Let's Grab a Cup of Coffee! It's National Coffee Day!

September 29, 2016

Let's Grab a Cup of Coffee! It's National Coffee Day!

Margaret Hamilton as Cora for Maxwel House Coffee

You're the cream in my coffee
You're the salt in my stew
You'll always be my necessity
I'd be lost without you
- From the show "Hold Everything" (1929) (B.G. DeSylva / Lew Brown / Ray Henderson) Ruth Etting - 1929

Happy National Coffee Day!
September 29 is the 273rd day of the year. There are 93 days remaining until the end of the year.
There are 39 days till Election Day. It will be Halloween, October 31, for us in 32 days. That is also

the date of my next Richard Skipper Celebrates Show. I hope you can join us!
Richard Skipper Celebrates: A Talk/Variety Show encouraging us to celebrate each and every day and the hidden gems therein. PLEASE CELEBRATE WITH us Halloween, October 31st. AND SAVE THE DATE...Richard Skipper Celebrates...Halloween throughout history! Did you know Dale Evans , Ethel Waters, Barbara Bel Geddes

(Vertigo), Dan Rather, AND Michael Landon (I was a Teenage Werewof!) were all born on October 31st?
The cast includes Kelley Karel as Hillary Clinton, Kevin Dozier, Deborah Stone, Laurie Krauz, Marta Sanders AND a Mystery Guest.
With musical direction by Bryon Sommers and Jeff Carney on bass. The Triad at 8PM Come dressed as your favorite celebrity and win a fabulous prize! Contact RichardSkipper.com for more info. You never know who you might see there and what might happen.
What is your favorite Halloween memory? Please send them and I will include in future blogs leading up to our show!
Tickets are $30.00 plus a two drink minimum. Reservations a MUST! Call 888 596-1027 to purchase tickets or YOU can also do it on THEIR website. http://www.triadnyc.com/buy-tickets.
Before we get there, however, grab a cup of coffee and let's celebrate.
Today is National Coffee Day. Forget baseball! I believe that coffee is the National past time. It is in every aspect of our culture.

Peggy Lee sang about Black Coffee. Here is Ella Fitzgerald's version. Carol Channing same about the Cream In Her Coffee. This DeSylva-Brown-Henderson hit was introduced in the 1928 Broadway musical “Hold Everything,” which turned into a star-making vehicle for comic Bert Lahr.

Andy Taylor (Griffith) enjoys a cup of coffee with Carol Channing 50 years ago!

Speaking of Carol, in 1966 during the height of her Hello, Dolly! popularity, Carol Channing did a television special aptly called The Carol Channing Show.

Why Happy National Coffee Day, everybody!

It was sponsored by General Mills and aired on CBS. All of the commercials featured Carol

Channing stopping by the sets and meeting some of the characters of the most popular sit-coms of that time.

One of the sit-coms was the Andy Griffith Show and Carol stopped by to have a cup of Sanka with Andy! The following is from a recent column from Cindy Adams in response to Bette Midler and Hello, Dolly! (It's coffee related!): Our only sure bet? Bette. “Hello, Dolly!” tickets are moving faster than Elon Musk’s gasless cars. Even Martians know it’s B’way’s most successful sale ever.

The original show opened in 1964. From Carol Channing’s Palm Springs, Calif., home, my old friend remembered: “A line of ticket buyers snaked from our St. James box office down 44th to around the corner. Such long waits that I went out and served the crowd coffee from a cart.” Bette may have to add bagels.

“Bette and I are kindred spirits. Both life-loving, meticulous, meddling women who can relate personally to the character.
My dear Dolly is now in good hands.”

Sep. 19, 1971: President Richard Nixon relaxes from official duties to have a cup of coffee with pal, Ginger Rogers

Carol, a staunch democrat until she married Harry Kullijian ended up on Nixon's Enemies List!
Here is Broadway's second Dolly, Ginger Rogers having a cup of coffee with President Nixon in 1971. Nixon and Rogers were good friends and she even attended the Watergate Hearings.
Ginger has a coffee parfait named after her!

Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremmer danced to Coffee Time. Jack Buchanan and Gertrude Lawrence sang of A Cup of Coffee, a Sandwich, and You.

Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra stop for a cup of coffee

Then there's "The Coffee Song" (occasionally subtitled "They've Got an Awful Lot of Coffee in Brazil"), a novelty song written by Bob Hilliard and Dick Miles, first recorded by Frank Sinatra in 1946.

The song caricatures Brazil's coffee surplus, claiming (among other things) that no other beverages are available, and that a politician's daughter was fined for drinking water. Snowclones on this phrase have been used in analyses of the coffee industry, and of the Brazilian economy and culture.
Sinatra re-recorded the song in 1960 for his inaugural Reprise release, Ring-a-Ding-Ding!
In How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, they sing about a Coffee Break.
Coffee has been hawked by Lauren Bacall, Joe DiMagion, Mrs. Olsen, and my favorite, Margaret Hamilton.
In celebration of my upcoming Halloween Show and Margaret Hamilton , I celebrate coffee and her co-stars.

"The Ray Bolger Show"

Judy Garland's co-star in two films was Ray Bolger, The Wizard of Oz and The Harvey Girls. Did you know he also (like Judy) has his own TV show? It aired in 1954 on ABC. Season 2, episode 20 was called Redecorate The Coffee Shop. Look at this plot ine: While Ray's girlfriend nurses a cold, Ray and Pete take over at the Coffee Pot . The two run afoul of the health department when they toss the inspector out, mistaking him for a grifter trying to get a free meal. While trying to straighten

Have coffee with the cast of Oz. Order HERE

out that problem, they anger the building inspector who's not pleased with the renovations they made to the restaurant without a permit. To make everyone happy, Ray is forced to audition the inspectors' untalented children. Boy, how times have changed!

Here is Jack Haley (Tin Man) in a coffee snub.
In the 1940s, Frank Morgan (the Wizard) co-starred with Fanny Brice in one version (of several different series) of the radio program Maxwell House Coffee Time, aka The Frank Morgan-Fanny Brice Show. During the first half of the show Morgan would tell increasingly outlandish tall tales about his life adventures, much to the dismay of his fellow cast members. After the Morgan segment there was a song, followed by Brice as 'Baby Snooks' for the last half of the show.
Here isone of the many 1970's Maxwell House TV commercials featuring actress Margaret Hamilton.This TV commercial is from 1978 and is for the Maxwell House A.D.C. brand.

Historic Photograph of Lionel Stander, Linda Darnell And Frank Morgan Share Cups Of Coffee

1929 Lucky Strikes ad with Billie Burke Coffee Mug

Before Margaret Hamilton hawked Maxwell House, there was Jack Haley!

I don't think this ad would succeed today!

Here's to the future artists to be created! I'm looking forward to the future chapter of Dolly on Broadway!
Again, Pay attention to what is going on around you. I urge you to READ, RE-READ, and TAKE NOTES! Some history should not be repeated.

As you can see, we have a LOT to be proud of. We also have a lot to be concerned about. Let's all agree to celebrate that pride in each other!

Please send your suggestions for future blogs to Richard@RichardSkipper.com

Thank you, to all mentioned in this blog for the gifts you have given to the world and continue to give!

With grateful XOXOXs from YOUR pro-active friend,