Old School Trailers: Coyote Ugly (2000)

Source: Coyote Ugly-

Source:The New Democrat

I’m going to be real honest here and take note of that, because it might be a while before you see me being honest again. And I go back to being a lying bastard till the Chicago Cubs win the World Series. I had never heard of Coyote Ugly until I saw this movie, well until I heard this movie was out some time I guess in the spring or summer of 2000. I didn’t know that Coyote Ugly was not only a real bar, but a national corporation with a chain or Coyote Ugly bars all around the country. Including Washington where I live around in Bethesda. Some times it takes a big movie like this for me to discover new things.

And then after the movie I see the show Wild On with Brooke Burke that was on E back in the day do a feature about Coyote about a year or so after the movie came out. TLC did a realty show about Coyote like in the spring of 2004 about a women who wants to become a Coyote dancer. And talent scouts I guess from Coyote show her the ropes. CMT launches a series in 2004, a contest really that gives tryouts for Coyote dancers and other employees with the winners getting jobs with the company. And that show lasts for about five seasons or so. And I still have several of those episodes on DVD.

This one movie completely got me into the world of Coyote Ugly. Not just because of the movie, but also because of all the shows about Coyote that came after. This post is not so much about the movie itself, which is a very good movie. But how one movie got a country interested in the Coyote Ugly bar and company. Their women, their dancers and everything that they are about and how they launch the careers of attracted sexy intelligent talented women. Who just need that one break to show the world what they can do.
Source:Old School Trailers

Discovery ID: Wicked Attraction: ‘Blood Brothers’

Source:Discovery ID- a man who was interviewed for this documentary.

Source:The New Democrat 

“In 1985, police in South San Francisco, California respond to a simple shoplifting incident.Within hours, they discover a connection between two male suspects and a list of missing people that spans more than a year.” 

From Wicked Attraction 

If you are familiar with the Hillside Stranglers in the Los Angeles area, then the serial murderers of Leonard Lake and his buddy Charles Ng should sound familiar to you. Except Lake and Ng murdered in the San Francisco area, but what these four men have in common is that they are all pretty pathetic assholes, really, who had rough upbringings and were never very successful in life really at anything that they ever tried to do, except for perhaps murdering, but go back to them being assholes. Had it not have been for Charles Ng’s addiction to stealing, they wouldn’t have been caught, at least when they did. Had Ng not have been a shoplifter knocking off convenient stores, they might still be in business today.

Wicked Attraction: The Witch Killers - Michael & Suzan Carson

Source:The New Democrat

Of all the serial murderers that I know of and have followed in one form or the other, Michael and Suzan Carson have to be the weirdest. And that includes serial murderers like Jeff Dahmer and Charlie Manson. So you know I think you have to be out there to murder in the first place and then way out in left field to become a serial murderer. Good luck hitting a home run to left field in a ballpark of a serial murderer. But then throw in LSD and other mind-warping drugs and you have two people who simply live on a another planet. Visiting Earth to do their evil acts.

And the other thing that gets me about the Carson’s, that is similar to the Manson Family women is that the Carson’s came from good solid normal loving middle class American families. They were not Charlie Manson in the sense of someone who never really had a real home outside of jail. They weren’t people who grew up to abusive parents, or in awful neighborhoods and dropped out of high school to join the local gang of losers. These people had good upbringings and had the opportunity to be very successful in life.

I’m not sure this is a case of two people who were fairly normal and then one day snapped. Suzan didn’t have many of any friends growing up and perhaps as a young women as well. Michael showed signs of going off the lamb during his first marriage. They were both showing signs of mental instability before they even met. So in this sense at least they were sort of perfect for each other. Two people who didn’t fit in well anywhere, but in a horrible sense were perfect each other. Which meant anyone they didn’t like was in danger of losing their lives.

The Dean Martin Show: The World is Coming to an End in Five Minutes

Source:The New Democrat

Hum with my pointer finger at my head, I wonder who was the star of The Dean Martin Show and who The Dean Martin Show was named after? Boy I gotta hand it to the boy genius’ at NBC for coming up with such a cleaver and original name for a show. Aw the hell with it, maybe I’ll figure that out by the time I figure out what color is red and what’s the number for 911.

As far as the world coming to an end in five-minutes. Don’t give me so much time to prepare. I mean just think how much time I could waste freaking out, or pointing at my head about what to do. Should I spend the time freaking out, or thinking about what I should do in those five minutes. Perhaps spend four minutes coming up with something and hoping I can get it done before I blow up or something. See if I can get one of the last tickets to the Moon or Mars. Perhaps call Star Trek and have them beam me up. All the decisions one would have to make in that amount of time.

DCCAH: Bayard Rustin & James Baldwin - Freedom Fighters & Friends

Source:The New Democrat

James Baldwin and Bayard Rustin both had two strikes against them and really in Bayard’s case three. But I guess he didn’t strike out because the umpire felt charitable or what have you. But they were both Black and of African descent and if that is not bad enough for Caucasian racists, they were both gay as well. Which would be like someone who is an Atheist, Socialist and a Communist and perhaps even supporter of Islāmic Jihad against Americans all in the same package. These two men were considered devils by anyone who had excuse the expression, shit for brains and not smart enough to know better.

But these two men were two of the best freedom fighters that America has ever produced, because they both knew what they wanted and were intelligent. Confronting people who weren’t intelligent and saw African people as animals and devils who should still be slaves. All they wanted was the same freedom as any other American. The right to live their lives and the right not to be discriminated against based on race. To have their constitutional rights enforced as equally as Caucasian-Americans. Nothing more than nothing less and if you look at the U.S. Constitution, that is a lot of what it is about. And a big part of the American dream.

Stereo Oldie: Experiment in Terror (1962)

Source:Stereo Oldie- from Experiment in Terror.

Source:The New Democrat 

"The original theatrical trailer for the 1962 Blake Edwards suspense thriller "Experiment In Terror." This is the trailer presented and commented on by Dan Ireland of Trailers From Hell.com video titled "Dan Ireland on EXPERIMENT IN TERROR"

From Stereo Oldie

Experiment in Terror is one of the best action/thriller mystery/suspense movies that I’ve ever seen and perhaps is ahead of its time, at least as far as how the bad guy, the terrorist in the movie was able to get so much intelligence on his potential victims. How he intimidated them and how he also used them. 

Ross Martin plays the terrorist in the movie and he’s not someone who blows up banks, airports, houses, what have you. But is someone who has a very simple and basic goal: rob a bank to collect somewhere around hundred-thousand dollars, but only uses one employee to get him the money.

The terrorist uses Kelly Sherwood (played by Lee Remick) who is a bank teller at this San Francisco bank. And tells her: “You rob the bank for me and get me the money, or I’ll kill you and your sister”. He has so much information already on Kelly Sherwood and her sister Toby (played by Stefanie Powers) before he puts this terrorist act into action. Kelly is a young woman working at the bank. Toby is still in high school and the terrorist knows all of this and even what high school Toby goes to.

The terrorist Red (played by Ross Martin) tells Kelly that if she goes to the police or FBI, that he’ll kill her and her sister. He underestimates her and the amount of intelligence and courage that she has and she calls Red’s bluff (pun intended) goes to the FBI anyway behind his back so he doesn’t know about it, but he figures it out anyway, but doesn’t come through on his threat at least right away. So Kelly is playing along with Red and not really giving him anything, while the SF FBI led by John Ripley (played by Glenn Ford) tracks down the terrorist. This is a great movie and I’ve seen it several times.

Classic Comedy Bits: Johnny Carson- Standup Comedy (1964)

Source:Classic Comedy Bits- comedian Johnny Carson in 1964.

Source:The New Democrat 

"John William "Johnny" Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television talk show host and comedian, best known for his 30 years as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962–1992). Carson received six Emmy Awards, the Governor's Award, and a 1985 Peabody Award. He was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987. Johnny Carson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1993.

Although his show was already successful by the end of the 1960s, during the 1970s, Carson became an American icon and remained so even after his retirement in 1992. He adopted a casual, conversational approach with extensive interaction with guests, an approach pioneered by Arthur Godfrey and previous Tonight Show hosts Steve Allen and Jack Paar. Former late-night." 

From Comedy Classic Bits

Source:The New Democrat- comedian Johnny Carson in 1964.

Not the best Johnny Carson performance I’ve ever heard and I’m a fairly big fan of his. Not his biggest fan or his tallest fan. There are Carson fans who are taller, bigger and stronger than me and I’m a big tall guy at 6’5 220 pounds or so. 

I sort of got this feeling early on when in this video that Carson’s tank might have been running a little on empty as he was just standing there silent with a smirk for the first ten seconds or so. 

By the way, Johnny Carson reminds me of George W. Bush as well as GW Bush’s father. And the reason he reminds me of GW, is well their faces look very similar to me and they are about the same size. But also they have a very similar smirk. And perhaps Carson made the cracks about the cameras and all of that because he was going off the top of his head without much if any prepared material.

The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson: Richard Pryor (1977)

Source:NBC- Rich & Johnny-

Source: The New Democrat

Remember my advice about marriage and divorce, I’ll tell you again anyway. Don’t get married if you don’t want to get divorced. Especially don’t get married rich, because you may be poor or middle class by the time you’re divorced. And if you’re dumb or crazy enough to get married rich, but you don’t want to get divorced, at least be smart and sane enough to get married while you’re sober at the same time. So if you’re going to get married, make sure you know who you’re marrying. Make sure you’re intelligent and sane at the time. But this one might also be as important, make you’re also sober.

As far as censorship, imagine had Richard (I’m not Little Dick Pryor) had made it big ten-years later after he did. Why I say that, because by 1977 cable was basically an infant if that. If you had cable back then, probably only shopaholics and movie junkies had it, like wives of rich men to use as an example. Because back then you were looking at maybe the home shopping channels and movie channels as far as what was on cable. Basically Home Box Office and the Home Shopping Channel. Unemployed people who watch too many morning and afternoon movies. And shopaholics, like wives married to rich men.

But lets say Pryor makes it big in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Now if NBC, ABC, CBS or even PBS back then said, “you know what Richard, your act is too radical and your language is too foul for our Ozzie and Harriet Leave it To Beaver trapped in the 1950s audience. We can’t let you do your routine on our network”. Richard could tell the networks, the hell with you! (Or something much stronger) “I’m taking my act (or something stronger) to HBO or Showtime”. Or what have you. But again the smart entertainers know about censorship. And the great ones don’t need TV to be successful anyway.
Source:The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson

Oscars: 1977 Oscars- Fay Dunaway: Wins Best Actress For Network

Source:Oscars- Faye Dunaway: winning an Oscar in 1977, for her performance in Network. 

Source:The New Democrat

“Faye Dunaway wins the Best Actress Oscar for Network at the 49th Academy Awards. Presented by Louise Fletcher.”

Watch Fay Dunaway’s speech here:Oscars." 

Faye Dunaway plays perhaps the best ever corporate tough as nails, well bitch in Network. She’s shooting for the stars and will step on anyone that she has to do get to the top where she believes she deserves to be playing Diana in Network. And even if that means replacing real news with entertainment or at best news satire. Which is what news has become today anyway, at least on cable and has been that way for about ten-years now.

And one of the genius’ of Network is that they saw that coming. That networks and even network news divisions would combine into one entertainment entity on the networks. That instead of news being about what is important and what people actually need to know for their own good, it would become about what is popular and what people want to know in order to feel good about themselves. And Fay Dunaway was great at playing the producer or creator of that new type of entertainment news in Network.

The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson: Don Rickles & Dom DeLuise (1983)

Source:The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson- Comedian Don Rickles, in 1983. 

Source:The New Democrat

After Don Rickles essentially going off on one of his crazy tantrums for fifteen-minutes or so, the only thing I got from this, well I got a few things, but Rickles is crazy. Someone spiked his apple juice with scotch, perhaps LSD or something. Or perhaps Rickles spiked his own apple juice with LSD. Johnny Carson was obviously a very patient man, I guess as long as the audience was enjoying Rickles.

Ed McMahon, is obviously the highest paid yes man of all-time. I would argue overpaid, I mean seriously how hard is it to say yes. I mean you don’t even have to speak English to say it. All right fine, Big Ed said, yes! Yeah, fine now I’m impressed and I bet Big Ed could tie his own shoes, which came from all the experience that he tied Johnny Carson’s shoes. But I still think Big Ed was overpaid. And that Don Rickles represents the fact that we don’t have enough people living in mental hospitals.

The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson: Lauren Bacall (1980)

Source:The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson- Hollywood Goddess Lauren Bacall in 1980. 

Source:The New Democrat

I had an excellent motivation for not skipping school as a student. My father would’ve found out about the day that it happened and would’ve kicked my ass for it. Which meant day after day taking one boring class after another and trying to stay awake the whole time, without any coffee or any caffeine inside of the classroom. Well it wasn’t really all that bad. Some classes I was actually wide awake for. It is kind of hard to fall asleep playing basketball in gym, trust me I’ve tried. But similar to Lauren Bacall, I went to school in order to finish it. And get out of it what I needed to be able to move on. Not to have a good time, even though I managed to do that as well.

As far as Hollywood marriages. Classic case of the career move. “Gee, if I marry Joe or Mary, or at least get seriously involved with them, they’ll introduce me to Tom or Sally and I can get that part in that movie I want to be in and future big roles. And my publicity and reputation will shoot up”. There’s a big reason why half of American marriages end in divorce. One word, Hollywood and it’s probably more like 6-7 out of ten marriages out there that end in divorce. I mean they are all entertainers and have all played the role of husband and wife on the big or small screens and have played those roles in real-life as well.

Easy for me to say as someone who is not in Hollywood. But my advice would be for people out there to marry people they are truly in love with and are in love with them. And only marry when those things are there and you want to get married at that point. Because once you get married and you’re still young enough to have kids, kids come next. And you’re responsible for them whether you are in love with the father or mother or not. And now your career move has just become a very complicated life move that you have to deal with.