Ozzie and Harriet: A old TV friend rediscovered

 From 1952 until 1966 "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" aired on TV. That's a long run. I remember the show from reruns but it never seemed to gain the status of cult following to me and the reruns weren't around much. Maybe it is because the rights to the show were held by Ozzie Nelson himself and syndication from a big studio was not in the cards.

Once in a while we got a glimpse of some faded print or a few selected episodes when the show ran on the Disney Channel years ago. There are also a lot of public domain type DVDs out there that are so washed out you can't tell whether you are watching Ozzie or Harriet!

Apparently for years the heirs of the Nelsons have been working on getting the series released on DVD and it is finally here...at least the first few seasons. 

Of course the Nostalgic Rambler wanted to see this show so the DVDs are part of our daily viewing for now. Season One is on the agenda. It is really a charming show but very slow moving. The opening of the show features the lengthy "here's Ozzie...here's Harriet...here's David...here's Ricky..." which is gets kind of old after the first few shows...we KNOW who they are! The camera doesn't really move around much. "I Love Lucy" was also filmed around this time and you can sure tell the difference between the way the camera angles were thought out on "Lucy" compared to O&H.   

It's fun to watch for famous guest stars...or actors who were not house hold names yet. A very tiny Jerry Mathers aka the Beaver makes an appearance for instance as a trick or treater in a Halloween episode and Ellen Grandma Walton Corby plays Harriet's aunt in a show.

I imagine the later seasons may attract more DVD interest as heart throb Ricky Nelson starts his singing career. In season one he is a little boy far from any imagination of rock star status. The shows revolve around simple themes and yes they are very corny for our times...but as times get more and more complicated it is a great escape to the 1950s past of huge houses, housewives that look like they are ready to appear on a fashion show, men dressed in suits, and kids who are so polite and sweet you may need your diabetic medication. You gotta love the Nelsons and Ozzie and Harriet is a great series to discover for the first time or re-discover again. 

Although a few sponsor tags were left in, it would have been nice to see the original commercials...and there aren't any extras on the DVD but it's worth a look. An MPI Home video release.

Songsmith Jimmy Van Heusen

Through my life I have enjoyed singing (mostly to myself) and many of my favorite songs were originally sung by the likes of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra and....many of those were written by the one and only Jimmy Van Heusen.

Although his name has been familiar to me, I didn't know much of his background. And unlike some of the other songwriters of the 40s and 50s, Van Heusen has not been as recognized as other guys like Irving Berlin or Rodgers and Hammerstein.   

Van Heusen wrote a lot of the songs made famous by Bing Crosby such as "Swinging on a Star" and one of my favorites, the title song to the movie "Going My Way" with Bing and Ingrid Bergman. 

After the Bing era, he became pals and was the main tune-smith for Sinatra.  Jimmy was quite the womanizer and the quote from Sammy Cahn is that Frank "wanted to be Jimmy Van Heusen, but he couldn't pass the physical." Gotta love that one. Poor Frank!

Compared to many famous composers there isn't too much available on Jimmy Van Heusen. Apparently he was a private man and even though he drafted a biography, it was never released. A great biography by Christopher Coppula called "Swinging on a Star" is out there. There was also a PBS special showcasing his life awhile back...but good luck finding that on Youtube or on DVD. 

I have one of his record albums where he plays the piano. It all sounds so effortless. Truly amazing how he came up with so many beautiful melodies.

Since he never had any children, Jimmy's legacy is now under the wings of his nephew, who didn't have anything to do with the music business but is now keeping his memory alive. Very cool and very fascinating. Why didn't I have an uncle who wrote tunes? Not fair!

Jimmys birth name was Chester Babcock. He took his "Van Heusen" moniker from the shirt company, so I guess I'll have to start wearing Van Heusen shirts to support the legacy of yet another one of my idols. I wonder if Jimmy wore Van Heusen shirts!?

Lucy and Desi, A MUST see....Amazon's documentary review

 Since I was a boy I was fascinated with anything that had to do with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Their iconic show "I Love Lucy" has been a constant in an ever changing life. Every time someone writes a book or puts out a movie about them or the show, I get hyper critical as these are "my" people and I want it to be right.

Lucie Arnaz did it right in her 1993 Documentary "Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie." It had many gems including those beautiful color silent family movies of the couple and their family. It's been many years since that documentary was made. What else needed to be told? 

I was not a fan of Amazon's movie "Being the Ricardos." It took too many liberties in telling the story. My review of that film would be a Ricky Ricardo "eye yay yay yay yay."  And yes, since I have devoured every book, newspaper, magazine article and TV interview since the 1970s and watched their work incessantly, any little discrepancy irks me. 

That being told, the newest entry in the Lucy/Desi story is the Amy Poehler production called simply "Lucy and Desi". The simple title is almost as iconic as Desi's book which he called "A Book"... because he said that is what it was!

There's an old big band song that has the lyrics "it seems to me I've heard that song before...." and that's the way I felt about much of Poehler's "Lucy and Desi."  Many of the audio excerpts, pictures and interviews were very familiar. She had access to a lot of material however that was "new", provided by Lucie Arnaz. That made all the difference. That audio of Lucy and Desi telling their stories was woven together in a delightful way. She uses clips of "I Love Lucy" very cleverly to move the story of the real life couple along. It's all the same story I've heard so many times but this time it is fresh once again. So I give it a thumbs up/must watch for old Lucy fans like me or people who say "Lucy Desi who?"  In my mind, I fancy myself as an expert in the area of Lucy and Desi and could have easily put together this documentary. Even though Poehler didn't ask me for any advice (tongue planted firmly in cheek as I write this....) she did great. What a "wundaful" job she did with "my" people's story. 

I found it amusing that on "I Love Lucy" there were three writers for the first few years and a staff of experts you can see on the show credits that run for a few seconds to list them all. This documentary production had a zillion producers/directors/advisors and even make-up people. My my, have times changed! 

I forgive Amy for using the syndicated opening of "I Love Lucy" in telling the story but of course the heart on satin is so iconic that that opening just HAD to be featured. I guess the folks in the documentary COULD have been watching a rerun!

I hope newer generations will continue to discover "I Love Lucy." Despite all the Amazon hoopla, Sirius/XM "Let's Talk with Lucy" show and interest in their lives, I am amazed at bloggers and commentaries of younger people who have never even seen an "I Love Lucy" episode. It just isn't on all over the TV as it was when I was young. 

For anyone out there who wants a few gems from my archives, here are a few links.

My blog where I have digitalized some of my Lucy/Desi archives (I have so much more and really need to start this up again...but time slips away...)  Lucy Archives

An audio interview from Desi recorded off of the TV onto my little cassette player as he visited Detroit for his book promotion (I am so proud that the TCM podcast used my Lou Gordon Show audio....even though I wasn't mentioned....)   Desi Arnaz in Detroit 

And here's a show I just uploaded. It's Desi's radio show Your Tropical Trip

Life has been busy. I am uploading a lot of my old radio airchecks of big band and nostalgia music of the 1940s and 50s, realizing that even though they are from the 1980s,  they are so old now they are a piece of history. Preserving this material for future generations is a goal.  

Oh, and if someone is doing yet another Lucy/Desi project, I'm available! ;)