Following up on one of the big stories from last week …
>>>Here's something you may want to keep a Forgotten Hit Eye on as Elvis' former authenticated True Blue Blue Suede Shoes went on auction at the British Henry Aldreide and Son Auction House in the middle of our US night! They could bring $126,000 to $152,000. At that price, "DAMN! DON'T YOU STEP ON MY BLUE SUEDE SHOES!!" They're a size 10 and a half made by Nann-Bush. The auction began with a starting bid of $69,000. (CB)
>>>Thanks for the heads up! I was all set to enter my bid when I saw that you said they were size 10 1/2 ...
I wear a size 9 ... so these'll never fit ...
Guess I'm gonna have to take a pass on this one. (kk)
And you are counting your lucky stars on this one.
Shelley
Shoe-et!!!!
Now this Auction Update from your Personal Fast Talkin' Gavel Pounder, Me!
(Sung to the open of "Blue Suede Shoes!")
“Well, it’s one for the Money!
Two for the Show!
Three to get Ready!
And Four to . . . Sold!"
For around $101,665!
Elvis Presley's Personal Blue Suede Shoes sold earlier today at the Henry Aldridge & Son Auction House located about three hours Southwest of London.
If you were planning to bid, too late! Time has run out!
“These shoes were made for rockin’
And that’s just what they . . . ah . . . did!
CB ( which stands for “Caveat-Emptor Boy!” )
>>>The response to Endless Summer was stunning. Four months after hitting the stores, it reached Number One and remained on the Billboard album chart for a remarkable 155 weeks (kk)
It also hit No. 1 on the Cash Box Album Chart, that week, coming in ahead of such '70s luminaries as Bad Company, John Denver and Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
– Randy Price
I was very sad to hear about the passing of Martin Mull …
I was a big fan of his early work … and used to enjoy seeing him pop up in various roles on television over the years. (I thought “Fernwood Tonight” / “America Tonight” was just brilliant … and Mull played the TV host perfectly with just the right amount of “smug.” Of course having Fred Willard there as his sidekick only helped to enhance the whole experience.)
He always had a way of putting his own spin on things that no matter what, still allowed Martin Mull come thru. (He even hit the pop charts! His 1973 parody, “Dueling Tubas,” eeked its way up to #92 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Pop Chart!) kk
Timmy sent us this piece from The Associated Press …
Martin Mull, comedian & actor, dies at 80
June 28, 2024
The Associated Press
Martin Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on sitcoms including “Roseanne” and “Arrested Development,” has died, his daughter said Friday.
Mull's daughter, TV writer and comic artist Maggie Mull, said her father died at home on Thursday after “a valiant fight against a long illness.”
Mull, who was also a guitarist and painter, came to national fame with a recurring role on the Norman Lear-created satirical soap opera “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” and the starring role in its spinoff, “Fernwood Tonight."
“He was known for excelling at every creative discipline imaginable and also for doing Red Roof Inn commercials,” Maggie Mull said in an Instagram post. “He would find that joke funny. He was never not funny. My dad will be deeply missed by his wife and daughter, by his friends and coworkers, by fellow artists and comedians and musicians, and — the sign of a truly exceptional person — by many, many dogs.”
Known for his blonde hair and well-trimmed mustache, Mull was born in Chicago, raised in Ohio and Connecticut and studied art in Rhode Island and Rome.
His first foray into show business was as a songwriter, penning the 1970 semi-hit “A Girl Named Johnny Cash” for singer Jane Morgan.
He would combine music and comedy in an act that he brought to hip Hollywood clubs in the 1970s.
“In 1976 I was a guitar player and sit-down comic appearing at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip when Norman Lear walked in and heard me," Mull told The Associated Press in 1980. “He cast me as the wife beater on ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.’ Four months later I was spun off on my own show.”
His time on the Strip was memorialized in the 1973 country rock classic “Lonesome L.A. Cowboy" where the Riders of the Purple Sage give him a shoutout along with music luminaries Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge.
“I know Kris and Rita and Marty Mull are hangin' at the Troubadour,” the song says.
On “Fernwood Tonight” (sometimes styled as “Fernwood 2 Night”), he played Barth Gimble, the host of a local talk show in a midwestern town and twin to his “Mary Hartman” character. Fred Willard, a frequent collaborator with very similar comic sensibilities, played his sidekick. It was later revamped as “America 2 Night” and set in Southern California.
He would get to be a real talk show host as a substitute for Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show."
Mull often played slightly sleazy, somewhat slimy and often smarmy characters as he did as Teri Garr's boss and Michael Keaton's foe in 1983's “Mr. Mom.” He played Colonel Mustard in the 1985 movie adaptation of the board game “Clue,” which, like many things Mull appeared in, has become a cult classic.
The 1980s also brought what many thought was his best work, “A History of White People in America,” a mockumentary that first aired on Cinemax. Mull co-created the show and starred as a “60 Minutes” style investigative reporter investigating all things milquetoast and mundane. Willard was again a co-star.
He wrote and starred in 1988's “Rented Lips" alongside Robert Downey Jr., whose father, Robert Sr., directed.
His co-star Jennifer Tilly said in an X post Friday that Mull was “such a witty charismatic and kind person.”
In the 1990s he was best known for his recurring role on several seasons on “Roseanne,” in which he played a warmer, less sleazy boss to the title character, an openly gay man whose partner was played by Willard, who died in 2020.
Mull would later play private eye Gene Parmesan on “Arrested Development,” a cult-classic character on a cult-classic show, and would be nominated for an Emmy, his first, in 2016 for a guest run on “Veep.”
“What I did on ‘Veep’ I’m very proud of, but I’d like to think it’s probably more collective, at my age it’s more collective,” Mull told the AP after his nomination. “It might go all the way back to ‘Fernwood.’”
Other comedians and actors were often his biggest fans.
“Martin was the greatest,” “Bridesmaids” director Paul Feig said on X. “So funny, so talented, such a nice guy. Was lucky enough to act with him on The Jackie Thomas Show and treasured every moment being with a legend. Fernwood Tonight was so influential in my life.”
Mull is survived by his daughter and musician Wendy Haas, his wife since 1982
60 YEARS AGO TODAY:
7/1/64 – Four days after marrying his first wife, Michael Nesmith leave San Antonio to pursue a career in Los Angeles
