• In Kent, Ohio, early in his vaudeville days, W.C. Fields found himself stranded. (At this time, he was still being victimized by tour managers who would abscond with their performers’ salaries.) He had six dollars, sold his coat for two dollars, then went to the railroad station to inquire about the fare to New York. The railroad agent told him that it was just over $10. (Ten dollars in 1894 was the rough equivalent of over $200 in the year 2000.) “Well, I guess I’m stuck,” Mr. Fields said. “I’ve got eight dollars.” The agent asked if he was an entertainer, and on hearing that Mr. Fields was, he said, “People don’t put much trust in you folks, do they?” (At this time, being an entertainer was about as low on the social scale as a person could be.) “We’re used to it,” Mr. Fields said. The agent then gave Mr. Fields $10 and said, “I’ve always wondered what there was to that story. When you get a little ahead, send this back.” That rare act of kindness impressed Mr. Fields so much that he sat on a bench and cried. Two years later, Mr. Fields was finally able to repay the debt. On Christmas Eve, 1896, he sent $20 to the railroad agent ($10 was for “interest”), then he stood in line at a free soup kitchen for a Christmas dinner. After Mr. Fields became a huge success, he looked up the agent, as did other famous show people who learned what the agent had done for Mr. Fields.
Insults
• Comedian Joey Adams appeared many times on The Ed Sullivan Show, which was famous for scheduling a wide variety of acts—musical, comic, juggling, animal, whatever. For one appearance, Mr. Adams had to share his dressing room with a performing chimpanzee. However, Mr. Sullivan stopped by the dressing room to apologize: “I’m sorry we had to put you two together.” Mr. Adams replied, “That’s all right,” and Mr. Sullivan joked, “I wasn’t talking to you.”
• Comedian Joan Rivers tells a true story about the worst date in her life. Years before she became famous, she had a blind date with a student who was attending Yale. The blind date arrived, looked at Joan, turned to the person who had arranged the blind date, and said, “Why didn’t you tell me?” Then he walked away, leaving Joan and her friend behind.
• Groucho Marx got on an elevator that was carrying actress Greta Garbo, who was wearing a hat. Playfully, he lifted up the back of her hat and tilted it over her face. This made Ms. Garbo angry, and she said, “How dare you!” Groucho apologized: “I beg your pardon. I thought you were a fellow I knew from Kansas City.”
Language
• W.C. Fields had many famous friends, including Will Rogers, a comedian from Oklahoma who was known for his folksy accent and humor. However, Mr. Fields occasionally made jokes at his friends’ expense. One day, after Will Rogers had visited him in the hospital, and the nurse was raving about how wonderful Will Rogers was, Mr. Fields said, “The son of a bitch is a fake. I’ll bet a hundred dollars he talks just like everybody else when he gets home.”
• Tim Allen, popular star of the TV sitcom Home Improvement, spent time in prison for drug dealing. (He admits that dealing drugs was “stupid.”) Today, he tells about a Colombian drug dealer who was put in a prison cell with an American bank robber. The Colombian couldn’t speak English, so the bank robber taught him English, starting with the sentences “Don’t touch the alarm” and “Put the money in the bag.”
• When Quaker humorist Tom Mullen and his wife, Nancy, toured Japan, a Japanese airline steward told them not to stay at a certain hotel, saying, “This hotel is a sort of rest house for an instant couple.” And Mr. Mullen once saw a detour sign written in both Japanese and English. The English said, “Danger. Drive sideways.”
• In vaudeville and on TV, the comic material of Red Skelton was kept scrupulously clean. When Mr. Skelton was in Nashville, Tennessee, he was asked why no four-letter words were in his performances. Mr. Skelton replied, “Why should people pay me to say words they can read for free on the bathroom wall?”
Letters
• Comedian Lisa Geduldig is both Jewish and a lesbian. For her, family interaction is important. While doing her act, she sometimes reads a letter from her parents. In it, they express sympathy about a recent breakup of her romantic relationship—and they try to set her up with a nice Jewish woman. However, to be honest, her parents didn’t write the letter. Ms. Geduldig grew tired of receiving emotionless letters from her parents, so whenever she writes them, she also writes the reply she would like to receive from them. She sends her parents the emotion-filled reply along with her letter and asks them to sign it and mail it back to her.
• Some people can’t distinguish between a comic persona and a real person. According to his radio show, comedian Jack Benny paid his valet Rochester only $12 a week. This upset a lawyer in Cleveland so much that he wrote several letters to Mr. Benny, complaining about his cheapness. In real life, of course, Mr. Benny was very generous, and Eddie “Rochester” Anderson was paid thousands of dollars per week for his performance in Mr. Benny’s half-hour radio program. Mr. Benny was finally forced to write the lawyer and ask him to stop sending those foolish letters.
Billed as "The Funniest Woman in the World", she tackled topics too edgy for most mainstream comics of the time, including racism. What is the name of this veteran entertainer whose career spanned over 60 years?
Loretta Mary Aiken (March 19, 1894 – May 23, 1975), known by her stage name Jackie "Moms" Mabley, was an American stand-up comedian and actress. Beginning her career on the theater stage in the 1920s, Mabley became a veteran entertainer of the Chitlin' Circuit of African-American vaudeville. Mabley later recorded comedy albums and appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, various television programs and films.
Loretta Mary Aiken was born in Brevard, North Carolina, on March 19, 1894. She was one of 16 children born to James Aiken and Mary Smith, who had married in 1891. Her father owned and operated several successful businesses, while her mother kept house and took in boarders. At the age of 14, at the encouragement of her grandmother, Mabley ran away to Cleveland, Ohio, joining a traveling vaudeville-style minstrel show starring Butterbeans and Susie, where she sang and entertained. In 1909, when Mabley was 15, her father was killed when a fire engine exploded while he was volunteering as a fire fighter. Her mother took over the family's primary business, a general store. Mabley's mother was killed a few years later, run over by a truck while returning home from church on Christmas Day.
Mabley was one of the most successful entertainers of the Chitlin' Circuit, another name for T.O.B.A., or Theater Owners Booking Association. T.O.B.A., sometimes called the "Tough On Black Asses Circuit", was the segregated organization for which Mabley performed until the organization dissolved during the Great Depression. Despite Mabley's popularity, wages for black women in show business were meager. Nonetheless, she persisted for more than sixty years. At the height of her career, she was earning US$10,000 a week at Harlem's Apollo Theater. She made her New York City debut at Connie's Inn in Harlem. In the 1960s, Mabley became known to a wider white audience, playing Carnegie Hall in 1962, and making a number of mainstream TV appearances, particularly her multiple appearances on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour when that CBS show was number one on television in the late 1960s, which introduced her to a whole new audience.
Mabley was billed as "The Funniest Woman in the World". She tackled topics too edgy for most mainstream comics of the time, including racism. Along with racism, she spoke of sexuality and having children after becoming a widow. One of her regular themes was a romantic interest in handsome young men rather than old "washed-up geezers", and she got away with it courtesy of her stage persona, where she appeared as a toothless, bedraggled woman in a house dress and floppy hat. She even mimicked regular talks with President Eisenhower and the First Lady, offering advice where she could.
Source
Mark. was first, and correct, with:
Loretta Mary Aiken used the stage name Jackie "Moms" Mabley.
Billy in Cypress wrote:
"Moms" Mabley
Stephen F said:
Moms Mabley
Daniel in The City answered:
Moms Mabley
Randall replied:
Moms Mabley
zorch responded:
Jackie, Moms, Mabley
Dave wrote:
Moms Mabley. It took me a minute to come up with “Moms” but I forgot her last name. I’ll give my memory a pass because she died 45 years ago. Still waiting for Trump’s reign of terror to end since he will never admit he lost the election.
Cal in Vermont said:
Moms Mabley. Let's not forget Jelly Roll Morton!
Alan J answered:
Moms Mabley.
Jacqueline responded:
She looks like Moms Mabley
John I from Hawai`i says,
Moms Mabley
Jim from CA, retired to ID, said:
Moms Mabley
Merry Christmas everyone
David of Moon Valley wrote:
Good Morning!
…and Merry Christmas!
Jackie ‘Moms’ Mabley is whom i remember that to be (didn’t even have to look this one up ’she’ was so engrained in the memory cells)…
and to the rest of you Bartcoppers out there…The Merriest of Merry Christmases to you One and All...
Bob from Mechanicsburg, Pa answered:
Moms Mabley
Dave in Tucson replied:
Season's Bleatings to you and everyone here! And our Christmas Eve answer is Moms Mabley.
Michelle in AZ responded:
Moms Mabley
Mac Mac said:
Moms Mabley
DJ Useo wrote:
"Moms" Mabley. She was a total hoot, lol-wise.
Leo in Boise answered:
Moms Mabley
Joe replied:
"Moms" Mabley. Gonna take a few days off from the quiz. Had to look it up. All I could think of was Moms.
Deborah, the Master Gardener responded:
Well, I whiffed Wednesday’s answer, sure don’t know today’s answer, and at least we made eggnog and all the gifts are wrapped. Merry Christmas, folks!
Roy, getting used to the Hermit Lifestyle in Tyler, TX took the day off.
mj took the day off.
Adam took the day off.
Rosemary in Columbus took the day off.
Barbara, of Peppy Tech fame took the day off.
Kevin K. in Washington DC took the day off.
Ed K took the day off.
Jon L took the day off.
Doug in Albuquerque, New Mexico, took the day off.
-pgw took the day off.
Kenn B took the day off.
Micki took the day off.
Angelo D took the day off.
Harry M. took the day off.
George M. took the day off.
Gary K took the day off.
Roy the (now retired) hoghead (aka 'hoghed') ( Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid. ~Frank Zappa ) took the day off.
Saskplanner took the day off.
Gateway Mike took the day off.
Steve in Wonderful Sacramento, CA, took the day off.
MarilynofTC took the day off.
Paul of Seattle took the day off.
Brian S. took the day off.
Gene took the day off.
Tony K. took the day off.
Noel S. took the day off.
James of Alhambra took the day off.
BttbBob has returned to semi-retired status.
~~~~~
Info: “Formed in Rio de Janeiro in 1998, Autoramas mixes rock from the 60s, New Wave and Jovem Guarda. One of the most successful bands in the independent scene, it has abundant material and numerous international tours. Currently it is composed by Gabriel Thomaz, Érika Martins, Jairo Fajer and Fábio Lima.”
rockandrollsteve, a fan, wrote, “Punk energy with a catchy groove is the stuff of dreams. Autoramas do it best. Favorite track: ‘Homem-Clichê.’”
Apple iTunes keeps track of how many times you play a song. If you’re like me, you think it’s an incredible value to buy a track for a dollar or so from Bandcamp and listen to it 100 or more times. Here are my top Bandcamp tracks (the listens are as of 22 December 2020):
CBS begins the night with a RERUN'MacGyver', followed by a RERUN'Magnum PU', then a RERUN'Blue Bloods'.
On a RERUNStephen Colbert (from 11/30/20) is Barack Obama.
On a RERUNJames Corden, OBE, (from 12/8/20) are Meryl Streep and Billy Eichner.
NBC starts the night with 'Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas', followed by the movie 'Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas'.
On a RERUNJimmy Fallon (from 12/11/20) are Kristen Bell, Sienna Miller, and Kelly Clarkson & Brett Eldredge.
On a RERUNSeth Meyers (from 11/26/20) are The Meyers Family and Kurt Vile.
On a RERUNLilly Singh (from 12/19/19) is Charlize Theron.
ABC opens the night with LIVE'NBA Basketball', followed by RERUN'Shark Attack: The Paige Winter Story With Robin Roberts'.
On a RERUNJimmy Kimmel (from 12/14/20) are Taylor Swift, Christian Serratos, and Sabrina Claudio.
The CW offers a FRESH'The Christmas Caroler Challenge'.
Faux fills the night with FRESH'WWE Friday Night SmackDown'.
MY recycles an old 'L&O: CI', followed by another old 'L&O: CI'.
A&E has 2 hours of old 'Court Cam', followed by a FRESH'Live Rescue'.
AMC offers the movie 'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation', followed by the movie 'Elf'.
BBC -
[6:30AM] DOCTOR WHO - THE END OF TIME: BONUS EDITION
[9:30AM] DOCTOR WHO - A CHRISTMAS CAROL
[10:55AM] DOCTOR WHO - THE DOCTOR, THE WIDOW AND THE WARDROBE
[12:20PM] DOCTOR WHO - THE SNOWMEN
[1:40PM] DOCTOR WHO - THE TIME OF THE DOCTOR
[3:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - THE CHRISTMAS INVASION
[4:03PM] GHOSTBUSTERS
[6:31PM] WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
[9:00PM] SCROOGED
[11:00PM] THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW
[12:00AM] SCROOGED
[2:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - A CHRISTMAS CAROL
[3:20AM] DOCTOR WHO - THE SNOWMEN
[4:40AM] DOCTOR WHO - THE TIME OF THE DOCTOR (ALL TIMES ET)
Bravo has the movie 'Shrek', followed by the movie 'Shrek', again.
Comedy Central has 'Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special', followed by 'Jeff Dunham's Completely Unrehearsed Last-Minute Pandemic Holiday Special', then the movie 'Meet The Parents'.
FX has the movie 'Dr. Seuss' The Grinch', followed by the movie 'Dr. Seuss' The Grinch', again.
History has all old 'The Food That Built America' all night.
IFC -
[6:55am] The Godfather
[11:00am] The Godfather, Part II
[3:30pm] Inglourious Basterds
[7:00pm] Gremlins
[9:30pm] Gremlins
[12:00am] Two And A Half Men
[12:30am] Two And A Half Men
[1:00am] Inglourious Basterds
[4:30am] The Shirtless Painter: Yule Log Special
[5:00am] Saved By The Bell
[5:30am] Saved By The Bell (ALL TIMES ET)
Sundance -
[6:30am] white christmas
[9:15am] white christmas
[12:00pm - 5:00am] law & order (ALL TIMES ET)
SyFy has the movie 'Santa Jaws', followed by the movie 'Letters To Santa Claus', then the movie 'Christmas Icetastrophe'.
The final curtain has come down on Upright Citizens Brigade’s Sunset Boulevard theater. The comedy troupe says the venue has been sold as the group has “been unable to make mortgage payments during this extended shutdown.”
News about the UCB Theatre comes eight months after the troupe founded by Amy Poehler, Matt Walsh and others closed its New York venue. The group said on social media, however, that it is “still working to maintain Franklin [Avenue] space and look forward to being legally allowed to gather again.” UCB notes that digital classes will continue.
The 30-year-old improv and sketch-comedy troupe is led by co-founders Poehler, Walsh, Matt Besser and Ian Roberts, who said wrote, “We know this theater was a home for so many, and so many people were responsible for helping it grow. We want to thank all of those people and the New York community who were also significantly impacted by recent closures.”
UCB’s theater and training center in Hell’s Kitchen was shuttered in late April, as the coronavirus pandemic was hammering New York. Poehler, Walsh, Besser and Roberts at the time called it “a heart-wrenching but necessary decision.”
Fall 2020 was unlike any start of a broadcast season. With the coronavirus pandemic grounding production for months, ABC, NBC and CBS’ first 2020-21 scripted originals started rolling out a month into the season, while Fox and the CW opted for fall lineups consisting largely of shows already in the can or acquisitions, except for Fox’s sports programming and a new season of The Masked Singer and the final episodes of the CW’s Supernatural.
In a season that already carries an asterisk because of the pandemic, Fox topped the fall ratings in adults 18-49 (1.4 rating) on the strength of Thursday Night Football and The Masked Singer, while NBC, paced by Sunday Night Football and This Is Us, was the most watched network (6.11 million), according to most current season-to-date rating information from Nielsen.
Excluding sports and breaking news, ABC, which does not have NFL football on the fall schedule, ranked as the No. 1 network with entertainment programming (1.0 rating) for the first time in 5 years among adults 18-49 – since the 2015-2016 season — and as the top entertainment network in total viewers (5.1 million) for the first time in 20 years – since the 2000-2001 season, at the height of the Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? craze.
All networks were down from fall 2019; ABC’s declines were single-digit in both 19-49 and total viewers; all other broadcasters were off by double digits.
ABC got a fall ratings boost from The Bachelorette, a summer staple, whose latest season was delayed by the pandemic. It ranked as the No. 4 entertainment program of the fall in 18-49 (1.8), behind NBC’s juggernaut This Is Us (2.5), Fox’s high-flying The Masked Singer (2.3) and ABC’s resurgent Grey’s Anatomy (2.2). CBS summer stalwart Big Brother’s 2020 installment also ran ran deep into the fall, wrapping its run in late October. Its four weekly editions were CBS’ four highest-rated fall programs in the demo.
Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari starring Steven Yeun is very much an American story. Chung, who was born in Denver, Colorado, tells the story of an immigrant Korean family that has lived in America for some time as they adapt to their new farm life in a small Arkansas town. All that said, the A24 film was put in the Best Foreign Language award category for the upcoming Golden Globes — and people aren’t very happy about that.
“Minari is the most/best American movie I saw this year,” tweeted Phil Yu of the popular Angry Asian Man website. “This is complete bullsh*t.”
Yu was one of many who put the Golden Globes on blast when the news was released about Minari. Another was filmmaker Lulu Wang who was facing the same issue last year when her film The Farewell was regulated to Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes.
“I have not seen a more American film than #Minari this year,” Wang tweeted. “It’s a story about an immigrant family, IN America, pursuing the American dream. We really need to change these antiquated rules that characterizes American as only English-speaking.”
Deadline has learned that Minari was entered in the Best Foreign Language award category and has been in that category ever since. The Golden Globe eligibility rules state that any film with at least 50% of non-English dialogue goes into the Foreign Language category. Motion picture dramas, musicals or comedies with 50% or more English dialogue are eligible for the Best Motion Picture – Drama or Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy awards.
Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch in California has found a new owner in billionaire businessman Ron Burkle.
Burkle views the 2,700-acre property in Los Olivos, near Santa Barbara, as a land banking opportunity, his spokesman said Thursday in an email.
The Wall Street Journal reports the property was sold for $22 million to Burkle, an associate of the late pop star and co-founder of the investment firm Yucaipa Companies.
The asking price of the property was $100 million in 2016 then dropped to $67 million a year later.
In addition to a 12,500 square-foot main residence and a 3,700 square-foot pool house, the property boasts a separate building with a 50-seat movie theater and a dance studio.
President Donald Trump (R-Compromised) had a busy Christmas week between throwing the COVID-19 relief bill into doubt, pardoning war criminals and dubious pals, threatening Iran, and vetoing the annual defense bill against top Republicans' wishes.
While Trump traveled to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Wednesday for the holiday, the White House announced that he would work "tirelessly" for Americans.
"As the Holiday season approaches, President Trump will continue to work tirelessly for the American People. His schedule includes many meetings and calls," the White House said as it released Trump's daily schedule.
Trump's motorcade pulled into the Trump International Golf Club at 10:18 a.m. ET, marking his 317th day visiting a golf course as president.
In short, the outgoing president sowed chaos in the nation's capital, skipped town, and headed off to work on his drive.
They resemble small fragments of charcoal, but the soil samples collected from an asteroid and returned to Earth by a Japanese spacecraft were hardly disappointing.
The samples Japanese space officials described Thursday are as big as 1 centimeter (0.4 inch) and rock hard, not breaking when picked up or poured into another container. Smaller black, sandy granules the spacecraft collected and returned separately were described last week.
The Hayabusa2 spacecraft got the two sets of samples last year from two locations on the asteroid Ryugu, more than 300 million kilometers (190 million miles) from Earth. It dropped them from space onto a target in the Australian Outback, and the samples were brought to Japan in early December.
The sandy granules the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency described last week were from the spacecraft’s first touchdown in April 2019.
The larger fragments were from the compartment allocated for the second touchdown on Ryugu, said Tomohiro Usui, space materials scientist.
Sometimes you don't know what you've got till it's gone. Valviloculus pleristaminis makes for a perfect example.
Scientists only recently identified this mysterious, extinct flower. It once bloomed in the Cretaceous period - a floral relic of a bygone age, preserved in time-stopping amber since some nameless day when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth.
"This isn't quite a Christmas flower but it is a beauty, especially considering it was part of a forest that existed 100 million years ago," says emeritus professor George Poinar Jr. from Oregon State University.
The octogenarian entomologist is widely regarded as the scientist who popularised the phenomenon of prehistoric insects and nematodes being trapped in tree resin over geological timescales – ideas that took flight, literally much of the time, in the pop culture fantasy of Jurassic Park.
This lifelong focus began decades ago, but Poinar Jr.'s academic output is still prodigious. In recent years he's described ancient, engorged ticks, discovered new orders of insect life, traced the origins of malaria, and found his fair share of forgotten flowers.
A new mineral has been discovered after a Natural History Museum curator decided to examine his favourite rock.
The rock was mined in the county some 220 years ago, but scientists had not thought to look more closely at its striking green crystals until now.
The principal curator of minerals at the Natural History Museum said that his favourite mineral is lirconite, which is usually a bright blue colour, and it comes from Cornwall.
He saw a similar mineral that was strikingly green inside the centuries-old rock, and on studying it found that it is a distinct species to the blue type.
“Liroconite is this beautiful, gorgeous bright blue mineral that comes from Cornwall and I was trying to understand why its colour varies from bright teal-blue all the way to a dark emerald green.
You have reached the Home page of BartCop Entertainment.
Do you have something to say?
Anything that increased your blood pressure, or, even better, amused or entertained?
Do you have a great album no one's heard?
How about a favorite TV show, movie, book, play, cartoon, or legal amusement?
A popular artist that just plain pisses you off?
A box set the whole world should own?
Vile, filthy rumors about Republican hypocrites?
wrote:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
