Jerry Lewis and the evolution of the "typewriter" bit

Jerry Lewis, master of pantomime typing.

It's a simple formula, folks.

Well, it looks like 85-year-old comedy legend Jerry Lewis is in the news again, unceremoniously getting the boot from the MDA Telethon after half a century. I thought it was a good a time as any to revisit what is perhaps Mr. Lewis' most famous bit of all time, the classic wordless "typewriter" routine. You youngsters out there may not even know what a typewriter even is, let alone what it sounded like or how it operated. Let the Clown Prince of Comedy be your instructor, then, in the ways of obsolete technology. As we shall soon see, Mr. Lewis performed this routine many, many times over the years on television and in film. In all its incarnations, it is set to a piece of instrumental music called "The Typewriter" by Leroy Anderson, composer of "Sleigh Ride," "The Syncopated Clock," "Plink Plank Plunk," and many others.

1. Here he is on the Colgate Comedy Hour in the 1950s, when he and Dean Martin were like rock stars. I mean, seriously, you have no idea how huge they were back then.



2. So now it's 1963. Jerry has gone solo by this point, but he's still doing the same bit in the movie Who's Minding the Store?, only minus the wacky hair and the prop typewriter. I think it's actually funnier this way.




3. Basically the same as Clip #2, only it's a slightly older Jerry doing this bit in Paris, France -- the land where they love him best!



4. Later still... and in Germany in this time. You can kind of see the years of bitterness and resentment building up in Jerry's face.

Well, this particular video seems to have disappeared. In its place, here is a clip of Jerry pretending to learn to speak German. Enjoy.



5. Relegated to the sidelines, Jerry barely conceals his discomfort at watching some young punk imitate him... on his own telethon, yet!



BONUS CLIP: Yakko is clearly biting Jerry's style

In honor of Lucille Ball's 100th birthday, here's a zombified "I Love Lucy" poster

This marvelous bit of fan art was done by Chuck Hodi whose personal website is right here.

MYSTERY RECORD: "He Was a Guitar Player and Now Plays Machine Gun"

Despite the apparent frivolity of this image, "He Was a Guitar Player" is a somber, haunting song.

     
Oh, the things you can find on YouTube.

Specifically I'm referring to a song called "He Was a Guitar Player and Now Plays Machine Gun," credited to Pompeo Stillo and the Companions. From the picture above, you might guess that this is some kind of cute Chipmunks-type novelty record, but it is actually a haunting folk ballad about the Vietnam War. 

Information about Pompeo Stillo is not easy to come by on the internet, and what's there is confusing. Although "He Was a Guitar Player" is in English, Pompeo himself seems to mainly perform in Italian. As recently as 2009, he released an album of Italian-language folk music on the Elca Sound label. That same year, he contributed to this album on the same label. I'm not sure when Pompeo recorded "Guitar Player," but it seems to be an earlier recording dating back to the late 1960s or early 1970s. Here's the one picture of that record I can find:

A 45 of Pompeo's song.

This photo actually shows the flip side, a song called "A Letter to My Mother from Vietnam." The label reads "Centaur Records," but I'm not sure if it's the Louisiana-based classical music label founded in 1976 or not. The label's current catalog features some world music, but nothing by Pompeo Stillo.

Pompeo does seem to have a home page, but it is in Italian. The Google translation reads as follows:

Welcome to the Home Page of Pompeo Stillo

Versatile artist, living in America for over thirty years where she operated a music store, records, CDs, videos and books exclusively Italian. It is of Calabrian origin and before emigrating was part of a famous Quintet Calabrese. For ten years he has also presented, for ten years directed the choir of St. Anthony, with whom he also recorded an album in the "Midnight Mass on Christmas" ('71). He composed much sacred music, including a "Mass for four voices" in Latin, two "Masses for three voices" in Italian, several of his successes in Calabrian dialect and language of which he wrote lyrics and music, interpreted by him, remember "Tenderness and distance" (presented at 1 Italian Song Festival in Boston), "wrote my mother," "The love of a mother", "Storm of the soul." Chosen by the "Folk Life of America", led for eleven years, the Italian folklore in the schools of Illinois. Lately, due to popular demand, several of his songs have been reworked and presented on the CD "The colors of my Calabria". Other CDs with his songs: "Pompeo Stillo - Nostalgia of the past" twenty-one songs in Italian, "The dance of Pompeo Stillo" (instrumental), "My songs Calabria" (in Calabrian dialect), and engraved on MC, "We vonnu lassi "(in Calabrian dialect) and" A strina Calabria "(Calabrian traditions). As a poet and writer, has published short stories and poems in the vernacular with the publisher Rubettino Calabria, while the Publisher Pellegrini has published his humorous tale in verse Calabrian "Jugal mparadisu". He has worked for various magazines and newspapers in Italian. He was assistant editor of the "Maroons Newsletter," sports newspaper in Chicago, '98 he published under the new name "Italy 2000" with 75% of the content in Italian (stories, poems, articles and various sports news).

Pompeo Stillo in December 2005 he published Montedit "The art of lying" - Lilies Collection (poetry) - 14x20, 5 - pp. 92 - Euro 8.50 - ISBN 88-6037-008-6

Pompeo Stillo on his home page (left) and 2009 album cover (right)

Interestingly, the home page includes a picture of Pompeo Stillo looking much older than he does on the cover of his 2009 album. So far, I have not been able to determine where Pompeo is actually from, how old he is, or when he might have recorded the "Guitar Player" song. "Guitar Player" does not seem to be available anywhere but this YouTube clip. The song was included on a 1999 Swedish compilation, but this seems to be long out of print. As for the fate of the Companions, I do not care to speculate.

A brief tribute to Murali: India's answer to Ron Swanson (NOW WITH QUOTES!)

It's been almost a year since the untimely passing of Tamil actor Murali (b. 1964 in Bangalore, India). Murali's films were little-seen in the United States, but his career spanned a quarter century in his homeland and would undoubtedly have continued for years to come had he not succumbed to a heart attack at the young age of 46.

Murali may still catch on in this country, however, due to his uncanny resemblance to Ron Swanson, the breakfast-loving libertarian played brilliantly by Nick Offerman on NBC's Parks & Recreation. I am posting this brief photographic tribute to Murali in the hopes that it will be seen by fans of the beloved Parks character.

(BONUS: The pics are now enhanced with genuine Ron Swanson quotes for your reading pleasure!)

RIP, Murali.

John Garfield

Today, Turner Classic Movies has been running a 24-hour tribute to actor John Garfield. I did a Google Image search for the actor's name, and I was kind of amused by the results.

One of these things is not like the other.

The Best of the Non-Existent "Scumbag Zombie" Meme!

What up, perpetrators?

Now that the infamous Scumbag Steve meme has mutated into such variants as Scumbag College and Scumbag Uncle Sam, I thought it was high time for a zombie take on the whole "scumbag" thing.

Behold.... SCUMBAG ZOMBIE!

Now, as much as I want to improve the image of the living impaired, it's important to point out that some in the LI community are not always as honest and ethical as they could be. It is those few "bad apples" I am satirizing with this meme. Enjoy.

Hope you enjoyed these. If not, you're racist against zombies. Congratulations!

Sunday Summer Safety Fun... with ZOMBY!!!

Guess who's back? Back again! ZOMBY's back! Tell a friend!

My dear sinner friends,

So glad to be back with you once again. This is actually the FIRST blog post from my brand NEW computer. The last couple of months have been marked by terrible technical problems on my end, pretty much preventing me from being the full-tilt Wayne Kotke you have come to expect. I think... or at least hope... that those problems are now largely in my past. I look forward to a bright, shining new future with my snazzy new computer.

Hopefully, I can also go back to doing fully-produced segments for the Mail Order Zombie podcast again soon, but I make no promises there.

In any event, I hope this post finds you well and that you are fully enjoying the Fourth of July holiday.

Yours in living impairment,

Wayne Kotke

P.S. - Do we have any Audacity experts/wizards out there? On my new computer, I can't seem to toggle between different audio input sources as I used to, i.e. recording from the microphone and recording directly from the sound card. This feature seems to have been disabled (the mixer toolbar is visible as usual in the upper right hand corner but now doesn't actually do anything), and it is absolutely essential to me in recording. Thanks in advance.