Saturday Night Live (Saturday, October 4, 2008)

Tina Fey made her third triumphant appearance this season as Sarah Palin on this past weekend's Saturday Night Live in a send-up of this past week's Vice-Presidential debate between Palin and Joe Biden.

Though it was hysterical (even featuring a cameo by Queen Latifah as debate moderator Gwen Ifill), I have to admit I was a little unnerved when SNL regular Jason Sudeikis (as Joe Biden) made a somewhat shockingly negative speech about Scranton. Granted, it was quite funny, but shocking nonetheless.

Pittson Native's Film "Fair Evil" To Get Local Premiere October 25th

NEPA’s New Director
Claude T. Martin presents
A Warlight Pictures Film

Connie Shelhamer
Bill Armitage
Johnny Paradise

FAIR EVIL

Evil is only fair in the eyes of a killer.

Premieres Saturday, October 25th

6:30 PM
Endless Mountain Theaters
933 Scranton-Carbondale Highway

www.myspace.com/fairevil

Fair Evil is Rated R

Under 17 Parent Guardian Required

UPDATE: "Xanadu On Broadway" To Close September 28th

It was just announced that Xanadu, the hit Broadway musical with a book written by Wilkes-Barre native Douglas Carter Beane, will play its final performance on Sunday, September 28th; it was originally set to close two weeks later on Sunday, October 12th.

I've seen the show three times and absolutely LOVED IT.

Xanadu opened on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theatre in NYC on July 10, 2007 to rave reviews. It was nominated for four 2008 Tony Awards, including one for Best Book of a Musical for Beane.

If you haven't seen it yet, this is your final chance. To purchase tickets, click here. Ticket prices range from $60 to $110, with steep discounts available through sites such as TheaterMania; in addition, a handful of tickets for on-stage seating (priced at $41) are available for every performance.

Congratulations to Douglas Carter Beane and the entire cast and crew of Xanadu for a successful run and a job well done.

www.XanaduOnBroadway.com

Monster: My True Story by Aileen Wuornos with Christopher Berry-Dee (2004)

I recently read Monster: My True Story by Aileen Wuornos with Christopher Berry-Dee and to my surprise, the book reference Scranton as the place that Wuornos's girlfriend Tyria Moore hid out from the police (as opposed to Wilkes-Barre reference in the much superior telling of the story, Sue Russell's Lethal Intent).

Two Scranton references occur in Chaper Fourteen: Aileen Wuornos's Confession -- In Her Own Words on page 133:

"She (Tyria Moore) had fled her parents' home and was living with her sister in Scranton, Pennsylvania...He (Major Dan Henry) booked into a local motel with one of his prime suspects, Tyria, and then he summoned Jerry Thompson of Cirtus County and Bruce Munster of Marion County who flew to Scranton to interview her."

As a side note, if you have a choice of the two books to read, I would strongly recommended Lethal Intent as the better of the two books. Monster: My True Story features only about 10 out of 238 pages of actual interviews with the co-author. The rest of the book is comprised of court transcripts, police interviews and a sketchy reading of the events of her life.

The Office: Season Four Now on DVD; Target Offers Exclusive Bonus Disc With Q&A From "Office Convention" in Scranton

Check out the cover art for the just-released DVD set of The Office: Season Four. The sign in the background reads "Scranton Business Park." In addition, one of the Special Features listed is The Office Convention: Writer's Block.

If you plan to buy the DVD, you may want to consider picking it up at Target; they're offering an exclusive box set with special packaging that also includes an exclusive bonus disc featuring the hour-long cast Q&A from The Office Convention in Scranton, PA, filmed at University of Scranton. Unfortunately, the Target exclusive is not available for purchase online.

Season Five of The Office starts Thursday, September 25th at 9 PM on NBC.

Pittston/Scranton Native Jay Parini's Novel The Last Station Adapted Into Film

Pittston/Scranton native and author Jay Parini's 1990 novel The Last Station: A Novel of Tolstoy's Last Year is being made into a major motion picture.

The Last Station, the novel as well as the film, is a drama that illustrates Russian author Leo Tolstoy's struggle to balance fame and wealth with his commitment to a life devoid of material things and a troubled marriage.

Directed and co-written for the screen by Michael Hoffman (Soapdish, Restoration, The Emperor's Club) the film version of The Last Station includes an impressive roster of actors--Christopher Plummer as Leo Tolstoy, Helen Mirren as his wife Sofya, Paul Giamatti as Vladimir Chertkov, and James McAvoy as Valentin Bulgakov.

The film version of The Last Station will be released this winter.

Novelist and poet Jay Parini was born in 1948 in Pittston, Pennsylvania and raised in Scranton.

To place a hold on Parini's novel The Last Station, click here.

To read an article from The Times-Tribune about the upcoming film, click here.

Much thanks to my colleague Martina S. for this reference.

Lethal Intent by Sue Russell (2002)

Lethal Intent, subtitled "The Shocking True Story of One of America's Most Notorious Serial Killers," is a 2002 true-crime book by Sue Russell about Aileen Wuornos, a Florida prostitute who was arrested, convicted, and executed for the murders of seven men. She was the subject of the 2003 film Monster, winning Charlize Theron a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Wuornos.

Lethal Intent also details Wuornos's lesbian relationship with a woman named Tyria Moore. According to the book, Moore hid out for a time with friends in Wilkes-Barre, PA, where the police tracked her down with some of the belongings of the victims. However, they believed her claim not to have been involved with any of the murders and she was not charged with any crime. Moore also agreed to turn state's evidence against Wuornos.

In the film Monster, Tyria Moore was morphed into the character of Selby, who was played by Christina Ricci.

To read excerpts from the book Lethal Intent, click here. To purchase a copy of Lethal Intent, click here.

Antiques Roadshow (Monday, August 11, 2008)

A few weeks ago, my colleague Martina S. was watching The Antiques Roadshow on WVIA and heard a passing reference to Wilkes-Barre.

On the episode that aired Monday, August 11th, a woman exhibited a $75,000 chest that dated back to 1780. She said her relatives lives in Wilkes-Barre at one time and thought it was a Pennsylvania chest, but it was actually a Connecticut chest.

Thanks again to Martina S. for the reference.

Diary of the Dead (Screenplay by George A. Romero), July 2006

My colleague Brian Detrick, who works in our library's Technical Services Department and is a true horror buff (check out his awesome blog, Were80s Horror), recently showed me a copy of a screenplay he purchased of the recent horror flick George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead; he told he was shocked to see a reference to Scranton, PA in the dialogue.

In Diary of the Dead (a continuation of the zombie film series that Pittsburgh native George A. Romero began with 1968's Night of the Living Dead and continued with Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead and Land of the Dead), a group of young film students run into real-life zombies while filming a horror movie of their own.

The Scranton reference occurs early in the scripy (pages 18-19), when the filmmakers are riding in a van and filming introductions of themselves. The script is dated July 2006:

DEBRA

Debra Moynihan. I'm just trying to get home, too. Like Mary.

JASON (O.S.)

Where's home, Debra? Where are you trying to get to?

DEBRA

You know where I live.

JASON (O.S.)

Say it.

TONY (O.S.)

Say it, Debra. For the camera.

Tears well up in Debra's eyes as she SHOUTS...

DEBRA

SCRANTON! (Then, calming down) Scranton, Pennsylvania. That's my home. My parents' home, anyway. And my little brother's.

However, I'm not certain this was the final version of the script used in the 2007 film. According to the Internet Movie Database, the character of Debra--who actually says Scranton in the screenplay--is not listed as a character in the film.

If there are any readers of the blog out there who has seen Diary of the Dead and knows for certain if the Scranton reference was included in the actual film, please email me.

Thanks again to Brian Detrick for this truly terrifying Scranton reference. And check out Brian's Were80s Horror blog.

Check out the trailer for Diary of the Dead below:

http://diaryofthedead.com/

The New Yorker (January 28, 2008, Volume 83, Issue 45)

A couple of months ago, my colleague (and regular contributor to our blog) Evelyn Gibbons found a local reference in The New Yorker.

On page 25 of the January 28, 2008 issue of The New Yorker, there is an article by Ben McGrath titled Red Carpet Dept.: Step On It, from the magazine's popular The Talk of the Town section. The article discusses the eighth annual banquet of the Valera Global Limosuine Company and previous Chauffeur of the Year winner Souleymane Bah. The article highlights the fact that Bah lives in Blakeslee, Pennsylvania.

To read the full article, click here.

An abundance of the thanks to the sizzlin' Evelyn Gibbons for another great reference.

Entertainment Weekly (August 22/29, 2008, Issue #1007/1008)

Check out this week's double issue of Entertainment Weekly, the one with Harry Potter and the Fall Movie Preview on the cover.

On page 110 is The Ausiello Files, a column by EW writer Michael Ausiello that contains questions from readers requesting spoilers and such for their favorite television shows. One in particular caught my eye this week:

"Office news. You have it. I want it. Give it up! - Pamela

"Given all the tomfoolery that transpires at Dunder-Mifflin, it's kind of shocking to think that we've yet to meet this guy, but this season The Office will finally be introducing the paper company's head of HR. However, since he'll be heard before he's actually seen in Scranton, there's still time for Michael to remove that hidden camera in the ladies' room."

Mad Men, "Flight 1" (Season 2, Episode 2) (August 3, 2008)

My extra-ultra-groovy colleague Elizabeth Davis from the Lackawanna County Children's Library, a huge fan of the AMC original series Mad Men, was quite surprised when she was watching this week's episode and suddenly hear the words Wilkes-Barre, PA come out of one of the characters' mouths.

Mad Men, created by Matthew Weiner (The Sopranos), is the first original series from tevevision network AMC (American Movie Classics). Set in New York City, Mad Men takes place amid the changing social mores in the early 1960s and centers on the fictional Madison Avenue advertising agency Sterling Cooper and its high level executive Don Draper (Jon Hamm), as well as his colleagues.

In addition to winning the 2007 Peabody Award, Mad Men recently made history by being the first basic-cable series (it shares the honor with Damages) to be nominated for the Prime Time Emmy Award for Best Drama (just one of a total of 16 Emmy nominations).

The Wilkes-Barre reference occurs about halfway through Flight 1, the second episode of the second season which had its premiere on Sunday, August 3rd. which first aired on Sunday, August 3rd. The character of Sis is talking to Peggy (Eilzabeth Moss) about how their mother lies about Peggy's activities to save face in front of her gossipy neighbors. Mom tells the nosy neighbors that the reason Peggy is is never seen at their church is because she is always out of town on business and even makes up a fictitious church that she attends in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

To watch the complete "Flight 1" episode of Mad Men online, click here.

A big ol' holla to Elizabeth Davis for this reference.

www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/

Louis Teicher, Pianist (Ferrante & Teicher) (1924-2008)

Regular blog contributor (and my gorgeous esteemed colleague) Evelyn Gibbons left an article from this morning's Citizens' Voice on my shelf this afternoon; the article announced the passing of Louis Teicher, a pianist best known as one half of the legendary piano duo Ferrante & Teicher. My parents had several of the duo's LPs in their collection when I was a child (including an album with a sexy 1960s era model posed against a gold background on the cover and a killer samba-like version of Chopsticks on the vinyl), so I have known of them as a child in the 1970s. But I have absolutely no idea that Louis Teicher was a Wilkes-Barre native until I read that he passed away this past Sunday (August 3rd) of heart failure.

Louis Teicher was born in Wilkes-Barre on August 24, 1924; he lived there until he was 5 years old, but he continued to spend his summers and even took his first piano lessons in W-B. Furthermore, his first concert was at the age of 8 at what is now Wyoming Seminary.

A child prodigy, Teicher attended the Juilliard School of Music at a mere 6 years of ageand receivied his diploma at the age of 16. He joined the Juilliard faculty when he was a mere 20 years old.

Teicher met his musical partner Arthur Ferrante (b. September 7, 1921) at Juilliard and began performing together while still in school, where Ferrante also became a faculty member.

The two pianists officially launched their professional partnership as Ferrante & Teicher in 1947. They became famous for their film themes (such as The Apartment and Exodus) and toured extensively for over 50 years, even playing several concerts in Scranton.

Sadly, Louis Teicher passed away on Sunday, August 3, 2008 from heart failure at his summer home in Highlands, North Carolina. He was 83 years old.

To read the article from the Citizens Voice, click here. For the article in the Times Leader, click here. Click here to read his obituary from the New York Times.

The Lackawanna County Library System includes 2 CDs by Ferrante & Teicher in our collection. Feel free to place holds on either 1990's The Greatest Love Songs of All or 1997's reissue of their 1959 album Blast Off! (featuring another sexy version of Chopsticks).

A great big THANK YOU to the incandescent Evelyn Gibbons for this reference.

Also, a special thank you to Mark Anthony Ferrante for clarifying via email the place where Mr. Teicher passed away.

www.ferranteandteicher.com/

Blondie (Friday, August 1, 2008)

Comic Courtesy of King Features

Don McKeon, who I can always count on for some good Scranton references, emailed me on Sunday about a reference to Scranton in a recent Blondie comic strip:

"Hello!

It's been a while but I came across a mention of "Scranton" in the comic section of Friday's Aug. 01, 2008 Scranton Times. Dagwood, from the Blondie comic strip, is looking for some perfume as a gift for his wife but all the "fancy" selections are too costly. He finally settles on just the right item, a cologne costing $6.50 an ounce called "Ned McGillicutty of Scranton". It's cute. Take care."

Created by Chic Young, the popular Blondie comic strips have been published in newspapers around the country since September 8, 1930.

The Blondie comic with the Scranton reference can be seen in full by either clicking on the image above or visiting the Official Blondie and Dagwood web site; a direct link to the Scranton comic can be viewed by clicking right here.

Much thanks again to the eternally observant Don McKeon for another great Scranton reference. Keep 'em comin'!

http://www.blondie.com/

Request for Information Regarding W-B Based Film Companies "De Frenes and Company" or "BDF Films"

A reader of this blog, Mike Champlin, recently sent me a question that I need your help with. He writes:

"Hi Bill-

"I saw your blog and thought you might be the right person to ask about this company 'De Frenes and Company, Wilkes-Barre, PA' which produced films from 1920 to well into the 1950s.

"Is there any institution in Wilkes-Barre that may have information about this company, or its sister company 'B.D.F Films'?

"I am doing research on a film this company produced in 1921 'A Movie Trip Through Film Land'. The goal would be to research what became of the production company and to discover if any of their records or production materials survive. Thank you for taking the time to read this and considering my request. Any help would be most appreciated.

Best,
Mike Champlin"

I did refer Mike to both the Osterhout Free Library in Wilkes-Barre and the Luzerne County Historical Society. BUT I need your help, too. If there are any local history or movie buffs out there who are familiar with either De Frenes and Company or BDF Films (both now defunct, but originally based in Wilkes-Barre, PA), will you PLEASE help Mike by emailing me with any information you have? Or you can even leave me a message in the Meebo box on the lefthand side of the blog.

Thanks for your question, Mike, and I'll do my best to seek an answer for you. But if you find it first, please email me too so I can post the info here in the blog.

Thanks :-)

Entertainment Weekly, (July 25, 2008, Issue #1003)

On page two of this week's issue of Entertainment Weekly (the Letters Page), is a brief box detailing this past weekend's The Office Games, which were held in Scranton, PA, hosted by cast member Mindy Kaling. It begins, "Beijing's got nothing on Scranton, PA." Readers were also invited to log on to EW's PopWatch Blog to put in their suggestions for The Office Games. To read the EW blog entry (some of the comments are quite funny), click here.

David Lepore, Set Designer and Emmy Winner for "Come On Over"

David Lepore of Wilkes-Barre recently won an Emmy Award from the Michigan Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The Emmy was for Best Graphic Arts-Set Design for the regional children's show Come On Over, filmed and televised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Lepore shares the award with co-set designer Bob Phillips.

Come On Over won a total of 5 Emmy Awards on June 7th,

Click here to read the article from the Citizens' Voice.

Congratulations, David. Well done!

Thank you to Evelyn Gibbons for this reference.

"Kelly" from "The Office" To Visit Scranton July 19th; "Kevin" in The Electric City the 25th and 26th

UPDATED 7/11/08

I have good news to report for fans of NBC's The Office--not one, but TWO cast members have planned visits to Scranton, both scheduled for July.

Mindy Kaling, who portrays Kelly, will be in Scranton on Saturday, July 19th at The Mall at Steamtown to celebrate the release of The Office Official Board Game and The Office Official DVD Board Game. This will be Mindy's second visit to Scranton (her first being The Office Convention last October). Mindy will also officiate “The Office Games” all day, starting with a 2k Fun Run and ending with a beet-eating contest. In between, there will be trivia contests and an autograph signing session. Proceeds from the day's events will benefit United Neighborhood Centers of Northeastern Pennsylvania in Scranton.

On Friday, July 25th, Brian Baumgarten (who portrays Kevin on the show), will be in Scranton to visit local landmarks. Baumgarten is also scheduled to attend The Counting Crows/Maroon 5 concert (with Special Guest Sara Bareilles of "Love Song" fame) at the Toyota Pavillion at Montage Mountain on Saturday, July 26th. It's not too late to purchase tickets for the concert by clicking here. This will be his third visit to Scranton in the past 2 years.

For more information on these two upcoming visits, click here. To register, click here.

UPDATE 7/11/08 - On a related note, my colleague Martina S. sent me the following email:

"Bill,

I don't know if this works for your blog, and maybe you already read the article on the Scranton Times website about The Office cast members winning 50,000 dollars for the Children's Advocacy Center of Northeastern PA on the Celebrity Family Fued. I didn't see the show, but usually they discuss the charity at the beginning of the show."

Click here to read the article in the Scranton Times.

Kudos, Martina!

Crawford O. "Bob" Swartz, Composer of "Home on the Range" (1855-1932)

It's a piece of American music that brings back memories of a nostalgic time and a simpler life. It was President FDR's favorite song. You may know this timeless tune as Home on the Range, but the original title was "Colorado Home" (Prospectors' Song)--and the composer was Scranton native Crawford O. "Bob" Swartz.

Crawford O. "Bob" Swartz was born in Scranton on March 26, 1855 and lived with his family (his parents and his sister Laura) on Grandview Street. In his late teens/early twenties, Swartz set out for Leadville, Colorado to seek his fortune as a gold prospector.

During a stormy winter in 1885, Swartz would gather with a group of friends and musically-inclined fellow prospectors at a local shanty he nicknamed the Junk Lane Hotel. It was there where Swartz composed the music and lyrics for a song he titled Colorado Home, or Prospector's Song. The song began with the lyrics "Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam, and the deer and the antelope play."

In a letter to his folks back home in Scranton, Swartz wrote how excited he was of his composition; he also admitted that "everyone helped make it up. If it keeps on going, it will become a popular western song." This letter, which included the lyrics to the first verse of the new song, would become a significant piece of evidence years later when the song's authorship came into question.

Swartz returned east a few years later and resided on Grandview Street in Scranton; he also worked for several years at the Lackawanna Round House. and sang Prospectors' Song to his parents and sister. Though all loved the song, nothing more was thought of it--that is until a few years later when a new and very familiar-sounding melody titled Home on the Range began to become a fixture on a brand new invention called radio. Though the melody and the lyrics of the first verse was exactly the same as Shwartz's Colorado Home, the remaining lyrics of the song were completely changed from the perspective of a gold prospector to a cowboy's point-of-view.

Crawford O. Swartz died in Scranton on March 12, 1932.

Though he never enjoyed any success or credit for Colorado Home during his lifetime, his sister Laura published the song in 1934 as Swartz originally penned it. After an Arizona couple, William and Mary Goodwin, filed lawsuit against use of what they considered their composition of Home on the Range, Laura (with the letters Swartz send in the late 1800s as proof), won the lawsuit, thus giving Swartz credit for the music of the song, as well as for co-writing the lyrics to what we now know as Home on the Range (with Swartz sharing lyric credit with Bill McCabe, Bingham Graves, et. al. for the additional and/or verses not originally included in Colorado Home).

However, controversy over the authorship of Home on the Range is still disputed today. The song, which is the state song of Kansas, is often solely credited to Dr. Brewster M. Higley.

The Mineral Information Institute also includes information about Swartz and Home on the Range on their website. To read more, click here.

Click on any of the following links to reserve CDs by a variety of artists that have recorded Home on the Range: Frank Sinatra; Peter, Paul & Mary; Roy Rogers; Mannheim Steamroller; and local recording artists The Lyric Consort.

A GREAT BIG THANKS to B.R. Francis from Broomfield, Colorado. B.R. is a relative of the late Crawford O. Shwartz, and she visited Scranton a few months back to do research on him.

In addition, much information for this blog entry is credited to an article titled "Scranton Man Wrote Familiar Melody," which appeared on the front page of Section II of the Wednesday, March 18, 1936 edition of The Scranton Republican. A copy of the article is in the "Music" Local History Vertical File in the Reference Department.

Dallas native Robert May's Latest Film "Bonneville" Released on DVD

The latest film by producer and Dallas, Pennsylvania native Robert May, whose previous films include the critically acclaimed The Station Agent and The Fog of War, has just been released on DVD.

May's most recent film is Bonneville and stars Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Joan Allen, Tom Skerritt and Christine Baranski. Originally released in 2006, Bonneville tells the story of three friends who come of age for a second time on a trip across the great American West.

To place a hold on the DVD of Bonneville, click here.

To read a previous entry on Robert May, click here.