Movie Memories

Mic and me: It's a date

(Courtesy: Backdoor Comedy club) There are scarier things you can do than take the stage of a comedy club for the first time and try to make paying customers laugh. I just can't think of any right now. Open Mic Night. Call it the longest three minutes in show business; an eternity for some, a breeze for the gifted few. All the great ones started this way somewhere. One-liners and stories running through their minds over and over or scribbled on notepads as they nervously await their turn. Woody Allen said he used to throw up before every stand-up performance... Read more

'Wait, you ran out of what?"

Here's looking at you, kid.

In all the excitement of Wednesday's worst Christmas meal ever, I forgot that legendary Humphrey Bogart was born on Dec. 25 in 1899.

And I'm thinking so was the turkey on the so-called turkey and dressing dinner at a Plano, Texas restaurant where the temperature had to be at least 85 degrees inside and the advertised turkey and dressing and cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes plate arrived at the table sans cranberry sauce.

Time, more or less, has come today

While most people around much of the world and in the United States, except for Arizona and Hawaii, got an extra hour of sleep last night, I was up at 5 a.m.  Or was it 4?

Scooter, my 16-year-old dachshund (wiener dog to most) had to, uh, dash for the backdoor to do some serious business in the backyard.

Scootie, lovable, funny and loyal, knew exactly what time it was, and it had nothing to do with a clock.

But what about us humans?

What if obituaries had to be honest?

Honest obits might go something like this:

Myra Ruth Littleberg

Funeral arrangements for Myra Ruth Littleberg, 91, of Ithaca, New York, who passed May 1, 2019 while reading a book at home, are pending at Ike’s Nondenominational Funeral Emporium on Hickory Street.  Littleberg served as No. 2 Librarian for 25 years at the main Ithaca Library. She kept to herself, spoke in a whisper and was quick to “shush” loud talkers even outside the library.  While researching Littleberg’s quiet life at work and at home with her three cats (Purrcy, Cuddles and Twerk), this reporter discovered, and thus must report, that Littleberg previously worked for years as a topless dancer who called herself Babs at the Check These Out Gentleman’s Club, located way down the gravel road on the shore of Cayuga Lake.

Fall guys

Courtesy: IMDb.com

Don't let Gary Kent's personal kindness and gentle demeanor fool you.

Inside Kent, the subject of Joe O'Connell's fascinating documentary Danger God, rages a cunning creative lion of a stuntman, writer, filmmaker, author and actor who fell off a horse for a young Jack Nicholson in some Monte Hellman Westerns in the 1960s, got in a knife fight with The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant in the '70s, flipped cars, orchestrated and participated in scores of cinematic fist fights and had a run-in with Charles Manson (Yes, that Charles Manson) along the way.

Rush, rush, busy, busy: Great week

What a busy, crazy-good week at Camp Movie Memories last week.

Tuesday: "A Salute to the Great War Movies" at The Preston of the Park Cities.

Thursday: "'Casablanca' -- Hollywood's Classic Happy Accident" at the Southwest Women's Club meeting in Duncanville with Suellen offering a great assist (resulting in a 5-star review on Thumbtack.com).

Friday: "Hollywood's Hot Movie Scandals" before a large, enthusiastic crowd at the Canyon Creek North Garden Club in Plano.