GOING TO A-GO-GO
If you love that mid-sixties sound of Herb Albert, Burt Bacharach, Henry Mancini, etc. check out the groovy vibes of The SG Sound. Composer Steve Greaves, a really cool cat as you can see, calls his music “Space Age Pop and Go-Go Jet Set.” The samples alone from his MySpace site are fantastic and had me go-go dancing around my apartment last night. For a second there I thought I was Carole Shelyne from Hullabaloo! You can download his CD from iTunes. I did!
A HUNK HUNK OF BURNIN’ LOVE
The folks at Elvis Week have announced there upcoming guests for their yearly August extravaganza. And as usual it is chock full of starlets including Fantasty Femmes Celeste Yarnall (pictured here with Michele Carey and the King in Live a Little, Love a Little) and Francine York; and Drive-in Dream Girls Darlene Tompkins and Cynthia Pepper. Click here for the web site.
Once again I am trying to get myself or Gail Gerber invited. Gail co-starred with Elvis Presley in Girl Happy and Harum Scarum. But it is like trying to penetrate Fort Knox to get to anybody in this organization.
IT’S A SMALL STARLET WORLD
One of the most anticiapted new fall shows is the remake of Beverly Hills, 90210. Jessica Walter has been announced to play an eccentric former movie star whose daughter Lori Loughlin, husband Rob Estes and kids move into her mansion. I was never a fan of Walter’s Sixties/Seventies work but she was very funny on the recently departed sitcom Arrested Development.
One of the new series writers is successful novelist Caprice Crane. Click here for her web site. She is the daughter of former TV talk show host Les Crane and one of my favorites Tina Louise. I would have been thrilled if Tina was announced in the grandmother role. Let’s hope Caprice is at least able to write a fun guest star part for her still ravishing mother!
R.I.P.
Sad to report that the Grim Reaper socked it to Dick Martin over the weekend who passed away. The comedian was the nutty half of the comedy team Rowan & Martin who played the nigthclub circuit for years beginning in the mid-Fifties before hitting the big time with their zany variety series Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In from 1968 to 1973, a personal favorite of mine as a kid though half the jokes probably went over my head. The show launched the careers of Goldie Hawn, Arte Johnson, Ruth Buzzi, Joann Worley, Henry Gibson, and Lily Tomlin. It was also chock full of nubile starlets such as Pamela Austin, Teresa Graves, Pamela Rodgers, Ann Elder, and Chlesea Brown dancing away in their mod minis at the “Cocktail Party” or shaking their bikini-clad fannies with different slogans painted on their bodies. Guess that is why I liked it so.
In 1969, Dick Martin and Dan Rowan starred in the disappointing horror spoof The Maltese Bippy. They were smart enough to surround themselves with pros Carol Lynley, Julie Newmar, Mildred Natwick, and Fritz Weaver but except for the opening takeoff on movie credits and the wacky ending, everything in between was just a creaky murder mystery that fell flat. Fans expecting a zany Laugh-In type flick were disappointed.
Dick Martin is survived by, among others, his wife former Playboy Playmate and actress Dolly Read star of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. She is featured in my new book, Glamour Girls of Sixties Hollywood.