Jonathan Winters: "I was a survivor of a crib death"

Here's audio I captured on 9/22/2004 at Dutton's Bookstore in North Hollywood, on the occasion of Gary Owens signing copies of his book How to Make a Million Dollars with Your Voice (Or Lose Your Tonsils Trying). A whole panel of friends joined Gary at the dais, including Johnny Grant, Howie Morris, Ruth Buzzi, Jo Anne Worley, John Rappaport, Bob Bergen, Ken Levine, Rich Fields, and Fred Travalena. Last to be interviewed was Jonathan Winters, in the guise of Buck Leland, rodeo rider:

http://www.footnoteconspiracy.com/GaryOwensJonathanWinters/Gary%20Owens%20book%20signing%20-%20Duttons%202004-09-22%20excerpt%20Jonathan%20Winters.mp3

Satirathon ’68 with The Committee

While digitizing some open reels from the collection of Peter Bergman in October 2012, I found this recording of a live Committee performance. The original is a 7” open reel, with no markings and no box. Track names are my own guesses.

I gave copies to some original Committee members and here are their replies...

Howard Hesseman:

References to payment for specific scenes suggests this tape is portion of recordation of the 2^nd Satirathon (Summer 1968) involving SF and LA companies, taking place in SF and recorded by (RIP) Paul Rothschild (in remote truck in front of 622 Broadway) for possible release as comedy album on Elektra Records. Beyond that, it offers proof that Garry Goodrow was still alive at that time.

Alan Myerson:

Frankly, I have no idea of its provenance but Howard Hesseman’s explanation seems as good as any I could possibly come up with.

I can only make an educated guess about the actors’ identities but I believe that “Dick” was played by Garry Goodrow, “Jane” was Irene Riordan/Jessica Myerson (She switched names somewhere around the time these pieces were being performed.), “Mickey Mouse” was Carl Gottlieb, “Goofy” was Chris Ross, “Donald Duck” I’m guessing was Garry Goodrow, “Minnie Mouse” was Irene Riordan/Jessica Myerson, “Etienne Decroux” was Rusdi Lane, the “Translator” was Chris Ross, “Kiki” was also Chris Ross. The “MC” for the “Dick & Jane” piece was Carl Gottlieb and for “Etienne Decroux” it was Garry Goodrow. Particularly in the scenes with the Disney characters because of the very high or very low voices it’s difficult to be certain but I believe all the others are sure. Because all of those players were in a company together I’m not certain that Howard is right about the Satirathon but it’s a decent story so maybe you should stick to it.

In any event, it was good to hear the distant and, in too many cases, now-missing voices of some loved and funny folks. And ironic that it would come from trove of the massively missed and very important Mr. P. Bergman.

Getting Together Song [incomplete] (0:52)

Dick and Jane’s Date (4:03) with Garry Goodrow (Dick), Jessica Myerson (Jane)

Behind the Magic (4:35) with Carl Gottlieb (Mickey), Garry Goodrow (Donald), Chris Ross (Goofy), Jessica Myerson (Minnie)

Étienne Decroux (10:24) with Rusdi Lane (Étienne Decroux), Chris Ross (Translator)

Let’s Hear It for Kiki Hall (7:29) with Chris Ross (Kiki)

Holy Moly [incomplete] (3:21)

Chugoku-Chiho no Komoriuta

Crate-diggers - looking for a challenge? Look no further. I'm pining for a certain Japanese easy-listening record from the late 1960s, made entirely of lounge versions of Japanese children's songs. I don't know the artist's name. I don't know the name of the LP. You're welcome.

The Animation Show Podcast

Here are some podcasts I recorded with various animation industry creatives in 2008 for The Animation Show:

Corky Quakenbush (Animator, The Adventures of Ricardo), 3/27/2008: AS4_Corky_Quakenbush_11to1_mono.mp3

Jimmy Pickering (Artist, Animation Show Year 4 poster), 4/2/2008: AS4_JimmyPickering_11to1_mono.mp3

Dave Carter (Animator, Psychotown), 4/3/2008: AS4_DaveCarter_11to1_mono.mp3

Steve Dildarian (Animator, Angry Unpaid Hooker), 5/14/2008: AS4_SteveDildarian_11to1_mono.mp3

Julian Grey (Co-Founder / Director, Head Gear Animation), 5/20/2008: AS4_JulianGrey_11to1_mono.mp3

Joel Trussell (Animator, War Photographer), 5/24/2008: AS4_Joel_Trussell_11to1_mono.mp3

PES (Animator, The Deep), 5/28/2008: AS4_PES_11to1_mono.mp3

Chris Williams (Director Glago's Guest; Co-Director, Bolt), 11/25/2008: ASPodcast_Chris_Williams_11to1_mono.mp3

Tatia Rosenthal (Director, $9.99), 12/15/2008: ASPodcast_Tatia_Rosenthal_11to1_mono.mp3

The Blue Ribbon

When I was in third grade, or maybe sixth, at the end of one school year in June we had a brown-bag day with kids running all over the playground behind Monroe Elementary, and parents and teachers organizing races – sack race, three-legged race, sprints. I got third prize in something: a little brown “ribbon” made of construction paper and glitter. Later I was left alone on the sidelines, sitting on the grass next to one of the grown-ups’ bags of supplies. There were some extra ribbons. They were blue and silver, glitter and glue. I took a couple of the Firsts.

This is the only key idea necessary to keep in mind whenever I meditate on how anyone with a shred of decency would ever get into the financial speculation industry. As an acorn, it explains a lot.

The Nine Circles of Creativity

1) Wrote a novel, published it, told everybody
2) Wrote a novel, printed ten copies, gave them to friends
3) Wrote a novel, locked the only copy in the storage unit
4) Wrote an outline for a novel, but never wrote the novel
5) Told people you were thinking about an outline, but never wrote down the outline
6) Never spoke of the existence of the idea to anyone
7) Went back in time to 2006 and stopped the invention of Blogger, preventing this list
8) Went back in time to 100,000 BCE sub-Saharan Africa population bottleneck and killed all 2000 individuals in the human race, preventing Art
9) Music Director, “Glee”, season 4