Dig A Hole: Arnold Stang
December 22nd, 2009 by Scott Marks
Arnold Stang, beloved character actor, cartoon voice virtuoso and Hollywood’s foremost nerd has died of pneumonia in Newton, Massachusetts. There is some dispute over his age. According to Wikipedia, “Stang was born in New York City in 1918, but often claimed Chelsea, Massachusetts as his birthplace and 1925 as his birth date.” If we go by Wikipedia, Stang was 91 when he passed on December 20.
I knew the voice long before the face and his name was one of the first belonging to an actor that I committed to memory. Between Herman the Mouse, Top Cat, “Alakazam the Great,” Popeye’s pal Shorty, the Chunky candy bar commercials (”Chunky! What a chunk o’ chocolate!”) and his star turn as Rumpelstiltskin in “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm,” Stang was as much an adolescent cultural touchstone as Groucho, Mel Blanc, Jerry Lewis, Soupy Sales and Larry Fine.
Stang’s trademark character was a nerd on steroids, a pipsqueak who used his little man’s complex to enact a bully’s revenge against the universe. Even his name was unpleasant to the ear. Isn’t a “Stang” the sound a fork prong makes when you pluck it?
At the age of 9 he landed a role on radio’s “Horn and Hardart’s Children’s Hour” which led to another kid’s show ”Let’s Pretend.” Stang lent his Brooklynese twang to Hoiman’ the Mouse in Famous Studios’ “Herman and Katnip” series, and in 1961 he voiced Hanna-Barbera’s “Top Cat.” Don’t let the kid stuff fool you. Even in cartoons, Stang played a smart-alecky conniver; a nasally pest that wanted nothing more than to be a mosquito when he grew up. Beneath the ten pound spectacles, nine inch nose and foot-long chipmunk teeth beat the heart of a conniving little weasel.
After all the emasculation, no wonder Arnold Stang was so angry.
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Tags: Arnold Stang, arnold stang chunky, Arnold Stang dead, Arnold Stang dies, Arnold Stang obituary, arnoldstang, Bob Hope, chunky candy bar, Frank Sinatra, hanna barbera, henry morgan, herman and katnip, herman the mouse, Milton Berle, Otto Preminger, The Man With the Golden Arm, top catFiled Under Obituaries
New Photos Added: Alfred Hitchcock, Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, BENJAMIN BUTTON, The Marx Bros., NORTH BY NORTHWEST, REAR WINDOW, Frank Sinatra, etc.
January 4th, 2009 by Scott Marks
Autographed cast photo from YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU (1938).
Jean Arthur - 7 photos added.
Jack Benny - 1 candid photo added of Jack and Mary attending the opening of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Milton Berle - 1 candid photo added of Uncle Miltie, Tony Curtis and Dean Martin.
George Cukor - 2 photos added with Marilyn Monroe and Yves Montand on the set of Let’s Make Love.
David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - New gallery with 59 photos added.
Zsa Zsa Gabor - 2 photos added of Zsa Zsa and George Sanders at 1952 Academy Awards.
Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino - New gallery with 39 images added.
Cary Grant - 5 photos added.
Audrey Hepburn - 5 photos added.
Alfred Hitchcock - 32 photos added.
Bob Hope - 6 photos added.
Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen’s Jellyfish - 8 photos added.
Julius Larosa - 1 photo added. (Thanks to Rob Martinez.)
Jerry Lewis - 6 photos added.
Tags: Alfred Hitchcock, Anne Hathaway, Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, Evan Rachel Wood, Frank Sinatra, George Cukor, gran torino, Groucho Marx, Jack Benny, Jayne Mansfield, Jean Arthur, Jean Seberg, jellyfish, Jerry Lewis, juliette lewis, julius larosa, Milton Berle, New Photos, north by northwest, Orson Welles, Otto Preminger, rachel getting married, REAR WINDOW, speedway, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Marx Brothers, THE WACKNESS, to catch a thief, walter matthau, zsa zsa gaborFiled Under Image Blog
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