did. I'll blame Mussolini.

Miami: The Golden Age Revisited--and Cold!

Back in July, I posted an entry about how cold Miami got back in Winter, 1940. Well, I'm referring my readers to that post again! Why? Because since the new year began, Miami has experienced a very rare cold snap of 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Wind chill in the mid-20s. Yeah, yeah that's shorts and ice-cold cocktails weather for the rest of the northern hemisphere but let's remember the context: This is Miami---temperatures in the 30s are the exception, not the rule!