FOOLING OVER

Yes, it's gone midday, and (to quote Master Nigel Molesworth) "as any fule kno" April Fool's Day fooling is now officially OVER!

And - in case you wondered from my earlier post - here's how things ended up at St Trinian's later that day...

Midday: "She who laughs last, Dobson,
would appear to laugh louder than anyone else!"

Cartoon © by Ronald Searle, 1948, from The Female Approach, with masculine sidelights uploaded via my flickr Photostream.

SKULE FOR FULES

Being still very much in Ronald-Searle-appreciation-mode on account of the fact that I'm currently preparing my talk for The Cartoon Museum on Searle as an illustrator (Wednesday 28 April at 6:30, see side-bar, right for details, come if you can), I decided to turn to Mr S for an appropriate posting for today which is, of course---

April 1st

ALL FOOLS DAY!

Here's how they marked this day in that noble establishment for the education of the fairer sex, St Trinian's...

"Bless my soul! Prunella!"



"I'll give her practical science."



"Yah! April Fo-ol!"

"Come in, Miss Tonks, I'm reading."

Cartoons © by Ronald Searle, 1948, from The Female Approach, with masculine sidelights uploaded via my flickr Photostream.

WELL, B*GG*R ME!

For those of you not on Twitter and who missed the Best Inappropriately Funny Story of the Last Ten Days: the Times carried a report on the latest sex abuse scandal, this time involving the Vienna Boys Choir and gave the story to a reporter named--- well, see for yourself...


Roger WHO?

Yes, it really does say Roger Boyes!

Oh, dear! However, unlike the widely-circulated urban myth that Captain Pugwash featured a character named 'Roger the Cabin Boy', Roger Boyes really is the name of a thoroughly respectable journalist.

Next time a story like this comes up, Roger, I'd take a vacation if I were you --- and avoid Vienna!

Thanks to Twitter-tweeter, Irascible Ian for the bottom line on this story.

ODOR OF COMMERCIALISM

Since becoming the leader of the most powerful nation on earth and winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Barack Obama, had decided to apply his gifts to more modest endeavours...

And here he is doing it...

And here are the warnings, including: "Review State laws before hanging from rear view mirror"! A reminder of bad ol' days in the South, perhaps...?

There was story when Barack was running for President that Michelle Obama had told Glamor magazine that her husband snored and had B.O. Let's hope that the good people of China sent a few free sample of the Obama Air Freshener to the White House!

Our thanks to Polkadots & Moonbeams for bringing us back this excellent souvenir from Washington, home of republican democracy!

Images © Brian Sibley, uploaded via my flickr Photostream.

BEWITCHING LYRICS

Back to Bewitched...

You remember the theme-tune: "Dee-dum, dee-dum, dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee..."? Well, you only know the half of it!

As a young (but quite observant) viewer I was always puzzled by one of the closing credits...


"Title Song by HOWARD GREENFIELD & JACK KELLER"

Er...? Excuse me...

WHAT song?

There was music, yes, but no lyrics!

Well, actually there were, it's just that we never ever heard them.

And here they are...

Bewitched, Bewitched,
You've got me in your spell.
Bewitched, Bewitched,
You know your craft so well.
Before I knew what I was doing
I looked in your eyes
That brand of woo you've been brewin'
Took me by surprise.

You witch, you witch,
One thing is for sure.
That stuff you pitch
Just hasn't got a cure.
My heart was under lock and key,
But somehow it got unhitched.
I never thought that I could be had
But now I'm caught and I'm kinda glad to be---
Bewitched.

And here they are being sung --- with a bit of help in the nose-twitching department from the witch herself, Elizabeth Montgomery...

Composer, Jack Keller recalled of the song he wrote with Howard Greenfield once said: "The pilot had used Frank Sinatra's 'Witchcraft', but they didn't want to pay for 'Witchcraft', so they asked us to write something. We only had a week to write the song, do the demo, and get it out to California, and they accepted it and they put it on. The show was a smash."

However, despite the fact that Greenfield and Keller and already had several hits including 'Everybody's Somebody's Fool', the song was only ever used orchestrally. I first came across the words on a recording by one of my favourite singers, Peggy Lee, for who it might almost have been written...

Among others who recorded the number was Steve Lawrence ('Mr Eydie Gormé', for those old enough to know what the hell I'm talking about) on the flip-side of his 1964 single, 'I Will Wait For You'. Forty-one years later, that version was included on the soundtrack of the 2005 less-than-magical movie version of Bewitched starring Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrel. Here it is, accompanied by images from the original TV show...

You can read more about the Bewitched theme tune, incidental music and much more here.

MASQUERADE

In case you don't recognise us (we've had rather a lot of worry lately!) this is David and I attending the re-opening-in-new-premises-party of one of our favourite local restaurants, Amici...

Everyone was invited to wear masks so we selected a couple of Venetian ones from our own collection.

As anyone who's ever visited Venice knows, pretty much every other shop sells Venetian masks - many of which - if the naive tourist did but know it - were made a long way from Venice and imported for sale to souvenir-seeking day-trippers!

There are, in fact, only three or four authentic mask-makers left in the city, compared with some three or for hundred mask shops!

And you wouldn't believe how many of them have notices in their windows advising potential purchasers that they were the exclusive providers of masks for Stanley Kubrick's 1999 film, Eyes Wide Shut. Some even have testimonials from Tom and Nicole. You'd think, bearing in mind what a turkey the film was, that they'd want to keep quite about such an association!

But I digress, the masks we are wearing above were made in Venice - David's in papier mache and mine from leather with horse hair eyebrows!

This be-crystalled confection, on the other hand - despite being offered for sale only a few hundred yards from St Mark's Square, - was made by Swarovski of Austria...

And a great many of the masks on sale don't even carry that pedigree.

However, if you know where to look, you can find authentic mask 'laboratories' where the antique crafts are still practiced...

In such establishments you can buy the beautiful...

Or the beastly...

Or a little something to tickle your fancy...

Once a year, at Carnival (just before the beginning of Lent), the masqueraders take to the campos, calles and bridges and decorate this already elaborately decorative city with outlandish flowerings of exotic costumery and eccentric masks for the benefit of post-card and art-book photographers and the general wonderment of tourists who imagine, quite wrongly, that they are getting a peep at what Venetian life was like back in those rudely, romping days of Casanova and Co.

Never mind, Venice is a theatre and the mask-wearers are - like everyone who visits the city - performers on its stage...

Photos of masks © Brian Sibley, uploaded via flickr. You can see more of my photos of Venice (and elsewhere) on my flickr Photostream.

KING OF THE WILD FRONTIER

a fond farewell to

FESS PARKER

Walt Disney's Davy Crockett,
hero of our 50's youth

Like all former kids of a certain age, Fess Parker's TV portrayal of Davy Crockett for Walt Disney was a cultural milestone in our young lives.

I had the privilege of interviewing Fess for one of my BBC radio series and even managed to get him to sing me a verse of that famous 'Ballad' by George Bruns and Tom Blackburn that was originally (and ironically) written just to bulk out the TV show which was running under time! A number one hit and several million copies later, it became the song by which many of still remember a particular year in the 1950s!

And, if you weren't part of the Crockett generation, then here's a glimpse into what all the fuss was about...

Fess went on to appear in a several Disney feature films - The Great Locomotive Chase, Old Yeller and Westward Ho, the Wagons! - before playing another iconic western hero, Daniel Boone.

But it is as 'The King of the Wild Frontier" that he will always be remembered.

Fess Elisha Parker, Jnr
August 16, 1924 – March 18, 2010



"He's ahead of us all in meeting the test,
followin' his legend right into the West..."

BEWITCHED BY SEARLE

Writing, recently, about Ronald Searle at 90 reminded me that there's connection between this great cartoonist and illustrator and one the favourite TV shows from Sibley's '60s teenage years.

Bewitched, as you may recall (or have been told by elderly maiden aunts), was a popular American sit-com about the everyday life of a witch married to a mortal who is desperately trying not to use her magical powers in middle-class suburbia.

In June 1966, Ronald Searle provided a cover for the television-listing magazine, TV Guide, featuring two of the stars of the series: Elizabeth Montgomery who played Samantha Stephens, the 'witch' in 'bewitched', and Agnes Moorehead who (after years of serious thesping with the likes of Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater Company) won international celebrity as Sam's flamboyant and idiosyncratic mother: the unstoppable, un-top-able, Endora...

The caricature of Ms Moorehead is fantastic, although I can't help feeling that Baby Tabitha looks not unlike an infant version of Searle's 'skoolboy', Nigel Molesworth, and the portrait of Ms Montgomery is, I think it's fair to say, a tad less flattering than the way she appeared on the series' animated title sequence...

In addition to the cover, Searle additionally provided a number of illustrations for the interior of this issue of TV Guide, including a likeness of Montgomery's first co-star, Dick York, as Sam's long suffering and perpetually perplexed husband, Darrin Stephens.

Despite playing the straight man in this high-camp comedy, York showed himself to be the master of comic timing in his reactions to Sam's nose-twitching bewitchery and Endora's magical machinations and Searle certainly caught York's almost permanent condition of wincing, brow-furrowing anxiety.

The other cartoons show Searle's inventiveness in getting behind-the-scenes and into the show's premise.

Here he is imagining the team of technical advisors...

Here we get a peek into the secrets of the make-up room: the idea of some Macbethian hag being made-up to look like Ms Montgomery is pure genius...

And a glimpse of Sam performing on-set, off-screen magic on director William Asher (at the time Mr Montgomery), the hapless Dick York and an unidentified 'chippie'...

According to one of my favourite bloggers, Kevin Kidney (who first posted Searle's cartoons back in 2008), Searle was not exactly bewitched by the programme itself, observing: "I know that the canned laughter underscoring those mournful lines in Bewitched is the laughter of lost souls. Who else would applaud so hysterically the words: 'What's for breakfast, Sam?'"

Whether it's out of sentimental nostalgia for my lost youth, I don't know, but I still laugh at Bewitched...

You'll find more of Ronald Searle's art for TV Guide here (the cover on the right shows Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, the stars of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) on Matt Jones' endlessly diverting Perpetua: Ronald Searle Tribute, where you will also discover a great deal more about the world according to Searle.

Don't forget to visit the excellent exhibition, Ronald Searle - Graphic Master which remains on show until 4 July at The Cartoon Museum, 35 Little Russell Street, London, WC1A 2HH. Opening hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10:30-17:30; Sunday, 12:00-17:30, Closed Monday.

And may I mention that The Cartoon Museum is hosting a series of talks about the life and work of Ronald Searle that you might enjoy.

Here are details of the first three talks:

Tuesday 30 March: Titles Designed by Ronald Searle by (the aforementioned) artist and animator, Matt Jones

Wednesday 21 April: Ronald Searle at 90
Exhibition curator Anita O’Brien talks about meeting Searle and reveals more background to the exhibition

Wednesday 28 April: Collaborative Visions - The Illustrations of Ronald Searle by - er - well, by Me, actually!

All three talks are at 6:30-7:30 pm

Tickets: £5 (Adults); £4 (Concessions); £3.50 (Friends of the Museum)
To reserve your tickets - telephone: 0207 580 8155 or e-mail: info@cartoonmuseum.org.

Details of the full season will be found on The Cartoon Museum website

Oh, yes! And, finally: you can find out pretty much anything you've ever wanted to know about Bewitched (and much that you haven't!) at Bewitched @ Harpies Bizarre.

Images uploaded from my flickr Photostream.

GREENLAND GREETINGS

HAPPY

St PATRICK'S Day!

TWIG-LITS

CAPTION COMPETITION
The Results!!

This was the picture for which I asked you provide captions and it produced a healthy 'crop' of entries!

Since I've been totally bogged down struggling with the task of writing far less interesting captions for my next book and since (for some inexplicable reason) DAVID WEEKS forgot to enter the competition this time, I invited him to judge competition on my behalf.
He reviewed the entries anonymously and arrived at a decision.

But before the winners, here are the very entertaining and ingenious runners-up...


BOLL WEAVIL...

"I didn't like this green originally but now its growing on me."

"I think I'm ready for the Lord of the Rings Fancy Dress Party now - hope no one else goes as Treebeard."

"Someone's taking this 'go green' nonsense far too seriously!"

"We selected her for originality - all the other blog competition subjects arrived in Calvin Klein underwear for some reason..."

[DW says: I liked this but ultimately felt that to be truly funny you had to be privy to other competitions and that it lacked the direct response to the current competition picture – even so Highly Commended and I nodded as I smiled.]


ELAINE...

"I hope the gardener prunes this properly!"

"Does this make my head look bigger?"

"Knew I should have stuck to my usual shampoo."

"When I said I wanted some wine, I meant from the bottle - not to grow my own grapes!"


IAN...

"When I said I wanted you to MOULD me into becoming another TWIGGY this is NOT what I meant!"

What do you get if you cross Barbara BROCOLLI with Elijah WOOD?

Treebeard’s assertion that the Ent-Wives had completely vanished from Middle-Earth proved to be totally false.

Given her lack of academic results the pupils weren't completely surprised when they found out the head was branching out.

SHEILA...

Looking at his reflection, Alan Titchmarsh liked the side effects but wondered if his new shampoo for Oreal - 'Compost Lather and Grow (because you're worth it)' - was a little too organic...

SHARON M...

"Does your hair bite, madam?"

"Oh my, Cynthia - your latest hairstyle has me green with envy!"

"This hair used to be Edward G Robinson..."

[I think this needs an explanation, Sharon M, but you'll have to do the honours. Ed.]


SUZANNE...

"When they said herbal shampoo, I didn't know THIS was what they meant!"

"Wash and go, wash and go... where am I supposed to GO with this?"

"I wonder how many people will guess those branches are actually pinned into my scalp... How else would they stand up like that?"

"That's the last time I let my florist friend help me wash my hair!"

"Does my bum look big in this?"

"And now I can finally get Radio 6!"

Pass me the hair straighteners someone!

[DW says: Highly Commended.]

Third Place

BOLL WEAVIL...

She doesn't look much now but wait until spring !

Second Place

("With an entry," says David W, "that is reminiscent of
I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue...)

IAN...

"You idiot! I said I wanted to look like a SEDUCER!"

FIRST PLACE

("Even though," admits David, "I had to look up the meaning of 'ficus'!")

GOOD DOG...

Applying for the job at The Royal Parks’ accounting division Emma showed she had a head for ficus.


Well done to the winners and thanks to everyone for taking part and to David for judging the Best in Show (Herbaceous Border Category)!