Hollywood Then...and Then...And Now

 

You see the spin I put on this month's history lesson?   Watch carefully.

Here is my beloved Cinerama Dome, which was part of the great Arclight movie complex.  Here is how the Dome looked on its grand opening in November 1963 when the premiere attraction was "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."  Interesting factoid:   the gala was supposed to be attended by a certain President who was ultimately called to Dallas.

Flipping past, here is the Dome right after March 15, 2020 when COVID hit.

And even though we get some idle promises of reopening, all we get is a different color of board covering the front door.

Still wishing and hoping.

Dinner last night: Hospital pasta.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - June 29, 2026

 Our month of weddings and graduations closes out with this gem...featuring the worst wedding photographer ever.

Dinner last night:  Grilled sausage.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - Hello Again, Birdie

 

I was recently horrified.  I heard from a friend that, at this very moment, there is a remake of "Bye Bye Birdie" being written somewhere out here in the bowels of Hollywood.

Bowels, indeed.

Why don't you just kill me now?  At least start the process and then please know that you will have to finish when some fool ultimately decides to do remakes of my all-time favorite films, "The Apartment" and "Some Like It Hot."

There is nothing sacred anymore.  Not even formerly pristine memories from my childhood.

I think about "Bye Bye Birdie" and wonder just what a remake would look like. 

Instead of Elvis Presley going off to the Army, is the 2013 plot finding a Justin Bieber knockoff headed off to prison as he serves his sentence for a DUI convicton?

The famed "Telephone Hour" production number?  Gee, let's update that by having all the Sweet Apple, Ohio texting each other about Hugo Peabody and Kim McAfee being pinned.

Of course, some genius out there will try to connect to the original movie by including former stars Ann-Margret and Bobby Rydell in cameo roles.  Wow, they can be exasperated parents now.  Or maybe the mayor and his wife.

Ugh.

If the lunatics entrusted with this reboot were smart, they would throw the money back and walk away from the project right now.  As a creative work, "Bye Bye Birdie" is almost hopelessly and joyously bound to the 1960s.  First as a Broadway musical and then as the 1963 film, it was a product of its time.  And works only in that context. 

Now, the movie is a bit different from the Broadway production.  The filmmakers felt a need to make it even more rooted to the decade that spawned it.  There is a subplot tied to the Cold War and Russian hostilities.  Numerous gags reference Nikita Khrushchev and John F. Kennedy, the latter made even more painful because he died a short six months after "Bye Bye Birdie" was released. 

But, still.  The movie still works.  For me.  I just watched the recently remastered Blu-ray edition and fell in love all over again.  I still hear the dated jokes.  I can recite most of the lines.  I can show you a blooper where you can actually see the glass ramp that the drugged turtle zooms up.  I can point out to you amongst the teenagers Linda Kaye Henning of "Petticoat Junction" and Elaine Joyce.

I am truly a geek when it comes to "Bye Bye Birdie."  A movie that came in at #12 when I documented my Top 25 Favorite Films of All Time on this blog over five years ago.

Indeed, "Bye Bye Birdie" was my first non-edible obsession. When I initially saw it when it arrived at the Loews Theater in Mount Vernon, I couldn't get enough of it. Because I wound up seeing it six times over the next seven days. I'm not sure why I skipped a day, but it must have been, in the most Biblical of senses, our day to rest.

How did I wind up there in the darkened theater all week?  Very simple.  Neither of my parents had any interest.  My mother wasn't particularly fond of musicals.  And my dad?

"I can't stand that Dick Van Dyke.  He falls downs a lot."

A bit of a random reaction I agree.  But, even at this tender age, my parents acknowledged the safer world around us. 

"Okay, we'll drop you off at the theater and pick you up after the movie." 

Just to be clear, I wasn't completely unchaperoned.  My father would slip five dollars to the guy taking the tickets or maybe the deadly theater matron with her dreaded flashlights.  They were entrusted to watch over me.  And did so gladly.  Back in that day, five bucks went someplace.

Of course, my absolutely crazed reaction to the first viewing of "Bye Bye Birdie" made me want to go back and back and back.  My parents surprisingly didn't care.

"Well, it's your allowance."

I often wonder if each visit to Loews for "Bye Bye Birdie" cost them five dollars for the in-theater babysitting service.  Or, after the third or fourth time, they threw their hands in the air and said "what the hell."  He came back in one piece.  Maybe he doesn't need the supervision.

I certainly wasn't going to raise a ruckus as I sat gaping at my very favorite movie of all time.  I was completely mesmerized.

You see, "Bye Bye Birdie" also probably marked the official grand opening of Len's Hormones.

The ribbon cutter was none other than Ann-Margret. The record album cover at the top of today's posts gives her limited justice. I immediately used my very next allowance to go to Brodbeck's Record Store on Fourth Avenue in Mount Vernon, New York to purchase the stereophonic long playing soundtrack record.

And I will tastefully refuse to tell you what I used to do with that record jacket.

In an incomprehensible twist, the other thing that made me love this movie was the presence of Paul Lynde as the father. I was, of course, way, way too naive to understand all the sordid details of Mr. Lynde's private life. All I knew was that I thought the guy was a stitch and that I wished secretly my father was just like this guy. Years later, I doubt that I wanted my dad to be cruising Santa Monica Boulevard looking for teenage boys.

I played the "Bye Bye Birdie" soundtrack on my record player constantly. I knew all the words to every song and wanted desperately to be in the show if it ever was done in my school. In retrospect, I creep myself out at how nuts I was about this movie. And now I wonder what the hell drew me to it, beyond Ann-Margret's multiple scenes in Spandex.

Well, the music is quite underrated. There are shows/movie musicals that have been more successful, but I couldn't tell one song from another. Indeed, "Bye Bye Birdie" harkens back to a simpler time. Perhaps it's all this teenage angst that drew me in. It was a harbinger of things to come. Amid all the drama of the world, these kids seemed to be okay and even thriving. Maybe that was the future I was hoping for. That life would be so comfortable that I could sit on the telephone and talk to my friends all day like the kids of Sweet Apple, Ohio did.
And perhaps I would be grown up enough to dance around in a night club just like this trailer shows.  The famous "Birdie" dance. 
 Admittedly, it's probably a little weird that I would walk to grade school, singing the lyrics to "I"ve Got a Lot of Livin' to Do." I mean, think about it.

"There are chicks just right for some kissing and I mean to kiss me a few."

I can almost hear the call from my teacher and the school psychologist right now. The express train to puberty making no stops. So, if I spent a year obsessed with "Bye Bye Birdie," big freakin' deal! I think I turned out okay.

What did my parents think? Well, consider the song that could have been their anthem as well.  

"Kids, I don't know what's wrong with these kids today."

As I wrote above, I now have the newly restored Blu-ray.  And they recently released a remastered CD with some of the musical numbers, originally omitted, now included.  The album cover is intact.  And, years later, I still stare at the damn thing.

Luckily, I did get to see "Bye Bye Birdie" on a big screen a few years back when the Alex Film Society ran it. It was a true time machine. I felt like I was back in the Loews Mount Vernon, eyes riveted on the screen with a mouthful of Pom Poms. Now, I want to experience that all over again.  It's the 50th anniversary of its original release.  I wait for some film society like the Egyptian or the Aero here in Los Angeles to put together a night devoted to the film.  Dick Van Dyke is still with us.  So are Ann-Margret and Bobby Rydell.  They would be available for a Q & A after the movie.  In my fantasy world, I am the moderator.

But, rest assured, I probably won't be sharing what I was doing with that record album cover. But, before you let your dirty minds go too far off course, keep in mind that I wasn't even ten yet.

Dinner last night:  Chicken taco at Cafe Ipanema.

Classic Movie Trailer of the Month - June 2026

Yikes.  This movie is forty years old this month. 

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

Len's Juke Box of the Month - June 2026

Talk about childhood memories.   My parents' stereo always had one of the Tijuana Brass albums spinning on it.  As for me, my teenage self couldn't get enough of this album cover.  Herb and Company are at the Hollywood Bowl next week.  I can't wait.

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

Len's Recipe of the Month - June 2026

 

A few months ago, I tried my culinary hand at Bolognese sauce for the first time.  Well, before the weather gets too hot, I wanted to try it again but in a condensed version.  This is a little less work and it might be appealing to you.   

First off, heat some EVO in a Dutch oven.   Brown about a pound of ground Italian sausage.  Then add a diced onion and some sliced garlic cloves.   

Now add a tablespoon of tomato paste. Pour in two 28 0z cans of San Marzano crushed tomatoes.   Add another cup of water, using one of the cans to empty out remaining tomato juice.  Add some salt, pepper, and oregano.   And here's another spin.   

1 teaspoon of granulated sugar.

Stir this all together and let it simmer on low for a few hours.   About an hour before dinner, raise the temperature and add some more water.  Why?  Because you're going to cook a pound of rigatoni in the sauce.  Weird, heh?  But there are chefs who do this all the time with the pasta because the starch enhances the sauce.

At the end, add a tablespoon of unsalted butter which will make the sauce nice and silky.

Sprinkle some Parmesan Reggiano.

And you're welcome.

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

This Date in History - June 24

 

Today is another example of the Knots Landing guarantee.   Anybody from that show with a birthday gets their picture here.

109:  ROMAN EMPEROR TRAJAN INAUGURATES THE AQUA TRAIANA, AN AQUEDUCT THAT CHANNELS WATER FROM LAKE BRACCIANO.

It's an Aqueduct, not a Belmont.

474:  JULIUS NEPOS FORCES ROMAN USURPER GLYCERIUS TO ABDICATE THE THRONE AND PROCLAIMS HIMSELF EMPEROR OF THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE.  

Glycerious?  Isn't that something for a rash?

1230:  THE SIEGE OF JAEN STARTED IN THE CONTEXT OF THE SPANISH RECONQUISTA.

I suppose there was an earlier Spanish Conquista.

1314:  FIRST WAR OF SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE - THE BATTLE OF BANNOCKBURN CONCLUDES WITH A DECISIVE VICTORY BY SCOTTISH FORCES LED BY ROBERT THE BRUCE.  

At least, he didn't call himself Robert the Springsteen.

1374:  A SUDDEN OUTBREAK OF ST. JOHN'S DANCE CAUSES PEOPLE IN THE STREETS OF AACHEN, GERMANY TO EXPERIENCE HALLUCINATIONS AND BEGIN TO JUMP AND TWITCH UNCONTROLLABLY UNTIL THEY COLLAPSE FROM EXHAUSTION.  

They shoot Germans, don't they?

1509:  HENRY VIII AND CATHERINE OF ARAGON ARE CROWNED KING AND QUEEN OF ENGLAND.

The Mickey Rooney of monarchs.  I mean in number of marriages, not height.

1535:  THE ANABAPTIST STATE OF MUNSTER IS CONQUERED AND DISBANDED.  

Herman or Lily?

1717:  THE PREMIER GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND, THE FIRST MASONIC GRAND LODGE IN THE WORLD, IS FOUNDED IN LONDON.

Wives now know where their husbands are two nights a week.

1779:  DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, THE GREAT SIEGE OF GIBRALTAR BEGINS.

Get a piece of the rock.

1793:  THE FIRST REPUBLICAN CONSTITUTION IN FRANCE IS ADOPTED.

Not those Republicans, right?

1880:  FIRST PERFORMANCE OF O CANADA, WHICH WOULD BECOME THE NATIONAL ANTHEM OF CANADA.

Now they have something to play before hockey games.

1902:  KING EDWARD VII OF THE UNITED KINGDOM DEVELOPS APPENDICITIS, DELAYING HIS CORONATION.

Back in the day when appendicitis was sometimes a fatal disease.

1904:  SINGER/ACTOR PHIL HARRIS IS BORN.

That's what I like about the South.  Ah, you thought there was going to be a "bare necessity" joke.

1916:  MARY PICKFORD BECOMES THE FIRST FEMALE FILM STAR TO SIGN A MILLION DOLLAR CONTRACT.

That's $500,000 per pigtail.

1919:  ACTOR AL MOLINARO IS BORN.

Most remember him from Happy Days, but I still prefer him as Murray the cop on the The Odd Couple.

1938:  PIECES OF A METEOR, ESTIMATED TO HAVE WEIGHED 450 METRIC TONS WHEN IT HIT THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE, LAND NEAR PENNSYLVANIA.   

What's that flying above...OUCH!

1942:  ACTRESS MICHELE LEE IS BORN.

Met her several times.  Nice lady.

1947:  KENNETH ARNOLD MAKES THE FIRST WIDELY REPORTED UFO SIGHTING NEAR MOUNT RAINIER, WASHINGTON.

Maybe it was a piece of that meteor.

1948:  START OF THE BERLIN BLOCKADE - THE SOVIET UNION MAKES OVERLAND TRAVEL BETWEEN WEST GERMANY AND WEST BERLIN IMPOSSIBLE.

Mr. Stalin, put up that wall.

1949:  THE FIRST TELEVISION WESTERN, HOPALONG CASSIDY, IS AIRED ON NBC.

There will be a few others...ahem.

1957:  IN ROTH VS. US, THE SUPREME COURT RULES THAT OBSCENITY IS NOT PROTECTED BY THE FIRST AMENDMENT.

Hell, yeah.

1973:  THE UPSTAIRS LOUNGE ARSON ATTACK TAKES PLACE AT A GAY BAR IN NEW ORLEANS.  THIRTY-TWO PEOPLE DIE.

They should have gone to the Downstairs Lounge.  Probably easier to get out.

1987:  ACTOR JACKIE GLEASON DIES.

And away he goes.

1997:  ACTOR BRIAN KEITH DIES.

Killed himself.  Buried in the Westwood cemetery near my house.

2000:  ACTOR DAVID TOMLINSON DIES.

No saving Mr. Banks this time.

2004:  IN NEW YORK, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IS DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL.  

Glad I moved.

2005:  VENTRILOQUIST PAUL WINCHELL DIES.

Oddly enough, Jerry Mahoney released a statement.

2013:  FORMER ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER SILVIO BERLUSCONI IS FOUND GUILTY OF ABUSING HIS POWER AND HAVING SEX WITH AN UNDERAGE PROSTITUTE AND IS SENTENCED TO SEVEN YEARS IN PRISON.

And you thought all the political sleazeballs were in this country.

2014:  ACTOR ELI WALLACH DIES.

The Good, the Bad, and the Dead.

2025:  ACTOR BOBBY SHERMAN DIES.

There Go The Brides.

Dinner last night:  Leftover rigatoni.

Bowled Over

 

If you have been hanging around this blog long enough, you will know that there have been a host of reviews of past summers at the beloved Hollywood Bowl.  Now, over that period of time, there have been some wonderful concerts and shows.   For instance, their production of "A Chorus Line" a decade or so ago was nothing short of miraculous.   Similar kudos can be awarded for their Sondheim night.   

But, of recent summers, the shows have been lacking.   Too many of them have suffered through diversity requirements and often resemble more offerings of the old Apollo Theater.   Moreover, I didn't exactly use a stopwatch to verify, but my sense is that the concerts have been getting shorter and shorter.  Or maybe I was just bored.

Yet, last Saturday all recent sins are forgiven,   I was major astounded, pleasantly surprised, and thoroughly entertained by this summer's Opening Night, which was a salute to Broadway.  They covered about two dozen numbers from Broadway starting with and then concluding with numbers from "A Chorus Line."   This went on for two plus hours and each performance was better than the one before.

Billy Crystal was the host and his monologue, while a bit liberal, was on target. And then the performances from the likes of  Lea Salonga, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Halle Bailey, Darren Criss, and Renee Elise Goldsberry were nothing short of remarkable.  Here's one small sample.

This might be the best show I have ever seen at the Hollywood Bowl and you can find it all on You Tube.   The bar is now high.   Go for it, LA Phil.   

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - June 22, 2026

 Our wedding/graduation month moves forward with these graduates...oops...

Dinner last night:  Rigatoni Bolognese.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - Thinking About Dad Again

 

Father's Day and our thoughts turn to the patriarchs in our lives.  This weekend is and has always been a double whammy for me as my dad's birthday is June 20.

I've often discussed my career aspirations here on this blog and today I wonder again.

What were my dad's?

There's a great scene in Woody Allen's phenomenal retrospective of his childhood, "Radio Days."  For years, Woody as a child keeps asking his dad what he did for a living.  The father never gives him a straight answer.  Then, one afternoon, the kid has to hail a taxicab and he sees his driver.

"You?!!!"

Dad was a cab driver.

My revelation was not as astounding.  I always knew what my dad did for a job.  He worked nights at the Mount Vernon Die Casting Company which was really in Stamford, Connecticut.  I suppose that, at one point, it was really in Mount Vernon.  

Yet, I knew where he worked but never really had a fix on what went on there.  Until I got a summer job there before my senior year in college.  I was stuck for money and Dad told me they needed somebody to sit in the shipping department at night.  This was sweet.  Very little to do and I got to sit in a corner and write one script after another for the college radio station sitcom that I created and would be starting its second season in September.

But this cool deal also allowed me to see what my father did.  He worked on a machine that sanded metal.  Parts for cars or appliances or whatever.  There would be a big crate of them next to Dad's machine.  He'd take one, sand it on the machine belt, and then put it in a finished crate.

Sand and crate.

Sand and crate.

Sand and crate.

I was incredibly humbled when I first saw this.  This was how my father earned a living.  This routine was one he followed 40 hours a week and fifty weeks a year for 35 or so years.

Wow.

But that was the generation that came out of the Great Depression and they followed a very basic tenet of life.

You graduated.  You got married.  You got a job.  You stayed in it as long as possible.  You provided for your family.  You retired.  You died.

Wow again.

For several years when I was about seven or eight, I remember my father having a second job.  He used to leave for Stamford around 3PM.  But, in those times, he'd wake up around 6AM to work for five or six hours at his cousin's oil burner company.  Dad would drive an oil truck and deliver fuel for peoples' houses in the Bronx.  I asked once why he did this.  The answer I got back was short and sweet.

"You want to go to college, don't you?"

Done.

When I was off from school, I sometimes accompanied Dad on his oil runs.  Opening the cap on the sidewalk.  Sticking the hose into it.  Listening to the oil run its way into a furnace.  It wasn't particularly challenging.  But, again, Dad was doing what he needed to do.  He worked two jobs.  Essentially...for me.

When I was a kid, I got peppered with the question I discussed last week.

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

I wanted to know the same about my father.  And, as happened in most homes at that time, you got information about one parent by asking the other one.

Mom told me about some of my father's early career aspirations.  

In the Army, Dad saw no action.  But, apparently, he could change a typewriter ribbon with the best of them.  He worked in an office and could type 65 words a minute.  He was so adept at it that a post-military career was suggested to him.

"You should be a court stenographer."

That guy who lightly taps on that do-hickey that is usually in front of the judge's bench.

Per my mother, he even pursued my classes on this prior to actually getting a court stenographer position.

So why didn't he?

The info flow got murky.

"Well, you know....."

No, I don't.

Later on, my father chased down another career.  As television was coming into its own, there was a distinct lack of repairmen for this burgeoning new appliance.

Dad went to television repair school.

So why didn't he open his own shop?

"Well, you know....."

Um, no, I don't.

The closest Dad got to that career was trying to fix our TV set.  And, most of the time, he had to call in the specialist anyway.

I wonder to this day what happened with these dreams.

Sand and crate.

Sand and crate.

Sand and crate.

But, as I think about Dad today, I see something else alongside the picture on the wall that adorns today's blog.

My college diploma.

Dinner last night:  Cheese and crackers at the Hollywood Bowl.

Classic TV Theme of the Month - June 2026

 When I was a kid, summer meant no school and the annual return of this TV gem.

Dinner last night:  The pre-game buffet at the Dodger Stadium Club.

June: The Month of Brides

 

Udderly wrong.

 

She thinks this is the dark side.   Wait till she meets her in-laws.

Just what you want on your tuxedo...dove shit.

 I have no clue what is happening here, so feel free to make up your own back story.

Nice pear.

This wine needs to breathe a little longer.

 There are some who shouldn't announce their wedding in the newspapers.

"Honey, you see what those cows are doing?......"

 Another reason not to get married in China.

"My wife is a real piece of cake."

Dinner last night:   Grilled Taylor ham on English muffin.

He Remains...

 

...a shithead.

A zebra keeps his stripes and Jimmy Kimmel continues to be a phony and despicable human being.

Okay, this isn't about his recent "time out" because he made inappropriate jokes about the death of Charlie Kirk.   If you remember, that fiasco ran into tirades from people who said he has every right to say whatever is on his pea-sized mind.

And I would agree.   Freedom of speech.  But sometimes you can take that privilege a little too far.  Like last week when Kimmel joked about losing LA Mayor candidate Spencer Pratt loading up a U-haul to get out of town.   First off, the remark wasn't even remotely funny which has been par for the course from Kimmel the past ten years.

But, to throw salt into an open wound, little Jimmy should have realized that Pratt had nothing to put into said U-haul because he lost everything in the Palisades firm.

At what point do you stop, you obnoxious POS?   Hey, how does that medicine go down if you're asked to take it.   Shall I remind you and everybody else for that matter?

You're a punk and a shithead and an all-around bad guy.  But only people who work in your organization know that.   For the general public (at least those of us with a brain which leaves out your late night audience), you're just plain stupid.

Remember several years back when his infant son had some severe health issues?  The good news is that the kid is fine now until he ultimately realizes who his parents are. That intimate and personal family drama wound up in one of his monologues as he made a push for universal health care.  Really, Jimmy?   With the totally comprehensive health coverage you receive via your multiple unions, you want the rest of us to suffer through increased taxes?

Kimmel is an expert on your life and my life and proves it nightly as he mounts n his often tear-stained soap box about whatever Trump and Republicans did.  

Kimmel, of course, is way too stupid to comment on even the basic issues confronting America in 2026.  But he has a late night show and that's his bully pulpit.  I go back to the days of Johnny Carson in late night who knew his position in our lives was to entertain and not preach or indoctrinate.  

Getting sermonized by somebody like Jimmy Kimmel is laughable.   Remember the glass house and the bucket of stones?  I know a little about what goes on inside his empire because I know people who toiled in it.   Let's see.   The fact that he is a narcoleptic is well known.   Falling asleep in meetings at the drop of the hat.

But what about his wife?   The college intern he started to fuck and then made her head writer of his show?  The person who then unceremoniously fired several veteran writers because she didn't like them?   

I find it laughable when the Writers Guild comes out to defend his right to say anything largely because he has been involved in so many grievance filed by his writers.

Oh, yeah.   And what about all the illegal terminations he insisted on when people on staff didn't want to take a COVID vaccination.

I could go on and on because I know somebody who worked in that studio for a long time.

Frankly, it's time for Jimmy to pack up a U-haul.   Is it out of my realm to say that?

Um, freedom of speech.

Dinner last night:   Steak salad.

This Date in History - June 17

 

No, it's not his heavenly birthday.   Read on...

1462:  VLAD III THE IMPALER ATTEMPTS TO ASSASSINATE MEHMED II THE NIGHT ATTACK.

How come these guys sound like wrestlers?

1565: MATSUNAGE HISAHIDE ASSASSINATES THE 13TH ASHIKAGA SHOGUN, ASHIKAGA YOSHITERU.

If you say so...

1579:  SIR FRANCIS DRAKE CLAIMS A LAND HE CALLS NOVA ALBION (MODERN CALIFORNIA) FOR ENGLAND.

So they almost became the Nova Albion Giants.

1631:  MUMTAZ MAHAL DIES DURING CHILDBIRTH.  HER HUSBAND, SHAH JAHAN I, WILL SPEND THE NEXT 17 YEARS BUILDING HER MAUSOLEUM, THE TAJ MAHAL.

That's an awfully long time to keep a dead body around.

1775:  DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, COLONISTS INFLICT HEAVY CASUALTIES ON BRITISH FORCES WHILE LOSING THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL.

Take that, you blasted Redcoats!

1789:  IN FRANCE, THE THIRD ESTATE DECLARES ITSELF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.

Je ne care pas.

1839:  IN THE KINGDOM OF HAWAII, KAMEHAMEHA II ISSUES THE EDICT OF TOLERATION WHICH GIVES ROMAN CATHOLICS THE FREEDOM TO WORSHIP IN THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.

The Kingdom of Hawaii?   Is there any other US state that was once a kingdom?  Not counting Texas, of course.

1876:  THE BATTLE OF THE ROSEBUD - 1,500 SIOUX AND CHEYENNE LED BY CRAZY HORSE BEAT BACK GENERAL CROOK'S FORCES IN MONTANA TERRITORY.

Sioux?  Si.

1877: THE BATTLE OF WHITE BIRD CANYON - THE NEZ PERCE DEFEAT THE US CAVALRY IN IDAHO.

So how come the Indians are always winning?

1885:  THE STATUE OF LIBERTY ARRIVES IN NEW YORK HARBOR.

And they kept it there when they found out it didn't exactly fit into anybody's living room.

1898:  THE US NAVY HOSPITAL CORPS IS ESTABLISHED.

Anchors and Band Aids away.

1901:  THE COLLEGE BOARD INTRODUCES ITS FIRST STANDARDIZED TEST, THE FORERUNNER TO THE SAT.

I thought that was the PSAT.

1930:  US PRESIDENT HERBERT HOOVER SIGNS THE SMOOT-HAWLEY TARIFF ACT INTO LAW.

I don't trust any legislation with the word "Smoot" in it.

1933:  IN KANSAS CITY, FOUR FBI AGENTS AND CAPTURED FUGITIVE FRANK NASH ARE GUNNED DOWN BY GANGSTERS ATTEMPTING TO FREE NASH.

Paging Eliot Ness.

1943:  POLITICIAN NEWT GINGRICH IS BORN.

Is it me or does this guy always look so much older than his age?

1943:  SINGER BARRY MANILOW IS BORN.

He finally came out of the closet.  As if we were surprised.

1953:  IN EAST GERMANY, THE SOVIET UNION ORDERS A DIVISION OF TROOPS INTO EAST BERLIN TO QUELL A REBELLION.

Yeah, that worked.   For a while.

1960: THE NEZ PERCE TRIBE IS AWARDED FOUR MILLION DOLLARS FOR 7 MILLION ACRES OF LAND.

So they beat us on this date in 1877 and also got oodles of money???

1963:  THE US SUPREME COURT RULES 8-1 IN ABINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT VS. SCHEMPP AGAINST REQUIRING THE RECITING OF BIBLE VERSES AND THE LORD'S PRAYER IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

Do Moe and Larry know about this?

1971:  PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON DECLARES THE US WAR ON DRUGS.

Does that mean he'll be bugging the folks at Johnson and Johnson?

1972:  FIVE WHITE HOUSE OPERATIVES ARE ARRESTED FOR BURGLING THE OFFICES OF THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE.

Watergate...I think this turned out to be some sort of big deal.

1986:  SINGER KATE SMITH DIES.

God bless her...and America.

1987:  BASEBALL STAR AND MANAGER DICK HOWSER DIES.

Less than two years after guiding them to the 1985 World Series.

1994:  FOLLOWING A TELEVISED LOW-SPEED HIGHWAY CHASE, OJ SIMPSON IS ARRESTED FOR THE MURDER OF HIS WIFE NICOLE AND HER FRIEND RONALD GOLDMAN.

Guilty.  And now dead.

2008:  ACTRESS/DANCER CYD CHARISSE DIES.

She lived three blocks away from my last apartment.

2012:  RODNEY KING DIES.

Don't know how to describe him with an occupation.  I'll leave it at that.

2019:  DESIGNER GLORIA VANDERBILT DIES.

Who gave birth to that numbskull Anderson Cooper.

2020:  JEAN KENNEDY SMITH DIES.

At least it wasn't by gunshot.

Dinner last night:  Hamburger.

Celebrate?

 

There is nothing more exhilarating than when your team wins it all.  You are on top of the world.   For my preferred favorite sport of baseball, I got to feel it with the Mets in 69 and *6.   Then, the Dodgers in 20, 24, and 25.  You walk on air.  You feel special.  And the biggest action I wanted to take was to buy some championship T-shirts and caps.

Never once did I desire to climb up a light pole.  Or taunt fans of the other team.  Or set a school bus on fire.

If you were paying attention last week, New York went crazy last week as they completed their quest for the NBA Championship after being shut out for five decades.    Despite the fact that I thoroughly hate pro basketball,  I wish the die-hard fans that stuck around this long.   Indeed, there's probably only about 18,000 fans in existence because that's how many true fans can fit into Madison Square Garden.

The rest are hoodlums.  Animals.  Creatures from all over the world.  And they use team victories as a means to loot.  Take out their evil aggressions.  Fuck over people who don't look like them.

Now, over the years, I've seen cities explode when their team wins it.  Indeed, smart cities prepare for this.  They bring in extra cops.  Try to prevent crowds from forming.   Even grease the light poles so that climbing is impossible.

But, not New York which is now run by one of the dumbest mayors ever.   He promotes outdoor watch parties which you just know is kerosene on an open flame.   And that's why you had what you saw last week in NY.

Okay, in my years, I've seen some mayhem when a baseball team wins the World Series or a football team wins the Super Bowl.   But, 99% of the time, when it's a full out destructive riot, you can count on this.   

It's the NBA.   

Do some research.  It's out there.  As the beloved Casey Stengel used to say, you could look it up.

So why is that?

Well, look at the pictures from last week.  The profiling is there.  Connect the dots.  Like the ones on a pair of dice.

Dinner last night:  Leftover Korean chicken.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - June 15, 2026

The month of weddings and graduations presses on with this annual marital blooper from me.  Splash!

Dinner last night:  Ribeye steak.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - Here Comes June Again

 

Around this date every year decades ago, we'd arrive at a much desired destination. 

The last day of school.

This is a recent photo of my beloved elementary school.  Grimes on Eleventh Avenue and Second Street in Mount Vernon, New York.  The building above was the new additional wing when we were going there.  In 2014, it looks like Berlin 1946.  But, then again, so does everything in economic-war-torn Mount Vernon.

But I digress. 

You awaited this special June day for week.  Indeed, when the school would send you home with the school calendar for the year in September, you would immediately skip right through to the last page.   What was officially the last day of school?

Learning usually stopped in early June.  You were being prepared for those pesky final exams.  Or as grueling as that could possibly be in the fourth or fifth grade. 

With tests out of the way, the last week of school seemed to take forever.  There was a lot of goofing off.  I even think there were some half-days as we were being emotionally and psychologically prepared for the annual separation of teacher and student. 

The very last day was almost always a Friday.  And you basically went in for a whole half-hour.  You were told that you were being promoted.  Duh.  Of course, there were probably some who weren't, but I made it a habit to be good friends with only the smart kids.  Oh, and here's your report card.  The teacher would say it was a pleasure to know you and out the door you went. 

Okay, maybe it was just 25 minutes.

You'd scamper down the stairs because your mother or father was still there waiting for you.  They hadn't even bothered to go home.  Our personal tradition was then for my mom and me to go have breakfast at Stanley's Restaurant with another set or two of pupil and parent.

It was a glorious day with the expectation of two fun months coming up. 

Of course, on the walk home, I would hear the sentence that would be repeated several more times before we hit September.

"Don't think you're gonna hang around the house all day and watch television."

Oh.  And why not?

I wasn't sure what my folks expected me to do at the age of ten or eleven.  I was too old to be supervised and way too young for a summer job.  And, oh yeah, I had already been studying the TV Guide for the past two months to scope out and schedule my daytime summer viewing. 

With both my parents now working nights, I was going to presented with chores.  So, yes, I guess it was a summer job.  With the parental units as resident straw bosses.

"Go mow the back yard."

I would start the process.   My grandmother would watch me from her kitchen window.

"You're just making a mess.  Go in the house and watch television."

Okay, I gladly accept this mixed message.  It's time for Dick Van Dyke reruns anyway.

"Go clean out your bedroom closet."

This, of course, presented me with tons of distractions.   I'd invariably find a long forgotten toy and the nostalgia kept me occupied for hours while the rest of my closet was piled precariously on my bed.

"Look at the mess you made.  Go watch television."

Yes, Mom.  And it's time for Paul Lynde and the Hollywood Squares.

"Go to the grocery store and pick up what's on this list."

I'd survey the items.  There's be four packs of cigarettes for Mom and two six-packs of Schaefer Beer for Dad.  I'd present to Gene the local grocer.

"You know, I probably shouldn't sell you the beer and cigarettes."

He'd, of course, say that as he handed me the brown paper bag of groceries.  Replete with smokes and drinks.  This was my favorite errand to do and I could be home in ten minutes, which was ideal.  After all, Gene Rayburn and the Match Game were coming on.

On summer Thursdays, I also got to participate with my dad in the weekly assignment of taking my grandmother to the A & P.  For a while, we used the supermarket on Oak Street.  When that closed, Grandma's selection of a new supermarket was akin to deciding which day the Allied Forces should land on Normandy Beach.  My father suggested a new venue.  A Waldbaum's in downtown Mount Vernon.

"Waldbaum's?  That's only for Jews."

No, seriously, Grandma, anybody can go in there.  They don't necessarily check your religious denomination on the way in.  Eventually, she bought in and actually liked the then-fancy new surroundings.  My job was to push the basket as she selected the very same items week to week.  Each food product came with a price check.

"You see this Oscar Meyer's bologna?  Last week, it cost $ 2.59.  This week, it went to $ 2.65." 

This was my grandmother and her take on economics.  She couldn't read, but she sure could keep track of the week-to-week price increases on cold cuts.  I'd be amazed at how she could do this.

"You see this Welch's grape jelly?  Last week, it cost $1.19.  This week, it's 1.29."

Yeah, but you're getting a free Flintstones drinking glass in the deal.  She'd wave off my attempts at an explanation.

We'd come home after taking two hours to do an hour's worth of supermarket shopping.  Just in time for Grandma's afternoon stories.  I'd sit and watch Another World with her.  Complete with her commentary on every character.  She caught me up on the last year's misdeeds in Soap Opera Land.

"This guy is a crook.  He stole somebody's money."

"I don't like her.  She's a show off."

"This one's a real tramp."

Eventually, my summer world evolved into more fun, fun, fun till your daddy took your T-Bird away.  The chores tapered off.  The reminders that I wasn't going to be parked in front of the TV all summer subsided. 

I was always allowed to be a kid.  And some of those summers on 15th Avenue gave me memories that I'll never forget.  At least until when I share them here.

Dinner last night:  Korean Chicken from Chin Chin.

Classic Newsreel of the Month - June 2026

 A reminder of how much we lost when JFK was murdered.

Dinner last night:  Cheese and crackers.

Friday Is For Stupid Photos

 

It's Happy Hump Day for Mommy.

Pick which one will be the serial killer.  Actually, multiple choices are allowed.

The Bob Vila family Christmas card photo.

It's also Happy Hump Day for these turtles as well.

Leif Garrett lives.

I hope that second kid looks nothing like the first one.

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia.....

The police have been called to help him down.

What a surprise she's going to get when she really gets to know young Elton John.

Pee Wee tried the same thing in that porno theater years ago.

Dinner last night:  Grilled Taylor ham on English muffin.