Today Jack Webb is best remembered for his portrayal of Detective Sergeant Joe Friday on the radio and television series Dragnet. Friday – a stiff, slouching, robotic cop who chain smokes as he rails against drug abuse – embodies for many folks the definition of a hypocrite and a square. However, the real Webb was … Continue reading This one’s about the Blues, Pete Kelly’s Blues
Tag: Missouri
You probably haven't heard but today is Missouri Day. For this piece I'm honoring Missourians who've worked in Hollywood -- mostly as actors but as directors and film scorers as well.
Show me the Mo Movies!!! – Missouri in Film and Television
Some folk that know me know I have to see dang near err movie that's filmed in, set in or tied to Missouri (whurr I grew up). With the Bourne Trilogy, those ties were somewhat tenuous... Badass Jason Bourne is merely informed that his real name is David Webb and he's from Nixa. No wonder … Continue reading Show me the Mo Movies!!! – Missouri in Film and Television
The Roots of Jazz: Ragtime
Although for most people the strains of "The Entertainer" and other rags now primarily evoke quaint, scratchy images of silent films projected at the wrong speed, when ragtime first appeared around the 1870s, it was the soundtrack of Missouri's whorehouses, parlors and gambling clubs. St. Louis in the 1870s Ragtime was also one of the first … Continue reading The Roots of Jazz: Ragtime
Sounds of the Show-Me State — Happy Missouri Day
Pendersleigh & Sons Cartography's Map of Missouri Missouri's nickname, the "Show Me State," first appears in print in the words of congressman, William Vandiver, who declared in 1889, “I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats. Frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got … Continue reading Sounds of the Show-Me State — Happy Missouri Day
Happy Missouri Day! – Yup, It’s aready been a yurr since the last’n
MISSOURI DAY The 3rd Wednesday of the October, this year the 15th. Pendersleigh & Sons' Official Map of Missouri In my experience, when you'ins tell people you’re from Missouri, most people reply self-satisfiedly with "don't you mean Missouruh?" or, alternately, "where is Missouri? I don’t think I’ve ever been there." Whether Missouri is Lower Midwestern or Upper Southern (or … Continue reading Happy Missouri Day! – Yup, It’s aready been a yurr since the last’n
Eric Brightwell 