L. Kent Wolgamott: Odds and sods from entertainment world
Don't expect things to get too risque when "Tommy Lee Goes to College," the NBC reality show filmed in Lincoln last fall comes to the tube sometime this summer.
Lee talks a little about the show in the Jan. 21 issue of Entertainment Weekly, highlighting what the magazine's editors think will be hot this year, saying that, among other things, he started his own frat while at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and studied hard with the help of "the hottest-looking tutor in the whole place," who happens to be the girlfriend of a football player.
Lee says he got plenty of attention from girls while in Lincoln.
"But I had to, you know, be kind of a good boy out there," he said.
So there's not going to be any romance or any hot action on the show?
"It's NBC, dude. If it was Showtime, we coulda gone a little crazy."
BRIGHT EYES TO RELEASE TWO DISCS ON TUESDAY
The big national record release of next week is actually a pair of releases, both from Bright Eyes, the ever-changing outfit led by Omaha native Conor Oberst, who now spends much of his time in New York, produced by Lincoln's Mike Mogis and released on Saddle Creek, the Omaha independent label.
The two discs are "Digital Ash in a Digital Urn," an electric/electronic record and "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning," a folky record designed to showcase Oberst's talent as a singer/songwriter. I've heard only a few tracks off the records and am apparently the last music writer in America to get copies of the discs.
They have been receiving rave reviews from newspaper and magazine critics this week. I'll give them a listen and I'm sure have plenty to say about them next week.
LINCOLN ‘REEFER MADNESS' CONNECTION
Who knew that Lincoln had a connection to the 1936 cult classic "Reefer Madness"?
I certainly didn't until I looked at the obituaries of Thelma White, the actress who played hard-boiled blonde marijuana dealer Mae.
White, who died last week at age 94, was born Thelma Wolpa in Lincoln in 1910, the daughter of itinerant carnival performers who traveled throughout the Midwest. She got her start as a performer at age 2 as a "live baby doll" in the A.C. Worthman Carnival and continued working in vaudeville before beginning her film career in comedy one-reelers.
She appeared on Broadway in shows including "Saluta" co-starring Milton Berle. Her film appearances included "Bowery Champs" with the East Side Kids, "Blonde Poison," "Song of the Open Road," and "The Moon Is Our Home." Then came "Reefer Madness."
She was chosen by RKO studios for the role of Mae, who lures unsuspecting youth to her apartment where she peddles joints of the demon weed to the kids, turning them into sex-crazed addicts who shoot their girlfriends, run over pedestrians, go insane and otherwise ruin their lives.
Written by a religious group, "Reefer Madness" was intended to be anti-drug propaganda. But in the early '70s, the picture was revived, playing the midnight movie circuit and turning into a hilarious, campy, unintentional parody.
"I'm ashamed to say that it's the only one of my films that's become a classic," White said in a 1987 interview. "I hide my head when I think about it…a dreadful film."
After an illness in 1946, she became unable to perform and started a talent agency, where she worked with Dolores Hart, James Coburn and Ann Jillian. In the late 1960s, she launched a production company, working on projects including "Tom Jones Rides Again," in which she also co-starred.
GOODBYE TO HANK.
If you went into Duffy's Tavern from 1963 to the turn of the century, chances are you had an encounter with Henrietta ‘Hank' Ogg, the fiery waitress who befriended a few generations of patrons. Ogg, who retired from Duffy's in 1999 due to health concerns, passed away last week.
Here's some of what Duffy's owner Reg McMeen had to say about Hank in a eulogy posted on the bar's Web site:
"Hank educated, scolded, mothered but most of all befriended generations of Duffy's regulars during her time here and had an uncanny ability to remember almost anyone she met.…by the end of the night, you'd be spilling your guts to her.
"In these situations, she exhibited boundless compassion, not sugary or flowery but true human caring. If the situation called for it, she had the appropriate piece of wisdom to get you through those tough times. (‘Inch by inch, life's a cinch. Yard by yard, life gets hard.' I cannot tell you how many times this particular gem has crossed my mind in the past 18 years.)
This is not to say that Hank was always Mother Theresa. It was like breaking a wild horse every time we tried to introduce something new or change some age-old tradition. ‘If ain't broke, don't fix it,' she would say. But, in the end, she would always be supportive and give the new idea her best shot with a few little pokes at us along the way.
I always said, the day Hank retires the walls will fall down behind her on her way out the door. In a sense, they did. The place has not been the same without her. We will always miss her caring and wisdom and sense of humor. Hank is gone, long live Hank!"
Those sentiments are shared by hundreds of Duffy's patrons, myself included.
Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.
Lee talks a little about the show in the Jan. 21 issue of Entertainment Weekly, highlighting what the magazine's editors think will be hot this year, saying that, among other things, he started his own frat while at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and studied hard with the help of "the hottest-looking tutor in the whole place," who happens to be the girlfriend of a football player.
Lee says he got plenty of attention from girls while in Lincoln.
"But I had to, you know, be kind of a good boy out there," he said.
So there's not going to be any romance or any hot action on the show?
"It's NBC, dude. If it was Showtime, we coulda gone a little crazy."
BRIGHT EYES TO RELEASE TWO DISCS ON TUESDAY
The big national record release of next week is actually a pair of releases, both from Bright Eyes, the ever-changing outfit led by Omaha native Conor Oberst, who now spends much of his time in New York, produced by Lincoln's Mike Mogis and released on Saddle Creek, the Omaha independent label.
The two discs are "Digital Ash in a Digital Urn," an electric/electronic record and "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning," a folky record designed to showcase Oberst's talent as a singer/songwriter. I've heard only a few tracks off the records and am apparently the last music writer in America to get copies of the discs.
They have been receiving rave reviews from newspaper and magazine critics this week. I'll give them a listen and I'm sure have plenty to say about them next week.
LINCOLN ‘REEFER MADNESS' CONNECTION
Who knew that Lincoln had a connection to the 1936 cult classic "Reefer Madness"?
I certainly didn't until I looked at the obituaries of Thelma White, the actress who played hard-boiled blonde marijuana dealer Mae.
White, who died last week at age 94, was born Thelma Wolpa in Lincoln in 1910, the daughter of itinerant carnival performers who traveled throughout the Midwest. She got her start as a performer at age 2 as a "live baby doll" in the A.C. Worthman Carnival and continued working in vaudeville before beginning her film career in comedy one-reelers.
She appeared on Broadway in shows including "Saluta" co-starring Milton Berle. Her film appearances included "Bowery Champs" with the East Side Kids, "Blonde Poison," "Song of the Open Road," and "The Moon Is Our Home." Then came "Reefer Madness."
She was chosen by RKO studios for the role of Mae, who lures unsuspecting youth to her apartment where she peddles joints of the demon weed to the kids, turning them into sex-crazed addicts who shoot their girlfriends, run over pedestrians, go insane and otherwise ruin their lives.
Written by a religious group, "Reefer Madness" was intended to be anti-drug propaganda. But in the early '70s, the picture was revived, playing the midnight movie circuit and turning into a hilarious, campy, unintentional parody.
"I'm ashamed to say that it's the only one of my films that's become a classic," White said in a 1987 interview. "I hide my head when I think about it…a dreadful film."
After an illness in 1946, she became unable to perform and started a talent agency, where she worked with Dolores Hart, James Coburn and Ann Jillian. In the late 1960s, she launched a production company, working on projects including "Tom Jones Rides Again," in which she also co-starred.
GOODBYE TO HANK.
If you went into Duffy's Tavern from 1963 to the turn of the century, chances are you had an encounter with Henrietta ‘Hank' Ogg, the fiery waitress who befriended a few generations of patrons. Ogg, who retired from Duffy's in 1999 due to health concerns, passed away last week.
Here's some of what Duffy's owner Reg McMeen had to say about Hank in a eulogy posted on the bar's Web site:
"Hank educated, scolded, mothered but most of all befriended generations of Duffy's regulars during her time here and had an uncanny ability to remember almost anyone she met.…by the end of the night, you'd be spilling your guts to her.
"In these situations, she exhibited boundless compassion, not sugary or flowery but true human caring. If the situation called for it, she had the appropriate piece of wisdom to get you through those tough times. (‘Inch by inch, life's a cinch. Yard by yard, life gets hard.' I cannot tell you how many times this particular gem has crossed my mind in the past 18 years.)
This is not to say that Hank was always Mother Theresa. It was like breaking a wild horse every time we tried to introduce something new or change some age-old tradition. ‘If ain't broke, don't fix it,' she would say. But, in the end, she would always be supportive and give the new idea her best shot with a few little pokes at us along the way.
I always said, the day Hank retires the walls will fall down behind her on her way out the door. In a sense, they did. The place has not been the same without her. We will always miss her caring and wisdom and sense of humor. Hank is gone, long live Hank!"
Those sentiments are shared by hundreds of Duffy's patrons, myself included.
Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.
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