Mister Scribbles

These were easy to operate music machines that combined player piano, drums, sound effects and pipe organ built for the silent film industry.  Thousands were sold starting in 1912 until the late twenties, when sound put them out of business.  Above is Ben Turpin posing on one. Meet Joe Rinaudo.  He owns one of the dozen of these left in playable condition.  He restored it himself.  I have provided a link for the reader's enjoyment.   https://youtu.be/wAJ66ZSQ4b4 http://www.crescentavalleyweekly.com/between-friends/11/24/2010/the-silent-man/ Model 20. https://youtu.be/2lzIC9ru5V0 https://youtu.be/-IaavZif6iE     Enjoy!

This excellent photo is of the world famous Oscar winning child actor Bobby Driscoll.  It was taken in San Francisco by Wallace Berman after Bobby had no career left.  Bobby is living in an abandoned house.  But maybe you might recognize this- Bobby was the character model and voice of Peter Pan, Disney. Peter killed off Lost Boys who grew up. Kathryn Beaumont and Bobby Driscoll, live action shot.  We see his image constantly. James Baskett as Uncle Remus with Bobby Driscoll, 1947.  This was the first film where a black man received an Academy Award, albeit honorary.  So what?  I sure would take it.  Walt lobbied for him to get the award.  Both these guys have the Oscar. Bobby and Robert Newton, who appears to be over the top hamming it up in this shot.  Treasure Island. The Window.  He received a special Oscar for this and So Dear To My Heart, a title so sweet that I ...

Jess vs. Jack, by James Montgomery Flagg. My take on the same.  But why listen to me? https://youtu.be/8oxdv6J9V-Q Here is big Jess K.O'ing one of the best fighters of all time, Havana, 1915.  26 rounds in brutal heat and Johnson is clearly in bad shape.  It was an honest knockout and it shows how very, very good Johnson was even as a fat slob.  Johnson lied about this and because the film was forbidden for years in the states many people still think that fat Texan took a dive.  Jess seems to have attracted calumny in his career but he was very good and very dangerous.  He was a Kansas cowboy who hated boxing and managed himself.  Too bad, because if he had had a manager who was up to the mark he would have kept his title.  (  After the first round in Toledo Jack was out of the ring and did not come up to the bell.  The ref, Ollie Pecord, should have awarded the fight to Jess right then and...

The Crowd, a 1928 film by King Vidor.  It is bleak and sad.  Vidor used unknown actors, with a studio extra playing the lead.  That is James Murray in the center. James Murray, 1901-1936.  Appeared in some 36 movies.  Was offered a seven year contract with Warners but drank himself out of work and marriage.  In 1936 Vidor set out to find him to offer him the lead role in Our Daily Bread. King Wallis Vidor. A Texan from Galveston, he survived the worst natural disaster to ever hit the United States.  Now best known for directing this scene in the Wizard of Oz: https://youtu.be/RQWSh7Db-_E  He also directed the riveting war movie, The Big Parade.  John Gilbert, The Big Parade. Anyway, Vidor finds Murray panhandling and buys him a drink, offering him the lead in Our Daily Bread if he will get his act together.  Murray tells him to go fuck himself and splits.  Two years later he is down by...

Here is anthro rabbit and history and superb animation all in one.  I would say this film has it all. https://youtu.be/mAXrIwXa0rU Oh, yeah, Schiller and Beethoven in walk on roles.  This is one awesome cartoon.  And, it does appear to have borrowed from this- Hell.  Georges Leroux. Since all credits are contained in the movie, I shall let it speak for itself, attribution wise. Adieu.

   Humber Supersnipe.  But this post is about another Supersnipe, Koppy McFadd, the boy with the most comics in America! Well, this cover sums it up.   Supersnipe was the creation of George Marcoux, who had previously assisted on "Skippy".  Skippy was an elegantly drawn and very clever comic done by Percy Crosby, who ended up in a madhouse. Supersnipe in action.  At this point let me recommend the book that rocked my world, All In Color For A Dime, which in 1969 brought comics back to life by giving them provenance and respectability. This ran from 1942 to 1949. This cover was drawn by Joe Maneleey after Marcoux's death in 1946.   Supersnipe left us in 1949, and has not been seen since.  This is where I sadly slip into my cave! Also missing and presumed dead, Ma Hunkel, The Red Tornado.  This is an all points BOLO! ...

I rarely fish because I am afraid I will catch one then have to clean and eat it.  Today, using a hand line, I pulled in a gafftop catfish, almost the worst thing you can get in casual fishing except for murder victims and it does happen.  You cannot handle them, the fins are sharp, rigid, and, oh yeah, poisonous.  I did not have pliers on me or gloves.  I refuse to cut the line and send any fish back in the water with a lodged hook.  An old man saw my problem and came over and had that thing off the line, post haste, all with bare hands.  I thanked him and gave him my hardly used pound of squid and went on my way.  The above drawing, in addition to being tedious and repetitive, has proportion problems but I needed to post.  That is St. Joseph island in the background.  Normally when I catch small fish I give them to the ever present cranes and pelicans but they will not even look at a gafftop for obvious reasons. Never mind wh...