Zizi Jeanmaire was a French ballet dancer and entertainer.
She is best-known for her song “Mon truc en plumes” (1961) but I give you a version of “Élisa” (1969), written by Serge Gainsbourg.
Zizi Jeanmaire was a French ballet dancer and entertainer.
She is best-known for her song “Mon truc en plumes” (1961) but I give you a version of “Élisa” (1969), written by Serge Gainsbourg.
J. J. Lionel was a Belgian musician whose song “La danse des canards” (1981) is one of the best-selling singles ever in France.
There is popular music and and then there is “danse des canards” popular, almost as popular as “Hava Nagila”.
Both are songs everyone knows but no one can remember where it originates.
Kevin Rafferty was an American filmmaker, best known for his 1982 documentary The Atomic Cafe.
The Atomic Cafe is a portrait of the United States in the 1950s, especially the nuclear threat and arms race of the Cold War.
The film makes use of archival government footage and propaganda.
Charlie Daniels was an American musician and composer best known for his number-one country hit “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” (1979), an instance of a cultural product of a deal with the Devil.
Ennio Morricone was an Italian composer, a veritable monument.
He composed over 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as over 100 classical works.
He is best known for the characteristic sparse and memorable soundtracks of Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns: “Man with a Harmonica” from Once Upon a Time in the West and the theme to “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”. The first has a haunting harmonica and the second an immediately recognizable flute/whistle.
When I compiled the Jahsonic 1000, I also included “Dies Irae Psichedelico” (1968) and “Ma Non Troppo Erotico” (1971).
Carl Reiner was an American comedian, actor, director, screenwriter, and publisher.
I have fond memories of the highly enjoyable films he directed starring Steve Martin in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
I think of The Jerk (1979), Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982) and The Man with Two Brains (1983).
Johnny Mandel was an American composer of innumerable songs.
One of these songs stands out: “Suicide Is Painless” (1970).
Milton Glaser was an American graphic designer.
His designs include the I ❤ NY logo, the psychedelic Bob Dylan poster, and the logos for DC Comics and Brooklyn Brewery.
Glaser was the subject of the 2008 documentary film To Inform and Delight: The World of Milton Glaser.
Lewis John Carlino (1932 – 2020) was an American screenwriter known for several films.
In our book, he wrote the screenplay to Seconds (1966), a film about an ordinary and unfulfilled man who wants a second life and is reborn in a new body.
There is an ‘orgy’ scene (above) which was supposedly only included in European films, a practice which was common at that time.
There are plenty of surreal images.
Joel Schumacher was an American director known for such films as 8mm (1999) and Phone Booth (2002).
I enjoyed Phone Booth tremendously. The film was written by Larry Cohen.