The entire month off June passed without The Grandstander noting the passing of a single Absent Friend. In that regard, June 2019 was kind of like DiMaggio's 57th game in Cleveland back in 1941, but I digress. In any event, on the third day of July, I was made aware of two deaths that deserve remembrance.
Let's take them alphabetically....
Let's take them alphabetically....
Arte Johnson
1929 - 2019
Few television shows in my lifetime took the country by storm as did "Rowen and Martin's Laugh-In" when it hit the NBC airwaves back in 1967. If you were around then, you know what I am talking about, and you remember the cast of characters and all of the catch phrases and regular bits. One of the stars of Laugh-In's troop of regulars was comic actor Arte Johnson, who died yesterday at the age of 90.
Johnson had an acting career that stretched from 1954 up until 2005 and included an astonishing 147 acting credits in IMDB, but he will be forever remembered for his varying roles on Laugh-In. From the guy in the yellow rain suit who always fell on his tricycle, to the German soldier peeking from behind the bushes and say one of the shows great catch phrases, "verrrry interesting"....
to Tyrone F. Horneigh, the classic dirty old man who was constantly pestering spinster Gladys Ormphby, played by Ruth Buzzi, on the park bench with classic double entendres, only to get beaten to a pulp by Buzzi with her purse.
After hearing the news of Johnson's death yesterday, I went deep into the YouTube rabbit hole looking at some of these Tyrone-Gladys bits and I found myself laughing heartily. This particular one was my favorite:
Yep, Laugh-in and Arte Johnson are still making me laugh, fifty-two years later.
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I owe my pal Rob Tuchman a debt of thanks for making me aware yesterday of the death of Sid Ramin at the age of 100. I confess that I did not know the name when I first saw it, but it turns out I certainly knew his work, and he is the kind of guy who needs to be noted.
Sid Ramin
1919 - 2019
Ramin was a composer and a musical orchestrator of great distinction. He won an Academy Award for his orchestration on the 1961 film "West Side Story", a Grammy Award for that film's sound track album, and two Emmy Awards for similar work that he did on the television soap opera, "All My Children". He did musical work on television series such as "The Simpsons", "The Office", "Gilmore Girls", and "Perfect Strangers" among others. He wrote the 1960's hit song "Music To Watch Girls By", a song which was included in one of play Dan Bonk's favorite movies, "The Dish" (2000). He worked as recently as 2018, when he was credited for musical work on the movie "A Simple Favor". But his piece de resistance may well be the fact that he wrote the theme song for "The Patty Duke Show". Yep, the guy who worked with Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim on "West Side Story", one of the great musical works of all time, also wrote this classic couplet:
"Patty likes to rock and roll
"A hot dog makes her lose control"
As I said above, the passing of a guy like this simply HAS to be noted!!
RIP Arte Johnson and Sid Ramin. They both had great runs.
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