Many, many folks
of note whose work I’ve loved have been kicking off lately. I hope to offer
lengthier looks at three of them in the week(s) to come, but wanted to first
offer a round-up of four who most certainly deserve a farewell salute (including the guy to the right).
For
instance… the character actor best known for his appearances in the three
Beatles live-action fiction films. Victor Spinetti was a Welshman who appeared
in numerous stage productions and films that played internationally, including
a trio starring his countryman Richard Burton (Becket,
The Taming of the Shrew, and Under Milk
Wood).
I remember him
fondly as a stammering critic who “blames Fellini!!!” in Anthony Newley’s
startling ego-fest Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy
Humppe and Find True Happiness? (1969), as well as (yeah) his three turns
with the Beatles.
The oft-repeated
story is that Lennon and Harrison visited him backstage when he was starring in
the London production of Oh, What a Lovely War. They wanted
him for “every one" of their films, because, George claimed, his mother
wouldn’t go to see their films without Spinetti (whom “she fancied”).
Whatever the
reason was, Spinetti was a seasoned character actor who incarnated nervous
bureaucrats and nasty authority figures, as in his wonderfully oddball turn in
Magical Mystery Tour:
Spinetti was a
“guest” voice on one of the Beatles’ most ambitious Xmas singles (the ’67 one), “Christmas Time Is Here Again,” and also continued his Beatle
connection into the music-video era, providing a cameo appearance with the
great Roy Kinnear (another Beatle-connected actor) in the Mike and the
Mechanics video for “All I Need is a Miracle.”
Beatlemaniacs are
extremely good about sharing, and so it’s possible to watch Spinetti speaking
about the Fabs on YouTube:
But the single
best, rarest piece of footage I discovered on that hub site is a 1968 interview
with Lennon and Spinetti when the play version of In His Own
Write opened at the Old Vic. Spinetti wrote and directed the play and
is quite eloquent about what made John’s writing special. For his part, Lennon
talks about the influences on his writing (Lewis Carroll and Ronald Searle) and
who he was compared to, but hadn’t read (James Joyce):
*******
Moving to another
character actor who made a great impression — in this case by being a sane
person in the land of the insane — sitcom fixture Frank Cady died at the age of
96 two weeks back. Cady was of course “Sam Drucker,” the owner of the general
store that served as the linchpin for the Paul Henning “universe” — it served
as a backdrop for action on both Green Acres and
Petticoat Junction, and was the place the Beverly
Hillbillies came back to when they made visits “home.”
Cady had a hell
of a resume as a bit actor, showing up in various noirs
(DOA, The Asphalt Jungle, Ace in
the Hole) and other Fifties classics (Rear Window,
The Bad Seed), but he will forever be remembered as being
the mellow and uncommonly sensible Drucker character. Here’s an interview he
did where he discusses how he failed the audition for the role of “Otis the
Town Drunk” on The Andy Griffith Show, but was lucky enough
to lose that part and get the Petticoat Junction role a few
years later.
******
Moving on to
music — and yes, a LOT of memorable folk in the world of music have been dying
lately — I salute Bob Welch, who was a member for four years in the “interim”
version of Fleetwood Mac. FM did have at least one minor hit, “Hypnotized”
during his time (1971-74) in the band, but it was when he left and was replaced
by the “Buckingham Nicks” duo that they went through the ceiling.
Obits reported
that Welch had had spinal surgery and was depressed about the fact that it did
not go well; he died of a “self-inflicted gunshot wound.” Another, lesser,
depressing fact in his obits was that Welch was one of the only important
members of Fleetwood Mac who was not honored when the band was inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — he had sued the band for royalties from the
albums that he had participated in, so that was most likely the cause for him
being left out.
His contribution
to keeping the outfit afloat was seminal, in that they were between their
British-blues-band and hot-singles-act personas when he was the lead guitarist.
Reportedly he did make amends with Mick Fleetwood after the lawsuit (and
R’n’RHOF snub). Fleetwood and Christine McVie had indeed worked on Welch’s most
memorable effort (in my view), his first solo LP French
Kiss, which had both his biggest hit, "Sentimental Lady" (a reworked song from his FM years), and this super-catchy number on it. What a blissfully
cheesy “publicity film”!
*****
One of the most
notable TV-related deaths in recent weeks was that of Richard Dawson. Best
known as a gameshow host, he also proved himself a capable comedian on both
British and American series (including Laugh-In) and brought
a note of class to whatever show he appeared on. Dawson first came on the
show-biz radar as the comedian husband of sex kitten Diana Dors. The two even
hosted a TV show together in England (she was always the main draw):
His first notable
appearance on U.S. TV was on the terrific Dick Van Dyke
Show. This clip is out of synch, but it shows Dawson doing what
must’ve been his act at the time:
He did indeed
come over to America as a representative of “swinging London,” but made a name
for himself as the character Newkirk on Hogan’s Heroes. The
film Autofocus suggests that Bob Crane was jealous of Dawson
(perhaps for being effortlessly classy?). Dawson also appeared in a few movies
(most notable the Ah-nold-starring Stephen King adaptation The Running
Man). Here he is in a goofy 1966 picture called Out of
Sight:
Further cementing
his cool Sixties image is this Dating Game appearance, where
he was “Bachelor No. 1.” Bachelor No. 3 is none other than Bill Bixby, and both
gents are dressed to the nines in swinging-guy Sixties wear:
I’ve written and
talked on the Funhouse TV show about the celebrities who didn’t care about
playing the game shows they were on (my faves being Henry Morgan, his hero Fred
Allen, and Ernie Kovacs). Dawson really cared about the games, but mostly so
that he wouldn’t be “robbing” the contestants in going for a joke answer. Here
he is debating over an answer on the show he lent a major dose of class (and
the stray W.C. Fields impersonation) to, Match Game:
Dawson’s
longest-running stint in show biz was as the host of Family
Feud. Much has been made of his kissing the female contestants — he
often defended himself by saying he did it “to wish them luck” as his mother
had done with him as a kid (this begs the question of why he did it when the
contestants were *leaving* the show, too — if you can get away with it, do
it!). He rarely if ever cracked, but occasionally the insanely stupid answers a
contestant gave would make him laugh:
One of the reasons
I think Dawson was so perfect as a gameshow host was that, affectations to the
side, he did come across as a genuinely decent guy who really liked the schlubs
who were playing these games. This is reflected in two speeches he made on
Family Feud. Firstly his goodbye speech for the original run of FF was a nicely
delivered salute to those who’d helped keep the show on the air.
The most
genuinely wonderful moment of Dawson’s TV career, though, never aired on the
show. There was an additional speech he made to the studio answers of
FF on the final show that was thankfully taped (but, again,
was not included in the broadcast version of the show — they had to leave in
more dumb answers!).
Part of Dawson’s
personal mythology (that he never personally promoted) was how he was “dumped’
by the screen goddess Diana Dors, and was left alone to raise their two sons. I
know nothing of the real Dawson, but this bit of video indicates that he was a
genuinely warm guy; the fact that he came back out and delivered this speech
knowing it wouldn’t get on the air separates it from all of the “telethon
moments” in which someone broke down crying over a handicapped child. His
urging people to do what they call in the theology biz “good works” seems
positively real and not “for the camera”:
When Dawson
retired from TV, he really retired. He did, however, consent to do a long
interview for the “Archive of American Television” people, in which he
discussed his television career. Here he talks about the infamous “kissing
controversy” on FF:
In closing I’ll
turn once again to a musical oddity (I do so love novelty tunes). I had no idea
that Dawson released records in the Sixties (but was not surprised upon finding
it out). He spoke-sang a tune (in the Burton-Harrison mold) for a “Hogan Heroes sing” album, but also released a single in 1967. The
A-side, “Children’s Parade,” is pretty awful, but the piece de
resistance is the extremely odd B-side. Titled “Apples and Oranges” (having
nothing to do with the Syd Barrett/Pink Floyd tune of the same name), it is a
another oddly maudlin piece that has an amazing last line. And I do mean
amazing:
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