THANKSGIVING TURKEYS!

And here's the famous and nostalgic Norman Rockwell painting from 1943, 

"FREEDOM FROM WANT":

GAHAN WILSON (1930-2019)

Some sad news from the world of cartoons: famed cartoonist Gahan Wilson passed away on November 21. He was 89.
Over the years, Wilson drew cartoons for PLAYBOY, THE NEW YORKER, COLLIER'S, LOOK and THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION.
I always looked forward to his creepy and off-beat cartoons when I got the monthly issue of PLAYBOY magazine. His brand of macabre humor always appealed to me and some of his drawings haunted my dreams.
He was diagnosed with dementia during the last years of his life but he continued working even then.
His work touched the lives of many generations. Forever rest in peace Gahan Wilson!

From WIKIPEDIA:

Wilson's cartoons and illustrations are drawn in a playfully grotesque style and have a dark humor that is often compared to the work of The New Yorker cartoonist and Addams Family creator Charles Addams. But while both feature vampires, cemeteries and other traditional horror elements in their work, Wilson's work has a more contemporary, shocking aspect to its humor, featuring atomic mutants, subway monsters and serial killers.

                                           Visit the Gahan Wilson website for more:
                                                         https://gahanwilson.net/

The Clock is Ticking...

...one hour behind today! Daylight Saving Time is over!

                                                      Harold Lloyd in "SAFETY LAST" (1923)

My Hohner Student Accordion years.

These vintage ads reminded me of my two years in grade school where I took accordion lessons and played with the Modern American School accordion band under the leadership of my music teacher, Miss Anne Pertack.  The highlight of that experience was a performance at a concert hall inside the Palace Of Fine Arts In Mexico City.

I never pictured myself as the Mexican Lawrence Welk although I have to admit I enjoyed The Lawrence Welk Show quite a lot, in a guilty pleasure kind of way.

                          

These ads promise hours of joy and pleasure and claim accordions are IN, which of course, 

were slight exaggerations. All I can say is that an accordion, played by a talented musician, makes delightful and very happy music.

My accordion was the Hohner Student VII and it was sold for a paltry amount when my mom died, in 2009.

But I still remember with nostalgia those boring hours practicing the instrument in the full knowledge I would never become a skilled musician.

Years later, I took up the clarinet and learned to play it with some proficiency. I even got to play it on an episode of a local TV sitcom and on a nightclub show. 

After that, I wisely left the music in the talented hands of professional musicians like Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw.  My real passion is listening to music, not playing it.

And here's a sampling of good accordion music with Lawrence Welk!

THE MUNSTERS!

                                                  "America's First Family of Fright!"
During the Monster Craze of the mid-sixties, television became the resting ground for many supernatural and horror-inspired shows. My favorite one was, without any doubt, THE MUNSTERS, which were an average and typical American family, except for the fact that Father Herman looked like the Frankenstein monster, Mother Lily and Grandpa, were vampires and their son Eddie was a werewolf. The 'different"one in that family happened to be young Marilyn, who was a beautiful blonde girl, with normal looks which the rest of her family accepted lovingly.

Fred Gwynne, who previously had starred in the comedy series "CAR 54, WHERE ARE YOU?", portrayed Herman Munster. Beautiful movie siren Yvonne De Carlo gave life to Lily Munster while Al Lewis, also from "CAR 54", inhabited the role of Grandpa Munster. The rest of the cast was completed with Butch Patrick who played little Eddie Munster and lovely Beverley Owen as Marilyn Munster.

THE MUNSTERS lived in 1313 Mockingbird Lane which was located on the backlot of Universal Studios, the same place where the original Universal monsters were created, back in the 1930s and 40s.

The show was successful enough to span lots of toys and collectible merchandise which, to this day, is still sought after by memorabilia enthusiasts.

After 13 episodes of the first season, Beverley Owen left the series to join her boyfriend and was replaced by Pat Priest, who did a marvelous job as Marilyn until the show ended in 1966.

As of this writing, only Butch Patrick and Pat Priest are still the only living members from the series.

Fred Gwynne passed on in 1993; Yvonne De Carlo died in 2007, Al Lewis left us in 2006 and Beverley Owen joined them February 21, 2019.

However, the show is still well remembered and running in syndication on several TV channels. 

THE MUNSTERS were also featured in a Gold Key comic which published 16 issues during the 60s and two reunion movies followed, one right after the show was cancelled in 1966, MUNSTER, GO HOME and a TV special in 1988, THE MUNSTERS' REVENGE.

 

                      

   

And with these images of the TV show and the Gold Key comics, we bid farewell to that typical

 All-American family, THE MUNSTERS, wishing you a very Frightful and Happy Halloween!

As a bonus, here are the openings of both seasons: