Scooby Dooby Doo

Scooby-Doo has been popping up in my life quite a bit recently and although I sometimes find myself saying 'Ruh-roh', I was never a big fan of the canine capers.  Yet, I do recall always preferring those episodes that starred legendary comedic geniuses like Jonathan Winters, Tim Conway and Phyllis Diller, all of whom as you may know or are capable of guessing, are Ohioans.

Winters grew up around Dayton, attended Kenyon College and was a central Ohio radio personality before hitting the American comedy circuit.  

Two Ohioans (Jack Paar & JW) in England

JW and Dean Martin...'it's a regular Ohio cigarette'
Certifiably Jonathan

Tim Conway was born in Willoughby, grew up in Chagrin Falls, attended Bowling Green State University, worked for a Cleveland radio station and continued to appear on Cleveland television shows after becoming famous.
Tim Conway Remembers
Dentist Sketch - The Carol Burnett Show
'Dorf' with Johnny Carson

Phyllis Diller grew up in Lima, attended Bluffton College with Hugh Downs and worked in radio in California, not Ohio, before making the big-time.
Ms. Distinctive on 'What's My Line?'
Still fab at 90 on 'Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me'
Still Cackling



Alright, now how bizarre is this, it also turns out that the hometown of Mystery Inc. is Coolsville, Ohio (not to be confused with the real Coolville, Ohio).  That's right, Scooby and the gang are all Ohioans too!!

'Scooby-Doo Theme Song' performed by the bubblegum pop group Ohio Express.

Ohio Impromptu

I first stumbled upon this Samuel Beckett playlet months ago when I was gathering ideas for entries centered around poetry, which was suggested by my friend Jessica and cousin Eric.  These two have degrees in writing and literature while I, a biologist, recall being terrified by the prospect of presenting an analysis of Heinrich Heine's poetry for a German Literature class full of writing/literature majors in college.  I still would like to know whose brilliant idea it was to have the only science major in the entire class attempt that task when, to this day, the only poetry that actually 'speaks' to me is that of William Blake and Shel Silverstein.  So before I attempt more scary tasks in the realm of poetry, I'm going to go with something I feel a bit more at home with: prose, especially of the morose and existential variety.  
        

And now seems a more appropriate time than any to tackle this entry  as I look at the books belonging to the young man from whom I'm subletting.  This young German student has an apparent penchant for Beckett as three of the 12 volumes on his shelf are either about or by the Irish playwright.
         

The playlet 'Ohio Impromptu' was written in 1980 as a favor for S.E. Gontarski, who requested a dramatic piece to be performed at an academic symposium in Columbus, Ohio in honor of Beckett's seventy-fifth birthday.  While the location of the symposium most likely factored in the title, it has also been suggested that the title is very important in understanding the play (see Kesim):  

"Ohio" is the answer of an American children's riddle which goes "what is high in the middle
and round at the ends or high in the middle and nothing at the ends". The answer to both
versions is "Ohio". This gives the central theme of Beckett' s play: "two voids or "nothings"-birth and death- and between the high of life, the double inhalation and exhalation of breath that sandwich life" (Ben-Zvi, 175)

Yet, I always think it's best for people to experience and decide such things on their own so here is the playlet, in its entirety (approximately 10 minutes), performed by the amazing Jeremy Irons:   Ohio Impromptu

Fun Fact Friday: Bueller? .....Bueller?

I had such high hopes for Without A Clue, a comedy with Ben Kingsley and Michael Caine that's an alternate representation of Sherlock Holmes as a fictional concoction of Dr. Watson, but it just wasn't that funny or engaging.  Yet, it did have Jeffrey Jones as Inspector Lestrade, which reminded me of an important John Hughes film, Ferris Bueller's Day Off (well to be fair, Ferris has also come up in many conversations recently).  Jones is probably best known for his role as Ed Rooney, the principal determined to track down the charming and elusive truant Ferris.  This was one of those seminal films in my adolescence and was in a constant viewing rotation with The Goonies and The Lost Boys.  It may be set in Chi-town but it wouldn't have been much of anything without Ohio.  Well, at the very least, some of the most memorable characters would perhaps be quite different in our minds today if Ohio wasn't a factor:

1.  Alan Ruck (Cameron Frye) was born in Cleveland and attended high school in Parma.
2.  Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller) is married to Sarah Jessica Parker (Sex and the City fame), who was born in Nelsonville, Ohio and later moved to Cincinnati, Ohio before moving to New York to further her career as a child actor.  SJP attended The School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) when her family was based in Cincinnati.
3.  Jennifer Grey's (Jeannie Bueller) father is Joel Grey, who is perhaps best known as the Master of Ceremonies in the film version of Cabaret.  Joel grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and began his career as a child actor in the Cleveland Playhouse.
4.  Charlie Sheen's (Boy in Police Station) dad, Martin Sheen, grew up in Dayton, Ohio

FBDO Trailer
Cameron Montage
Broderick interview with focus on FBDO
Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Grey in FBDO
Obama campaign ad Ferris Bueller-style

Fun Fact Friday: The Endearing Ted Mosby

Alright, I may never become a fan of How I Met Your Mother despite finding all of the characters endearing, especially the main character, Ted Mosby.  Yet, I do quite like the fact that such a quirky and romantically optimistic male lead is an Ohioan. While the character Ted hails from Shaker Heights, Ohio and is a graduate of Wesleyan University, the actor that plays Ted, Josh Radnor, is originally from Bexley, Ohio and graduated from Kenyon College, where he won the Paul Newman Award.

Radnor:  Not your average TV Star
Interview with first question about coming from Ohio

Fun Fact Friday: The Shawshank Redemption



"Like something out of a Robert Frost poem"

While working in the office of Spitalfields City Farm the other day, I overheard a cameraman (yes, quite a few come to the farm; in fact, the other week a whole film crew came to shoot a scene for Whitechapel. . .go figure) on the telephone mention The Shawshank Redemption.  I have no idea what the mention was in reference to but it took a tremendous amount of energy on my part to not pipe up with 'Hey, that film was shot in locations near my hometown!!'.  So I'm now sharing this information with those out there that may actually give a damn (well, who knows, maybe that guy would have too).

Weird Coincidence:  The 'Shawshank Tree' (see above photo) where Andy leaves buried money for Red is actually a tree across the road from Malabar Farm State Park but is meant to be in Buxton, Maine in the film.  What's the address of Spitalfields City Farm?!?!?  Yep,  Buxton Street.  Could this be a connection to that cameraman's discussion on the phone?

Filming Location Video
NPR's 'On Location:  Mansfield, Ohio 'Shawshank' Industry'
List of Filming Locations for 'The Shawshank Redemption'
Fan travels along the Shawshank Trail as part of his Bucket List

Perhaps the Devil IS from Akron

Max von Sydow as Leland Gaunt
in Needful Things (1993)

In the 1993 movie "Needful Things," Leland Gaunt (Max Von Sydow) proves to be something far more dangerous than the shop owner he claims to be when he arrives in the Maine town of Castle Rock, which isn't surprising due to it being based on a Stephen King tale.   What's surprising is that Gaunt claims to be an Ohioan, despite his obvious European (Swedish) accent.  Brian Rusk (Shane Meier), a kid who meets Gaunt early in the movie, wonders and asks about his background:

BRIAN: Are you from overseas somewhere?
GAUNT: I'm from Akron.
BRIAN: Where's that? England?
GAUNT: That's in Ohio.

Ray Wise as Satan in Reaper

Ray Wise, who may be best known as Leland Palmer, Laura Palmer's father, in the iconic Twin Peaks, also gave a chilling and comical portrayal of Satan in one of my favorite series, Reaper.  Wise is from Akron, Ohio.

From Lucky Slob to "The King of Hollywood" and Glamour God

Flip through any free newspaper in London now and you'll see the advertisement to the left for a photo exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery.  It still amazes me how influential Ohioans were in Old Hollywood especially since we're not typically considered synonymous with glamour nowadays despite being the home of Victoria's Secret.  Many of the early movie moguls and stars came from Ohio roots, which undoubtedly includes 'The King of Hollywood'  Mr. Clark Gable.  I have always cringed when I hear lines from Gone with the Wind being recited and because of that I was reluctant to appreciate 'The King'.  Yet, if you ever catch It Happened One Night, for which he won an Oscar, you'll find a whole different creature, a witty and charming fellow, who apparently was much like Gable himself.

Born in Cadiz, Ohio, on February 1, 1901, William Clark Gable lived and attended school in Hopedale from 1903 to 1917.  After several years as a stage actor, he went to Hollywood, where he made sixty-seven movies in a remarkable career that spanned four decades.  In 1942, following his wife Carole Lombard's death, he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps and was off the screen for three years while flying combat missions in Europe.  Although he was forever changed by the loss of Lombard, he always remained the man that women wanted to be with and the man that other men wanted to be.....incredibly masculine and utterly charming.

“All this ‘King’ stuff is pure bullshit. I eat and sleep and go to the bathroom just like anyone else. I’m just a lucky slob from Ohio who happened to be in the right place at the right time.”-- Clark Gable

Biography.com Article & Documentary

Better Blog Post about Clark Gable: The Lucky Slob from Ohio
The Man, the Myth, the Museum
Clark Gable - The Postal Service