Yesterday I had Turner Classic Movies on and it was Tarzan Day in honor of Johnny Weissmuller’s birthday. I only wanted to see Tarzan’s New York Adventure which was a classic when I was growing up. It was usually shown on weekends, so kids could see it. I wanted to see Tarzan jump from the Brooklyn Bridge. According to the information about the movie on TCM, it was not filmed in New York and they used a dummy thrown into a studio back lot swimming pool to create the effect of Tarzan jumping into the East River to escape the police.

There were interviews with Maureen O’Sullivan and Johnny Weissmuller’s son, as well as some Edgar Rice Burroughs know it alls. I enjoyed it a lot and still love watching the Tarzan movies all these years later after I first saw them which is many years later when they were first released. I never saw the one with Bo Derek and I never saw the television series either. I guess its Johnny Weissmuller for me. I sure would like to have that Tarzan yell though. Still pretty impressive I think. Carol Burnett did a decent job of it I suppose.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the death of Marilyn Monroe. Dead at 36 which is a really a terrible shame. Way too young. So on Turner Classic Movies it seems to be all Marilyn Monroe. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was just on, and now it is the Seven Year Itch, from Howard Hawks to Billy Wilder. Lately I’ve been just putting Turner Classic Movies on. Perhaps it is escapism from the mundane reality. In any event it works for me. Memories of movies that my mother used to like and movies that I liked when growing up and seeing them on TV.

I am also reading Commando: The Autobiography of Johnny Ramone. What a tough nut he was. Definitely not someone I would like to get to know. I did meet Joey a few times, the last time was the day after Christmas at Farfetched. He bought a slew of holiday cards since they were now half price and I didn’t recognize it but he certainly had some obsessive compulsive disorder, which Johnny puts down throughout his book. He ran the Ramones like an army unit, tough rules and schedules but he did make sure they got paid.

They never made much money from record sales and survived by ceaseless touring. Johnny wrote how they made more money once they broke up than they did when they were a band. Most of the money came from merchandizing. Those Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee t-shirts really brought in the dough. I can only guess Tommy and Marky must have gotten a cut. And Tommy and Marky are the last two surviving Ramones. Of course that discounts CJ Ramone And Richie Ramone. Elvis Ramone went back to playing drums for Blondie.

Johnny certainly had a lot to say besides praising George Bush when the Ramones were inducted into the hall of fame. It’s an interesting book and though he was a pain in the ass to deal with, he was focused and looked after the band since if he didn’t then it probably would have fallen apart a lot sooner than it actually did.




03 Danny Says