Author: chimesfreedom

Editor-in-chief, New York.

Bonanza’s Hoss With The Three Stooges

Dan Blocker Three Stooges Anyone who has ever watched the TV series Bonanza could not help being fond of Eric “Hoss” Cartwright, played by Dan Blocker. Born Bobby Dan Davis Blocker in Bowie County, Texas, the actor was known as a caring man like his Bonanza character.

The real man, however, was much more intelligent than the character.  Blocker earned a Master’s degree and worked as a teacher before starting acting. Wikipedia reports that Blocker, who earned a Purple Heart in the Korean War, also was active in political causes, such as taking a stand against the Vietnam War.

Blocker was best known for his role as the middle son on Bonanza, a role that Blocker tried to infuse with kindness. But Blocker appeared in other roles, and he almost appeared in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove.

One of his very early roles, though, had him appearing in a Three Stooges short called Outer Space Jitters in 1957 during the era when Joe Besser joined Moe and Larry. Blocker’s role as “The Goon” zombie lacks the endearing qualities we would see in Hoss, but it is still fun to see Blocker on screen with the Stooges.

In this short, Blocker first appears around the 9:45 mark looking very un-Hoss-like. Check it out.

Blocker died at the age of 43 in 1972 of a pulmonary embolism after gall bladder surgery. At the time, Bonanza was about to start filming its final season. Although actor Lorne Greene did not think the show could continue without Blocker, the show completed that season.

The series, of course, had to address the absence of Blocker’s character. So, an episode revealed that Hoss died in an accident. Mental Floss reports the episode as the first time in TV history that a show dealt with the death of an actor and mentioned the death of a character.

What is your favorite Dan Blocker scene? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Cool Cats Dancing On the Big Screen

    Saturday Night Fever Travolta A new short montage, “Dancing and Cool in Movies,” was compiled by MovieCool.Final2. The video does a good job of exploring how “cool” is expressed in movies though dancing scenes. Movies discussed include Jailhouse Rock (1957), Grease (1978), and Pulp Fiction (1994).  For a full list of the movies in the video, head over to Slate.

    Update: Unfortunately, that video is no longer available for embedding, but here is another montage of dancing in movies:


    Onscreen dances are used to convey other messages besides cool, of course. I find it hard to select a favorite dance scene from a film, although it is hard to top Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain (1952). Few movie scenes have conveyed the happiness of being in love as well.

    Another film uses dance to show a different type of happiness. When the cast of The Big Chill (a film that had a recent anniversary) begin moving to the Temptations’ “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” one cannot help but smile. Of course, “older” people dancing to the music from their younger days is the antithesis of the “Dancing and Cool in Movies” theme exploring the intersection of hippness and dance. But, like Gene Kelly’s dance, the dance creates a great expression of joy.

    What is your favorite dance scene in a movie? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    You Only Are What You Believe: 1967 Anti-War Protest and the Year’s Music

    Viet Nam war protest D.C. On October 21 in 1967, one of the most significant signs of public disgruntlement with the Vietnam conflict began.  Nearly 100,000 people showed up in D.C. to protest the U.S. role in the war.

    The March on the Pentagon to Confront the War Makers started near the Lincoln Memorial, and approximately 50,000 of the protesters then went to the Pentagon, where many remained until October 23 and where some participated in acts of civil disobedience. Author Norman Mailer captured many of the events of the protest in his novel, Armies of the Night.

    That year there were other protests around the country, as polls showed that the support for the war had dropped below 50%.  All of those factors led President Lyndon Johnson’s administration to respond with a public relations campaign in support of the war.

    But the protest, and complaints after the Tet offensive in early 1968, illustrated that many Americans would continue to raise their voices to end the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

    Music Reflects the Protests Against the War

    At the time, one might have noticed from the music that something was in the air. The year 1967 began with the Rolling Stones appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show in January.  At the show’s request, the band famously changed the title lyrics of “Let’s Spend the Night Together” to the less sexy “Let’s Spend Some Time Together.” But by September, the Doors appeared on the same show after also agreeing to alter the lyrics to their song, “Light My Fire.” But Jim Morrison captured the growing youth rebellion by going ahead and singing the offending line “Girl we couldn’t get much higher.”

    In other 1967 music news, Buffalo Springfrield released “For What It’s Worth” in January. In February, Aretha Franklin recorded “Respect.” In March, the Who performed for the first time in the U.S. In June, the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

    Also in June, the Monterey Pop Festival brought young people together to hear such artists as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Otis Redding.  Redding soon would write and record “(Sitting on) the Dock of the Bay.”

    John Lennon in How I Won the War

    Then, on October 18, three days before the Washington protest, the first issue of Rolling Stone magazine came off the presses with a cover photo of John Lennon from the film How I Won the War.  The film was a comedy where Lennon first appeared with his famous round glasses.

    Phil Ochs Declares the War is Over

    Of course, there was music at the protest in D.C. too. One of the performers at the protest was Phil Ochs. He performed his recent song that imagined a future without the war, “The War is Over.”

    In the song at the protest, Ochs proclaimed “This country is too young to die,” so “I declare the war is over.” He concludes, “You only are what you believe.”

    Below is a video of a different live performance of “The War is Over.”

    The U.S. eventually withdrew its troops from Viet Nam, but it would be nearly six more years before the war was actually over for the U.S. soldiers and their loved ones at home.

    Photo via public domain.

    What is your favorite music or event from 1967? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    The Timelessness of Elton John’s “Your Song”

    Elton John Your Song Elton John‘s first hit, “Your Song,” has remained one of his most timeless since it first scaled the charts in 1970. Songwriter Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics when he was only 17, but it could have been a hit in any decade.

    John has played the song in concert thousands of times since it led off his self-titled second album in 1970, and I have heard it almost as many. Check out this video montage of John singing the song through the years.

    What is your favorite Elton John song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    The Attic Sessions: Andrew Combs

    andrew combs

    The Attic Sessions are a series of short documentaries of artists playing songs and telling stories in the Attic Lounge in the upper level of the War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. Recent films have focused on singers Holly Williams, Joshua Black Wilkins, Face to Face, and one of my favorite new artists, Andrew Combs. Check out The Attic Sessions: Season Three, Episode Two: Andrew Combs.

    For our previous Chimesfreedom review of the debut album from Andrew Combs, as well as a stream of that album, check out Andrew Combs Need Not Be A “Worried Man.”

    What is your favorite episode of “The Attic Sessions”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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