Mark Evanier's Blog

When my age was but a single digit, there were probably years when this commercial was the thing I saw most on TV. My favorite shows were on once a week. One or two of them were on every day, Monday through Friday, and sometimes ten or more times a day. It was especially annoying because it was for a candy I hated.

If and when I get the power Donald Trump believes the President of the United States has — to do whatever he wants, no matter what experts, laws, judges and legislative bodies say — I am of course going to establish a death penalty for the making of cole slaw. You all know that. What I don't think I've mentioned here is that licorice would be close behind.

Those of you who, God knows why, love those food items needn't worry or stock up. There's probably less than a 15% chance I will ever attain that power and be able to ban abominations like cole slaw and licorice in order to make this world a more decent place to live. And I will ban this commercial, though it won't do much good. I've had it rattling around in my head since I was about seven…

I've been sleeping weird hours lately. Last night, it was 4 AM and the night before, it was 9 PM. 'Tis the curse of being a freelance writer. You work when you feel like writing and/or when you need to write to get it done when they need it, no matter who "they" are. Tonight, it'll be close to normal.

But I wanted to call your attention to this article by Michael Parnell, a pastor at Temple Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C. He attended a panel I emceed at Comic-Con and has a nice observation about it.

I also want to thank those of you who've donated to our little annual drive to keep this blog online and absolutely free. I'll stop with the banners when we reach the amount it's cost me to operate newsfromme for the last twelve months. We still have a little way to go. Good night.

The Seth Meyers program is on a long summer hiatus. If you miss him, you might enjoy this 48 minute video podcast — Seth and writer-producer Sal Gentile talking about the stories they'd be covering if they weren't on vacation. I liked this a lot…

Here's an example of Juan Tamariz doing what he did better than just about anybody…and make sure you watch it to the end.  The trick with the four cards is one he did when I saw him perform.  He not only fooled me, he fooled some pretty experienced magicians who were in the group watching him…

Folks in the magic community are mourning the passing of Juan Tamariz, often hailed as the greatest manipulator of cards in the world. Spain has way more than its share of great close-up card magicians and Tamariz, who was mentor to many and inspiration to all, is a big reason. He just died in Madrid at the age of 83.

One of the many perks of being a member at the Magic Castle is that I get to see masters perform…in the case of Señor Tamariz, from about eighteen inches away. It was quite a few years ago. I was taking a lady named Susan there on a first date and while the lines to get in to see his shows that evening were impossibly long, a friend got us into an unscheduled private show he did for a small group of his fellow magicians. Even Susan, who knew nothing about magic or his reputation, understood how special it was.

No matter how close you were seated to him, it was impossible to see how he did any of his tricks. It was however possible to see that some damn good magicians in that room were utterly baffled. It was also possible to see that much of his magic came from how great he was as a performer. He radiated glee and delight and was just so entertaining as a human being that you didn't want to know how he did those things. You just wanted him to keep on doing them.

And his many disciples will keep on doing his tricks and amazing feats. Or trying to, at least.

Just go read it. Here's the start of the latest from Fred Kaplan…

The dreadful conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln, a Navy aircraft carrier stationed near Iran for nine months, have been widely reported. They include food shortages, water contamination, plumbing stoppages, lost mail, and mental health decay, spurring some crew members to jump ship. President Donald Trump denied the news stories as "fake," but the top U.S. commander in the region, Adm. Brad Cooper, confirmed them after inspecting the vessel.

So who do you believe? Trump, who didn't inspect the vessel or the top U.S. commander in the region who did?

In case you missed the PBS American Masters salute to Dick Van Dyke, it's been uploaded to YouTube so I can embed it here for you. In case you're keeping track, Dick is now 100 years, eight months and five days old. Thanks to several folks who alerted me to the upload…

Douglass Abramson writes…

Do you have a guess why Moe Howard appeared in a grade Z horror film in 1973: Doctor Death: Seeker of Souls? His role appears to have been so small, it's billed as "volunteer in audience".

You may not believe this but I have way more than a guess. And the reason is that back in my younger days, I was briefly a reporter for a publication that few remember called The Monster Times. They sent me out to interview the man behind Doctor Death: Seeker of Souls.

I never saw the movie — I'm not sure very many people did — but I interviewed Eddie Saeta, the producer and director of the film. And frankly, I found him a lot more interesting than the movie he had made and was promoting. Mr. Saeta was one of those people who worked behind — sometimes, way behind — the camera on dozens and dozens of movies and TV shows.

His job descriptions varied. Sometimes, he was a Production Manager. Sometimes, he was a Location Manager. Sometimes, he was an Associate Producer or an Assistant Director or an Associate Director or an Assistant Producer. Those are all terms which can denote any odd assemblage of duties and responsibilities. Anyone over the age of, say, thirty-five probably has seen a movie or TV program that Eddie Saeta worked on in some capacity.

Doctor Death: Seeker of Souls was the first and apparently the only time he got to be the producer and director of a movie, albeit a pretty low-budget one. IMDB lists 91 credits for him as an Associate or Assistant Director but only three as Director: Doctor Death, an episode of the TV series, Hondo and one episode of The Man From UNCLE. By the time he got to Doctor Death, he probably knew everyone in Hollywood, every possible aspect of moviemaking and every single way to save money on a film.

One of the main things I got out of him, and I don't think I mentioned it in the article I wrote, was how little money they had to make this film.  Mr. Saeta seemed very proud of bringing the film in on budget and didn't want it to be judged against movies that had a seemingly-unlimited budget.  Not long before, he had worked on Diamonds Are Forever and he mentioned some scenes in that film which, all by themselves, cost more to film than the entirety of Doctor Death. He assumed (wrongly) that I would be writing a review of Doctor Death and wanted me to keep that in mind.

Working on such a shoestring meant that he called in a lot of favors from friends. Our local horror movie TV host, Larry "Seymour" Vincent was a friend who acted in it for little or no money. (I also interviewed him on a different assignment for The Monster Times.) So was Moe Howard…and how, you may be wondering did Eddie Saeta know Moe Howard? Well, Saeta did a lot of crew work for Columbia Pictures when the Stooges were making films there and he was also Assistant Director on The Three Stooges in Orbit and The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze.

I know that because I asked Mr. Saeta that very question and he told me of his long friendship with Moe. And I don't remember the precise wording but he did indicate that turning down a legitimate job, whatever it was, was something that Moe Howard simply didn't do.

Incidentally: The lady in the photo with Moe is Sivi Aberg, a former Miss Sweden who was in an awful lot of movies and TV shows including being a prize model on some of the Chuck Barris's game shows and a hostess on The Gong Show. I told a story about Ms. Aberg back in this post.

And that, Douglass, is a pretty long answer to what you surely thought was a quick question. Oh — and before I close, I should inform everyone reading this that Doctor Death, Seeker of Souls is viewable on YouTube at this link. I can't recommend or not recommend the film because, like I said, I've never seen it and I have a feeling I should keep it that way. But you might enjoy it, especially if you keep in mind what it cost to make.

As you probably know, Jack Kirby was honored a few years ago by being named to the ranks of individuals the Disney organization designates as "Disney Legends." How does one qualify for this? I think you just have to have a solid contribution to something that made the corporation a lot of money. Which is fine. It's their award and they can give it out to whoever they like for whatever reason they like. I am, however, not waiting for them to say, "Hey, we oughta give this to the guy who wrote the Super Goof comic book in the early seventies.

And recently at D23 — the all-Disney Mega-Con — it will be announced that a special plaque honoring Jack will soon be added to the opening of the Avengers attraction at their theme parks. Also fine with me. Like I said here the other day, more and more people seem to be aware of what he did, which makes me happy. You can read more about the plaque here. Thanks to the many folks who let me know about it.

We have a new Fred Kaplan report on the military ineptness of the Trump Administration. The headline on it is "Trump Is Turning His Back on Most of East Asia — and Embracing Kim Jong-un." Here's an excerpt…

With one action and one statement over the weekend, President Donald Trump has pretty much vaporized the United States' reputation as a serious power in East Asia — the region that includes China, Japan, and the two Koreas — and with it, possibly, in much of the rest of the world.

The statement, which he filed on social media late Sunday afternoon, ordered the Pentagon "to substantially reduce" joint military exercises with South Korea. He gave three reasons for his order. First, the exercises are "costly." Second, they send a "signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile" to North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, who, "as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful." The third reason for the cutback is that South Korea's president refused "to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran." With one action and one statement over the weekend, President Donald Trump has pretty much vaporized the United States’ reputation as a serious power in East Asia — the region that includes China, Japan, and the two Koreas — and with it, possibly, in much of the rest of the world.

I don't even know what to say to this apart from "This guy has gotta go!"