Discriminating Weirdos

Happy belated Mother's Day

I had meant to post this video for Mother's Day, but I forgot.  I didn't forget Mother's Day, but I did forget what is probably the most important part of Mother's Day in the Moe family.

As you may have read in previous posts, I am a fan of bad music.  Part of my idiotically large collection includes various pieces of trauma-inducing holiday recordings, and I make it my business to play them as part of each holiday celebration.  I don't think I've missed spinning "What Can You Get a Wookie For Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb)" since I started the tradition some 20 years ago.

Side note: I was utterly surprised I found an MP3 of this horrendous ear-salad on line.  I've tried in the past but never found it.  I thought for a while that I had the only 45 of this "song" in the world.  Fortunately, it appears that the recording is alive and well, and I can take my copy out of the safe.

Some holidays, Christmas and Halloween in particular, are well-represented in horrible music.  others, however, are a bit more difficult.  Easter, for some reason, doesn't seem to make crazy people burst out in song.  Sure, there's always the old joke about leaving crushed Easter baskets next to bits of roadkill, but I don't think there's a song about it.

Father's Day and Mother's Day are really difficult.  Sure, there are lots of smarmy songs for them (see C. W. McCall's Roses for Mama and Red Sovine's Daddy if you don't believe me), but true humorous recordings are hard to come by.

Groucho Marx gave us the great Father's Day song, Father's Day:

Today, father, is father's day,
And we're giving you a tie.
It's not much we know,
It's just our way of showing you
We think you are a regular guy.

You say that it was nice of us to bother.
But it really was a pleasure to fuss,
For according to our mother,
You're our father,
And that's good enough for us.
Yes, that's good enough for us.

And now, thanks to the multi-talented Mr. T, we have a song for Mother.  Watch the heart-felt dance and delivery from Sir T.  And just where was he keeping that microphone? (ADAM)

The Short and Meaningful Career of Maila Nurmi

I don't know if anyone out there knows who I'm talking about when I say that Maila Nurmi has died.  She passed away on January 10th, but while this little mention may be a bit late, it is heartfelt.

Maila Nurmi was the actress / model behind the tight, black dress of Vampira, the first late-night horror host.  In 1953, she attended a costume ball in Los Angeles as the unnamed ghoul woman from Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons.  Her look caught the eye of a local television producer who took five months to track her down.  Once her found her, he offered her a job hosting late-night horror films for KABC-TV in LA, a job she took.  In April of 1954, she hit the air.

It was a pretty short run, as the series was canceled in 1955, and she moved the show to a rival station for a bit after that, but Maila Nurmi created a culture that can still be found today.  Cities all over the US created their own horror hosts in the 50s and 60s, and the trend continues today with Rich Koz (better known as Svengoolie) right here in Chicago.  As far as I know, Svengoolie is the only horror host still on the air at a major network, so the trend has really trickled off.

There are hosts around, though.  From Public Access cable stations to video podcasts, people are still dressing up, showing really bad horror films, and performing pun-filled skits and song before commercial breaks.  In one way or another, the trend continues.

But Vampira started it all in 1954.  In her short career, she was nominated for an Emmy, was once fired by a jealous Mae West, and worked with Bela Lugosi (who was actually dead at the time) in Plan 9 From Outer Space.  She was, and is, a cult goddess.

May she and her pet spider, Rollo, rest in peace. (ADAM)