;

THURSDAY, May 13, 2010

LOS ANGELES (BBC) - A rare reel-to-reel recording of a Beatles interview taped at Toronto’s King Edward Hotel in 1966 in which John Lennon claims the group “is more popular than Jesus” will be auctioned in June.  In the background, Yoko Ono can be heard yelling “And I’m more popular than the Blessed Virgin Mary!”

PHOENIX, AZ (AP) Arizona governor Jan Brewer signed a bill that removes any courses from the state’s schools that “advocate ethic solidarity and promote  chauvinism and racial resentment toward whites.”  She signed the law on the lawn of the state capital below a burning cross while wearing a pillow case with eye holes.

CANNES (BBC) -  “Robin Hood” with Russell Crowe and Kate Blanchett, the opening film of the week-long Cannes Film Festival, has been slightly updated.  While the story still takes place in Sherwood Forest, Robin now steals from sub-prime mortgage brokers and gives to first-time home buyers threatened by foreclosure.

NEWARK, NJ (BBC) The NBA has approved the sale of the cellar-dwelling New Jersey Nets to Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov.  Already, the players are complaining that he’s changed their jerseys to read “New Jersey Nyets,” the key is now called the “Kiev” and their Gatorade has been replaced by borscht. 
   
ASUNCION, PARAGUAY (AP) - The government of Paraguay has withdrawn all support for Oscar-winner Katherine Bigelow’s latest film about the notorious drug-smuggling “triple border” adjoining Argentina and Brazil, saying “It would have an economic impact.” And rightly so.  We’d miss the Super Bowl MVP announcing “I’m going to Paraguay!”
_______________________________

Excerpted From THE LAUGH MAKERS  

In 1978, Ohio was celebrating its Golden Jubilee, and the dedication of the newly-refurbished Ohio Theater in Columbus where Hope had performed in vaudeville. Produced by Bob Banner, our hour-long special would include a parade in which Hope would be the Grand Marshal, capped by a black-tie, invitation-only stage show.  It had been a long day for Hope, and on the evening of the performance, about a half-hour before the taping was set to begin, he was standing in the wings with his long-time manager Elliott Kozak. Most of the guests had already filed into their seats, and a pianist was playing a medley of Ohio-themed songs. Hope turned to Elliott and said, “Feel my pulse.” Elliott did and was alarmed by what he felt. Hope’s heart was racing at about two hundred beats per minute!

As Elliott led him back to his dressing room, Hope said he felt all right and had no chest pains. Regardless of the absence of heart attack symptoms, his heart was racing abnormally, so Elliott insisted he lie down.  Banner was called in from the tech truck outside the theater and after speaking with Hope, told a production assistant to go out front — and without explaining why — locate the insurance executive whose company had sponsored the charity event. Banner wanted to avoid alarming the audience with the usual announcement that was sure to do just that.  The insurance guy told the PA that a well-known cardiologist was on the guest list, but hadn’t arrived yet. She got his number. Banner called him and described Hope’s symptoms. The doctor told Banner to take Hope back to his hotel — just a block from the theater — where the heart specialist could examine him more thoroughly.  With Hope still protesting that he felt fine, Banner and Elliott quietly slipped him out a side door.

Meanwhile, the audience — and most members of Hope’s staff — had no inkling of the emergency. Gig and I accompanied Hope to the hotel and went to our own rooms to stand by if needed.  As Hope lay on the bed waiting for the doctor to arrive, Banner had second thoughts. Maybe they were being too cautious in their attempts to keep the episode under wraps. After all, Hope was 76.  Banner dialed 911.  Within minutes, fire engines, sirens blaring, pulled up to the hotel entrance. Watching them from our balconies, Gig and I thought the unthinkable had happened. We rushed to Hope’s suite where he was being examined by the cardiologist while the fire department ME’s stood by in case their equipment was needed.  They were soon released by the doctor, and after they left, we learned that Hope had been diagnosed with nothing more than an episode of tachycardia — an anxiety attack. The doctor had reduced his racing heart rate by applying pressure on Hope’s femoral artery. He was back to normal.

We all returned to the theater where some of our guest stars had kept the audience entertained during the hour-long delay they blamed on “technical difficulties.” The taping proceeded without incident with Hope as emcee.  Over Dolores’s objection, he did a few more personal appearances in the East, but when he returned home, he had a complete cardio-checkup at Burbank’s St. Joseph’s Hospital. His doctors declared that he was heart healthy, but he had to wear a device called a Holter monitor, which he wore for a week. Connected by phone to the hospital, it measured his heart activity in real time.  I asked him one day how he was taking to having the electronic device
strapped to his belt.  “No problem,” he said. “But every time I open Playboy, the phone rings.”

(Tomorrow:  Were Hope and Crosby close friends off-screen?)


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Compiled from Bob's newsletter "Funnyside Up" published in 2000. This is a yuck and chuckle-filled stroll down memory lane to a time before the Bush administration had inflicted its damage -- a time before the search for WMDs and Osama bin Laden. See what we were laughing at back then, who was in the news and who had yet to enter rehab -- which NFL stars had yet to do time in the Gray Bar Hotel.

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