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A very special actor who worked with MAE WEST has met his final curtain.
• • Word comes that Mickey Carroll, one of the last surviving Munchkins from the iconic 1939 screen classic "The Wizard of Oz" died recently at age 89. It was his only motion picture but his brief cameos were most memorable. .
• • Born in St. Louis on 8 July 1919, Mickey Carroll's birthname was Michael Finocchiaro. The son of Italian immigrants who carved marble cemetery monuments, he grew up with a twin sister and four older siblings, all of whom are deceased.
• • It was a pituitary condition that caused Carroll's height to stop at 4-foot-3.
• • What he lacked in stature he made up for with an abundance of appeal, personality, and comedic timing. When presidential hopeful Franklin D. Roosevelt was campaigning in New York City, Mickey Carroll helped warm up the voters. He was also hired as a crowd-getter during Harry Truman's whistlestop campaign.
• • In St. Louis, Carroll tripped the light fantastic at the Muny Theater when he was still an elementary school pupil. Afterwards, he appeared in Chicago clubs and on the Orpheum Theater vaudeville circuit.
• • Expanding his specialties, Mickey Carroll also did Phillip Morris live radio ads — — "Call for Philip Morris!" — — and appeared in shows with Mae West. He followed up those successes with radio shows with George Burns, Gracie Allen, Jack Benny, and Al Jolson.
• • In November 2007, Mickey Carroll received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame along with six other surviving Munchkins: Ruth Duccini, Jerry Maren, Margaret Pellegrini, Meinhardt Raabe, Karl Slover, and Clarence Swensen.
• • Until January of this year, the pint-size performer enjoyed living in his own home in Bel-Nor. After he got a pacemaker, however, he began boarding with a caretaker, who told the press that he died in his sleep, very peacefully, and perhaps dreaming of following the yellow brick road in the wonderful land of Oz.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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In a recent interview, comedienne, cabaret performer, and former stripper Lisa Faith Phillips discussed the life of a stand-up comic, MAE WEST, and whether women are actually funny,
• • Interviewer Betty Swallow asked Lisa: Why is it that men are considered funnier? Are men better at laughing at themselves, particularly physically?
• • Lisa Faith Phillips said: I was struck by a book that came out in 1986 Comedy Writing Secrets by Melvin Helitzer. In it he proposes that the two most important elements of why we laugh are superiority and surprise — — with the desire to feel superior the most important.
• • Melvin Helitzer writes: “There is a strong and constant need for us to feel superior… What we are often doing with humor is comparing ourselves with others we consider inferior by ridiculing their intelligence, their social standing and their physical infirmities.”
• • It seems easier for men to pursue this sort of comedy as they have been used to being in the power position for centuries. It is harder for women, though it has thankfully been changing, to come at the audience from a power position as for centuries we have been relegated to the position of helpmate, nurturing, and supportive. So women have to break the mold of how society has viewed them for centuries to follow their male counterparts.
• • Looking back over what comediennes were successful on television, there does seem to be only the “allowed” roles for women by the male controlled early movies and television. Gracie Allen — — ding-a-ling housewife, Lucille Ball — — ding-a-ling housewife, Phyllis Diller — — lazy, sloppy housewife, Rosanne Barr — — fat, lazy sloppy housewife. There was also the Mae West’s and Sophie Tucker’s brand of bad girl humor which didn’t thrive as well on TV — — though it has had a life in the comedy and cabaret clubs.
• • It is striking that many of the women comedians today who are the most successful are lesbians: Ellen Degeneres, Paula Poundstone, Rosie O’Donnell, Wanda Sykes, which ties into the aggressive outsider role that comediennes often are placed.
• • I am excited to see how comedy will change now that women are becoming a more accepted part of the comedy scene . . . . • • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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MAE WEST returns to the Brooklyn Paramount on Friday 25 April 2008.
• • An all-day conference "Vaudeville at the Paramount" will be presented at Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus and offer rare film clips along with panels including radio legend Joe Franklin, critic Dave Kehr and screenwriter Norman Steinberg, and a reception.
• • Once a prestigious Brooklyn landmark, the historic Paramount Theatre enjoyed a heyday during the Prohibition Era.
• • The wide-ranging cultural impact of vaudeville and the historic Brooklyn Paramount Theatre in the 1920s and 30s will be the topic of a special conference at Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus on Friday, April 25, 2008. Featuring panels with writers, critics, and researchers along with rare film clips, a musical performance and reception, the event is free and open to the public.
• • The conference, entitled Vaudeville at the Brooklyn Paramount, will recall the history of the famed Paramount theatre — — now part of the Brooklyn Campus — — and explore the vaudeville variety art form and its influence on American popular culture in the twentieth century. More than ten scheduled speakers will include Dave Kehr, film critic for The New York Times; Norman Steinberg, writer of Blazing Saddles now teaching screenwriting at the Brooklyn Campus; and Joe Franklin, talk show icon and host of the weekly Memory Lane program on WOR.
• • Popularized in venues throughout the United States as accessible entertainment for the whole family, vaudeville performances included acts from the worlds of music, acrobatics, dance, comedy, trained animals and magic. When the Brooklyn Paramount Theatre opened in 1928 as a destination for viewing the new talkie films, it included vaudeville with the cinema offerings, drawing performers such as MAE WEST, Ginger Rogers, Rudy Vallee, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, George Burns, Gracie Allen, and Ethel Merman. Although vaudeville was eclipsed by radio, film and television, it left an indelible influence on formats for diverse and democratic nightlife.
• • "Vaudeville at the Brooklyn Paramount" will take place in the Spike Lee Screening Room, LLC 122, on the Brooklyn Campus, located near Flatbush and DeKalb avenues in downtown Brooklyn, on Friday, April 25, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. A reception with a performance by the Sol Yaged Quartet will begin at 5 p.m. The event is open and free to the public.
• • Info: contact Michael Hittman, professor of anthropology at (718) 488-1185; or Joseph Dorinson, professor of history, at (718) 488-1191.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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