Ha-ha-ha-HA-ha! I'll sleep when I'm dead!

Cafe Society
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Woody Woodpecker is finally coming to DVD!

Not every single cartoon, but hopefully there’ll be a second volume at some point. But 45 Woodys, 5 Chilly Willys, and a bunch of standalones, including “H[del]i[/del]ist[del]o[/del]erical High Spots in American History,” which I think I’ve only seen once, but never forgotten, and the immortal “Shh-h-h-h-h”! And wartime cartoons, which I have never seen! I cannot wait; this has got to include the one where Woody goes to get his driver’s license renewed.

Furthermore, a biography of Warren Zevon is also in the pipeline. I’m actually a bit less eager to read that, though I know I will. Warren was a bad drunk, and even though he and the ex-wife who wrote this are said to be on good terms, that might have mainly been for the sake of their daughter, who is now grown with kids of her own. She may not feel like mincing words now. OTOH, I suppose it’s better for Ariel’s sons not to have romantic delusions about their grandpa, like Margaux Hemingway did. As for me, well, I’ve read plenty of rock bios. The first time I read an unvarnished Beatles bio, it fried my hair. So I shouldn’t be too taken aback by this.

Speaking of the Woody-at-the-DMV cartoon mentioned above, at the beginning of it, he sings a song ending with a phrase that could apply equally well to him and to Warren. “So I’m crazy; so what, what can I do/So are YOU!”

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(with apologies for hijacking this thread before it even gets started)

I gotta know what book you’re talking about!

Oh, and yay! to Woody on DVD and Warren on paper, too! Thanks for the heads up. I was looking for something to add to my Amazon order to get free shipping, and you just helped me out. That Beatles book will help, too. :wink:

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Well, it was The Love You Make by Peter Brown, an insider with the Beatles. But I must warn you that you might not find it as scandalous as I did. It was 1984, Lennon only a few years dead, the others not talking much, and I was 14. The only other Beatles book I’d read was Shout! by Philip Norman, who didn’t know them. The subtitle – “The Beatles In Their Generation” – is quite apt: it provides a lot of insight into British society in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, and how much the Beatles were a product of their era. It is, however, light on the personal details.

Whereas, I think Brown was the first person to talk in detail about John, Cynthia, George and Pattie tripping on acid for the first time. He’s certainly the first to talk in detail, perhaps at all, about how the group almost didn’t make it out of Manila in one piece. And all the stuff about John’s violent tendencies, Paul’s promiscuity, the drug use, Brian Epstein’s instability, and so forth, blew my mind. Nowadays, though, all this stuff is common knowledge. I own but have not yet read the Bob Spitz biography, so I can’t compare the two.

But this is still worth reading. Brown is a good storyteller, he was right in the room for a lot of this stuff, and he’s even modest enough to say “The fifth Beatle was undoubtedly Neil Aspinall,” when he could have stopped at saying it just wasn’t Murray the K. I don’t know about Shout! If you’re interested, as I am, in societal changes, not just the story of a band, then check it out, but be advised of hundreds of pages in tiny, tiny print and a lot of British (and outdated by now) references that you’ll have to look up.

Also be advised re: Amazon that if one of the items you order is not yet available, you will have to pay for shipping, unless you specify that you want to wait until all items are available. And I found out the hard way that it’s a good idea to confirm this over the phone. “Oh, the last book was not available, so we’re shipping it separately…Well, of course you have to pay! You didn’t qualify!” :mad:

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Ah, good. Thank you so much for the detailed response. I think I’d really enjoy The Love You Make, as that was my childhood time as well, so that’ll be my extra purchase. And I appreciate the tip on Amazon as well, although it’s a tip I’ve learned the hard way myself as well.

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Here’s a complete list of Cartunes on the Woody Woodpecker DVD. I believe Jerry Beck said he intentionally set it up that if Universal never did another DVD set, there’d still be a lot of good cartoons on it. Since the Woodys are in chronological order, he may be hoping that there’s another set. And indeed, 1946’s Reckless Driver is among the cartoons on the set. I haven’t seen a Walter Lantz Cartune in years- I’m looking forward to this one- especially some of the Oscar-nominated music-themed ones (Barber of Seville, Musical Moments from Chopin. Although Wet Blanket Policy is not a musical cartoon, it opens with the immortal Oscar-nominated Woody Woodpecker Song). Ha-ha-ha-HA-ha!

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It’s also interesting that a few of the Lantz Oswald cartoons will be on the set, which will make it an interesting companion to the Oswald set Disney is releasing as part of its next Disney Treasures collection later this year. (Quick history for those unfamiliar, IIRC: Walt Disney created a character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and sold it to Charles Mintz, whose cartoons were distributed by Universal. Oswald became a big hit, and Disney wanted to renegotiate his contract with Mintz so he could get more money. Mintz basically screwed Walt over, since Mintz owned the rights to the character and Walt couldn’t do anything about it. Walt decided to found his own studio and created a new Oswald-like character he owned…some rodent with pants or something. Back at Universal, Mintz put Walter Lantz in charge of the Oswalds, starting the Universal/Lantz dynasty which would lead to Andy Panda, Woody Woodpecker, Chilly Willy, and other immortal characters. In 2006, Universal sold Oswald back to Disney in exchange for Al Michaels’s ABC contract, among other things.)

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And Warner Bros. is releasing a Tex Avery’s Droopy set, which will make an interesting companion to Avery’s Universal cartoons, including Crazy Mixed-Up Pup, Shhh-h!, and the early Chillys. 2007 is a good year for cartoons on DVD!

(Stupid 5-minute time limit. Ah well. I’m an intistigator. A troublemaker.)

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Hmmmmm. I don’t see “What’s Sweepin’” on that list. So it looks like most of the Grace Stafford-voiced Woodys are too recent for inclusion. Still, it’s better than when I thought none of these would ever be on DVD.

And “Pantry Panic” is hilarious! That’s one of the many times the fourth wall was broken. “Er…Would one of you care to step into the lobby and get me a candy bar?”

singular, you’re welcome!

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Yeah, the set has the first 65 Woodys in chronological order. According to this very fine Walter Lantz Cartune site, Grace Stafford (Lantz’s wife) took over for Bugs Hardaway as the voice of Woody in 1952, and the shorts continued for 20 years. What’s Sweepin was the first Lantz short of 1953.

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Thanks for the link!

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You’re welcome. We cartoon fans have to stick together. Ha-ha-ha-HA-ha!

(I mistyped, there are 45 Woodys and around 15 other miscellaneous Cartunes.)