click around for some fun pics (use the links on the left)
Sunday, August 30, 2009
I wish they all could be California dogs
I could do this if I had 4 legs and lower center of gravity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQzUsTFqtW0&feature=fvw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
early Kovacs
really early Kovacs
Posted by: "Barry Chern"
Fri Aug 28, 2009 3:56 pm (PDT)
For those of you who can stand fairly large downloads (I think these
links for some people may be right-click to download, regular click
play in browser) here's something I gleaned from the web recently. A
rare episode of Kovacs on the Corner, one of Ernie's
Philadelphia-based shows before they shipped him off to LA and
national glory. It has all the feel of a local TV show as I remember
them from my childhood, as personified around here by Flippo the
Clown. A feel of being possibly ostensibly childern's entertainment,
but with an inside kind of hipster attitude. Laughter from the crew,
as stage settings are knocked askew and Ernie makes comments about it
to the camera. The whole tone is so determinedly low-key, in spite of
numerous variety-show show-biz type elements. You can see Ernie
claiming the new medium, saying by his attitude, "Hey, I'm not on the
radio. I'm not holding a script, and I don't have to speak clearly
and concisely about everything, because you can see what I'm doing."
At the same time, it's also clearly not a movie. Even the
lowest-budget Ed Wood production wouldn't use film so capriciously on
such shoe-string stuff! Totally charming how he mumbles some
not-really-a-joke under his breath, and a young and not quite so
glamorous yet Edy repeats what he said and laughs genuinely.
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/
this is about 230 mb. Might not be done uploading yet as I type.
Also got some episodes of his later national series from 1956, which
I must have originally seen when I was 6. I remember how amazed I was
by his magic routines, even though they are so obvious and cheap...
he draws a picture of a refrigerator, pierces a door in it with
pencil pressure, and opens it to get ice cubes. How did he do it?
This would hardly even qualify as a special effect in a movie. I
think what made it so baffling was the sense early TV gave you that
what you saw was really happening somewhere. You knew it was live. It
was just people in a nearly empty room. The idea that there could be
ANY kind of special effect was astonishing. It was real magic. They
couldn't do that today.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)