Adventures in Blu-Ray: FM (1978)

Under the leadership of program director Jeff Dugan (Michael Brandon), L.A.’s QSKY soon becomes the #1 radio station in the market, with a dedicated staff of jocks that believe it’s the music that defines QSKY.  When Dugan accepted the job, his intention was to make his bosses at Billings Radio Corporation pleased with QSKY’s progress...but…

Adventures in Blu-ray: Along Came Jones (1945)

The town of Paynesville isn’t a particularly welcoming one to cowpokes Melody Jones (Gary Cooper) and George Fury (William Demarest) as they ride in one day...but there’s an explanation for this.  Native Paynesvillian (definitely not a favorite son) Monte Jarrad (Dan Duryea) has a $1,000 price on his head after a stage robbery nets him…

Book Review: Shooting the Breeze with Baby Boomer Stars

Edward “Torchy” Smith may be a familiar name/voice to those of you who make listening to IHeartRadio a routine activity.  He’s the host of Baby Boomers Talk Radio, a program that from its inception has made its mission to appeal to what Smith calls “the new Lawrence Welk generation minus the bubbles” by interviewing celebrities…

“Well, Dick…it’s time to say goodnight.”

In correspondence that Dan Rowan composed to author John D. MacDonald in 1972, the longtime Laugh-In co-host/straight man observed: “Bland and nice have set in and we could be the Nelson family doing a variety show.  Why is this?  Maybe because we have run out of things to say.”  Rowan’s ruminations about the series that was…

Adventures in Blu-ray: Road to Rio (1947)

I’ve been making a concerted effort to cut back on my DVD/Blu-ray purchases...but to borrow a line from a classic broadcast of The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show: “It ain’t been easy, Clyde...”  To illustrate: Kino Lorber has an August 2018 Studio Classics Sale in progress right now (it ends August 28), and when I went…

A little housecleaning

The blog has been fallow for a few days, so I regret the lack of activity...but as we were welcoming in July I received a notice in the mail that Oglethorpe County requested my presence as a Superior Court “traverse juror” the week of August 7.  Yes, it’s the time-honored practice of drawing jury duty;…

Grey Market Cinema: Casbah (1948)

Jewel thief Pépé Le Moko (Tony Martin) is wanted by the French police...for obvious reasons.  Pépé is the mastermind of a gang of no-accounts that operates out of The Casbah in Algiers (Casbah translates as "fortress" or "citadel"), an area where he can apparently move freely without being molested by the gendarmes.  Algiers' police commissioner…

Dream along with me

Pierino Ronald Como was a show business fixture for over a half a century, beginning his career as a vocalist in the big band era (with Ted Weems' Orchestra) before striking out on his own as a solo artist.  You know him better as Perry Como, of course; in 1945, Como scored his first #1…

And away we go!

February 8, 1969 – Jackie Gleason plays host to another corpulent Jack (though he’s lost a bit of weight), famed insult comic Jack E. Leonard: LEONARD: Ladies and gentlemen…you’ve all heard of Frank Sinatra, The Voice…you’ve seen Jimmy Durante, The Nose… (indicating Gleason) You are now looking at The Lump… (Gleason breaks out in laughter)…

All the Starz

DISH gave us a freeview of Starz last week...and normally, this isn't a huge deal because we're still subscribed to the Starz Encore channels (the discount is supposed to end Tuesday...but I have decided to maintain radio silence only until Mom asks me why the satellite bill has suddenly gone up).  A good many of…