45 Years Ago Today Yellow Submarine Had Its New York City Premiere

It was 45 years ago today, on 13 November 1968, that the animated feature film Yellow Submarine, had its American premiere in New York City. While The Beatles' involvement in the film was minimal (they didn't even provide the voices for their characters in the film), it has come to be counted by many as one of their films. At the time it was a historic film. Not only was it the first animated feature film to utilise a rock soundtrack, but it was also one of the earliest to make use of pop art and psychedelia. Since it's premiere in London on 17 July 1968 it has since become regarded as a classic. In fact, Time magazine included it in their list of "The 25 All-Time Best Animated Films". The film boasts an impressive a 96% percent rating on the web site Rotten Tomatoes.

In honour of the anniversary of the Stateside premiere of Yellow Submarine, I have two treats for you. The first is the film's original trailer. The second is a mini-documentary on the film.


Yellow Submarine - The Trailer from Motherlode Media on Vimeo.

The Beatles Mini Documentaries - Yellow Submarine from Ryan Wells on Vimeo.

What the Media Isn't Telling You About Google+ and YouTube

Last week Google overhauled YouTube's comments. Much of this involved giving YouTube channel owners new tools for moderation. If they choose, channel owners can now look over comments before they are posted and delete them and even block the commenter if necessary. Unfortunately, Google also integrated YouTube's comments with Google+. As a result if one wants to comment on YouTube videos he or she now must have a Google+ account. Several media outlets have reported the outrage of YouTube users at having to get Google+ accounts. Some individuals in the media have even used the controversy as an opportunity to launch, in my humble opinion, unwarranted attacks on Google+ (a perfect example of this a story from the Huffington Post, "YouTube Founder Says What We're All Thinking About Google+"--never mind the majority of people I know don't think the same thing about Google+ that YouTube's co-founder does). While the media has covered the outrage of YouTube users over this situation, they have entirely ignored something else. Quite simply, we Google+ users are angry over the whole situation as well.

Of course, I think most of us can agree that something had to be done about YouTube's comments. The site had long ago become a haven for trolls, a place where one could find racist, sexist, homophobic, and other hateful comments even on innocent cat videos. The situation has always been so bad that most people I know (myself included) simply disable comments on their videos. I can perfectly understand why Google wanted to change YouTube's comments to rein in the many trolls.

Unfortunately, from the standpoint of many Google+ users, in integrating comments for YouTube with Google+, Google has only made the situation worse. Quite simply, the change in YouTube comments has done very little to stop the trolls there and, worse yet, some of the trolls have simply migrated to Google+. While I have been fortunate in not having YouTube trolls comment on any of my posts, I have heard reports from others on  Google+ users of having to deal with them. Some have been lucky in only having one or two trolls comment on their posts. Others have had to deal with several. If Google thought that integrating YouTube's comments with Google+ was going to stop the trolls, it would seem they were wrong. Now they are simply plaguing two sites!

The other reason that Google+ users are angry is that now any comments we make to a YouTube video that has been posted publicly on G+ will automatically be shared to YouTube as well. While comments on publicly posted videos on Google+ are public anyway (literally anyone can read them), there are still some Google+ users who feel that in those comments automatically being posted to YouTube their privacy is being invaded. For many (perhaps most) of those who are angry, however, the issue is not about privacy. It is more about the fact that Google+ and YouTube are entirely different platforms where comments play completely different roles. Googe+ is a community or, perhaps more accurately, several different communities. Comments on videos often lead to discussions between various Google+ users. And often those conversations are less about the video than they are about ourselves or other things. While I do not comment on YouTube, if I did my comment would solely be about the video and would be directed solely to the person who posted the video. I would not expect it to lead to any sort of meaningful conversation. I then rather suspect that the comments we make on videos on G+ and the conversations that ensue probably will not make sense to anyone who reads them on YouTube. They will be entirely out of context.

While Google+ users are angry over YouTube trolls migrating to Google+ and over our comments on Google+ being posted to YouTube, many of us are also not happy about people being required to get Google+ accounts just to comment on YouTube. While I love Google+ and I want people to join Google+, I want them to join it because they want to, not  as a condition for making comments on a completely different site. Beyond that, I have to say that I think requiring people to get a Google+ account just to comment on videos on YouTube is simply not fair. It reminds me of those various sites that require one to have a Facebook account to log in or to make comments. I have never liked that either (particularly as I trust Facebook very little). To me one should not have to have an account with any social media site, whether it is Google+, Twitter, Facebook, or what have you, simply to comment on posts on another site entirely.

Sadly, Google's integration of YouTube's comments with Google+ has also led to widespread accusations that it was simply a ploy to get more people to join Google+. I honestly do not believe this. Quite simply, Google does not have to force people to join Google+. It is currently the second largest social media site and as a Google+ user I can attest that it is very active. On any given day my Google+ stream is generally busier than my Facebook news feed and it is almost as busy as my Twitter feed. While it is possible that this was part of a strategy on the part of Google to get more people to join Google+, I very seriously doubt it, as they really do not have to force people to get Google+ accounts. I suspect is more likely the case that Google knew it had to develop some means to deal with YouTube trolls and chose to use Google+ as the means to do so rather than developing better tools on YouTube itself for doing so.

Regardless of Google's motive for integrating YouTube's comments with Google+, it has had an impact on both sites. Many of us on Google+ have ceased sharing YouTube videos on there. When I want to share a particular song on Google+, I now use Vimeo, DailyMotion, or one of the other video sharing sites. Many of us no longer comment on YouTube videos that are shared publicly on Google+ because we don't want our comments posted to YouTube. In integrating YouTube's comments with Google+, then, they have hurt the amount of discussion that goes on at the site. I seriously doubt this is what Google intended.

It is my hope that Google will reverse their decision to integrate YouTube's comments with Google+. It is quite possible that they will. The media has reported the anger of many YouTube users over Google's decision and I know that on Google+ many G+ users are angry as well. And we G+ users have made our displeasure known to Google. In fact, I dare say that it is the most controversial thing that Google has done in years. I would then say that it would probably be very beneficial for them to undo the integration and develop another, better means for dealing with YouTube trolls.

Sheldon Leonard: What a Character!

When most people think of Sheldon Leonard as an actor, it is his role as Nick the bartender in It's a Wonderful Life (1946) that probably comes to mind. If his role as Nick doesn't immediately spring to mind, then they will most likely think of one of the many heavies he played in movies over the years. And while Mr. Leonard did play an inordinately large number of heavies over the years, it was not the sum total of his career. While most people know that he was one of the greatest producers of television shows in the history of the medium, not many know that he actually played a wider array of roles in film, on radio, and on television than the heavies for which he was so well known. Indeed, Mr. Leonard even provided the voices for characters in Warner Brothers cartoons!

Sheldon Leonard was born Sheldon Leonard Bershad on 22 February 1907 in New York City. He attended Stuyvesant High School in New York City.  He went to Syracuse University on an athletic scholarship. Mr. Leonard was not only a good athlete, but a good scholar as well. He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honour society. According to Turner Classic Movies he made his film debut in The Overland Stage in 1927, which would have been even before he graduated from Syracuse University in 1929. Following his graduation from Syracuse University he went to work on Wall Street. Unfortunately, he started working on Wall Street in late October of 1929, the very time that the Stock Market crashed. As might be expected, his career on Wall Street was a short one. It was then that Mr. Leonard decided to become a professional actor.

The year 1934 would prove to be a significant one in Sheldon Leonard's career. It was that year that he made his debut on Broadway in the comedy Hotel Alimony. It was that same year that he would also have his first significant role in a film. In the comedy short "My Mummy's Arms" (starring Shemp Howard before he became one of The Three Stooges) Sheldon Leonard played Abdullah, an Egyptian guide who curiously has a Brooklyn accent! He appeared in another ethnic role in another comedy short, "Gem of the Ocean" that same year, as well as a bit part as the "Third Department of Justice Representative" in the gangster movie The People's Enemy. Sheldon Leonard would spend much of the rest of the Thirties on Broadway, where he appeared in such productions as The Night Remembers, Fly Away Home, Having Wonderful Time, Siege, and Kiss the Boys Good-bye.

It was in 1939 that Sheldon Leonard returned to film, and it would be in a role that would largely determine the course of the rest of his career. In Another Thin Man Mr. Leonard played Phil Church, an ex-convict and an all around dodgy character. It was a role Sheldon Leonard played very well, so it should perhaps not be surprising that he played a similar in his very next film--gangster Pretty Willie Williams in Tall, Dark, & Handsome (1941). Over the years Sheldon Leonard would play many similar gangsters in such films as Lucky Jordan (1942), The Gangster (1947), and, perhaps most famously, Guys and Dolls (1955). Mr. Leonard was so identified with gangsters and similar roles that he often parodied them in comedies, including the horror comedy Zombies on Broadway (1945),  the Bowery Boys film Jinx Money (1948), and Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951).

While he may be well known for playing gangsters, Sheldon Leonard played many other heavies besides gangsters. In fact, one of his better known roles is from To Have and Have Not, in which he played Captain Renard's assistant Lt. Coyo. He even appeared in Westerns, including Blackie in Frontier Gal (1945) and Chief Ogane in The Iroquois Trail from 1950 (despite the fact that he had no Native American blood whatsoever).  In Violence (1947) he played part of a neo-Fascist organisation. He even appeared as a heavy in a pirate movie, playing one of Captain Kidd's crew in Captain Kidd (1945).

Of course, Sheldon Leonard played many roles beyond heavies. Indeed, his most famous film role of all time was not a heavy. In the primary timeline (the one in which George Bailey was born) of  It's a Wonderful Life Nick is good hearted, caring, and loyal to both Mr. Martini and George. He also played police officers on more than one occasion. His best known role as a police officer may be in the cult film Decoy (1946), in which he played Sgt. Joe Portugal. He also played  Detective Joe Marruci in Street of Chance (1942),  Detective Sgt. Mike Frontelli in Open Secret (1948) and Detective Pacciano in Take One False Step (1949).

While Sheldon Leonard is well known for playing heavies in feature films, it is not as well known that he provided voices for characters in Warner Brothers' animated shorts. He provided the voice for Dodsworth in the shorts "Kiddin' the Kitten" and "A Peck of Trouble". Dodsworth is unlike any role Mr. Leonard played in feature films. He is an overweight, tuxedo cat who is always trying to get others to do his work for him. His voice could best be described as Sheldon Leonard doing a W. C. Fields impersonation, or vice versa. He also provided the voice of Kid Banty, the boxing rooster, in the Foghorn Leghorn short "Sock-a-Doodle-Do". His work on Warner Brothers theatrical shorts would not be the last time that Sheldon Leonard did voice work for cartoons. He was also the voice of King Linus on the Sixties, Saturday morning television cartoon Linus the Linus Hearted.

Sheldon Leonard also did a good deal of work on radio. He may be best known as the Tout on The Jack Benny Programme, who was always giving Jack Benny dubious advice about betting at the racetrack. Mr. Leonard also played various roles on The Adventures of Maisie, starring Ann Southern (most frequently that of Maisie's boyfriend). He was also a regular on such varied radio shows as The Lineup (a CBS police drama), The Martin and Lewis Show, Johnny Fletcher (an NBC police comedy on which Mr. Leonard played Johnny's partner Sam), The Judy Canova Show (on which he played Judy's boyfriend Joe Crunchmiller), and The Damon Runyan Theatre (where he most often played, you guessed it, gangsters). He also appeared on such radio shows as The Adventures of the Saint, Burns and Allen, Old Gold Comedy Theatre, Richard Diamond Private Detective, and Screen Director's Playhouse.

As a successful character actor on both film and in radio, Sheldon Leonard naturally moved into television. He made his television debut on Your Jeweller's Showcase before going onto a memorable guest shot on I Love Lucy as Harry Martin, the fast talking, door to door salesman for the Handy-Dandy” vacuum cleaner. As one might expect, he reprised his role as the Racetrack Trout on several episodes of The Jack Benny Programme. He also had a recurring role as agent Phil Brokaw on Make Room for Daddy (more on his connection to that show in a little bit). He was a regular on the show The Duke. As an actor on television Sheldon Leonard's output would slow with the Sixties, although he found time to guest star on such shows as I Spy, Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C., My World and Welcone to It, and Sanford and Son. He was the lead on the short lived sitcom Big Eddie in the Seventies. In the Eighties he guest starred on The Cosby Show, Matlock, Murder She Wrote, and Cheers. His last appearance on a television show was in an episode of Dream On in 1992.

Of course, when it came to television Sheldon Leonard's best known role may have been as a producer rather than an actor. Indeed, he could justifiably be considered one of the greatest television producers of all time. Not only was he fairly prolific, but he also produced some of the most successful, best loved shows of all time. Sheldon Leonard became a television producer by way of Make Room for Daddy, also known as The Danny Thomas Show. Mr. Leonard had broken into television directing with episodes of G.E. Theatre and Your Jeweller's Showcase. With the first season of Make Room for Daddy he was one of the show's regular directors. By the third season he was promoted to the role of producer for the show. It was the beginning of a successful new career for Mr. Leonard.

Indeed, Sheldon Leonard would produce some of the most legendary shows in the history of television. He served as executive producer on The Andy Griffith Show and even played a pivotal role in its creation. When Carl Reiner's pilot Head of the Family failed, Carl Reiner’s agent, Harry Kalcheim took it to Sheldon Leonard, who took on the project and recast it. Ultimately Head of the Family became The Dick Van Dyke Show. Over the years Sheldon Leonard would produce such shows as The Bill Dana Show, Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.,  I Spy, Accidental Family, Good Morning World, My World and Welcome to It, and Shirley's World.

Here it must be pointed out that Sheldon Leonard was not simply a successful television producer, but he was also one who was willing to take chances. It was Sheldon Leonard who cast Bill Cosby as Alexander Scott on I Spy, making him the first African American lead on an American drama series. While NBC supported Sheldon Leonard in the casting of Bill Cosby, some of the network's affiliates baulked at airing a show featuring a black man in the lead. Mr. Leonard stuck to his guns and I Spy not only went on to be a hit, but it established Bill Cosby as a star. Sheldon Leonard would also take a risk with the short lived, now largely forgotten sitcom Accidental Family. One of the two leads was Lois Nettleton as divorceé Sue Kramer. It was the first American sitcom to feature a divorced woman as one of the central characters, and hence the first American sitcoms to deal with the issue of divorce.

The last show Sheldon Leonard produced was The Don Rickles Show in 1972. He made his last appearance as an actor in a guest appearance on Dream On in 1992. He also served as executive producer on the I Spy reunion film I Spy Returns in 1994. He died at age 89 on 22 February 1907.

Sheldon Leonard was much more than Nick in It's a Wonderful Life. He was also much more than a heavy in several feature films. He was even much more than one of the most successful television producers of all time. Sheldon Leonard was one of those rare individuals with talent in multiple fields: acting, directing, and producing. As an actor his career spanned several different media, including stage, film, television, radio, and even animated cartoons. And while he is best known for the heavies he played, Mr. Leonard could play much more. He could be a kindly bartender. He could be a dodgy racetrack tout. He could be a slick vacuum cleaner salesman. He could even be an incredibly lazy cat. In fact, the only thing I would possibly change about Sheldon Leonard's career is that I wished he had appeared in more comedy films. He had a real flair for the genre, whether it was playing the parodies of the heavies he played so often in Jinx Money and Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man or the race track tout on The Jack Benny Programme or Phil Brokaw on Make Room for Daddy. Among many other things, Sheldon Leonard could be a very funny man.

Of course, Sheldon Leonard is also remembered as a legendary television producer. There can be no doubt that he produced some of the best loved, most successful shows of all time. More than fifty years after they have debuted, The Andy Griffith Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show are still aired around the world. What is more, Mr. Leonard not only had an eye for what could be successful, he also had an eye for quality. Both The Andy Griffith Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show received sterling reviews when they debuted and now they are counted as two of the greatest shows of all time. And, as pointed out above, he was also a producer who was willing to take chances. He cast an African American actor in a lead role on I Spy at a time when the casts of some shows were entirely white. He produced the first sitcom to feature a divorced women as one of the leads and as a result the first sitcom to deal with divorce. It should be little wonder, then, that Sheldon Leonard should be one of the most successful television producers of all time.

In the end, it is perhaps fitting that Sheldon Leonard's best known role is that of Nick in It's a Wonderful Life. A talented actor in multiple media who would become a successful producer of television shows, it can truly be said he had a wonderful life.

The 100th Birthday of Hedy Lamarr, Or Perhaps the 99th or the 98th..

Inventor and actress Hedy Lamarr has often been described as an enigma. Indeed, even the year of her birth is a bit of a mystery. Most sources give 1913 as the year that she was born. In fact, it is the year given by her official website. Despite this more than one biography of the inventor and actress have given 1914 as the year of her birth (both Beautiful: The Life of Hedy Lamarr by Stephen Michael Shearer and Hedy Lamarr: The Most Beautiful Woman in Film  By Ruth Barton do so). In 1966, when Miss Lamarr was arrested for shoplifting, 1914 was the year she told the Los Angeles police that she was born. Even Miss Lamarr may have contradicted herself with regards to her year of birth, however, as in Ecstasy and Me: My Life as a Woman she claimed she was born in 1915. Of course, she also claimed that much of the material in her autobiography was fabricated by ghostwriter Leo Guild, even suing to halt the book's publication, giving us reason to doubt much of the book's veracity.

Sadly, the year of Hedy Lamarr's birth may remain one of the many mysteries about her, which leaves anyone wishing to celebrate the anniversary of her birth with a bit of a conundrum. Given the number of sources that cite 1913 as the year of Miss Lamarr's birth (her official website among them), I have decided to treat it as such, which as far as this blog is concerned makes this Miss Lamarr's 100th birthday. Too, I must admit I find it appealing to think that the two most beautiful women of all time (Vivien Leigh was born 5 November 1913) were born only days apart!

Regardless of the year in which she was born, Hedy Lamarr was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. She began studying piano when she was only 10 years old.. She made her film debut in a bit part in Geld auf der Straße in 1930. This was followed by a more slightly more substantial part in Die Blumenfrau von Lindenau (known in English as Storm in a Water Glass) in 1931. She was still only a teenager when she studied acting under the legendary stage director Max Reinhardt. Mr. Reinhardt may have been the first person to name Hedwig Kiesler "the most beautiful woman in the world", which he did so when speaking to Viennese  newspaper reporters.

Hedy Kiesler would appear in two more films (Die Koffer des Herrn O.F. in 1931 and Man braucht kein Geld in 1932) before starring in one of her most famous films, Extase (in English, Ecstasy) in 1932. The film proved controversial upon its release. Not only did Hedy Kiesler appear nude in the film, but it may well be the first non-pornographic film to portray sexual intercourse as well as a woman in the midst of orgasm (although the film only focused on the actors' faces). Extase proved to be a source of a good deal of controversy, with even Pope Pius XI condemning the film. The film would prove even more controversial in the Untied States. In 1933 the Legion of Decency gave it a "C" rating, making it one of the earliest foreign films to be condemned by the Legion.  In January 1935 the Department of Treasury banned Extase from importation into the United States. Regardless, for ten months in 1936 an American distributor started an effort to get Extase approved by the Production Code Administration (the PCA). The PCA's head, Joseph Breen, called the film "highly—even dangerously—indecent" in a memo and informed the distributor that the PCA could not approve it. It would not be shown in the United States until 1940, and even then in edited form. Even then some local censorship boards demanded even more cuts to the film while others, such as Pennsylvania's censorship board, banned it altogether.

Whether the controversy of Extase would have had an impact on Hedy Kiesler's career is difficult to say, as not long afterwards she married armaments manufacturer Friedrich Mandl. He more or less forbade her from pursuing her acting career. As might be expected, Miss Kiesler found herself miserable in the marriage and in 1938 she left Mandl. She eventually fled to London, where she met the head of MGM, Louis B. Mayer. Mr. Mayer was in London on studio business, and the two met at a dinner party.  She later sailed to the United States aboard the Normandie, on which both Louis B. Mayer and his wife Margaret were sailing home. While aboard the ship Mr. Mayer offered Hedy Kiesler a contract with MGM. Stories very as to whether it was Mr. Mayer or his wife who gave Miss Kiesler her stage name, the name by which she would become best known, Hedy Lamarr. The surname was taken from late Silent Era star Barbara La Marr, who had died from tuberculosis when she was only 29.

Hedy Lamarr made her American film debut in Algiers in 1938. The film proved to be a success and very nearly established Miss Lamarr as an American movie star over night. She proved to be one of MGM's most popular stars in the Forties, as well as one of the sex symbols of the era. According to Richard Rhodes, author of Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World, men serving overseas during World War II voted her the most desirable film actress of them all. While at MGM she made some of her most popular films, including Ziegfeld Girl (1941), Boom Town (1940), Tortilla Flat (1942),  and White Cargo (1942). Disappointed with the quality of scripts she was receiving, Hedy Lamarr left MGM in 1945.

Miss Lamarr's departure from MGM may not have necessarily improved the quality of the roles she received, but it also did nothing to diminish her success. From the late Forties into the early Fifties she appeared in such films as Dishonoured Lady (1947),  Let's Live a Little (1948), Samson and Delilah (1949), and My Favourite Spy (1951). During the Forties Miss Lamarr had been a very prolific actress, making 18 films from 1940 to 1949. With the Fifties, however, her career slowed considerably. The Fifties would see her make only a few films, including My Favourite Spy, I cavalieri dell'illusione (1954), Loves of Three Queens (1954), L'eterna femmina (1954), and The Story of Mankind (1957).  Her final film was The Female Animal in 1958. She made very few television appearances, only appearing as a guest star on All Star Revue, Shower of Stars, and Zane Grey Theatre.

While Hedy Lamarr was one of the most famous actresses of all time, her most lasting contribution to the world would be in a field not generally associated with the bright lights of Hollywood. Quite simply, Miss Lamarr was not only an actress, but also an inventor. And one of her inventions would revolutionise the world. It was in 1941 that Miss Lamarr had an idea for a new torpedo guidance system. She took her idea to her neighbour, composer George Antheil, who had utilised automated control of pianos in his composition Ballet Mécanique. The two of them developed a means of frequency hopping that utilised a piano roll of the type used for player pianos to shift or "hop" between 88 different radio frequencies. It was on 11 August 1942 that Miss Lamarr and Mr. Antheil were granted US Patent 2,292,387 for their "secret communication system. Ultimately the United States Navy would not implement Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil's invention during World War II, arguing that the equipment necessary for it would be too bulky (George Antheil argued that it could be small enough to fit inside a watch). The  Navy would eventually utilise Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil's invention during the blockade of Cuba in 1962.

Miss Lamarr and Mr. Antheil's patent for a "secret communications system" would be rediscovered in the Fifties, when various companies were developing CDMA or code division multiple access, a channel access method used for GPS and the basis for various channel access methods used by mobile phones (such as cdmaOne, CDMA2000, and WCMDA). As a result much of the technology we take for granted today, from mobile phones to Wi-Fi to GPS, might not exist had it not been for Hedy Lamarr! Sadly, neither Hedy Lamarr nor George Antheil would make any profit from their patent.

Of course, here it must be pointed out that Hedy Lamarr was not simply an actress who happened to have an idea for a new torpedo guidance system that would ultimately change the world. She was very serious about inventing, and she even had an entire room in her home devoted to inventing, including a drafting table, tools, reference books, and so on. Among her inventions was a anti-aircraft shell fixed with a proximity fuse that would use radar to detect the target and detonate at a predetermined distance away. She also developed a cube that when mixed with water would make a cola-type soft drink. She also invented a better box for facial tissues (such as Kleenex) and a new sort of traffic light. Unfortunately, none of these inventions would be put into mass production.

As one of the best known film stars and sex symbols of the Forties, Hedy Lamarr would even have an impact on pop culture in the form of a well known comic book character. The creators of Batman Bill Finger and Bob Kane based the character of The Catwoman on a combination of Bob Kane's cousin Ruth Steel and actress Hedy Lamarr, with a bit of Jean Harlow thrown in for good measure. Other than The Catwoman's personality, it would seem Jean Harlow contributed little to the character. Anyone examining of illustrations of The Catwoman from the Golden Age of Comic Books might well notice she looks a good deal like Hedy Lamarr. . Both had oval shaped faces crowned by a head of long, wavy, dark hair. Both also had smouldering eyes (well, Catwoman's eyes were as smouldering as Golden Age comic book illustration would allow) and full, pouty lips. Despite changes in artists over the years (as is well known, Bob Kane employed many ghost artists), Catwoman would continue to resemble Hedy Lamarr until the Sixties when Julie Newmar played the character on the television show Batman.

Hedy Lamarr was often noted for her beauty. Indeed, she was called "the Most Beautiful Woman in the World" for a good reason. It has not been particularly often that she has been noted for her acting talent. I suspect much of the reason for this was that she was typecast early in her career as the beautiful, exotic seductress, a role she played in film after film. That having been said, she could play other roles and play them very well. She was quite convincing in the role of Madeleine Damien, a magazine editor with a double life as a party girl at night, in Dishonoured Lady. She also gave a very good performance as the title character's self reliant coworker Marvin Miles in H. M. Pulham, Esq. (1941). I think she also did quite well in what may be her most famous role, that of Delilah in Samson and Delilah (1949). In what could have merely been yet another seductress role, Miss Lamarr gave the character of Delilah considerable depth.

Of course, I have to wonder if Hedy Lamarr would not be better regarded as an actress had she not performed in more comedies. The comedies she made often gave her an opportunity to play roles beyond beautiful mystery women. She was delightful as an Austrian refugee who makes a marriage of convenience with a poor writer (played by Jimmy Stewart) in Come Live with Me (1941). She was also quite enjoyable as a beautiful, European princess who falls for a New York hotel bellbory in Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945). Miss Lamarr also gave a good performance as as Lily Dalbray, the beautiful spy and love interest in the Bob Hope movie My Favourite Spy.  In many of the dramas in which Hedy Lamarr appeared she was used as little more than window dressing and in yet others she simply played another variation on the beautiful seductress. In her comedies, however, she was given a chance to shine.

While Hedy Lamarr remains one of the most celebrated beauties of all time, as one of the best known actresses of her era, there can be no doubt that her greatest contribution to the world was her invention of frequency hopping with George Antheil. It would provide the basis for modern spread spectrum technology, technology that is used in everything from CDMA (Code division multiple access, used in many mobile phones), coded orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (COFDM, used in WI-Fi networks), Bluetooth, GPS, and so on. Eventually Miss Lamarr would be honoured for her invention. In 1997 the the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave her their Pioneer Award. She also became the first woman to ever be awarded the Invention Convention's BULBIE Gnass Spirit of Achievement Award. Today it is quite possible that Hedy Lamarr is better known for the invention of frequency hopping than she is as a film star.

In the end whether it is Hedy Lamarr's 100th birthday or her 99th birthday perhaps doesn't matter. She was much more than the Most Beautiful Woman in the World. She was a talented actress with the intelligence to develop something without which the modern world we know would not be possible. There can be no doubt that Hedy Lamarr would have been remembered if she had only been a famous film star. Her motion pictures are still watched and enjoyed by millions today. That she also invented frequency hopping with George Antheil, something which led to the spread spectrum technology on which we rely so much today, has insured that she will be remembered for years to come as a woman who truly changed the world.

Hal Needham Passes On

Hal Needham, the stuntman who went onto direct motion pictures, died on 25 October 2013 at the age of 82. At one time he was reputedly the highest paid stuntman in the world.

Hal Needham was born on 6 March 1931 in Memphis, Tennessee. He spent his early years in Arkansas, and his family eventually moved to St. Louis. As an adult he worked as a tree topper before serving as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division of the United States Army during the Korean War. After his discharge from the Army he returned to tree topping. It was while he was recuperating with a broken ankle that another former paratrooper found him work doing stunts in television.

He did stunts for the television series Mike Hammer before getting his big break serving as Richard Boone's stunt double on the popular Western series Have Gun--Will Travel. In the late Fifties he also did stunts for such shows as Laramie, Black Saddle, Coronado 9, and Hong Kong. He also served as a stuntman on such films as The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), The Big Country (1958), Thunder in the Sun (1959), and Pork Chop Hill (1959).

In the Sixties Mr. Needham performed stunts for the films A Thunder of Drums (1961), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), How the West Was Won (1962), Donovan's Reef (1963), McLintock! (1963), 4 for Texas (1963), Mail Order Bride (1964), Major Dundee (1965), In Harm's Way (1965), The Great Race (1965), Our Man Flint (1966), The Ballad of Josie (1967), and The War Wagon (1967). He received his first credit as a stunt coordinator on The Rare Breed (1966) and in the Sixties went onto serve in that capacity on the films Stagecoach (1966), Beau Geste (1966), Bandolero! (1968), Hellfighters (1968), Chisum (1970), and Little Big Man (1970). He also did stunts for the television shows Gunsmoke, Star Trek, The Big Valley, Laredo, and Mannix.

In the Seventies he did stunts for such films as Something Big (1971), The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972), The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973), White Lightning (1973), McQ (1974), Blazing Saddles (1974), Chinatown (1974), The Longest Yard (1974), W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975), Gable and Lombard (1976), Gator (1976), A Star Is Born (1976), Nickelodeon (1976),  and Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977). His last work in stunts was in the film The Sunchaser in 1996. In 1971 he founded the organisation Stunts Unlimited with fellow stuntmen Ronnie Rondell and Glenn Wilder.

Over the years Hal Needham also acted in various bit parts over the year. In the late Fifties he appeared in small roles in such shows as The Rifleman, Have Gun--Will Travel, The Restless Gun, Playhouse 90, Yancy Derringer, Dante, and Coronado 9. In the Sixties he appeared in the TV shows Riverboat, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, The Rebel, Tales of Wells Fargo, Combat!, Laramie, Rawhide, Wagon Train, Daniel Boone, Laredo, The Wild Wild West, The Virginian, and Gunsmoke. He appeared in the films Shoot Out at Big Sag (1962), McLintock! (1963), The War Wagon (1967), The Devil's Brigade (1968), and Sometimes a Great Notion (1970). From the Seventies into the Eighties he appeared in the shows Mannix, Alias Smith and Jones, Mission: Impossible, Charlie's Angels, Simon & Simon, and Sledge Hammer. He appeared in the films One More Train to Rob (1971), The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972), W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975), The Cannonball Run (1981), Stroker Ace (1983), and Cannonball Run II (1984).

Hal Needham served as a second unit director on the films White Lightning (1973), The Longest Yard (1974), Take a Hard Ride (1975), and Gator (1976). With Smokey and the Bandit (1977) Hal Needham broke into directing. Over the years he directed such films as Hooper (1978), The Villain (1979), Smokey and the Bandit II (1980), The Cannonball Run (1981), Stroker Ace (1983), Cannonball Run II (1984),  Rad (1986), and Body Slam (1986). He directed a few television films, including Death Car on the Freeway and four TV movies loosely based on Smokey and the Bandit and its sequels.

While I never was a fan of most of the films Hal Needham directed, I have to admit he was a great stuntman, perhaps the greatest stuntman of all time. He introduced several innovations when it came to stunts in film and television. It was Mr. Needham who introduced the use of air bags on which stuntman could land would performing stunts involving jumping or falling. He also helped develop the the Shotmaker Elite camera car and crane, for which he won a Scientific and Engineering Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Among his other innovations were the air ram (a pneumatic device for throwing a stuntman through the air) and the nitrogen ratchet (a device used for whenever a stuntman is supposed to be thrown from a horse or a car). Mr. Needham's various innovations to stunt work were all designed to make stunts safer while at the same time keeping them spectacular in appearance.

Indeed, as a stuntman and stunt coordinator Mr. Needham created some of the best stunts on film. There was the sequence in Little Big Man in which he and another stuntman had to leap from the horses they are riding onto horses pulling a stagecoach, and then from horse to horse. For McQ he performed a stunt in which a car had to rollover on a beach, for which Hal Needham designed a cannon which could flip the car. Regardless of whether it was a Western or an action film Hal Needham could be guaranteed to provide stunts that were spectacular, but at the same time within the realm of reality. And he did all of it without the benefit of CGI.

Marcia Wallace R.I.P.

Marcia Wallace, perhaps best known for playing Dr. Harley's receptionist Carol Kester on The Bob Newhart Show, died on 25 October 2013 at the age of 70.  She was also well known for providing the voice for schoolteacher Edna Krabappel on the animated series The Simpsons.

Marcia Wallace was born on 1 November 1942 in Creston, Iowa. She attended Parson College in  Fairfield, Iowa, where she majored in English and theatre. While there she appeared in various productions held by the college, including Brigadoon and The Music Man. After she graduated she moved to New York City to pursue acting. To make a living she did assorted jobs, including typing scripts, working as a substitute teacher, acting in commercials, and acting in summer stock. Eventually she joined four friends to form the improvisational group The Fourth Wall. The Fourth Wall played from January 1968 to September 1968 off Broadway. Eventually she was noticed by Merv Griffin and she became a semi-regular on The Merv Griffin Show, appearing on it over 75 times.

Marcia Wallace went onto appear in episodes of Bewitched, The Brady Bunch, Columbo, Love American Style, and Insight before being cast as Carol on The Bob Newhart Show. She appeared in every single one of the show's 142 episodes. For the remainder of the Seventies she guest starred on The Love Boat, Flying High, and Fantasy Island. In the Eighties she appeared in the film My Mom's a Werewolf (1989).  She guest starred on such shows as Magnum P.I., Gimme a Break, Finder of Lost Loves, Murder She Wrote, ALF, Night Court, and Charles in Charge. It was in 1990 that she was cast as  Edna Krabappel on The Simpsons. She would play the role for the next 23 years.

In the Nineties she provided guest voices on such animated series as Darkwing Duck, Batman--The Animated Series, and The Addams Family.  She guest starred on such shows as A Different World, Full House, George and Leo, and Murphy Brown (on which she reprised her role as Carol Kester). From the Naughts into the Teens she appeared on such shows as Providence and 7th Heaven. She was a regular on That's My Bush and The Young and The Restless. She appeared in the films You Never Know (2001) , Forever for Now (2004), Big Stan (2007) , and Tru Loved (2008). She provided additional voices for the animated film Monsters University.

Marcia Wallace was a gifted comic actress. She had impeccable timing and a gift for creating funny characters. Indeed, it is rare for television actors to play one memorable character in a long running show, let alone two characters in long running shows. What is more, Carol and Mrs. Krabappel could not have been more different. Carol was warm, friendly, and loved jokes, and was constantly on the lookout for a husband. Mrs. Krabappel was bitter, jaded, and known to abuse various chemical substances. No two characters could be more different and yet both were exceptionally funny. A lesser comic actress may not have able to play such different roles over the years, but Marcia Wallace was. She was an exceptional talent.

Guest Post on the Margaret Lockwood Society Blog

I am very honoured to have been invited to write a guest post on the Margaret Lockwood Society blog. I wrote about one of my favourite Margaret Lockwood films (which is also one of my favourite Carol Reed films), Bank Holiday (also known here in the United States as Three on a Weekend). You can read it here.