Rediscovering Dick Cavett

Recently, one of the nostalgia channels we get started showing old Dick Cavett shows, and when I say old shows, I mean all of them. Not every episode, to be clear, but selected episodes from each of Dick Cavett's talk and interview shows, as he's had one or more in several decades, from the 1960s, the 1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s. I myself recall seeing Dick on TV before I could read.

Dick Cavett had also recently started a radio tour pushing his two latest books and was telling great stories on the air, and he was booked on the most recent TCM Classic Cruise. So the man has come back into my life in a big way. I bought the books and was reading them, watching the shows (which were unfortunately minus live musical performances per rights), and anticipating his appearance on the Cruise. I was buried in Cavett.

On the Cruise, he introduced several movies including The Third Man, a couple Marx Brothers flicks, where he discussed his friendship with Groucho Marx, and he sat down with TCM interviewers a few times during the trip to answer questions from them and the audience, always telling the most wonderful stories. The Bride even rode an elevator with him one day on the ship.

One of the highlights of the Cruise however was the showing of a few episodes of his original 1960s show, specifically one where Dick interviewed Orson Welles. In this 1970 interview with the man who rarely gave interviews, Welles turns the tables on Cavett, interviewing him and casting some not so nice aspersions on Jerry Lewis, also a guest on that Cruise. Welles was amazing, owning the show, having fun, and making Cavett good naturedly squirm.  Good stuff. 

I have a newborn interest and respect in Dick Cavett - the man and his career. I can't recommend his shows or his books enough, check them out.

Ray Manzarek 1939-2013

Amidst a whirlwind of false death rumors about the man, it turns out that music legend, and former member of the Doors, Ray Manzarek, has passed away. In a German hospital from cancer, the founder and keyboardist for the Doors is dead at 74.

This is a gut punch to me as strong as the passings of John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, or Warren Zevon. Ray Manzarek is a voice from my youth. I wasn't cognizant for the first coming of the Doors, but their revival in the late 1970s, due to many factors, was strong in my formation.

There was AOR FM radio looking for music to play and not wanting to touch disco or new wave or punk, and began to mine the sixties for music, delivering the Doors to the forefront once again. There was the book, that everyone in my suburban white drug culture high school read - "No One Here Gets Out Alive" by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugarman - that made a legend of the late Jim Morrison.

There was, and is, some hardcore realist inside me that knows that Morrison was just a sullen alcoholic bully, but it was Ray Manzarek that created the legend, wove the tale, built the rock god, and manifested the Lizard King from the ground up. Whatever Jim Morrison was, Ray Manzarek made him.

I remember listening to Jim Ladd and his Sunday night "Innerview" interviewing Ray Manzarek multiple times, as he told apocryphal and supernatural tales of Jim Morrison, building the legend word by word. Manzarek talked of the Native American shaman who possessed Morrison as a child, the concept that he might not be dead, and all sorts of fantastic stories of the legendary Doors, fact and fiction. And he did it all the finesse of a master radio manipulator. Ray Manzarek would've made Orson Welles jealous with these performances.


For decades, Manzarek kept the infamous Doors alive, both on radio, and in sales, as he maintained his own career as well. He created a wonderful rendition of "Carmina Burana" with Philip Glass, as well as producing several albums for LA punk band X. He also worked with Echo and the Bunnymen and Iggy Pop among others, and even toured with Ian Asbury of The Cult in place of Morrison in a version of the Doors.


His charismatic personality, his fabulous storytelling ability, and his unique keyboard creations will live on for decades to come. We have truly lost one of the rock and roll legends. Long live Ray Manzarek and the Doors. Hopefully he's jamming with the Lizard King right now.

Quickies 1-8-2011

Me and Orson Welles ~ This is essentially about Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater's production of Julius Caesar in 1937. An aggressive young high school kid and wannabe actor gets hired into the play and unfortunately involved in a romance with an older woman on set. Much like Orson Welles' personality in real life, his character, so much larger than life, also takes over this kid's story. Great stuff.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ~ For a movie based on a limited graphics videogame from the early 1980s, this flick has a good premise, lots of potential, but little was aspired to. Some nice special effects, some interesting plot twists and frequent nice nods to the old Sinbad movies of the 1960s and 1970s, this is worth a watch if it's on television. Good popcorn flick.

Whip It ~ Drew Barrymore's direction of this film based on the book "Derby Girl" by Shauna Cross is very good. Great drama, great comedy, and all with a heart as well. It has the feel of a contemporary After School Special, and that's a good thing. One of my favorite flicks of the year.

Formula 51 ~ This is mindless shoot-'em-up fun that is carried chiefly by the charisma of Samuel L. Jackson as chemist Elmo McElroy who has created a superdrug. Robert Carlyle from The Full Monty is also fun here as the Jackie Chan to Sam's more talented Chris Tucker. Turn your mind off, put your feet up and enjoy an hour and a half of action thriller fun.

Special Report: Journey to Mars

WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN

A Review of "Special Report: Journey to Mars"

Copyright 2003 Glenn Walker

I looove stunts like this. I love Orson Welles’ "War of the Worlds" broadcast and have listened to numerous times. I even like the contemporary version NPR did using traffic reporters from a few years back.

When I ran a video store I took great delight in putting in a tape called Special Bulletin which was produced by NBC in the early 1980s. Special Bulletin told the story in nearly real time with real commercials interspersed of terrorists nuking Charleston, South Carolina. I thought it was a blast that we’d always get a handful of customers glued to the TV monitor thinking it was real.

So this is my kind of thing, that’s why I loved Special Report: Journey to Mars as well. Structured like CNN broadcasts of recent wars and other events we are live witness to the first manned mars landing in the year 2005. Of course they play down the time frame in case someone comes in in the middle and get sucked in.

It’s very easy to get sucked in. The drama is high as we find that the mission has been sabotaged by terrorists who want money spent on problems here on earth rather than the billions it took to get to Mars. The attack is both biological and technological as the mission’s captain is struck down by an infection and the ship’s navigation systems affected by a computer virus.

The effect of a real news broadcast is only ruined by the casting of Judge Reinhold and Alfre Woodard as journalists but otherwise it is an excellent illusion. I wish there were more shows like this. It runs on HBO from time to time. Catch it if you can.