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Danny Thomas at Chicago’s 5100 Club (1943)

June 22nd, 2008 by Scott Marks

Located at 5100 N. Broadway Avenue, The 5100 Club was a forerunner of contemporary stand-up comedy clubs. When struck by a sentimental pang, my mother would pull out the enormous satchel that housed the Marks/Aaronson Tribe Archives.

This 5 x 8 souvenir photo was taken April 4, 1943. Mom spoke very fondly of the nights she and various family members spent watching Danny Thomas perform at the club. This was before television and the 5100 was not only “Chicago’s Greatest Entertainment Value,” it offered desperately needed relief for families whose brothers, sons and husbands were off fighting Hitler and Tojo.

According to the Daily Catholic’s equivalent of People Magazine’s 100 Sexiest People list, Danny Thomas placed 86 on the Top 100 Catholics of the Century. While failing to mention his coveted recipe for Eggs Danny Thomas Style, the ecumenical electronic tabloid does provide this blessed bio.

As a struggling radio actor, Danny fell to his knees before the Blessed Sacrament and asked: “Help me find my place in life and I will build You a shrine where the poor and the helpless and the hopeless may come for comfort and aid.” The BS put him in touch with the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus who suggested he change his name from Amos Jacob to Danny Thomas. In no time the beak-nosed Thomas was hired by the club as their head funnyman.

Leo Salkin booked him into the Uptown club for $75 a week and within a year Danny was the star attraction raking in $500. Abe Lastfogel, head of the William Morris Agency, took over as his personal manager, brought his star to New York and eventually Hollywood where he became an overnight sensation on ABC-TV’s Make Room For Daddy.

This happy gathering looks like something out of The 3 Stooges Scrapbook, but it’s my family. Back row: Unidentified, my maternal grandparents Benjamin and Elizabeth Aaronson, my aunt Gen and Mom. Front row: PRC bit player, my aunt and uncle Sarah and Jerry Glickman and my beloved Aunt Syl.

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Filed Under Image Blog

New Photos Added: Jerry Lewis, Frank Tashlin, RAGING BULL, Mel Blanc, DRAGONSLAYER, Bette Davis, Aurora Model Kits, etc.

April 19th, 2008 by Scott Marks

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Woody Allen - Ad for The Maniaks (1966) comic book

Mel Blanc - 4 Photos

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Listen to Arthur, fatso!

Celebrity Endorsements:
Milton Berle for Suskana Mills, 1951
Bette Davis for Lustre-Creme, 1951
Bert Lahr for Blatz Beer, 1952
Carpet Padding Danny Thomas Style
Arthur Godfrey has the AYDS!, 1965

The Disorderly Orderly - Herald

Dragonslayer - 8 Color Photos

Jerry Lewis - 45 Photos

Groucho Marx - Comic Book profile

The Nutty Professor - 4 Page Contest and Entry Form

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Raging Bull - 8 Lobby Cards

Rio Bravo - Color Shot of Ricky Nelson

The Sad Sack (1957) - 4 Page Viacom TV Promotional Pamphlet (1965)

Frank Tashlin - On the set of The Disorderly Orderly

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Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em, mommy

Vintage ads:
Aurora Model Kits, 1964 (Universal Monsters)
Aurora Model Kits, 1965 (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman & Superboy)
Superman for Palisades Park, New Jersey, 1967
Pink Royal Typewriter Mattel Thingmaker, 1966
The Best of DC Comics on TV, 1967 (Featuring Batman, Robin, Batgirl, Superman & Aquaman)
Rocky and Bullwinkle for Cheerios, 1966
Phillip Morris Cigarettes, 1956
Oreo Cookies, 1951
Happy-Joe-Lucky Comic Strip for Lucky Strike Cigarettes, 1956
Blue Bonnet Margarine, 1956
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, 1958

Which Way to the Front? - Herald

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LOOKING FOR LOVE / Don Weis (1964)

January 7th, 2005 by Scott Marks

Miss Connie Francis
Looking for Love (1964)
Directed by: Don Weis
Written by: Ruth Brooks Flippen
Cast: Connie Francis, Jim Hutton, Susan Oliver, Joby Baker, Barbara Nichols, Johnny Carson, George Hamilton, Yvette Mimieux, Paula Prentiss, Danny Thomas, Charles Lane, Joan Marshall, Jesse White, Jay C. Flippen
Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1
Genres: Musical
Unintentional Laffs: Rating: ★★★☆☆

Connie’s third of her four musical comedies at Metro and the only one that doesn’t have the word ‘boy’ in the title.

By 1964, Hollywood had pretty much thrown in the towel as far as television was concerned and began openly sleeping with the enemy. Not only is the film crammed with popular personalities of the day (Johnny Carson, Danny Thomas, Jesse White, Joby Baker), and cute (overly-rehearsed) on-set mishaps, the structure, pace and composition are strictly small-screen.

It’s easy to understand how screenwriter Flippen (wife of Jay C.) would eventually write on such ground-healing 60’s pigswill as The Brady Bunch and The New Scooby Doo Movies. What’s truly tragic is that these TV-safe anamorphic frames, crowding characters to the center, were lensed by Minnelli mainstay Milton Krasner.

Stardom eluded Libby Caruso (Francis) for an entire month, so she decided to get out of the music business and snare a man. Aside from her voice and her Lady Valet, a glorified clothes hanger she invented, Libby’s only talent is sniffing out Mr. Right. Enter Jim Hutton, a co-worker into TNT (Tall ‘n’ Top-Heavy) who lands Libby a spot to tout her creation on the Tonight Show. It’s a flop, but her singing connects and for another hour we watch Libby slalum her way around a light powder of familiar supporting players in search of true love.

The film was made to cash in on the success of earlier Francis/Hutton vehicles, most notably the enormously entertaining, guiltiest of all guilty pleasures, “Where the Boys Are.” As sociologically and cinematically backwards as that film is, it plays like a sophisticated Lubitsch romp compared to this set-bound stiff. We briefly get to visit a neon drenched sixties supermarket only to be shuttered back in the studio after one establishing shot. “Where the Boys Are?” alumni George Hamilton, Yvette Mimieux and the vastly underrated Paula Prentiss appear, adding little more than name recognition to the poster.

Connie Francis was a firecracker. She had the neurotic frailty of a young Judy Garland, Ethel Merman’s pipes and the comedic traction of a Danny Thomas. Well, two out of three ain’t bad. Pert and delightfully ditzy in the light comedy (comedy-lite?) passages and capable of showing her range even in trash like this, she could have been a contender had it not been for that tragic night in a Howard Johnson’s motel room.

Director Don Weis has come through in the past, but this time he’s simply punching Metro’s timeclock. Impress me once, good for you. Disappoint me after an imposing start and I’ll probably still keep giving you the benefit of the doubt in hopes of a return to form. Who do you think brought me to garbage like this?

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Filed Under Reviews, Theatrical