ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am a very lucky man. I get to do what I love to do for a living, and I have a great support system, which as always is headed up by my unparalleled wife and constantly amazing children. There are no better.
This time out, however, I had help from many different people, and they each deserve much more than thanks (but thats all I can afford). For help getting Elliots story seen, thanks to Julia Spencer-Fleming, Ross Hugo-Vidal, PJ Nunn, and Bruce Bortz.
Extremely special thanks are due to a very special person: Linda Ellerbee, whom I had never met nor spoken to before As Dog Is My Witness. She has become, I think, a friend. Anyone who recommends your book to the Today show is a friend, but Linda is also as gracious and open as they come.
For help in finding the right poison for poor Vincent Ansella, my thanks to Kay Lancaster, P.J. Coldren, and especially Luci Hansson Zahray (otherwise known as the Poison Lady), who gave me the information I ended up using, which Ive probably messed up herein. She knows what shes talking about, even if I dont.
And for enormous amounts of information on how a projection booth works, what it costs, and all that sort of thing, I am indebted to Denise Brouillette of the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas; Robert Bruce Thompson, Bert Sandifer, Carl Brookins, and John Stewart (not of The Daily Show), also of the Paramount in Austin. I wasnt even in the A/V club in high school, so they have literally taught me everything I know, as selflessly as is humanly possible.
Id be a total swine (an awful thing for a Jewish boy) if I didnt acknowledge my incredible agent, Christina Hogrebe of the Jane Rotrosen Agency (and all I met there), without whom this book wouldnt exist, and the terrific editor of the Double Feature Mysteries, Shannon Jamieson Vazquez, without whom this book wouldnt have been nearly as good.
FURTHER FUNNY FILM FACTS FOR FANATICS
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Directed by Mel Brooks, screen story and screenplay by Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks. Starring Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, Teri Garr, Kenneth Mars, Cloris Leachman, and Madeline Kahn.
The sound of the cat hit by a dart, the howl of the werewolf, and the voice of Victor Frankenstein (in the quick sonic flashback) are provided by Mel Brooks. There were also scenes in which the voice of Beaufort von Frankenstein, Freddies grandfather, was provided by John Carradine, but sadly, they were cut.
Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks were nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay for Young Frankenstein . Instead, the Academy gave the award to Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo for The Godfather, Part II. Not nearly as funny.
Horse Feathers (1932)
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod, screenplay by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, S.J. Perelman, and Will B. Johnstone. Starring the Marx Brothers (Groucho, Chico, Harpo,
and Zeppo), Thelma Todd, and David Landau.
When Horse Feathers was released, the Marx Brothers appeared on the cover of Time magazine for the only time, standing in a garbage can. The following year, when they made Duck Soup, considered by Marx purists to be their best movie, it was roundly panned. Go figure.
The first American artist to tour the Soviet Union after the United States recognized the country in 1933 was Harpo Marx. He scored a resounding success, although he claimed not to understand anything about the production in which he appeared. Harpo also claimed to have smuggled secret papers out of the country in his socks. This is unconfirmed to date.
The Thin Man (1934)
Directed by W.S. Van Dyke, screenplay by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, from the novel by Dashiell Hammett. Starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen OSullivan, Nat Pendleton, and, of all people, Cesar Romero (playing a character named Chris Jorgenson).
Actually, The Thin Man of the title refers to the victim, not Nick Charles. But Powell and Loy went on to star in five more Thin Man films, despite the victim never showing up again. It didnt seem to bother anybody.
The role of Asta, the wire-haired terrier (in the novel, a schnauzer), was apparently played by the same dog in all six Thin Man films (but not on the radio or television series of the same name). While the dog was credited as Skippy when he appeared in Topper Takes a Trip, his name was changed to Asta when he started appearing in the Thin Man movies. Source: www.iloveasta.com (no, Im not kidding).
Help! (1965)
Directed by Richard Lester, screenplay by Charles Wood, story by Marc Behm. Starring the Beatles (John Lennon, Paul Mc-Cartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr), Leo McKern (later to play Rumpole of the Bailey), Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, and Roy Kinnear.
It was on the set of Help! that George Harrison first encountered Indian musicians playing sitars. Thus was the history of popular music created.
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Directed by Billy Wilder, screenplay by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, story by Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan. Starring Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, Joe E. Brown, and George Raft.
In 2000, the American Film Institute voted Some Like It Hot the funniest American film ever made. Among the other ninty-nine films in its top one hundred comedies: Young Frankenstein, Horse Feathers, and The Thin Man. Help! did not make the list. It is not an American film. In case youre wondering, number one hundred is Good Morning, Vietnam.
Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.
attributed to every dying English actor since Richard Burbage (1567-1619)
TUESDAY
Young Frankenstein (1974)
and Count Bubba, Down-Home Vampire (last Friday)
The guy in row S, seat 18, was dead, all right. There was no mistaking it. For one thing, he hadnt laughed once during the Blind Man scene in Young Frankenstein, which was indication enough that all brain function had ceased. For another, there was the whole staring-straight-ahead-and-not-breathing scenario, and the lack of a pulse, which was good enough to convince me.
Were you the one who found him? I asked Anthony (not Tony, mind you), the ticket taker/usher/projectionist. Anthony, a Cinema Studies major at Rutgers University, was nineteen years old, and a film geek from head to toe (sorry, Anthony, but its true). He was wearing black jeans, a T-shirt with a picture of Martin Scorsese on it, and a puzzled expression that meant he was wondering how to work this event into his next screenplay. Anthony shook his head.
Sophie found him, he said, indicating our snack stand attendant/ticket seller/clean-up girl, who was standing to one side, biting both her lips and ignoring her cell phone, which was playing a Killers song by way of ringing. Sophie was, in her own high school junior way, freaked out. I considered gesturing her over, then realized she wanted to stay as far away from our non-respiring patron as possible, so I walked to her side instead.
